With Clive in India; Or, The Beginnings of an Empire, G. A. Henty [the two towers ebook txt] 📗

garrison, who had nearly expended their supply. The native boats went off from the fort, and brought on shore the ammunition and stores.

In the afternoon the Shaftesbury was attacked by the two French ships, the Bristol and the Harlem. She fought them for two hours, and then sailed in and anchored again near the fort. The French ships lay off at a distance, and these and one of their batteries played upon the Shaftesbury after she had anchored, and continued to do so for the next three days.

Many of the guns of the fort were dismounted by the artillery fire, which had continued, with scarcely any intermission, for a month. The parapets of the ramparts were in many places beaten down, and the walls exposed to the enemy's fire greatly damaged. The enemy now opened their breaching battery close to the works, and on the 7th two breaches had been effected, and Lally ordered his principal engineer and artillery officers to give their opinion as to the practicability of an assault.

These, however, considered that the assault would have no prospect of success, as the guns commanding the ditch were still uninjured, and the palisades which stormers must climb over before reaching the breach untouched. So heavy a crossfire could be brought to bear by the besieged upon an assaulting column, that it would be swept away before it could mount the breach. These officers added their opinion that, considering the number of men defending the fort in comparison with those attacking it, final success could not be looked for, and further prosecution of the works would only entail a useless loss of life.

On the 9th of February, the French attacked Mahomed Issoof's men and those of Captain Preston; the whole under the command of Major Calliaud, who had come up from Trichinopoli, and had taken station three miles in rear of the French position. The greater part of the natives, as usual, behaved badly; but Calliaud, with the artillery and a few Sepoys, defended himself till nightfall; and then drew off.

For the next week the French continued to fire, and their approaches were pushed on. Several sorties were made, but matters remained unchanged until the 14th, when six English ships were seen standing into the roads; and that night the French drew out from their trenches, and retreated. The next morning six hundred troops landed from the ships, and the garrison, who had so stoutly resisted the assaults made upon them for forty-two days, sallied out to inspect the enemy's works. Fifty-two cannon were left in them, and so great was the hurry with which the French retreated that they left forty-four sick in the hospital behind.

The fort fired, during the siege, 26,554 rounds from their cannon, 7502 shells, threw 1990 hand grenades, and expended 200,000 musketry cartridges. Thirty pieces of cannon and five mortars had been dismounted during the siege. Of the Europeans, the loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners was five hundred and seventy-nine. Three hundred and twenty-two Sepoys were killed and wounded, and four hundred and forty deserted during the siege.

In spite of the resolution with which the French had pushed the siege, it was, from the first, destined to failure. The garrison were well provisioned, had great stores of ammunition, and plenty of spare cannon to replace those disabled or dismounted. The works were strong, and the garrison not greatly inferior in number to the besiegers. The French, on the other hand, had to bring their artillery, ammunition, and stores by water from Pondicherry; and the activity of the English parties in their rear rendered it extremely difficult for them to receive supplies of food, by land. Lally had disgusted even the French officers and soldiers by his arrogance, and passionate temper; while by the Sepoys he was absolutely hated.

During the siege, Charlie had been most active in the defence. Colonel Lawrence had assigned no special post to him, but used him as what would now be called his chief of the staff. He was ever where the fire was thickest, encouraging the men; and, during the intervals of comparative cessation of fire, he went about the fort, seeing to the comforts of the men in their quarters, to the issue of stores, and other matters.

Upon the very morning after the French had withdrawn, he asked to be allowed to rejoin his troop, which was with Major Calliaud, and at once started to rejoin Colonel Forde. He wished to take the whole of his corps with him; but Colonel Lawrence considered that these would be of extreme use in following up the French, and in subsequent operations, as cavalry was an arm in which the English were greatly deficient.

Colonel Forde had been terribly delayed by the conduct of Rajah Anandraz, and the delay enabled the French again to recover heart. He was not able to move forward until the 1st of March. On the 6th he arrived before Masulipatam, and the following day Charlie joined him, with his troop.

The fort of Masulipatam stood in an extremely defensible position. It was surrounded by a swamp, on three sides. The other face rested on the river. From the land side, it was only approachable by a causeway across the swamp, and this was guarded by a strong ravelin, which is the military name for an outwork erected beyond the ditch of a fortress. It was, in all respects, capable of a prolonged defence. In form it was an irregular parallelogram, about eight hundred yards in length and six hundred yards wide, and on the walls were eleven strong bastions. The morass which surrounded it was of from three to eighteen feet in depth.

On the approach of Forde, Conflans evacuated the town; which, also surrounded by swamps, and lying two miles to the northwest of the fort, was itself a most defensible position; and retired across the narrow causeway, more than a mile long, to the fort.

Chapter 27: Masulipatam.

"I am heartily glad that you have come, Marryat," Colonel Forde said, as Charlie rode up. "I have got here at last, as you see, but that is a very different thing from getting in. An uglier place to attack I never saw; and in other respects, matters are not bright.

