"of about 1,500, was formed in a compact, wedgelike shape, with the front angle headed by two enormous elephants (saddled with howdahs, filled with distinguished officers) having each a huge iron chain dangling from the proboscis, which they whirled about with great rapidity, and a blow from which would have destroyed half a company of infantry." By a blunder, this body would seem at one time to have been mistaken for some of the Nizam's army, till the discharge of their pistols and carbines proved who they were, and they were driven off by a volley from the 12th, followed by rapid file-firing; and on the smoke clearing away, a literal rampart of men and horses was seen encumbering the earth, many of them rolling about in agony; while the elephants, maddened by their many bullet wounds, shuffled frantically to the rear, treading dead and dying under foot, and swinging their chains right and left among the flying cavalry. "The howdahs from which the leading chiefs had directed the charge were dashed to atoms, and several of these brave men's heads hung from the backs of the enraged animals; horses rearing and crushing their riders to death-other loose and wounded horses scouring the plain on all sides-the scene was terrific." After several repulses, a column of the enemy, 2,000 strong, with shouts of Feringhee bon chute ("Rascally English"), now hurled all its strength against the 33rd Regiment, at another part of the line. The future hero of a hundred battles kept the line with the muskets at "the recover" (the fashion of those days, and for thirty years after) till the foe was within sixty yards, and then the deadly volley was poured in with dreadful effect. The regiment advanced, and the Mysoreans gave way. Darting forward then, at the head of his cavalrythe old 19th (whilome, in 1781, Burgoyne's Dragoons) leading the way the flying foe were slashed and cut down on every hand, maddened though most of Tippoo's horsemen were by bhang and opium. His loss was 1,000 killed and wounded, while ours was very trifling-only sixty-six in all. Such was the result of the battle of Malavelly, by which he thought to bar our way to Seringapatam, and which elicited the following brief order from General Harris, signed by Colonel Barry Close : "Camp, Malleville (sic), 27th March, 1799. "G.O.-Parole, Malleville. The Commanderin-chief congratulates the army on the happy result of this day's action, during which he had various opportunities of witnessing their gallantry, coolness, and steady attention to orders. "(Signed) B. CLOSE, Adjutant-General." During the march to this point, little or no food or forage could be procured (as Tippoo had everywhere destroyed the villages), to add to the stock conveyed with the army on the backs of bullocks. According to one account, every tank and pool of water was impregnated with poison of the milkhedge, large quantities of the branches of which the enemy had treacherously thrown in, so that many horses, bullocks, and in some instances soldiers and camp-followers, fell victims to the deleterious infusion. The efficient state of Tippoo's Mysore gun-cattle on one hand, and the miserable condition of our Carnatic bullocks on the other, precluded all thought of an immediate and successful pursuit, beyond what our light cavalry could effect. CHAPTER LXVI. CHARACTER, ETC., OF TIPPOO.-LAST SIEGE OF SERINGAPATAM, AND DEATH OF THE SULTAN. As the "Tiger" fell back, about twenty British | to an account of him taken from information given stragglers were captured by his troops: all of them were put to a cruel death, including even a little drummer-boy of the old 94th, or Scots Brigade. Even his French mercenaries were beginning to execrate his savage nature, and the useless hardships to which he subjected them. According, chiefly, * Asiatic Ann. Reg. by one of his officers, written in 1790, and translated from the Persian by Captain James Kirkpatrick, this personage, who figured so prominently in the history of India, was from five feet eight to nine inches in height, rather inclined to obesity, his face round, with large, full eyes, and there was much of animation in his countenance. He was 1799-] THE CHARACTER OF TIPPOO. 335 size, he made it supply, on this famous rosary, the place of another inferior in form or beauty. His amassed jewels were kept in large, dark rooms, strongly secured behind one of the durbars, and were deposited in coffers. In the same manner were preserved all his silver, gold, and filigree plate. He had several elephant-howdahs entirely of silver, and many enormous dishes of gold, studded with precious stones. These were all supposed to be the plunder of the hapless Mysore family, and other rajahs whom Tippoo or his father had conquered. His desire of hoarding was insatiable, and he passed the greater part of his leisure time very active, and wont to take much exercise. He had eleven children, of whom only two were legitimate. That his disposition was cruel, his temper passionate and revengeful, has been amply shown. He was prone to obscene abuse, and to falsehood and hypocrisy when such suited the ends he had in view. He professed himself Naib to the Twelve Prophets, whom Mohammedans believe are yet to come, and he was a savage persecutor of all other creeds and castes. Hyder discriminated merit and punished guilt; but Tippoo gave neither encouragement nor reward, and punished with awful cruelty when inflamed by passion or prejudice. Hyder was liberal to his soldiers; but Tippoo often re-in reviewing the varied assemblage of his riches. tained their pay for months, and spent it on his own wanton luxuries. Yet his revenue regulations were framed with great ability, and seemed well calculated to enrich both him and his people; but were frustrated in their operation by his shifting and shallow policy.