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
advancing. Here they remained in an inert mass, powerless to follow
Tippoo, and a complete barrier to the British advance. So
unaccountable was their conduct, that it was generally believed in the
army that it was the result of treachery; and it was with difficulty
that the British troops could be restrained from firing into the horde
of horsemen, who had, from the time they joined the force, been worse
than useless.
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