"Anandraz is a constant worry and trouble to me. He has everything to gain by our success, and yet will do nothing to aid it. His men are worse than useless in fight, and the only thing which we want and he could give us—money—he will not let us have.

"Will you ride with me, to the spot where I'm erecting my batteries, and you will see the prospect for yourself?"

The prospect was, as Charlie found when he saw it, the reverse of cheerful. The point which Forde had selected to erect his batteries was on some sandbanks, eight hundred yards from the eastern face of the fort. It would be impossible to construct approaches against the walls; and, should a breach be made, there still remained a wide creek to be crossed, beyond which lay the deep, and in most parts absolutely impassable, swamp.

Charlie and his men were employed in bringing in provisions from the surrounding country; but a short distance in the rear, a French column under Du Rocher, with two hundred European and two thousand native troops, with four field pieces, watched the British, and rendered the collection of provisions difficult. Du Rocher had several strong places, with European and Sepoy garrisons, near him, in which to retire in case Forde should advance against him.

"Well, Mister Charles," Tim said, one morning, "this is altogether a quare sort of a siege. Here we are, with a place in front of us with ten times as many guns as we have got, and a force well nigh twice as large. Even if there were no walls, and no guns, I don't see how we could get at 'em, barring we'd wings, for this bog is worse than anything in the ould country. Then behind us we've got another army, which is, they say, with the garrisons of the forts, as strong as we are. We've got little food and less money, and the troops are grumbling mightily, I can tell you."

On the 18th of March, while his batteries were still incomplete, Forde received certain news that the Nizam of the Deccan, the old ally of the French, was advancing with an army of forty thousand men to attack him. No British commander ever stood in a position of more imminent peril.

This completed the terror of Anandraz. Du Rocher had caused reports to be circulated that he intended to march against that chief's territories, and the news of the approach of the nizam, who was his suzerain lord, completed his dismay. He refused to advance another penny. Colonel Forde had already expended the prize money gained by the troops, his own private funds, and those of his officers, in buying food for his troops; and the men were several months in arrear of their pay.

"I'm afraid, yer honor," Tim said that evening to Charlie, "that there's going to be a shindy."

"What do you mean by a shindy, Tim?"

"I mane, yer honor, that the men are cursing and swearing, and saying the divil a bit will they fight any longer. It's rank mutiny and rebellion, yer honor; but there's something to be said for the poor boys. They have seen all the prize money they have taken spent. Not a thraneen have they touched for months. Their clothes are in rags, and here they are before a place which there's no more chance of their taking than there is of their flying up to the clouds. And now they hear that, besides the French behind us, there's the nizam with forty thousand of his men marching against us. It's a purty kettle of fish altogether, yer honor.

"It isn't for myself I care, Mr. Charles. Haven't I got an order in my pocket, on the treasury at Madras, for three hundred pound and over; but it's mighty hard, yer honor, just when one has become a wealthy man, to be shut up in a French prison."

"Well, Tim, I hope there will be no trouble; but I own that things look bad."

"Hossein has been saying, yer honor, that he thinks that the best way would be for him and me to go out and chop off the heads of half a dozen of the chief ringleaders. But I thought I'd better be after asking yer honor's pleasure in the affair, before I set about it."

To Tim's great disappointment, Charlie told him that the step was one to which he could hardly assent, at present.

The next morning, the troops turned out with their arms, and threatened to march away. Forde spoke to them gently, but firmly. He told them that he could not believe that men who had behaved so gallantly, at Condore, would fail now in their duty. He begged them to return to their tents, and to send two of their number, as deputies, to him.

This they did. The deputies came to the colonel's tent, and told him that all were resolved to fight no more; unless they were immediately paid the amount of prize money due to them, and were assured of the whole booty, in case Masulipatam should be taken. Colonel Forde promised that they would receive their prize money out of the very first funds which reached him. As to the booty which might be taken in Masulipatam, he said he had no power to change the regulations of the Company, but that he would beg them, under consideration of the hardships which the troops had endured, and their great services, to forego their half of the plunder. Directly Masulipatam was taken, he said, he would divide one half among them, and hold the other until he obtained the Company's answer to his request. Then he would distribute it, at once. With this answer the troops were satisfied, and returned at once to their duty.

On the 25th, the guns of the battery opened fire upon the fort, but the damage which they did was inconsiderable. On the 27th, news came that the French army of observation had retaken Rajahmahendri; and that the nizam, with his army, had arrived at Baizwara, forty miles distant. Letters came in, from the nizam to Anandraz, ordering him instantly to quit the English camp, and join him. The rajah was so terrified that, that night, he started with his troops without giving any information of his intentions to Colonel Forde; and dilatory as were his motions in general, he, on this occasion, marched sixteen miles before daybreak.

The instant Colonel Forde heard that he had left, he sent for Charlie Marryat.

"I suppose you have heard, Marryat, that that scoundrel Anandraz has bolted. Ride off to him with your troop, and do your best to persuade him to return."

"I will do so, sir," Charlie said; "but really, it seems to me that we are better without him than with him. His