h we could have turfed the battery
above, and the newly stripped land. We might, in that case, have given
them a pleasant surprise. As it is, they are hardly likely to begin by
an attack along the slopes in the rear of the town, and you will see
that they will commence the attack at the farther face of the town.
The battery above cannot aid us in our defence there; and although the
castle may help, it will only be by a direct fire. If they try to
carry the place by a coup de main, I think we can beat them off, but
they must succeed by regular approaches.

"We must inflict as much loss as we can, and then fall back. However,
it will be sometime before that comes."

The next morning, Charlie found that the enemy had, during the night,
erected three batteries on the slopes facing the north wall of the
town, that farthest removed from the castle. They at once opened fire,
and the guns on the walls facing them replied, while those on the
castle hurled their shot over the town into the enemy's battery. For
three days, the artillery fire was kept up without intermission. The
guns on the wall were too weak to silence the batteries of the
besiegers, although these were much annoyed by the fire from the fort,
which dismounted four of their guns, and blew up one of their
magazines. Several times the town was set on fire by the shell from
the French mortars; but Charlie had organized the irregulars into
bands with buckets, and these succeeded in extinguishing the flames
before they spread.

Seeing that the mud wall of the town was crumbling rapidly before the
besiegers' fire, Charlie set his troops to work, and levelled every
house within fifty yards of it, and with the stones and beams formed
barricades across the end of the streets beyond. Many of the guns from
other portions of the walls were removed, and placed on these
barricades. The ends of the houses were loopholed, and all was
prepared for a desperate defence.

Charlie's experience at Arcot stood him in good stead, and he imitated
the measures taken by Clive at that place. When these defences were
completed, he raised a second line of barricades some distance further
back; and here, when the assault was expected, he placed one of his
battalions, with orders that, if the inner line of entrenchments was
carried, they should allow all the defenders of that post to pass
through, and then resist until the town was completely evacuated, when
they were to fall back upon the