CHAPTER XVI
The Post of Honour
A great victory had been won! The temper of the men had been tested andfound true as steel; the only loyal dark-faced battalion had been triedand found worthy to rank side by side with the steadiest of English orHighland regiments. The praises of the Gurkhas were in every mouth.
Besides these tests two great material advantages had been gained. Thiswas the first. Less than a mile from the walls the Aravelli range ofhills ended, and underneath this ridge lay the place where the troopshad dwelt before the mutiny. Had the enemy not been driven from theRidge, the old cantonments and parade-ground could not have beenoccupied, as they would have been swept by the fire from above.
Now that the Ridge had been won, however, the army could safely restbelow, protected by the high ground from the fire of the heavy guns onthe Delhi bastions.
In the second place, the rebels had not only been disheartened by theirfirst defeat, but the tidings would quickly spread all over India thatthe English were still strong enough to defeat thrice their number. Thisnews would be worth a thousand men, for people were saying that Allahhad deprived the Feringhis of their strength, that they were _lachar_(helpless), and could no longer fight.
The rebel stronghold lay before the victors, vast, powerful, and filledwith myriads of brave and warlike men. Well might they be defiant, forwhat could that tiny army achieve against their great strength. For youmust know that by all the rules of warfare an army attacking astrongly-fortified place should be much more numerous than the defendinghost, and have more powerful or quite as powerful artillery. Theassailants should be able to surround the place to prevent the entranceof food or reinforcements. But the walls of Delhi measured seven milesin circumference; the army investing it could with difficulty guard itsown quarters, and rebel reinforcements entered as they pleased. Thoughwe were supposed to be engaged in an assault on Delhi, yet in reality,during that summer of 1857, we were on our defence--the defenders of theRidge against countless rebel attacks.
At the southern extremity of the Ridge stood a large mansion, built manyyears ago by a Mahratta gentleman named Hindu Rao. This house, strongand well built, commanded a good view of Delhi, and all movements couldbe observed therefrom. No force could issue from the walls to surprisethe camp or retake the Ridge without being noticed by the picket holdingthe position. So Hindu Rao's house became the post of honour, and thepost of honour is always the post of danger. Less than 1200 yards fromthe mansion the 24-pounders of the Mori bastion overlooked the Ridge,and the house presented an easy target for the shot and shell of thehuge guns.
The little cannon of our soldiers were as pop-guns compared to thesemonsters, and not only was the advantage in size, but the sepoyspossessed a dozen heavy guns for every light one of ours, besides vaststores of ammunition and material of war. The walls had been furtherstrengthened not many years before by English engineer officers, who hadmade a glacis that protected all except the top ten feet of the wallsfrom injury by shot or shell.
A glacis is a huge bank of earth sloping outwards from the walls, andnot only does it shield the lower portions, but, should an enemyattempt to escalade the walls or carry the city by assault, they wouldfirst have to run up this glacis, and there they would present such atarget that trained gunners could sweep the assailants away by hundreds.The engineers, who had so skilfully and carefully constructed thesedefences, little thought that their handiwork would merely serve to keepIndia in a ferment for many months. The batteries were manned byartillerymen who had learned their profession--and learned it, alas! toowell--under the tuition of English officers. Within the walls were morethan 20,000 trained and disciplined sepoys, men who had proved theirvalour on many a well-fought field, not to mention thousands onthousands of armed fanatics, warriors by birth and by tradition. Allthese fought under shelter, which our brave fellows lacked. But ourswere British, "strong with the strength of the race to command, to obey,to endure", save the one Gurkha battalion and the Guide Corps (now closeat hand), and these were soon admitted as equals by the Britishsoldiers.
The British army was small--very small--but the lack of powerfulartillery was an even greater source of weakness. An army withoutartillery, matched against even an equal force well supplied withpowerful guns, would have as much chance of success as a man armed witha light cane fighting another possessed of sword and revolver.
