Page:Sir Thomas Munro and the British Settlement of the Madras Presidency.djvu/31

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foremost battalion pursued them to the gates ; which finding shut, they brought up a twelve-pounder against them. The second shot burst open the outer gate. The sponge staff was fired out of the gun in the hurry, and the man who carried the match was not to be found. In this exigency, Captain Moorhouse of the artillery, with great resolution, loaded and discharged twice, by the help of a musket, and made a breach in the second gate large enough to allow one man to go through at a time. The sepoys rushed in ; the space between the two inner gates was in a moment full of them ; they did not observe, midway between the two, a flight of steps which led to the rampart. The garrison, every moment dreading the assault, called for quarter, but their voice was not to be distinguished in the general tumult which now ensued. For, some straw having taken fire, caught the clothes of the sepoys, who were crowded between the gate- ways, and every one pressing back to avoid suffo- cation and the fire of the enemy (which was now redoubled at the sight of their disaster,) many of them were scorched and burned to death, and those who escaped hurried away without attempting to bring off the twelve-pounder. Six officers and nearly 150 men were killed and wounded in this unfortunate affair. ' The General, who was in the pettah at the time, ordered some pieces of cannon to batter the wall. A fine brass eighteen-pounder was ruined without making any breach ; and day beginning to dawn, the troops returned to camp. All thoughts