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THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE
Or
British Heroes in Foreign Wars
by
JAMES GRANT
Author of "The Romance of War"
London
George Routledge and Sons
The Broadway, Ludgate
New York: 416 Broome Street
PREFACE.
The biographies or sketches which compose this volume are prepared from
memoranda, the result of historical reading for my military romances.
The Memoir of Colonel John Cameron first appeared, with that of Count
Lally, &c., in the _Dublin University Magazine_ for 1854; and though
he cannot strictly be considered, a Soldier of Fortune, it is given
here with the rest. It was carefully compiled from a mass of private
papers and letters submitted to me by his brother, Sir Duncan Cameron,
Bart.; from several letters written to me by his brother officers; the
MSS. Records of the 92nd Highlanders; and--like the sketch of Count
O'Connell--from information readily afforded to me by the authorities
at the War-Office and Horse Guards.
In several instances, the brief _Biographie Universelle_, edited by
Michaud, has been of service to me in fixing dates--especially in the
account of the Lacys.
The Thirty Years' War, the Septennial War, and the War of the Spanish
Succession formed an ample field of enterprise for those Scots and
Irish who, having nothing better to do at home, sold their swords and
their valour to the highest bidder; and who, having but little hope
of attaining rank in the service of Britain, sought fortune, fame,
and a new home in the camp of the stranger. Thus many of the military
wanderers who form the subject of these detached Memoirs belonged to
the Sister Isle.
The Irish troops in the service of France covered themselves with
glory, as the Scots had done under Gustavus of Sweden; and by the
Memoir of their last Colonel, Count O'Connell, it will be seen that
they were faithful and true, as they had been valiant, to the end. They
filled Europe with the fame of their exploits, and have left their
bones on many a hard-fought battle-field; and, as their song has it,--
"They who survived fought and drank as of yore,
But the land of their heart's hope they never saw more;
For on far foreign fields, from Dunkirk to Belgrade,
Lie the soldiers and chiefs of the IRISH BRIGADE!"
Under the happier influences of the present time, our people are no
longer forced to seek their bread in foreign camps. The restless
military spirit which produced the Soldier of Fortune is now on the
wane; yet it is impossible, without emotion, to look back on the
exploits of those brave fellows who led the armies of Europe in so many
"king-making victories," and won by their swords those honours which
were denied them in the land of their forefathers.
26, _Danube Street_,
Edinburgh, 1858.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
ARTHUR COUNT DE LALLY, General of the Troops of
Louis XV. in India 1
COLONEL JOHN CAMERON, of the Gordon Highlanders,
slain at Quatre Bras 44
ADMIRAL SIR SAMUEL GREIG, "Father of the Russian
Navy" 85
ULYSSES COUNT BROWN, Marshal of the Armies of
Maria Theresa 112
MARSHAL LACY, the Conqueror of the Crimea 142
COUNT LACY, Marshal of the Imperial Armies 164
COUNT LACY, Captain General of Catalonia 168
LOUIS LACY, Mariscal de Campo and Commander of Leon 169
COLONEL BUTLER, of the Irish Musketeers under the
Emperor Ferdinand 178
MARSHAL CLARKE, Duc de Feltre, and Governor of Vienna 192
GENERAL KILMAINE, Commander of Lombardy, and the
Armée d'Angleterre 213
COUNTS O'REILLY, O'DONNEL, and the Irish in Spain 233
BARON LOUDON, Marshal of the Austrian Army 263
COUNT O'REILLY, Chamberlain of the Empire 292
COUNT O'CONNELL, Knight of St. Louis, and Colonel of
the Irish Brigade 298
MARSHAL MACDONALD, Duke of Tarentum 308
THOMAS DALYELL, of Binns, General of the Scottish
Army, and First Colonel of the Scots Grey Dragoons 356
THE
CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE.
LIFE OF THE COUNT DE LALLY,
GENERAL OF THE TROOPS OF LOUIS XV. IN THE EAST INDIES.
Among the many gallant Irishmen, and those descended from the Irish
race, who served in the armies of France, and sought there those
honours and distinctions which political misfortune and studied misrule
denied them at home, I know of none more distinguished, and of none
whose name is more worthy of being rescued from oblivion, than General
the Count de Lally, the ill-requited leader of the troops of Louis XV.
in the wars of India.
Arthur Lally was the son of Captain O'Lally, of Tulloch na Daly, in
Galway, who passed over to France soon after Limerick capitulated to
Goderdt de Ginckel, the Dutch Earl of Athlone, and at the close of
that disastrous war in which the Irish troops withstood the army of
King William. Captain Lally obtained a commission in the regiment of
the Hon. Arthur Dillon, the same battalion in which the great Marshal
Macdonald, Duke of Tarentum, commenced his military career as a
sub-lieutenant.
Soon after he settled in France, Captain Lally married a French lady
of distinction. They had two children, the eldest of whom, Arthur, was
soon after his birth enrolled--according to a custom then prevailing
in the French army--as a private soldier in the company of his
father. In this capacity he served at the famous siege of Barcelona
under the Maréchal Duke of Berwick in 1714. His father being an
officer of distinguished merit, and his mother being by blood allied
to some of the most noble families in France, afforded young Daily
every opportunity for the improvement of his mind and person; thus at
the age of nineteen he was considered one of the handsomest and most
accomplished chevaliers in Paris.
