housand bullocks carrying their artillery and drawing
their baggage, and three thousand more laden with rice and other
provisions, arrived on the other bank of the Ariangopang river,
crossed under the guns of the redoubt of that name, and entered the
town.

The fort of Vellenore was strong, but the road had been cut straight
through the glacis to the gate, and the French had neglected to erect
works to cover this passage. Coote took advantage of the oversight,
and laid his two eighteen-pounders to play upon the gate, while two
others were placed to fire upon the parapet. The English batteries
opened at daybreak on the 16th, and at nine o'clock the whole of the
French army, with the Mysoreans, advanced along the bank of the river.

Coote at once got his troops under arms, and advanced towards the
French, sending a small detachment of Europeans to reinforce the
Sepoys firing at the fort of Vellenore. By this time the batteries had
beaten down the parapet, and silenced the enemy's fire. Two companies
of Sepoys set forward, at full run, up to the very crest of the
glacis.

The French commander of the place had really nothing to fear, as the
Sepoys had a ditch to pass, and a very imperfect breach to mount, and
the fort might have held out for two days, before the English could
have been in a position to storm it. The French army was in sight, and
in ten minutes a general engagement would have begun. In spite of all
this, the coward at once hoisted a flag of truce, and surrendered. The
Europeans and Sepoys ran in through the gate, and the former instantly
turned the guns of the fort upon the French army. This halted, struck
with amazement and anger, and Lally at once ordered it to retire upon
the town.

A week afterwards six ships, with six hundred fresh troops from
England, arrived.

The Mysoreans, who had brought food into Pondicherry, made many
excursions in the country, but were sharply checked. They were unable
to supply themselves with food, and none could be spared them from the
stores in the magazines. Great distress set in among them, and this
was heightened by the failure of a party, with two thousand bullocks
with rice, to enter the town. This party, escorted by the greater
portion of the Mysorean horse from Pondicherry, was attacked and
defeated, and nine hundred bullocks, laden with baggage, captured.
Shortly afterwards the rest of the Mysorean troops left Pondicherry,
and marched to attack Trinomany.

S