CiiAi'. XL I
LALLY BEFOllE WANDIWASR.
625
no means of forcing it, it only remained for him to make a hasty retreat, after levenging- himself on the inoffensive inhabitants by setting fire to their houses.
Lally, after this disapjwintment, was more anxious than ever to perform some exploit, which might revive the spirits and raise him in tiie estimation of his troops. He could not but know that the failure of most of his recent measures had suggested grave doubts of his capacity; and that the re])utation of Bussy, of wiiom he had always entertained an unworthy jealousy, had risen in ])ro])ortion as his own had sunk. These facts galled him to the quick, and made him so impatient that he was almost ready for any attempt, however rash. Bussy exerted himself to check this wild .spirit; and, when it was proposed forthwith to attempt the capture of Wandiwash, suggested a far more judicious course. The English, he said, would not lose Wandiwash without risking a battle to save it. That battle the French
A.D. 1760.
l-all.V
ra^^olves to attempt the capture of Wandiwiisli.
CoNJEVERAM. near to the Great Pagoda. —From the Mackpntle Drawings. East India Home.
would be obliged to fight under great di.sad- vantage. A large part of their force would necessarily be employed in the siege, and the main body thus weak- ened, being obliged to lemain where they could cover the siege, would hjive no choice of posi- tion. The better plan, therefore, would be not to engjvge in operations which might make it neces.sary to risk a general action, but to keep together on the banks of the Paliar, and employ the Mahrattas in ravaging the country and cutting off all sources of supply, so a.s to leave tiie enemy no alternative but either to fight when he would rather decline it, or be foi-ced to seek subsistence under the walls of Madras. This advice, which Lally would not have relished from any one, was most imi)alatal)le from Bussy, who, he was uncharitable enough to think, liad given it from unworthy motives. His determination, therefore, was to attenijit the siege of Wandiwash at all hazards. Coote, who had hastened off to Conjeveram on hearing of the unex- ])ected attack upon it, left it on the 14th of January, and having crossed the Paliar, encamped on the l7th near Outramaloor — a position which, besides being equidistant from Trivatore, where Bussy iiad been left with the main body of tlie French army, and Wandiwa.sh, at which Lally had now arrived in person 'ith a considerable detachment, had the additional advantacfe of securing the communication with Chingle[)ut, and through it with jMadra-s. Lally, after taking possession of the subiu'bs of Wandiwash, threw entrenchments across Vol. I. 79
Coote's
counter
luoveitiLiit.
