"For six mornings running they opened this battery at daybreak, and were obliged in an hour or two to shut up their embrasures. Their loss there must have been very great; for it was raked from one end to the other by the flank of the royal bastion, had a front fire from the north-east bastion, and was overlooked by the demi-bastion so with musketry, that it was absolutely impossible for a man to live. At the end of six days they gave it up, and at the same time, I believe, gave up all hopes of success. It is true they had opened a narrow passage through the counterscarp of the ditch by a mine, and had beat down so much clay from the face of the demi-bastion, that there was a slope which a nimble man might run up, and that is what M. Lally calls a breach; but his people were wiser than he, if he proposed to assault it, and they refused. That letter of M. Lally's is a most curious piece. I am glad it was intercepted, that he may not say the arrival of the ships obliged him to raise the siege, and that the officers and men of the garrison may have the honour they deserve. Their duty was really severe, and what was yet worse, they had not a safe place to rest in when off duty; for there is not a bomb-proof lodgement in garrison, except the grand magazine, and the casemates under the Nabob's bastion, where the sick and wounded lay. Nevertheless there was a universal cheerfulness from the beginning to the end; and (what M. Lally so much expected) a capitulation never entered, I believe, into the head of any one man in the garrison. "The enemy retired by the way of Poonamallee, and, by our last advices, were at Arcot. Our army is just now moving after them. We had a difficulty to get coolies and bullocks for a camp, by which many days have been lost. A large body of Mahrattas are upon the borders of the province: we have made them handsome offers. If they join us, it will be difficult for the French army to get to Pondicherry, or if they only stand neuter, Colonel Lawrence will have no objection to a trial of skill with the Lieutenant-general. "I should not forget to mention that your old friend the Nellow Subhadar was of great service during the siege. He brought a large body of country horse and sepoys from Tanjore and Trichinopoly; and being joined by Captain Preston with about fifty Europeans from Chingleput, and afterwards by Major Caillaud, they occasioned a powerful diversion. The French were obliged four times to send out considerable detachments; but our people always kept their post, till a scarcity of provisions forced them to move further off. The enemy, however, lost many men in these different actions, besides the hinderance it gave to their work." Footnote 50: