south-eastern bastion and the Bastion du Pavillon, which two bastions face the Ganges; but those troops under the fire of the ships, joined to that of the land batteries, rebuilt the same night, and of more than 3000 men placed on the roofs of houses which overlooked the Fort, almost all took flight, leaving two of their officers behind, one dead and the other wounded.  I was obliged to send immediately all the marine and the inhabitants from the other posts.

“The attack was maintained with vigour from 6 a.m. to 10.30, when all the batteries were covered with dead and wounded, the guns dismounted, and the merlons destroyed, in spite of their being strengthened with bales of cloth.  No one could show himself on the bastions, demolished by the fire of more than 100 guns; the troops were terrified during this attack by the loss of all the gunners and of nearly 200 men; the bastions were undermined, and threatened to crumble away and make a breach, which the exhaustion of our people, and the smallness of the number who remained, made it impossible for us to hope to defend successfully.  Not a soldier would put his hand to a gun; it was only the European marine who stood to their duty, and half of these were already killed or disabled.  A body of English troops, lying flat on the ground behind the screen which we had commenced to erect on the bank of the Ganges, was waiting the signal to attack.  Seeing the impossibility of holding out longer, I thought that in the state in which the Fort was I could not in prudence expose it to an assault.  Consequently I hoisted the white flag and ordered the drums to beat a parley.”

According to an account written later by a person who was not present at the siege, Renault lost his Fort by a quarter of an hour.  This writer says the tide was rapidly falling, and, had the eastern defences of the Fort been able to resist a little longer, the ships would have found their lower tiers of guns useless, and might have been easily destroyed by the French.  Suppositions of this kind always suppose a stupidity on the part of the enemy which Renault had no right to count upon.  Admiral Watson must have known the strength of the fortress he was about to attack before he placed his ships in a position from which it would be impossible to withdraw them whenever he wished to do so.

The flag of truce being displayed, Captain Eyre Coote was sent ashore, and returned in a quarter of an hour with the Governor’s son bearing “a letter concerning the delivery of the place.”  Articles were agreed upon, and about 3 o’clock in the afternoon Captain Coote, with a company of artillery and two companies of grenadiers, took possession of the Fort.  Before this took place there occurred an event the consequences of which were very unfortunate for the French.  Everything was in a state of confusion, and the deserters, who formed the majority of the garrison, expecting no mercy from the Admiral