* On the conclusion of his first war with us, he took an inventory of all his property, which was then valued at twenty crores of pagodas, with five crores of Bahaudry pagodas in the treasury, and fifteen crores in jewels and rich clothes. He also possessed an incredible quantity of other property, including 700 elephants, 170,000 camels and horses, 500,000 buffaloes, bullocks, and cows, with 600,000 sheep; 600,000 firelocks and matchlocks; 200,000 swords and pistols, with 2,000 pieces of cannon, in his kingdom. For his troops the words of command were issued in Persian. Hitherto they had been given in English and in French, probably through the influence of Lally's party, which consisted in all of about 630 Europeans and half-breeds. He kept in his pay 300 harcarrahs, or spies, at three pagodas each monthly. His father despised, in some sense, the pageantry of Eastern courts; but Tippoo maintained a crowded zenana, amid all the pomp of voluptuous despotism. Tippoo was, though able in many ways, not wise as a general or statesman. He possessed some prudence, and was not without promptitude in action; but he was deficient in comprehension, and knew not in what true greatness consisted. Selfish, cunning, and rapacious in government as well as war, he ever acted on the narrowest principles. He constantly wore a ruby ring, the most valuable jewel in his treasury. His turban was always adorned with precious stones of great price, and a rosary of pearls was the constant ornament of his person. The pearls of which it consisted had been the collection of many years, and they were his chief pride. Whenever he could procure, by any means, a pearl of extraordinary * "Reminiscences of Mysore, &c.," by James Grant, 1797. With all this avarice and tyranny of nature, it was singular to find that Tippoo possessed a very large and curious library. The volumes were kept in chests, each having a separate cover. Some were richly adorned and illuminated, after the manner of antique Roman missals.+ But the British drums were echoing along the banks of the Cauvery, and-to Tippoo-the end of all things was coming now! On the 28th of March our army advanced southwestward towards Sosilla, where the Cauvery was easily fordable. As Tippoo had not anticipated this, he had not ordered it to be devastated, and hence all the villages and open fields afforded large supplies of forage at a crisis when, according to the work just quoted, "the evil most to be dreaded was famine. The whole of our draught and carriage bullocks and horses died, and rice had risen to three rupees a pound, on the day the city was stormed." Sosilla was found to contain a vast quantity of grain, and some 15,000 head of cattle, besides sheep and goats-the property of fugitives. Our right wing, with the cavalry and Colonel Wellesley's division, remained encamped on the north side of the Cauvery, while the rest of the army crossed it into a land untouched by war, and on the resources of which Tippoo relied for the use of his own army. This movement, moreover, facilitated a junction with the coming Bombay army, and rendered useless all those defensive operations made by the enemy under the very natural impression that the new attack would be made, like that of Cornwallis in 1792, from the northern side of the river. On the 30th the remainder of the army crossed, and the whole advanced without interruption, and on the 5th of April the scarlet columns once more took ground before the famous and far-stretching city of Seringapatam, at the distance of two miles from the walls. + Asiatic Ann. Reg. 1. Caricatta Pagoda; 2. Tinnan Village; 3. Chargumaum Village; 4. Pagoda; 5. Maxwell; 6. Cornwallis; 7. Medows: 8. English Batteries; 9. River; 10. Tippoo's Camp (1792); 11. Eighteen Guns; 12. Ford: 13. Gate and Bridge; 14. Agra Village; 15, 16. Storming Parties; 17. Batteries; 18. Parallels; 19. Wellesley's Attack; 20. English Camp; 21. Nizam; 22. To Mysore; 23. River; 24. To Agra : 25. To Bangalore; 26. Pagoda; 27. Ford; 28. River; 29 Lal Bagh; 30. Temples; 31. Avenue; 32. Hyder Ali's Palace; 33. Citadel; 34. Canal. PERSPECTIVE PLAN OF SERINGAPATAM, INDICATING SEVERALLY THE BRITISH POSITIONS IN 1792 AND 1799. stores. On the night of the 4th of May, General | do-I was much to blame; we must be more careBaird had orders to scour this grove, which he did ful another time."