however, met his fleet, which was driven far to the north; thus the
protest of Lally overtook him at sea. Influenced by its tenor, he
returned to Pondicherry, and after remaining one week in the roadstead,
again departed for his favourite island of Madagascar, and for _sixteen
months_ Lally and his soldiers heard no more of him.
The Governor and Council of the British India Company at Madras having
heard that Lally had sent a detachment of his forces southward and
threatened Trinchinopoli, determined that Colonel Eyre Coote, who had
recently arrived in the East, should take the field and drive it back.
The French officers had been fortunate in acquiring the favour of many
of the Indian chiefs. Thus in 1755 the King of Travancore employed M.
de Launay to discipline 10,000 Naires of Malabar in the mode of the
European infantry; and thus M. de Lally, who had won the alliance of
Salubetzingue, sovereign of the whole country, expected the arrival
of his brother Bassuletzingue with a column of 12,000 Indians. When
more than a hundred miles distant from the French army, the prince
sent a Rissaldar to request that an officer of rank with a body of
French should be sent to facilitate their junction. Lally immediately
despatched the Marquis de Bussy on this service, with a detachment
which joined the prince beneath the walls of Arcot. In twelve days all
that was necessary might have been done; but the loitering marquis spun
out the time to no less than two-and-forty. While Lally was totally
unable to account for his absence, a dangerous ferment arose in the
camp of Prince Bassuletzingue, there being no pay for his soldiers, as
M. d'Aché's diamonds were yet unsold; and during the delay the British
troops under Colonel Coote (aware that Lally could not begin a campaign
without cavalry) suddenly made themselves masters of Vandivash on the
30th November, after having breached the walls. Thus, by the indolence
of M. de Bussy one of the most important fortresses on the coast was
lost, and its garrison of 900 men taken, with forty-nine pieces of
cannon and a vast quantity of ammunition.
On the 10th December they took Cosangoli, which was bravely defended by
a mixed garrison of French and sepoys under Colonel O'Kennely, an Irish
officer; who, after his guns were dismounted, capitulated and marched
out with all the honours of war. With 100 Frenchmen he joined Lally,
but 500 of his sepoys were disarmed and dismissed by Coote.
The double and dangerous success of this vigilant and enterprising
officer compelled Lally to attempt a decisive demonstration for the
recapture of Vandivash; but Coote, who had completely superseded
Brereton in the command, was an officer who ably defended the conquests
his bravery had made.
Having now somewhat recovered his health and strength, on the 10th
January, 1760, the Lieutenant-General du Roi marched towards the
captured fortress at the head of 2200 Frenchmen, and about 10,000
native troops. Among the latter were 1800 blacks called the Regiment de
Bussy, 300 Caffres, and 2000 cavalry obtained from a Mahratta chief,
with whom Lally had concluded a treaty, as soon as he found himself
disappointed by Prince Bassuletzingue. They were all clothed and armed
after the picturesque fashion of their native country (which extends
across the whole peninsula of Hindostan) and were led by a Rissaldar,
or commander of independent horse. He had twenty-five pieces of cannon
with him.
He came in sight of the British on the banks of the Poliar, a broad
and sandy river, the bed of which was quite dry; though in the middle
of October, when the winter usually commences, and the rain descends
in torrents, the river is sometimes half-a-mile broad, and flows
towards the ocean with the greatest fury. There the adverse hosts
hovered in sight of each other, until after succeeding in destroying
some magazines which were in Colonel Coote's rear (the loss of which
prevented his troops from acting in the field for some days after),
Lally with his 12,000 men suddenly invested Vandivash, against which
his batteries opened with such effect, that a broad and practicable
breach was soon made in the outer bastion, and now it was hoped that by
one bold assault the captured fortress would be re-won, and with it the
entire disputed territory.
But at the very time when Lally was about to lead on the assault, Coote
with 1700 European and 3000 black troops, fourteen pieces of cannon,
and one howitzer, came suddenly upon his rear to relieve the garrison.
Exposed to the cannon of the fort on one side, and to the troops of
Coote on the other, Lally found himself critically situated; but,
turning like a lion at bay, he drew off from his trenches, and rapidly
formed in order of battle to face this new enemy, on the 21st of
January.
Both armies were in high spirits and eager to engage.
About nine in the morning they were two miles apart. Coote having
advanced with his cavalry and five companies of sepoys, Lally sent
forward his Mahratta horse to meet them; but these, on being galled
by two pieces of cannon, retired with precipitation. During this the
colonel had succeeded in completely reconnoitring the position of Count
Lally, whose forces were ably and judiciously placed, till the British
made a movement to the right, which obliged him to alter and extend his
left flank.
While the lines were three-quarters of a mile apart the cannonading
began on both sides, and was continued with deadly precision and effect
until noon, when Lally sent forward a small party of his European
cavalry to charge the British left. A few companies of sepoys and two
guns sent forward by Coote soon drove these in rear of their own army,
and as the forces still continued approaching, by one o'clock the roar
of musketry became general along both lines from flank to flank, and
that broad plain on which a cloudless sun was shining became shrouded
in snow-white smoke.
Undaunted by the cowardice of his cavalry, the hot-blooded Lally now
threw himself into the line of his infantry, and at the head of the
Regiment of Lorraine fell impetuously upon the British. Colonel Coote
was on foot and at the head of his own regiment to receive them.
After giving and receiving two discharges of musketry, the Regiment de
Lorraine rushed on with a fury that threatened to sweep all before it.
Lally was in front, sword in hand; the bayonets crossed--the _British
line was broken_; but though a momentary confusion followed, it was not
driven back. A series of bloody single combats ensued, with the charged
bayonet and clubbed musket; but these were of brief duration; for in
three minutes the Regiment of Lorraine was broken in turn, routed, and
driven back in headlong confusion, over a field strewed with their own
killed and wounded. The explosion of a tumbril in rear of the French
line created an additional confusion, of which Coote lost not a moment
in taking advantage.
He ordered Major Brereton to advance with the regiment of Colonel
Draper (who had returned to Europe for the benefit of his health),
and by wheeling to the right to fall on the French left, and seize a
fortified post which they were on the point of abandoning.
This service was performed with the utmost bravery; the French left was
routed and driven pell-mell upon their centre. Draper's regiment was
the 79th, not the present _Cameron Highlanders_, but a corps which was
disbanded in 1763. All had now become confusion among the enemy, but
the gallant and accomplished Brereton fell mortally wounded.
"Follow--follow!" he exclaimed to some soldiers who loitered near
him; "follow and leave me to my fate!" He soon expired; led by Major
Monsoon, the regiment advanced impetuously on, and after a vain and
desperate attempt, made by the Chevalier de Bussy, with Lally's
regiment, to repel it, the French and their allies were completely
routed in every direction by two o'clock in the afternoon. The Regiment
de Lally was almost cut to pieces; the horse of Brigadier-General M. de
Bussy was shot under him, and he was taken prisoner by Major Monsoon,
to whom he surrendered his sword.
Lally having brought up his fugitive cavalry, formed them in rear of
his infantry, and enabled these to make a secure though precipitate
retreat, leaving on the field a thousand men killed and wounded, with
fifty prisoners, including the Marquis de Bussy, Quartermaster-General
le Chevalier de Gadville, Lieutenant-Colonel Murphy, three captains,
five lieutenants, many other officers, and twenty-two pieces of cannon.
Coote lost 260 killed and wounded. Among the former was the gallant
Brereton. Maréchal Charles Grant, Vicomte de Vaux, affirms that the
losses were equal on both sides.
Covering the foot by the cavalry, Lally conducted his routed forces
with considerable skill and good order to Pondicherry, while Coote
lost not a moment in pursuing the advantage he had gained. Dispatching
the Baron Vasserot towards that place with 1000 horse and 300 sepoys,
and with orders to ravage and lay waste all the French territory in
and around it, he advanced in person against Chittipett, a small town
and fort in the Carnatic, which, after a defence of two days, was
surrendered on the 29th January, 1760, by the Chevalier de Tillie, who
with his garrison remained prisoners of war.
On the 2nd February he reduced the fort of Timmary on the Coromandel
coast, and pushing on to Arcot, the capital, opened his batteries and
dug his approaches within sixty yards of the glacis. The garrison,
which consisted of 250 French with 300 sepoys, defended the place until
the 10th, when they surrendered as prisoners of war, delivering up
twenty-two pieces of cannon and a large store of warlike munition.
