Sepoys

“ The groundlessness of the idea upon which this alarm was founded afforded no hindrance to its ready reception, nor was the absurdity of the design attributed to the ruling powers apparent to the obscured and timid intellect of the Sepoys. The consequences of loss of caste are so feared,—and are in reality of so trying a nature,—that upon this point the sensitiveness of the Sepoy is always extreme, and his suspicions are easily aroused. ”

“ Taken completely by surprise, and entirely ignorant of the strength of the enemy, the natives, after a wild fire in the direction of the advancing foe, fled precipitately. Their officers tried to rally them, and as the smallness of the force attacking them became visible, the Sepoys with their old habit of discipline began to draw together. But at this moment the guns, loaded with grape, poured into their rear, and with a cheer the Punjaub cavalry burst into their midst. ”

“ In 1806 it was the scene of a serious mutiny among the sepoys. For half a century the Europeans had been busy evolving a serviceable native force out of the raw material. Their efforts were attended with marked success, and the sepoy proved an efficient fighting man. In the desire to make him a perfect soldier the military authorities lost sight of the important fact that first and foremost he was a Hindu full of conservatism. The traditions of his caste and his religion were nearer to his heart than even life itself. ”

“ The enormous number of the Sepoys enabled them to outflank the scanty British force, and nothing remained but retreat. There were many individual acts of gallantry; but, in broken, desperately fighting [158] clusters, the 32nd had to fall back, many of the men dropping from exhaustion or sunstroke while they tried to fight. An officer in the battle has described the huge mass of the Sepoys as it pressed on the flank of the retreating British. “The plain,” he says, “was one moving mass of men. ”

“ The Sepoys, in whatsoever quarters, had been preserved by the usual regularity of their lives from all extraordinary illness. The whole force was 550 Europeans, including the artillery-men, and 1500 Sepoys. On the 3rd of December they arrived at Rajahmahal, and encamped within half a league of the Nabob's army. He visited Colonel Clive the next day, when the whole line was drawn out to receive him, and performed their exercise and some evolutions, which he admired, and ordered 10,000 rupees to be distributed amongst the soldiers. ”

“ They walked day after day in front of the line of their men’s muskets on parade, not knowing when these iron tubes would break into red flame and flying bullets. They lay down night after night, knowing that the Sepoys in every hut were discussing the exact manner and time of their murder. Yet each man kept an untroubled brow, and went patiently the round of his duty, thanking God when he had no wife and child at the station to fall under the tender mercies of the mutineers. ”

“ They know of the treachery of the Nana, they know of the massacre by the river, and they know that the women and children are prisoners in his hands, and do you think that men who know these things can be beaten? The Sepoys met them in superior force and in a strong position at Futtehpore, and they drove them before them like chaff. ”

“ From wearing a hat, these pretended Portuguese obtained amongst the natives of India the name of Topasses; by which name the Europeans likewise distinguish them. The Indian natives, and Moors, who are trained in the European manner, are called Sepoys: in taking our arms and military exercise, they do not quit their own dress or any other of their customs. The Sepoys are formed into companies and battalions, and commanded by officers of their own nation and religion. ”

“ They knew that the Sepoys were the mainstay of order throughout the country, that they represented the feelings of the entire population of Oudh, of Behar, of Gwalior, the Punjab, Nagpore, and Hydrabad: that so long as they were contented, the people would remain passive, if not altogether satisfied. ”

“ Some twenty-seven—eleven of them being children and eight women—took refuge in a house near the great mosque. They held the house for three days, but, having no water, suffered all the agonies of thirst. The Sepoys set vessels of water in front of the house, and bade the poor besieged give up their arms and they should drink. They yielded, gave up the two miserable guns with which they had defended themselves, and were led out. No water was given them. Death alone was to cool those fever-blackened lips. They were set in a row, the eleven children and sixteen men and women, and shot. ”

