The Sabre's Edge

by Allan Mallinson

  Somervile had been convinced that the greatest peril lay in King Bagyidaw's self-delusion. The third in council of the Bengal presidency had his own sources of information in Ava, which told him that the king was surrounded by sycophants and believed all their blandishments about the invincibility of the Burman soldier. Indeed, Somervile had learned that the king had not even been told of Hervey's spoiling raid at the headwaters of the Chittagong river three years before; that, instead, the king believed it had been the hand of Nature that had laid a torch to his boats, for no barbarian could set foot on Avan soil without the authority of the Lord of the White and All Other Elephants. And anyway, did not he, Bagyidaw, have the greatest of generals - Maha Bundula - to pit against an impertinent invader?

  Eyre Somervile was therefore of the decided opinion that the fall of Rangoon would merely presage a long and arduous campaign. And he was by no means convinced, either, that the Burman people would welcome the invader as a liberator. Why, indeed, should they, if they too believed that Maha Bundula would throw him back into the Bay of Bengal whence he had come? And if that were to happen, death would follow automatically for anyone who had in the least part aided the invader. Eyre Somervile, after years of study, and years of practical business, did not believe for one minute that a single Burman would risk his neck in the Company's cause.

  But this landing at Rangoon was so easy, the resistance so lacking in spirit, that perhaps, thought Hervey, Somervile had given too much credence to his admittedly well-placed agents. There were things he must see for himself, and quickly. 'If you have no direct need of me, sir,' he said to his principal, as matter-of-fact as he could, 'I should like to make a reconnaissance of the town.'

  'Of course, Hervey, of course,' replied Major Seagrass, distracted. General Campbell's military secretary had somehow contrived to be the only member of the staff to get his feet wet, and was trying to rid his boots of water. There'll be scarce enough for one of us to do till the headquarters are open.'

  Hervey had used the military term to describe his intended survey of the town, and it was certainly the case that he had a military purpose to his perambulation, but in truth he was just as curious to see the sights of the fabled seaport of the Burmans. By all accounts some of its temples were singular. 'Very well, then, sir. I shall report back by sunset at the latest.' He saluted and made away before Seagrass could have second thoughts.

  Corporal Wainwright unclipped his carbine and took a cartridge from his crossbelt pouch. He bit off the end, tapped a little powder into the priming pan, then poured the remainder down the barrel, dropped in the ball from between his teeth and rammed it home with the swivel rod.

  Hervey noted with satisfaction that it was done in mere seconds.

  'Just in case, sir,' said Wainwright, feeling it necessary to explain the precaution even with so many redcoats abroad.

  Hervey smiled grimly. 'Don't be too sure that you'll draw the charge, Corporal Wainwright. The Burmans may have fled, but I doubt they'll count themselves beaten.'

  There were so many infantrymen about the streets, however. Even if the Burmans counter-attacked, Hervey thought they must be repulsed before they could get a footing on the stockades. But in fleeing before the bombardment, they had made a good job of leaving little for the comfort of the invader. House after house was empty of portables, the heavier furniture was broken up, and Hervey was further disquietened by the evident system with which it had been accomplished. It spoke of a discipline that might be turned to good effect against an invader. It was evidence, certainly, that Calcutta's assumption of cooperation was wholly ill-conceived. As he made his way past groups of infantrymen waiting for the Serjeants to allocate a billet (at least they would have a roof over their heads when the rains came), Hervey began to fear the worst - that the rice stores and granaries had been emptied too, and the cattle driven into the jungle.

  He tramped the town for an hour. It proved an unlovely place, with few buildings of any solidity and aspect, even the official ones. In the wake of the redcoats he saw not a house whose doors or windows remained barred, but neither did he see a man with anything more valuable in his hands than an iron cooking pot or a pan. Here and there a Buddhist shrine would impress, as much by the gilded contrast with its surroundings as by any true merit, and from time to time he would catch sight of the soaring pagoda of Shwedagon a league or so to the north, rising above the squat meanness like St Paul's above the rookeries of the City.

