his army in a strong post near Cuddalore, where he at once maintained his communication with the sea, and cut off the supplies of his opponent. This station was extremely formidable; but Sir Eyre Coote, skilfully leading his men through a passage formed by the enemy for a different purpose, drew them up in the face of several powerful batteries, as well as of a vast body of cavalry.[1] The battle raged for six hours, and every inch of ground was fiercely contested. "Every individual in the Company's service," says one chronicler of the battle,[2] "fought as if the fate of the day had depended on his single efforts."[3] Their energy met its reward in a brilliant victory: at four o'clock the enemy's line gave way, and a precipitate retreat followed. Hyder , seated on a portable stool upon an eminence in the rear of his army, was struck with amazement at the success of the attack, and burst into the most furious passion; refusing for some time to move from the spot, till a trusty old servant seizing the feet of the chief, forced on his slippers, and placed him on a swift horse, which bore him out of the reach of danger.
The English army engaged on that day amounted to about eight thousand men, while that of Hyder was at least eight times that number. The enemy had forty-seven pieces of cannon of heavy calibre; the English
- ↑ "The British line was no sooner formed than it made a rapid advance upon the enemy's guns. At this auspicious moment a beautiful antelope was perceived hounding in full speed from right to left between the two armies a circumstance that, in ancient days, would have been accounted an omen; and by a Roman general turned to some material advantage in an army where superstition presided so much as in ours." – Munro's "Operations on the Coromandel Coast."
- ↑ "Memoirs of the War in Asia."
- ↑ "The general being in the rear of the 73rd or Lord Macleod's regiment of Highlanders, as the line advanced to action under a very heavy fire, fixed his eye upon the bagpiper, who stalked from right to left with astonishing composure, playing a favourite Highland march, as if the fate of battle depended entirely upon his exertions. 'Well done, my brave fellow!' exclaimed the veteran Coote; 'you shall have a silver pipe when this battle is over.' And accordingly his Excellency presented the regiment with one hundred pagodas to purchase a handsome pipe in honour of that day." – Munro's "Operations on the Coromandel Coast."
singing in a loud and melodious chorus songs of exhortation to their people below, which inspired the enemy with a kind of frantic enthusiasm. This, even in the heat of the attack, had a romantic and pleasing effect, the musical sounds being distinctly heard at a considerable distance by the assailants." – Munro's "Operations on the Coromandel Coast."
