he watercourse, menacing his left and threatening his
baggage. The guns were at once brought up from the rear, but before
these arrived the men were falling fast.

Three of the guns he placed to answer the French battery, two of them
he hurried to his left, with a small body of English and two hundred
Sepoys, to check the advance of the enemy's cavalry. The main body of
his infantry he ordered into the watercourse, which afforded them a
shelter from the enemy's artillery. The baggage carts and baggage he
sent half a mile to the rear, under the protection of forty Sepoys and
a gun.

While this was being done the enemy's fire was continuing, but his
infantry advanced but slowly, and had not reached a point abreast of
the grove when the British force in the watercourse met them. It would
not seem to be a very important matter, at what point in the
watercourse the infantry of the two opposing parties came into
collision, but matters apparently trifling in themselves often decide
the fate of battles; and, in fact, had the French artillery retained
their fire until their infantry were abreast of the grove, the battle
of Kavaripak would have been won by them, and the British power in
Southern India would have been destroyed.

Clive moved confidently and resolutely among his men, keeping up their
courage by cheerful words, and he was well seconded by his officers.

"Now, lads," Charlie Marryat cried to the company of which he was in
command, "stick to it. You ought to be very thankful to the French,
for saving you the trouble of having to march another twelve miles
before giving you an opportunity of thrashing them."

The men laughed, and redoubled their fire on the French infantry, who
were facing them in the watercourse at a distance of eighty yards.
Neither party liked to charge. The French commander knew that he had
only to hold his position to win the day. His guns were mowing down
the English artillerymen. The English party on the left of the
watercourse, with difficulty, held their own against the charges of
his horsemen, and were rapidly dwindling away under the artillery
fire, while other bodies of his cavalry had surrounded the baggage,
and were attacking the little force told off to guard it. He knew,
too, that any attempt the English might make to attack the battery,
with its strong defences, must inevitably fail.

The situation was becoming desperate. It was now ten o'clock. The
fight had gone on for four ho