nemies, and
he had him arrested and thrown into the fort prison. But Mr. Drake never
acts till 'tis too late. He gave orders next to arrest Krishna Das. The
man barricaded himself in his house and beat our peons off, till
Lieutenant Blagg and thirty Europeans drove in his gates. They found a
vast quantity of arms collected there. They stormed Omichand's house
also, where three hundred armed domestics made a stout fight against 'em.
When our men got in--'tis a horrid story--the head jamadar with his own
hands stabbed all his master's women and children, to prevent em falling
into our hands, and then set fire to the place.

"Our men had already been driven out of Tanna fort by Manik Chand, who
had come up with two thousand men and a couple of field pieces. Then came
up Mir Jafar, the Nawab's bakshi {commander in chief}, and began firing
from the Chitpur gate. We got all our women into the fort; the poor
creatures left all they had but their clothes and their bedding. You may
guess the confusion. The natives were flocking out of the town; most of
our servants fled with them; all our cooks were gone, so that though we
had a great stock of food we were like to starve in the midst of plenty.

"But we filled their places with some of the Portuguese who came crowding
into the fort. Two thousand of 'em, men, women, and children, filled the
courtyard, sitting among their bundles of goods, so that we could scarce
move for 'em. The enemy was in the town; they had set light to the Great
Bazaar, and were burning and plundering in the native parts. We fired the
bastis to the east and south, to deprive 'em of cover; and you may
imagine the scene, Desmond--the blazing sky, the tears and screams of the
women, the din of guns. We wrote to the French at Chandernagore begging
'em to lend us some ammunition, for the most of ours was useless; but
they sent us a genteel reply saying they'd no more than sufficient for
their own needs; yet the wretches made the Nawab a present of two hundred
chests of powder, 'tis said.

"Next day we were besieged in earnest. The Nawab had, we learned, nigh
fifty thousand men, with one hundred and fifty elephants and camels, and
two hundred and fifty Frenchmen working his artillery. Against 'em we had
about five hundred in all, only half of 'em Europeans. What could so few
do against so many? Our officers were all brave enough, but they've had a
slack time, and few of 'em are fit for the work. Ensign Picard