as that of their two field-pieces. Among those mortally wounded was Major Porlier, the unfortunate officer who commanded at Fort St. David when that place surrendered to the French. Having been blamed, and not without apparent reason, for his conduct on that occasion, he seems to have been anxious for an opportunity of showing that he was not deficient at least in personal courage. Under the influence of this feeling, he had requested permission to accompany Colonel Draper's party as a volunteer, and, while thus engaged, received a wound of which he soon after died.
Though miserably deficient in the means of effectually conducting a siege, Lally erected batteries, and commenced firing on the 2nd of January, 1759. The defence under the Governor, Mr. Pigot, was conducted with considerable skill and in an admirable spirit; while the communications of the enemy with Pondicherry, and the country whence Lally drew his supplies, were greatly impeded by the operations of a body of Sepoys under a native commander named Mahomed Isoof, aided by a detachment from Chingleput under Captain Preston, some native horse commanded by a brother of Mahomet Ali, and some Tanjorine cavalry. These were further reinforced by a body of Sepoys from Trichinopoly under Major Calliaud, who arrived at St. Thomas's Mount on the 7th of February, and took the command of the force without the walls of Madras, engaged in harassing the besiegers and interrupting their supplies.
Lally had seriously felt the annoyances inflicted by this force. They were, he said, like flies – no sooner beaten off one part than they settled on another; and he resolved to make an effort to relieve himself from their presence. On the morning of the 9th of February, the British discovered the enemy advancing upon their post in two bodies; the one consisting of twelve hundred Sepoys and five hundred native horse, the other of three hundred European cavalry and six hundred European infantry, with eight field-pieces. The whole was under