Thus the campaign ended gloriously for Britain by the conquest of
Arcot, and by hemming up the indefatigable but most unfortunate Lally
in the fortifications of Pondicherry, the capital of French India,
which was soon fated to become the last scene of his valour and
achievement.
Surat, a place of great consequence on the coast of Malabar, was taken
by a Bombay detachment, which destroyed the French factory. The English
had obtained a settlement there from King Jehan Jeer in the year 1020
of the Hijerah. By sea the operations had been carried on with equal
vigour. On the 4th September, 1759, an engagement had taken place
between the fleets of Count d'Aché and Admiral Pocock, who obliged the
former to sheer off with great loss. In April, the fortress of Karical
had fallen, and by that time Admirals Pocock and Cornish had united
their fleets in the roads of Pondicherry, within the gates of which
nearly all that remained of the French forces in India were shut up, or
encamped four leagues in front of it, under the command of the Count de
Lally, barring the way by which he knew the British would march to an
attack.
In Karical 174 pieces of cannon were taken, and to add to the disasters
of the French, one of their 64-gun ships (the _Haerlem_) was burned in
the roads of Pondicherry by the British cruisers.
Encouraged by his long career of success, and by the pecuniary and
political embarrassments of his enemy, Colonel Coote resolved on
investing Pondicherry. The approach of the rainy season, together with
the well-known reputation for skill, bravery, and resolution enjoyed
by the general of the now almost ruined French India Company, caused
a regular siege to be considered impracticable; "it was therefore
determined," says the Sieur Charles Grant, "to block up the place by
sea and land."
Lally had only 1500 Frenchmen with him; these were the remnants of
nine different corps of the King's and India Company's Service; the
cavalry, artillery, and invalids of the latter; the Creole volunteers
of the Isle de Bourbon; the king's artillery; the Regiments of Lally,
Lorraine, Mazinis, and the battalion of India.
The British armaments on the coast were now much more considerable. On
the land were four battalions of the line, and by sea were seventeen
sail of the line, carrying 1038 pieces of cannon, the smallest being
three 50-gun ships.
As the fortress of Pondicherry was as impregnable as nature and art
could make it, Coote was perfectly aware that it could only be reduced
by the most severe famine. It was also his opinion that with such an
antagonist as Arthur Lally, a formal siege with regular approaches
would prove perfectly futile with any force he could assemble; for,
in addition to his French comrades, Lally had a strong force of armed
sepoys, and a vast store of warlike munition, including nearly 700
pieces of cannon, and many millions of ball cartridges, all made up
for service. The ramparts bore 508 pieces (independent of mortars),
the walls were five miles in circumference, and had a deep broad moat
before them. There were six gates and thirteen bastions. The cavalry
of the French India Company openly deserted in great numbers, and were
received with rewards by Colonel Coote. This exasperated Lally so much,
that he erected gibbets all round Pondicherry in order to deter others
from leaving the town or the lines before it.
To victual the place completely for the inhabitants and his garrison
was the first care of Lally; for the town was large, and possessed an
overplus of population, which gave him infinite cause for trouble and
anxiety.
Pondicherry was surrounded by a number of forts, the defence of which,
in all former sieges, had occasioned the inhabitants the utmost
difficulty; but these were rapidly reduced, as all the adjacent country
was in the hands of the British. The fleet of Sir Samuel Cornish came
to anchor on the 17th March, and while Coote approached nearer by land,
Lally, in order to retard him, retired from position to position,
bravely disputing every inch of ground, until, in front of Pondicherry,
he formed his famous lines, which he defended for three months with
admirable skill and valour, thereby gaining sufficient time to have
victualled the town for the half of a year. While thus holding the foe
in check, he concluded a treaty with the Rajah of Mysore, who pledged
himself to supply Pondicherry with provisions; but failed to perform
his promise, and departed with his people. A short time afterwards,
Lally resolved to attempt a _sortie_, and on the night of the 2nd
September, 1760, he made a furious attack on Coote's advanced posts,
but was repulsed with great loss, and had seventeen pieces of cannon
taken. Coote lost but a few privates.
The last of the fortified boundary, or chain of redoubts, was carried
by storm on the 10th September; the French were driven in, and Coote
had forty killed and seventy wounded; Major Monsoon had one of his legs
torn off by a cannon-shot.
