Frederick P. Gibbon

“ Soon after sunrise all—women, civilians, black soldiers, and white officers—were gathered together to watch the mutineers assemble for the final assault. Of its issue there could be no doubt. As they stood there awaiting their fate Ethel Woodburn could not remain insensible, even at so trying a moment, to the beauty of the early Indian morning. The slanting rays of the Eastern sun were gilding the mosques and minarets of the town and lighting up with lurid glow the reddish buildings behind the fort, and the thought of Nature’s beauty added to her sorrow. ”

“ For a moment the attacks ceased as the rebels crowded round the guns that were placed upon an open eminence overlooking the house.
Fascinated by the sight, the whole garrison gathered before the windows, powerless to avert their gaze from the instruments of destruction.
But what means that sudden commotion—that loud shrill cheering? The mob is seen to part right and left, the rebel sepoys fling their caps in the air and wave their muskets excitedly as a body of fine, well-set-up men, fierce of aspect, turbaned, and clad in drab uniforms, marches into the courtyard of the fort. ”

“ With his pistol Ted shot one, gave another the point of his sword, and Merban Sing, again at his side, struck down two more whose bayonet-points were almost plunged in the ensign’s breast. The Gurkha subadar, felled from behind, dropped over his wounded brother, who at the same time received his death-wound. A rush from behind brought a dozen more Guides around the lad, who saw steel flash in front of his face, and felt a burning sensation in his cheek; then his head seemed to split, and he remembered no more.
With yells of triumph the myriad enemy pushed forward, but not to victory. ”

“ Yet, in spite of victory, gloom was over the camp, for a hero lay dying, and there was no hope of saving his life. John Nicholson’s wound had proved mortal: a life that had [Pg 254] promised to be of unusual brilliance would soon be cut short, even before its work was more than half done—but that half had been done well. The career of this dying leader of men had been unique, even in the annals of British rule in India, whose pages teem with the deeds and lives of heroes in the noblest sense of that word—men worthy of all admiration, men whose lives inspire others to follow the gleam. ”

“ Small wonder that British blood should boil over when the story was told; small wonder that the men of the 60th Rifles should shake their fists as they looked from the Ridge into the rebel capital, towards the distant palace and home of vice, and should vow vengeance on every faithless sepoy, be he Mohammedan like the King of Delhi or Hindu like the Mahratta rajah. ”

“ Proud men were the engineer officers, Baird Smith and Taylor, one the brain, the other the hand that had thought out and directed this supreme finish. Proud also were Brind, Tombs, and the other artillerymen, for without their magnificent heroism and skill the plans of the engineers would have come to naught.
One building there was in Delhi close to the Kashmir Gate and the Water Bastion, which the Sikhs and Pathans and Gurkhas, and the rebel sepoys themselves, began to regard with awe—a white-domed edifice not unlike a mosque, save for the cross surmounting its cupola. ”

“ And at this moment, when the superior strength and size and courage of the Punjabis were barely enabling them to hold their own, the two pandies who had escaped had now wheeled round and charged to the aid of their comrades, taking Ted’s two or three unexpectedly in the rear and deciding the issue.
A tremor of cold fear ran through our hero’s frame as he found himself armed only with a useless sword-hilt wherewith to defend himself. The vile Mahratta raised his pistol, and, at a distance of three paces, fired point blank at the lad’s breast. ”

“ Before the stalwart captain, who had successfully held his own against Sikhs and Afghans, had been with Ted a couple of days, he had actually suffered defeat at the hands of a slip of a girl of twenty-one—a girl about five feet in height, the daughter of Ted’s colonel! Jim, who of all men should have been proof against such silly nonsense—such idiocy!—had succumbed at first sight, and instead of spinning yarns about his campaigns and his defence of Chiras Fort, he was mooning about all day long in the wake of this Ethel Woodburn. ”

“ I suppose you didn’t much care to be under Hodson after what’s happened?”
Claude Boldre turned on Ted with a queer expression in his eyes—half vexation, half amusement.
“You’re alluding to the shooting of the old emperor’s sons, I suppose?” said he.
Ted nodded. “Hodson’s a brave man—there’s no one who risks his own life more; but one can hardly respect an English officer who could deliberately shoot his prisoners in cold blood.”
“Cold blood be hanged, Russell! Your blood wouldn’t be very cold if you were faced by ten times your own number, clamouring for the rescue of your prisoners.” ”

