by G. A. Henty
Chapter 7: The Siege Of Arcot.
From Conjeveram to Arcot is twenty-seven miles, and the troops, inspite of a delay caused by a tremendous storm of thunder andlightning, reached the town in two days. The garrison, struck withpanic at the sudden coming of a foe, when they deemed themselves inabsolute security, at once abandoned the fort, which they might easilyhave maintained until Chunda Sahib was able to send a force to relieveit. The city was incapable of defence after the fort had beenabandoned, and Clive took possession of both, without firing a shot.
He at once set to work to store up provisions in the fort, in which hefound eight guns and an abundance of ammunition, as he foresaw thelikelihood of his having to stand a siege there; and then, leaving agarrison to defend it in his absence, marched on the 4th of Septemberwith the rest of his forces against the enemy, who had retired fromthe town to the mud fort of Timari, six miles south of Arcot. After afew discharges with their cannon they retired hastily, and Clivemarched back to Arcot.
Two days later, however, he found that they had been reinforced, andas their position threatened his line of communications, he againadvanced towards them. He found the enemy about two thousand strong,drawn up in a grove under cover of the guns of the fort. The grove wasinclosed by a bank and ditch, and some fifty yards away was a drytank, inclosed by a bank higher than that which surrounded the grove.In this the enemy could retire, when dislodged from their firstposition.
Charlie's heart beat fast when he heard the order given to advance.The enemy outnumbered them by five to one, and were in a strongposition. As the English advanced, the enemy's two field pieces openedupon them. Only three men were killed, and, led by their officers, themen went at the grove at the double. The enemy at once evacuated it,and took refuge in the tank, from behind whose high bank they openedfire upon the English.
Clive at once divided his men into two columns, and sent them round toattack the tank upon two sides. The movement was completelysuccessful. At the same moment the men went with a rush at the banks,and upon reaching the top opened a heavy fire upon the crowded masswithin. These at once fled in disorder.
Clive then summoned the fort to surrender; but the commander, seeingthat Clive had no battering train, refused to do so; and Clive fellback upon Arcot again, until his eighteen-pounders should arrive.
For the next eight days, the troops were engaged in throwing updefences, and strengthening and victualling the fort. The enemy,gaining confidence, gathered to the number of three thousand, andencamped three miles from the town, proclaiming that they were aboutto besiege; and at midnight on the 14th Clive sallied out, took themby surprise, and dispersed them.
The two eighteen-pounders, for which Clive had sent to Madras, werenow well upon the road, under the protection of a small body ofSepoys, and were approaching Conjeveram. The enemy sent a considerablebody of troops to cut off the guns, and Clive found that the smallnumber which he had sent out, to meet the approaching party, would notbe sufficient. He therefore resolved to take the whole force, leavingonly sufficient to garrison the fort.
The post which the enemy occupied was a temple near Conjeveram, and asthis was twenty-seven miles distant, the force would be obliged to beabsent for at least two days. As it would probably be attacked, andmight have to fight hard, he decided on leaving only thirty Europeansand fifty Sepoys within the fort. He appointed Doctor Rae to thecommand of the post during his absence, and placed Charlie and Petersunder his orders.
"I wonder whether they will have any fighting," Charlie said, as thethree officers looked from the walls of the fort after the departingforce.
"I wish we had gone with them," Peters put in; "but it will be a longmarch, in the heat."
"I should think," Doctor Rae said, "that they are sure to havefighting. I only hope they may not be attacked at night. The men arevery young and inexperienced, and there is nothing tries new soldiersso much as a night attack. However, from what I hear of their ownwars, I believe that night attacks are rare among them. I don't knowthat they have any superstition on the subject, as some African peoplehave, on the ground that evil spirits are about at night; but thenatives are certainly not brisk, after nightfall. They are extremelysusceptible to any fall of temperature, and as you have, of course,noticed, sleep with their heads covered completely up. However, wemust keep a sharp lookout here, tonight."
"You don't think that we are likely to be attacked, sir, do you?"
"It is possible we may be," the doctor said. "They will know thatCaptain Clive has set out from here, with the main body, and has leftonly a small garrison. Of course they have spies, and will know thatthere are only eighty men here, a number insufficient to defend oneside of this fort, to say nothing of the whole circle of the walls.They have already found out that the English can fight in the open,and their experience at Timari will make them shy of meeting us again.Therefore, it is just possible that they may be marching in thisdirection today, while Clive is going in the other, and that they mayintend carrying it with a rush.
