Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/453

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Book X.
Siege of Fort St. George.
429

and in the evening a twenty-four pounder, which bore on them from the St. Thomé or south-east bastion, burst, whilst Mr. Pigot the governor was there; he and two other men were slightly wounded, but four more died of their hurts. The rest of the fire on both sides continued as the day before, excepting that the enemy's mortars were not so frequent. The Cuddalore, a schooner belonging to the Company, which had lain some days at Paliacate where she had stopped several boats coming from the northward to the enemy's camp, came this day near the road; but seeing the Harlem ready to weigh, stood out again to sea. A twenty-four pounder was disabled in the saluting battery of the fort by its own fire on the Harlem. The casualties, besides those who suffered on the St. Thomé bastion, were 2 Europeans killed, and 4, with 2 Sepoys, wounded. In the night, as well as the day, the pioneers of the garrison continued the two galleries, the one towards the enemy's battery on the salient angle of the glacis, the other under the blind, and the rest of the workmen were chiefly employed in repairing the parapet towards the salient angle of the demi bastion.

In the morning of the 2d, the enemy opened again their embrasures on the crest of the glacis, which they had been repairing all night, but with as little judgment as in the preceding, for their shot still flew too high; and the guns being exposed as before without resistance to the cannon and mortars of the defences, were closed again in an hour after they had opened, and remained silent the rest of the day. The other batteries continued as before. The Harlem had weighed before day-break, and anchored out of gun-shot of the Shaftbury, which now only sustained the fire of the three guns on shore; and theirs less frequent than in the preceding days. At eight in the morning, several parties of horse were discerned from the steeple, advancing in the plain about five miles N. w. of the fort; and soon after appeared the whole army, with Preston and Mahomed Issoof. The enemy's cavalry at Viparee drew out, reinforcements joined them from the black town, and at three in the afternoon firing commenced, which lasted until sun-set.