These words of wisdom, from the glowing pen of Shakspere, worthy his mighty soul, bespeaking in every lineament the true undaunted spirit of a son of Albion, were acted out to the letter in the bold advance of the British against this formidable coalition. Our army, under Major-General Stuart, comprised the Seventy-third (afterwards the Seventy-first), the Seventy-eighth (afterwards the Seventy-second), and the One-hundred-and-first regiments, with a considerable body of native troops and Hanoverians. The strong fortress of Cudalore was the first to challenge the assault. Defended by a veteran garrison of French, under General Bussy, it needed the utmost gallantry of our Highlanders—“the ardour and intrepidity giving presage of the renown they afterwards acquired”—to force the enemy’s lines, and ultimately compel him to relinquish the external defences of the place and retire more immediately within the fortress. Amongst the prisoners was Colonel the Chevalier de Dumas, conspicuous as “the bravest of the brave,” also “a wounded young serjeant of very interesting appearance and manners, who was treated with much kindness by Lieutenant-Colonel Wagenheim, commanding the detachment of Hanoverians. Many years afterwards, when the French army entered Hanover, General Wagenheim attended the levée of General Bernadotte, who referred to the circumstance at Cudalore in 1783, and added—‘I am the individual, who, when a young serjeant, received kindness from you in India.’” The death of Hyder Ali, and the withdrawal of France, occasioned the breaking up of this formidable league against the British power in India, and for a moment the sun of peace smiled upon our war-worn soldiers. The new Sultan of the Mysore, as capricious as his father and predecessor, broke off the negotiations which had promised a continued and favourable peace. In consequence, the Seventy-eighth (Seventy-second) advanced, with the army under Colonel Fullerton, against the almost impregnable fortress of Palghantcherry, which was won mainly by the daring of the Honourable Captain Maitland and a company of the regiment, who, taking advantage of a violent storm, when the enemy, seeking shelter from the pitiless rain, had left unguarded the covered way, and thereby affording an opportunity which, improved by Captain Maitland and his company, gave such a footing within the walls as terrified the defenders into a speedy surrender. This success was followed by the fall of Coimbatore, and might probably have been crowned in the capture of Seringapatam, had not peace interfered, postponing the fate of the capital for ten years.