Page:History of the French in India.djvu/498

472 CHANDRANAGAR AND THE DAKHAN. C *xi P ' terr ^^ e intelligence that the English fleet and army L , were on their way to Chandranagar. However indig- 1757. nant he might have felt, however mnch he may have reproached his superior at Pondichery for exposing him to such a danger, Renault yet prepared, on its approach, to meet it with courage and vigour. Chandranagar possessed many capabilities of defence. The square fort, called Fort d' Orleans, situated at an equal distance from either extremity of the town, immediately on the river bank, mounted ten 32-pounders on each of its bastions. On the ramparts, at regular intervals between the bastions on the river and southern faces, were an equal number of 24-pounders ; the south-western curtain angle was covered by a ravelin, on which were eight 32-pounders; whilst the flat terrace of the high church within the fort, and which over-topped its walls, had been converted into a battery and armed with six guns. An outer ditch and glacis were being constructed, though all the houses on the proposed glacis had not been demolished at the time. Beyond this glacis, however, especially on the river and southern face, several batteries had been thrown up, commanding all the approaches to the fort. The garrison consisted, as we have said, of 146 Euro- pean troops and 300 sipahis, but nearly 300 Europeans were collected from the inhabitants and sailors, and were armed for the defence. Prominent among these last was Captain de Vigne, the commander of one of the French ships, to whom the defence of the bastions had been consigned by Eenault. But it was not alone in their fortifications that the French confided. The river Hugli at Chandranagar was not, even in those days, easily navigable by ships of heavy burden. There was in fact but one practicable channel, and this could be blocked up by sunken ships. Here, accordingly, Eenault ordered several ships to be sunk, about a hundred and fifty yards south of the fort, and on this point the guns of one of the batteries out-