I am under no obligation to reply to such a question,' Sir John replied stiffly. 'But as I know myself to have been much criticised on that head, I will do so. I am the Servant of the Company. The instructions of their Honours the Directors are that I should avoid all cause for war with the native Princes, and resort to arms only should it be necessary to defend the Company's vital interests. It is my task to carry out those instructions to the best of my ability; not to question them.'
'I disagree. You are ignoring the revolutionary change that has recently taken place in the Government of India. The setting up of the India Board by Parliament has given you two masters. You are now responsible not only to the Company, but also to the Crown. And it is your duty to put the interests of the Crown before those of the Company. I propose to show you a certain paper, and then…'
His ugly face twitching spasmodically, the Governor jumped to his feet and cried: 'How dare you attempt to teach me my business!'
'I pray your Excellency to be seated. When you have seen this paper, I think you will alter your tone.'
'Mr. Brook, you go too far. I'll not read your paper, nor will I discuss these matters with you one moment longer. This interview is ended.'
'On the contrary,' Roger retorted angrily, 'we are but just come to the essentials of it. I, too. have held His Majesty's Commission as a Governor; and, since you clearly need it, I intend to give you the benefit of my experience.'
'You… you! Your insolence is beyond bounds!' Sir John pointed with a trembling hand towards the door. 'Leave the room instantly!'
'I shall leave it when you have written and signed the instructions I came here to get from you; not before.'
'You force me to extreme measures. I see that I must ring for my people and have you arrested.'
Roger made no move to rise. He knew that if he once left the room he would never be given another chance to see Sir John Shore alone. He was fighting for Clarissa's sanity and, perhaps, her life. If he failed now to wring from the Governor authority for the help he needed, all hope of saving her would be done. He had hoped to prevail by argument, but had come prepared to stake everything for her sake. By the step he was now about to take he would, unless he succeeded in breaking the Governor's will, find himself hauled before a court and given a long prison sentence. But it was the only way in which he could force Sir John to listen to him. Without batting an eyelid, he took the plunge, and said sharply:
'In my pocket I have a small pistol. It is loaded and, if your Excellency's hand moves an inch nearer that bell, the Company will be under the necessity of appointing a new Governor.'
Sir John's hand remained poised in mid-air; then he cried, 'This… this is an outrage!'
'It will not be unless you force me to make it one.'!
'You are mad, Sir! Mad! The loss of your wife has driven you out of your mind.'
'No, I am in full possession of my reason. But it happens that my own interests coincide with those of His Majesty's Government. And, since you are neglectful of the latter, I regard it as my duty to see those interests safeguarded.' As he spoke, Roger put his hand into an inner pocket, and Sir John exclaimed with a sudden show of courage:
'I'll sign nothing; nothing! Not even at the pistol point!'
'I'd be a fool to force you to,' Roger replied, taking out a folded parchment, 'for if you did, you could issue an order for its cancellation within five minutes of my leaving you. I wish only to convince you that, where affairs of State are concerned,, there are times when some people put a certain value on my opinion.'
'I should be much surprised ever to find myself among them.'
'That we shall see. You will recall that half an hour back I told you that it was owing to my duel with Malderini that I had to leave England. This letter was brought out by Colonel Wesley, and it is the clearance for my return.' As Roger laid the letter on the desk, he added casually, 'No doubt you are acquainted with the handwriting of the Prime Minister?'
'The Prime Minister!' echoed Sir John, his mouth dropping slightly open.
'Why, yes. Mr. Pitt has been my master for many years; and a: you will see from that he looks upon me as a trusted friend.'
Sir John adjusted his steel-rimmed spectacles and his glance ran swiftly down the parchment. After a moment, Roger said, 'Permit me to direct your Excellency's special attention to the postscript.'
'I have read it.' The Governor's voice was sharp and querulous. 'May God give me patience. To think that Mr. Secretary Dundas should intend to ask you for a report on the state of things in India. What can you know of this vast country? You who have been in it less than a week for every year I have spent here!'
'Three months in a country is more than enough for anyone to learn if its government is strong or weak.'
'You can have formed your judgment only from malicious tittle-tattle, and that is no proper basis to go upon. Even if you were better qualified, that a Minister of the Crown should seek information behind the Company's back in this way is positively scandalous.'
'Your Excellency appears to forget that, as Chairman of the India Board, Mr. Dundas is responsible to His Majesty for the security of British interests in India. From having been a servant of the Company for so many years, your loyalty to it is understandable. But you must not expect me to share it; and it does not excuse British prestige having fallen so low during your stewardship. You talk of tittle-tattle, but it is far more than that when over their wine every night of the week men damn you for policies that bring shame upon our nation. Your betrayal of the Nizam of Hyderabad destroyed throughout India all faith in the British word, and but three nights ago a petty princeling, only a score of miles beyond the frontier of Bengal, treated your name with derision, declaring to me that you would not dare to lift a finger against him.'