"I should say, today let the men repose as much as possible; keep thesentries on the gates and walls, but otherwise let them all haveabsolute quiet. You can tell the whites, and I will let the Sepoysknow, that they will have to be in readiness all night, and that theyhad better, therefore, sleep as much as possible today. We will takeit by turns to be on duty, one going round the walls and seeing thatthe sentries are vigilant, while the others sit in the shade and dozeoff, if they can. We must all three keep on the alert, during thenight."
Doctor Rae said that he, himself, would see that all went well for thefirst four hours, after which Charlie should go on duty; and the twosubalterns accordingly made themselves as comfortable as they could intheir quarters, which were high up in the fort, and possessed a windowlooking over the surrounding country.
"Well, Tim, what is the matter with you?" they asked that soldier, ashe came in with an earthenware jar of water, which he placed to coolin the window. "You look pale."
"And it's pale I feel, your honor, with the life frightened fairly outof me, a dozen times a day. It was bad enough on the march, but thisplace just swarms with horrible reptiles. Shure an' it's a pity thatthe holy Saint Patrick didn't find time to pay a visit to India. Ifhe'd driven the varmint into the sea for them, as he did in Ireland,the whole population would have become Christians, out of puregratitude. Why, yer honor, in the cracks and crevices of the stones ofthis ould place there are bushels and bushels of 'em. There are thingsthey call centipades, with a million legs on each side of them, andhorns big enough to frighten ye; of all sizes up to as long as my handand as thick as my finger; and they say that a bite from one of themwill put a man in a raging fever, and maybe kill him. Then there arescorpions, the savagest looking little bastes ye ever saw, for all theworld like a little lobster with his tail turned over his back, and asting at the end of it. Then there's spiders, some of 'em nigh as bigas a cat."
"Oh, nonsense, Tim!" Charlie said; "I don't think, from what I'veheard, that there's a spider in India whose body is as big as amouse."
"It isn't their body, yer honor. It's their legs. They're just cruelto look at. It was one of 'em that gave me a turn, a while ago. I wasjust lying on my bed smoking my pipe, when I saw one of the creatures(as big as a saucer, I'll take my oath) walking towards me with hiswicked eye fixed full on me. I jumped off the bed and on to a benchthat stood handy.
"'What are ye yelling about, Tim Kelly?' said Corporal Jones to me.
"'Here's a riotous baste here, corporal,' says I, 'that's meditatingan attack on me.'
"'Put your foot on it, man,' says he.
"'It's mighty fine,' says I, 'and I in my bare feet.'
"So the corporal tells Pat Murphy, my right-hand man, to tackle thebaste. I could see Pat didn't like the job ayther, yer honor, but he'snot the boy to shrink from his duty; so he comes and he takes post onthe form by my side, and just when the cratur is making up his mind tocharge us both, Pat jumps down upon him and squelched it.
"Shure, yer honor, the sight of such bastes is enough to turn aChristian man's blood."
"The spider had no idea of attacking you, Kelly," Peters said,laughing. "It might possibly bite you in the night, though I do notthink it would do so; or if you took it up in your fingers."
"The saints defind us, yer honor! I'd as soon think of taking a tigerby the tail. The corporal, he's an Englishman, and lives in a countrywhere they've got snakes and reptiles; but it's hard on an Irish boy,dacently brought up within ten miles of Cork's own town, to be exposedto the like.
"And do ye know, yer honor, when I went out into the town yesterday,what should I see but a man sitting down against a wall, with a littlebit of a flute in his hand, and a basket by his side. Well, yer honor,I thought maybe he was going to play a tune, when he lifts up the topof the basket and then began to play. Ye may call it music, yer honor,but there was nayther tune nor music in it.
"Then all of a suddint two sarpents in the basket lifts up theirheads, with a great ear hanging down on each side, and began to wavethemselves about."
"Well, Tim, what happened then?" Charlie asked, struggling with hislaughter.
"Shure it's little I know what happened after, for I just took to myheels, and I never drew breath till I was inside the gates."
