It was not until the right column, making their way along the wall to
the assistance of their comrades, took them in the rear, that the
Mysoreans entirely lost heart. Taken between two fires, they speedily
became a disorganised mass. Many hundreds were shot down, either in
the fort or as, pouring out through the river gate, they endeavoured
to cross the ford and escape to the north.

As soon as the whole rampart was captured, General Baird sent an
officer with a flag of truce to the Palace, to offer protection to
Tippoo and all its inmates, on condition of immediate surrender. Two
of Tippoo's younger sons assured the officer that the Sultan was not
in the Palace. The assurance was disbelieved, and, the princes being
sent to the camp under a strong escort, the Palace was searched. The
officer in command, on being strictly questioned, declared that
Tippoo, who had in person commanded the defence made against the left
column, had been wounded, and that he had heard he was lying in a
gateway on the north side of the fort.

A search was immediately made, and the information proved correct.
Tippoo was found lying there, not only wounded, but dead. He had
indeed received several wounds, and was endeavouring to escape in his
palanquin, when this had been upset by the rush of fugitives striving
to make their way through the gate.

The gateway was, indeed, almost choked up with the bodies of those who
had been either suffocated in the crush, or killed by their pursuers.
On his palanquin being overturned, Tippoo had evidently risen to his
feet, and had at the same moment been shot through the head by an
English soldier, ignorant of his rank. In the evening he was buried
with much state, by the side of his father, in the mausoleum of Lal
Bang, at the eastern extremity of the island.

It was with great difficulty that, when the British soldiers became
aware of the massacre of their countrymen, a few days before, they
were restrained from taking vengeance upon his sons and the inmates of
the Palace. In the assault, 8000 of the defenders were killed; while
the loss of the British, during the siege and in the assault, amounted
to 825 Europeans and 639 native troops. An enormous quantity of
cannon, arms, and ammunition was captured, and the value of the
treasure and jewels amounted to considerably over a million pounds,
besides the doubtless large amount of jewels that had, in the first
confusion, fallen into the hands of the sol