* with success, but next morning Tippoo's troops were seen in possession of it again; then Harris, who was resolved that we should possess it, sent forward Colonel Wellesley with the 33rd, and the 10th Native Infantry, under Colonel Ludovic Grant, with a detachment under Colonel Shawe as a support. "With an ardour and impetuosity which were then marks of his professional character," says a Memoir of General Sir John W. Adams, "he dashed on so vehemently with the 33rd that the 10th Sepoys, who were laden with knapsacks-that stupid and annoying appen The flints were taken out and the tope cleared by the bayonet; and this was the famous affair of which so much has been said under various colourings, and which has been described as the first prominent military service of the Duke of Wellington. Of this affair no two accounts are alike. Some aver that Colonel Wellesley failed, though the tope was cleared, and in consequence a connected line of strong posts was established from thence to the river for nearly three miles, blocking up the city on its south-western quarter. The result so greatly E.I.U.S. Journal, 1837. impressed Tippoo that, on the 9th he wrote thus to General Harris :-" The Governor-General, Lord Mornington Bahauder, sent me a letter, copy of which is enclosed; you will understand it. I have adhered firmly to my treaties; what then is the meaning of the advance of the English armies, and the occurrence of hostilities? Inform me? What need I say more?" "Your letter," replied the general, "enclosing copies of the Governor-General's letter, has been received. For the advance of the British and allied armies, and for the occurrence of hostilities, I refer you to the several letters of the GovernorGeneral, which are sufficiently explanatory on the subject. What need I say more?" Three days before this laconic correspondence, General Floyd, with four regiments of cavalry, six of infantry, and twenty guns, with some of the Nizam's horse, had left the lines for Periapatam, to assist the junction of Stuart's Bombay army. He was quickly followed by Kummer-ud-Deen, with the whole of the Mysorean cavalry and a great body of infantry, with orders to frustrate this movement; but the latter had no opportunity of making the least impression, and by the 14th of April both generals were in the lines before Seringapatam, the final siege of which was by that time in full progress. The commanding engineer suggested two plans of attack; an assault at the south-west, and another at the north-west. In the former case it would be made by land, and in the latter from the north bank of the river, and as that was the point at which the attack was expected by Tippoo, he had many thousand men at work, throwing up a line of works there, and opening many new embrasures in the southern face of the fortress. But again he was deceived and mortified, for when, on the 15th of April, the Bombay army took post on the north bank of the Cauvery, so as to enfilade the face that was really to be attacked, he then saw that what he deemed at first was but a feint, was really a permanent occupation. The siege had barely been inaugurated, when it was found there was grain in store for only thirty days, or perhaps even less, and in his journal, General Harris recorded his apprehensions at this condition of things. The ever defective commissariat of our service was, as usual, to blame. Harris, though evidently painstaking, and aware how much depended on the necessary supplies, was less able to provision than to handle his army. Colonel Wellesley surpassed every officer before the city in this valuable requisite for a leader, but the state of the stores was such that General Harris believed it necessary, against the usage of war, to push on the assault, and to run any risk rather than have to retreat with a famished army before the furious Tippoo. On the 19th, General Stewart reported that he had only two days' provisions for the Bombay army! The general's journal (published afterwards by his son-in-law, the Right Hon. S. Rumbold Lushington) betrays at this time by its entries, his intense anxiety and feverish fear lest the inadequacy of the supplies might cause utter failure; and yet this fear is always expressed collaterally with a trust in, and deference to, the will of God. Seeing that the siege works were making steady progress, Tippoo attempted again to negotiate, and somewhat humbly asked the general what was his pleasure. was on the 20th of April. This General Harris sent him back a preliminary treaty, stating that if its demands were not complied with in four and twenty hours, the allies would demand, for security, the entire fortress of Seringapatam. The leading demands were that Tippoo should once more cede the half of his dominions, or what remained of them; pay two millions sterling, and deliver four of his sons, and four of his chief sirdars as hostages. On this, Tippoo burst into one of his usual fits of impotent raving, and vowed that he would die like a soldier, rather than live a dependant on the infidels in the list of their pensioned princes. A fiery and well-led sortie from the garrison against our advanced works on the northern bank, on the 22nd, was vigorously repulsed, but not before we had lost 700 men. On the 23rd the batteries of the northern and southern attacks dismantled, or otherwise silenced, every gun opposed to them, and so perfectly raked the curtains by a flank fire as to render them no longer tenable, and on the 26th and 27th the Mysoreans were completely beaten out of their last external entrenchment, though it was only 380 yards distant from the walls, and under cover of their guns, musketry, and rockets. On this occasion Colonel Wellesley commanded in the trenches, with the Scots Brigade, the 73rd Highlanders, and a battalion of the 3rd Coast Sepoys. To hold this point was Tippoo's last effort of bravery, prior to the final, and for him fatal, assault. By capturing this ground we achieved the post for the breaching batteries, and the event is thus recorded by Mr. Lushington, the general's private secretary :— "At the hour proposed, the guns from our bat teries commenced a heavy fire of grape, which was the signal for attack. The Europeans then moved out, followed by the native troops. The enemy, |