A body of Scottish Highlanders, who had just been landed from the
_Sandwich_ East Indiaman, behaved with their accustomed valour in
this affair. Passing Draper's grenadiers in their eagerness to get at
the enemy, they threw down their muskets, and with their bonnets in
one hand, and their claymores in the other, hewed a passage through a
jungle hedge, fell with a wild cheer upon the soldiers of Lally, and
cut a whole company to pieces. Only five Highlanders and two grenadiers
were shot. The Highlanders were fifty in number, and were commanded by
a Captain Morrison. They belonged to the 89th Highland Regiment, which
had been raised among the Gordon clan in the preceding year.
After that night, the operations of Lally were confined to the walls of
Pondicherry.
Of the guns taken by the Highlanders, seven were found to be
18-pounders, loaded to the muzzle with square bars of iron six inches
long, jagged pieces of metal, stones and bottles. They were on Lally's
strongest battery, which was formed before a thick wood, one mile in
front of Pondicherry, which could no longer have any succour from the
seaward, as the Chef d'Escadre had sailed for Brest, where he arrived
in April, 1761. Thus a 54-gun ship, a 36-gun frigate, and four Indiamen
were left behind, and hopelessly shut up in the roadstead.
In the month of October, Admiral Stevens, who had relieved Admiral
Cornish, sailed with his portion of the fleet for Trincomalee to refit,
leaving five sail of the line, under Captain Haldane, to blockade
Pondicherry, while Colonel Coote pressed on the investment by land.
By their dispositions and vigilance, the dense population became
distressed for provisions even before a siege was formally begun, and
while the incessant rains rendered a closer conflict impracticable. The
blockade was supported by a number of batteries judiciously posted;
by these the garrison was harassed on one hand, while their supplies
were cut off on the other; and these posts were gradually pushed nearer
and nearer to the town, notwithstanding the deluge of rain, which had
swollen the broad currents of the Chonenbar and the Gingi, two rivers
that unite near it, and roll their tides together to the sea.
On the 26th November, the rains abated, and Colonel Coote directed his
engineers to erect batteries in other places; from whence, without
being exposed, they could enfilade the works of the garrison, which was
strictly closed in, and by the failure of the Mysorean rajah to fulfil
his promise, was now enduring the utmost privations from scarcity of
food. Lally was compelled to turn out of the town a vast multitude of
native women and children; but Coote drove them back again, and, as
the batteries were firing at the time, a great number of these poor
wretches were slain or severely wounded.
During these operations, Captain Sir Charles Chalmers of Cults, a
gallant Scottish baronet who served in Coote's artillery, died of
fatigue. He possessed only the honours of his family, their estates
having been forfeited for adherence to the house of Stuart about
fifteen years before.
On the night of the 7th October, the armed boats of the British fleet
were pulled with muffled oars into the harbour, and two ships were
cut out, under the very muzzles of Lally's cannon; but not before he
had killed and wounded thirty officers and men. The prizes were the
_Balcine_ and _Hermione_, a frigate and a valuable Indiaman. In this
affair Lieutenant Owen, of H.B.M. ship _Sunderland_, lost an arm.
To encourage the British, the Nabob of Arcot promised to divide among
them fifty lacs of rupees on the day Pondicherry should surrender, and,
as each lac was valued at 12,600_l._ sterling, the greatest enthusiasm
prevailed among the officers, soldiers, and seamen: moreover, as all
the French colonists who fled from other places had stored up their
effects in Pondicherry, the treasure there was reputed to be enormous.
On the 26th September, Coote's forces had been mustered at 3500 English
and Scottish Highlanders, with 7000 sepoys, all of whom were strongly
intrenched, having taken Arcupong, Villa Nova, and every French
outpost, while fifteen sail of the line and three frigates swept the
ocean to the seaward, cutting of all succour; indeed, none was ever
afforded to the unfortunate Lally save by the Dutch settlers, who sent
two unpretending boats; but even these were observed, and on being
seized were found to contain 20,000_l._ in cash and many valuable
stores. Every day provisions were becoming more and more scarce, and
notwithstanding the weakness of his garrison, Lally was compelled to
select 200 French and 300 black soldiers, whom he contrived to despatch
towards Gingi for succour; but they were all cut off, and thus he found
himself worse than before.