“ A sepoy is proud of his corps, jealous for its reputation, and respectful to his officers. Hindus of the higher castes, such as Brahmans and Rajputs, and Mohammedans of noble and ancient families, are alike amenable to British discipline. But sepoys can be stung to insubordination by insult or injustice, like soldiers of other races. Sepoys have been known to sacrifice caste prejudices to help European officers in time of need, but they resented needless interference or looks of scorn with the sullen pride of Orientals. ”

“ Deoghur itself lay enwrapped in sepulchral silence of death, and all that was once the military cantonments in ruins and ashes; while in a well-kept garden close by, the faithful domestic servants (who had buried their murdered masters) pointed out to us the recent graves of those who had fallen a sacrifice to the relentless fury of the bloodthirsty Sepoys. They also told us that on that fatal spot a few loyal Sepoys actually killed some of the mutineers in defence of their officers. ”

“ Nevertheless, this was sufficient; for the Sepoys, seeing themselves attacked without cover by Europeans in front, and the horse and multitude of the enemy's Sepoys, gaining their rear, or coming down on their flank, scarcely preserved courage to give their fire, hurried, scattered, and without command ”

“ From thence I had thirty miles to Cundapore, a sea-port town upon the Malabar coast, taken by us from the enemy. During this journey, which was through the Country of Tippoo Sahib, I had only six Sepoys to conduct me: yet, such was the universal panic that had seized all classes and distinctions of people at the progress of the British arms in that quarter, I met only a few scattered Sepoys, who were so badly wounded I presume they were unable to travel——the villages throughout being completely abandoned by all their inhabitants. ”

“ Nine hundred Sepoys held a ridge behind the position, but in front of the camp, and at each end of this ridge was an intrenchment, guarded by fifty Europeans. A hundred and fifty Europeans and three hundred Sepoys remained in the batteries, facing Vandivash. The whole force consisted of two thousand four hundred Europeans, and sixteen hundred Sepoys. The Mahrattas, three thousand strong, remained in their own camp, and did not advance to the assistance of their allies. ”

“ These sepoys are the men employed by the Kotwal in the carrying out of executions and punishments, and those who happen to be on guard at the time are appointed for the work. Some of the younger sepoys are very sick after assisting in some horrible punishment, but use hardens them, and after a time they become callous to suffering in others, in some cases even to the extent of gloating over the death or tortures they are ordered to inflict on some miserable wretch. ”

“ Instinctively the war-hardened Sepoys who survived dropped to earth and opened fire at the section of bush whence came the hail of death—a few scattered rifles against massed machine-guns and a battalion of highly trained askaris, masters of jungle-craft. ”

“ Lally was understood, the division of Sepoys on the left of the first line were ordered to fall back in an angle from the front, ready to take the enemy's cavalry in flank as they were approaching, but performed the evolution with so little firmness, that little hope was entertained of any execution from their fire ”

“ At 2 in the morning two company's of Sepoys were sent off, with orders to push for the town between the French and Sugar-loaf rocks; lest the enemy should be led to suspicions of the real march, if no alarm were given to any part of their line: but, contrary to expectation, these Sepoys passed close under the French rock without being challenged by a single centinel; for all the troops stationed hereabouts had been drawn to the main body, guarding the ground to the south, indicated by their spies. ”

“ David. They consisted of 100 Europeans and 1500 Sepoys: but one half of the Sepoys deserted on the road, for fear of the unusual services to which they heard those in the camp were applied; having for the first time been employed in throwing up earth in the trenches; on which the rest, with the Europeans, were ordered to halt at Chilambarum, where they were joined during the siege by 200 Europeans from the camp. ”

“ The East India regiments generally run to pretty high numbers—1000 or 1200. The high commissioned officers, as the captain, lieutenant, &c., are always British; but the non-commissioned officers are always native Hindoos—that is, sepoys. For instance, the naïk, or corporal; the havildar, or serjeant:—even of the commissioned officers, the lowest are unavoidably native, on account of the native private. Note that sepoy, as colloquially it is called, but sipahee, as in books it is often written, does not mean Hindoo or Hindoo soldier, but is simply the Hindoo word for soldier. ”

