six hundred men. These, for a
while, drove the French before them through the streets of Madras; but
as the French gradually rallied, the fire upon the English was so
heavy that the sortie was repulsed, with a loss of two hundred
soldiers and six officers killed, wounded, and prisoners. The French
loss had been about the same. Had not a large quantity of the French
troops broken into the wine stores on their arrival, and drunk to a
point of intoxication, it is probable that none of the British party
would have returned to the fort. The sortie had, however, the effect
that Saubinet, one of the best of the French officers, was killed, and
Count D'Estaign, an able general, taken prisoner.

For some time, the siege proceeded slowly, the French waiting for the
arrival of their siege artillery, by ship, from Pondicherry. The fort
of Madras was now a far more formidable post than it had been when the
French before captured it. In the year 1743 Mr. Smith, an engineer,
had marked out the lines for a considerable increase in the
fortifications. The ditch was dug and faced with brick, but on account
of the expense, nothing further had been done. The French had added
somewhat to the fortifications during their stay there in 1750.
Nothing had been done by the English when they recovered the town,
until the news of the preparations which the French were making for
the siege of the place had been received. Four thousand natives were
then set to work; and these, in eighteen months, had completed the
fortifications, as designed by Mr. Smith, just before the arrival of
the French.

The latter determined to attack from the northern side. Here the fort
was protected by a demi-bastion, next to the sea; and by the Royal
Bastion, the wall between the two being covered by a work known as the
North Ravelin. The defence was also strengthened by the fire of the
northwest lunette, and Pigot's Bastion.

Against these the French threw up four batteries. Lally's Battery,
erected by the regiment of that name, was on the seashore directly
facing the demi-bastion. To its right was the Burying Ground Battery,
facing the Royal Bastion. Against the western face of this position
the French regiment of Lorraine erected a strong work, while farther
round to the west, on a rising ground, they threw up a battery called
the Hospital Battery, which kept up a crossfire on the English
position.

To prevent the French from pressing forward along the strip of sh