nine o'clock all was over,
and the town completely in the possession of the British.

Tippoo, furious at its having been so speedily captured, moved down
early in the afternoon with a strong force of infantry; and, marching
along by the side of the fort, endeavoured to force his way into the
town through the open space at that end. He was aided by the guns of
the fort, while his artillery kept up a heavy cannonade upon the
British encampment.

When the sultan was seen marching towards the town, with the evident
intention of endeavouring to retake it, the 76th Regiment was sent in
to reinforce the garrison; and the three battalions opposed so steady
a resistance to Tippoo's infantry that the latter were forced to fall
back, after sustaining a loss of five hundred men. The troops began
next morning to erect batteries.

The position was a singular one. A small army was undertaking the
siege of a strong fortress, while an army vastly outnumbering it was
watching them; and was able, at any moment, to throw large
reinforcements into the fort through the Mysore gate, which was at the
opposite end of the fort to that attacked, the efforts of the British
being directed against the Delhi gate, which faced the town.

The advantage which had been gained, by the employment of the great
train carrying the provisions for the troops, was now manifest; for,
unless the army had been so provided, it would have been forced to
retreat; as, in the face of Tippoo's army, with its great host of
cavalry, it would have been impossible to gather provisions.

The first batteries erected by the engineers proved to be too far
distant from the wall of the fort to effect any material damage, and
others were commenced at a much shorter range. The work was performed
with great difficulty, for the guns of the defenders were well served,
and a storm of missiles were poured, night and day, into the town and
against the batteries. The garrison, which consisted of eight thousand
men, were frequently relieved by fresh troops from the sultan's army,
and were thus able to maintain their fire with great vigour.

On the 17th, Tippoo cannonaded the British camp from a distance, but
without doing great damage. In the meantime, the fire of our siege
guns was steadily doing its work, in spite of the heavy fire kept up
on them. The stone facing of the bastion next to the gateway was soon
knocked away, but the earth banks behind, which were very thick and
const