was poured on them; while the gunners swept the
crowded mass with grape, and bags of bullets. The effect was
tremendous. Mowed down in heaps, the assailants recoiled; and then,
without a moment's hesitation, turned and fled. Three times, strongly
reinforced, they advanced to the attack; but were each time repulsed,
with severe slaughter.

Still less successful were those at the other breach. A great raft,
capable of carrying seventy, conveyed the head of the storming party
across the ditch; and they had just reached the foot of the breach,
when Clive, who was himself at this point, turned two field pieces
upon them, with deadly effect. The raft was upset and smashed, and the
column, deprived of its intended means of crossing the ditch, desisted
from the attack.

Among those who had fallen, at the great breach, was the commander of
the storming party; a man of great valour. Four hundred of his
followers had also been killed, and Riza Sahib, utterly disheartened
at his repulse at all points, decided not to renew the attack. He had
still more than twenty men to each of the defenders; but the obstinacy
of their resistance, and the moral effect produced by it upon his
troops; the knowledge that the Mahratta horse were hovering in his
rear, and that Kilpatrick's little column was close at hand;
determined him to raise the siege.

After the repulse of the assault, the heavy musketry fire from the
houses around the fort was continued. At two in the afternoon he asked
for two hours' truce, to bury the dead. This was granted, and on its
conclusion the musketry fire was resumed, and continued until two in
the morning. Then suddenly, it ceased. Under cover of the fire, Riza
Sahib had raised the siege, and retired with his army to Vellore.

On the morning of the 15th, Clive discovered that the enemy had
disappeared. The joy of the garrison was immense. Every man felt
proud, and happy in the thought that he had taken his share in a
siege, which would not only be memorable in English history till the
end of time, but which had literally saved India to us. The little
band made the fort re-echo with their cheers, when the news came in.
Caps were thrown high in the air, and the men indulged in every
demonstration of delight.

Clive was not a man to lose time. The men were at once formed up, and
marched into the abandoned camp of the enemy; where they found four
guns, four mortars, and a great quantity of ammunition. A cloud of
dus