were, however, gallantly repulsed by | lected in the Mediterranean which so the brigade under Harris's orders; soon after expelled the French from while the 33d under Colonel Wellesley Egypt; and the fleet was afloat which in person, on the left, were ordered to was to dissolve, by the cannon of Nelreserve their fire till within pistol-shot, son, the northern coalition. when they delivered it with decisive effect, and immediately charged with the bayonet. The red-plumed dragoons of Floyd, soon after coming up from the centre, charged them on the other flank and completed the rout. Two thousand of the enemy fell in the battle or the pursuit, while the loss of the victors did not exceed three hundred men.

25. The efforts of Lord Cornwallis had been directed against the northern face of the fortress of Seringapatam; and Tippoo, anticipating an attack in the same quarter, had greatly strengthened the defences in that direction. These preparations, however, were rendered altogether unavailing by the able movement of General Harris, previous to taking up his ground before the town, in suddenly crossing the Cavery by a neglected ford, and appearing be

which the country was not yet ravaged, the fortifications in a comparatively neglected state, and the communication with the Bombay army direct and easy. The camp was formed opposite to the south-western side of the fortress; the army from Bombay effected its junction on the 14th; and the approaches were conducted with great vigour. In the course of these operations, much annoyance was ex

24. No further obstacle now remained to prevent the British from taking up their ground before Seringa-fore its southern front-a quarter in patam, which was done on the 5th April. The assembled host, which was soon joined by the corps under General Stuart, from Bombay, presented a formidable appearance when all united together, and exhibited a splendid proof of the magnitude and resources of the British empire in the East. Thirty-five thousand fighting men, a hundred pieces of battering cannon, and camp-followers in the usual Asiatic proportion of four to each sol-perienced from an advanced post of the dier, formed a stupendous array of above a hundred and fifty thousand men, assembled on the high table-land of Mysore, three thousand feet above the level of the sea, and more than eight thousand miles from the parent European state. The greatness of this effort will not be duly appreciated unless it is recollected, that at the same moment twenty thousand admirable troops, under Sir James Craig, lay in the territories of Oude, to guard the northern provinces of India from Zemaun Shah; that the army was colofficer who bore the despatches. He agreed with him, but stated that he had only to deliver his orders-but that he would report the circumstance, and Colonel Wellesley's opinion, to General Harris; and that, if he did not hear from him to the contrary in ten minutes, he might conclude the suggestion was approved of. Nothing was heard during that time, and Colonel Wellesley made the attack, which proved successful. was a little annoyed," said the Duke, in London, in 1823, "at the time, that this circumstance was not noticed by Harris in his official despatches, but I now see he was quite right not to mention it."

"I

Sultan's, placed on a rocky eminence near the walls, from whence a destructive fire, chiefly with rockets, was kept up on the parties working in the trenches. In order to put a stop to this harassing opposition, an attack on the post during the night was resolved on, and intrusted to Colonel Wellesley and Colonel Shaw. This nocturnal encounter would be of little importance, were it not rendered remarkable by a circumstance as rare as it is memorable, and worthy of being recorded for the encouragement of young officers exposed to early disaster-a failure by Wellington.*

26. Both divisions marched a little

The historical reader will recollect the parallel discomfiture of Frederick the Great at his first essay in arms at the battle of Mollwitz, which was gained by his lieutenants after he had abandoned the field. But there was this difference, that Frederick fairly ran away, whereas Wellington was merely borne back in the rush of his defeated followers, and was one of the last of the party that re-entered the camp.-RANKE, Geschichte der Staat. Prussien, i. 371, 872.

village. But for this circumstance, and the elevation of mind which prompted both General Harris and General Baird to overlook this casual failure, and intrust the next attack to the defeated officer, the fate of the world might have been different, and the star of the future conqueror of Napoleon extinguished in an obscure nocturnal encounter in an Indian water-course.+

27. The approaches to the fortress being much facilitated by this success, the operations of the siege were conducted with great rapidity. Several formid

after it was dark. Colonel Shaw succeeded in getting possession of a ruined village, within forty yards of the aqueduct from whence the firing issued; but Colonel Wellesley, on reaching the rocky eminence, near the Sultanpettah Tope, was assailed on all sides with so severe a fire that both the 33d regiment and sepoy battalion, which he commanded, were thrown into disorder,* and he was obliged to fall back to the camp. Such was the confusion which prevailed, owing to the darkness of the night, that he arrived there accompanied only by Colonel Mackenzie. The young officer proceeded at mid-able sallies of the Mysore infantry and night to the general's tent, at first much agitated; but, finding the general not ready to receive him, he retired, threw himself on the table of the tent, and fell asleep a fact in such a moment singularly characteristic of the imperturbable spirit of the future | hero of Torres Vedras.† General Harris next morning drew out the troops for a second attack, and at first offered the command to General Baird, as Colonel Wellesley had not yet come up to the parade from having been detained at the adjutant-general's office; but, on second thoughts, he said it was but fair to give Colonel Wellesley another trial-a proposal in which that generous officer, Baird, after having turned his horse to take the command, at once and cordially acquiesced. Accordingly, at ten next morning, Colonel Wellesley, with the Scottish brigade and two battalions of sepoys, again advanced against the Tope, which was soon carried in gal-human nature, the author is happy to be lant style; while Colonel Shaw, at the same time, drove the Mysoreans from their post on the side of the ruined

horse were repulsed by the steadiness of the besiegers' infantry, and the great vigilance exhibited everywhere in the trenches, the most exposed parts of which were under Colonel Wellesley's direction. At length, on the 30th April, the breaching batteries opened on one of the bastions, which was soon shaken by a severe cross-fire from different sides; the curtain on the right was ere long levelled; a great magazine of rockets blew up in the town on the