Without having seen much active service, he had then been appointed
to a company in that gallant band of exiles whose valour contributed
to win many a victory for the House of Bourbon--the _Irish Brigade_.
His regiment--every member of which knew his father's worth and
merit--received him with satisfaction, and his _reception_ took place
early in 1718.
In the old French service this was an indispensable ceremony when
an officer first joined. His company was drawn up in front of the
regiment, with the drummers beating on the flanks. Dressed in full
uniform, with his scarf, sword, and gorget, Arthur Lally was led
forward by the general of division, who, when the drums ceased, raised
his cocked hat, and said:--
"De par le Roi! Soldats, vous reconnoitrez Monsieur de Daily, votre
capitaine de la compagnie, et vous lui obeirez en tout ce qu'il vous
ordonnera pour le service du Roi, en cette qualité."
Another ruffle on the drums, the company fell back to its place in the
line of the regiment of Dillon, and Arthur Dally was formally installed
its captain.
Though he was known by his education and spirit to have possessed all
those qualities which were requisite for the perfect soldier, uniting
a clear head and solid judgment to a light and joyous, but intrepid
heart, he was found to be equally qualified for the civil service of
the State; thus at the age of five-and-twenty he was sent by Louis XV.
to the court of Russia on a political mission of importance. On this
duty he acquitted himself ably, his fidelity on one hand securing the
confidence of the king his master, by his address and winning manner;
on the other, obtaining the esteem and admiration of the Empress
Catherine, whose husband, Peter the Great, had died about a year
before. On his return to France in 1725 he proceeded to Versailles,
where Louis XV., who had then attained his majority, and taken the
reins of government from the Regent Duke of Orleans, received him in
the most gracious manner, and promoted him to the rank of colonel of
infantry; and at the head of his regiment he had the good fortune to
acquit himself with distinction wherever he was employed.
He stood high in the favour of the two ministers who succeeded the
Duke of Orleans, namely, the Duke de Bourbon and Cardinal Fleury,
then in his seventy-third year, a mild and amiable prelate, under
whose moderate and conciliatory counsels France enjoyed many years
of peace and tranquillity. During service in France, Lally, though
somewhat proud and lofty in his manner, succeeded in gaining the
esteem and affection of the officers of his regiment, among whom--even
in those days of incessant duelling--he was fortunately successful
in maintaining the most perfect union and harmony, while by his
unalterable firmness subordination was equally maintained.
Thus had passed the time until 1745, when Prince Charles Edward Stuart
projected his gallant and unfortunate rising among the clans in the
Scottish Highlands. Entering warmly into the design of restoring the
hapless House of Stuart, under which his father had served long and
faithfully, and with whom he had eaten the bread of exile, Colonel
Lally came boldly over to London. While his ostensible object was to
recover certain lands in Ireland, to which he averred his father had
a claim, his real errand was to serve the young Prince of Scotland,
to animate his friends, to excite the malcontents, to promise money,
titles, and prepare the Jacobites of South Britain for the tempest that
was gathering among the mountains of the north. By his boldness and
determination Lally met with the utmost success in London; but being
somewhat unwary, his plans and presence were discovered and revealed
by a spy to the Duke of Cumberland, who procured immediate orders for
his arrest.
Fortunately, however, Lally escaped those shambles to which "the
butcher" of the clans had doomed him, and escaping to France about the
time Culloden was fought, resumed the command of his regiment.
A war was then waging between France and Britain, and the fleets of the
latter had swept those of the former from the ocean. Admiral Hawke had
destroyed the French fleet at Belleisle, and in that year upwards of
six hundred prizes were taken by our cruisers.
Though the French armies performed some brilliant actions in the
Netherlands, where the Marshal-General, Maurice Count de Saxe, defeated
and covered with disgrace the troops of the Duke of Cumberland, Louis
XV. was compelled by naval disasters, and the internal distresses
of France, to conclude a peace, a congress for which met at
Aix-la-Chapelle in April, 1748; and the definitive treaty was signed in
the following October.
During this period, and until his promotion to the rank of
lieutenant-general and commander-in-chief in the East Indies, the life
of Lally--who had now been created a peer of France--does not present
any circumstance or incident worthy of attention. In 1749 he married.
In 1750 a dispute pregnant with hostility ensued between France and
Britain respecting their mutual claims in North America; various
circumstances which occurred in the East Indies about the same time
confirmed the idea that the short peace concluded in 1748 was about to
end. Each country prepared for war; but though many unfriendly acts
were committed, and bitter recriminations exchanged between the Courts
of London and Versailles, until Britain was threatened with invasion,
as a curb on her aggressive spirit, hostilities were not formally
denounced until the month of June, 1756. The declaration made by George
II. was mild and moderate in tenor and language, but the declaration
promulgated by Louis XV. was full of severity and opprobrium. Prussia
became the ally of the former; Sweden and Russia joined the latter.
In distant regions as well as at home the sanguinary struggle was
maintained, and in America France was stripped of all her possessions
by the army of the heroic Wolfe.