  'I would lay odds that yonder place will be a regular hornet's nest,' said Hervey to Wainwright as they climbed a wall to get a better view. 'I'll warrant that's where they've bolted with the treasury.'

  There was shooting still, sporadic shots from the redcoats searching the streets. But it did not trouble him. He knew they were aimed not at the enemy but at obstinate locks. It had been the same every time they had captured a place in Spain. It took a while, always, for the officers to regain order -hot blood, the exhilaration of being alive after the fight, the prospect of a bit of gold, the certainty of finding something to slake a thirst. That was all it was, but it could be brute enough when it ran unchecked for too long. At least he would not see the worst of it today, for there had been no fighting to hot the blood, no long march beforehand. Only the wretched, clammy heat of the day.

  They pressed on. Several much smaller pagodas bore the signs of the infantry's passing.

  'Ah, this looks worthier,' said Hervey, stopping at one of them. 'As resplendent, I'd say, as any of the shrines around Calcutta. Except, of course, it's all sham.' He prodded at the gold leaf with his sabre. 'In Calcutta it would be marble instead of this teak, and the inlay wouldn't be glass. Evidently our red-coated friends thought little of it.'

  The pillaging seemed to have consisted in dashing all the lattices to the floor and then being disappointed to find that the imagined rubies and emeralds became so many cheap shards. Hervey sighed to himself. He'd seen a lot worse - the Prussians, for one (after Waterloo they had been thoroughly wanton in their destruction). But knocking down even gaudy pagodas was hardly the way to win the hearts of the Burman people, let alone their active support. And support was what General Campbell's plan of campaign depended on. He just hoped the officers would have their men in hand soon.

  'But solid enough, sir,' said Wainwright, having made his own assessment of the structure. He pointed to the roof. 'Look at that.' An iron shot from one of the broadsides was embedded in a joist. It had not fully penetrated but had somehow caused the wood to splinter on the inside. Hervey had heard Peto speak of the especial danger in teak-built men-of-war. Unlike oak, Peto said, a teak splinter invariably meant a septic wound. He had been most insistent on it, most insistent that while the Indies might be a place of sickness for the soldier, the sailor faced his trials too.

  Many would be the trials in this campaign, right enough. Hervey sheathed his sabre and took off his shako. 'You know, Corporal Wainwright, it is one thing to enter the roads of a seaport and bombard the town - many a captain's done that. But it's quite another to sail upstream for all of five hundred miles when the degree of resistance is uncertain.'

  Corporal Wainwright had been a dragoon for nearly five years and had worn a chevron for two of them. Hervey held him in particular regard, not least because he was recruited from his own town, but more so because of his thoroughgoing decency and unwavering sense of duty. He reminded him of Serjeant Strange, yet without that fine NCO's somewhat chilly piety. Hervey had made him his covering corporal at the first opportunity.

  'Well, it couldn't be less resistance than here, sir.'

  It was true that the defenders of Rangoon had been scarcely worth the name so far, but was the town defensible against so powerful a cannonade as that which Peto's ships had delivered at point-blank range? Hervey sat down on the pagoda steps and loosened his collar. 'But what does the disappearance of every living soul, and all their chattels and livestock, bode?'

  Corporal Wainwright had not been on campaign. He had tramp
ed through the jungle three years before with Hervey's troop to fire the Burman war boats, but that was a mere raid, scarcely comparable in military organization with the scale of this expedition. This indeed was war. Nevertheless, he could make a fair estimate. 'One way or another, sir, we're going to be here longer than we thought.'

  Hervey nodded. He knew from Peninsula days that General Campbell could make battle, but he had no idea if he could make war. What he had seen so far - not least the delays even in getting to Rangoon - was not auspicious. 'Well, Corporal Wainwright,' he said, taking a draw on his canteen. 'I think that it is a show of resistance and we might expect more. I think the battalions had better get this place into a state of defence quickly, lest the Burmans counter-attack. Our men-of-war wouldn't be able to support them. It may well be why the Burmans abandoned the town.'