Thousands of people in England and in India, who eagerly devoured thenews and anxiously awaited the fall of the capital, impatiently asked,"Why are they so long? Why don't they take the city?" These worthy folkscould not understand the difficulties; they could not realize that merepluck and endurance avail nothing against stone walls and mighty cannon.As the weeks rolled by and Delhi was still untaken, other persons, stillmore ignorant, exclaimed, "Why don't they leave Delhi if they can'tcapture it, and go and help Sir Henry Lawrence at Lucknow?" They didnot see that even if that small army appeared to be doing little, itstill kept shut up in the city forty thousand armed rebels who mightotherwise be spreading over the country conquering and slaying. Nor didthey grasp the fact that had the English army left Delhi unconquered thewarlike Punjab, and then all India, would have risen. To have left theMogul capital would have been a confession of weakness; it would havebeen to say: "We are beaten, we can do nothing here", and when once theEnglish say that in India, their empire will collapse.
So, though Barnard's handful was attacking Delhi contrary to all therules of war, we must remember what Mr. Rudyard Kipling has pointed out,that had our British generals never acted against those rules theboundaries of the empire would have stayed at Brighton beach.
It will be readily understood, even by boys who have engaged in nobattles save those in which snow-balls form the most dangerous missiles,that this ridge of elevated ground was of the highest importance. Hadthe rebels been able to retake it and plant guns thereon, the Britishcamp would have been at their mercy, and the Punjab would have beenablaze. As the Ridge defended the British army, so Hindu Rao's housedefended the Ridge.
Let us rejoin the comrades we had left victorious after the battle ofBadli-ka-Serai. The army now occupied its old parade-ground below theRidge, and our friends, who had escaped uninjured, were awaiting furtherorders, when Major Reid, who had been conversing with the general, cametowards them, his face aglow.
"Grand news, Dorricot!" he shouted. "The Sirmur Battalion is to defendthat house," pointing to the distant mansion of Hindu Rao.
"Score for our Gurkhas!" Dorricot shouted back.
"What do you think of that, youngsters?" he continued, turning to Tedand Alec. "I feel as though I'd been made a K.C.B. at least. We mustfall the men in and be off."
The Gurkha bugles sounded and the battalion fell in, whilst theircommandant informed them that the general had paid them the greatcompliment of selecting them for the post of honour, and he had no doubtthat they would show themselves in every way worthy to uphold thetraditions of their race. The little men grinned, well pleased, as theirofficer went on to warn them that it would also be the post of danger;that upon the house of Hindu Rao would fall the brunt of all the rebelattacks, and that the building would be the main target for the Delhiartillery.
The little men huzzaed at the prospect. The fiercer the battle wagingaround them the better pleased would they be. They meant to hold theirpost tooth and nail.
"What plucky little fiends they are!" Alec whispered. "Danger evidentlyappeals to them as a most delightful prospect."
When the news spread that the Gurkhas had been awarded the post ofhonour, the soldiers assembled to cheer their comrades from themountains of Nepal as they marched away. Never did general make a wiserselection. Prominent amidst the glorious achievements during the siegeof Delhi stands out the dogged pluck of the Gurkha picket, whosuccessfully held the house of Hindu Rao during a hundred days ofterrific fighting and bombardment, though only a handful escaped deathor wounds.
Rooms were apportioned to the various ranks, and the Sirmur men weresp
eedily settled in their new quarters. Ted and Charlie strolled roundthe mansion, and, gazing upon the Imperial City, entered into anargument respecting their distance from the big cannon of the Moribastion.
They were still disputing, when a pleasant-looking, gentlemanly youngGurkha officer joined them, and, jerking our ensign round by his jacketcollar to face the new-comer, Charlie observed:
"I ought to have introduced you two before. Goria Thapa, can you guesswho the ensign sahib is? He is Ensign Russell, son of your father'scomrade, of whom you have often heard. Ted, this is Jemadar Goria Thapa,son of Jaspao Thapa, your guvnor's great pal of 1815."