'Enough! Enough!' cried the tortured Governor. 'I have followed the instructions of my masters. I have brought in many excellent reforms. I work far longer hours than any of my staff. I have near wrecked my health in service to the people of this country. And what is my reward? To have you. who are ignorant of all this, hold me up at pistol point in order that you can fling these terrible accusations at me.'
Roger shrugged. 'I have no pistol. I pretended that I had one as the only means of preventing you from having me thrown out. I endeavoured to show you that letter earlier, but you would not let me. Your seeing it was my only hope of bringing you to reason.'
'And now that I have.' the Governor gave a bitter laugh. 'I am faced with not a pistol but a cannon. Clearly you are offering me the choice of doing as you wish or, should I refuse, returning to England and doing your utmost to hound me out of office.'
'Say rather that, as in the case of Mr. Warren Hastings and with far better reason, I will have you impeached for treason.'
This is no less than blackmail it could be, but it happens that I have scruples.' Roger told the glib lie because he wished to save the wretched man's face. I’ll put no pressure on you, and give you my word that when I make my report to Harry Dundas it shall be a fair one, untinged by malice. I ask only that your Excellency should consider the advice which I propose to offer you.'
Sir John looked at him in astonishment and, after a moment, replied: 'In view of what has passed between us, you are now acting with considerable generosity, Mr. Brook. Having read this letter, too, I must concede that you are a man of much more consequence than I thought. I would that I had let you show it to me earlier, for it is a clear testimony that the highest personages set value on your opinions.'
Now that the tension was relaxed, both men again sat down, and Roger said: 'It may on first thought seem an impertinence for one who has been Governor only of a West Indian island to air his views to a man of your Excellency's exalted station and far great experience; yet I am convinced that the art of government remains the same whatever the size of the state.
'When I arrived in Martinique, it had recently been taken from the French, and nine-tenths of its white popu
lation are of that nation. The island was in a state of acute unrest, and a revolt aimed at turning us out could be anticipated at any time. My predecessor had resorted to fiercely repressive measures, but that had led only to further antagonising the inhabitants and paralysing the trade of the island.
'I reversed that policy and, like yourself, initiated one of appeasement. In every issue I went as far as I could to meet the wishes of the French. I revoked many restrictions that irritated them, bettered the lot of the workers, and stimulated commerce. In fact, I ruled with a velvet glove. But I kept a hand of steel inside it. The least infringement of my orders and the offender got no second chance. Those who were caught talking sedition against the British rule I treated without mercy. It may well be that I had hanged a score of innocent men; but by that I stopped revolts which might have led to the deaths of many hundreds.
'May I suggest, Sir John, that you have been ruling with the velvet glove, but without the steel hand inside it?'
The tired man on the other side of the desk nodded slowly. There is much in what you say. But my instructions from the Company…'
'Let us forget the Company,' Roger cut him short, 'and think only of what British rule should be. Justice, the freeing of the people from oppression by the native rulers, the introduction of better methods of agriculture, the stabilisation of currency, and encouragement of the exchange of goods between provinces; all this, but also death for those who foment discontent or, through personal ambition, threaten the progress of peace and prosperity.
'In the matter of Bahna, you have to your hand a situation which, if you handle it rightly, can rehabilitate you in the eyes both of your fellow countrymen and the native potentates. This vicious young Rajah owes the Company twelve lakhs of rupees. He has refused to pay it, and is confident that you will not dare to use force to collect it. I suggest that you should order Colonel Gunston to advance on Bahna and demand both the money and my wife. I go further. I suggest that you should entrust me with an order to depose Jawahir-ul-daula and appoint a suitable successor. For him to pay at this late date is not enough. Only by occupying his capital and making an example of him will you receive the full credit for having acted, however belatedly, with real resolution to restore your lost authority. Do this and the news of it will run round India in a week. From Kashmir to Travancore it will be realised that you are not, after all, a man to be trifled with.'
They argued the matter for another half-hour, but in the end Roger got his way. Sir John Shore penned a despatch giving fresh instructions to Gunston, and signed and sealed for Roger a commission as an agent of the Company authorising him to make such changes in the government of Bahna as he saw fit. Apart from policy, the question of reinforcements for Gunston was outside his province, but he gave Roger a letter to the Commander-in-Chief, informing him of his decision to reduce Bahna to obedience, and requesting that British troops should be despatched as soon as possible to strengthen the force that Gunston was commanding on behalf of the Company.
Mentally stimulated by his triumph after this long battle, Roger took leave of the Governor and had himself carried in a chair through the noisy, crowded, smelly streets to the Red Fort, in which General Sir Alured Clarke had his headquarters.
The General kept him waiting for half an hour but then, having met him at numerous bachelor evening parties, greeted him as an old friend. Having read Sir John Shore's letter he exclaimed, 'Drat me! What can have come over that moribund cuss that, for once, he's willin' to let us chastise one of these insolent coffee-coloured gentry?'
Tactfully, Sir Alured refrained from enquiring about Clarissa, so Roger did not use her situation to urge the necessity for acting with speed. Instead, feeling that he had let the Governor down lightly, he did not scruple to imply that if matters were delayed Sir John might change his mind; as he knew very well that the soldier would go to any lengths rather than lose this unexpected chance to re-establish British prestige. He learned, though, to his dismay, that this question of speed raised a new and tricky problem.
