These were broken by inclosures and gardens; into which, on either side, half a battalion was thrown forward, so as to deliver a flanking fire upon an enemy advancing against the centre.
Across the valley, two hundred yards in front of the position, the stream which watered it made a sharp turn, running for some distance directly across it, and several small canals for the irrigation of the fields rendered the ground wet and swampy.

Across the line occupied by his troops, a breastwork had been thrown up, and in front of this rows of sharp-pointed stakes had been stuck in the ground.

Altogether, the position was a formidable one.
An hour or two after the position so carefully prepared had been taken up, large bodies of Mahratta horse were seen dashing up the valley, and smoke rising from several points showed that they had begun their usual work, of plundering and destroying the villages on their way.

A few discharges from the field pieces--those in the castle had been ordered to be silent until the raising of a white flag gave them the signal to open fire--checked the advance of the horsemen, and these waited until their infantry should arrive.
The force of Murari Reo was, at that time, the most formidable of any purely native army of Southern India.

Recruited from desperadoes from all the Mahratta tribes, well disciplined by its leader, it had more than once fought, without defeat, against bodies of Europeans; while it had, in all cases, obtained easy victories over other native armies.
Presently the horsemen opened, and a compact body of three thousand Mahratta infantry, accompanied by an equal number of the irregulars of the rajah's brother, advanced to the attack; while the cavalry at their sides swept down upon the flanks of the rajah's position, and thirty pieces of artillery opened fire.
Not a shot was fired in return, Charlie ordering his men to lie down behind the breastworks, until they received the word of command to show themselves.