Immediately after the declaration of war, in the month of August, 1756,
the Count de Lally, as Lieutenant-General and Commander-in-Chief of all
his Most Christian Majesty's forces in India, was appointed to conduct
an expedition destined for those burning shores, so far distant, and
even at that period comparatively so little known to Europeans.
In support of this expedition the Court had destined six millions of
livres, six strong battalions of infantry, and three ships of war,
which were to co-operate with such an armament as the French India
Company could furnish; but the whole of the troops did not embark.
On the 20th February, 1757, the Count de Lally, accompanied by his
brother Michael, marched to Brest at the head of two battalions; and
though having only two millions of livres in the military chest,
embarked on board the ships of the Count d'Aché, who immediately put to
sea; but being driven into port again by contrary winds, the squadron
was detained until the 2nd of May.
Meanwhile, Major-General the Chevalier des Soupirs, Lally's second in
command, had already reached the Indian Ocean, having departed from
L'Orient, the principal port of the India Company, on the 30th of the
preceding December, with two battalions and two millions of livres,
with which he touched at the Isle of France, without accident.
The general had very ample and important instructions given to him by
the India Company. Some of these were to the following effect:--
"The Sieur de Lally is authorized to destroy the fortifications of
all maritime settlements which may be taken from the English; it may,
however, be proper to except Vizagapatam, by reason of its being so
nearly situated to Bemelipatana, which in that case would be enriched
by the ruin of Vizagapatam; but as to that, and the demolition of
all other places, the Sieur de Lally is to consult the Governor and
Superior Council of Pondicherry, and to have their opinion in writing;
but, notwithstanding, he is to destroy such places as he shall think
proper, unless strong and sufficient arguments are made use of to the
contrary; such, for example, as the Company being apprehensive for
some of their settlements, and that it would then be thought prudent
and necessary to reserve the power of exchange in case any of them
should be lost. Nevertheless, if the Sieur de Lally should think it
too hazardous to keep a place, or could not do so without dividing or
weakening his army, then his Majesty leaves him to act as he may deem
proper for the good of the service.
"The Sieur de Lally is to allow of no English settlement being
ransomed, as we may well remember that, after the taking of Madras
last war, the English Company in their Council of the 14th of July,
1747, determined that all ransoms made in India should be annulled. In
regard to the English troops, both officers and writers belonging to
the Company, and to the inhabitants of that nation, the Sieur de Lally
is to permit none of them to remain on the coast of Coromandel; he may,
if he pleases, permit the inhabitants to go to England, and order them
to be conducted in armed vessels to St. Helena. But as to the officers,
soldiers, writers, and sailors belonging to the East India Company, he
is to conduct them as soon as possible to the Isle de Bourbon, where
the soldiers and sailors will be permitted to work for the inhabitants
of that place, according to mutual agreement. It is by no means his
Majesty's intention that the English officers, soldiers, and sailors
should be ransomed, as none are to be delivered up but by exchange, man
for man, according to their different ranks and stations.
"If the exchange of prisoners should by chance be settled at home
between the two nations, of which proper notice will be given to the
Sieur de Lally, and that the islands of France and Bourbon should have
more prisoners than it would be convenient to provide for, in that case
it will be permitted to send a certain number to England, in a vessel
armed for the purpose. No English officers, soldiers, &c., are to be
permitted to remain in a place after it is taken; neither are they to
retire to any other of their settlements.
"The Sieur de Lally is not in the least to deviate from the above
instructions and regulations, unless there shall be a stipulation
to the contrary; in which case the Sieur de Lally is faithfully and
honestly to adhere to the capitulation.
"The whole of what has been said before concerns only natives of
England; but as they have in their settlements merchants from all
nations, such as Moors, Armenians, Jews, Pattaners, &c., the Sieur de
Lally is ordered to treat them with humanity, and endeavour by fair
means to engage them to retire to Pondicherry, or any other of the
Company's acquisitions, assuring them at the same time that they will
be protected, and that the same liberty and privileges which they
before possessed among the English will be granted them.
"Among the recruits furnished to complete the regiments of Lorrain and
Berry, there are three hundred men from Fisher's corps, lately raised,
and as it is feared there will be considerable desertions among these
new recruits, the Sieur de Lally may, if he pleases, leave them on the
Isle de France, and replace them from the troops of that island."[1]
Before leaving France, Lally had placed his son, Trophine Gerard,
who had been born at Paris on the 5th March, 1751, at the College of
Harcourt, intending that he should ultimately follow the profession of
arms.
Though impetuous and at times apt to be somewhat overbearing, Lally
was eminently fitted for command. He possessed secrecy, with a ready
facility for quick and judicious decision. His talent was evinced by
the manner in which he established magazines, extended his posts and
defences, and made himself acquainted with the character and features
of the country which was to be the scene of his future operations. His
lofty demeanour, talent, tact, and bravery inspired his troops with
confidence and an assurance of conquest. If Lally was fond of glory,
he was also fond of flattery; and though a strict disciplinarian, he
was somewhat too partial, perhaps, to levying contribution on the
conquered provinces; but while his enemies in after years averred that
he was grasping, they never denied that he was lavish and liberal when
the king's service required him by spies to obtain intelligence of the
strength and designs of the enemy.