The scarcity increased, and now gaunt starvation and death met the eye
on every hand; a thousand scenes of horror and distress occurred daily
within the walls of Pondicherry. The soldiers of Lally and the citizens
were compelled to eat the flesh of elephants, camels, and troop-horses;
after which dogs, cats, and even rats were devoured. The count was
frequently implored to surrender, but having now become sullen,
revengeful, and determined, his lofty pride made him resolve to perish
among the ruins of the French Indian capital, but never _capitulate_.
Twenty-four rupees were given for a small dog, and in some instances as
many half-crowns.
On the 5th November, Lally dispatched a 54-gun ship, _La Compagnie des
Indes_, to Trincomalee, a Danish settlement, for provisions; but after
eluding the watchful blockading fleet, she was taken at sea by H.M.
ships _Medway_ and _Newcastle_, and with her loss all hopes of succour
died away.
On the 9th November, Colonel Coote erected a _ricochet_ battery
for four pieces of cannon, at 1400 yards from the glacis (for the
information of unmilitary readers, we may mention that _ricochet
firing_ means when cannon or mortars are loaded with small charges,
elevated from five to twelve degrees, so that when discharged from the
parapet, the shot may _roll_ along the opposite rampart); this was more
with a view to harass the French than damage their works; but meanwhile
four other batteries were erecting in different places to rake and
batter them.
One for four guns, called _the Prince of Wales Battery_, was formed
near the sea-beach, on the north, to enfilade the great street which
intersects the White Town.
A second, for four guns and two mortars, was formed to enfilade the
counter-guard, before the north-west bastion, at a thousand yards'
distance, and in honour of the "Butcher of Culloden," was called the
_Duke of Cumberland's Battery_.
A third, called _Prince Edward's_, for two guns, faced the southern
works at 1200 yards' distance, to enfilade the streets from south to
north, and cross the fire of the northern battery.
A fourth, on the south-west, at 1100 yards' distance, and called
_Prince William's Battery_, was mounted with two guns and one mortar,
to destroy the cannon on the redoubt of San Thomé.
Lally beheld all these preparations with calmness, and by inspiring his
soldiers with something of his own fierce ardour, laboured to retard
the work of the besiegers, whose batteries commenced a simultaneous
fire at midnight on the 8th December. Lally's cannoniers replied with
the utmost vigour; they slew a master gunner, a subahdar of sepoys, and
wounded a great many more.
On the 1st of January, a violent tempest of wind, accompanied by
torrents of rain, had almost ruined the works of Coote, and blown
the fleet off the coast. The French became elated by the delay this
occasioned, and the consequent prospect of relief; but the sudden
reappearance of Admiral Stevens with his vessels caused their hopes
to fade away; and once more this little band of starving and desperate
men betook them to their muskets and lintstocks; for, still pressing
on, Coote, on the 29th, formed a fifth battery, called _the Hanover_,
at only 450 yards' distance, for ten cannon and three mortars, which
opened a fire of shot and shell against the counter-guard and curtain.
At last, being driven frantic by their sufferings, the soldiers and
citizens demanded that the place should be surrendered. Lally was
immovable, but yet feeling keenly for what they endured, dissatisfied
with the state of the French Indian affairs, and greatly exasperated
by the disorderly conduct of his troops, and the baseness of their
commissaries, he frequently burst into passionate exclamations which
showed the keenness of his agitation.
"Hell has spewed me into this country of wickedness," he said on one
occasion, "and like Jonas I wait until the whale shall receive me into
its belly!"
"I will go among the Caffres, rather than remain longer in this Sodom,"
he exclaimed on another occasion.
But, nevertheless, he still defended the town like a good soldier, and
on the disappearance of the British fleet during the storm, wrote the
following letter to M. de Raymond, the Resident at Pullicot:--
"M. Raymond, the English squadron is no more! Out of twelve ships
they had in our roads seven are lost, crews and all; four others are
dismasted, and it appears that only one frigate has escaped, therefore
lose not an instant to send us chelingoes upon chelingoes loaded with
rice. The Dutch have nothing to fear now; besides--according to the
law of nations--they are only to send us no provisions _themselves_,
and we are no longer blocked up by sea.