“ In all the fights—from Plassey (June 23rd, 1757) to 1852—the Sepoys had fought well by the side of our troops, and had frequently shown a gallant spirit. At the storming of Bhurtpore our regiments were driven back with frightful slaughter, when these noble fellows boldly stepped forward to lead another assault, and actually walked over their own comrades’ dead bodies into the place! They were brave enough for anything, and would go anywhere and do anything when led by British officers ”

“ Some of our hollow friends in France, Belgium, &c., profess to read in this hatred an undeniable inference that we must have treated the sepoys harshly, else how explain an animosity so deadly. To that argument we have a very brief answer, such as seems decisive. The Bengalese sepoy, [60] when most of all pressed for some rational explanation of his fury, never once thought of this complaint; besides which, it is too notorious that our fault has always lain the other way. ”

“ Those without instantly rushed in like a torrent; which the enemy perceiving, they hurried down from the rampart, and ran up the steps, to gain the choultry and pagoda at the top of the rock: but the English Sepoys followed them so closely, that they had not time to make any dispositions to defend themselves there before they were attacked at the push of bayonet: in the first fury several were killed ”

“ The poor Sepoys, accustomed to the warmth of an Indian sun, were unable to handle their muskets, and when attacked by the murderous bands of Afghans that continually pursued the army, were cut down as helplessly as sheep. The sufferings of the women and children were terrible. One poor woman had lately been confined. ”

“ Most officers of Sepoy regiments, indeed, refused to believe that their own men could be untrue, and indignantly protested against their being disarmed—a blind confidence often repaid by death at the hands of these very men, when their turn came to break loose from the bonds of discipline. But one treacherous tragedy after another decided the doubt, sometimes too late; and where it was still thought well to accept the Sepoys' professions of loyalty, they were vigilantly guarded by English soldiers, who thus could not be spared to march against the open mutineers. ”

“ O Seppy, how I hate the thought of the dull life women lead! A white woman's life is so dull! Thank Heaven, I'm done with it! If I'm ever to live again, may I be whole Indian, please my Maker!"
After this goodly outburst, Aunt Keziah lay quietly for a few moments, and her skinny claws being clasped together, and her yellow visage grinning, as pious an aspect as was attainable by her harsh and pain-distorted features, Septimius perceived that she was in prayer. ”

“ He looked up at the sky—they were on the common—an autumn stretch of pearls and purples, with here and there a streak of wistful blue, as if seeking the inspiration of a reason.
"Because no one has married me," he replied.
Emmy laughed. "That's just like you. You expect a woman to drag you out of your house by the scruff of your neck and haul you to church without your so much as asking her."
"I've heard that lots of women do," said Septimus. ”

“ It grows out of an officer's attachment to his men. It is present sometimes in the British officers who command Gurkhas. Indeed, a man who after a year's service with any class of Sepoy is so detached and impartial in mind as not to find peculiar and distinctive virtues in his own men, ought not to be serving in the Indian Army at all. I remember once hearing a subaltern in a very obscure regiment discussing his class company. ”

“ And a woman! If old Martha Denton, the witch, were alive, I would be glad to see her. But other women! Pah! Ah! Ai! Oh! Phew! Ah, Seppy, what a mercy it would be now if I could set to and blaspheme a bit, and shake my fist at the sky! But I'm a Christian woman, Seppy,–a Christian woman."
"Shall I send for the minister, Aunt Keziah?" asked Septimius. "He is a good man, and a wise one."
"No minister for me, Seppy," said Aunt Keziah, howling as if somebody were choking her. "He may be a good man, and a wise one, but he's not wise enough to know the way to my heart, and never a man as was! ”

“ But she fought us so hard that she slipped away from us."
"Oh, Father!" cried Septimine in a voice suffocated with sobs and raising her suppliant hands to the abbot; "order me killed, but spare me the disgrace!"
"Charles," said Father Clement, "this slave girl sought to help the young prince to escape!... Drag her away!" he added to the slaves at the door; "Have her well whipped!" ”