"Rajah Sahib, receiving intelligence of their intentions, sent a flag of truce on the 30th of October, with proposals for the surrender of the fort. He offered honourable terms to the garrison, and a large sum of money to Captain Clive; and, if his offers were not accepted, he threatened to storm the fort immediately, and put every man to the sword.
"Captain Clive, in his answer, reproached the badness of Chunda Sahib's cause; treated Rajah Sahib's offers of money with contempt; and said that he had too good an opinion of his prudence to believe that he would attempt to storm until he had got better soldiers than the rabble of which his army was composed. As soon as the messenger was despatched, the flag of truce was pulled down; but, the enemy not understanding the rules of European war, numbers of them remained near the ditch, parleying with the sepoys, and persuading them to desert. The crowd was several times warned to retire, but, continuing to disregard the injunction, was dispersed by a volley of small arms, which killed several of them.
"Lieutenant Innis's party, reinforced to the number of 150 Europeans, and with four field-pieces, was now advancing under the command of Captain Kilpatrick; and on the 9th of November a detachment of Mahrattas arrived in the neighbourhood, and intercepted some ammunition going to the enemy. They likewise attempted to enter the town; but, finding every street and avenue barricadoed, they contented themselves with plundering and setting fire to some houses in the skirts of it; after which they retreated.
"By this time the enemy had, from their battery to the south-west, made a breach much larger than that to the north-west, for it extended near thirty yards; but the ditch before it was full of water, and not fordable; and the garrison had counterworked this breach with the same kind of defences as the other.
"Rajah Sahib, exasperated by the answer he had received to his summons, and alarmed by the approach of the Mahrattas and the detachment from Madras, determined to storm the fort. In the evening, a spy brought intelligence of this to the garrison; and at midnight another came, with all the enemy's dispositions, and the hour of attack, which was to begin at the dawn of the day, by the signal of three bombs.