  As if in response to Hervey's assessment, redcoats of His Majesty's 38th Foot now came doubling past. Except that things weren't quite right.

  Hervey sprang up. 'Come on, Corporal Wainwright. There's the glint of gold in those eyes.'

  More men rushed by, without NCOs, almost knocking Wainwright to the ground.

  'Or liquor, sir.'

  'Either way it'll be trouble.'

  They drew their sabres. Wainwright lashed out with the flat of his to check the barging of another gaggle, this time from the Thirteenth. 'Hold hard! Don't you see the officer?' he bawled.

  They took off after the Thirty-eighth, Hervey cursing.

  The narrow ways between the houses were soon choked with men, some without their muskets. Then it was impossible to go any further. Wainwright clambered onto the roof of one of the more solid-looking houses to try to see ahead. He was down again as quickly, bringing a shower of tiles with him and a foul string of abuse from the infantrymen below. 'Drink, sir. They're tossing bottles of it out of a warehouse. There must be two hundred men there, at least.'

  'Well, we can't do anything of ourselves. Where are their NCOs?' Hervey turned and began pushing his way past men still homing on the irregular issue. 'Always the same,' he snarled, using his own sabre freely to force his way through. 'And these not even Irish!'

  Down one of the side streets they found a picket of the Forty-first in good order. The corporal came to attention.

  'Where is your officer?’ asked Hervey, raising his sword to acknowledge.

  'The colonel is only just in there, sir,’ replied the man in a pronounced Welsh accent, indicating an official-looking building with a high-canted roof. 'The picket officer ‘as just been round, sir.’

  Hervey nodded and sheathed his sword, then made for the battalion's headquarters.

  The Forty-first's colours were hanging from a window, with a sentry close to. 'I am Captain Hervey, of General Campbell's staff. I should like to speak to your colonel.' Hervey touched his shako in reply to the private man's butt salute.

  'Sir!' The sentry turned and went inside.

  Hervey shook his head. Between the Forty-first and the Thirty-eighth, and for that matter the Thirteenth, there was nothing to choose as a rule. They were all steady on parade: he had seen it with his own eyes in Calcutta. But once the NCOs had lost their hold—

  The adjutant came out, hatless. 'Captain Hervey!' He made a small, brisk bow. 'The colonel is with the brigade-major. May I assist you?'

  'There's a riot towards the north gates,' began Hervey, indicating the general direction. 'The Thirteenth and the Thirty-eighth, two companies and more arriving, and no sign of their officers. They've found a drink store.'

  The adjutant did not hesitate. 'Serjeant-major!'

  Out came the shortest regimental serjeant-major Hervey had ever seen, shorter even than Private Johnson. 'Yessah!'

  'There's a riot of the other two battalions. Summon the picket.'

  'Sah!'

  Til have the reserve company under arms at once, Captain Hervey. But the picket - a stitch in time.'

  Hervey was not certain he understood. 'I don't think a picket will be—'

  The RSM reappeared. His eyes blazed as he struck the palm of his hand with the silver knob of his cane. 'Right, sah!'

  The picket - a dozen men - were already falling in.

  The RSM was impatient for the off. Twenty years in a red coat told him that indiscipline was contagious, and he was not about to have his Welshmen tempted from military virtue by intemperate roughs from other regiments. 'Follow me, Corporal Jones. Double march!'

  Hervey had no choice but to take the lead.

  A curious sight they made, a captain and a lance-corporal of light dragoons doubling through the alleyways of Rangoon with a dozen red-coated infantrymen in file behind them, muskets at the high port and the diminutive RSM at their head. But the stitch was not in time enough to prevent the drink from doing its worst. When they reached the warehouse there was hardly a man on his feet, and those that were staggered hatless and without their muskets.