The Count d'Aché, Chef d'Escadre, encountered such adverse winds that
he was nearly twelve months on his voyage; thus the Chevalier des
Soupirs, having wearied of waiting at the Mauritius, sailed towards
the coast of Hindostan, and reaching Pondicherry (or _Puducheri_),
disembarked his troops.
This town was the capital of the French settlements in India, being
restored to them by the Dutch after the Treaty of Ryswick. It occupied
a good position in the rich, fertile, and populous Carnatic, a
country studded by an incredible number of forts and strongholds.
Their erection was an indispensable necessity in a level district
full of open towns, subject to the sudden attacks of hordes of native
cavalry. The sovereigns of the Carnatic must have possessed at one
period immense wealth and power, for the number and magnitude of their
pagodas, and the indications that remain of ancient riches, grandeur,
population, industry and art, impress the mind with wonder.
At this crisis the funds and forces of the British in that part of
India were so small, that they could scarcely bring one hundred
soldiers into the field. Madras, one of their principal places,
sixty-three miles distant, was an open town; Fort St. David was in
ruins, with a garrison of only sixty invalids. A fortnight would have
enabled the Chevalier, with his 2000 men, to reduce the whole coast
of Coromandel; but M. des Soupirs was quite unskilled in the art of
carrying on war in a country so new to him, and remained inactive,
though the French had many losses to repair, having been recently
driven from all their wealthy settlements in Bengal by the victorious
English.
Eight months after his arrival, on the 25th April, 1758, the Chef
d'Escadre anchored in the roadstead before the sandy plain occupied by
Pondicherry, and Lally disembarking his troops and treasure, marched
into the town, the governor of which, M. de Leyrit, received him with
a salute of cannon. At the peace of Amiens, the French population of
Pondicherry amounted to 25,000, exclusive of the blacks, who were
treble that number. Its revenue was then 40,000 pagodas; but it was
a place destitute of natural advantages, its vicinity producing only
palm-trees, millet, and a few herbs.
Weary of his long voyage, and anxious to fulfil his orders, which
comprehended the total destruction of every British fortification that
fell into his power, the ardent and gallant Lally lost not an hour in
preparing for active operations. Next day, the 26th, he returned on
board to sail for Cudalore, and in one hour after a powerful British
fleet assailed the ships of Count d'Aché in the roadstead, where a
French 74-gun ship was taken; but the rest fought a passage to the
seaward, and favoured by the wind, and by superior sailing, anchored
off Cudalore, a town situated fifteen miles from Pondicherry, on the
western shore of the Bay of Bengal.
This little town, which occupies the banks of the Pennar, had been
obtained by the English East India Company from the Rajah of Gingee,
so early as 1681, for the site of a factory, and had been fortified.
Its garrison consisted only of ten invalids; but being assisted by the
inhabitants, these brave fellows made so stout a resistance, that Lally
was occupied three days in taking it. From thence he marched to Fort
St. David, a settlement on the Carnatic coast, obtained by the English
from a Mahratta rajah in 1691, and besieging it, after being seventeen
days in open trenches, exposed to the broiling sun by noon and the
baleful dews by night, gained it by capitulation on the 2nd of June,
and levelled all its fortifications to the ground.
On the 10th he marched back to Pondicherry, and having resolved to
assail Madras, despatched an officer in a small vessel to his naval
Chef d'Escadre, with instructions to return and co-operate with him.
But Admiral Pocock, who commanded the British squadron in those seas,
had defeated M. d'Aché in two engagements, and by driving him sixty
miles to the windward, had nearly cut off all communication between him
and the army. And now the governor of Pondicherry announced that the
town and its vicinity could not subsist Lally's 4000 Frenchmen for more
than fifteen days. On this he was compelled to march into the little
kingdom of Tanjore (or Tanjowar), which lay one hundred and fifty miles
southward, and there quarter his troops during the stormy and rainy
season, while the naval squadron took refuge in port. The advance into
Tanjowar was not made without a due pretence of wrong to adjust, for
the rajah had refused to pay a government debt, which M. de Leyrit
assured Count Lally to be more than due.
The discharge of five pieces of cannon against his little capital
compelled the rajah to pay down treasure to the amount of 440,000
livres, and afford free-quarters to the French troops for two
months, until tidings arrived that 800 British were marching against
Pondicherry; upon which Lally immediately abandoned Tanjowar, and
advanced to the relief of the Chevalier des Soupirs, who with a slender
force was timidly preparing to evacuate the capital of French India.
On Lally approaching, on the 31st of August, the British detachment
fell back on Madras, and now our indefatigable Irishman, full of the
most sanguine hopes of expelling them from the vast peninsula of
Hindostan, at once made new preparations for investing Fort St. George,
their principal settlement on the coast of Coromandel; but scarcity of
money, and the improper conduct of the naval Chef d'Escadre, retarded
the operations, frustrated the bold intentions of Lally, and ultimately
betrayed them to the enemy.
