ected this massacre, he next ordered all the
pictures that he had caused to be painted on the walls of his palace
and other buildings, holding up the English to the contempt and hatred
of his subjects, to be obliterated; and he also ordered the bridge
over the northern loop of the Cauvery to be destroyed. He then set out
with his army to bar the passage of the British to Seringapatam.

The weather was extremely bad when the British started. Rain storms
had deluged the country, and rendered the roads well nigh impassable,
and the movement was, in consequence, very slow. Tippoo had taken up a
strong position on the direct road and, in order to avoid him, Lord
Cornwallis took a more circuitous route, and Tippoo was obliged to
fall back.

The whole country through which the English passed had been wasted.
The villages were deserted, and not an inhabitant was to be met with.
Suffering much from wet, and the immense difficulties of bringing on
the transport, the army, on the 13th of May, arrived on the Cauvery,
nine miles east of Seringapatam. Here it had been intended to cross
the river, but the rains had so swollen the stream that it was found
impossible to ford it. It was, therefore, determined to march to a
point on the river, ten miles above Seringapatam, where it was hoped
that a better ford could be found; and where a junction might be
effected with General Abercrombie's Bombay army, which was moving up
from the Malabar coast, and was but thirty or forty miles distant.

To effect this movement, it was necessary to pass within sight of the
capital. Tippoo came out, and took up a strong position, on a rugged
and almost inaccessible height. In front was a swamp stretching to the
river, while batteries had been thrown up to sweep the approaches.

By a night march, accomplished in the midst of a tremendous thunder
and rain storm, Lord Cornwallis turned Tippoo's position. The
confusion occasioned by the storm, however, and the fact that several
of the corps lost their way, prevented the full success hoped for from
being attained, and gave Tippoo time to take up a fresh position.

Colonel Maxwell led five battalions up a rocky ledge, held by a strong
body of the Mysore troops, carried it at the point of the bayonet, and
captured some guns. Tippoo immediately began to fall back, but would
have lost the greater portion of his artillery, had not the Nizam's
horse moved forward across the line by which the British were
advan