ships,
the Bristol and the Harlem. She fought them for two hours, and then
sailed in and anchored again near the fort. The French ships lay off
at a distance, and these and one of their batteries played upon the
Shaftesbury after she had anchored, and continued to do so for the
next three days.

Many of the guns of the fort were dismounted by the artillery fire,
which had continued, with scarcely any intermission, for a month. The
parapets of the ramparts were in many places beaten down, and the
walls exposed to the enemy's fire greatly damaged. The enemy now
opened their breaching battery close to the works, and on the 7th two
breaches had been effected, and Lally ordered his principal engineer
and artillery officers to give their opinion as to the practicability
of an assault.

These, however, considered that the assault would have no prospect of
success, as the guns commanding the ditch were still uninjured, and
the palisades which stormers must climb over before reaching the
breach untouched. So heavy a crossfire could be brought to bear by the
besieged upon an assaulting column, that it would be swept away before
it could mount the breach. These officers added their opinion that,
considering the number of men defending the fort in comparison with
those attacking it, final success could not be looked for, and further
prosecution of the works would only entail a useless loss of life.

On the 9th of February, the French attacked Mahomed Issoof's men and
those of Captain Preston; the whole under the command of Major
Calliaud, who had come up from Trichinopoli, and had taken station
three miles in rear of the French position. The greater part of the
natives, as usual, behaved badly; but Calliaud, with the artillery and
a few Sepoys, defended himself till nightfall; and then drew off.

For the next week the French continued to fire, and their approaches
were pushed on. Several sorties were made, but matters remained
unchanged until the 14th, when six English ships were seen standing
into the roads; and that night the French drew out from their
trenches, and retreated. The next morning six hundred troops landed
from the ships, and the garrison, who had so stoutly resisted the
assaults made upon them for forty-two days, sallied out to inspect the
enemy's works. Fifty-two cannon were left in them, and so great was
the hurry with which the French retreated that they left forty-four
sick in the hospital behind.

The f