"The next day Rajah Sahib was joined by 2000 men from Vellore, commanded by Mortaza Ali in person; and took possession of all the avenues leading to the fort, which seemed little capable of sustaining the impending siege. Its extent was more than a mile in circumference; the walls were in many places ruinous; the rampart too narrow to admit the firing of artillery; the parapet low and slightly built; several of the towers decayed, and none of them capable of receiving more than one piece of cannon; the ditch was in most places fordable, in others dry, and in some choked up; there was between the walls of the fort and the ditch a space, about ten feet broad, intended for a fausse-braye; but this had no parapet at the scarp of the ditch. The fort had two gates, one to the north-west, the other to the east: both of them were large piles of masonry, projecting forty feet beyond the walls; and the passage from these gates was, instead of a drawbridge, a large causeway crossing the ditch. The garrison had, from their arrival, employed themselves indefatigably to remove and repair as many of these inconveniences and defects as the smallness of their number could attend to. They had endeavoured to burn down several of the nearest houses, but without success; for these, having no wood-work in their construction, excepting the beams which supported the ceiling, resisted the blaze; of these houses the enemy's infantry took possession, and began to fire upon the ramparts, and wounded several of the garrison before night, when they retired. At midnight Ensign Glass was sent with two men, and some barrels of gunpowder, to blow up the two houses which most annoyed the fort. This party was let down by ropes over the wall, and, entering the houses without being discovered, made the explosion, but with so little skill, that it did not produce the intended effect. At their return, the rope by which Ensign Glass was getting into the fort broke, and he was by the fall rendered incapable of further duty; so that, at the beginning of the siege, the garrison was deprived of the service of four of the eight officers who set out on the expedition; for one was killed, two wounded, and another returned to Madras; and the troops fit for duty were diminished to 120 Europeans and 200 sepoys; these were besieged by 150 Europeans, 2,000 sepoys, 3,000 cavalry, and 5,000 peons.