They were in the habit, too, of allowing each gun to cool after it was fired, before being loaded again.

It was thought, therefore, good practice if a gun were discharged once in a quarter of an hour.

They were, then, utterly astounded and dismayed at the effects of the European guns, each of which could be loaded and fired twice, or even three times, a minute.
So month passed after month, until Rajah Boorhau was in a position to put, if necessary, five battalions of Sepoys, each seven hundred strong, into the field; with thirty guns, served by trained artillerymen.

So quietly had the work gone on, that it attracted no attention among his neighbours.

The mere rumour that the rajah had some European deserters in his service, and that these were drilling four or five hundred men, was considered of so little moment that it passed altogether unheeded.
The accounts of the state of affairs in the Carnatic, which reached Charlie, were not satisfactory--Dupleix, with his usual energy, was aiding the son of Chunda Sahib, with men and money, in his combat with the British protege; and most of the native allies of the latter had fallen away from him.