Page:Our Indian Army.djvu/235

Rh both sides of the river, whose division here forms the island of Seringapatam, a large space is inclosed by a bound-hedge, which marks the limits of the capital, and affords a place of refuge from the incursions of cavalry. On the north side, the inclosure was occupied by Tippoo's army. Within it were several redoubts, one of which, erected on a commanding eminence, was a post of great strength. There were other works calculated to shield his troops from attack, or facilitate retreat in case of necessity; and his front line was defended by one hundred pieces of heavy cannon, while there were not fewer than three hundred pieces in the fort and island which constituted his second line.

Such being the formidable nature of Tippoo's position, the determination of the British commander might well be regarded as an act of temerity; but Lord Cornwallis considered that, while his movements were delayed, this entrenchment would be continually strengthened by new works; and that his own situation, in the midst of a hostile country and of allies so little to be trusted, would become always more precarious. He determined, therefore, to make an immediate and general attack; though it appeared necessary, as in the storming of a fortress, to carry on his operations under cover of night, when the batteries by which the camp was defended could not be directed with any degree of precision.

The troops to be employed in this hazardous service were divided into three columns, under General Meadows and Colonels Stewart and Maxwell; the Commander-in-Chief, with the reserve, following close behind; and the whole, under a bright moon, began to move at eight in the evening. Between ten and eleven o'clock the central column on its advance encountered the enemy's grand guard, a body of cavalry, who were approaching with rockets to disturb the English camp, which annoyance they had practised on the preceding night. The horsemen immediately galloped off to their lines, leaving the bearers of the rockets to harass the column and endea-