named Tremwith, who was immediately shot through the body by the man whose aim he had defeated.
The besieging force now consisted of one hundred and fifty Europeans, and about ten thousand native troops; while that of the besieged was reduced to one hundred and fifty Europeans, two hundred Sepoys, and only four officers. Even this was daily diminishing by the musketry of the enemy from the surrounding houses. The arrival of two eighteen pounders and several pieces of smaller calibre from Pondicherry having enabled the besiegers to erect a battery, they continued firing for six days, till a practicable breach was made to the extent of fifty feet; but Clive and his men were so active in preparing to defend it that no attempt was made to storm.
There was in the fort an unwieldy piece of ordnance which, according to the current tradition, had been brought from Delhi by Aurungzebe, drawn, as it was said, by a thousand yoke of oxen. Clive caused a mound of earth to be raised on the highest tower of the rampart, so as to command the palace across the intervening houses. On this the gigantic engine of destruction was elevated; and being loaded with thirty pounds of powder and a ball proportioned to its dimensions, it was discharged by means of a train carried to a considerable distance on the ground. The ball went through the palace, to the great terror of Rajah Sahib, who commanded the besieging force, and his principal officers collected there. No other result appears to have been contemplated; but this was deemed sufficient to justify a repetition of the salute on two succeeding days, at the precise time when the Rajah's officers assembled at head-quarters. On the 4th the monster cannon burst, and put an end to this species of amusement.
Meanwhile, some attempts which were made by the Company's agents at Madras and Fort St. David to reinforce the garrison of Arcot had failed; but the commander of a body of Mahrattas who had been hired to assist the cause of Mahomed Ali, admiring the gallant
