DEATH OF TIPPOO. 
93 
before the time at which his troops resigned the con- 
test,, he complained of pain and weakness in one of his 
legs, in which he had received a severe wound when 
young, and ordered a horse. When abandoned by his 
men, instead of seeking to make his escape, which the 
proximity of the water-gate would have rendered easy, 
he made way for the gate into the interior fort. As 
he was crossing to the gate by the communication 
from the outer rampart, he received a musket-ball in 
the right side, nearly as high as the breast, but still 
pressed on till he arrived at the gate. Fugitives from 
within as well as from without were crowding in op- 
posite directions to this gate, and the detachment of 
the Twelfth had descended into the body of the place, 
for the purpose of arresting the influx of the fugitives 
from the outer works. The two columns of assail- 
ants, one without the gate and one within, were now 
pouring into it a destructive fire from both sides when 
the Sultan arrived. Endeavouring to pass, he received 
another wound from the fire of the inner detachment ; 
his horse also being wounded, sank under him, and 
his turban fell to the ground, while his friends dropped 
rapidly around him. His attendants placed him in 
his palenkeen, but the place was already so crowded 
and choked up with the dead and the dying, that he 
could not be removed. According to the statement of 
a servant who survived, some English soldiers, a few 
minutes afterwards, entered the gateway ,* and one of 
them offering to pull off the sword-belt of the Sultan, 
which was very rich, Tippoo, who still held his sabre 
in his hand, made a cut at him with all his remain- 
ing strength. The man, wounded in the knee, put 