While sparing no exertions to officer and equip a body of sepoy
infantry, he seized a Dutch ship, in which he found a sufficient
quantity of specie to enable him to attack Madras; he then sent a
message to the Count d'Aché not to leave the coast; but the count
replied, that he required a recruit of seamen, and must return to
France. Alarmed by such a threat, Lally offered him half of his
soldiers for the marine service; but deaf alike to threats and
entreaties, the count sailed for the Straits of Madagascar on the 1st
of September, and left Lally to cope single handed with the British
forces.
On summoning to his presence M. de Bussy, who commanded the French
troops in that extensive region named the Deccan (or Country of the
South), and M. Moracin, who commanded at the seaport of Masulipatnam,
he found these officers were somewhat influenced by the same pride and
disobedience which characterized the conduct of Count d'Aché; and thus,
before they would obey, and march against Madras, they required that
Lally should embody an additional thousand men. He immediately ordered
M. Moracin to return to his post, which the British were approaching.
M. Moracin dared to refuse or delay, and taken by surprise during his
absence, Masulipatnam was lost to France for ever.
In the month of October, Lally, with his slender force, the flower of
which was the valiant Regiment de Lorraine, marched without opposition
into the extensive district of Arcot (which seven years before had been
overrun by Colonel Clive), and after remaining there at free-quarters
for five days, marched back to Pondicherry.
The army was now totally destitute of pay, and the commissariat had no
supply but plunder, while the departure of the Count d'Aché cut off
all succour or retreat by the seaward. Though numerous, the troubles
of Lally were just commencing. Discouraged and disunited by the naval
disasters of d'Aché, the French officers were alternately fired with
ardour and depressed by despair. M. de Bussy offered to raise 400,000
livres in three hours, if he was permitted to re-enter the Deccan
with a body of troops; but being loth to divide his little force, and
believing the result to be incredible, Lally wisely declined. De Bussy
then informed him that he had 240,000 livres belonging to the East
India Company, which were at his service if _he_ would be responsible
for them; but Lally still more wisely declined to compromise his
honour by appropriating the money of the merchants to the service of
the nation. He resumed his preparations for the siege of Madras while
the British fleet was absent from its shore; but this measure was
vehemently opposed by the Governor of Pondicherry, M. Duval de Leyrit,
who urged the wretched state of the commissariat and the empty military
chest. Lally's Irish spirit could ill brook such disputations, and,
"pay or no pay," he was for marching at once.
However, he was compelled to take the opinion of the General Council
of Pondicherry, some of whom adhered to De Leyrit; but five, headed by
M. le Comte d'Estaigne, offered their plate, to the value of 80,000
livres, towards the expense of the expedition. The true and generous
Lally gave, from his private purse, 140,000 livres; and having thus in
some measure collected the sinews of war, with his small head-quarter
force, 2700 French, and a body of sepoys, he advanced towards Madras
early in December.
A march of sixty-three miles brought Lally, on the 12th day of the
month, in sight of the town, which, by its strength, wealth, and annual
revenue in calicos and muslins, was of such great consequence, even
then, to the growing English East India Company. The diamond mines
were only a week's journey distant, and the rumour of their priceless
wealth, and splendid wonders, animated the French soldiers, as in three
divisions they marched across the sunny plains of Choultry.
Madras, or Fort St George, was divided into two parts; one called
_the Black_, and the other _the White_ town. The former, Madraspatam,
had been totally destroyed by the French in 1744, when they levelled
to the ground every building that stood within three hundred yards
of the fort. The walls of the latter, which rose above the centre
of the English town were--as dispatches relate--all built of hard,
iron-coloured stone, and defended by four gigantic bastions. The inner
fort, or citadel, had a front of one hundred and eight yards; the outer
fort consisted of half-moons, curtain-walls, and flankers, which, like
the rusty-coloured ramparts of the town were studded by an incredible
number of cannon. In short, the aspect of Madras, with its mansions
covered by snow-white _chunam_, is delightful from the ocean, and
magnificent from the land. On the latter, its walls are moated by a
river, which falls into the sea on that flat and sandy shore, where a
white and furious surf is ever rolling in mountains of foam.
As he crossed the plains, Lally was briskly cannonaded by the
field-pieces of the enemy, and lost many officers and men; but,
advancing steadily, took possession of Ogmore and Meliapore (or San
Thomé), an old town of the Portuguese, who had built there a large
church above a grave reputed to be that of St. Thomas, who had been
murdered by a tribe that dwelt in the vicinity, and whose _right legs_,
after that sacrilegious act, were, according to Dr. Fryar, swollen to
the size of those of elephants.
Colonel Lawrence, a gallant and resolute officer, who commanded the
garrison of Madras, was ably seconded by Pigot the governor, by Colonel
Draper, Major Caillaud, and other gentlemen. Thus Lally encountered
the most determined resistance. The garrison consisted of 5000 men; of
these, 1600 were regular troops of the British line, 300 were sepoys,
and 400 were servants of the East India Company. Lawrence retired to
the island in order to prevent the French from obtaining possession
of the island bridge, and ordered all the posts to be occupied in
the Black Town, which was triangularly shaped, and surrounded by a
fortified wall.