General, afterwards Sir David Baird, in particular, delicately and cordially agreed to the suggestion that Colonel Wellesley should be intrusted with the second attack: an instance of magnanimity in a superior officerhave been anxious rather to throw into the who might, if actuated by selfish feelings, shade a rival for the honours of the siege worthy of the highest admiration. This fact is mentioned in Hook's Memoirs of Sir David Baird, and some doubt is thrown upon it in Gurwood's Despatches of Wellington; though that officer admits that Baird's elevated character was perfectly capable of so honourable a course. But, for the honour of

able to give it an entire confirmation, having repeatedly heard the anecdote from a most gallant officer who was present on the occasion, and afterwards contributed, in no small * The 33d regiment and a native battalion, degree, to the glories of Delhi and Laswaree under Colonel Wellesley, were ordered to be-Colonel Gerard, afterwards adjutant-genein readiness at sunset on the 5th.-GURWOOD, i. 22. This is erroneously denied in Lushington, 476.

"When they arrived back, Colonel Wellesley proceeded to headquarters to report what had happened; but, finding that General Harris was not yet awake, he threw himself on the top of the dinner-table, and, worn out with fatigue and anxiety of mind, fell asleep."- M'KENZIE'S Narrative, who was with Wellington on the occasion.-HOOK, i. 193. This fact is erroneously denied in Lushington's Life of Harris.

ral of the Bengal army, then engaged in the siege, the author's lamented brother-in-law, to whose talents and virtues, durably recorded in the exploits of that band of heroes, he has a melancholy pleasure in bearing this public testimony. The fact also, as now related, coincides precisely with the account which Baird himself gave of the transaction, and which is given as authentic in the Life of Lord Harris by Mr Lushington.- See LUSHINGTON's Life of Harris, 297-300; also Hook's Memoirs of Sir David Baird, i. 193; and GURWOOD, i. 25, note.

ruin; a sally on the flank of the assaulting column by a chosen body of Tippoo's guards was repulsed; and as Baird was leading his men up the entangled steep, a loud shout and the waving of the British colours on its summits announced that the fortress was won, and the capital of Mysore fallen.* 28. But here an unexpected obstacle occurred-the summit of the breach was separated from the interior of the works by a wide ditch, filled with water, and at first no means of crossing it appeared. At length, however, Baird discovered some planks which had been used by the workmen in getting over it to repair the rampart, and, himself leading the way, this formidable obstacle was surmounted. Straightway dividing his men into two columns, under Colonels Sherbrooke and Dunlop, this heroic leader soon swept the ramparts both to the right and left. The brave Asiatics were by degrees forced back-Tippoo being the last man who quitted the traversesthough not without desperate resistance, to the Mosque, where a dreadful slaughter took place. The remains of the garrison were there crowded together in a very narrow space, having been driven from the ramparts by Sherbrooke's and Dunlop's columns, and jammed together in the neighbourhood of the Mosque, where they long maintained their ground under a dreadful cross-fire of musketry, till almost the whole had fallen. The remnant at length surrendered, with two of Tippoo's sons, when the firing had ceased at other points. The Sultan himself, who had endeavoured to escape at one of the gates of the town which was assaulted by the sepoys, was some time afterwards found dead under a heap of several hundred slain, composed in part of the principal officers of his palace, who had been driven into the

morning of the 2d May, and spread | more the breach was mounted; a terror and devastation far and wide crimson torrent streamed over the by its tremendous explosion. Early on the morning of the 4th, the troops destined for the assault were placed in the trenches; and the hour of one o'clock in the afternoon was chosen for the attack, when the sultry heat usually disposed the Asiatics to repose. Two thousand five hundred Europeans, and two thousand natives, formed the storming party, under the command of General Baird. That heroic officer was resolved to conquer or die. 'Either," said he to Colonel Agnew, "we succeed to-morrow, or you never see me more." The assailants had a fearful prospect before them, for two-and-twenty thousand veteran troops composed the garrison, and the bastions, of uncommon strength, were armed with two hundred and forty pieces of cannon. "Follow me, my brave fellows, and prove yourselves worthy of the name of British soldiers," was the brief address of that noble officer to his gallant followers, as, leaping sword in hand out of the trenches, he descended with the calmness of heroic courage the slope which led to the rocky bed of the Cavery, and which required to be crossed before the foot of the breach was reached. He was rapidly followed by the forlorn hope, which led the host, and was immediately succeeded by the assaulting column in close array. But before they reached the breach, the enemy were at their post, and equally resolute with the assailants. When Tippoo saw the British cross the Cavery, he said, without changing colour, to those around him, "We have arrived at the last stage what is your determination?" "To die along with you," was the unanimous reply. All was ready for the defence, every battery was manned, and from every bastion and gun which bore on the assailants a close and deadly fire was directed, which speedily thinned their ranks, and would have caused any other troops to recoil. On, however, the British rushed, followed by their brave allies, through the deadly storm. In five minutes the river was crossed, in five |

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the breaches, and crossed the rocky bed of "At one o'clock the troops moved from the Cavery under an extremely heavy fire, passed the glacis and ditch, and ascended the the most gallant manner."-HARRIS to LORD breaches in the faussebraye and rampart in MORNINGTON, 7th May 1799.