9ERINGAPATAM TAKEN. 121 



file to the right and left along the top of the rampart. The 

 command was intrusted to General Baird, who had been 

 nearly four years immured as a captive in the gloomy dun- 

 geons of that fortress which he was now about to enter as 

 a conqueror. The troops, in silent and awful expectation, 

 awaited the decisive moment. A few minutes before one 

 o'clock, General Baird sent round orders, desiring every 

 man to be ready at an instant's notice. When the crisis 

 came, he mounted the parapet, and stood in full view of 

 both armies, in an heroic attitude, heightened by his noble 

 and commanding figure. He then said, " Come, my brave 

 fellows, follow me, and prove yourselves worthy the name 

 of British soldiers." Both columns sprang forward like 

 lightning ; and seven minutes had not elapsed when the 

 foremost assailants had crossed the river, leaped over the 

 ditch, mounted the breach, and planted their colours on its 

 summit. They were met by a gallant band of Mysoreans, 

 from whose attack they suffered severely ; but the breach 

 was soon crowded with British soldiers, who overcame every 

 obstacle, and established themselves on the rampart. Then, 

 according to the orders received, they pushed on to the 

 right and left, along the top of the wall. The right de- 

 tachment, being supported by a powerful enfilading fire from 

 the batteries, drove before them the enemy, who scarcely 

 made any resistance, flying out of the fort in great numbers, 

 — and many, letting themselves drop from the wall by their 

 turbans, were dashed against the rocky bottom and killed. 

 The English thus cleared the whole of the southern ram- 

 part, and arrived at the eastern, where their advanced guard 

 came in view of the place. 



The left column, meantime, encountered much more se- 

 rious obstacles. On reaching the top of the wall they dis- 

 covered, to their surprise, a deep ditch separating it from an 

 inner rampart, where the enemy, in great force, kept up a 

 destructive fire. The garrison at this point, too, animated 

 by the arrival of the sultan in person, gallantly defended 

 successive traverses, formed across the path of the assail- 

 ants. The situation of the latter became critical ; all the 

 commissioned officers who led the attack were either killed 

 or wounded ; and Lieutenant Farquhar, having assumed 

 the command, fell immediately, and was succeeded by Bri- 

 gade-major Lambton. Meantime Captain Goodall, with a 



Vol. II— L 