At daybreak, on the morning of the 14th December, Lally sent forward
M. de Rillon at the head of his regiment, which assailed the Black
Town with great spirit, and after giving and receiving several severe
discharges of musketry, during a contest of some hours, gained the
place, driving back the British, who retired by detachments into the
fort or citadel of Madras. This successful movement was followed by
an advance of the Regiment de Lorraine, to keep the ground De Rillon
had won; but within an hour, a grand _sortie_ was made upon them by a
body of British infantry, led by Colonel Draper, who behaved with great
personal bravery.
Shrouded in smoke, he led a charge of bayonets against the Regiment
de Lorraine; a furious _mêlée_ ensued, and the French must have been
driven back, or cut off, had not Lally sent forward another detachment,
with some sepoys, to sustain the troops of M. de Rillon. A great
number of officers and men were shot or bayoneted on both sides; but
Colonel Draper was compelled to retreat, for his grenadiers gave way
in a somewhat discreditable manner. After this, the garrison of Madras
contented themselves by defending their works, being too weak to engage
in _sorties_ beyond them.
Colonel, afterwards Sir William Draper, was that _preux chevalier_
who afterwards conquered Manilla, and became a paramount judge in all
matters of military etiquette, and who, in his celebrated letter to
Junius, expressed a hope that he would never see officers pushed into
the British army who had nothing to lose but their _swords_.
Thus encouraged, by hemming in the enemy, Lally continued to push his
approaches, and build batteries. Meanwhile M. de Lequille, another
Chef d'Escadre, had arrived at the Isle de France, with four ships
of war and three millions of livres, destined for the service of the
French India Company. When about to leave the isle for the roads of
Pondicherry, he unfortunately met the discomfited fleet of the Count
d'Aché, who, being his superior officer, prevented him from proceeding,
and removed the treasure on board his own ship, taking upon himself to
send only _one_ million of livres to the Count de Lally, in a small
frigate, which reached Pondicherry on the 21st December, 1758.
This supply enabled Lally to press the siege with greater vigour,
and to pay his French soldiers and Indian levies a portion of their
arrears; but the blacks were of little service to him during the
operations. M. Lally erected several batteries against the Black Town
and Fort St. George; one of these, called the Grand Battery, was 450
yards distance from the glacis. They opened on the 6th January, 1759;
after which they maintained a continued discharge of shot and shells
for twenty days, the pioneers pushing on the trenches until their sap
had reached the base of the glacis, within pistol-shot of the parapets.
Then Lally formed another and loftier battery, on which he placed four
pieces of heavy cannon. It opened on the 31st of January; but for five
consecutive days the artillerists were compelled to close up their
embrasures with fascines and earth, for the superior fire of the fort
was not to be withstood, and it soon compelled them to abandon their
redoubt. The Grand Battery, however, still continued a fire, which
was so well directed, that it dismounted or broke twenty-six pieces
of cannon and three mortars, beating down the wall and effecting a
considerable breach.
During these operations, Lally had somewhat needlessly bombarded the
town, to terrify the inhabitants, and demolished a number of their
houses; but the precautions of Governor Pigot, the vigilance, valour,
and experience of Colonels Draper, Lawrence, and Major Brereton
repelled every attack; and thus, after the 5th of February, the fire
of Lally's batteries gradually diminished from twenty-three to six
pieces of cannon. Money, powder, and shot became scarce together; he
had lost many of his bravest men; two months had elapsed, and still the
British standard waved above the fort of Madras. During this period
the remonstrances which Lally sent frequently to France for succour,
describe the deep anxiety he felt for the success of a cause in which
his honour was implicated; and so keen and bitter did this feeling
become, that at times, when aggravated by an illness incident to the
climate, his reports and dispatches are remarkable for containing
occasional sentences expressive of horror and distraction.
His general chagrin at the conduct of Count d'Aché and others is
strongly portrayed in the following letter, which he addressed from the
trenches at Madras to the Governor of Pondicherry, and which had been
intercepted:--
"M. DUVAL DE LEYRIT,--A good blow might be struck here; there is in
the roads a 20-gun ship laden with all the riches of Madras; she
will remain there till the 20th. The _Expedition_ is just arrived,
but M. Gerlin is not a man to attack her, for she made him run away
once before. The _Bristol_, on the other hand, did but just make her
appearance before San Thomé, and on the vague report of thirteen
ships coming from Porto Nova, she took fright, and, after landing the
provisions with which she was laden, she would not stay even long
enough to take on board twelve of her own guns, which she had lent us
for the siege (of Madras).
"If I was to judge of the point of honour of the Company's officers, I
would break him like glass, as well as some others of them.
"The _Fidele_, or the _Haerlem_, or even the aforesaid _Bristol_,
with her twelve guns restored to her, would be sufficient to make
themselves masters of the British ship, if they could get to windward
of her in the night. Maugendre and Tremillier are said to be good men,
and were they employed to transport 200 wounded we have here, their
service would be of importance. We remain in the same position; the
breach made these fifteen days; all the time within fifteen toises of
the place, and never holding up our heads to look at it. I believe we
must, on our return to Pondicherry, learn some _other trade_, for this
of war requires too much patience.
"Of the 1500 sepoys who attended our army, I believe nearly 800 are
employed upon the road to Pondicherry, laden with pepper, sugar, and
other goods; and as for the coolies, they have been employed for
the same purpose since the first days we came here. I am taking my
measures from this day to set fire to the Black Town and to blow up
the powder-mills.
