At this period the Sultan of Mysore was engaged in besieging _Arcot_, the capital of the Carnatic, which was invested by the enemy on the 21st of August. The movement of Sir Hector Munro’s force caused Hyder Ali to raise the siege; he then detached his son, Tippoo Saib, with a large body of horse and foot, amounting to 24,000 men and twelve guns, to intercept Lieut.-Colonel Baillie, whose junction with the main army had been ordered. In this manœuvre Tippoo Saib succeeded, and Major-General Sir Hector Munro was compelled to detach Lieut.-Colonel Fletcher with a thousand men to reinforce Lieut.-Colonel Baillie. The flank companies of the first battalion of the _Seventy-third_ formed part of this detachment; the grenadier company was commanded by Lieutenant the Honorable John Lindsay, and the light company by Captain, afterwards General the Right Hon. Sir David Baird, Bart. and G.C.B.[7] On the 6th of September, Lieut.-Colonel Baillie was attacked at Perambaukum by the division under Tippoo Saib, and on the 9th of that month was joined by the detachment under Lieut.-Colonel Fletcher. On the following day they were attacked by Hyder’s whole army, and the officers and men of this ill-fated detachment were either killed, taken, or dispersed. The following graphic description of this unequal contest with Hyder’s whole army, the division under Tippoo Saib acting in concert, is given by Captain Innes Munro, of the _Seventy-third_, who published a “Narrative of the Military Operations on the Coromandel Coast from 1780 to 1784:”--