“ Hira Singh laughed, and, lowering his lance-point, tightened the grip of his knees on the saddle.
“Only a rebel escaping with his goods and family,” said he; “but we may as well slay them, sahib, for without doubt they deserve it.”
“Not so, Hira Singh. Let us speak them fair. We cannot tell who they are.”
There were two curtained gharris or carts, each drawn by two soft-eyed bullocks. Protecting these rode three horsemen, who now stood awaiting the onslaught, two with levelled muskets, the third with drawn sword. ”

“ Hidden from view of their comrades by the high sloping banks that enclosed the broad river-bed, now almost dry, they fought for their lives with the overwhelming foe, and prepared to die like the heroes they were.
The wild charge of the pandies was checked half a dozen paces from those lines of quivering steel. The hesitation was but momentary. With yells of triumph the sepoys rushed upon the bayonets, only to be hurled back. They recoiled, and those in the rear lay down and fired from between their comrades’ legs, and man after man of the Rifles dropped. ”

“ What can we do?” Tynan cried. “They’ll be in in a moment!”
Backed by the strength of half a dozen men the logs crashed once more against the barrier, and the hearts of the garrison were heavy as lead.
“We’re not done for yet,” Ted stoutly replied. “We must wait for them in the passage. We may yet hold the passage, Ambar Singh; and should we die, men will speak of your deeds from generation to generation.”
“We can hold them back for a time, sahib. Come, my children, and thou, Bisesar Rai, and thou, Dwarika Rai, load and pass us the muskets as we lie in the doorway.” ”

“ Ethel was a graceful horsewoman, and this accomplishment told in Ted’s eyes, for he himself was an uncommonly good rider to hounds. Accustomed to horses from his earliest childhood, he loved and understood the noble creatures. When home from school in the winter he had rarely missed a meet of the Cheshire hounds, and had more than once been in at the death. So fond was he of horses that he had set his heart upon joining a cavalry regiment, but Major-General Russell had decided against that expensive luxury. ”

“ Could a revolt seem more hopeless than at this station, where the three native corps were more than counterbalanced by a regiment of British dragoons, the 60th Rifles, and two batteries of the finest artillery in the world—a force sufficient to repress any rising within ten minutes—whereas throughout the seven hundred and fifty miles of territory along the Ganges, in the districts containing the large towns of Agra, Allahabad, Benares, Cawnpore, Lucknow, and Patna, there were only three weak British corps to oppose nearly a score of sepoy regiments and many thousands of armed rebels? ”

“ Each rebel urged his neighbour to face the fire of those death-dealing muskets; each man knew that the end was at hand, and preferred to hold himself back that he might share in the plunder. Now that they were no longer a glorious regiment but a mere mob of rebels, none was ready to give his life for the cause. The garrison also knew that the end was drawing near, and were in no way deceived by the momentary calm. ”

“ It’s all very noble, of course; but it’s such a thorough vindication, and such glory for the rescuer, that a more complete triumph over one’s enemy couldn’t be wished for. What could one desire better than to make your enemy feel small, and acknowledge how much nobler you are than he?”
“I should like,” said Ted, with feeling, “to make these beggars outside feel small. We’ve drifted into a curious talk, considering our situation.”
“Not a bit of it,” said Alec. “I quite agree with you, Miss Ethel. I must go and relieve Leigh now, and you relieve me in a couple of hours, Ted. ”

“ May I step forward in safety?”
“One man may,” Tynan replied, “but he will be a dead man should there be any sign of treachery.”
“Sahib, there will be none; I give my word of honour.”
So saying, Pir Baksh stepped round the bend, armed only with a smile that he doubtless intended to be ingratiating.
“Ye are gallant warriors,” he began, when Ted, interrupting the flow of words, ordered the rascal to speak in English, not Urdu. The subadar showed the whites of his eyes as he smiled, and grimly shook his head. ”

“ Before the reports had reached them, Ted and Ambar Singh had pressed their fingers, and two sepoys fell forward on their faces. The defenders were untouched, the rebels having fired at random, and for a while none dared follow their example.
In despair several of the raging mob pushed their musket-barrels round the bend and let fly, in the hope that an occasional bullet out of many might reduce the number of their dogged antagonists. But Ted drew his men back from the doorway until the sepoys were tired of this amusement. ”

“ Of all those gallant officers and men none fought more pluckily than Captain Russell of the Guides; animating and encouraging his splendid fellows, he was ever nearest to the foe, as many a mutineer found to his cost. Inspired by the example, Ted emulated his brother’s courage, and with the Gurkhas did his best to retrieve the day, and always by his side fought the young officer Jemadar Goria Thapa, son of his father’s friend. As they retired towards the Ridge the boy was more than once engaged in single combat. ”