"You will never imagine that fifty French deserters and 100 Swiss
are actually stopping the progress of 2000 men of the king's and
Company's troops, which are still here existing, notwithstanding the
exaggerated accounts that every one makes, according to his own fancy,
of the slaughter that has been made among them; and you will be still
more surprised if I tell you that, were it not for the combats and
four battles we sustained, and for the batteries which failed, or
(to speak more properly) which were unskilfully made, we should not
have lost fifty men from the commencement of the siege to this day.
I have written to M. de Larche, that if he persists in not coming
here, let who will raise money upon the Poleagers for me, I will
not do it! And I renounce--as I informed you a month ago--meddling
directly or indirectly with anything whatever that may relate to your
administration, civil or military. For I would rather go and command
the Caffres of Madagascar than remain in this Sodom, which the fire of
the English must sooner or later destroy, if that from heaven should
not. I have the honour to be, &c.,
"Lally.
"P.S.--I think it necessary to apprise you that, as M. des Soupirs
has refused to take upon him the command of this army, which I have
offered him, and which he is empowered to accept, by having received
from the Court a duplicate of my commission, you must necessarily,
with the council, take it upon you. For my part, I undertake only
to bring it back either to Arcot or Sadraste. Send, therefore, your
orders, or come yourselves to command it, for I shall quit it upon my
arrival there.--L."
Though his cannonade had been diminished to only six pieces, Lally had
advanced his sap along the seashore by cutting a trench about ten feet
broad, with traverses to cover the soldiers, until he embraced the
whole north-east angle of the covered way, from whence the Regiment
de Lorraine, by a well directed mousquetade, drove the besieged in
disorder. An attempt to open a passage into the ditch by mining failed,
for the mine was sprung without effect.
Meanwhile Major Caillaud and Captain Preston, a Scottish officer, with
a body of sepoys, another of Indian cavalry, and some European soldiers
drawn from the British garrisons at Trinchinopoli and Chingalaput
(which Clive when a captain had taken from the French in 1752), hovered
on the roads a few miles from Madras, blocking up the avenues, cutting
off succour and provisions from Pondicherry, thus compelling Lally
four times (as his better states) to drive them back by detachments.
These measures successfully retarded the siege until the 16th February,
when, at the very time he was preparing for a grand assault at point
of the bayonet, his Britannic Majesty's ship _Queensberry_, commanded
by Captain Kempenfeldt, the Company's ship _Revenge_, and four other
vessels, having on board 600 men of the 79th, or Colonel Draper's
regiment, with a great supply of provision of every kind, came to
anchor in the roadstead, and the troops were immediately disembarked
and marched into Madras. The rage and mortification of Lally were now
complete!
He had encountered innumerable difficulties occasioned by the scarcity
of money and munition, by the wretched supplies of the Government
commissaries and contractors, by the conduct of Count d'Aché and
others, by the sinking of his soldiers' courage before the obstinate
defence of the besieged; and now, with Kempenfeldt's arrival all hope
of success vanished. After maintaining a smart cannonade until the
night of the 16th closed over Madras, Lally abandoned his trenches, and
was compelled by scarcity of horses to leave forty pieces of cannon
behind him: he blew up the powder-mills of Ogmore and retreated into
Arcot.
Soon after this siege had been abandoned, the British received from
home another reinforcement of 600 infantry, and on the 16th April the
main body of their troops, which had been centred at Madras for its
protection, took the field in three divisions against Lally, under the
command of Major Brereton. The Chevalier des Soupirs felt the first
brunt of this movement, being driven by the Major from Conjeveram, a
large and handsome town, principally inhabited by Brahmins, which lies
forty-four miles from Madras, and had the chief manufacture of turbans
and red handkerchiefs. Major Forde, with another division, took by
assault the town of Masulipatnam, the governor of which, M. Moracin,
was still absent, as before related. The garrison, which was commanded
by the Marquis de Conflans, had been weakened by the withdrawal of its
soldiers to the siege of Madras. Thus the commerce of Britain secured
a sea-coast of at least eight hundred miles in length along a country
teeming with wealth and commerce, while that of France was almost
confined to the narrow limits of Pondicherry. The third division of
British under Colonel Clive was meanwhile advancing from the province
of Bengal to assist the Rajah of Visanapore, who had driven the French
out of Vizagapatam, and hoisted thereon the British flag.
The first severe shock sustained by the arms of Britain in the East
was given by the gallant Lally in person. Sensible of the importance
of such a place as Conjeveram, which with the fort of Chingelpel,
commanded all the adjacent country and secured the British conquests to
the northward, he marched towards Major Brereton, and took up a strong
position at Vandivash. There he cantoned his troops until the month
of September, when Brereton, on receiving 300 men under Major Gordon,
from Colonel Coote's Bengalese force, resolved on beating up the French
in their quarters. Accordingly, on the 14th March he advanced from
Conjeveram, at the head of 400 European infantry, 7000 sepoys, seventy
European and 300 native horsemen, with fourteen pieces of artillery.