"There was nothing to be frightened at, Tim," Charlie said. "It was asnake charmer. I have never seen one yet, but there are numbers ofthem all over India. Those were not ears you saw, but the hood. Thesnakes like the music, and wave their heads about in time to it. Ibelieve that, although they are a very poisonous snake and their biteis certain death, there is no need to be afraid of them, as thecharmers draw out their poison fangs when they catch them."
"Do they, now?" Tim said, in admiration. "I wonder what the regimentalbarber would say to a job like that, now. He well nigh broke DanSullivan's jaw, yesterday, in getting out a big tooth; and then sworeat the poor boy, for having such a powerful strong jaw. I should liketo see his face, if he was asked to pull out a tooth from one of themdancing sarpents.
"I brought ye in some fruits, yer honors. I don't know what they are,but you may trust me, they're not poison. I stopped for half an hourbeside the stall, till I saw some of the people of the country buyingand ating them. So then I judged that they were safe for yer honors."
"Now, Tim, you'd better go and lie down and get a sleep, if thespiders will let you, for you will have to be under arms all night, asit is possible that we may be attacked."
The first part of the night passed quietly. Double sentries wereplaced at each of the angles of the walls. The cannons were loaded,and all ready for instant action. Doctor Rae and his two subalternswere upon the alert, visiting the posts every quarter of an hour tosee that the men were vigilant.
Towards two o'clock a dull sound was heard and, although nothing couldbe seen, the men were at once called to arms, and took up the posts towhich they had already been told off on the walls. The noisecontinued. It was slight and confused, but the natives are so quiet intheir movements, that the doctor did not doubt that a considerablebody of men were surrounding the place, and that he was about to beattacked.
Presently one of the sentries over the gateway perceived somethingapproaching. He challenged, and immediately afterwards fired. Thesound of his gun seemed to serve as the signal for an assault, and alarge body of men rushed forward at the gate, while at two otherpoints a force ran up to the foot of the walls, and endeavoured toplant ladders.
The garrison at once collected at the points of attack, a few sentriesonly being left at intervals on the wall, to give notice should anyattempt be made elsewhere. From the walls, a heavy fire of musketrywas poured upon the masses below; while from the windows of all thehouses around, answering flashes of fire shot out, a rain of bulletsbeing directed at the battlements. Doctor Rae himself commanded at thegate; one of the subalterns at each of the other points assailed.
The enemy fought with great determination. Several times the ladderswere planted and the men swarmed up them, but as often these werehurled back upon the crowd below. At the gate the assailantsendeavoured to hew their way, with axes, through it; but so steady wasthe fire directed, from the loopholes which commanded it, upon thoseso engaged, that they were, each time, forced to recoil with greatslaughter. It was not until nearly daybreak that the attack ceased,and the assailants, finding that they could not carry the place by acoup de main, fell back.
The next day, the main body of the British force returned with theconvoy. News arrived, the following day, that the enemy wereapproaching to lay siege to the place.
The news of the capture of Arcot had produced the effect which Clivehad anticipated from it. It alarmed and irritated the besiegers ofTrichinopoli, and inspired the besieged with hope and exultation. TheMahratta chief of Gutti and the Rajah of Mysore, with whom MuhammudAli had for some time been negotiating, at once declared in hisfavour. The Rajah of Tanjore and the chief of Pudicota, adjoining thatstate, who had hitherto remained strictly neutral, now threw in theirfortunes with the English, and thereby secured the communicationsbetween Trichinopoli and the coast.
Chunda Sahib determined to lose not a moment in recovering Arcot,knowing that its recapture would at once cool the ardour of the newnative allies of the English; and that, with its capture, the lasthope of the besieged in Trichinopoli would be at an end. Continuingthe siege, he despatched three thousand of his best troops, with ahundred and fifty Frenchmen, to reinforce the two thousand men alreadynear Arcot, under the command of his son Riza Sahib. Thus the forceabout to attack Arcot amounted to five thousand men; while thegarrison under Clive's orders had, by the losses in the defence of thefort, by fever and disease, been reduced to one hundred and twentyEuropeans, and two hundred Sepoys; while four out of the eightofficers were hors de combat.
