Arthur pondered this for a while, and then he nodded. ‘I understand. And I accept the position willingly.’

‘You accept?’ Harris looked bemused.‘There is no question of your accepting the position. It is an order.’

Arthur laughed. ‘Yes, sir.’

Chapter 47

The army advanced along the Baramahal valley, which led west from Amboor. The floor of the valley was wide and flat and dotted with small low-rising groves of trees, or topes, so that the army made good progress. Arthur’s column marched on the left, three miles from Harris. In between the two forces sprawled the vast train of brinjarris, the families of the sepoys and merchants and traders of all kinds.With them lumbered strings of bullocks, horses, camels, mules and here and there the grey swaying masses of elephants. A huge cloud of dust rose up in the wake of this host, announcing the approach of the army for a great distance. Each day they covered ten miles before camping for the night. Then the merchants moved through the tent lines selling curried tripe, sop, and boiled sausages to the hungry soldiers.

In the morning the sepoys used straw to light the morning fires, and fuelled the fires with cow dung that filled the air with its rich cloying odour. The shrill chatter of the women camp followers rose up on all sides as they hurriedly prepared a morning meal for their families, and then packed their belongings for the day’s trek to the next camp.

Arthur regarded the apparent chaos of the camp with a degree of tolerance, since the writ of British military discipline extended only to the 33rd Foot and the six Company sepoy battalions. The rest were native levies with their own customs. The men of the 33rd were enjoying the status of being the elite formation in such a large force and marched with a swagger that pleased their colonel greatly. When the time came to fight they would inspire the other battalions and the Nizam’s men to hold their places in the line.

When they reached the Ryacotta pass the wagons and guns ascended the slope on the road prepared for them by Harris’s engineers, while the infantry and camp followers climbed over the broken ground on either side. Once through the eastern ghats the army was in the territory of Mysore and at once small groups of enemy horsemen began to shadow the columns. Tipoo’s strategy was apparent the moment the army approached Kellamungallam. A huge pall of smoke hung over the remains of the city. Vast swaths of buildings had been burned and the defences pulled down or blown up. Beyond the city the route before General Harris’s army had been torched.

‘Tipoo has clearly decided to pull his soldiers back to defend Seringapatam,’ General Harris concluded, as he addressed his senior officers once the army had camped a short distance from the charred ruins of Kellamungallam.‘He aims to lure us through his lands, denying us forage on the way, in the hope that we will fail to lay siege to his capital for long enough to take it, just as Cornwallis failed the last time a British army attempted to defeat Mysore.’

Baird interrupted. ‘And what will make our attempt succeed where Cornwallis failed, sir?’

‘I was coming to that. Or rather, I was about to ask Colonel Wellesley to outline the progress of the campaign from this point, since he and his staff were largely responsible for the plan. Colonel?’

‘Thank you, sir.’ Arthur stood up and paused a moment to collect his thoughts before he spoke. It still felt strange to be addressing a gathering of senior officers, most of whom were his superiors and older and more experienced than he was. Yet he did not doubt himself, since every possible contingency had been considered when the campaign was still in its planning stage. He cleared his throat. ‘Tipoo knows that he would be defeated if he risked a pitched battle against us. So he has adopted the strategy of trying to starve our draught animals. I’ve spoken to the brinjarri chiefs and they assure me that their bullocks can eat a wide variety of grasses and plants.Tipoo’s men cannot possibly destroy all edible matter growing in our path. Nevertheless, they will eventually restrict the supply. Therefore, I have advised the general that, if forage runs short, the army will be obliged to move outside the corridor of land that Tipoo’s men have burned. Meanwhile, in order to prevent our forage parties from venturing off the cleared land, we can expect Tipoo’s cavalry to launch harassing attacks from now on. Your men will need to take the necessary precautions once we leave Kellamungallam. The ground favours the enemy. It is flat and open for the most part, with scattered groves of trees for cover.We will need to keep our wits about us as we close on Seringapatam.’

‘Thank you, Colonel.’ General Harris gestured to him to resume his seat. ‘From now on, gentlemen, the enemy will be surrounding us. It is our duty to make sure we do not present him with the smallest opportunity to wreck our enterprise.’

The advance continued steadily through Mysore, over the ground that Tipoo’s men had burned, until late in the month, when Harris ordered the army to turn south-west and make directly for Seringapatam.Within a few miles they moved out of the belt of destruction and into country where there was abundant forage. The sudden change in direction threw off the harassing parties of enemy horsemen and it was two days before they were sighted again. After their early losses the enemy kept their distance and made no attempt to close with Arthur’s column.There was no sign of any of Tipoo’s infantry or artillery and it seemed to Arthur that these must be waiting in the enemy capital to repulse the British army when it finally laid siege to the city.

For four days the army marched towards Seringapatam, along a road hemmed in by dense jungle interspersed with flat country thickly dotted with clumps of trees. As his column advanced Arthur was constantly on the watch for signs of the enemy. This was the kind of country where Tipoo’s men could hold up the British army with ease. Long enough to prevent them from reaching and taking Seringapatam before the monsoon season struck. But there were no ambushes, no attacks of any kind, and the army continued its march without interruption until it approached the large village of Malavalley late one afternoon.

The jungle had given way to land that was largely clear of trees. Arthur was riding near the head of his column when he heard the dull thud of distant guns, and a moment later a divot of earth flew into the air some distance beyond his foremost troops. Spurring Diomed forward he drew out his telescope and trained it on the low hills on the far side of Malavalley.The puffs of smoke that hung in the still air gave away the enemy artillery positions. As Arthur turned his attention to the enemy guns he saw dense formations of infantry on the slope below the guns and, on the top of the hill, the unmistakable shapes of elephants.

He lowered his telescope and pulled out his pocket watch. If Tipoo’s forces stood their ground there was still time to attack them before the day was out. He turned to his small group of staff officers. ‘Lieutenant Beaumont!’

‘Sir?’

‘Ride to General Harris and tell him that I have sighted the enemy. He may have reports of the sighting from his own men by the time you arrive, but tell him that I respectfully suggest that we attack the enemy at once, before they withdraw under cover of night.’

While he waited for a response Arthur quickly gave orders for his men to prepare for battle. The 33rd Foot and the six sepoy battalions marched forward and deployed in company columns facing the hills where the enemy waited, occasionally chancing a long shot from some of their heaviest guns.The Nizam’s infantry units formed up to the left of the 33rd and the cavalry took up their position on the flanks. As he watched them manoeuvre Arthur prayed that General Harris would seize the chance to attack the enemy. Given that there were only a few hours of light left in which to fight a pitched battle, it was possible that Harris might wait until dawn, by which time the enemy could easily have melted away.