After capturing the fort of Trivitar, he advanced against the village
of Vandivash, where Lally, although still struggling with a severe
illness, had formed a strong intrenched camp, the lines of which were
protected by a redoubt commanded by a rajah, and mounted with twenty
pieces of cannon worked by Indians, under the directions of a single
French cannonier.
At two on the morning of the 30th September the British attacked the
village on three points, and on all with equal fury and determination.
The French infantry, 1000 strong, made a spirited resistance; and
the moment daylight broke, the guns of the rajah poured a storm of
grape-shot upon the ranks of the enemy.
Lally did all that ability and gallantry could inspire to animate his
troops; but being deserted by his black pioneers, who (like those of
Brereton) fled at the moment of attack, the French were discouraged,
and retired beyond a deep dry ditch, from whence the regiments of Lally
and Lorraine made a succession of desperate sallies on the British,
until, seeing that the column of Anglo-Indian horse were watching for
an opportunity to fall upon his flanks, Lally, to preserve his little
force from utter ruin, brought up his reserve to cover the retreat, and
fell back, after the loss of many gallant chevaliers and 400 soldiers.
Brereton and Gordon remained encamped in sight of the fort for some
days; but the approach of the rainy season compelled them to retire
into Conjeveram.
The Fort of Vandivash was afterwards garrisoned by French and sepoys,
while another column of King Louis's troops assembled in Arcot, under
Brigadier-General the Marquis de Bussy, who endeavoured to levy as
many sepoys as possible. These native troops, whose now familiar name
is derived from _Sepahe_, the Indian word for a feudatory chief or
military tenant, have ever made excellent soldiers, having an inborn
predilection for arms. The success at Vandivash, for giving the British
even a _check_ was now deemed almost equal to a victory, made Lally
conceive the idea of besieging Trinchinopoli; but again the folly or
the treachery of the naval Chef d'Escadre baffled his intentions.
After having a third engagement with the British fleet on the 4th
September, when with eleven ships of the line he was as usual defeated
by Admiral Pocock with nine, the Count d'Aché, on the 17th, reached
the roads of Pondicherry, from whence he wrote to the Count de Lally,
then in position before Vandivash, offering to place at his disposal,
for the king's service, 800,000 livres in piastres and diamonds, being
the plunder of a British ship which he had taken at sea, and which
he begged the lieutenant-general to receive as part payment of the
two millions so improperly detained in the preceding year at the Isle
of France. He concluded his dispatch by a notification that on the
following day, the 18th September, he would sail towards Madagascar.
At this time, when British valour was bearing all before it; when
the powerful fortress of Karical (which the King of Tanjowar had
ceded to France in 1739) was about to fall, and he lost, with all the
fertile district around it; when the united fleets of Admirals Pocock,
K.B., and Sir Samuel Cornish were sweeping along the shores of the
Carnatic, reducing many places of minor importance, and by their cannon
everywhere beating down the _Fleur-de-lys_ of France; when Colonel
Eyre Coote was pressing the French and their allies along the frontier
of Bengal, and when the Prince of Vizanapore and other native rajahs
were in open revolt against King Louis,--the announcement of the Chef
d'Escadre filled the colonists with fear and confusion. Indignant and
exasperated, Lally would have left the camp and sought Count d'Aché in
person; but at that crisis, being so reduced by sickness that he could
not quit his bed, he sent a deputation of field officers to represent
the necessity of his remaining in the immediate vicinity of the
Carnatic coast; of his co-operating with the land forces, and conjuring
him by all means to suspend the execution of a design so pregnant
with disaster to the Indian interests of his Most Christian Majesty.
But nothing that these officers could urge, or their united eloquence
suggest, would avert the fatal purpose of the Count d'Aché, who put
to sea, and once more left the disheartened soldiers of King Louis to
their fate.
Immediately upon this Lally assembled the Council and drew up a
solemn PROTEST against the unaccountable conduct and sudden departure
of the Chef d'Escadre and his fleet, proclaiming that he--and _he
alone_--would be responsible if Pondicherry, the capital of French
India, with all its territory fell into the hands of the British army
and revolted rajahs. The "protest" was dated on the 17th of September,
1759, and was unanimously signed in the Hall of Fort Lewis, at
Pondicherry, by Lally himself and the following gentlemen:--
"Duval de Leyrit, Renaut, Barthelmy, Chevalier des Soupirs, Michael
Lally, Bussy, Du Bois, Carrière, Verdières, Duré, Gaddeville, Du
Passage, Beausset, Renaut, De la Salle, Guillart, Porcher, Père
Dominique, _Capucin Prêtre de la Paroisse de Notre Dame des Anges,
F.S. Lavacier, Supérieur Général des Jesuites Français dans les Indes,
L. Rathon, Supérieur Général des Missions Etrangères_, Poitier de
Lorme, Duchatel, Audouart, Aimar, Combaut d'Authenil, Goupil, Keisses,
J.C. Bon, De Wilst, Banal, Rauly, Termelin, Sainte Paul, J.B. Launay,
Deshayes, Fischer, Du Laurent, Audager du Petit Val, D'Arcy, Medin,
Dioré, Bertrand, Legris, Miran, Bourville, F. Nicolas, Du Plan, De
Laval, Borée, D. l'Arché, Bayelleon de Guillette."