The fort which this handful of men had to defend was in no way capableof offering a prolonged resistance. Its walls were more than a mile incircumference, and were in a very bad state of repair. The rampart wasnarrow and the parapet low, and the ditch, in many places, dry. Thefort had two gates. These were in towers standing beyond the ditch,and connected with the interior by a causeway across it. The houses inthe town in many places came close up to the walls, and from theirroofs the ramparts of the forts were commanded.
On the 23rd September Riza Sahib, with his army, took up his positionbefore Arcot. Their guns had not, however, arrived, with the exceptionof four mortars; but they at once occupied all the houses near thefort, and from the walls and upper windows kept up a heavy fire on thebesieged.
Clive determined to make an effort, at once, to drive them from thisposition, and he accordingly, on the same afternoon, made a sortie. Sodeadly a fire, however, was poured into the troops as they advanced,that they were unable to make any way, and were forced to retreat intothe fort again, after suffering heavy loss.
On the night of the 24th, Charlie Marryat, with twenty men carryingpowder, was lowered from the walls; and an attempt was made to blow upthe houses nearest to them; but little damage was done, for the enemywere on the alert, and they were unable to place the powder ineffective positions, and with a loss of ten of their number thesurvivors with difficulty regained the fort.
For the next three weeks the position remained unchanged. So heavy wasthe fire which the enemy, from their commanding position, maintained,that no one could show his head for a moment, without running the riskof being shot. Only a few sentinels were kept upon the walls, toprevent the risk of surprise, and these had to remain stooping belowthe parapet. Every day added to the losses.
Captain Clive had a series of wonderful escapes, and indeed the menbegan to regard him with a sort of superstitious reverence, believingthat he had a charmed life. One of his three remaining officers,seeing an enemy taking deliberate aim at him through a window,endeavoured to pull him aside. The native changed his aim, and theofficer fell dead. On three other occasions sergeants, who accompaniedhim on his rounds, were shot dead by his side. Yet no ball touchedhim.
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sp; Provisions had been stored in the fort, before the commencement of thesiege, sufficient for sixty days; and of this a third was alreadyexhausted when, on the 14th of October, the French troops serving withRiza Sahib received two eighteen-pounders, and seven smaller pieces ofartillery. Hitherto the besiegers had contented themselves withharassing the garrison night and day, abstaining from any attack whichwould cost them lives, until the arrival of their guns. Upon receivingthese, they at once placed them in a battery which they had preparedon the northwest of the fort, and opened fire.
So well was this battery placed, and so accurate the aim of its gunner,that the very first shot dismounted one of the eighteen-pounders in thefort. The second again struck the gun and completely disabled it. Thebesieged mounted their second heavy gun in its place, and were preparingto open fire on the French battery, when a shot struck it also anddismounted it. It was useless to attempt to replace it, and it was,during the night, removed to a portion of the walls not exposed to thefire of the enemy's battery. The besiegers continued their fire, and insix days had demolished the wall facing their battery, making a breachof fifty feet wide.
Clive, who had now only the two young subalterns serving under him,worked indefatigably. His coolness and confidence of bearing kept upthe courage of his little garrison, and every night, when darkness hidthem from the view of the enemy's sharpshooters, the men laboured toprepare for the impending attack. Works were thrown up inside thefort, to command the breach. Two deep trenches were dug, one behindthe other; the one close to the wall, the other some distance fartherback. These trenches were filled with sharp iron three-pointed spikes,and palisades erected extending from the ends of the ditches to theramparts, and a house pulled down in the rear to the height of abreastwork, behind which the garrison could fire at the assailants, asthey endeavoured to cross the ditches.
One of the three field pieces Clive had brought with him he mounted ona tower, flanking the breach outside. Two he held in reserve, andplaced two small guns, which he had found in the fort when he took it,on the flat roof of a house in the fort commanding the inside of thebreach.
From the roofs of some of the houses around the fort the besiegersbeheld the progress of these defences; and Riza Sahib feared, in spiteof his enormously superior numbers, to run the risk of a repulse. Heknew that the amount of provisions which Clive had stored was notlarge, and thinking that famine would inevitably compel his surrender,shrank from incurring the risk of disheartening his army, by theslaughter which an unsuccessful attempt to carry the place mustentail. He determined, at any rate, to increase the probability ofsuccess, and utilize his superior forces, by making an assault at twopoints, simultaneously. He therefore erected a battery on thesouthwest, and began to effect a breach on that side, also.