Goria Thapa's jolly countenance became wreathed in grins. He held outhis hand, saying:
"I have heard much of thy father, Russell Sahib, who was my father'sbrother. I am glad to fight side by side with thee as our fathersfought."
Ted pressed the young jemadar's hand. This was, then, the grandson ofthe famous Nepalese general, Amir Sing Thapa, who had kept our troops atbay for so long a period in the year of Waterloo. Ted had often heardthe story, and was glad indeed to meet the hero's grandson.
That night the troops slept soundly both on and below the Ridge. In theearly morning the Gurkha picket heard the sound of cheering from theBritish camp, and the report ran round that the Guide Corps was marchingin. Ted, Paterson, and their four Pathans--two had fallen on theprevious day--went down to rejoin their regiment, which was beinggreeted with the same enthusiasm that had been accorded to the Sirmurisa few days before.
Though the Guides had taken no part in the battle they had alreadycovered themselves with undying glory. Daly had promised that the sevenhundred and fifty miles should be covered in a month, and he had done itin twenty-eight days. The stately height and military bearing of thefrontiersmen and the perfect horsemanship of the cavalry took everyoneby surprise, and such exclamations as "A splendid lot!" "Fighters everyinch of them!" were heard on all sides. Though they had accomplished themagnificent march--a march that still holds the record--during thehottest season of the year, they came in, as an onlooker remarked, "asfirm and light of step as if they had marched only a mile".
The Guides had barely arrived before they contrived to give the Delhirebels a taste of their temper. Large bodies of horse and foot had beensent out from the city to harass our advanced posts, and, full of afierce joy, the Guides were ordered to the front.
Charlie was engaged in chaffing his cousin, Ted throwing in a word hereand there, when Lieutenant Quintin Battye strolled up, a smile on hishandsome face. He nodded towards the two ensigns.
"I've a bone to pick with you two," he gaily remarked. "What do you meanby risking the lives of my best troopers by charging a regiment withhalf a dozen men? Throw your own lives away if you like, but rememberthat our sowars are of value to the state."
Ted had a joke on the tip of his tongue before the slower Paterson hadframed any suitable reply, when the order came for the Guides Cavalry toadvance.
Battye rose in his stirrups, and, thundering forth the order to charge,dashed straight for the ranks of the mutinous 3rd Native Cavalry. Thesabres of the loyal and disloyal crossed, and down went man and horsebefore that furious onslaught. Through the second ranks of the rebelscrashed those Pathan and Sikh troopers, their steel flashing in thesunlight as the sabres rose and fell again, now tinged with red, in thefierce conflict. Ever in the forefront rode Quintin Battye. CaptainDaly, with the infantry, looked on in admiration at his subaltern'scharge and could not contain himself.
"Gallant Battye! Well done, brave Battye!" he cried in his enthusiasm.
At that very moment a rebel turned round, and, riding straight for theEnglish subaltern, discharged his piece into Battye's body from adistance of twenty yards. The deed was avenged! Subadar Merban Sing,captain of the Gurkha company of the Guides, had dashed forward and cutdown the sepoy as he fired, but too late to save that precious life.Battye was carried off the field, wounded mortally; and as he lay dyingin terrible pain, he turned to the chaplain who attended him, andsmiling said: "_Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori!_"
Thus died a gallant officer and true gentleman. Since that date therehas hardly been a campaign in which the Guides have not been officeredby a Battye.
The Guides Infantry were now allotted a position on the Ridge, under theorders of Major Reid, who had been placed in command of the advancedposts. Two companies of the 60th Rifles also took up their quarters inHindu Rao's house, for it soon became evident that the Sirmur Battalionwould have to bear the brunt of all attacks.
But the little Himalayans did not grumble at that.
On the very first opportunity that presented itself, our three friendsforegathered to talk over the events of the past few years. The twoseniors placidly smoked their pipes and congratulated themselves onbelonging to regiments that had proved their loyalty.
