Tipus initial resistance was pushed aside and the British army sat down around the limewashed walls of Seringapatam which bristled with cannon. Soldiers captured by the sultans men were taken into the fortress and killed. Nails were driven into their heads or they were strangled by Tipus jettis, professional strongmenexecutioners. Tipu sent placatory messages to the enemy commanders, hoping to delay matters until the monsoon arrived, but they continued with their siege works and cannonades.
When the morning of May 4th came, Tipu was told that the omens were not propitious. He tried to ward off misfortune by presenting the Hindu priests and Brahmins with a purse of gold, an elephant, a black bullock and two buffalo, a black nanny goat and a black coat and hat, but in vain.
The assault was launched soon after one oclock by troops equipped with bamboo ladders for scaling the walls. Within minutes a British flag was planted in the breach as the defenders fled. Tipu himself fought bravely, dressed in his finest, loading and firing muskets handed him by his servants as if he was at a sporting shoot, but the odds were too great. He was wounded and his staff tried to hurry him away in a palanquin, but he was killed for his jewellery by an unidentified British soldier. As night was falling a British party found the sultans body under a heap of corpses. He was given honourable burial in his family mausoleum in the city.