  'Lord, deliver us,' said the RSM, holding up his cane to halt the picket. 'What in the name of God have they got inside them?' He seized a canteen from the hand of one of the capering privates and sniffed it. 'Brandy!' He poured what little remained to the ground.

  The Thirteenth's private objected very foully. Corporal Jones stepped forward and felled him with a butt stroke to the chest.

  'Stand up, you men!' bellowed the RSM, jabbing his cane here and there. 'Officer present!'

  They were too far gone. They neither knew nor cared about their delinquence. 'Right!' growled the RSM. 'If that's the way it is to be. Picket, fix bayonets!'

  Hervey had a moment's doubt, but there seemed no alternative. More men were appearing with every minute, all in search of their 'dues'.

  The RSM began pushing through the mob of redcoats, shouting orders, cursing, lashing out with his cane, while to his left and right a single file of bayonets marched ready to do the worst if anyone should resist with more than abuse. Hervey, and Corporal Wainwright with his sabre drawn, followed as best they could.

  They reached the source of the intoxication for the cost of a mere three further men succumbing to the musket's butt. The point of the bayonet had only been threatened, and the RSM had still not drawn his sword. Hervey marvelled at the man's self-possession and resolve. By his reckoning there were the best part of three hundred soldiers about the streets in abject disorder, yet the RSM seemed no more perturbed than if he were stepping between two brawlers in a barrack room. 'Right, Corporal Jones, two men on the doors, then get inside and clear them out!'

  'Sir!' shouted the corporal, turning to look at the picket. 'Morgan and Jones-Seven-seven - on the doors. The rest of you, inside with me!'

  'Of all the things them Burmans took, sir, and they have to leave brandy behind!' said the RSM, rapping his hand again with the cane.

  Hervey shook his head. 'I shouldn't be surprised if they left it for the purpose, sar'nt-major. It's halted more men than their muskets have.'

  'That is true, sir. A European merchant, do you suppose?'

  'Probably. He's doubtless taken to the jungle with the rest of them. I hope he had more sense than to try to guard his stock.'

  It took fifteen minutes to secure the warehouse, and another thirty to have the comatose occupants carried out, the RSM pressing disappointed new arrivals to the task. Only then did officers and NCOs from the offending regiments begin arriving. It seemed that this was not the only brandy warehouse, though Hervey was past caring what had detained them. One of the lieutenants told him plaintively that liquor had gone about the ranks faster than he'd ever seen. Hervey could believe it. It was no excuse, but it happened when the taut discipline of going into action was suddenly let down, when NCOs, their eyes on other things for the moment, lost their firm grip of the ranks. It was no more than a horse let off the bit surprising its rider with a nap. Except here it was getting on for a whole battalion off the bit.

  Hervey saw smoke rising above the rooftops beyond the warehouse. He thought the redcoats better left to their own, and set off ins
tead with Corporal Wainwright to investigate the source.

  They felt the heat even before they saw the flames. Hervey, now alarmed, began running to see what had taken hold. Almost every building he'd seen was made of wood, and the streets were so narrow there would be nothing to check the spread of the fire. A few sepoys were doing their ineffectual best, but there was yet no organized attempt.

  'Shall I get the RSM again, sir?' asked Wainwright, seeing the sepoys willing but without means.

  Hervey saw a havildar, and then a lieutenant. 'No, I think the native battalion will have to cope. Better return to General Campbell's headquarters and report. I'll warrant he'll have no notion how perilous things are in this part of the town.'

  It took a long time to reach headquarters. The streets and alleyways were a press of men, some fully under discipline, some imperfectly, some not at all. Smoke kept barring progress, and from time to time flames, for the fire was spreading aloft and others had been started as carelessly as the first. When Hervey finally arrived at his destination, the customs house close by the main gates, and begged leave to report, he found the general in a deal of agitation and his face the colour of his red side-whiskers.