Clive, on his part, had been busy endeavouring to obtain assistance.His native emissaries, penetrating the enemy's lines, carried the newsof the situation of affairs in the fort to Madras, Fort Saint David,and Trichinopoli. At Madras a few fresh troops had arrived fromEngland, and Mr. Saunders, feeling that Clive must be relieved at allcost, however defenceless the state of Madras might be, despatched, onthe 20th of October, a hundred Europeans and a hundred Sepoys, underLieutenant Innis. These, after three days' marching, arrived atTrivatoor, twenty-two miles from Arcot.
Riza Sahib had heard of his approach; and sent a large body of troops,with two guns, to attack him. The contest was too unequal. Had theBritish force been provided with field pieces, they might have gainedthe day; but, after fighting with great bravery, they were forced tofall back; with a loss of twenty English and two officers killed andmany more wounded, while the Sepoys suffered equally severely.
One of Clive's messengers reached Murari Reo, the Mahratta chief ofGutti. This man was a ferocious free-booting chief, daring and bravehimself, and admiring those qualities in others. Hitherto, hisalliance with Muhammud Ali was little more than nominal, for he haddreaded bringing upon himself the vengeance of Chunda Sahib and theFrench, whose ultimate success in the strife appeared certain. Clive'smarch upon Arcot, and the heroic defence which the handful of menthere were opposing to overwhelming numbers, excited his highestadmiration. As he afterwards said, he had never before believed thatthe English could fight, and when Clive's messenger reached him, he atonce sent back a promise of assistance.
Riza Sahib learned, almost as soon as Clive himself, that theMahrattas were on the move. The prospects of his communications beingharassed, by these daring horsemen, filled him with anxiety. MurariReo was encamped, with six thousand men, at a spot thirty miles to thewest of Arcot; and he might, at any moment, swoop down upon thebesiegers. Although, therefore, Riza Sahib had for six days been atwork effecting a new breach, which was now nearly open to assault, hesent on the 30th of October a flag of truce, with an offer to Clive ofterms, if he would surrender Arcot.
The garrison were to be allowed to march out with their arms andbaggage, while to Clive himself he offered a large sum of money. Incase of refusal, he threatened to storm the fort, and put all itsdefenders to the sword. Clive returned a defiant refusal, and the gunsagain opened on the second breach.
On the 9th of November, the Mahrattas began to show themselves in theneighbourhood of the besieging army. The force under Lieutenant Innishad been reinforced, and was now under the command of CaptainKilpatrick, who had a hundred and fifty English troops, with fourfield guns. This was now advancing.
Four days later the new breach had attained a width of thirty yards,but Clive had prepared defences in the rear, similar to those at theother breach; and the difficulties of the besiegers would here be muchgreater, as the ditch was not fordable.
The fifty days which the siege had lasted had been terrible ones forthe garrison. Never daring to expose themselves unnecessarily duringthe day, yet ever on the alert to repel an attack; labouring at nightat the defences, with their numbers daily dwindling, and the prospectof an assault becoming more and more imminent, the work of the littlegarrison was terrible; and it is to the defences of Lucknow andCawnpore, a hundred years later, that we must look to find a parallel,in English warfare, for their endurance and bravery.
Both Charlie Marryat and Peters had been wounded, but in neither casewere the injuries severe enough to prevent their continuing on duty.Tim Kelly had his arm broken by a ball, while another bullet cut adeep seam along his cheek, and carried away a portion of his ear. Withhis arm in splints and a sling, and the side of his face covered withstrappings and plaster, he still went about his business.
"Ah! Yer honors," he said one day to his masters; "I've often been outcatching rabbits, with ferrits to drive 'em out of their holes, andsticks to knock 'em on the head, as soon as they showed themselves;and it's a divarshun I was always mightily fond of, but I never quiteintered into the feelings of the rabbits. Now I understand themcomplately, for ain't we rabbits ourselves? The officers, saving yourpresence, are the ferrits who turn us out of our holes on duty; andthe niggers yonder, with their muskets and their matchlocks, are themen with sticks, ready to knock us on head, directly we showourselves. If it plase Heaven that I ever return to the ould countryagain, I'll niver lend a hand at rabbiting, to my dying day."