TREATY WITH TIPPOO. 101 



4,000,000/. sterling) ; and the delivery of two of his sons 

 as hostages. Hard as these conditions were, they were 

 powerfully enforced by events which had occurred in the 

 course of the negotiation. On the night of the 18th Feb- 

 ruary, while the attention of the enemy was attracted to 

 the south side of the fort by the operations of a flying corps 

 under Major Dalrymple and Captain Robertson, the trenches 

 were opened on the north side with such silence and cau- 

 tion that though the fort was kept blazing with blue lights 

 for the purpose of observation, morning had arrived before 

 Tippoo discovered that this attack, so fatal to him, had 

 commenced. A nullah or ravine had been converted into 

 a wide and extensive parallel, where the assailants were 

 placed so fully under cover, as to render ineffectual every 

 attempt to interrupt their operations. This parallel was 

 carried on and improved till the 21st, when it was com- 

 pleted ; and in the night the line was marked out for a 

 second. This was finished on the 23d, and the ground was 

 fixed for the breaching-batteries about 500 yards from the 

 fort, in so advantageous a position as to leave no doubt of 

 a practicable breach being speedily effected. 



As the crisis of his fate thus rapidly approached, Tippoo 

 felt the necessity of coming to a prompt decision upon the 

 proposals submitted by the British commander. He called 

 his principal officers to meet in the great mosque, and laying 

 before them the Koran, adjured them by that sacred book 

 to give faithful advice in this dread emergency. He stated 

 the terms demanded by the enemy, adding, " You have 

 heard the conditions of peace, and you have now to hear 

 and answer my question, Shall it be peace or war ?" A 

 reference made in such words could leave no doubt as to 

 the course which Tippoo felt himself under the necessity 

 of following, and that he merely sought the sanction of 

 his chiefs. They unanimously agreed, that under present 

 circumstances there remained no alternative. The scene 

 is said to have been peculiarly affecting, and Colonel Wilks 

 met with few that had been present who could even allude 

 to it without tears in their eyes. 



That very night Tippoo sent off, signed and sealed, the 

 conditions transmitted to him by Lord Cornwallis. Early 

 in the morning orders were sent to the English troops to 

 cease from their labour in the trenches, and to forbear fur- 



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