Behind Baird the twin columns of redcoats splashed through the river. Each column had three thousand men, and their task was to encircle the city and so capture the whole ring of Seringapatam’s walls and bastions and towers and gates, but the Tippoo’s men were recovering their wits now and the invading streams were at last being opposed. Muskets blasted down from ramparts, concealed guns were unmasked and rockets streaked away from the parapets. Canister and round shot slashed down at the two columns, the missiles exploding high gouts of water as they struck the river. Sepoys and redcoats fell. Some crawled to safety, others were carried downstream while the least fortunate were trampled by the boots of the men crossing the river. The leading troops of each column scrambled up the broken shoulders of the walls. The engineers shoved ladders against those shoulders, and still more men climbed their rungs to the ramparts.
And there the fight changed. Now, on the narrow firestep of the outer wall, the columns had to force their way forward, but the Tippoo’s men were firing volley after volley into the attackers’ ranks. The most damaging fire came from the inner wall, for there the Tippoo’s men were protected by a parapet while the British and their Indian allies had no such protection on the inner side of the captured outer wall. Men fired at them from their front, and a torrent of fire came from their flank, yet still they pushed on, consumed by the blind rage of war. The only way to survive horror was to win through, and so they stepped over the dead to fire their muskets, then crouched to reload while the ranks behind pushed on. The wounded fell, some of them tumbling down to the inner ditch, while behind them, in the foaming river, the tails of the two columns hurried on towards the battle.
The breach had been taken, but the city had not fallen yet. The sepoys and the redcoats had taken a hundred yards of the outer wall on either side of the breach, but the Tippoo’s soldiers were fighting back hard, and the Tippoo himself led the defenders north of the breach. The Tippoo had cursed Gudin for blowing the mine too early and thus wasting its terrible destructive power, but now he tried to revive the defence by his personal example. He stood in the front rank of his soldiers while behind him a succession of aides loaded jewel-encrusted hunting rifles. One by one the rifles were given to the Tippoo who aimed and fired, aimed and fired, and redcoat after redcoat was struck down. Whenever an enemy tried to rush along the ramparts, the Tippoo would drop that man, then pass the gun back, take another, step forward through the powder smoke and fire again. Musket balls hissed about him. Two of his aides were wounded and a score of soldiers fighting at the Tippoo’s side were killed or maimed, but the Tippoo’s life seemed charmed. He stepped in blood, but none of it was his and it seemed as though he could not die, but only kill, and so he did, cold-bloodedly,
deliberately, exultantly defending his city and his dream against the barbarians who had come to snatch his tiger throne.
The fight on the walls intensified as more men came to the threatened ramparts. The men in red came from the river and the men in tiger stripes came from other parts of the city wall, and both came to kill on top of the wall: a narrow place, scarce five paces wide, lifted in the sky.
Where the vultures flew, scenting death.
Sharpe scooped up three fallen muskets from the end of the alley where they had been blown by the explosion. He checked that his new guns were undamaged, loaded the two which were empty, then went back to Lawford. ‘You stay with the Colonel, sir,’ he suggested, ‘and put your coat right side out. Lads will be here soon. And when they’re here, sir, you might like to find Lali.’
Lawford coloured. ‘Lali?’
‘Look after her, sir. I promised the lass she’d come to no harm.’
‘You did?’ Lawford asked with a trace of indignation. He was wondering just how well Sharpe knew the girl, then he decided it was better not to ask. ‘Of course I’ll look after her,’ Lawford said, still blushing, then he noted that Sharpe, despite his own advice, had still not donned his red coat. ‘Where are you going?’ the Lieutenant asked.