"I am very glad," he observes, "to begin with acquainting you that the siege of Madras is raised. Certainly it was an undertaking too great for M. Lally's force, and it was undoubtedly a want of men that obliged him to confine his approaches to so narrow a front. I will send you a plan of them as soon as I can find one of our engineers at leisure. The trenches are the weakest that ever were seen, and yet they pushed them up close under our nose. Three or four times small detachments sallied, and took possession of the head of their sap almost without resistance. Our people retired after destroying a little of the work, and then the enemy returned and worked on. Their grand battery, the first that they opened, tore our works a good deal, but our men were active, and got them repaired in the night. This continued for a few days, but our fire was not decreased. The enemy then lost all patience, and advanced with all our defences in good order; when they got to the foot of the glacis, they erected a battery against the east face of the north ravelin, but they could never stand there for an hour together, as we had a heavy fire both on their flank and front. In three or four days they abandoned that, but still kept pushing on their sap, and presently got up to the crest of the glacis, where they erected another battery close to the north-east angle of the covered way. This cost them very dear, and they well deserved to suffer; for all our defences were yet perfect, nay, we had more guns than we had at first.