Page:History of the French in India.djvu/595

DIFFICULT POSITION OF LALLY. 5G9 the battle. His dispositions Avere good. The intrench- chap. ment served as the pivot whereon to move his army ; , * ' m , had that been held, he could not have been beaten, nco Accidents not very dissimilar have before this decided the fate of greater battles, without that prejudice and passion have fixed the blame on the commander. The remainder of the campaign may be told in a few words. The next day Lally fell back to Chitapet, taking with him all his wounded ; thence, sending the Marathas and native troops to Arkat, he retreated to Jinji, but as at that point the English were nearer than himself to Pondichery, he made a cross-march to Val- davur, fifteen miles from that city. In this position he was able to cover Pondichery, and to receive supplies from the south. He was fortunate in being able to do so much, for had the English only followed up their victory with vigour, they would have reached Pondi- chery before Lally, and that place, destitute of pro- visions and of troops, would probably have surrendered on the first summons. The English leader, however, preferred the slower method of reducing the subordinate places held by the French — a policy which the absence of d'Ache and the utter abandonment of Pondichery by the mother-country allowed him to carry out unmolested. In pursuance of this resolution, Coote carried Chitapet on January 28 and Arkat on the 9th of the following month. Timeri, Devikota, Trinomali, and Alamparva fell about the same time ; Karikal surrendered on April 5 ; on the 15th, Lally was constrained to retreat from Valdavur to within the hedge that bounded Pondichery ; and on the 20th, Chelambram, and a few days later Giidalur — the last important place except Thiagar and Jinji held by the French in the Karnatik — fell into the hands of the English. It is not to be supposed that all these places were lightly given up. Some of them, indeed, Lally would have done well to evacuate, so as to carry with him the garrisons ; but Karikal, so long