Three times, strongly
reinforced, they advanced to the attack; but were each time repulsed,
with severe slaughter.
Still less successful were those at the other breach. A great raft,
capable of carrying seventy, conveyed the head of the storming party
across the ditch; and they had just reached the foot of the breach,
when Clive, who was himself at this point, turned two field pieces
upon them, with deadly effect. The raft was upset and smashed, and the
column, deprived of its intended means of crossing the ditch, desisted
from the attack.
Among those who had fallen, at the great breach, was the commander of
the storming party; a man of great valour. Four hundred of his
followers had also been killed, and Riza Sahib, utterly disheartened
at his repulse at all points, decided not to renew the attack. He had
still more than twenty men to each of the defenders; but the obstinacy
of their resistance, and the moral effect produced by it upon his
troops; the knowledge that the Mahratta horse were hovering in his
rear, and that Kilpatrick's little column was close at hand;
determined him to raise the siege.
After the repulse of the assault, the heavy musketry fire from the
houses around the fort was continued.
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