FALL OF SERINGAPATAM. 
91 
tion, and the ferocity of his passions was like an in- 
cubus upon the loftier aspirations of his intellect. No 
man ever more completely realized the Hindoo pro- 
verb, “ a wicked person, though possessed of wisdom, 
is no more to be trusted than a serpent with a jewel 
in its head.” The fierceness of hostility bequeathed 
by him to his successor, coloured the whole of that 
Prince's political life, and drove him perpetually to 
attempt the infliction of retribution upon those who 
were the objects of his bitter hatred, his rash perseve- 
rance in which precipitated his fall, and in that fall 
the utter ruin of his family was involved. Had Tippoo 
courted an alliance with, instead of provoking the en- 
mity of, the British government in India, his banners 
might be now floating over the battlements of Serin- 
gapatam. 
The fall of this city is one of the most memorable 
events in the annals of British India. It was stormed 
on the 4th of May 1799, by the army under Gene- 
ral Harris, the garrison amounting to eight thousand 
men. “ In less than seven minutes from the period 
of issuing from the trenches the British colours were 
planted on the summit of the breaches. It was regu- 
lated, that as soon as the assailants surmounted the 
rampart, one half of them should wheel to the right, 
the other to the left, and that they should meet over 
the eastern gateway. The right, which was led by 
Colonel Baird, met with little resistance, both as the 
enemy, lest retreat should be cut off, abandoned the 
cavaliers, and as the inner rampart of the south-west- 
ern face was exposed to a perfect enfilade. The assail- 
ants on the left were opposed in a different manner. 
