Page:Our Indian Army.djvu/245

Rh of Sepoys turned out, whose fire soon changed the course of the horsemen, and sent them towards the hills in flight, at the same headlong speed with which they were previously rushing to the tent of Colonel Duff.

Lord Cornwallis having accepted the overture of Tippoo, an officer of distinction, Gholaum Ali, arrived in the camp, and several days were busily spent in negotiation. The following was at length fixed as the ultimatum to be delivered to Tippoo: – "The surrender of half his dominions, taken from districts contiguous to the territory of the confederates; the payment of three crores and thirty lacs of rupees (nearly three and a half millions sterling), and the delivery of two of his sons as hostages."

Hard as these conditions were, they were powerfully enforced by events which had occurred in the course of the negotiation. On the night of the 18th of February, while the attention of the enemy was attracted to the south side of the fort, by the operations of a flying corps under Major Dalrymple and Captain Robertson, the trenches were opened on the north side with such silence and caution that though the fort was kept blazing with blue lights, for the purpose of observation, morning had arrived before the Sultan discovered that this operation, so fatal to him, had commenced. A nullah, or ravine, had been converted into a wide and extensive parallel, where the assailants were placed so fully under cover as to render ineffectual every attempt to interrupt their operations. This parallel was carried on and improved till the 21st, when it was completed; and on that night the line was marked out for a second. This was finished on the 23rd, and the ground was fixed for the heavy batteries, about five hundred yards from the fort, in so advantageous a position as to leave no doubt of a practicable breach being speedily effected.

As the crisis of his fate thus rapidly approached, Tippoo felt the necessity of coming to a prompt decision on the proposals submitted by the British commander. He called his principal officers to meet in the great