Jim was forced to submit, with as much good-temper and cheerfulness ascould have been expected under the circumstances, to his cousin'squizzing enquiries and humorous comments in the matter of his loveaffair and engagement. Charlie simply wanted to know everything, and,with as good a grace as possible for a shy young man, Jim laughinglyendeavoured to parry the embarrassing questions.
"Well, tell me what she's like, man, can't you? Teddy here can't sayanything concerning her appearance, except that he's head over heels inlove with her himself.---- And I'm sure that's no recommendation for anygirl!" Captain Dorricot added, as an afterthought.
Ted hereupon indulged in an exclamation and gesture expressive ofdissent, and of the supreme contempt in which he held his cousin.
"What's that, Ted? You never said anything of the sort? Why, you youngbargee, of course you did!" went on the tormentor. "You talked ofpoisoning Jim's grub, and what not.---- Well, Captain Russell, oncemore: Are her eyes black, blue, brown, purple, violet, green, yellow,red, or a mixture, or perchance, is she an albino?"
"Oh, I dunno! Something between green and blue, as you seem so anxiousto know."
"Peacock-blue, shall we say? That's a pity! Violet is the favourite huewith lady novelists--either violet, or purple, or heliotrope. Did youever see a woman with eyes of heliotrope hue, young 'un?"
"No, nor don't want to."
"That's very decided. Now then, Jim, cut along! Eyes, peacock-blue;nose, Roman, Grecian, snub, or what? Grecian? Right. Jot it down. Size?Ted says she's a dwarf. What? Ted a liar? Surely the boy has not beendeceiving me who trusted in him?"
"I never said anything of the kind!" interrupted Ted indignantly. "Don'tbelieve a word he says, Jim."
"Oh, Teddy, Teddy, this to your loving cousin? Now, you know that yousaid she was smaller than you!" Charlie asserted with a show ofindignant surprise at the ensign's perfidy.
"Well, we're getting at it slowly," Dorricot continued. "Nose Grecian;peacock-blue eyes; size five feet nothing; hair brown; rides well;shoots mullahs in the _bazar_ for sport, failing partridges; loadsrifles with considerable ease--for a woman; sings divinely--isn't thatthe expression?--"
"Hold on, old man, that's the whole catalogue!" interrupted Jim. "You'llsee her some day, I hope. Now what about this present business?"
Captain Russell then proceeded to give an account of their great march,and Dorricot told of the temptations placed before his men.
"As we halted one day on the march down to Meerut," he informed thebrothers, "a number of sappers who were on the point of mutinyapproached our lads and began to talk earnestly to them. We pretended totake no notice, but when the sappers had left, Reid called a couple ofthe Gurkhas to him. The little men trotted up, quivering with anger andindignation.
"'Well, what did those fellows want, my lads?' he enquired.
"'They asked us if we were going up to Meerut to eat the _ottah_ (flour)sent up specially by government for the Gurkhas,' one of them replied.'And they said that the _ottah_ at Meerut was nothing but ground bullockbones, and that we should be defiled.'
"'And what was your answer?' asked Reid.
"The little beggar
s drew themselves up proudly.
"'We said that we were going wherever we were ordered; that our regimentobeys the bugle-call!'"
"Good little men!" commented the captain of the Guides, as his cousinconcluded. "Our own Gurkha company would be hard to beat. Look atSubadar Merban Sing! the man who tried to save poor Battye. His mensimply adore him; they'd do anything for him, and go anywhere with him.But aren't your 'almond-eyed Tartars' Hindus by religion? How did theytake the greased-cartridge yarn?"
"They're Hindus, right enough, but they are soldiers first. They don'tworship either Siva or Vishnu one-half so fervently as they adore theirrifles and kukris. So they simply said that they would believe whateverMajor Reid told them, and when he assured them that the cartridges andthe cartridge-papers were free from offence, they replied, without amoment's hesitation:
"'Then serve them out to us! We'll use them, and everyone may see!'"
The Disputed V.C.: A Tale of the Indian Mutiny Page 17