Early in May Colonel Campbell learned of the disaster to General Matthews, and at the same time he received a summons from Tippoo Sultan demanding the surrender of the fort and town of Mangalore in virtue of the terms of the capitulation arranged with the Commander-in-Chief. Now, it is necessary for me here to interpolate that General Matthews and the officers of the King's regiments had not been on the best of terms. He, a servant of the East India Company, refused to recognize their superior rank, and two of the Colonels of the King's regiments (McLeod, of the 42nd, and Humberston, of the 100th) had left his camp and formulated complaints against the Commander-in-Chief to the Governor-General. Campbell therefore replied to Tippoo Sultan's envoy that he refused to recognize any arrangements which might have been made by the Commander-in-Chief, and that he intended to defend the fort to the last. On May 9 the siege commenced on the land side, and for the next six months Campbell was hemmed closely in by some 60,000 men. It is true that communication by sea was still precariously maintained. On May 23 the Indiaman _Fairford_ appeared off the port, and threw ashore a small party of English recruits destined for the Bombay European Regiment, which had been practically annihilated with Matthews.[7] That day, May 23, Colonel Campbell made a vigorous sortie, and destroyed a portion of the enemy's siege-works and batteries; but in the retirement three companies of native troops were cut off, and three British officers with 225 sepoys fell into Tippoo Sultan's hands. On the morrow Campbell prepared for a determined resistance. The women of the 42nd were told off to the hospitals, and a stern code of orders published. The men were forbidden to fire without explicit orders, and officers were enjoined to remember that the bayonet, and the bayonet alone, was the weapon of the British soldier. "Englishmen must recollect," runs the order, "that the bayonet is the service required of them, and that they demean themselves by firing at such a dastardly foe."