he troops who fought along the northern rampart under Col.
Dunlop encountered fierce opposition since Tipu himself, unrecognised,
was fighting there. Thomas Munro, writing in 1799 to his father
in Scotland, records: 'When the assault commenced he (Tipu) repaired
to the outer ramparts, but being driven
from them, he fell as he was returning into the body of the palace,
in a passage under the rampart called the Water
Gate.' Forced to retreat along the Northern rampart, Tipu seems
to have tried to reach the inner rampart, either to eliminate pockets
of British troops there, or to reach his palace.
The gateway was a confused mass of people - British soldiers swarming
into the fort and crowds from within now fleeing the city. In the
melée, Tipu's horse was shot from under him, and Tipu was wounded
by shots flying from the musquets of the 12th Light Infantry. With
him fell Tipu's faithful servant, Rajah Khan, shot in the leg. Tipu's
followers placed him upon his palanquin to rest, but here, his jewelled
sword belt caught the attention of a passing soldier who snatched
at it. Tipu rallied and struck out at his tormentors, but this last
protest cost him his life. The unknown soldier shot his opponent
in the temple, killing him instantly.
Meanwhile, the two British columns were converging on the palace.
The companion engraving shows Tipu's sons
surrendering to David Baird after the fall of Seringapatam.
The vignette beneath 'The Last Effort' of Tipu shows the scene of
Tipu's sons surrendering to Lord Cornwallis
only seven years earlier, at the end of the Third Mysore War in