IT is not proper or advisable, that your guns should be planted in batteries,* at a distance [from your lines]. You must keep them near your army, in the same manner* that you keep your army itself [i. e. in close and compact order, as directed in Letter CLXXXVIII]. You must, moreover, continually* send out for intelligence of the enemy, and remain vigilant and prepared at your post.* Keep us, also, [regu­larly] informed of these matters [or of all occurrences].

The Sultan appears, at this period, to have been in expectation of an early attack from the confederate forces; the commanders of which, however, did not, I believe, propose more at present than to cover the siege of Bâdâmy, which they undertook about this time, and of which place they finally obtained possession, in the month of May following.

It seems rather extraordinary, that the Sultan should have had occasion to teach Bûrhânûddeen so obvious a lesson in tactics, as that with which the present letter is introduced: but it must also be owned, that the information before us is too scanty, to enable us to form any clear notion of the subject. Much, of course, would depend on the actual distance from the camp at which the artillery was placed, as well as on the nature of the ground; and the letter throws no light on either of these points. All that is certain is, that Tippoo thought the disposition injudicious and dangerous; while it is likewise probable, that when he formed this judgment, he possessed a distinct knowledge of the different local circumstances connected with the question.