Sir Alured had far fewer troops than he really needed to 'show the flag' and, if need be, help to defend the Indian States on which, since Clive's day, the Company had imposed a vague over lordship embodied in some form of alliance. Most of these, too, were stationed up in Oudh, or in the distant Carnatic, and recently he had had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for troops to make up Colonel Wesley's force that was mustering at Madras for the expedition to Manila. The only unit he could offer, which could be on the way in forty-eight hours, was a squadron of hussars from the Headquarters’ garrison. Neither artillery nor British infantry could be made available under a fortnight, as both would have to be composite units formed from details got together in the depots.
Roger's choice, therefore, lay in either taking the cavalry only, with which he could rejoin Gunston in a week, or waiting for at least a fortnight, then making a slower march at the pace of the infantry, which meant that the best part of a month must elapse before he could hope to rescue Clarissa. As cavalry was the arm Gunston had said he needed above all else, and Roger still had faith in Rai-ul-daula bringing the greater part of the Bahna army over to them as soon as the British appeared in front of the city, he hesitated hardly a moment before deciding to make do with the hussars.
Knowing that Calcutta must by now be humming with the news of his return and a fresh wave of speculation about Clarissa's disappearance, he felt it would be highly embarrassing to meet their acquaintances; so he made only one visit, which was to his old friends the Beaumont’s, and poured his woes into their sympathetic ears. Moreover, the idea of returning for two nights to his own house, where he had known so much joy with Clarissa, was intolerable to him; so he rode out there only to give Chudda Gya a month's wages for the servants then went to cover for the rest of the time in the mansion of the ever hospitable Hickey.
Early on the Wednesday, still a prey to great anxiety about Clarissa, but physically again in good shape after his two days of recuperation, he set off with the squadron of hussars. They were commanded by a Captain of near his own age, named Philip Laker; a short, dark, good looking young man, with the typical slightly bow-legged swagger of a cavalry officer. From the start they took a liking to one another and, as Roger trotted once more across the long dusty plain, with its endless vistas of ryots cultivating their fields, humped oxen drawing high-wheeled carts and women with bundles on their heads, he told Laker the whole story of his involvement with the abominable Malderini.
As the pace had to be kept down to one which would not tire unduly the least good mounts of the squadron, instead of making the journey, as Roger had, in little over two days, it took four; so it was in the mid-morning of Sunday that they came in sight of the camp outside Bamanghati. Much to Roger's surprise, he saw that only a remnant of it remained, and it was obvious that the greater part of Gunston's force had vacated it. A quarter of an hour later, an Ensign who had been left in charge of the sick and stores told him that the Colonel had received an urgent despatch on Thursday evening and set off in the direction of Bahna early on Friday morning.
Roger had known that Gunston would receive his new orders from Sir John Shore several days before he could rejoin him, but had not expected him to move off before he had received his reinforcements. However, that he had done so now appeared all to the good, as Laker's hussars could make the march through the hills much faster than Gunston's sepoys and artillery; so, by the latter having moved up to an advance base, a day would be gained.
As the midday heats were now increasing with the advance of spring, the track through the mountains would from ten o'clock onwards be sizzling with heat, and the glare on the bare rocks most tiring to the men; so Roger and Laker decided to rest the squadron at Gunston's old camp that afternoon, then break the back of the thirty miles they had to go by a night march. By dawn on Monday they reached the lower slopes on the far side of the range, but were much surprised to find no signs of Gun
ston's advance base there.
After a two-hour halt for the men to have a meal, they moved on down into the plain. Three miles farther on they got their first distant sight of the city; but they had to ride another two before they came upon one of Gunston's pickets. A sepoy then led them along a track through a wood to a great sprawling collection of buildings the size of a hamlet, but in one irregular mass, instead of being dotted about. It was a typical dwelling under the Indian patriarchal system, by which one family, often of as many as a hundred people, all lived and farmed together.
The sound of hoof-beats brought Gunston out from the doorway of one of the larger buildings and, with a wave to Roger, he cried, 'Well, I never expected to see you back so soon; but I suppose you were too impatient to wait for infantry and guns.'
'That's so,' Roger replied, dismounting; and, after he had introduced Laker, he went on, 'For my part I never expected to find that you had left your camp; much less that you would have advanced so near the city. They can't possibly fail to know you are here, and that will have given them time to prepare to resist us.'
Gunston shrugged. 'Of course they know. Old man Shore's despatch was perfectly clear. I was ordered to demand payment of the money and the return of Mrs. Brook, coupled with the threat that in the event of a refusal I would come and get them. As the Rajah had already refused to pay up when I sent to demand the money three weeks or more ago, the only chance of making him change his mind was by a display of force. It has not come off, though. I sent Captain Jeckles in yesterday morning. All he got was a flat refusal, and not long after his return the Rajah's army began to pour out of the city in battle array. Naturally I made no move to attack, and nor did they. But they have come out again this morning. Come up to the roof and have a look at them.'
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