“ When Reid became aware of all that had happened since his fall, his disappointment was intense, and the bitter sorrow occasioned by his failure to assist the other columns aggravated the pain of his wound. No less bitterly mortified were all his comrades, the surviving officers and men of the 4th Column, both British and Asiatic, the reflection that without artillery to aid, their attempt was doomed to failure, consoling them but little. Their defeat was the more grievous because of the high hopes and anticipations engendered by the striking success of the bombardment. ”

“ Four days after Jim and Ted Russell and Alec Paterson had set out from Aurungpore with the detachment of the Guides, they overtook the head-quarters of their regiment. The rapid rate of marching, the excitement of recent events, and the prospect of taking part in the assault on the capital of Hindustan and in the crushing of the mutiny, had proved sufficiently exhilarating to keep up the spirits and health of the boys in spite of the great heat. ”

“ So the tribesmen now offered their services in such numbers that they had to be refused. They brought wild horses that would not suffer any man to mount them, and they came with ancient, worn-out steeds, blind, lame, and weak at the knees, swearing and protesting that these were all splendid chargers, perfectly trained and in superb condition. With these they would fight the mutineers, if only the great sahibs, Edwardes and Jan Larens, would give them a soldier’s pay. So John Lawrence, Commissioner of the Punjab, was enabled to send down more than fifty thousand men to uphold the British raj. ”

“ Nowhere did the British soldiers so long to close with the sepoys, hand to hand and steel against steel, as at Cawnpore. Ill fared it, then, with any natives of that town whom the soldiers suspected of having helped, or even looked on, at that dire tragedy. It is to be feared that the innocent sometimes suffered for the sins of the guilty, for the soldiers were not in a mood to discriminate, and they did not know then that sepoys, even of the rebel regiments, had absolutely refused to obey the Nana, when he gave the order for the women and children to be murdered. ”

“ Ethel Woodburn, aged twenty-one, spoke as though she felt the wisdom of ages within her, and the boys could not help glancing at one another. She caught the glance, and her eyes twinkled as she continued:
“One could easily see that Tynan was a spoiled child, cursed with foolish parents. I think, Ted, that of all selfish people, those parents who are too generous to deny their children anything, or too tender-hearted to punish them, are the most criminally selfish. ”

“ The Sikhs of the corps were equally ready to loot, for the Sikh is nearly as rapacious as the Pathan, and much more miserly. They remembered also the bitter enmity between their ancestors and the Mohammedan rulers of Delhi, and their persecution at the hands of the Moslems. The single company of little Gurkhas, though by no means grasping like their comrades, were no less eager to come in contact with the mutinous hordes. The “Irishmen of Asia” these short-legged warriors might be called, from their readiness for battle and love of a fight at all times and seasons. ”

“ The appearance of the revolted sepoys would be the signal for all the budmashes of the bazar to join in the rioting and murder.
A noise of firing and a babel of fiendish yells from the English quarter of the town, in close proximity to the fort, told their own tale. The white residents were being attacked!
“Lieutenant Lowthian,” commanded the major, “remain here with Ensigns Tynan and Russell and about twenty men! We’ll take our wounded with us, the women will attend to them; and when we’ve cleared the streets we’ll bring the civilians into the fort.” ”

“ He began to search for Govind Singh’s body. The veteran risaldar had ceased to breathe; he had died as he would have wished, fighting against odds. The boy had come to regard his grim old comrade with an affection that had been returned by the risaldar. The other Sikhs were also all dead, so fierce had been the hand-to-hand combat; and of the Nana’s following at least a dozen were slain or were dying. One of the latter, a youngster barely sixteen, was regarding the Feringhi with eyes in which hatred and a desire to propitiate struggled mutely for mastery. ”

“ Miss Woodburn, I’m glad we’ve had this talk, and I sha’n’t forget it.”
“And I must go back to father now,” said Ethel, whereupon Ted turned to accompany her.
The colonel was fast asleep, breathing easily.
“Good-bye for a few hours, Ethel!” said the ensign; and added in a low, hesitating tone, “You’re a saint.”
“I! Oh, Ted, you little know me—you and Jim. It’s easy to forgive one who can no longer injure you, but it’s hard to live your ordinary life with a person who wishes to injure you, or who has done so, and who hates and despises you. What a terrible prig you must think me, Ted! ”