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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/36478-8.txt b/36478-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc6d74b --- /dev/null +++ b/36478-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9572 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Red Year, by Louis Tracy + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Red Year + A Story of the Indian Mutiny + +Author: Louis Tracy + +Release Date: June 20, 2011 [EBook #36478] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RED YEAR *** + + + + +Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + THE RED YEAR + + A STORY + OF THE INDIAN MUTINY + + BY + LOUIS TRACY + + AUTHOR OF + "THE WINGS OF THE MORNING," "THE PILLAR OF + LIGHT," "THE CAPTAIN OF THE KANSAS," + ETC., ETC. + + NEW YORK + GROSSET & DUNLAP + PUBLISHERS + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1907 + BY EDWARD J. CLODE + + _Entered at Stationers' Hall_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I PAGE + THE MESHES OF THE NET 1 + + CHAPTER II + A NIGHT IN MAY 19 + + CHAPTER III + HOW BAHADUR SHAH PROCLAIMED HIS EMPIRE 39 + + CHAPTER IV + ON THE WAY TO CAWNPORE 54 + + CHAPTER V + A WOMAN INTERVENES 72 + + CHAPTER VI + THE WELL 91 + + CHAPTER VII + TO LUCKNOW 110 + + CHAPTER VIII + WHEREIN A MOHAMMEDAN FRATERNIZES WITH A BRAHMIN 131 + + CHAPTER IX + A LONG CHASE 151 + + CHAPTER X + WHEREIN FATE PLAYS TRICKS WITH MALCOLM 169 + + CHAPTER XI + A DAY'S ADVENTURES 190 + + CHAPTER XII + THE SWING OF THE PENDULUM 210 + + CHAPTER XIII + THE MEN WHO WORE SKIRTS 227 + + CHAPTER XIV + WHY MALCOLM DID NOT WRITE 247 + + CHAPTER XV + AT THE KING'S COURT 268 + + CHAPTER XVI + IN THE VORTEX 290 + + CHAPTER XVII + THE EXPIATION 309 + + + + +_The Red Year_ + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE MESHES OF THE NET + + +On a day in January, 1857, a sepoy was sitting by a well in the +cantonment of Dum-Dum, near Calcutta. Though he wore the uniform of John +Company, and his rank was the lowest in the native army, he carried on +his forehead the caste-marks of the Brahmin. In a word, he was more than +noble, being of sacred birth, and the Hindu officers of his regiment, if +they were not heaven-born Brahmins, would grovel before him in secret, +though he must obey their slightest order on parade or in the field. + +To him approached a Lascar. + +"Brother," said the newcomer, "lend me your brass pot, so that I may +drink, for I have walked far in the sun." + +The sepoy started as though a snake had stung him. Lascars, the +sailor-men of India, were notoriously free-and-easy in their manners. +Yet how came it that even a low-caste mongrel of a Lascar should offer +such an overt insult to a Brahmin! + +"Do you not know, swine-begotten, that your hog's lips would contaminate +my lotah?" asked he, putting the scorn of centuries into the words. + +"Contaminate!" grinned the Lascar, neither frightened nor angered. "By +holy Ganga, it is your lips that are contaminated, not mine. Are not the +Government greasing your cartridges with cow's fat? And can you load +your rifle without biting the forbidden thing? Learn more about your own +caste, brother, before you talk so proudly to others." + +Not a great matter, this squabble between a sepoy and a Lascar, yet it +lit such a flame in India that rivers of blood must be shed ere it was +quenched. The Brahmin's mind reeled under the shock of the retort. It +was true, then, what the agents of the dethroned King of Oudh were +saying in the bazaar. The Government were bent on the destruction of +Brahminical supremacy. He and his caste-fellows would lose all that made +life worth living. But they would exact a bitter price for their fall +from high estate. + +"Kill!" he murmured in his frenzy, as he rushed away to tell his +comrades the lie that made the Indian Mutiny possible. "Slay and spare +not! Let us avenge our wrongs so fully that no accursed Feringhi shall +dare again to come hither across the Black Water!" + +The lie and the message flew through India with the inconceivable speed +with which such ill tidings always travels in that country. Ever north +went the news that the British Raj was doomed. Hindu fakirs, aglow with +religious zeal, Mussalman zealots, as eager for dominance in this world +as for a houri-tenanted Paradise in the next, carried the fiery torch of +rebellion far and wide. And so the flame spread, and was fanned to red +fury, though the eyes of few Englishmen could see it, while native +intelligence was aghast at the supineness of their over-lords. + + * * * * * + +One evening in the month of April, a slim, straight-backed girl stood in +the veranda of a bungalow at Meerut. Her slender figure, garbed in white +muslin, was framed in a creeper-covered arch. The fierce ardor of an +Indian spring had already kissed into life a profusion of red flowers +amid the mass of greenery, and, if Winifred Mayne had sought an +effective setting for her own fair picture, she could not have found one +better fitted to its purpose. + +But she was young enough and pretty enough to pay little heed to pose or +background. In fact, so much of her smooth brow as could be seen under a +broad-brimmed straw hat was wrinkled in a decided frown. Happily, her +bright brown eyes had a glint of humor in them, for Winifred's wrath was +an evanescent thing, a pallid sprite, rarely seen, and ever ready to be +banished by a smile. + +"There!" she said, tugging at a refractory glove. "Did you hear it? It +actually shrieked as it split. And this is the second pair. I shall +never again believe a word Behari Lal says. Wait till I see him. I'll +give him such a talking to." + +"Then I have it in my heart to envy Behari Lal," said her companion, +glancing up at her from the carriage-way that ran by the side of the few +steps leading down from the veranda. + +"Indeed! May I ask why?" she demanded. + +"Because you yield him a privilege you deny to me." + +"I was not aware you meant to call to-day. As it is, I am paying a +strictly ceremonial visit. I wish I could speak Hindustani. Now, what +would you say to Behari Lal in such a case?" + +"I hardly know. When I buy gloves, I buy them of sufficient size. Of +course, you have small hands--" + +"Thank you. Please don't trouble to explain. And now, as you have been +rude to me, I shall not take you to see Mrs. Meredith." + +"But that is a kindness." + +"Then you shall come, and be miserable." + +"For your sake, Miss Mayne, I would face Medusa, let alone the excellent +wife of our Commissary-General, but fate, in the shape of an uncommonly +headstrong Arab, forbids. I have just secured a new charger, and he and +I have to decide this evening whether I go where he wants to go, or he +goes where I want to go. I wheedled him into your compound by sheer +trickery. The really definite issue will be settled forthwith on the +Grand Trunk Road." + +"I hope you are not running any undue risk," said the girl, with a +sudden note of anxiety in her voice that was sweetest music to Frank +Malcolm's ears. For an instant he had a mad impulse to ask if she cared, +but he crushed it ruthlessly, and his bantering reply gave no hint of +the tumult in his breast. Yet he feared to meet her eyes, and was glad +of a saluting sepoy who swaggered jauntily past the open gate. + +"I don't expect to be deposited in the dust, if that is what you mean," +he said. "But there is a fair chance that instead of carrying me back to +Meerut my friend Nejdi will take me to Aligarh. You see, he is an Arab +of mettle. If I am too rough with him, it will break his spirit; if too +gentle, he will break my neck. He needs the _main de fer sous le gant de +velours_. Please forgive me! I really didn't intend to mention gloves +again." + +"Oh, go away, you and your Arab. You are both horrid. You dine here +to-morrow night, my uncle said?" + +"Yes, if I don't send you a telegram from Aligarh. I may be brought +there, you know, against my will." + +Lifting his hat, he walked towards a huge pipal tree in the compound. +Beneath its far-flung branches a syce was sitting in front of a +finely-proportioned and unusually big Arab horse. Both animal and man +seemed to be dozing, but they woke into activity when the sahib +approached. The Arab pricked his ears, swished his long and arched tail +viciously, and showed the whites of his eyes. A Bedouin of the desert, a +true scion of the incomparable breed of Nejd, he was suspicious of +civilization, and his new owner was a stranger, as yet. + +"Ready for the fray, I see," murmured Malcolm with a smile. He wasted no +time over preliminaries. Bidding the syce place his thumbs in the steel +rings of the bridle, the young Englishman gathered the reins and a wisp +of gray mane in his left hand. Seizing a favorable moment, when the +struggling animal flinched from the touch of a low-lying branch on the +off side, he vaulted into the saddle. Chunga, the syce, held on until +his master's feet had found the stirrups. Then he was told to let go, +and Miss Winifred Mayne, niece of a Commissioner of Oudh, quite the most +eligible young lady the Meerut district could produce that year, +witnessed a display of cool, resourceful horsemanship as the enraged +Arab plunged and curvetted through the main gate. + +It left her rather flushed and breathless. + +"I like Mr. Malcolm," she confided to herself with a little laugh, "but +his manner with women is distinctly brusque! I wonder why!" + +The Grand Trunk Road ran to left and right. To the left it led to the +bazaar, the cantonment, and the civil lines; to the right, after passing +a few houses tenanted by Europeans, it entered the open country on a +long stretch of over a thousand miles to Calcutta and the south. In 1857 +no thoroughfare in the world equaled the Grand Trunk Road. Beginning at +Peshawur, in the extreme north of India, it traversed the Punjab for six +hundred miles as far as Aligarh. Here it broke into the Calcutta and +Bombay branches, each nearly a thousand miles in length. Wide and +straight, well made and tree-lined throughout, it supplied the two great +arteries of Indian life. Malcolm had selected it as a training-ground +that evening, because he meant to weary and subdue his too highly +spirited charger. Whether the pace was fast or slow, Nejdi would be +compelled to meet many varieties of traffic, from artillery elephants +and snarling camels down to the humble bullock-cart of the ryot. +Possibly, he would not shy at such monstrosities after twenty miles of a +lathering ride. + +The mad pace set by the Arab when he heard the clatter of his feet on +the hard road chimed in with the turbulent mood of his rider. Frank +Malcolm was a soldier by choice and instinct. When he joined the Indian +army, and became a subaltern in a native cavalry regiment, he determined +to devote himself to his profession. He gave his whole thought to it and +to nothing else. His interests lay in his work. He regarded every +undertaking from the point of view of its influence on his military +education, so it may be conceded instantly that the arrival in Meerut of +an Oudh Commissioner's pretty niece should not have affected the peace +of mind of this budding Napoleon. + +But a nice young woman can find joints in the armor of the +sternest-souled young man. Her attack is all the more deadly if +it be unpremeditated, and Frank Malcolm had already reached the +self-depreciatory stage wherein a comparatively impecunious subaltern +asks himself the sad question whether it be possible for such a one to +woo and wed a maid of high degree, or her Anglo-Indian equivalent, an +heiress of much prospective wealth and present social importance. + +But money and rank are artificial, the mere varnish of life, and the hot +breath of reality can soon scorch them out of existence. Events were +then shaping themselves in India that were destined to sweep aside +convention for many a day. Had the young Englishman but known it, five +miles from Meerut his Arab's hoofs threw pebbles over a swarthy moullah, +lank and travel-stained, who was hastening towards the Punjab on a +dreadful errand. The man turned and cursed him as he passed, and vowed +with bitter venom that when the time of reckoning came there would not +be a Feringhi left in all the land. Malcolm, however, would have laughed +had he heard. Affairs of state did not concern him. His only trouble was +that Winifred Mayne stood on a pinnacle far removed from the beaten path +of a cavalry subaltern. So, being in a rare fret and fume, he let the +gray Arab gallop himself white, and, when the high-mettled Nejdi thought +of easing the pace somewhat, he was urged onward with the slight but +utterly unprecedented prick of a spur. + +That was a degradation not to be borne. The Calcutta Brahmin did not +resent the Lascar's taunt more keenly. With a swerve that almost +unseated Malcolm, the Arab dashed in front of a bullock-cart, swept +between the trees on the west side of the road, leaped a broad ditch, +and crashed into a field of millet. Another ditch, another field, breast +high with tall castor-oil plants, a frantic race through a grove of +mangoes--when Malcolm had to lie flat on Nejdi's neck to avoid being +swept off by the low branches--and horse and man dived headlong into +deep water. + +The splash, far more than the ducking, frightened the horse. Malcolm, +in that instant of prior warning which the possessor of steady nerves +learns to use so well, disengaged his feet from the stirrups. He was +thrown clear, and, when he came to the surface, he saw that the Arab +and himself were floundering in a moat. Not the pleasantest of +bathing-places anywhere, in India such a sheet of almost stagnant water +has excessive peculiarities. Among other items, it breeds fever and +harbors snakes, so Malcolm floundered rather than swam to the bank, +where he had the negative satisfaction of catching Nejdi's bridle when +that disconcerted steed scrambled out after him. + +The two were coated with green slime. Being obviously unhurt, they +probably had a forlornly comic aspect. At any rate, a woman's musical +laugh came from the lofty wall which bounded the moat on the further +side, and a woman's clear voice said: + +"A bold leap, sahib! Did you mean to scale the fort on horseback? And +why not have chosen a spot where the water was cleaner?" + +Before he could see the speaker, so smothered was he in dripping +moss and weeds, Malcolm knew that some lady of rank had watched his +adventure. She used the pure Persian of the court, and her diction +was refined. Luckily, he had studied Persian as well as its Indian +off-shoot, Hindustani, and he understood the words. He pressed back his +dank hair, squeezed the water and slime off his face, and looked up. + +To his exceeding wonder, his eyes met those of a young Mohammedan woman, +a woman richly garbed, and of remarkable appearance. She was unveiled, +an amazing fact in itself, and her creamy skin, arched eyebrows, regular +features, and raven-black hair proclaimed her aristocratic lineage. She +was leaning forward in an embrasure of the battlemented wall. Behind +her, two attendants, oval-faced, brown-skinned women of the people, +peered shyly at the Englishman. When he glanced their way, they +hurriedly adjusted their silk saris, or shawls, so as to hide their +faces. Their mistress used no such bashful subterfuge. She leaned +somewhat farther through the narrow embrasure, revealing by the action +her bejeweled and exquisitely molded arms. + +"Perhaps you do not speak my language," she said in Urdu, the tongue +most frequently heard in Upper India. "If you will go round to the +gate--that way--" and she waved a graceful hand to the left left--"my +servants will render you some assistance." + +By that time, Malcolm had regained his wits. A verse of a poem by Hafiz +occurred to him. + +"Princess," he said, "the radiance of your presence is as the full moon +suddenly illumining the path of a weary traveler, who finds himself on +the edge of a morass." + +A flash of surprise and pleasure lit the fine eyes of the haughty beauty +perched up there on the palace wall. + +"'Tis well said," she vowed, smiling with all the rare effect of full +red lips and white even teeth. "Nevertheless, this is no time for +compliments. You need our help, and it shall be given willingly. Make +for the gate, I pray you." + +She turned, and gave an order to one of the attendants. With another +encouraging smile to Malcolm, she disappeared. + +Leading the Arab, who, with the fatalism of his race, was quiet as +a sheep now that he had found a master, the young officer took the +direction pointed out by the lady. Rounding an angle of the wall, he +came to a causeway spanned by a small bridge, which was guarded by the +machicolated towers of a strong gate. A ponderous door, studded with +great bosses of iron fashioned to represent elephants' heads, swung +open--half reluctantly it seemed--and he was admitted to a spacious +inner courtyard. + +The number of armed retainers gathered there was unexpectedly large. He +was well acquainted with the Meerut district, yet he had no notion that +such a fortress existed within an hour's fast ride of the station. The +King of Delhi had a hunting-lodge somewhere in the locality, but he had +never seen the place. If this were it, why should it be crammed with +soldiers? Above all, why should they eye him with such ill-concealed +displeasure? Duty had brought him once to Delhi--it was barely forty +miles from Meerut--and the relations between the feeble old King, +Bahadur Shah, and the British authorities were then most friendly, while +the hangers-on at the Court mixed freely with the Europeans. His quick +intelligence caught at the belief that these men resented his presence +because he was brought among them by the command of the lady. He knew +now that he must have seen and spoken to one of the royal princesses. +None other would dare to show herself unveiled to a stranger, and a +white man at that. The manifest annoyance of her household was thus +easily accounted for, but he marveled at the strength of her bodyguard. + +He was given little time for observation. A distinguished-looking man, +evidently vested with authority, bustled forward and addressed him, +civilly enough. Servants came with water and towels, and cleaned his +garments sufficiently to make him presentable, while other men groomed +his horse. He was wet through, of course, but that was not a serious +matter with the thermometer at seventy degrees in the shade, and, +despite the ordinance of the Prophet, a glass of excellent red wine +was handed to him. + +But he saw no more of the Princess. He thought she would hardly dare to +receive him openly, and her deputy gave no sign of admitting him to the +interior of the palace, which loomed around the square of the courtyard +like some great prison. + +A chaprassi recovered his hat, which he had left floating in the moat. +Nejdi allowed him to mount quietly; the stout door had closed on him, +and he was picking his way across the fields towards the Meerut road, +before he quite realized how curious were the circumstances which had +befallen him since he parted from Winifred Mayne in the porch of her +uncle's bungalow. + +Then he bent forward in the saddle to stroke Nejdi's curved neck, and +laughed cheerfully. + +"You are wiser than I, good horse," said he. "When the game is up, you +take things placidly. Here am I, your supposed superior in intellect, in +danger of being bewitched by a woman's eyes. Whether brown or black, +they play the deuce with a man if they shine in a woman's head. So ho, +then, boy, let us home and eat, and forget these fairies in muslin and +clinging silk." + +Yet a month passed, and Frank Malcolm did not succeed in forgetting. +Like any moth hovering round a lamp, the more he was singed the closer +he fluttered, though the memory of the Indian princess's brilliant black +eyes was soon lost in the sparkle of Winifred's brown ones. + +As it happened, the young soldier was a prime favorite with the +Commissioner, and it is possible that the course of true love might have +run most smoothly if the red torch of war had not flashed over the land +like the glare of some mighty volcano. + +On Sunday evening, May 10th, Malcolm rode away from his own small +bungalow, and took the Aligarh road. As in all up-country stations, the +European residences in Meerut were scattered over an immense area. The +cantonment was split into two sections by an irregular ravine, or +nullah, running east and west. North of this ditch were many officers' +bungalows, and the barracks of the European troops, tenanted by a +regiment of dragoons, the 60th Rifles, and a strong force of artillery, +both horse and foot. Between the infantry and cavalry barracks stood +the soldiers' church. Fully two miles away, on the south side of the +ravine, were the sepoy lines, and another group of isolated bungalows. +The native town was in this quarter, while the space intervening between +the British and Indian troops was partly covered with rambling bazaars. + +Malcolm had been detained nearly half an hour by some difficulty which a +subadar had experienced in arranging the details of the night's guard. +Several men were absent without leave, and he attributed this unusual +occurrence to the severe measures the colonel had taken when certain +troopers refused to use the cartridges supplied for the new Enfield +rifle. But, like every other officer in Meerut, he was confident that +the nearness of the strongest European force in the North-West Provinces +would certainly keep the malcontents quiet. Above all else, he was ready +to stake his life on the loyalty of the great majority of the men of his +own regiment, the 3d Native Cavalry. + +In pushing Nejdi along at a fast canter, therefore, he had no weightier +matter on his mind than the fear that he might have kept Winifred +waiting. When he dashed into the compound, and saw that there was no +dog-cart standing in the porch, he imagined that the girl had gone +without him, or, horrible suspicion, with some other cavalier. + +It was not so. Winifred herself appeared on the veranda as he +dismounted. + +"You are a laggard," she said severely. + +"I could not help it. I was busy in the orderly-room. But why lose more +time? If that fat pony of yours is rattled along we shall not be very +much behindhand." + +"You must not speak disrespectfully of my pony. If he is fat, it is due +to content, not laziness. And you are evidently not aware that Evensong +is half an hour later to-day, owing to the heat. Of course, I expected +you earlier, and, if necessary, I would have gone alone, but--" + +She hesitated, and looked over her shoulder into the immense +drawing-room that occupied the center of the bungalow from front to +rear. + +"I don't mind admitting," she went on, laughing nervously, "that I am a +wee bit afraid these days--there is so much talk of a native rising. +Uncle gets so cross with me when I say anything of that kind that I keep +my opinions to myself." + +"The country is unsettled," said Frank, "and it would be folly to deny +the fact. But, at any rate, you are safe enough in Meerut." + +"Are you sure? Only yesterday morning eighty-five men of your own +regiment were sent to prison, were they not?" + +"Yes, but they alone were disaffected. Every soldier knows he must obey, +and these fellows refused point-blank to use their cartridges, though +the Colonel said they might tear them instead of biting them. He could +go no further--I wonder he met their stupid whims even thus far." + +"Well, perhaps you are right. Come in, for a minute or two. My uncle is +in a rare temper. You must help to talk him out of it. By the way, where +are all the servants? The dog-cart ought to be here. _Koi hai!_"[1] + +[Footnote 1: The Anglo-Indian phrase for summoning a servant, meaning: +"Is there any one there?"] + +No one came in response to her call. Thinking that a syce or chaprassi +would appear in a moment, Frank hung Nejdi's bridle on a lamp-hook in +the porch, and entered the bungalow. + +He soon discovered that Mr. Mayne's wrath was due to a statement in a +Calcutta newspaper that a certain Colonel Wheler had been preaching to +his sepoys. + +"What between a psalm-singing Viceroy and commanding officers who +hold conventicles, we are in for a nice hot weather," growled the +Commissioner, shoving a box of cheroots towards Malcolm when the latter +found him stretched in a long cane chair on the back veranda. "Here +is Lady Canning trying to convert native women, and a number of +missionaries publishing manifestoes about the influence of railways and +steamships in bringing about the spiritual union of the world! I tell +you, Malcolm, India won't stand it. We can do as we like with Hindu and +Mussalman so long as we leave their respective religions untouched. The +moment those are threatened we enter the danger zone. Confound it, why +can't we let the people worship God in their own way? If anything, they +are far more religiously inclined than we ourselves. Where is the +Englishman who will flop down in the middle of the road to say his +prayers at sunset, or measure his length along two thousand miles of a +river bank merely as a penance? Give me authority to pack a shipload of +busy-bodies home to England, and I'll soon have the country quiet +enough--" + +An ominous sound interrupted the Commissioner's outburst. Both men heard +the crackle of distant musketry. At first, neither was willing to admit +its significance. + +"Where is Winifred?" demanded Mr. Mayne, suddenly. + +"She is looking for a servant, I fancy. There was none in the front of +the house, and I wanted a man to hold my horse." + +A far-off volley rumbled over the plain, and a few birds stirred +uneasily among the trees. + +"No servants to be seen--at this hour!" + +They looked at each other in silence. + +"We must find Winifred," said the older man, rising from his chair. + +"And I must hurry back to my regiment," said Frank. + +"You think, then, that there is trouble with the native troops?" + +"With the sepoys, yes. I have been told that the 11th and 20th are not +wholly to be trusted. And those volleys are fired by infantry." + +A rapid step and the rustle of a dress warned them that the girl was +approaching. She came, like a startled fawn. + +"The servants' quarters are deserted," she cried. "Great columns of +smoke are rising over the trees, and you hear the shooting! Oh, what +does it mean?" + +"It means, my dear, that the Dragoons and the 60th will have to teach +these impudent rebels a much-needed lesson," said her uncle. "There is +no cause for alarm. Must you really go, Malcolm?" + +"Go!" broke in Winifred with the shrill accents of terror. "Where are +you going?" + +"To my regiment, of course," said Frank, smiling at her fears. "Probably +we shall be able to put down this outbreak before the white troops +arrive. Good-by. I shall either return, or send a trustworthy messenger, +within an hour." + +And so, confident and eager, he was gone, and the first moments of the +hour sped when, perhaps, a strong man in control at Meerut might have +saved India. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A NIGHT IN MAY + + +Winifred, quite unconsciously, had stated the actual incident that led +to the outbreak of the Mutiny. The hot weather was so trying for the +white troops in Meerut, many of whom, under ordinary conditions, would +then have been in the hills, that the General had ordered a Church +Parade in the evening, and at an unusual hour. + +All day long the troopers of the 3d Cavalry nursed their wrath at +the fate of their comrades who had refused to handle the suspected +cartridges. They had seen men whom they regarded as martyrs stripped +of their uniforms and riveted in chains in front of the whole garrison +on the morning of the 9th. Though fear of the British force in the +cantonment kept them quiet, Hindu vied with Mussalman in muttered +execrations of the dominant race. The fact that the day following the +punishment parade was a Sunday brought about a certain relaxation from +discipline. The men loafed in the bazaars, were taunted by courtesans +with lack of courage, and either drowned their troubles in strong drink +or drew together in knots to talk treason. + +Suddenly a sepoy raced up to the cavalry lines with thrilling news. + +"The Rifles and Artillery are coming to disarm all the native +regiments!" he shouted. + +He had watched the 60th falling in for the Church Parade, and, in view +of the action taken at Barrackpore and Lucknow--sepoy battalions having +been disbanded in both stations for mutinous conduct--he instantly +jumped to the conclusion that the military authorities at Meerut meant +to steal a march on the disaffected troops. His warning cry was as a +torch laid to a gunpowder train. + +The 3d Cavalry, Malcolm's own corps, swarmed out of bazaar and quarters +like angry wasps. Nearly half the regiment ran to secure their picketed +horses, armed themselves in hot haste, and galloped to the gaol. +Smashing open the door, they freed the imprisoned troopers, struck off +their fetters, and took no measures to prevent the escape of the general +horde of convicts. Yet, even in that moment of frenzy, some of the men +remained true to their colors. Captain Craigie and Lieutenant Melville +Clarke, hearing the uproar, mounted their chargers, rode to the lines, +and actually brought their troop to the parade ground in perfect +discipline. Meanwhile, the alarm had spread to the sepoys. No one knew +exactly what caused all the commotion. Wild rumors spread, but no man +could speak definitely. The British officers of the 11th and 20th +regiments were getting their men into something like order when a +sowar[2] clattered up, and yelled to the infantry that the European +troops were marching to disarm them. + +[Footnote 2: It should be explained that a sepoy (properly "sipahi") is +an infantry soldier, and a sowar a mounted one. The English equivalents +are "private" and "trooper."] + +At once, the 20th broke in confusion, seized their muskets, and procured +ammunition. The 11th wavered, and were listening to the appeal of their +beloved commanding officer, Colonel Finnis, when some of the 20th came +back and fired at him. He fell, pierced with many bullets, the first +victim of India's Red Year. His men hesitated no longer. Afire with +religious fanaticism, they, too, armed themselves, and dispersed in +search of loot and human prey. They acted on no preconcerted plan. The +trained troops simply formed the nucleus of an armed mob, its numbers +ever swelling as the convicts from the gaol, the bad characters from the +city, and even the native police, joined in the work of murder and +destruction. They had no leader. Each man emulated his neighbor in +ferocity. Like a pack of wolves on the trail, they followed the scent of +blood. + +The rapid spread of the revolt was not a whit less marvelous than its +lack of method or cohesion. Many writers have put forward the theory +that, by accident, the mutiny broke out half an hour too soon, and that +the rebels meant to surprise the unarmed white garrison while in church. + +In reality, nothing was further from their thoughts. If, in a nebulous +way, a date was fixed for a combined rising of the native army, it was +Sunday, May 31, three weeks later than the day of the outbreak. The +soldiers, helped by the scum of the bazaar, after indulging in an orgy +of bloodshed and plunder, dispersed and ran for their lives, fearing +that the avenging British were hot on their heels. And that was all. +There was no plan, no settled purpose. Hate and greed nerved men's +hands, but head there was none. + +Malcolm's ride towards the center of the station gave proof in plenty +that the mutineers were a disorganized rabble, inspired only by +unreasoning rancor against all Europeans, and, like every mob, eager for +pillage. At first, he met but few native soldiers. The rioters were +budmashes, the predatory class which any city in the world can produce +in the twinkling of an eye when the strong arm of the law is paralyzed. +Armed with swords and clubs, gangs of men rushed from house to house, +murdering the helpless inmates, mostly women and children, seizing such +valuables as they could find, and setting the buildings on fire. These +ghouls practised the most unheard-of atrocities. They spared no one. +Finding a woman lying ill in bed, they poured oil over the bed clothes, +and thus started, with a human holocaust, the fire that destroyed the +bungalow. + +They were rank cowards, too. Another Englishwoman, also an invalid, was +fortunate in possessing a devoted ayah. This faithful creature saved her +mistress by her quick-witted shriek that the mem-sahib must be avoided +at all costs, as she was suffering from smallpox! The destroyers fled in +terror, not waiting even to fire the house. + +It was not until later days that Malcolm knew the real nature of the +scene through which he rode. He saw the flames, he heard the Mohammedan +yell of "Ali! Ali!" and the Hindu shriek of "Jai! Jai!" but the quick +fall of night, its growing dusk deepened by the spreading clouds of +smoke, and his own desperate haste to reach the cavalry lines, prevented +him from appreciating the full extent of the horrors surrounding his +path. + +Arrived at the parade ground, he met Craigie and Melville Clarke, with +the one troop that remained of the regiment of which he was so proud. +There were no other officers to be seen, so these three held a +consultation. They were sure that the white troops would soon put an end +to the prevalent disorder, and they decided to do what they could, +within a limited area, to save life and property. Riding towards his own +bungalow to obtain a sword and a couple of revolvers, Malcolm came upon +a howling mob in the act of swarming into the compound of Craigie's +house. Some score of troopers heard his fierce cry for help, and fell +upon the would-be murderers, for Mrs. Craigie and her children were +alone in the bungalow. The riff-raff were soon driven off, and Malcolm, +not yet realizing the gravity of the _émeute_, told the men to safeguard +the mem-sahib until they received further orders, while he went to +rejoin his senior officer. + +Incredible as it may seem, the tiny detachment obeyed him to the letter. +They held the compound against repeated assaults, and lost several men +in hand-to-hand fighting. + +The history of that terrible hour is brightened by many such instances +of native fealty. The Treasury Guard, composed of men of the 8th +Irregular Cavalry, not only refused to join the rebels but defended +their charge boldly. A week later, of their own free will, they escorted +the treasure and records from Meerut to Agra, the transfer being made +for greater safety, and beat off several attacks by insurgents on the +way. They were well rewarded for their fidelity, yet, such was the power +of fanaticism, within less than two months they deserted to a man! + +The acting Commissioner of Meerut, Mr. Greathed, whose residence was in +the center of the sacked area, took his wife to the flat roof of his +house when he found that escape was impossible. A gang of ruffians +ransacked every room, and, piling the furniture, set it alight, but a +trustworthy servant, named Golab Khan, told them that he would reveal +the hiding-place of the sahib and mem-sahib if they followed quickly. He +thus decoyed them away, and the fortunate couple were enabled to reach +the British lines under cover of the darkness. + +And, while the sky flamed red over a thousand fires, and the blood of +unhappy Europeans, either civilian families or the wives and children of +military officers, was being spilt like water, where were the two +regiments of white troops who, by prompt action, could have saved Meerut +and prevented the siege of Delhi? + +That obvious question must receive a strange answer. They were +bivouacked on their parade-ground, doing nothing. The General in command +of the station was a feeble old man, suffering from senile decay. His +Brigadier, Archdale Wilson, issued orders that were foolish. He sent the +Dragoons to guard the empty gaol! After a long delay in issuing +ammunition to the Rifles, he marched them and the gunners to the +deserted parade-ground of the native infantry. They found a few belated +sowars of the 3d Cavalry, who took refuge in a wood, and the artillery +opened fire at the trees! News came that the rebels were plundering the +British quarters, and the infantry went there in hot haste. And then +they halted, though the mutineers were crying, "Quick, brother, quick! +The white men are coming!" and the scared suggestion went round: "To +Delhi! That is our only chance!" + +The moon rose on a terrified mob trudging or riding the forty miles of +road between Meerut and the Mogul capital. All night long they expected +to hear the roar of the pursuing guns, to find the sabers of the +Dragoons flashing over their heads. But they were quite safe. Archdale +Wilson had ordered his men to bivouac, and they obeyed, though it is +within the bounds of probability that had the rank and file known what +the morrow's sun would reveal, there might have been another Mutiny in +Meerut that night, a Mutiny of Revenge and Reprisal. + +It was not that wise and courageous counsel was lacking. Captain Rosser +offered to cut off the flight of the rebels to Delhi if one squadron of +his dragoons and a few guns were given to him. Lieutenant Möller, of the +11th Native Infantry, appealed to General Hewitt for permission to ride +alone to Delhi, and warn the authorities there of the outbreak. +Sanction was refused in both cases. The bivouac was evidently deemed a +masterpiece of strategy. + +That Möller would have saved Delhi cannot be doubted. Next day, finding +that the wife of a brother officer had been killed, he sought and +obtained evidence of the identity of the poor lady's murderer, traced +the man, followed him, arrested him single-handed, and brought him +before a drumhead court martial, by whose order he was hanged forthwith. + +Craigie, Rosser, Möller, and a few other brave spirits showed what could +have been done. But negligence and apathy were stronger that night than +courage or self-reliance. For good or ill, the torrent of rebellion was +suffered to break loose, and it soon engulfed a continent. + +Malcolm failed to find Craigie, who had taken his troop in the direction +of some heavy firing. Passing a bungalow that was blazing furiously, he +saw in the compound the corpses of two women. A little farther on, he +discovered the bodies of a man and four children in the center of the +road, and he recognized, in the man, a well-known Scotch trader whose +shop was the largest and best in Meerut. + +Then, for the first time, he understood what this appalling thing meant. +He thought of Winifred, and his blood went cold. She and her uncle were +alone in that remote house, far away on the Aligarh Road, and completely +cut off from the comparatively safe northerly side of the station. + +Giving heed to nought save this new horror of his imagination, he +wheeled Nejdi, and rode at top speed towards Mr. Mayne's bungalow. As he +neared it, his worst fears were confirmed. One wing was on fire, but the +flames had almost burnt themselves out. Charred beams and blackened +walls showed stark and gaunt in the glow of a smoldering mass of +wreckage. Twice he rode round the ruined house, calling he knew not what +in his agony, and looking with the eyes of one on the verge of lunacy +for some dread token of the fate that had overtaken the inmates. + +He came across several bodies. They were all natives. One or two were +servants, he fancied, but the rest were marauders from the city. Calming +himself, with the coolness of utter despair, he dismounted, and examined +the slain. Their injuries had been inflicted with some sharp, heavy +instrument. None of them bore gunshot wounds. That was strange. If there +was a fight, and Mayne, perhaps even Winifred, had taken part in the +defense, they must have used the sporting rifles in the house. And that +suggested an examination of the dark interior. He dreaded the task, but +it must not be shirked. + +The porch was intact, and he hung Nejdi's bridle on the hook where he +had placed it little more than an hour ago. The spacious drawing-room +had been gutted. The doors (Indian bungalows have hardly any windows, +each door being half glass) were open front and back. The room was +empty, thank Heaven! He was about to enter and search the remaining +apartments which had escaped the fire when a curiously cracked voice +hailed him from the foot of the garden. + +"Hallt! Who go dare?" it cried, in the queer jargon of the native +regiments. + +Malcolm saw a man hurrying toward him. He recognized him as a pensioner +named Syed Mir Khan, an Afghan. The old man, a born fire-eater, insisted +on speaking English to the _sahib-log_, unless, by rare chance, he +encountered some person acquainted with Pushtu, his native language. + +"I come quick, sahib," he shouted. "I know all things. I save sahib and +miss-sahib. Yes, by dam, I slewed the cut-heads." + +As he came nearer, he brandished a huge tulwar, and the split skulls +and severed vertebræ of certain gentry lying in the garden became +explicable. Delighted in having a sahib to listen, he went on: + +"The mob appearing, I attacked them with great ferocity--yes, like +terrible lion, by George. My fighting was immense. I had many actions +with the pigs." + +At last, he quieted down sufficiently to tell Malcolm what had happened. +He, with others, thinking the miss-sahib had gone to church, was smoking +the hookah of gossip in a neighboring compound. It was an instance of +the amazing rapidity with which the rioters spread over the station that +a number of them reached the Maynes' bungalow five minutes after the +first alarm was given. It should be explained here that Mr. Mayne, being +a Commissioner of Oudh, was only visiting Meerut in order to learn the +details of a system of revenue collection which it was proposed to adopt +on the sequestered estates of the Oudh taluqdars. He had rented one of +the best houses in the place, the owner being in Simla, and Syed Mir +Khan held a position akin to that of caretaker in a British household. +The looters knew how valuable were the contents of such an important +residence, and the earliest contingent thought they would have matters +entirely their own way. + +As soon as Malcolm left, however, Mr. Mayne loaded all his guns, while +Winifred made more successful search for some of the servants. The +Afghan was true to his salt, and their own retainers, who had come with +them from Lucknow, remained steadfast at this crisis. Hence, the mob +received a warm reception, but the fighting had taken place outside the +bungalow, the defenders lining a wall at the edge of the compound. +Indeed, a score of bodies lying there had not been seen by Malcolm +during his first frenzied examination of the house. + +Then an official of the Salt Department, driving past with his wife and +child, shouted to Mr. Mayne that he must not lose an instant if he would +save his niece and himself. + +"The sepoys have risen," was the horrifying message he brought. "They +have surprised and killed all the white troops. They are sacking the +whole station. You see the fires there? That is their work. This road is +clear, but the Delhi road is blocked." + +Some distant yelling caused the man to flog his horse into a fast trot +again; and he and his weeping companions vanished into the gloom. + +Mayne could not choose but believe. Indeed, many days elapsed before a +large part of India would credit the fact that the British regiments in +Meerut had not been massacred. A carriage and pair were harnessed. +Several servants were mounted on all the available horses and ponies, +and Mr. Mayne and Winifred had gone down the Grand Trunk Road towards +Bulandshahr and Aligarh. + +"Going half an hour," said Syed Mir Khan, volubly. "I stand fast, +slaying budmashes. They make rush in thousands, and I retreat with great +glory. Then they put blazes in bungalow." + +Now, Malcolm also might have accepted the sensational story of the Salt +Department inspector, if, at that instant, the boom of a heavy gun had +not come from the direction of the sepoy parade-ground. Another +followed, and another, in the steady sequence of a trained battery. As +he had just ridden from that very spot, which was then almost deserted, +he was sure that the British troops had come from their cantonment. The +discovery that Winifred was yet living, and in comparative safety, +cleared his brain as though he had partaken of some magic elixir. He +knew that Meerut itself was now the safest refuge within a hundred +miles. Probably the bulk of the mutineers would strive to reach Delhi, +and, of course, the dragoons and artillery would cut them off during the +night. But he had seen many squads of rebels, mounted and on foot, +hastening along the Grand Trunk Road, and it was no secret that +detachments of the 9th Native Infantry at Bulandshahr and Aligarh were +seething with Brahminical hatred of the abhorred cartridges. + +Each second he became more convinced that Winifred and her uncle were +being carried into a peril far greater than that which they had escaped. +Decision and action were the same thing where he was concerned. Bidding +the Afghan endeavor to find Captain Craigie, who might be trusted to +send a portion of his troop to scour the road for some miles, and +assuring the man of a big reward for his services, Frank mounted and +galloped south. He counted on overtaking the fugitives in an hour, and +persuading them to return with him. He rode with drawn sword, lest he +might be attacked on the way, but it was a remarkable tribute to +Möller's wisdom in offering to ride to Delhi that no man molested him, +and such sepoys as he passed skulked off into the fields where they saw +the glint of his saber and recognized him as a British officer. They had +no difficulty in that respect. A glorious full moon was flooding the +peaceful plain with light. The trunks of the tall trees lining the road +barred its white riband with black shadows, but Nejdi, good horse that +he was, felt that this was no time for skittishness, and repressed the +inclination to jump these impalpable obstacles. + +And he made excellent progress. Eight miles from Meerut, in a tiny +village of mud hovels which horse and rider had every reason to +remember, they suddenly dashed into a large company of mounted men and +a motley collection of vehicles. There were voices raised, too, in +heated dispute, and a small crowd was gathered near a lumbering +carriage, whose tawdry trappings and display of gold work betokened the +state equipage of some native dignitary. + +Drawn up by its side was a European traveling barouche, empty, but +Malcolm's keen eyes soon picked out the figures of Winifred and her +uncle, standing in the midst of an excited crowd of natives. So great +was the hubbub that he was not noticed until he pulled up. + +"I have come to bring you back to Meerut, Mr. Mayne," he cried. "The +mutiny has been quelled. Our troops are in command of the station and of +all the main roads. You can return without the slightest risk, I assure +you." + +He spoke clearly and slowly, well knowing that some among the natives +would understand him. His appearance, no less than his words, created a +rare stir. The clamor of tongues was stilled. Men looked at him as +though he had fallen from the sky. He could not be certain, but he +guessed, that he had arrived at a critical moment. Indeed, the lives of +his friends were actually in deadliest jeopardy, and there was no +knowing what turn the events of the next minute might have taken. But a +glance at Winifred's distraught face told him a good deal. He must be +bold, with the careless boldness of the man who has the means of making +his will respected. + +"Stand aside, there!" he said in Hindustani. "And you had better clear +the roadway. A troop of cavalry is riding fast behind." + +He dismounted, drew Nejdi's bridle over his left arm, and went towards +Winifred. The girl looked at him with a wistfulness that was pitiful. +Hope was struggling in her soul against the fear of grim death. + +"Oh, Frank!" she sighed, holding out both her hands. "Oh, Frank, I am so +frightened. We had a dreadful time at the bungalow, and these men look +so fierce and cruel! Have you really brought help?" + +"Yes," he said confidently. "You need have no further anxiety. Please +get into your carriage." + +Mr. Mayne said something, but Malcolm never knew what it was, for +Winifred fainted, and would have fallen had he not caught her. + +"This Feringhi has a loud voice," a man near him growled. "He talks of +cavalry. Where are they?" + +"The Meerut road is empty," commented another. + +"We have the Begum's order," said the first speaker, more loudly. "Let +us obey, or it may be an evil thing for us." + +"One of the daughters of Bahadur Shah is here," murmured Mayne rapidly. +"She says we are to be taken to Delhi, and slain if we resist. Where are +your men? My poor niece! To think that I should have brought her from +England for this!" + +Malcolm, still holding Winifred's unconscious form clasped to his +breast, laughed loudly. + +"Mayne-sahib tells me that you have all gone mad," he shouted in the +vernacular. "Have you no ears? Did you not hear the British artillery +firing on the rebels a little time since? Ere day breaks the road to +Delhi will be held by the white troops. What foolish talk is this of +taking Mayne-sahib thither as a prisoner?" + +The door of the bedizened traveling-coach was flung open, and the +Mohammedan lady who had befriended Frank when he fell into the moat +appeared. She alighted, and her aggressive servants drew away somewhat. + +"It is my order," she said imperiously. "Who are you that you should +dispute it?" + +"I regret the heat of my words, Princess," he replied, grasping the +frail chance that presented itself of wriggling out of a desperate +situation. "Nevertheless, it is true that the native regiments at Meerut +have been dispersed, and you yourself may have heard the guns as they +advanced along the Delhi road. Why should I be here otherwise? I came to +escort my friends back to Meerut." + +The Princess came nearer. In the brilliant moonlight she had an +unearthly beauty--at once weird and Sybilline--but her animated features +were chilled with disdain, and she pointed to the girl whose pallid face +lay against Frank's shoulder. + +"You are lying," she said. "You are not the first man who has lied for a +woman's sake. That is why you are here." + +"Princess, I have spoken nothing but the truth," he answered. "If you +still doubt my word, let some of your men ride back with us. They will +soon convince you. Perchance, the information may not be without its +value to you also." + +The thrust was daring, but she parried it adroitly. + +"No matter what has happened in Meerut, the destined end is the same," +she retorted. Then she fired into subdued passion. "The British +Raj is doomed," she muttered, lowering her voice, and bringing her +magnificent eyes close to his. "It is gone, like an evil dream. Listen, +Malcolm-sahib. You are a young man, and ambitious. They say you are a +good soldier. Come with me. I want some one I can trust. Though I am a +king's daughter, there are difficulties in my path that call for a sword +in the hands of a man not afraid to use it. Come! Let that weakling girl +go where she lists--I care not. I offer you life, and wealth, and a +career. She will lead you to death. What say you? Choose quickly. I am +now going to Delhi, and to-morrow's sun shall see my father a king in +reality as well as in name." + +Malcolm's first impression was that the Princess had lost her senses. He +had yet to learn how completely the supporters of the Mogul dynasty were +convinced of the approaching downfall of British supremacy in India. +But his active brain fastened on to two considerations of exceeding +importance. By temporizing, by misleading this arrogant woman, if +necessary, he might not only secure freedom for Winifred and Mayne, +but gather most valuable information as to the immediate plans of the +rebels. + +"Your words are tempting to a soldier of fortune, Princess," he said. + +"Malcolm--" broke in Mayne, who, of course, understood all that passed. + +"For Heaven's sake do not interfere," said Frank in English. "Suffer my +friends to depart, Princess," he went on in Persian. "It is better so. +Then I shall await your instructions." + +"Ah, you agree, then? That is good hearing. Yes, your white doll can go, +and the gray-beard, too. Ere many days have passed there will be no +place for them in all India." + +A commotion among the ring of soldiers and servants interrupted her. The +stout, important-looking man whom Malcolm had seen in the hunting lodge +on the occasion of his ducking, came towards them with hurried strides. +The Princess seemed to be disconcerted by his arrival. Her expressive +face betrayed her. Sullen anger, not unmixed with fear, robbed her of +her good looks. Her whole aspect changed. She had the cowed appearance +of one of her own serving-women. + +"Remember!" she murmured. "You must obey me, none else. Come when I send +for you!" + +The man, who now carried on his forehead the insignia of a Brahmin, had +no sooner reached the small space between the carriages than Mr. Mayne +cried delightedly to Malcolm: + +"Why, if this is not Nana Sahib! Here is a piece of good luck! I know +him well. If he has any control over this mob, we are perfectly safe." + +Nana Sahib acknowledged the Commissioner's greeting with smiling +politeness. But first he held a whispered colloquy with the Princess, +whom he entreated, or persuaded, to re-enter her gorgeous vehicle. She +drove away without another glance at Malcolm. Perhaps she did not dare +to show her favor in the newcomer's presence. + +Then Nana Sahib turned to the Europeans. + +"Let the miss-sahib be placed in her carriage," he said suavely. "She +will soon revive in the air, and we march at once for Aligarh. Will you +accept my escort thus far, Mayne-sahib, or farther south, if you wish +it? I think you will be safer with me than in taking the Meerut road +to-night." + +Mayne agreed gladly. The commanding influence of this highly-placed +native nobleman, who, despite an adverse decision of the Government, was +regarded by every Mahratta as Peishwa, the ruler of a vast territory in +Western India, seemed to offer more stable support that night than the +broken reed of British authority in Meerut. Moreover, the Commissioner +wished to reach Lucknow without delay. If the country were in for a +period of disturbance, his duty lay there, and he was planning already +to send Winifred to Calcutta from Cawnpore, and thence to England until +the time of political trouble had passed. + +"I am sure I am doing right," he said in answer to Frank's +remonstrances. "Don't you understand, a native in Nana Sahib's position +must be well informed as to the exact position of affairs. By helping +me he is safeguarding himself. I am only too thankful he was able to +subdue that fiery harpy, the Begum. She threatened me in the most +outrageous manner before you came. Of course, Winifred and I will be +ever-lastingly grateful to you for coming to our assistance. You are +alone, I suppose?" + +"Yes, though some of our troopers may turn up any minute." + +"I fear not," said the older man gravely. "This is a bad business, +Malcolm. The Begum said too much. There are worse times in store for +us. Do you really believe you can reach Meerut safely?" + +"I rode here without hindrance." + +"Let me advise you, then, to slip away before we start. That woman meant +mischief, or she would never have dared to suggest that a British +officer should throw in his lot with hers. Waste no time, and don't +spare that good horse of yours. Be sure I shall tell Winifred all you +have done for us. She is pulling round, I think, and it will be better +that she should not see you again. Besides, the Nana's escort are +preparing to march." + +Frank's latest memory of the girl he loved was a sad one. Her white face +looked ethereal in the moonlight, and her bloodless lips were quivering +with returning life. It was hard to leave her in such a plight, but it +would only unnerve her again if he waited until she was conscious to bid +her farewell. + +So he rode back to Meerut, a solitary European on the eight miles of +road, and no man challenged him till he reached the famous bivouac of +the white garrison, the bivouac that made the Mutiny an accomplished +fact. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +HOW BAHADUR SHAH PROCLAIMED HIS EMPIRE + + +On the morning of the 11th, the sun that laid bare the horrors of Meerut +shone brightly on the placid splendor of Delhi. This great city, the +Rome of Asia, was also the Metz of Upper India, its old-fashioned though +strong defenses having been modernized by the genius of a Napier. +Resting on the Jumna, it might best be described as of half-moon shape, +with the straight edge running north and south along the right bank of +the river. + +In the center of the river line stood the imposing red sandstone palace +of Bahadur Shah, last of the Moguls. North of this citadel were the +magazine, the Church, some European houses, and the cutcherry, or group +of minor law courts, while the main thoroughfare leading in that +direction passed through the Kashmir Gate. Southward from the fort +stretched the European residential suburb known as Darya Gunj (or, as it +would be called in England, the "Riverside District") out of which the +Delhi Gate gave access to the open country and the road to Humayun's +Tomb. Another gate, the Raj Ghât, opened toward the river between the +palace and Darya Gunj. Thus, the walls of city and palace ran almost +straight for two miles from the Kashmir Gate on the north to the Delhi +Gate on the south, while the main road connecting the two passed the +fort on the landward side. + +The Lahore Gate of the palace, a magnificent structure, commanded the +bazaar and its chief street, the superb Chandni Chowk, which extended +due west for nearly two miles to the Lahore Gate of the city itself. +Near the palace, in a very large garden, stood the spacious premises of +the Delhi Bank. A little farther on, but on the opposite side of the +Chowk, was the Kotwallee, or police station, and still farther, +practically in the center of the dense bazaar, two stone elephants +marked the entrance to the beautiful park now known as the Queen's +Gardens. + +The remainder of the space within the walls was packed with the houses +and shops of well-to-do traders, and the lofty tenements or mud hovels +in which dwelt a population of artisans noted not only for their +artistic skill but for a spirit of lawlessness, a turbulent fanaticism, +that had led to many scenes of violence in the city's earlier history. + +The whole of Delhi, as well as the palace--which had its own separate +fortifications--was surrounded by a wall seven miles long, twenty-four +feet in height, well supplied with bastions, and containing ten huge +gates, each a small fort in itself. The wall was protected by a dry +fosse, or ditch, twenty-five feet wide and about twenty feet deep; this, +in turn, was guarded by a counterscarp and glacis. + +On the northwest side of Delhi, and about a mile distant from the river, +an irregular, rock-strewn spine of land, called the Ridge, rose above +the general level of the plain, and afforded a panoramic view of the +city and palace. The rising ground began about half a mile from the Mori +Gate--which was situated on what may be termed the landward side of the +Kashmir Gate. It followed a course parallel with the river for two +miles, and at its northerly extremity were situated the principal +European bungalows and the military cantonment. + +Delhi was the center of Mohammedan hopes; its palace held the lineal +descendant of Aurangzebe, with his children and grandchildren; it +was stored to repletion with munitions of war; yet, such was the +inconceivable folly of the rulers of India at that time, the nearest +British regiments were stationed in Meerut, while the place swarmed +with native troops, horse, foot and artillery! + +A May morning in the Punjab must not be confused with its prototype +in Britain. Undimmed by cloud, unchecked by cooling breeze, the sun +scorches the earth from the moment his glowing rays first peep over the +horizon. Thus men who value their health and have work to be done rise +at an hour when London's streets are emptiest. Merchants were busy in +the bazaar, soldiers were on parade, judges were sitting in the courts +of the cutcherry, and the European housewives of the station were making +their morning purchases of food for breakfast and dinner, when some of +the loungers on the river-side wall saw groups of horsemen raising the +dust on the Meerut road beyond the bridge of boats which spanned the +Jumna. + +The word went round that something unusual had happened. Already the +idlers had noted the arrival of a dust-laden royal carriage, which +crossed the pontoons at breakneck speed and entered by the Calcutta +Gate. That incident, trivial in itself, became important when those +hard-riding horsemen came in sight. The political air was charged with +electricity. None knew whether it would end in summer lightning or in a +tornado, so there was much running to and fro, and gesticulations, and +excited whisperings among those watchers on the walls. + +Vague murmurs of doubt and surprise reached the ears of two of the +British magistrates. They hurriedly adjourned the cases they were trying +and sent for their horses. One rode hard to the cantonment and told +Brigadier Graves what he had seen and heard; the other, knowing the +immense importance of the chief magazine, went there to warn Lieutenant +Willoughby, the officer in charge. + +Here, then, in Delhi, were men of prompt decision, but the troops on +whom they could have depended were forty miles away in Meerut, in that +never-to-be-forgotten bivouac. Meanwhile, the vanguard of the Meerut +rebels had arrived. Mostly troopers of Malcolm's regiment, with some few +sepoys who had stolen ponies on the way, they crossed the Jumna, some +going straight to the palace by way of the bridge of boats, while others +forded the river to the south and made for the gaol, where, as usual, +they released the prisoners. This trick of emptying the penitentiaries +was more adroit than it seems at first sight. Not only were the +mutineers sure of obtaining hearty assistance in their campaign of +robbery and murder, but every gaol-bird headed direct for his native +town as soon as he was gorged with plunder. There was no better means of +disseminating the belief that the British power had crumbled to atoms. +The convicts boasted that they had been set free by the rebels; they +paraded their ill-gotten gains and incited ignorant villagers to emulate +the example of the towns. Thus a skilful and damaging blow was struck at +British prestige. Neither Mohammedan moullah nor Hindu fakir carried +such conviction to ill-informed minds as the appearance of some known +malefactor decked out in the jewels and trinkets of murdered +Englishwomen. + +The foremost of the mutineers reined in their weary horses beneath a +balcony on which Bahadur Shah, a decrepit old man of eighty, awaited +them. + +By his side stood his youngest daughter, the Roshinara Begum. Her eyes +were blazing with triumph, yet her lips curved with contempt at the +attitude of her trembling father. + +"You see!" she cried. "Have I not spoken truly? These are the men who +sacked Meerut. Scarce a Feringhi lives there save those whom I have +saved to good purpose. Admit your troops! Proclaim yourself their ruler. +A moment's firmness will win back your empire." + +The aged monarch, now that the hour was at hand that astrologers had +predicted and his courtiers had promised for many a year, faltered his +dread lest they were not all committing a great mistake. + +"This is no woman's work," he protested. "Where are my sons? Where is +the Shahzada, Mirza Mogul?" + +She knew. The heir apparent and his brothers were cowering in fear, +afraid to strike, yet hoping that others would strike for them. She +almost dragged her father to the front of the balcony. The troopers +recognized him with a fierce shout. A hundred sabers were waved +frantically. + +"Help us, O King!" they cried. "We pray your help in our fight for the +faith!" + +Captain Douglas, commandant of the palace guards, hearing the uproar ran +to the King. He did not notice the girl Roshinara, who stood there like +a caged tigress. + +"How dare you intrude on the King's privacy?" he cried, striving to +overawe the rebels by his cool demeanor. "You must lay down your arms if +you wish His Majesty's clemency. He is here in person and that is his +command." + +A yell of defiance greeted his bold words. The Begum made a signal with +her hand which was promptly understood. Away clattered the troopers +towards the Raj Ghât Gate. There they were admitted without parley. The +city hell hounds sprang to meet them and the slaughter of inoffensive +Europeans began in Darya Gunj. + +It was soon in full swing. The vile deeds of the night at Meerut were +re-enacted in the vivid sunlight at Delhi. Leaving their willing allies +to carry sword and torch through the small community in that quarter the +sowars rode to the Lahore Gate of the palace. It was thrown open by the +King's guards and dependents. Captain Douglas, and the Commissioner, +Mr. Fraser, made vain appeals to men whose knees would have trembled +at their frown a few minutes earlier. Thinking to escape and summon +assistance from the cantonment, Douglas mounted the wall and leaped into +the moat. He broke one, if not both, of his legs. Some scared coolies +lifted him and carried him back to the interior of the palace. Fraser +tried to protect him while he was being taken to his apartments over the +Lahore Gate, but a jeweler from the bazaar stabbed the Commissioner and +he was killed by the guards. Then the mob rushed up-stairs and massacred +the collector, the chaplain, the chaplain's daughter, a lady who was +their guest, and the injured Douglas. + +Another dreadful scene was enacted in the Delhi Bank. The manager and +his brave wife, assisted by a few friends who happened to be in the +building at the moment, made a stubborn resistance, but they were all +cut down. The masters in the Government colleges were surprised and +murdered in their class-rooms. The missionaries, whether European or +native, were slaughtered in their houses and schools. The editorial +staff and compositors of the _Delhi Gazette_, having just produced a +special edition of the paper announcing the crisis, were all stabbed or +bludgeoned to death. In the telegraph office a young signaler was +sending a thrilling message to Umballa, Lahore and the north. + +"The sepoys have come in from Meerut," he announced with the slow tick +of the earliest form of apparatus. "They are burning everything. Mr. +Todd is dead, and, we hear, several Europeans. We must shut up." + +That was his requiem. The startled operators at Umballa could obtain no +further intelligence and the boy was slain at his post.[3] + +[Footnote 3: This statement is made on the authority of Holmes's +"History of the Indian Mutiny," Cave-Browne's "The Punjab & Delhi," and +"The Punjab Mutiny Report," though it is claimed that William Brendish, +who is still living, was on duty at the Delhi Telegraph Office +throughout the night of May 10th.] + +The magistrate who galloped to the cantonment found no laggards there. +Brigadier Graves sent Colonel Ripley with part of the 54th Native +Infantry to occupy the Kashmir Gate. The remainder of the 54th escorted +two guns under Captain de Teissier. + +Ripley reached the main guard, just within the gate, when some troopers +of the 3d rode up. The Colonel ordered his men to fire at them. The +sepoys refused to obey, and the sowars, drawing their pistols, shot dead +or severely wounded six British officers. Then the 54th bayoneted their +Colonel, but, hearing the rumble of de Teissier's guns, fled into the +city. The guard of the gate, composed of men of the 38th, went with +them, but their officer, Captain Wallace, had ridden, fortunately for +himself, to hurry the guns. He was sent on to the cantonment to ask for +re-enforcements. Not a man of the 38th would follow him, but the 74th +commanded by Major Abbott, proclaimed their loyalty and asked to be led +against the mutineers. + +Perforce their commander trusted them. He brought them to the Kashmir +Gate with two more guns, while the Brigadier and his staff, wondering +why they heard nothing of the pursuing British from Meerut, thought it +advisable to gather the women and children and other helpless persons, +both European and native, in the Flagstaff Tower, a small building +situated on the northern extremity of the Ridge. + +There for some hours a great company of frightened people endured all +the discomforts of terrific heat, hunger, and thirst, while wives and +mothers, striving to soothe their wailing little ones, were themselves +consumed with anxiety as to the fate of husbands and sons. + +At the main guard there was a deadlock. Major Abbott and his brother +officers, trying to keep their men loyal, stood fast and listened to the +distant turmoil in the city. Like the soldiers in Meerut, they never +guessed a tithe of the horrors enacted there. They were sure that the +white troops in Meerut would soon arrive and put an end to the prevalent +anarchy. Yet the day sped and help came not. + +Suddenly the sound of a tremendous explosion rent the air and a dense +cloud of white smoke, succeeded by a pall of dust, rose between the +gate and the palace. Willoughby had blown up the magazine! Why? Two +artillery subalterns who had fought their way through a mob stricken +with panic for the moment, soon arrived. Their story fills one of the +great pages of history. + +Lieutenant Willoughby, a boyish-looking subaltern of artillery, whose +shy, refined manners hid a heroic soul, lost no time in making his +dispositions for the defense of the magazine when he knew that a mutiny +was imminent. He had with him eight Englishmen, Lieutenants Forrest and +Raynor, Conductors Buckley, Shaw and Scully, Sub-Conductor Crow, and +Sergeants Edwards and Stewart. The nine barricaded the outer gates and +placed in the best positions guns loaded with grape. They laid a train +from the powder store to a tree in the yard. Scully stood there. He +promised to fire the powder when his young commander gave the signal. + +Then they waited. A stormy episode was taking place inside the fort. +Bahadur Shah held out against the vehement urging of his daughter aided +now by the counsel of her brothers. Ever and anon he went to the river +balcony which afforded a view of the Meerut road. At last he sent +mounted men across the river. When these scouts returned and he was +quite certain that none but rebel sepoys were streaming towards Delhi +from Meerut, he yielded. + +The surrender of the magazine was demanded in his name. His adherents +tried to rush the gate and walls, and were shot down in scores. The +attack grew more furious and sustained. The white men served their +smoking cannon with a wild energy that, for a time, made the gallant +nine equal to a thousand. Of course such a struggle could have only one +end. Willoughby, in his turn, ran to the river bastion. Like the king, +he looked towards Meerut. Like the king, he saw none but mutineers. +Then, when the enemy were clambering over the walls and rushing into +the little fort from all directions, he raised his sword and looked at +Conductor Buckley. Buckley lifted his hat, the agreed signal, and Scully +fired the train. Hundreds of rebels were blown to pieces, as they +were already inside the magazine. Scully was killed where he stood. +Willoughby leaped from the walls, crossed the river, and met his +death while striving to reach Meerut. Lieutenants Forrest and Raynor, +Conductors Buckley and Shaw, and Sergeant Stewart escaped, and were +given the Victoria Cross. + +Yet, so curiously constituted is the native mind, the blowing-up of the +magazine was the final tocsin of revolt. It seemed to place beyond doubt +that which all men were saying. The king was fighting the English. Islam +was in the field against the Nazarene. The Mogul Empire was born again +and the iron grip of British rule was relaxed. At once the sepoys at the +Kashmir Gate fired a volley at the nearest officers, of whom three fell +dead. + +Two survivors rushed up the bastion and jumped into the ditch. Others, +hearing the shrieks of some women in the guard room, poor creatures who +had escaped from the city, ran through a hail of bullets and got them +out. Fastening belts and handkerchiefs together, the men lowered the +women into the fosse and, with extraordinary exertions, lifted them up +the opposite side. + +At the Flagstaff Tower the 74th and the remainder of the 38th suddenly +told their officers that they would obey them no longer. When this last +shred of hope was gone, the Brigadier reluctantly gave the order to +retreat. The women and children were placed in carriages and a mournful +procession began to straggle through the deserted cantonment along the +Alipur Road. + +Soon the fugitives saw their bungalows on fire. "Then," says that +accurate and impartial historian of the Mutiny, Mr. T. R. E. Holmes, +"began that piteous flight, the first of many such incidents which +hardened the hearts of the British to inflict a terrible revenge.... +Driven to hide in jungles or morasses from despicable vagrants--robbed, +and scourged, and mocked by villagers who had entrapped them with +promises of help--scorched by the blazing sun, blistered by burning +winds, half-drowned in rivers which they had to ford or swim across, +naked, weary and starving, they wandered on; while some fell dead by the +wayside, and others, unable to move farther, were abandoned by their +sorrowing friends to die on the road." + +In such wise did the British leave Imperial Delhi. They came back, +later, but many things had to happen meanwhile. + +The volcanic outburst in the Delhi district might have been paralleled +farther north were not the Punjab fortunate in its rulers. Sir John +Lawrence was Chief Commissioner at Lahore. When that fateful telegram +from Delhi was received in the capital of the Punjab he was on his way +to Murree, a charming and secluded hill station, for the benefit of his +health. But, like most great men, Lawrence had the faculty of +surrounding himself with able lieutenants. + +His deputy, Robert Montgomery, whose singularly benevolent aspect +concealed an iron will, saw at once that if the Punjab followed the lead +of Meerut and Delhi, India would be lost. Lahore had a mixed population +of a hundred thousand Sikhs and Mohammedans, born soldiers every man, +and ready to take any side that promised to settle disputes by cold +steel rather than legal codes. If these hot heads, with their millions +of co-religionists in the land of the Five Rivers, were allowed to gain +the upper hand, they would sweep through the country from the mountains +to the sea. + +The troops, British and native, were stationed in the cantonment of +Mian-mir, some five miles from Lahore. There were one native cavalry +regiment and three native infantry battalions whose loyalty might +be measured by minutes as soon as they learnt that the standard of +Bahadur Shah was floating over the palace at Delhi. To quell them the +authorities had the 81st Foot and two batteries of horse artillery, or, +proportionately, far less a force than that at Meerut, the Britons being +outnumbered eight times by the natives. + +Montgomery coolly drove to Mian-mir on the morning of the 12th, took +counsel with the Brigadier, Stuart Corbett, and made his plans. A ball +was fixed for that night. All society attended it, and men who knew that +the morrow's sun might set on a scene of bloodshed and desolation danced +gaily with the ladies of Lahore. Surely those few who were in the secret +of the scheme arranged by Montgomery and Corbett must have thought of a +more famous ball at Brussels on a June night in 1815. + +Next morning the garrison fell in for a general parade of all arms. The +artillery and 81st were on the right of the line, the native infantry in +the center, and the sowars on the left. A proclamation by Government +announcing the disbandment of the 34th at Barrackpore was read, and may +have given some inkling of coming events to the more thoughtful among +the sepoys. But they had no time for secret murmurings. Maneuvers began +instantly. In a few minutes the native troops found themselves +confronted by the 81st and the two batteries of artillery. + +Riding between the opposing lines, the Brigadier told the would-be +mutineers that he meant to save them from temptation by disarming them. + +"Pile arms!" came the resolute command. + +They hesitated. The intervening space was small. By sheer weight of +numbers they could have borne down the British. + +"Eighty-first--load!" rang out the ominous order. + +As the ears of the startled men caught the ring of the ramrods in the +Enfield rifles, their eyes saw the lighted port fires of the gunners. +They were trapped, and they knew it. They threw down their weapons with +sullen obedience and the first great step towards the re-conquest of +India was taken. + +Inspired by Montgomery the district officers at Umritsar, Mooltan, +Phillour, and many another European center in the midst of warlike and +impetuous races, followed his example and precept. Brigadier Innes at +Ferozpore hesitated. He tried half measures. He separated his two native +regiments and thought to disarm them on the morrow. That night one of +them endeavored to storm the magazine, burnt and plundered the station, +and marched off towards Delhi. But Innes then made amends. He pursued +and dispersed them. Only scattered remnants of the corps reached the +Mogul capital. + +Thus Robert Montgomery, the even-tempered, suave, smooth-spoken Deputy +Commissioner of Lahore! In the far north, at Peshawur, four other men +of action gathered in conclave. The gay, imaginative, earnest-minded +Herbert Edwardes, the hard-headed veteran, Sydney Cotton, the dashing +soldier, Neville Chamberlain, and the lustrous-eyed, black-bearded, +impetuous giant, John Nicholson--that genius who at thirty-five had +already been deified by a brotherhood of Indian fakirs and placed by +Mohammedans among the legendary heroes of their faith--these four sat +in council and asked, "How best shall we serve England?" + +They answered that question with their swords. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +ON THE WAY TO CAWNPORE + + +In Meerut reigned that blessed thing, Pax Britannica, otherwise known as +the British bulldog. But the bulldog was kept on the chain and peace +obtained only within his kennel. Malcolm, deprived of his regiment, +gathered under his command a few young civilians who were eager to act +as volunteer cavalry, and was given a grudging permission to ride out to +the isolated bungalows of some indigo planters, on the chance that the +occupants might have defended themselves successfully against the +rioters. + +In each case the tiny detachment discovered blackened walls and unburied +corpses. The Meerut district abounded with Goojers, the hereditary +thieves of India, and these untamed savages had lost none of their +wild-beast ferocity under fifty years of British rule. They killed and +robbed with an impartiality that was worthy of a better cause. When +Europeans, native travelers and mails were swept out of existence they +fought each other. Village boundaries which had been determined under +Wellesley's strong government at the beginning of the century were +re-arranged now with match-lock, spear and tulwar. Old feuds were +settled in the old way and six inches of steel were more potent than +the longest Order in Council. Yet these ghouls fled at the sight of the +smallest white force, and Malcolm and his irregulars rode unopposed +through a blood-stained and deserted land. + +On the 21st of May, eleven days after the outbreak of the Mutiny, though +never a dragoon or horse gunner had left Meerut cantonment since they +marched back to their quarters from the ever-memorable bivouac, Malcolm +led his light horsemen north, along the Grand Trunk Road in the +direction of Mazuffernugger. + +A native brought news that a collector and his wife were hiding in a +swamp near the road. Happily, in this instance, the two were rescued, +more dead than alive. The man, ruler of a territory as big as the North +Riding of Yorkshire, his wife, a young and well-born Englishwoman, were +in the last stage of misery. The unhappy lady, half demented, was +nursing a dead baby. When the child was taken from her she fell +unconscious and had to be carried to Meerut on a rough litter. + +The little cavalcade was returning slowly to the station[4] when one of +the troopers caught the hoof beats of a galloping horse behind them. +Malcolm reined up, and soon a British officer appeared round a bend in +the road. Mounted on a hardy country-bred, and wearing the semi-native +uniform of the Company's regiments, the aspect of the stranger was +sufficiently remarkable to attract attention apart from the fact that he +came absolutely alone from a quarter where it was courting death to +travel without an escort. He was tall and spare of build, with reddish +brown hair and beard, blue eyes that gleamed with the cold fire of +steel, close-set lips, firm chin, and the slightly-hooked nose with thin +nostrils that seems to be one of nature's tokens of the man born to +command his fellows when the strong arm and clear brain are needed in +the battle-field. + +[Footnote 4: In India the word "station" denotes any European settlement +outside the three Presidency towns. In 1857 there were few railways in +the country.] + +He rode easily, with a loose rein, and he waved his disengaged hand the +instant he caught sight of the white faces. + +"Are you from Meerut?" he asked, his voice and manner conveying a +curious blend of brusqueness and gentility, as his tired horse willingly +pulled up alongside Nejdi. + +"Yes. And you?" said Malcolm, trying to conceal his amazement at this +apparition. + +"I am Lieutenant Hodson of the 1st Bengal Fusiliers. I have ridden from +Kurnaul, where the Commander-in-Chief is waiting until communication is +opened with Meerut. Where is General Hewitt?" + +"I will take you to him! From Kurnaul, did you say? When did you start?" + +"About this hour yesterday." + +Malcolm knew then that this curt-spoken cavalier had ridden nearly a +hundred miles through an enemy's country in twenty-four hours. + +"Is your horse equal to another hour's canter?" he inquired. + +"He ought to be. I took him from a bunniah when my own fell dead in a +village about ten miles in the rear." + +Bidding a young bank manager take charge of the detachment, Frank led +the newcomer rapidly to headquarters. Hodson asked a few questions and +made his companion's blood boil by the unveiled contempt he displayed on +hearing of the inaction at Meerut. + +"You want Nicholson here," said he, laughing with grim mirth. "By all +the gods, he would horse-whip your general into the saddle." + +"Hewitt is an old man, and cautious, therefore," explained Frank, in +loyal defense of his chief. "Perhaps he deems it right to await the +orders you are now bringing." + +"An old man! You mean an old woman, perhaps? I come from one. I had to +go on my knees almost before I could persuade Anson to let me start." + +"Well, you must admit that you have made a daring and lucky ride?" + +"Nonsense! Why is one a soldier! I would cross the infernal regions if +the need arose. If I had been in Meerut on that Sunday evening, no +general that ever lived could have kept me out of Delhi before daybreak. +The way to stop this mutiny was to capture that doddering old king and +hold him as a hostage, and twenty determined men could have done it +easily in the confusion." + +That was William Hodson's way. Men who met him began by disliking his +hectoring, supercilious bearing. They soon learnt to forget his +gruffness and think only of his gallantry and good-comradeship. + +At any rate his stirring advice and the dispatches he brought roused the +military authorities at Meerut into activity. Carrying with him a letter +to the Commander-in-Chief he quitted Meerut again that night, and +dismounted outside Anson's tent at Kurnaul at dawn on the second day! + +On the 27th, Archdale Wilson led the garrison towards the rendezvous +fixed on by the force hurriedly collected in the Punjab for the relief +of Delhi. On the afternoon of the 30th, cavalry vedettes reported the +presence of a strong body of mutineers on the right bank of the river +Hindun, near the village of Ghazi-ud-din Nuggur and at a place where a +high ridge commanded an iron suspension bridge. It was found afterwards +that the rebels meant to fight the two British forces in detail before +they could effect a junction. The generalship of the idea was good, but +the sepoys did not count on the pent-up wrath of the British soldiers, +who were burning to avenge their murdered countrymen and dishonored +countrywomen, for it was now becoming known that many a fair English +lady had met a fate worse than death ere sword or bullet stilled her +anguish. + +A company of the 60th Rifles dashed forward to seize the bridge, +Lieutenant Light and his men took up the enemy's challenge with their +heavy eighteen-pounders, and Colonel Mackenzie and Major Tombs, at the +head of two batteries of horse artillery, crossed the river and turned +the left flank of the sepoy force. Then the Rifles extended and charged, +the mutineers yielded, and Colonel Custance with his dragoons sabered +them mercilessly for some miles. + +Next morning, Whit-Sunday, while the chaplains were conducting the +burial service over those who had fallen, the mutineers came out of +Delhi again. A severe action began instantly. Tombs had two horses shot +under him, and thirteen out of fifty men in his battery were killed or +wounded. But the issue was never in doubt. After three hours' hard +fighting the rebels broke and fled. So those men in Meerut could give a +good account of themselves when permitted! Actually, they won the two +first battles of the campaign. + +Exhausted by two days' strenuous warfare in the burning sun, they could +not take up the pursuit. The men were resting on the field when a +battalion of Ghoorkahs, the little fighting men of Nepaul, arrived under +the command of Colonel Reid. They had marched by way of Bulandshahr, and +Malcolm heard to his dismay that the native infantry detachment +stationed there, aided by the whole population of the district, had +committed the wildest excesses. + +Yet Winifred and her uncle had passed through that town on the road to +Cawnpore. Aligarh, too, was in flames, said Reid, and there was no +communication open with Agra, the seat of Government for the North-West +Provinces. There was a bare possibility that the Maynes might have +reached Agra, or that Nana Sahib had protected them for his own sake. +Such slender hopes brought no comfort. Black despair sat in Malcolm's +heart until the Brigadier sent for him and ordered him to take charge of +the guard that would escort the records and treasure from Meerut to +Agra. He hailed this dangerous mission with gloomy joy. Love had no +place in a soldier's life, he told himself. Henceforth he must remember +Winifred only when his sword was at the throat of some wretched mutineer +appealing for mercy. + +He went to his tent to supervise the packing of his few belongings. His +bearer,[5] a Punjabi Mohammedan, who cursed the sepoys fluently for +disturbing the country during the hot weather, handed him a note which +had been brought by a camp follower. + +[Footnote 5: A personal servant, often valet and waiter combined.] + +It was written in Persi-Arabic script, a sort of Arabic shorthand that +demands the exercise of time and patience ere it can be deciphered by +one not thoroughly acquainted with it. Thinking it was a request for +employment which he could not offer, Malcolm stuffed it carelessly into +a pocket. He rode to Meerut, placed himself at the head of the 8th +Irregular Cavalry, a detachment whose extraordinary fidelity has already +been narrated, and set forth next morning with his train of bullock +carts and their escort. + +He called the first halt in the village where he had parted from +Winifred. The headman professed himself unable to give any information, +but the application of a stirrup leather to his bare back while his +wrists were tied to a cart wheel soon loosened his tongue. + +The king's hunting lodge was empty, he whined; and the Roshinara Begum +had gone to Delhi. Nana Sahib's cavalcade went south soon after the +Begum's departure, and a moullah had told him, the headman, that the +Nana had hastened through Aligarh on his way to Cawnpore, not turning +aside to visit Agra, which was fifty miles down the Bombay branch of the +Grand Trunk Road. + +Malcolm drew a negative comfort from the moullah's tale. That night he +encamped near a fair-sized village which was ominously denuded of men. +Approaching a native hut to ask for a piece of charcoal wherewith to +light a cigar, he happened to look inside. To his very great surprise he +saw, standing in a corner, a complete suit of European armor, made of +tin, it is true, but a sufficiently bewildering "find" in a Goojer +hovel. + +A woman came running from a neighbor's house. While giving him the +charcoal she hastily closed the rude door. She pretended not to +understand him when he sought an explanation of the armor, whereupon he +seized her, and led her, shrieking, among his own men. The commotion +brought other villagers on the scene, as he guessed it would. A few +fierce threats, backed by a liberal display of naked steel, quickly +evoked the curious fact that nearly all the able-bodied inhabitants "had +gone to see the sahib-log[6] dance." + +[Footnote 6: A generic term for Europeans.] + +Even Malcolm's native troops were puzzled by this story, but a further +string of terrifying words and more saber flourishing led to a direct +statement that the white people who were to "dance" had been captured +near the village quite a week earlier and imprisoned in a ruined tomb +about a mile from the road. It was risky work to leave the valuable +convoy for an instant, but Malcolm felt that he must probe this mystery. +Taking half a dozen men with him, and compelling the woman to act as +guide, he went to the tomb in the dark. + +The building, a mosque-like structure of considerable size, was situated +in the midst of a grove of mango trees. A clear space in front of the +tomb was lighted with oil lamps and bonfires. It was packed with +uproarious natives, and Malcolm's astonished gaze rested on three +European acrobats doing some feat of balancing. A clown was cracking +jokes in French, some nuns were singing dolefully, and a trio of girls, +wearing the conventional gauze and spangles of circus riders, were +standing near a couple of piebald ponies. + +He and his men dashed in among the audience and the Goojers ran for dear +life when they caught sight of a sahib at the head of an armed party. +The performers and the nuns nearly died of fright, believing that their +last hour had surely come. But they soon recovered from their fear only +to collapse more completely from joy. A French circus, it appeared, had +camped near a party of nuns in the village on the main road, and were +captured there when the news came that the English were swept out of +existence. Most fortunately for themselves the nuns were regarded as +part of the show, and the villagers, after robbing all of them, penned +them in the mosque and made them give a nightly performance. There were +five men and three women in the circus troupe, and among the four nuns +was the grave reverend mother of a convent. + +Malcolm brought them to the village and caused it to be made known that +unless every article of value and every rupee in money stolen from these +unfortunate people, together with a heavy fine, were brought to him by +daybreak, he would not only fire each hut and destroy the standing +crops, but he would also hang every adult male belonging to the place he +could lay hands on. + +These hereditary thieves could appreciate a man who spoke like that. +They met him fairly and paid in full. When the convoy moved off, even +that amazing suit of armor, which was used for the state entry of the +circus into a town, was strapped on to the back of a trick pony. + +The nuns, he ascertained, were coming from Fategarh to Umballa and they +had met the great retinue of Nana Sahib below Aligarh. With him were two +Europeans, a young lady and an elderly gentleman, but they were +traveling so rapidly that it was impossible to learn who they were or +whither they were going. + +Here, then, was really good news. Like every other Englishman in India +Malcolm believed that the Mutiny was confined to a very small area, of +which his own station was the center. He thought that if Winifred and +her uncle reached Cawnpore they would be quite safe. + +He brightened up so thoroughly that he quite enjoyed a sharp fight next +day when the budmashes of Bulandshahr regarded the straggling convoy as +an easy prey. + +There were three or four such affairs ere they reached Agra, and his +Frenchmen proved themselves to be soldiers as well as acrobats. On the +evening of the 2d of June he marched his cavalcade into the splendid +fortress immortalized by its marble memorials of the great days of the +Mogul empire. + +The fact that a young subaltern had brought a convoy from Meerut was +seized on by the weak and amiable John Colvin, Lieutenant Governor of +the North-West Provinces, as a convincing proof of his theory that the +bulk of the native army might be trusted, and that order would soon be +restored. Each day he was sending serenely confident telegrams to +Calcutta and receiving equally reassuring ones from a fatuous Viceroy. +It was with the utmost difficulty that his wiser subordinates got him to +disarm the sepoy regiments in Agra itself. He vehemently assured the +Viceroy that the worst days of the outbreak were over and issued a +proclamation offering forgiveness to all mutineers who gave up their +arms, "except those who had instigated others to revolt, or taken part +in the murder of Europeans." + +Such a man was sure to regard Malcolm's bold journey from the wrong +point of view. So delighted was he that he gave the sowars two months' +pay, lauded Malcolm in the _Gazette_, and forthwith despatched him on a +special mission to General Sir Hugh Wheeler at Cawnpore, to whom he +recommended Frank for promotion and appointment as aide-de-camp. + +This curious sequence of events led to Malcolm's following Winifred +Mayne along the road she had taken exactly three weeks earlier. The +route to Cawnpore lay through Etawah, a place where revolt had already +broken out, but which had been evacuated by the mutineers, who, like +those at Aligarh, Bulandshahr, Mainpuri, Meerut, and a score of other +towns, ran off to Delhi after butchering all the Europeans within range. + +With a small escort of six troopers, his servant, and two pack-horses, +he traveled fast. As night was falling on June 4th, he re-entered the +Grand Trunk Road some three miles north of Bithoor, where, all unknown +to him, Nana Sahib's splendid palace stood on the banks of the Ganges. + +It was his prudent habit to halt in small villages only. Towns might be +traversed quickly without much risk, as even the tiniest display of +force insured safety, but it was wise not to permit the size of his +escort to be noted at leisure, when a surprise attack might be made in +the darkness. + +Therefore, expecting to arrive at Cawnpore early next day, he elected +not to push on to Bithoor, and proposed to pass the night under the +branches of a great pipal tree. Chumru, his Mohammedan bearer, was a +good cook, in addition to his many other acquirements. Having +purchased, or made his master pay for, which is not always the same +thing in India, a small kid (by which please understand a young goat) in +the village, he lit a fire, slew the kid, to the accompaniment of an +appropriate verse from the Koran, and compounded an excellent stew. + +A native woman brought some chupatties and milk, and Malcolm, being +sharp set with hunger, ate as a man can only eat when he is young, and +in splendid health, and has ridden hard all day. + +He had a cigar left, too, and he was searching his pockets for a piece +of paper to light it when he brought forth that Persi-Arabic letter +which reached him at the close of the second battle of Ghazi-ud-din +Nuggur. + +He was on the point of rolling it into a spill, but some subtle +influence stopped him. He rose, walked to Chumru's fire, and lit the +cigar with a burning stick. Then summoning a smart young jemadar with +whom he had talked a good deal during the journey, he asked him to read +the chit. The woman who supplied the chupatties fetched a tiny lamp. She +held it while the trooper bent over the strange scrawl, and ran his eyes +along it to learn the context. + +And this is what he read: + + "To all whom it may concern--Be it known that Malcolm-sahib, + late of the Company's 3d Regiment of Horse, is a friend of the + heaven-born princess Roshinara Begum, and, provided he comes to + the palace at Delhi within three days from the date hereof, he + is to be given safe conduct by all who owe allegiance to the + Light of the World, the renowned King of Kings and lord of all + India, Bahadur Shah, Fuzl-Ilahi, Panah-i-din." + +The trooper scowled. Those concluding words--"By the grace of God, +Defender of the Faith"--perhaps touched a sore place, for he, too, was a +true believer. + +"You are a long way from Delhi, sahib, and the chit is a week old. I +suppose you did not pay the expected visit to her Highness the Begum?" +he said. + +"If you are talking of the Begum Roshinara, daughter of the King of +Delhi," put in the woman, who was ready enough to indulge in a gossip +with these good-looking soldiers, "she passed through this place +to-day." + +"Surely you are telling some idle tale of the bazaar," said Malcolm. + +"No, sahib. My brother is a grass-cutter in the Nana's stables. While I +was at the well this morning a carriage came down the road. It was a +rajah's carriage, and there were men riding before and behind. I asked +my brother if he had seen it, and he said that it brought the Begum to +Bithoor, where she is to wed the Nana." + +"What! A Mohammedan princess marry a Brahmin!" + +"It may be so, sahib. They say these great people do not consider such +things when there is aught to be gained." + +"But what good purpose can this marriage serve?" + +The woman looked up at Malcolm under her long eyelashes. + +"Where have you been, sahib, that you have not heard that the sepoys +have proclaimed the Nana as King?" she asked timidly. + +"King! Is he going to fight the Begum's father?" + +"I know not, sahib, but Delhi is far off, and Cawnpore is near. +Perchance they may both be kings." + +A man's voice called from the darkness, and the woman hurried away. +Malcolm, of course, was in a position to appraise the accuracy of her +story. He knew that the Nana, a native dignitary with a grievance +against the Government, was a guest of Bahadur Shah a month before the +Mutiny broke out, and was at the Meerut hunting lodge on the very night +of its inception. Judging by Princess Roshinara's words, her relations +with the Brahmin leader were far from lover-like. What, then, did this +sudden journey to Cawnpore portend? Was Sir Hugh Wheeler aware of the +proposed marriage, with all the terrible consequences that it heralded? +At any rate, his line of action was clear. + +"Get the men together, Akhab Khan," he said to the jemadar. "We march at +once." + +Within five minutes they were on the road. There was no moon, and the +trees bordering both sides of the way made the darkness intense. The +still atmosphere, too, was almost overpowering. The dry earth, sun-baked +to a depth of many feet, was giving off its store of heat accumulated +during the day. The air seemed to be quivering as though it were laden +with the fumes of a furnace. It was a night when men might die or go mad +under the mere strain of existence. Its very languor was intoxicating. +Nature seemed to brood over some wild revel. A fearsome thunderstorm or +howling tornado of dust might reveal her fickleness of mood at any +moment. + +It was man, not the elements, that was destined to war that night. The +small party of horsemen were riding through the scattered houses of +Bithoor, and had passed a brilliantly lighted palace which Malcolm took +to be the residence of Nana Sahib, when they were suddenly ordered to +halt. Some native soldiers, not wearing the Company's uniform, formed a +line across the road. Malcolm, drawing his sword, advanced towards them. + +"Whose troops are you?" he shouted. + +There was no direct answer, but a score of men, armed with muskets and +bayonets, and carrying a number of lanterns, came nearer. It must be +remembered that Malcolm, a subaltern of the 3d Cavalry, wore a turban +and sash. He spoke Urdu exceedingly well, and it was difficult in the +gloom to recognize him as a European. + +"We have orders to stop and examine all wayfarers--" began some man in +authority; but a lifted lantern revealed Frank's white face; instantly +several guns were pointed at him. + +"Follow me!" he cried to his escort. + +A touch of the spurs sent Nejdi with a mighty bound into the midst of +the rabble who held the road. Malcolm bent low in the saddle and a +scattered volley revealed the tree-shrouded houses in a series of bright +flashes. Fortunately, under such conditions, there is more room to miss +than to hit. None of the bullets harmed horse or man, and the sowars +were not quite near enough to be in the line of fire. After a quick +sweep or two with his sword, Malcolm saw that his men were laying about +them heartily. A pack-horse, however, had stumbled, bringing down the +animal ridden by Chumru, the bearer. To save his faithful servant Frank +wheeled Nejdi, and cut down a native who was lunging at Chumru with a +bayonet. + +More shots were fired and a sowar was wounded. He fell, shouting to his +comrades for help. A general mêlée ensued. The troopers slashed at the +men on foot and the sepoys fired indiscriminately at any one on +horseback. The uproar was so great and the fighting so strenuous that +Malcolm did not hear the approach of a body of cavalry until a loud +voice bawled: + +"Why should brothers slay brothers? Cease your quarreling, in the name +of the faith! Are there not plenty of accursed Feringhis on whom to try +your blades?" + +Then the young officer saw, too late, that he was surrounded by a ring +of steel. Yet he strove to rally his escort, got four of the men to obey +his command, and, placing himself in front, led them at the vague forms +that blocked the road to Cawnpore. In the confusion, he might have cut +his way through had not Nejdi unfortunately jumped over a wounded man at +the instant Frank was aiming a blow at a sowar. His sword swished +harmlessly in the air, and his adversary, hitting out wildly, struck +the Englishman's head with the forte of his saber. The violent shock +dazed Malcolm for a second, but all might yet have been well were it not +for an unavoidable accident. A sepoy's bayonet became entangled in the +reins. In the effort to free his weapon the man gave such a tug to the +bit on the near side that the Arab crossed his fore-legs and fell, +throwing his rider violently. Frank landed fairly on his head. His +turban saved his neck, but could not prevent a momentary concussion. For +a while he lay as one dead. + +When he came to his senses he found that his arms were tied behind his +back, that he had been carried under a big tree, and that a tall native, +in the uniform of a subadar of the 2d Bengal Cavalry, was holding a +lantern close to his face. + +"I am an officer of the 3d Cavalry," he said, trying to rise. "Why do +you, a man in my own service, suffer me to be bound?" + +"You are no officer of mine, Feringhi," was the scornful reply. "You are +safely trussed because we thought it better sport to dangle you from a +bough than to stab you where you dropped. Quick, there, with that +heel-rope, Abdul Huq. We have occupation. Let us hang this crow here to +show other Nazarenes what they may expect. And we have no time to lose. +The Nana may appear at any moment." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A WOMAN INTERVENES + + +That ominous order filled Malcolm's soul with a fierce rage. He was not +afraid of death. The wine of life ran too strongly in his veins that +craven fear should so suddenly quell the excitement of the combat that +had ended thus disastrously. But his complete helplessness--the fact +that he was to be hanged like some wretched felon by men wearing the +uniform of which he had been so proud--these things stirred him to the +verge of frenzy. + +Oddly enough, in that moment of anguish he thought of Hodson, the man +who rode alone from Kurnaul to Meerut. Why had Hodson succeeded? Would +Hodson, knowing the exceeding importance of his mission, have turned to +rescue a servant or raise a fallen horse? Would he not rather have +dashed on like a thunderbolt, trusting to the superior speed of his +charger to carry him clear of his assailants? And Nejdi! What had become +of that trusted friend? Never before, Arab though he was, had he been +guilty of a stumble. Perhaps he was shot, and sobbing out his gallant +life on the road, almost at the foot of the tree which would be his +master's gallows. + +A doomed man indulges in strange reveries. Malcolm was almost as greatly +concerned with Nejdi's imagined fate as with his own desperate plight +when the trooper who answered to the name of Abdul Huq brought the +heel-rope that was to serve as a halter. + +The man was a Pathan, swarthy, lean, and sinewy, with the nose and eyes +of a bird of prey. Though a hawk would show mercy to a fledgling sparrow +sooner than this cut-throat to a captive, the robber instinct in him +made him pause before he tied the fatal noose. + +"Have you gone through the Nazarene's pockets, sirdar?" he asked. + +"No," was the impatient answer. "Of what avail is it? These +chota-sahibs[7] have no money. And Cawnpore awaits us." + +[Footnote 7: Junior Officers.] + +"Nevertheless, every rupee counts. And he may be carrying letters of +value to the Maharajah. Once he is swinging up there he will be out of +reach, and our caste does not permit us to defile our hands by touching +a dead body." + +While the callous ruffian was delivering himself of this curious blend +of cynicism and dogma, his skilled fingers were rifling Malcolm's +pockets. First he drew forth a sealed packet addressed to Sir Hugh +Wheeler. He recognized the government envelope and, though neither of +the pair could read English, Abdul Huq handed it to his leader with an +"I-told-you-so" air. + +It was in Frank's mind to revile the men, but, most happily, he composed +himself sufficiently to resolve that he would die like an officer and a +gentleman, while the last words on his lips would be a prayer. + +The next document produced was the Persi-Arabic scrawl which purported +to be a "safe-conduct" issued by Bahadur Shah, whom the rebels acclaimed +as their ruler. Until that instant, the Englishman had given no thought +to it. But when he saw the look of consternation that flitted across the +face of the subadar when his eyes took in the meaning of the writing, +despair yielded to hope, and he managed to say thickly: + +"Perhaps you will understand now that you ought to have asked my +business ere you proposed to hang me off hand." + +His active brain devised a dozen expedients to account for his presence +in Bithoor, but the native officer was far too shrewd to be beguiled +into setting his prisoner at liberty. After re-reading the pass, to make +sure of its significance, the rebel leader curtly told Abdul Huq and +another sowar to bring the Feringhi into the presence of the Maharajah, +by which title he evidently indicated Nana Sahib. + +The order was, at least, a reprieve, and Malcolm breathed more easily. +He even asked confidently about his horse and the members of his escort. +He was given no reply save a muttered curse, a command to hold his +tongue, and an angry tug at his tied arms. + +It is hard to picture the degradation of such treatment of a British +officer by a native trooper. The Calcutta Brahmin who was taunted by a +Lascar--a warrior-priest insulted by a social leper--scarce flinched +more keenly under the jibe than did Malcolm when he heard the tone of +his captors. Truly the flag of Britain was trailing in the mire, or +these men would not have dared to address him in that fashion. In that +bitter moment he felt for the first time that the Mutiny was a real +thing. Hitherto, in spite of the murders and incendiarism of Meerut, the +risings in other stations, the proclamation of Bahadur Shah as Emperor, +and the actual conflicts with the Mogul's armed retainers on the +battle-field of Ghazi-ud-din Nuggur, Malcolm was inclined to treat the +outburst as a mere blaze of local fanaticism, a blaze that would soon be +stamped under heel by the combined efforts of the East India Company's +troops and the Queen's Forces. Now, at last, he saw the depth of hate +with which British dominion was regarded in India. He heard Mohammedans +alluding to a Brahmin as a leader--so might a wolf and a snake make +common alliance against a watch dog. From that hour dated a new and +sterner conception of the task that lay before him and every other +Briton in the country. The Mutiny was no longer a welcome variant to the +tedium of the hot weather. It was a life-and-death struggle between West +and East, between civilization and barbarism, between the laws of +Christianity and the lawlessness of Mahomet, supported by the cruel, +inhuman, and nebulous doctrines of Hinduism. + +Not that these thoughts took shape and coherence in Malcolm's brain as +he was being hurried to the house of Nana Sahib. A man may note the +deadly malice of a cobra's eye, but it is not when the poison fangs are +ready to strike that he stops to consider the philosophy underlying the +creature's malign hatred of mankind. + +Events were in a rare fret and fume in the neighborhood of Cawnpore that +night. As a matter of historical fact, while Malcolm was hearing from +the villager that Roshinara Begum had come to Bithoor, the 1st Native +Infantry and 2d Cavalry had risen at Cawnpore. + +Nana Sahib was deep in intrigue with all the sepoy regiments stationed +there, and his adherents ultimately managed to persuade these two corps +to throw off their allegiance to the British Raj. Following the +recognized routine they burst open the gaol, burnt the public offices, +robbed the Treasury, and secured possession of the Magazine. Then, while +the ever-swelling mob of criminals and loafers made pandemonium in the +bazaar, the saner spirits among the mutineers hurried to Bithoor to +ascertain the will of the man who, by common consent, was regarded as +their leader. + +He was expecting them, eagerly perhaps, but with a certain quaking that +demanded the assistance of the "Raja's peg," a blend of champagne and +brandy that is calculated to fire heart and brain to madness more +speedily than any other intoxicant. He was conversing with his nephew, +Rao Sahib, and his chief lieutenants, Tantia Topi and a Mohammedan named +Azim-Ullah, when the native officers of the rebel regiments clattered +into his presence. + +"Maharajah," said their chief, "a kingdom is yours if you join us, but +it is death if you side with the Nazarenes." + +He laughed, with the fine air of one who sees approaching the fruition +of long-cherished plans. He advanced a pace, confidently. + +"What have I to do with the British?" he asked. "Are they not my +enemies, too? I am altogether with you." + +"Will you lead us to Delhi, Maharajah?" + +"Why not? That is the natural rallying ground of all who wish the +downfall of the present Government." + +"Then behold, O honored one, we offer you our fealty." + +They pressed near him, tendering the hilts of their swords. He touched +each weapon, and placed his hands on the head of its owner, vowing that +he would keep his word and be faithful to the trust they reposed in him. + +"Our brothers of the 53d and 56th have not joined us yet," said one. + +"Then let us ride forth and win them to our side," said the Nana +grandiloquently. He went into the courtyard, mounted a gaily-caparisoned +horse, and, surrounded by the rebel cohort, cantered off towards +Cawnpore. + +Thus it befell that the mob of horsemen pressed past Malcolm and his +guards as they entered the palace. The subadar tried in vain to attract +the Nana's attention. Fearing lest he might be forgotten if he were not +in the forefront of the conspiracy, this man bade his subordinates take +their prisoner before the Begum, and ran off to secure his horse and +race after the others. He counted on the despatches gaining him a +hearing. + +Abdul Huq, more crafty than his chief, smiled. + +"Better serve a king's daughter than these Shia dogs who are so ready to +fawn on a Brahmin," said he to his comrade, another Pathan, and a Sunni +like himself, for Islam, united against Christendom, is divided into +seventy-two warring sects. Hence the wavering loyalty of two sepoy +battalions in Cawnpore carried Malcolm out of the Nana's path, and led +him straight to the presence of Princess Roshinara. + +The lapse of three weeks had paled that lady's glowing cheeks and +deepened the luster of her eyes. Not only was she worn by anxiety, in +addition to the physical fatigue of the long journey from Delhi, but the +day's happenings had not helped to lighten the load of care. Yet she was +genuinely amazed at seeing Malcolm. + +"How come you to be here?" she cried instantly, addressing him before +Abdul Huq could open his mouth in explanation. + +"As your Highness can see for yourself, I am brought hither forcibly by +these slaves," said Frank, thinking that now or never must he display a +bold front. + +"How did you learn that I had left Delhi?" + +"The journeyings of the Princess Roshinara are known to many." + +"But you came not when I summoned you." + +"Your Highness's letter did not reach me until after the affair on the +Hindun river." + +"What is all this idle talk?" broke in Abdul Huq roughly. "This Feringhi +was carrying despatches--" + +"Peace, dog!" cried the Begum. "Unfasten the Sahib's arms, and be gone. +What! Dost thou hesitate!" + +She clapped her hands, and some members of her bodyguard ran forward. + +"Throw these troopers into the courtyard," she commanded. "If they +resist--" + +But the Pathans were too wise to refuse obedience. Not yet had the +rebels felt their true power. They sullenly untied Malcolm's bonds, and +disappeared. Using eyes and ears each moment to better advantage, Frank +was alive to the confusion that reigned in Nana Sahib's abode. Men ran +hither and thither in aimless disorder. The Brahmin's retainers were +like jackals who knew that the lion had killed and the feast was spread. +The only servants who preserved the least semblance of discipline were +those of the Princess Roshinara. It was an hour when the cool brain +might contrive its own ends. + +"I am, indeed, much beholden to you, Princess," said Frank. "I pray you +extend your clemency to my men. I have an escort of six sowars, and a +servant. Some of them are wounded. My horse, too, which I value +highly--" + +He paused. He saw quite clearly that she paid no heed to a word that he +was saying. Her black eyes were fixed intently on his face, but she was +thinking, weighing in her mind some suddenly-formed project. He was a +pawn in the game on the political chess-board, and some drastic move was +imminent. + +Some part of his speech had reached her intelligence. She caught him by +the wrist and hurried him along a corridor into a garden, muttering as +she went: + +"Allah hath sent thee, Malcolm-sahib. What matters thy men and a horse? +Yet will I see to their safety, if that be possible. Yes, yes, I must do +that. You will need them. And remember, I am trusting thee. Wilt thou +obey my behests?" + +"I would be capable of little gratitude if I refused, Princess," said +he, wondering what new outlet the whirligig of events would provide. + +Leading him past an astonished guardian of the zenana, who dared not +protest when this imperial lady thought fit to profane the sacred portal +by admitting an infidel, she brought Malcolm through a door into a +larger garden surrounded by a high wall. She pointed to a pavilion at +its farthest extremity. + +"Wait there," she said. "When those come to you whom you will have faith +in, do that which he who brings them shall tell you. Fail not. Your own +life and the lives of your friends will hang on a thread, yet trust me +that it shall not be severed while you obey my commands." + +With that cryptic message she ran back to the door, which was +immediately slammed behind her. Having just been snatched from the very +gate of eternity by the Begum's good offices, Malcolm determined to +fall in with her whims so long as they did not interfere with his duty. +Although Cawnpore was in the hands of the mutineers and he had lost his +despatches, he determined, at all costs, to reach Sir Hugh Wheeler if +that fine old commander were still living. Meanwhile, he hastened to the +baraduri, an elegant structure which was approached by a flight of steps +and stood in the angle of two high battlemented walls. + +The place was empty and singularly peaceful after the uproar of the +village and of that portion of the palace which faced the Grand Trunk +Road. + +Overhead the sky was clear and starlit, but beyond the walls stretched a +low, half luminous bank of mist, and he was peering that way fully a +minute before he ascertained that the garden stood on the right bank of +the Ganges. Almost at his feet, the great river was murmuring on its +quiet course to the sea, and the mist was due to the evaporation of its +waters, which were mainly composed of melted snow from the ice-capped +Himalayas. + +When his eyes grew accustomed to his surroundings he made out the shape +of a native boat moored beneath the wall. It had evidently brought a +cargo of forage to Bithoor. So still was the air that the scent of the +hay lingered yet in the locality. + +Between Bithoor and Cawnpore the Ganges takes a wide bend. At first +Malcolm scarce knew in which quarter to look for the city, but distant +reports and the glare of burning dwellings soon told him more than its +mere direction. So Cawnpore, in its turn, had yielded to the canker +that was gnawing the vitals of India! He wondered if Allahabad had +fallen. And Benares? And the populous towns of Bengal--perhaps even the +capital city itself? The Punjab was safe. Hodson told him that. But +would it remain safe? He had heard queer tales of the men who dwelt in +the bazaars of Lahore, Umritsar, Rawalpindi, and the rest. Nicholson and +John Lawrence were there; could they hold those warrior-tribes in +subjection, or, better still, in leash? He might not hazard an opinion. +His sky had fallen. This land of his adoption was his no longer. He was +an outlaw, hunted and despised, depending for his life on the caprice of +a fickle-minded woman. Then he thought of the way his comrades of the +60th, of the Dragoons and the Artillery, had chased the sepoys from the +Hindun, and his soul grew strong again. Led by British officers, the +native troops were excellent, but, deprived of the only leaders they +really respected, they became an armed mob, terrible to women and +children, but of slight account against British-born men. + +His musings were disturbed by the sound of horses advancing quietly +across a paddy field which skirted that side of the wall running at a +right angle with the river. It was impossible to see far owing to the +mist that clung close to the ground, but he could not be mistaken as to +the presence of a small body of mounted men within a few yards. They had +halted, too, but his alert ears caught the occasional clink of +accouterments, and the pawing of a horse in the soft earth. He racked +his brain to try to discover some connection between this cavalry post +and the parting admonition given by the Begum Roshinara, and he might +have guessed the riddle in part had he not heard hurried footsteps in +the garden. They came, not from the door by which he was admitted, but +from the Palace itself. Whoever the newcomers were they made straight +for the pavilion, and, as he was unarmed, he did not hesitate to show +himself against the sky line. For ill or well, he wanted to know his +fate, and he determined to spring over the battlements in the hope of +reaching the river if he received the slightest warning of hostile +intent by those who sought him. + +"Is that you, Malcolm?" said a low voice, and his heart leaped when he +recognized Mr. Mayne's accents. + +"Yes. Can it be possible that you are here?" + +He ran down the stone steps. On the level of the garden he could see +three figures, one a white-robed native, one a man in European garments, +and the third a woman wrapped in a dark cloak. A suppressed sob uttered +by the woman sent a gush of hot blood to his face. He sprang forward. +In another instant Winifred was in his arms. And that was their +unspoken declaration of love--in the garden of Nana Sahib's house at +Bithoor--while within hail were thousands who would gladly have torn +them limb from limb, and the southern horizon was aflame with the +light of their brethren's dwelling-places. + +"Oh, Frank, dear," whispered the girl brokenly, "what evil fortune has +led you within these walls? Yet, I thank God for it. Promise you will +kill me ere they drag me from your side again." + +"Hush, Winifred. For the sake of all of us calm yourself," said her +uncle. "This man says he has brought us here to help us to escape. +Surely you can find in Malcolm's presence some earnest of his good +faith." + +The native now intervened. Speaking with a certain dignity and using the +language of the court, he said that they had not a moment to lose. They +must descend the wall by means of a rope, and in the field beyond they +would find three of the officer-sahib's men, with his horse and a couple +of spare animals. Keeping close to the river until they came to a +tree-lined nullah--a small ravine cut by a minor tributary of the +Ganges--they should follow this latter till they approached the +Grand Trunk Road, taking care not to be seen as they crossed that +thoroughfare. Then, making a détour, they must avoid the village, and +endeavor to strike the road again about two miles to the north of +Bithoor, thereafter traveling at top speed towards Meerut, but letting +it be known in the hamlets on the way that they came from Cawnpore. + +This unlooked-for ally impressed the concluding stipulation strongly on +Malcolm, but, when asked for a reason, he said simply: + +"It is the Princess's order. Come! There is no time for further speech. +Here is the rope." + +He uncoiled a long cord from beneath his cummerbund, and, running up +the steps, adjusted it to a pillar of the baraduri with an ease and +quickness that showed familiarity with such means of exit from a +closely-guarded residence. + +"Now, you first, sahib," said he to Malcolm. "Then we will lower the +miss-sahib, and the burra-sahib can follow." + +There was nothing to be gained by questioning him, especially as Mayne +murmured that he could explain a good deal of the mystery underlying the +Begum's wish that they should go north. The exterior field was reached +without any difficulty. Within twenty yards they encountered a little +group of mounted men, and Malcolm found, to his great delight, that +Chumru, his bearer, was holding Nejdi's bridle, while his companions +were Akhab Khan and two troopers who had ridden from Agra. To make the +miracle more complete, Malcolm's sword was tied to the Arab's saddle and +his revolvers were still in the holsters. + +Winifred, making the best of a man's saddle until they could improvise +a crutch at their first halt, would admit of no difficulty in that +respect. The fact that her lover was present had lightened her heart +of the terror which had possessed her during many days. + +They were on the move, with the two sharp-eyed sowars leading, when the +noise made by a number of horsemen, coming toward them on the landward +side and in front, brought them to an abrupt halt. + +"Spread out to the right until you reach the river," cried a rough +voice, which Malcolm was sure he identified as belonging to Abdul Huq. +"Then we cannot miss them. And remember, brothers, if we secure the +girl unharmed, we shall earn a rich reward from the Maharajah." + +Winifred, shivering with fear again, knew not what the man said, but +she drew near to Malcolm and whispered: + +"Not into their hands, Frank, for God's sake!" + +The movement of her horse's feet had not passed unnoticed. + +"Be sharp, there!" snarled the Pathan again. "They are not far off, and +only six of them. Shout, you on the right when you are on the bank." + +"None can pass between me and the stream," replied a more distant voice. + +"Forward, then! Keep line! Not too fast, you near the wall." + +Frank loosened his sword from its fastenings and took a revolver in his +left hand, in which he also held the reins. He judged Abdul Huq to be +some fifty yards distant, and he was well aware that the fog became +thinner with each yard as he turned his back on the river. + +"Take Winifred back to the angle of the wall," he whispered to Mayne. +"You will find a budgerow[8] there. Get your horses on board, if +possible, and I shall join you in a minute or less. If I manage to +scatter these devils, we shall outwit them yet." + +[Footnote 8: A native boat.] + +It was hopeless, he knew, to attempt to ride through the enemy's +cordon. There would be a running fight against superior numbers, and +Winifred's presence made that a last resource. The most fortunate +accident of the deserted craft being moored beneath the palace wall +offered a far more probable means of escape. What blunder or treachery +had led to this attack he could not imagine. Nor was he greatly troubled +with speculation on that point. Winifred must be saved, he had a sword +in his hand, and he was mounted on the best horse in India. What better +hap could a cavalry subaltern desire than such a fight under such +conditions? + +In order not only to drown the girl's protest when her uncle turned her +horse's head, but also to deceive opponents, Frank thundered forth an +order that was familiar to their ears. + +"The troop will advance! Draw swords! Walk--trot--charge!" + +Chumru, though no fighting-man, realized that he was expected to make a +row and uttered a bloodcurdling yell. Inspired by their officer's +example the two sowars dashed after him with splendid courage. They were +on their startled pursuers so soon, the line having narrowed more +quickly than they expected, that they hurtled right through the opposing +force without a blow being struck or a shot fired. As it chanced, no +better maneuver could have been effected. When they wheeled and Frank +managed to shoot two men at close range, it seemed to the amazed rebels +that they were being attacked from the very quarter from which they had +advanced. + +Under such conditions even the steadiest of troops will break, and at +least endeavor to reach a place where their adversaries are not shrouded +in a dense mist. And that was exactly what occurred in this instance. +Nearly all the mutineers swung round and galloped headlong for the +landward boundary of the paddy field. Shouting to his two plucky +assistants to come back, Frank called out to Chumru and bade him join +them. He was hurrying towards the corner of the palace grounds when a +shriek from Winifred set his teeth on edge. + +"I am coming," he cried. "What has happened? Where are you, Mayne?" + +"Here, close to the boat. Look out there! Two sowars are carrying off my +niece. For Heaven's sake, save her! I am wounded, but never mind me." + +Malcolm had the hunter's lore, a species of Red Indian cunning in the +stalker's art. Instead of rushing blindly forward he halted his men +promptly and listened. Sure enough, he heard stumbling footsteps by the +water's edge. Leaping from Nejdi's back, he sprang down the crumbling +bank and came almost on top of Abdul Huq and his brother Pathan. Their +progress was hindered by Winifred's frantic struggles and their own +brutal efforts to stop her from screaming, and they were taken unaware +by Frank's unexpected leap. + +A thrust that went home caused a vacancy in a border clan, but, before +the avenger could withdraw his weapon, Abdul Huq was swinging his +tulwar. He was no novice in the art, and Malcolm must have gone down +under the blow had not Winifred seen its murderous purpose and seized +the man's arm. That gave her lover the second he needed. He recovered +his sword, but was too near to stab or cut, so he met the case by +dealing the swarthy one a blow with the hilt between the eyes that would +have felled an ox. Never before had the Englishman hit any man with such +vigorous good will. This rascal was owed a debt for the indignity he had +offered the sahib in the village, and now he was paid in full. + +He fell insensible, with part of his body resting in the water. It was a +queer moment for noting a trivial thing, yet Frank saw that the man's +turban did not fall off. He had lost his own turban during the mêlée on +the Grand Trunk Road, and, as it would soon be daylight, he stooped to +secure Abdul Huq's headgear. Oddly enough, it was fastened by a piece of +cord under the Pathan's chin--an almost unheard-of device this, to be +adopted by a native. With a sharp pull Frank broke the cord and jammed +the turban on his head. He was determined to have it, if only because no +greater insult can be inflicted on a Mohammedan than to bare his head. + +The incident did not demand more than a few seconds for its transaction +and Winifred hardly noticed it, so unstrung was she. Without more ado +Malcolm took her in his arms and carried her up the bank. He told the +troopers and his servant to follow with the horses as quietly as +possible and led the way towards the budgerow. + +Arrived at the boat, they found Mayne standing in the water and leaning +helplessly against the side of the craft. He had been struck down by one +of the precious pair who thought to carry off Winifred, but, luckily, it +was a glancing blow and not serious in its after effects. + +With a rapidity that was almost magical the horses were put on board, +the boat shoved off, and the huge mat sail hoisted to get the benefit of +any breeze that might be found in mid-stream. The current carried them +away at a fair rate, and, as they passed the place where Abdul Huq had +fallen in the river Malcolm fancied he heard a splash and a gurgle, as +though a crocodile had found something of interest. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE WELL + + +Not until many months later did Malcolm learn the true cause of +Roshinara Begum's anxiety that he and his friends should hasten to +Meerut, and let it be known on the way that they came from Cawnpore. Yet +there were those in Bithoor that night who fully appreciated the +tremendous influence on the course of political events that the +direction of Winifred's flight might exercise. The girl herself little +dreamed she was such an important personage. But that is often the case +with those who are destined to make history. In this instance, the +balking of a Brahmin prince's passions was destined to change the whole +trend of affairs in northern India. + +Nana Sahib escorted Mayne from Meerut to Cawnpore because the +safeguarding of the Judicial Commissioner of Oudh was a strong card to +play in that parlous game of empire. As he traveled south reports +reached him on every hand that nothing could now stop the spread of the +Mutiny, and, with greater certainty in his plans came a project that he +would not have dared to harbor even a week earlier. + +Winifred, naturally a high-spirited and lively girl, soon recovered +from the fright of that fateful Sunday evening. She had seen little of +the tragedy enacted in Meerut; she knew less of its real horrors. +Notwithstanding the intense heat the open-air life of the march was +healthy, and, in many respects, agreeable. The Nana was a courteous and +considerate host. He took good care that his secret intelligence of +occurrences at Delhi and other stations should remain hidden from Mayne, +and, while his ambitions mounted each hour, he cast many a veiled glance +at the graceful beauty of the fair English girl who moved like a sylph +among the brown-skinned satyrs surrounding her. + +Once the party had reached Bithoor the Nana's tone changed. Instead of +sending his European guests into Cawnpore, whence safe transit to +Calcutta was still practicable, he kept them in his palace, on the +pretext that the roads were disturbed. He contrived, at first, to +hoodwink Mr. Mayne by giving him genuine news of the wholesale outbreak +in the North-West, and by adding wholly false tidings of massacres at +Allahabad, Benares, and towns in Upper Bengal. At last, when Mayne +insisted on going into Cawnpore, the native threw aside pretense, said +he could not "allow" him to depart, and virtually made uncle and niece +prisoners. + +But he treated them well. A clear-headed Brahmin, to whom intrigue was +the breath of life, was not likely to make the mistake of being too +precipitate in his actions. The wave of religious fanaticism sweeping +over the land might recede as rapidly as it had risen. Muslim and Hindu, +Pathan and Brahmin, hereditary foes who fraternized to-day, might be at +each other's throats to-morrow. So the Nana was a courteous jailer. +Beyond the loss of their liberty the captives had nothing to complain +of, and he met Mayne's vehement reproaches with unmoved good humor, +protesting all the while that he was acting for the best. + +Winifred took fright, however. Her woman's intuition looked beneath the +mask. For her uncle's sake she kept her suspicions to herself, but she +suffered much in secret, and her distress might well have moved a man of +finer character to sympathy. Each time she met the Nana he treated her +with more apparent friendliness. She recoiled from his advances as she +might shrink from a venomous snake. + +Fortunately there were others in Bithoor who understood the Brahmin's +motives, and saw therein the germ of failure for their own plans. Nana +Sahib was an exceedingly important factor in the success of the scheme +that meditated the re-establishment of the Mogul dynasty. Recognized by +the Mahrattas, the great warlike race of western India, as their leader, +looked on as the pivot of Hindu support to the Mohammedan monarchy, it +was absolutely essential that he should captain the rebel garrison of +Cawnpore in a triumphant march to Delhi. For that reason a marriage +distasteful to both had already been arranged between him and the +Roshinara Begum. For that reason he had traveled to many centers of +disaffection during the months of March and April, winning doubtful +Hindu princes to the side of Bahadur Shah, by his tact and ready +diplomacy. For that reason too, the native officers of the first +regiments in revolt at Cawnpore made him swear, even at the twelfth +hour, that he would lead them to Delhi. + +His unforeseen infatuation for an Englishwoman might upset the +carefully-laid plot. Under other conditions a dose of poison would have +removed poor Winifred from the scene, but that simple expedient was not +to be thought of, as the Nana's vengeful disposition was sufficiently +well known to his associates to make them fear the outcome. Therefore +they left nothing to chance, and actually brought the Princess Roshinara +post haste from the north, believing that her presence would insure the +inconstant wooer's return with her at the right moment. + +While the majority pulled in one way there was an active minority that +wished the Nana to set up an independent kingdom. His nephew and his +Mohammedan friend, Azim-ullah, were convinced that their faction would +lose all influence as soon as their chief was swallowed up in the +maelstrom of the imperial court. If Winifred supplied the spell that +kept the Nana at Bithoor, they were quite content that it should be +allowed to exercise its power. + +Hence, Malcolm's arrival gave the Begum a chance that her quick wit +seized upon. Why not, she argued, connive at the Englishwoman's escape, +and let it become known that she had fled back to Meerut? When the Nana +returned from Cawnpore, flushed with wine and conquest, this should be +the first news that greeted him, and his amorous rage would go hand in +hand with the other considerations that urged his immediate departure +for the Mogul capital. That was not the device of a woman who loved--it +savored rather of the cool state-craft of a Lucrezia Borgia. + +No more curious mixture of plot and counterplot than this minor chapter +of the Bithoor romance came to light during that disastrous upheaval in +India. Never did events of the utmost magnitude hinge on incidents so +trivial to the community at large. A truculent thief like Abdul Huq was +able to defeat the intent of a king's daughter, and a couple of alert +troopers, riding to a bluff overlooking the river, could report that +they saw the budgerow on which the sahib-log escaped drifting down +stream towards Cawnpore! Thus the intrigue miscarried twice. Winifred +was free; the clear inference to be drawn from the boat's course was +that her uncle and Malcolm would bring her straight to the protection of +their friends in the cantonment. + +There was a scene of violence, nearly culminating in murder, when Nana +Sahib came to Bithoor at dawn. He met the scorn of Roshinara with a +furious insolence that stopped short of bloodshed only on account of the +prudence still governing most of his actions. Not yet was he drunk with +power. That madness was soon to obsess him. But he lent a willing ear to +the counsels of Rao Sahib and Azim-ullah. Soon after daybreak he +galloped to Kulianpur, on the road to Delhi, whither some thousands of +sepoys had already gone, and harangued them eloquently on the glory, +not to speak of the loot, they would acquire by attacking the accursed +English at Cawnpore. + +They were easily swayed. Acclaiming the Nana as a prince worthy of +obedience they marched after him, and thus sealed the doom of many +hundreds of unhappy beings who thought until that moment they would be +spared the dreadful fate that had befallen other stations. + +Oddly enough, the high-born Brahmin who now saw his hopes of regal power +in a fair way towards realization placed one act of soldierly courtesy +to his credit before he made his name a synonym for all that is base and +despicable in the conduct of warfare. He wrote a letter to Sir Hugh +Wheeler warning the gallant old general that he might expect to be +attacked forthwith. Perhaps it is straining a point to credit him with +any sense of fair play. The letter may have been a last flicker of +respect for the power of Britain, and inspired by a haunting fear of the +consequences if the Mutiny failed. It is probable he wished to provide +written proof of a plea that he was an unwilling agent in the clutch of +a mutinous army. However that may be, he wrote, and never did letter +carry more bitter disappointment to a Christian community. + +Sir Hugh Wheeler having decided, most unfortunately as it happened, +against occupying the strongly-built magazine on the river bank as a +refuge, had constructed a flimsy entrenchment on a level plain close to +the native lines. He was sure the sepoys would revolt, but he believed +they would hurry off to Delhi, and he refused to give them an excuse for +rebellion by seizing the magazine. Towards the end of May he wrote to +Henry Lawrence at Lucknow for help, and Lawrence generously sent him +fifty men of the 32d and half a battery of guns, though even this small +force could ill be spared from the capital of Oudh. Sir Hugh made the +further mistake of crediting Nana Sahib's professions of loyalty. He +actually entrusted the Treasury to the protection of the Nana's +retainers, in spite of Lawrence's plainly-worded warning that the +Brahmin's recent movements placed him under grave suspicion. + +Nevertheless, Wheeler acted with method. His judgment was clear, if +occasionally mistaken, and he had every reason to believe that the only +attacks he would be called on to repel would be made by the bazaar mob. + +On the night of June 4th, the thousand men, women and children who had +gathered behind the four-foot mud wall that formed the entrenchment were +left unmolested by the mutineers. During the 5th they watched the +destruction of their bungalows, and knew that the rebels were plundering +the city, robbing rich native merchants quite as readily as they killed +any Europeans who were not under Wheeler's charge. Late that day came +Nana Sahib's letter. It was a bitter disappointment, but "the valiant +never taste death but once," and the Britons in Cawnpore resolved to +teach the mutineers that the men who had conquered them many times in +the field could repeat the lesson again and again. + +About ten o'clock on the morning of the 6th, flames rising from houses +near at hand gave evidence of the approach of the rebels. Irregular +spurts of musketry heralded the appearance of confused masses of armed +men. A cannon-ball crashed through the mud wall and bounded across the +enclosure. A bugle sounded shrilly and the defenders ran to their posts. +The wailing of women and the cries of frightened children, helpless +creatures only half protected by two barracks situated in the southern +corner of the entrenchment, mingled with the din of the answering guns, +and in that fatal hour the siege of Cawnpore began. + +In the tear-stained story of humanity there has never been aught to +surpass the thrilling record of Cawnpore. It contains every element of +heroism and tragedy. Four hundred English soldiers, seventy of whom were +invalids, with a few dozens of civilians and faithful sepoys--standing +behind a breast-high fortification that would not stop a bullet--exposed +to the fierce rays of an Indian sun--ill-fed, almost waterless, and +driven to numb despair by the sufferings of their loved ones--these men, +enduring all and daring all, held at bay four thousand well-armed, +well-housed, and well-fed troops for twenty-one days. + +Not for a moment was the strain relaxed. Day and night the rebels poured +into the entrenchment a ceaseless hail of iron and lead. Cannon-balls, +solid and red-hot, shells with carefully arranged time fuses, and +bullets from those self-same cartridges that the superfine feelings of +Brahmin soldiers forbade them to touch, were hurled at the hapless +garrison from all quarters. In the first week every gunner in the place +was killed or wounded. Women and children were shot as though they were +in the front line of the defense. No corner was safe from the enemy's +fire. Every human being behind that absurdly inadequate wall was exposed +to constant and equal danger. + +Here is an extract from Holmes's history: + + "A private was walking with his wife when a single bullet + killed him, broke both her arms, and wounded an infant she was + carrying. An officer was talking with a comrade at the main + guard when a musket-ball struck him; and, as he was limping + painfully to the barracks to have his wound dressed, Lieutenant + Mowbray-Thomson of the 56th, who was supporting him, was struck + also, and both fell helplessly to the ground. Presently as + Thomson lay wofully sick of his wound, another officer came to + condole with him, and he too received a wound from which he + died before the end of the siege. Young Godfrey Wheeler, a son + of the General, was lying wounded in one of the barracks when + a round shot crashed through the walls of the room and carried + off his head in the sight of his mother and sisters. Little + children, straggling outside the wall, were deliberately shot + down." + +On the night of June the 11th a red-hot cannon-ball set fire to one of +the barracks which was used as a hospital. The flames inspired the +enemy's gunners to fresh efforts and provided them with an excellent +target, yet the garrison dared all perils of gun-fire and falling +rafters and masonry, while they rescued the inmates. It is on record +that the gallant men of the 32d, when the flames had subsided, though a +heavy fusillade was still kept up by the rebels, were seen raking the +ashes in order to find their lost medals, the medals they had won in the +deadly fighting that preceded the fall of Sevastopol. + +On the next day the sepoy army, though so boastful and vainglorious, +dared to make their first attempt to carry the entrenchment by assault. +By one bold charge they must have crushed the defenders, if by sheer +weight of numbers alone. They advanced, with fiendish yells and much +seeming confidence. But they could not face those stern warriors who +lined the shattered wall. After a short but fierce struggle they fled, +leaving the plain littered with corpses. + +So the safer bombardment was renewed, its fury envenomed by the +conscious disparity of the besiegers when they tried to press home the +attack. Each day the garrison dwindled; each day the rebels received +fresh accessions of strength. Of the few guns mounted in the British +position, one had lost its muzzle, another was thrown from its carriage +and two were so battered by the enemy's artillery that they could not be +used. The hospital fire had destroyed all the surgical instruments and +medical stores, so the wounded had to lie waiting for death, while those +who still bore arms eked out existence on a daily dole of a handful of +flour and a few ounces of split peas. + +Yet the men of Cawnpore fought on, while their wives and sisters and +daughters helped uncomplainingly, making up packets of ammunition, +loading rifles for the men to fire, and even giving their stockings to +the gunners to provide cases for grape-shot. + +There was only one well inside the entrenchment. Knowing its paramount +importance, the rebels mounted guns in such wise that a constant fire +could be kept up throughout the night on that special point. Yet there +never was lacking a volunteer, either man or woman, to go to that well +and obtain the precious water. It remains to this day a mournful relic +of the siege, with its broken gear and shattered circular wall, while +the indentations made by such of the cannon-balls as failed to dislodge +the masonry are plain to be seen. + +The sepoys spared none. Tiny children, tottering to the well in broad +daylight, were pelted with musketry. Conceivably that might be war. When +beleaguered people will not yield humanity must stand aside and weep. +There was a deed to come that was not war, but the black horror of +abomination, worthy of the excesses of a man-eating tiger, though shorn +of the tiger's excuse that he kills in order that he may live. The well +in the entrenchment was the Well of Life. There was another well in +Cawnpore destined to be the Well of Death. + +If proof were needed of the extraordinary condition of India during the +early period of the Mutiny, it was given by an incident that occurred +soon after the first assault was beaten off. In broad daylight, while +the garrison were maintaining the unceasing duel of cannon and small +arms, they were astounded by the spectacle of a British officer +galloping across the plain. He was fired at by the sepoys, of course, +but horse and man escaped untouched and the low barrier was leaped +without effort. The newcomer was Lieutenant Bolton of the 7th Cavalry. +Sent out from Lucknow on district duty he was suddenly deserted by his +men, and he rode alone towards Cawnpore, the nearest British station. +Unhappily the story of that adventurous ride is lost for ever. Poor +Bolton supplied Cawnpore's last re-enforcement. + +Sir Hugh Wheeler, ably seconded in the defense by Captain Moore of the +32d, sent out emissaries, Eurasians and natives, to seek aid from +Lucknow and Allahabad, the one about thirty-five, the other a hundred +miles distant. Lawrence wrote "with a breaking heart" that he could +spare no troops from Lucknow. The messengers never even reached +Allahabad. + +On June 23 the Nana's hosts again nerved themselves for a desperate +attack, and again were they flung off from that tumble-down wall. Then, +all their valor fled, they fell back on a foul device. A white woman, +Mrs. Henry Jacobi, who had been taken prisoner early in the month, +crossed the plain holding a white flag. Wheeler and Moore and other +senior officers went to meet her. She carried a letter from Nana Sahib, +offering safe conduct to Allahabad for all the garrison "except those +who were connected with the acts of Lord Dalhousie." + +Now Dalhousie resigned the vice-royalty in February, 1856. It was he who +had refused to continue to Nana Sahib the Peishwa's pension; assuredly +there was none in Cawnpore responsible for the acts of a former viceroy. +At any rate, whatsoever that curious reservation meant, the majority of +the staff were opposed to surrender. Unfortunately Captain Moore, whose +bravery was in the mouths of all, who, though wounded and ill, had been +"the life and soul of the defense," persuaded Sir Hugh Wheeler and the +others that an honorable capitulation was their sole resource. Succor +could not arrive, he argued, and they were in duty bound to save the +surviving civilians and the women and children. + +So an armistice was agreed to on June 26, and representatives of both +sides met to discuss terms. It was arranged that the garrison should +evacuate their position, surrender their guns and treasure, retain their +rifles and a quantity of ammunition, and be provided with river +transport to Allahabad. + +The Nana asked that the defenders should march out that night. Wheeler +refused. + +"I shall renew the bombardment, and put every one of you to death in a +few days," threatened the Brahmin. + +"Try it," said the Englishman. "I still have enough powder left to blow +both armies into the air." + +But the Nana meant to have no more fighting on equal terms. He signed +the treaty, the guns were given up, and, on the night of June 26th, +peace reigned within the ruined entrenchment. + +Next morning that glorious garrison quitted the shot-torn plain they had +hallowed by their deeds. And even the rebels pitied them. "As the wan +and ragged column filed along the road, the women and children in +bullock-carriages or on elephants, the wounded in palanquins, the +fighting men on foot, sepoys came clustering round the officers they had +betrayed, and talked in wonder and admiration of the surpassing heroism +of the defense." + +Those men of the rank and file at least were soldiers. They knew nothing +of the awful project concocted by the Nana and his chief associates, Rao +Sahib, Tantia Topi, and Azim-ullah. + +The procession made its way slowly towards the river, three quarters of +a mile to the east. No doubt there were joyful hearts even in that +sorrow-laden band. Men and women must have thought of far-off homes in +England, and hoped that God would spare them to see their beloved +country once more. Even the children, wide-eyed innocents, could not +fail to be thankful that the noise of the guns had ceased, while the +wounded were cheered by the belief that food and stores in plenty would +soon be available. + +At the foot of a tree-clad ravine leading to the Ganges were stationed a +number of heavy native boats, with thatched roofs to shield the +occupants from the sun. They were partly drawn up on the mud at the +water's edge to render easy the work of embarkation. Without hurry or +confusion, the wounded, and the women and children, were placed on +board. + +Then some one noticed that the thatch on one of the boats was smoking, +and it was found that glowing charcoal had been thrust into the straw. +About the same time it was discovered that the boats had neither oars, +nor rudders, nor supplies of food. Before the dread significance of +these things became clear, a bugle-call rang out. At once, both banks of +the river became alive with armed sepoys, and a murderous rifle-fire was +opened on the crowded boats. Guns, hidden among the trees, belched +red-hot shot and grape at them, and the smoldering straw of the thatched +roofs burst into flames. + +Awakened to the unspeakable treachery of their foe, officers and men +rushed into the water and strove with might and main to shove the boats +into deep water. They failed, for the unwieldy craft had been hauled +purposely too high. + +Here Ashe and Moore, and Bolton, hero of that lonely ride through the +enemy's country, fell. Here, too, men shot their own wives and children +rather than permit them to fall into the hands of the fiends who had +planned the massacre. Savage troopers urged their horses into the water +and slashed cowering women with their sabers. Infants were torn from +their mothers' arms, and tossed by sepoys from bayonet to bayonet. The +sick and wounded, lying helpless in the burning craft, died in the agony +of fire, and the few bold spirits who even in that ghastly hour tried to +beat off their cowardly assailants were surrounded and shot down by +overwhelming numbers. + +One heavily-laden boat was dragged into the stream, and a few officers +and men clambered on board. The voyage they made would supply material +for an epic. They were followed along the banks and pursued by armed +craft on the river. They fought all day and throughout the night, and, +when the ungoverned boat ran ashore during a wild squall of wind and +rain at daybreak, the surviving soldiers, a sergeant and eleven men, +headed by Mowbray-Thomson of the 56th, and Delafosse of the 53d, sprang +out and charged some hundreds of sepoys and hostile villagers who had +gathered on the bank. + +The craven-hearted gang yielded before the Englishmen's fierce +onslaught. The tiny band turned to fight their way back, and found that +the boat had drifted off again! Then they seized a Hindu temple on the +bank and held it until the sepoys piled burning timber against the rear +walls and threw bags of powder on the fire! + +Fixing bayonets and leaving the sergeant dead in the doorway, they +charged again into the mass of the enemy. Six fell. The remainder +reached the river, threw aside their guns, and plunged boldly in. Two +were shot while swimming, and one man, unable to swim any distance, +coolly made his way ashore again and faced his murderers until he sank +beneath their blows. + +Mowbray-Thomson, Delafosse, and Privates Murphy and Sullivan, swam six +miles with the stream, and were finally rescued and helped by a friendly +native. + +Those four were all who came alive out of the Inferno of Cawnpore. The +boat, after clearing the shoal, was captured by the mutineers. Major +Vibart of the 2d Cavalry, who was so severely wounded that he could not +join in the earlier fighting, and some eighty helpless souls under his +command, were brought back to the city of death. There, by orders of the +Nana, the men were slain forthwith and the women and children were taken +to a building in which they found one hundred and twenty-five others, +who had been spared for the Brahmin's own terrible purposes from the +butchery at Massacre Ghât on the 27th. + +Returning to Bithoor the Nana was proclaimed Peishwa amid the booming of +cannon and the plaudits of his retainers. He passed a week in drunken +revels and debauchery, and when, in ignorance of its fate, a small +company of European fugitives from Fategarh sought refuge at Cawnpore, +he amused himself by having all the men but three killed in his +presence. These three and the women and children who accompanied them, +were sent to a small house known as the Bibigarh, in which the whole of +the captives, now numbering two hundred and eleven, were imprisoned. + +Many died, and they were happiest. The survivors were subjected to every +indignity, given the coarsest food, and forced to grind corn for their +conqueror, who, early in July, took up his abode in a large building at +Cawnpore overlooking the house in which the unhappy people were penned. + +But the period of their earthly sufferings was drawing to a close. An +avenging army was moving swiftly up the Grand Trunk Road from Allahabad. +The Nana's nephew and two of his lieutenants, leading a large force +against the British, were badly defeated. On the 15th of July came the +alarming tidings that the Feringhis were only a day's march from the +city. + +The Furies must have chosen that date. The Nana, the man who thought +himself fit to be a king, decided that Havelock would turn back if there +were no more English left in Cawnpore! So as a preliminary to the +greater tragedy, five men who had escaped death thus far--no one knows +whence two of them came--were brought forth and slaughtered at the feet +of the renowned Peishwa. Then a squad of sepoys were told to "shoot all +the women and children in the Bibigarh through the windows of the +house." + +Poor wretches--they were afraid to refuse, yet their gorge rose at the +deed, and they fired at the ceiling! + +Such weakness was annoying to the puissant Brahmin. He selected two +Mohammedan butchers, an Afghan, and two out-caste Hindus, to do his +bidding. Armed with long knives these five fiends entered the shambles. +Alas, how can the scene that followed be described! + +Yet, not even then was the sacrifice complete. Some who were wounded but +not killed, a few children who crept under the garments of their dead +mothers, lived until the morning. Not all the native soldiers were so +lost to human sympathies that they did not shudder at the groans and +muffled cries that came all night from the house of sorrow. Some of them +have left records of sights and sounds too horrible to translate from +their Eastern tongue. + +But the rumble of distant guns told the destroyer that his short-lived +hour of triumph was nearly sped. In a paroxysm of rage and fear, he gave +the final order, and the Well of Cawnpore thereby attained its ghastly +immortality. By his command all that piteous company of women and +children, the living and the dead together, were thrown into a deep well +that stood in the garden of Bibigarh--the House of the Woman. + +It was thus that Nana Sahib strove to cloak his crime. Yet never did +foul murderer flaunt deed more glaringly in the face of Heaven. Fifty +years have passed, myriads of human beings have lived and died since the +well swallowed the Nana's victims, but the memory of those gracious +women, of those golden-haired children, of those dear little infants +born while the guns thundered around the entrenchment, shall endure +forever. The Nana sought oblivion and forgetfulness for his sin. He +earned the anger of the gods and the malediction of the world, then and +for all time. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +TO LUCKNOW + + +The tragedy of Massacre Ghât, intensified by the crowning infamy of the +Well, brought a new element into the struggle. Hitherto not one European +in a hundred in India regarded the Mutiny as other than a local, though +serious, attempt to revive a fallen dynasty. The excesses at Meerut, +Delhi, and other towns were looked upon as the work of unbridled mobs. +Sepoys who revolted and shot their officers came under a different +category to the slayers of tender women and children. But the planned +and ordered treachery of Cawnpore changed all that. Thenceforth every +British-born man in the country not only realized that the government +had been forced into a Titanic contest, but he was also swayed by a +personal and absorbing lust for vengeance. Officers and men, regulars +and volunteers alike, took the field with the fixed intent of exacting +an expiatory life for each hair on the head of those unhappy victims. +And they kept the vow they made. To this day, though half a century has +passed, the fertile plain of the Doab--that great tract between the +Ganges and the Jumna--is dotted with the ruins of gutted towns and +depopulated villages. But that was not yet. India was fated to be +almost lost before it was won again. + +On the night of June 4th, when the roomy budgerow carrying Winifred +Mayne and her escort drifted away from the walls of the Nana's palace at +Bithoor, there was not a breath of wind on the river. The mat sail was +useless, but a four-mile-an-hour current carried the unwieldy craft +slowly down stream, and there was not the slightest doubt in the minds +of either of the Englishmen on board as to their course of action. + +Mr. Mayne was acquainted with Cawnpore and Sir Hugh Wheeler was an old +friend of his. + +"Wheeler has no great force at his disposal," said he to Malcolm. "It is +evident that the native regiments have just broken out here, but, by +this time, our people in the cantonment must have heard of events +elsewhere, and they have surely seized the Magazine, which is well +fortified and stands on the river. If I can believe a word that the Nana +said, the sepoys will rush off to Delhi to-night, just as they did at +Meerut, Aligarh, and Etawah. I am convinced that our best plan is to hug +the right bank and disembark near the Magazine." + +"Is it far?" asked Malcolm. + +"About eight miles." + +"I wonder why the Begum was so insistent that we should go back along +the Grand Trunk Road?" + +Mayne hesitated. He knew that Winifred was listening. + +"It is hard to account for the vagaries of a woman's mind, or, shall I +say, of the mind of such a woman," he answered lightly. "You will +remember that when you came to our assistance outside Meerut she was +determined to take us, willy-nilly, to Delhi." + +Malcolm, who had heard Roshinara's impassioned speech and looked into +her blazing eyes, thought that her motives were stronger than mere +caprice. He never dreamed of the true reason, but he feared that she +knew Cawnpore had fallen and her curiously friendly regard for himself +might have inspired her advice. Here, again, Winifred's presence tied +his tongue. + +"Well," he said, with a cheerless laugh, "I, at any rate, must endeavor +to reach Wheeler. I am supposed to be bearing despatches, but they were +taken from me when I was knocked off my horse in the village--" + +"Were you attacked?" asked Winifred, and the quiet solicitude in her +voice was sweetest music in her lover's ears. + +His brief recital of the night's adventures was followed by the story of +the others' journey and detention at Bithoor. It may be thought that Mr. +Mayne, with his long experience of India, should have read more clearly +the sinister lesson to be derived from the treatment meted out that +night to a British Officer by the detachment of sowars, amplified, as it +was, by their open references to the Nana as a Maharajah. But he was not +yet disillusioned. And, if his judgment were at fault, he erred in good +company, for Sir Henry Lawrence, Chief Commissioner at Lucknow, was +even then resisting the appeals, the almost insubordinate urging, of the +headstrong Martin Gubbins that the sepoys in the capital of Oudh should +be disarmed. + +Meanwhile the boat lurched onward. Soon a red glow in the sky proclaimed +that they were nearing Cawnpore. Though well aware that the European +houses were on fire, they were confident that the Magazine would be +held. They helped Akhab Khan, Chumru, and the two troopers to rig a pair +of long sweeps, and prepared to guide the budgerow to the landing-place. + +Winifred was stationed at the rudder. As it chanced the three sowars +took one oar and Chumru helped the sahibs with the other, and the two +sets of rowers were partly screened from each other by the horses. +Malcolm was saying something to Winifred when the native bent near him +and whispered: + +"Talk on, sahib, but listen! Your men intend to jump ashore and leave +you. They have been bitten by the wolf. Don't try to stop them. Name of +Allah, let them go!" + +Frank's heart throbbed under this dramatic development. He had no +reason to doubt his servant's statement. The faithful fellow had +nursed him through a fever with the devotion of a brother, and +Malcolm hadreciprocated this fidelity by refusing to part with him +when he, in turn, was stricken down by smallpox. In fact, Frank +was the only European in Meerut who would employ the man, whose +extraordinary appearance went against him. Cross-eyed, wide-mouthed, +and broken-nosed, with a straggling black beard that ill concealed the +tokens on his face of the dread disease from which he had suffered, +Chumru looked a cut-throat of the worst type, "a hungry, lean-fac'd +villain, a mere anatomy." Aware of his own ill repute, he made the most +of it. He tied his turban with an aggressive twist, and was wont to +scowl so vindictively at the mess khamsamah that his master, quite +unconsciously, always secured the wing of a chicken or the best cut of +the joint. + +Yet this gnome-like creature was true to his salt at a time when he must +have felt that his sahib, together with every other sahib in India, was +doomed; his eyes now shot fiery, if oblique, shafts of indignation as he +muttered his thrilling news. + +Malcolm did not attempt to question him. He glanced at the sowars, and +saw that their carbines were slung across their shoulders. Chumru +interpreted the look correctly. + +"Akhab Khan prevented those Shia dogs from shooting you and +Mayne-sahib," went on the low murmur. "They said, huzoor, that the Nana +wanted the miss-sahib, and that they were fools to help you in taking +her away, but Akhab Khan swore he would fight on your honor's side if +they unslung their guns. They do not know I heard them as I was sitting +behind the mast, and I took care to creep off when their heads were +turned toward the shore." + +"Here we are," cried Mayne, who little guessed what Chumru's mumbling +portended. "There is the ghât.[9] If it were not for the mist we could +see the Magazine just below, on the left." + +[Footnote 9: In this instance, steps leading down to the river: also, a +mountain range.] + +Assuredly, Frank Malcolm's human clay was being tested in the furnace +that night. He had to decide instantly what line to follow. In a minute +or less the boat would bump against the lowermost steps, and, if Akhab +Khan and his companions were, indeed, traitors, the others on board +were completely at their mercy. Mayne was unarmed, Chumru's fighting +equipment lay wholly in his aspect, while Malcolm's revolvers were in +the holsters, and his sword was tied to Nejdi's saddle, its scabbard +and belt having been thrown aside while Abdul Huq was robbing him. + +The broad-beamed budgerow presented a strangely accurate microcosm of +India at that moment. The English people on her deck were numerically +inferior to the natives, and deprived by accident of the arms that might +have equalized matters. Their little army was breathing mutiny, but was +itself divided, if Chumru were not mistaken, seeing that all were for +revolt, but one held out that the Feringhis' lives should be spared. +And, even there, the cruel dilemma that offered itself to the ruler of +every European community in the country was not to be avoided, for, if +Malcolm tried to obtain his weapons his action might be the signal for a +murderous attack, while, if he made no move, he left it entirely at the +troopers' discretion whether or not he and Mayne should be shot down +without the power to strike a blow in self-defense. + +Luckily he had the gift of prompt decision that is nine tenths of +generalship. Saying not a word to alarm Mayne, who was still weak from +the wound received an hour earlier, he crossed the deck, halting on the +way to rub Nejdi's black muzzle. + +The sowars were watching him. With steady thrust of the port sweep they +were heading the budgerow toward the ghât. + +He went nearer and caught the end of the heavy oar. + +"Pull hard, now," he said encouragingly, "and we will be out of the +current." + +He was facing the three men, and his order was a quite natural one under +the circumstances. Obviously, he meant to help. Stretching their arms +for a long and strong stroke, they laid on with a will. Instantly, he +pressed the oar downwards, thus forcing the blade out of the water, and +threw all his strength into its unexpected yielding. Before they could +so much as utter a yell, Akhab Khan and another were swept headlong into +the river, while the third man lay on his back on the deck with Frank on +top of him. The simplicity of the maneuver insured its success. Neither +Mayne nor Winifred understood what had happened until Malcolm had +disarmed the trooper, taken his cartridge pouch, and thrown him +overboard to sink or swim as fate might direct. He regretted the loss of +Akhab Khan, but he recalled the queer expression on the man's face when +he read Bahadur Shah's sonorous titles. + +"Light of the World, Renowned King of Kings, Lord of all India, +Fuzl-Ilahi, Panah-i-din!" + +That appeal to the faith was too powerful to be withstood. Yet Malcolm +was glad the man had been chivalrous in his fall, for he had taken a +liking to him. + +Chumru, of course, after the first gasp of surprise, appreciated the +sahib's strategy. + +"Shabash!" he cried, "Wao, wao, huzoor![10] May I never see the White +Pond of the Prophet if that was not well planned." + +[Footnote 10: "Bravo! Well done, your honor!"] + +"Oh, what is it?" came Winifred's startled exclamation. It was so dark, +and the horses, no less than the sail, so obscured her view of the fore +part of the boat, that she could only dimly make out Malcolm's figure, +though the sounds of the scuffle and splashing were unmistakable. + +"We are disbanding our native forces--that is all," said Frank. "Press +the tiller more to the left, please. Yes, that is right. Now, keep it +there until we touch the steps." + +The shimmering surface of the river near the boat was broken up into +ripples surrounding a black object. Malcolm heard the quick panting of +one in whose lungs water had mixed with air, and he hated to think of +even a rebel drowning before his eyes. Moved by pity, he swung the big +oar on its wooden rest until the blade touched the exhausted man, whose +hands shot out in the hope of succor. After some spluttering a broken +voice supplicated: + +"Mercy, sahib! I saved you when you were in my power. Show pity now to +me." + +"It is true, then, that you meant to desert, Akhab Khan?" said Frank +sternly. + +"Yes, sahib. One cannot fight against one's brothers, but I swear by +the Prophet--" + +"Nay, your oaths are not needed. You, at least, did not wish to commit +murder. Cling to that oar. The ghât is close at hand." + +"Then, sahib, I can still show my gratitude. If you would save the +miss-sahib, do not land here. The Magazine has been taken. The cavalry +have looted the Treasury. All the sahib-log have fallen." + +"Is this a true thing that thou sayest?" + +"May I sink back into the pit if it be not the tale we heard at +Bithoor!" + +By this time Mayne was at Frank's side. + +"I fear we have dropped into a hornets' nest," said he. "There is +certainly an unusual turmoil in the bazaar, and houses are on fire in +all directions." + +Even while they were listening to the fitful bellowing of a distant mob +bent on mad revel a crackle of musketry rang out, but died away as +quickly. The budgerow grounded lightly when her prow ran against the +stonework of the ghât. Again did Malcolm make up his mind on the spur +of the moment. + +"I will spare your life on one condition, Akhab Khan," he said. "Go +ashore and learn what has taken place at the Magazine. Return here, +alone, within five minutes. Mark you, I say 'alone.' If I see more +than one who comes I shall shoot." + +"Huzoor, I shall not betray you." + +"Go, then." + +He drew the man through the water until his feet touched the steps. +Climbing up unsteadily, Akhab Khan disappeared in the gloom. Then they +waited in silence. The heavy breath of the bazaar was pungent in their +nostrils, and, for a few seconds, they listened to the trooper's +retreating footsteps. Frank leaped ashore and pushed the boat off, while +Mayne held her by jamming the leeward oar into the mud. It was best to +make sure. + +They did not speak. Their ears were strained as their tumultuous +thoughts. At last, some one came, a man, and his firm tread of boot-shod +feet betokened a soldier. It was the rebel who had become their scout. + +"Sahib," said he, "it is even as I told you. Cawnpore is lost to you." + +"And you, Akhab Khan, do you go or stay?" + +There was another moment of tense silence. + +"Would you have me draw sword against the men of my own faith?" was the +despairing answer. + +"It would not be for the first time," said Malcolm coldly. "But I could +never trust thee again. Yet hast thou chosen wrongly, Akhab Khan. When +thy day of reckoning comes, may it be remembered in thy favor that thou +didst turn most unwillingly against thy masters!" + +Akhab Khan raised his right hand in a military salute. Suddenly, his +erect form became indistinct, and faded out of sight. The boat was +traveling down stream once more. Around her the river lapped lazily, +and the solemn quietude of the mist-covered waters was accentuated +by the far-off turmoil in the city. + +The huge sail thrust its yard high above the fog bank, and watchers on +the river side saw it. Some one hailed in the vernacular, and Chumru +replied that they came from Bithoor with hay. Prompted by Malcolm he +went on: + +"How goes the good work, brother?" + +"Rarely," came the voice. "I have already requited two bunniahs to whom +I owed money. Gold is to be had for the taking. Leave thy budgerow at +the bridge, friend, and join us." + +The raucous, half-drunken accents substantiated Akhab Khan's story. The +unseen speaker was evidently himself a boatman. He was rejoicing in the +upheaval that permitted debts to be paid with a bludgeon and money to be +made without toil. + +Mayne caught Frank by the arm. + +"We are drifting towards the bridge of boats that carries the road to +Lucknow across the river," he said, in the hurried tone of a man who +sees a new and paralyzing danger. "There is a drawbridge for river +traffic, but how shall we find it, and, in any event, we must be seen." + +"Are there many houses on the opposite bank?" asked Malcolm. + +"Not many. They are mostly mud hovels. What is in your mind?" + +"We might endeavor to cross the river before we reach the bridge. By +riding boldly along the Lucknow Road we shall place many miles between +ourselves and Cawnpore before day breaks." + +"That certainly seems to offer our best chance. We have plenty of horses +and we ought to be in Lucknow soon after dawn." + +"What if matters are as bad there?" + +"Impossible! Lawrence has a whole regiment with him, the 32d, and plenty +of guns. Poor Wheeler, at Cawnpore, commanded a depôt, mostly officials +on the staff, and invalids. At any rate, Malcolm, we must have some +objective. Lucknow spells hope. Neither Meerut nor Allahabad is +attainable. And what will become of Winifred if we fail to reach some +station that still holds out?" + +The girl herself now came to them. + +"I refuse to remain alone any longer," she said. "I don't know a quarter +of what is going on. I have tied the tiller with a rope. Please tell me +what is happening and why a man shouted to Chumru from the bank." + +She spoke calmly, with the pleasantly modulated voice of a well-bred +Englishwoman. If aught were wanted to enhance the contrast between the +peace of the river and the devildom of Cawnpore it was given in full +measure by her presence there. How little did she realize the long +drawn-out agony that was even then beginning for her sisters in that +ill-fated entrenchment! It was the idle whim of fortune that she was not +with them. And not one was destined to live--not one among hundreds! + +But it was a time for action, not for speech. Malcolm asked her gently +to go back to the helm and keep it jammed hard-a-starboard until they +arrived at the left bank. Then he took an oar and Mayne and Chumru +tackled the other. The three men pulled manfully athwart the stream. +They could not tell what progress they were making, and the Ganges ran +swiftly in mid-channel, being five times as wide as the Thames at London +Bridge. Yet they toiled on with desperate energy. They had crossed the +swirl of deep water when a low, straight-edged barrier appeared on the +starboard side, and, before they could attempt to avert the calamity, +the budgerow crashed against a pontoon and drove its bows under the +superstructure. It was locked there so firmly that a score of men had to +labor for hours next day ere it could be cleared. + +Nevertheless, that which they regarded as a misfortune was a blessing. +The shock of the collision alarmed the horses, and one of them climbed +like a cat on to the bridge. Frank sprang after him and caught the reins +before the startled creature could break away. And that which one horse +could do might be done by seven. Bidding Chumru arrange some planks to +give the others better foothold, he told Winifred and Mayne to join him +and help in holding the animals as they gained the roadway. A couple of +natives who ran up from the Lucknow side were peremptorily ordered to +stand. Indeed, they were harmless coolies and soon they offered to +assist, for the deadly work in Cawnpore that night was scarcely known to +them as yet. In a couple of minutes the fugitives were mounted, each of +the men leading a spare horse and advancing at a steady trot; though the +bridge swayed and creaked a good deal under this forbidden pace, they +soon found by the upward grade that they were crossing the sloping mud +bank leading to the actual highway. + +Thirty-five miles of excellent road now separated them from Lucknow. The +hour was not late, about half past ten, so they had fully six hours of +starlit obscurity in which to travel, because, though the month was +June, India is not favored with the prolonged twilight of dawn and eve +familiar to other latitudes. + +They clattered through the outlying bazaar without disturbing a soul. +Probably every man, woman and child able to walk was adding to the din +in the great city beyond the river. Pariah dogs yelped at them, some +heavy carts drawn across the road caused a momentary halt, and a herd of +untended buffaloes lying patiently near their byre told the story of the +excitement that had drawn their keeper across the bridge. + +Soon they were in the open, and a fast canter became permissible. They +passed by many a temple devoted to Kali or elephant-headed Buddha, by +many a sacred mosque or tomb of Mohammedan saint, by many a holy tree +decorated with ribbons in honor of its tutelary deity. Now they were +flying between lanes of sugarcane or tall castor-oil plants, now +traversing arid spaces where _reh_, the efflorescent salt of the earth, +had killed all vegetation and reduced a once fertile land to a desert. + +Five miles from Cawnpore they swept through the hamlet of Mungulwar. +They saw no one, and no one seemed to see them, though it is hard to say +in India what eyes may not be peering through wattle screen or heavy +barred door. In the larger village of Onao they met a group of +chowkidars, or watchmen, in the main street. These men salaamed to the +sahib-log, probably on account of the stir created by the horses. +Without drawing rein, they pushed on to Busseerutgunge, crossed the +river Sai and neared the village of Bunnee. + +If only men could read the future, how Malcolm's soldier spirit would +have kindled as Mayne told him the names of those squalid communities! +Each yard of that road was destined to be sprinkled with British blood, +while its ditches would be choked with the bodies of mutineers. But +these things were behind the veil, and the one dominant thought +possessing Malcolm now was that unless Winifred and her uncle obtained +food of some sort they must fall from their saddles with sheer +exhaustion. He and his servant had made a substantial meal early in the +evening, but the others had eaten nothing owing to the alarm and +confusion that reigned at Bithoor. + +Winifred, indeed, in response to a question, said faintly that she +thought she could keep going if she had a drink of milk. Such an +admission, coming from her brave lips, warned Frank that he must call a +halt regardless of loss of time. Assuredly, this was an occasion when +the sacrifice of a few minutes might avoid the grave risk of a breakdown +after daybreak. So when they entered Bunnee they pulled up, and +discussed ways and means of getting something to eat. + +It was then that Malcolm gave evidence that his devotion to the +soldier's art had not been practised in vain. Mr. Mayne thought they +should rouse the household at the first reputable looking dwelling they +found. + +"No," said Frank. "Mounted, and in motion, we have some chance of escape +unless we fall in with hostile cavalry. On foot, we are at the mercy of +any prowling rascals who may be on the warpath. Let us rather look out +for a place somewhat removed from the main road. There we do not court +observation, and we are sufficiently well armed to protect ourselves +from any hostile move on the part of those we summon." + +The older man agreed. Rank and wealth count for little in the great +crises of life. Here was a Judicial Commissioner of Oudh a fugitive in +his own province, and ready to obey a subaltern's slightest wish! + +Chumru quickly picked out the house of a zemindar, or land-owner, which +stood in its own walled enclosure behind a clump of trees. A rough track +led to the gate, and Frank knocked loudly on an iron-studded door. + +He used the butt end of a revolver, so his rat-tat was imperative +enough, but the garden might have been a graveyard for all the notice +that was taken by the inhabitants. He knocked again, with equal +vehemence and with the same result. But he knew his zemindar, and after +waiting a reasonable interval he said clearly: + +"Unless the door is opened at once it will be forced. I am an officer of +the Company, and I demand an entry." + +"Coming, sahib," said an anxious voice. "We knew not who knocked, and +there are many budmashes about these nights." + +The door yielded to the withdrawal of bolts, but it was still held on a +chain. A man peeped out, satisfied himself that there really were +sahib-log waiting at his gate, and then unfastened the chain, with +apologies for his forgetfulness. Three men servants, armed with lathis, +long sticks with heavy iron ferrules at both ends, stood behind him, and +they all appeared to be exceedingly relieved when they heard that their +midnight visitors only asked for water, milk, eggs, and chupatties, on +the score that they were belated and had no food. + +The zemindar civilly invited them to enter, but Frank as civilly +declined, fearing that the smallness of their number, the absence of a +retinue, and the cavalry accouterments of the horses, might arouse +comment, if not suspicion. + +Happily the owner of the house recognized Mr. Mayne, and then he +bestirred himself. All they sought for, and more, was brought. Chairs +were provided--rare luxuries in native dwellings at that date--and, this +being a Mohammedan family, some excellent cooked meat was added to the +feast. Before long Winifred was able to smile and say that she had not +been so disgracefully hungry since she left school. + +The zemindar courteously insisted that they should taste some mangoes on +which he prided himself, and he also staged a quantity of _lichis_, a +delicious fruit, closely resembling a plover's egg in appearance, +peculiar to India. Nor were the horses forgotten. They were watered and +fed, and if by this time the nature of the cavalcade had been +recognized, there was no change in the man's hospitable demeanor. + +Not for an instant did Frank's watchful attitude relax. While Mr. Mayne +and the zemindar discoursed on the disturbed state of the country he +snatched the opportunity to exchange a few tender words with Winifred. +But his eyes and ears were alert, and he was the first to hear the +advent of a large body of horses along the main road. + +He stood up instantly, blew out a lantern which was placed on the ground +for the benefit of himself and the others, and said quietly: + +"A regiment of cavalry is approaching. We do not wish to be seen by +them. Let no man stir or show a light until they have gone." + +He had the military trick of putting an emphatic order in the fewest and +simplest words. A threat was out of the question, after the manner in +which the party had been received, but it is likely that each native +present felt that his life would not be of great value if he attempted +to draw the attention of the passers-by to the presence of Europeans at +the door of that secluded zemindari. + +The tramp of horses' feet and the jingle of arms and trappings could now +be distinguished plainly. At first Winifred feared that they were troops +sent in pursuit of them by the Nana, and she whispered the question: + +"Are they from Cawnpore, Frank?" + +"No," he answered, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I cannot +see them, but their horses are walking, so they cannot have come our +way. They are cavalry advancing from the direction of Lucknow." + +"Perhaps they are marching to the relief of Cawnpore?" + +"Let us hope so. But we must not risk being seen." + +"Your words are despondent, dear. Do you think the whole native army is +against us?" + +"I scarcely know what to think, sweetheart. Things look black in so many +directions. Once we are in Lucknow, and able to hear what has really +happened elsewhere, we shall be better able to judge." + +The ghostly squadrons clanked past, unseen and unseeing. When the road +was quiet again Winifred and her small bodyguard remounted. The zemindar +was not a man who would accept payment, so Mr. Mayne gave his servants +some money. It may be that this Mohammedan gentleman wondered if he had +acted rightly when the emissaries of the Nana scoured the country next +day for news of the miss-sahib and two sahibs who rode towards Lucknow +in the small hours of the morning. Being a wise man he held his peace. +He had cast his bread upon the waters, and did not regret it, though he +little reckoned on the return it would make after many days. + +Reinvigorated by the excellent meal, the travelers found that their +horses had benefited as greatly as they themselves by the food and brief +rest. + +They had no more adventures on the way. Winifred did not object to +riding astride while it was dark, but she did not like the experience in +broad daylight, and when they met a Eurasian in a tikka-gharry, or hired +conveyance, in the environs of Lucknow, she was almost as delighted to +secure the vehicle as to learn that the city, though disturbed, was +"quite safe from mutiny." + +That was the man's phrase, and it was eloquent of faith in the genius of +Henry Lawrence. + +"Quite safe!" he assured them, though they had only escaped capture by a +detachment of rebel cavalry by the merest fluke three hours earlier. + +They were standing opposite the gate of a great walled enclosure known +as the Alumbagh, a summer retreat built by an old nawab for a favorite +wife. And that was in June! In six short months Havelock would be lying +there in his grave, and men would be talking from pole to pole of the +wondrous things done at Lucknow, both by those who held it and those +who twice relieved it. + +"Quite safe!" + +It was high time men ceased to use that phrase in India. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +WHEREIN A MOHAMMEDAN FRATERNIZES WITH A BRAHMIN + + +"We seem to be attracting a fair share of attention," said Malcolm, as +they crossed a bridge over the canal that bounded Lucknow on the south +and east. + +"We look rather odd, don't we?" asked Winifred, cheerfully. "Three +mounted men leading four horses, and a disheveled lady in a ramshackle +vehicle like this, would draw the eyes of a mob anywhere. Thank +goodness, though, the people appear to be quite peaceably inclined." + +"Y-yes." + +"Why do you agree so grudgingly?" + +"Well, I have not been here before--are the streets usually so crowded +at this hour?" + +"Lucknow, like every other Indian city, is early astir. Perhaps they +have heard of the fall of Cawnpore. It is one of the marvels of India +how quickly news spreads. Isn't that so, uncle?" + +"No man knows how rumor travels here," said Mr. Mayne. "It beats the +telegraph at times. But the probability is that Lucknow has surprises in +store for us. While we were bottled up in Bithoor things have been +happening elsewhere." + +His guess was only too accurate. Not only had Nana Sahib long been in +treaty with the disaffected Oudh taluqdars, but Lucknow itself was +writhing in the first stages of rebellion. Although by popular reckoning +the mutiny broke out at Meerut on May 10, there was trouble in Lucknow +in April with the 48th Infantry, and again on May 3, when Lawrence's +firm measures alone prevented the 7th Oudh Irregulars from murdering +their officers. There was little reason to hope that this, the third +city in India, should not yield readily to sedition-mongers. The +dethroned King of Oudh, with his courtiers and ministers, still +maintained a sort of royal state in his residence at Calcutta, and his +emissaries were active in the greased cartridge propaganda, telling +Hindus that the paper wrappers were dipped in the fat of cows, while, +for the benefit of Mohammedans, a variant of the story was supplied by +the substitution of pig's lard. + +It is believed too, that the passing of a chupatty, or flat cake, from +village to village in the Northwest Provinces early in January was +set on foot by one of these agitators as a token that the Government +was plotting to overthrow the religions of the people. The exact +significance of that mysterious symbol has never been ascertained. Like +the "snowball" petition of the West, once started, it soon lost its +first meaning. Many natives regarded it merely as the fulfilment of a +devotee's vow, but in the majority of instances it had an unsettling +effect on the simple folk who received it, and this was precisely what +its originator desired. + +Lucknow was not only the natural pivot of a rich agricultural district, +but it hummed with prosperous trade. Every type of Indian humanity +gathered in its narrow streets and lofty houses, and excitement rose to +fever heat when the local trouble with the sepoys was given force to by +the isolation of the Meerut white garrison, the seizure of Delhi and the +sacking of many European stations in the Northwest. On May 30, the 71st +Native Infantry had the impudence to fire on the 32d Foot, and were +severely mauled for their pains. They ran off, but not until they had +murdered Brigadier-General Handscombe and Lieutenant Grant, one of their +own officers. The standard of the Prophet was raised in the bazaar and a +fanatical mob rallied round it. They killed a Mr. Menpes, who lived in +the city, and were then dispersed by the police. + +Unfortunately the 7th Cavalry deserted when Lawrence marched to the +race-course next day to punish the mutinous sepoys who had gathered +there. But despite the lack of a mounted force, a number of prisoners +were taken and hanged in batches on a gallows erected on the Muchee +Bhowun, a fortress palace situated near the Residency. + +Thus Lawrence had scotched the snake, but like Wheeler at Cawnpore and +many another in India at that time, he refused to kill it by disarming +the native regiments under his command. Nevertheless they feared him. +They dared not show their fangs in Lucknow. They stole away in companies +and squadrons, glutting their predatory instincts by slaughter and +pillage elsewhere before they headed for Delhi or joined one of the +numerous pretenders who sprang into being in emulation of Nana Sahib. It +was one of these rebel detachments that passed the four fugitives from +Cawnpore on the outskirts of Bunnee. Scattered throughout the province +they proved as merciless and terrible to wealthy natives as to the +Europeans whom they met in flight along the main roads. + +The chaos into which the whole country fell with such extraordinary +swiftness is demonstrated by the varying treatment meted out to +different people. Winifred and her uncle, under Malcolm's bold +leadership, reached Lucknow with comparative ease. Poor little Sophy +Christian, aged three, having lost her mother in the massacre of +Sitapore, was taken off into the jungle by Sir Mountstuart Jackson, his +sister Madeline, a young officer named Burnes, and Surgeon-Major Morton. +They fell in with Captain and Mrs. Philip Orr and their child, refugees +from Aurungabad, and the whole party experienced almost incredible +sufferings _during nine months_. Mrs. Orr, her little girl and Miss +Jackson did not escape from their final prison at Lucknow until the end +of March, 1858. Sophy Christian, who was always asking pathetically "why +mummie didn't come," died of the hardships she had to endure, while the +men were shot in cold blood by the sepoys on November 16. + +Yet in many instances the rebels either told their officers to go away +or escorted them to the nearest European station, while the villagers, +though usually hostile, sometimes treated the luckless sahib-log with +genuine kindness and sympathy. + +Mr. Mayne of course had his own house in the cantonment, which was +situated north of the city, across the river Goomtee. Malcolm wished to +see uncle and niece safely established in their bungalow before he +reported himself at the Residency, but the older man thought they should +all go straight to the Chief Commissioner and tell him what had happened +at Cawnpore. + +Threading the packed bazaar towards the Bailey Guard--that gate of the +Residency which was destined to become for ever famous--they encountered +Captain Gould Weston, the local Superintendent of Police, and his first +words undeceived them as to the true position of affairs. + +"You left Cawnpore last night!" he cried. "Then you were amazingly +lucky. Wheeler has just telegraphed that he expects to be invested by +the rebels to-day. Not that you will be much better off here in some +respects, as we are all living in the Residency. I suppose you know your +house has gone, Mayne?" + +"Gone! Do you mean that it is destroyed?" + +"Burnt to the ground. There is hardly a building left in the +cantonment." + +"But what were the troops doing? At any rate, you are not besieged here +yet." + +"We are on the verge of it. Unfortunately the Chief won't bring himself +to disarm the sepoys, and the city is drifting into a worse condition +daily. Half of the native corps have bolted, and the rest are ripe +for trouble at the first opportunity. The fires are the work of +incendiaries. We have caught and hanged a few, but they are swarming +everywhere." + +"You say Wheeler has been in communication with you this morning," said +the perplexed civilian. "Are you sure? It is true we escaped in the +first instance from Bithoor, but Cawnpore was in flames last night and +the Magazine in possession of the mutineers." + +"Oh, yes. We know that. The one thing these black rascals don't +understand is the importance of cutting the telegraph wires. Wheeler has +thrown up an entrenchment in the middle of a _maidan_. I am afraid he is +in a tight place, as he is asking for help which we cannot send. Well, +good-by! Hope to see you at tiffin. Miss Mayne must make herself as +comfortable as she can in the women's quarters, and pray, like the rest +of us, that this storm may soon blow over." + +He rode off, followed by an escort of mounted police. Malcolm, who had +taken no part in the conversation, listened to Weston's words with a +sinking heart. He had failed doubly, then, in the mission entrusted to +him by Colvin. Not only were his despatches lost, but he was mistaken +in believing that the Cawnpore garrison was overpowered. He had turned +back at a moment when he should have strained every nerve to reach +his destination. That was intolerable. The memory of the hawk-nosed, +steel-eyed officer who rode from Kurnaul to Meerut in twenty-four hours +smote him like a whip. Would Hodson--the man who was prepared to cross +the infernal regions if duty called--would _he_ have quitted Cawnpore +without making sure that Sir Hugh Wheeler was dead or a prisoner? + +The answer to that unspoken question brought such a look of pain to +Frank's face that Winifred, watching him from the carriage window, +wondered what was wrong. She, too, had heard the policeman's statement +and was greatly relieved by it. Why should her lover be so perturbed, +she wondered? Was it not good news that the English in Cawnpore were at +least endeavoring to hold Nana Sahib at bay? It was on the tip of her +tongue to ask what sudden cloud had fallen on him when the carriage +swung through a gateway and she found herself inside the Residency. The +breathless greetings exchanged between herself and many of her friends +among the ladies of the garrison drove from her mind the misery she had +seen in Frank's stern-set features. But the thought recurred later and +she spoke of it. + +Now Malcolm had already visited Sir Henry Lawrence and told him the +exact circumstances. The Chief Commissioner exonerated him from any +blame and, as a temporary matter, appointed him an extra A.D.C. on his +staff. But the sore rankled and it was destined in due time to affect +the young officer's fortunes in the most unexpected way. + +Above all else he did not want Winifred to know that solicitude in her +behalf had drawn him from the path of duty. So he fenced with her +sympathetic inquiries, and she, womanlike, began to search for some +shortcoming on her own part to account for her lover's gloom. Thus, not +a rift, but an absence of full and complete understanding, existed +between them, and each was conscious of it, though Malcolm alone knew +its cause. + +But that little cloud only darkened their own small world. Around them +was the clash of arms and the din of preparation for the "fortnight's +siege" which Lawrence thought the Residency might withstand if held +resolutely! In truth, there never was a fortification, with the +exception of that four-foot mud wall at Cawnpore, less calculated to +repel the assault of a determined foe than the ill-planned defenses +which provided the last English refuge in Oudh. + +Winifred soon proved that she was of good metal. The alarms and +excursions of the past three weeks were naturally trying to a girl born +and bred in a quiet Devon village. But heredity, mostly blamed for the +transmission of bad qualities, supplies good ones, too, whether in man +or maid. Descended on her father's side from a race of soldiers and +diplomats, her mother was a Yorkshire Trenholme, and it is said on +Hambledon Moor that there were Trenholmes in Yorkshire before there was +a king in England. In spite of the terrific heat and the discomfort +of her new surroundings she made light of difficulties, found solace +herself by cheering others, and quickly attained a prominent place in +that small band of devoted women whose names will live until the story +of Lucknow is forgotten. + +She met Frank only occasionally and by chance, their days being full of +work and striving. A smile, a few tender words, perhaps nothing more +than a hurried wave of the hand in passing, constituted their love +idyll, for Lawrence fell ill and his aides were kept busy, day and +night, in passing to and fro between the bedside of the stricken leader +and the many posts where his counsel was sought or the hasty provision +of defense lagged for his orders. + +The Chief was so worn out with anxiety and sleepless labor that on +June 9 he delegated his authority to a provisional council. Then the +impetuous and chivalric Martin Gubbins, Financial Commissioner of Oudh, +saw a means of attaining by compromise that which he had vainly urged on +Lawrence--he persuaded the commanding officers of the native regiments +in Lucknow to tell their men to go home on furlough until November. + +This was actually done, but Lawrence was so indignant when he heard of +it that he dissolved the council on June 12 and sent Malcolm and other +officers to recall the sepoys. Five hundred came back, vowing that they +would stand by "Lar-rence-sahib Bahadur" till the last. They kept their +word; they shared the danger and glory of the siege with the 32d and the +British Artillery. + +Gubbins, a born firebrand, then pressed his superior to attack a rebel +force that had gathered at the village of Chinhut, ten miles northeast +of Lucknow. Unfortunately Lawrence yielded, marched out with seven +hundred men, half of whom were Europeans, and was badly defeated, owing +to the desertion of some native gunners at a critical moment. + +A disastrous rout followed. Colonel Case of the 32d, trying vainly with +his men to stop the native runaways, was shot dead. For three miles the +enemy's horse artillery pelted the helpless troops with grape, and the +massacre of every man in the small column was prevented only by the +bravery of a tiny squadron of volunteer cavalry, which held a bridge +until the harassed infantry were able to cross. + +Lawrence, when the day was lost, rode back to prepare the hapless +Europeans in the city for the hazard that now threatened. The investment +of the Residency could not be prevented. It was a question whether the +mutineers would not surge over it in triumph within the hour. + +From the windows of the lofty building which gave its name to the +cluster of houses within the walls, the despairing women saw their +exhausted fellow-countrymen fighting a dogged rear-guard action against +twenty times as many rebels. Some poor creatures, straining their eyes +to find in the ranks of the survivors the husband they would never see +again, clasped their children to their breasts and shrieked in agony. +Others, like Lady Inglis, knelt and read the Litany. A few, and among +them was Winifred, ran out with vessels full of water and tended the +wants of the almost choking soldiers who were staggering to the shelter +of the veranda. + +She had seen Lawrence gallop to his quarters, and his drawn, haggard +face told her the worst. He was accompanied by two staff officers, but +Malcolm was not with him. The pandemonium that reigned everywhere for +many minutes made it impossible that she should obtain any news of her +lover's fate. While the soldiers were flocking through the narrow +streets that flanked or enfiladed the walls, the native servants and +coolies engaged on the defenses deserted _en masse_. The rebel artillery +was beginning to batter the more exposed buildings; the British guns +already in position took up the challenge; sepoys seized the adjoining +houses and commenced a deadly musketry fire that was far more effective +than the terrifying cannonade; and the men of the garrison who had not +taken part in that fatal sortie rushed to their posts, determined to +stem at all costs the imminent assault of the victorious mutineers. + +An officer seeing Winifred carrying water to some men who were lying in +a position that would soon be swept by two guns mounted near a bridge +across the Goomtee, known as the Iron Bridge, ordered the soldiers to +seek a safer refuge. + +"And you, Miss Mayne, you must not remain here," he went on. "You will +only lose your life, and we want brave women like you to live." + +Winifred recognized him though his face was blackened with powder and +grime. Her own wild imaginings made death seem preferable to the +anguish of her belief that Frank had fallen. + +"Oh, Captain Fulton," she said, "can you tell me what has become of--of +Mr. Malcolm?" + +"Yes," he said, summoning a gallant smile as an earnest of good news. "I +heard the Chief tell him to make the best of his way to Allahabad. That +is the only quarter from which help can be expected, and to-day's +disaster renders help imperative. Now, my dear child, don't take it to +heart in that way. Malcolm will win through, never fear! He is just the +man for such a task, and each mile he covers means--" he paused; a round +shot crashed against a gable and brought down a chimney with a loud +rattle of falling bricks--"means so many minutes less of this sort of +thing." + +But Winifred neither saw nor heard. Her eyes were blinded with tears, +her brain dazed by the knowledge that her lover had undertaken alone a +journey declared impossible from the more favorably situated station of +Cawnpore many days earlier. + +She managed somehow to find her uncle. Perhaps Fulton spared a moment to +take her to him. She never knew. When next her ordered mind appreciated +her environment that last day of June, 1857, was drawing to its close +and the glare of rebel watch fires, heightened by the constant flashes +of an unceasing bombardment, told her that the siege of Lucknow had +begun. + +Then she remembered that Mr. Mayne had taken her to one of the cellars +in the Residency in which the women and children were secure from the +leaden hail that was beating on the walls. She had a vague notion that +he carried a gun and a cartridge belt, and a new panic seized her lest +the Moloch of war had devoured her only relative, for her father had +been killed at the battle of Alma, and her mother's death, three years +later, had led to her sailing for India to take charge of her uncle's +household. + +The women near at hand were too sorrow-laden to give any real +information. They only knew that every man within the Residency walls, +even the one-armed, one-legged, decrepit pensioners who had lost limbs +or health in the service of the Company, were mustered behind the frail +defenses. + +To a girl of her temperament inaction was the least endurable of evils. +Now that the shock of Malcolm's departure had passed she longed to seek +oblivion in work, while existence in that stifling underground +atmosphere, with its dense crowd of heart-broken women and complaining +children, was almost intolerable. + +In defiance of orders--of which, however, she was then ignorant--she +went to the ground floor. Passing out into the darkness she crossed an +open space to the hospital, and it chanced that the first person she +encountered was Chumru, Malcolm's bearer. + +The man's grim features changed their habitual scowl to a demoniac grin +when he saw her. + +"Ohé, miss-sahib," he cried, "this meeting is my good fortune, for +surely you can tell me where my sahib is?" + +Winifred was not yet well versed in Hindustani, but she caught some of +the words, and the contortions of Chumru's expressive countenance were +familiar to her, as she had laughed many a time at Malcolm's recitals of +his ill-favored servant's undeserved repute as a villain of parts. + +"Your sahib is gone to Allahabad," she managed to say before the thought +came tardily that perhaps it was not wise to make known the Chief +Commissioner's behests in this manner. + +"To Illah-hábàd! Shade of Mahomet, how can he go that far without me?" +exclaimed Chumru. "Who will cook his food and brush his clothes? Who +will see to it that he is not robbed on the road by every thief that +ever reared a chicken or milked a cow? I feared that some evil thing had +befallen him, but this is worse than aught that entered my head." + +All this was lost on Winifred. She imagined that the native was +bewailing his master's certain death in striving to carry out a +desperate mission, whereas he was really thinking that the most +disturbing element about the sahib's journey was his own absence. + +Seeing the distress in her face, Chumru was sure that she sympathized +with his views. + +"Never mind, miss-sahib," said he confidentially, "I will slip away now, +steal a horse and follow him." + +Without another word he hastened out of the building and left her +wondering what he meant. She repeated the brief phrases, as well as she +could recall them, to a Eurasian whom she found acting as a +water-carrier. + +This man translated Chumru's parting statement quite accurately, and +when Mr. Mayne came at last from the Bailey Guard where he had been +stationed until relieved after nightfall, he horrified her by telling +her the truth--that it was a hundred chances to one against the +unfortunate bearer's escape if he did really endeavor to break through +the investing lines. + +And indeed few men could have escaped from the entrenchment that night. +Any one who climbed to the third story of the Residency--itself the +highest building within the walls and standing on the most elevated +site--would soon be dispossessed of the fantastic notion that any corner +was left unguarded by the rebels. A few houses had been demolished by +Lawrence's orders, it is true, but his deep respect for native ideals +had left untouched the swarm of mosques and temples that stood between +the Residency and the river. + +"Spare their holy places!" he said, yet Mohammedan and Hindu did not +scruple now to mask guns in the sacred enclosures and loop-hole the +hallowed walls for musketry. On the city side, narrow lanes, lofty +houses and strongly-built palaces offered secure protection to the +besiegers. The British position was girt with the thousand gleams of a +lightning more harmful than that devised by nature, for each spurt of +flame meant that field-piece or rifle was sending some messenger of +death into the tiny area over which floated the flag of England. Within +this outer circle of fire was a lesser one; the garrison made up for +lack of numbers by a fixed resolve to hold each post until every man +fell. To modern ideas, the distance between these opposing rings was +absurdly small. As the siege progressed besiegers and besieged actually +came to know each other by sight. Even from the first they were seldom +separated by more than the width of an ordinary street, and conversation +was always maintained, the threats of the mutineers being countered by +the scornful defiance of the defenders. + +Nevertheless Chumru prevailed on Captain Weston to allow him to drop to +the ground outside the Bailey Guard. The Police Superintendent, a +commander who was now fighting his own corps, accepted the bearer's +promise that if he were not killed or captured he would make the best of +his way to Allahabad, and even if he did not find his master, tell the +British officer in charge there of the plight of Lucknow. + +Chumru, who had no knowledge of warfare beyond his recent experiences, +was acquainted with the golden rule that the shorter the time spent as +an involuntary target the less chance is there of being hit. As soon as +he reached the earth from the top of the wall he took to his heels and +ran like a hare in the direction of some houses that stood near the +Clock Tower. + +He was fired at, of course, but missed, and the sepoys soon ceased their +efforts to put a bullet through him because they fancied he was a +deserter. + +As soon as they saw his face they had no doubts whatever on that score. +Indeed, were it his unhappy lot to fall in with the British patrols +already beginning to feel their way north from Bengal along the Grand +Trunk Road he would assuredly have been hanged at sight on his mere +appearance. + +Chumru's answers to the questions showered on him were magnificently +untrue. According to him the Residency was already a ruin and its +precincts a shambles. The accursed Feringhis might hold out till the +morning, but he doubted it. Allah smite them!--that was why he chanced +being shot by his brethren rather than be slain by mistake next day when +the men of Oudh took vengeance on their oppressors. He could not get +away earlier because he was a prisoner, locked up by the huzoors, +forsooth, for a trifling matter of a few rupees left behind by one of +the white dogs who fell that day at Chinhut. + +In brief, Chumru abused the English with such an air that he was +regarded by the rebels as quite an acquisition. They had not learned, as +yet, that it was better to shoot a dozen belated friends than permit one +spy to win his way through their lines. + +Watching his opportunity, he slipped off into the bazaar. Now he was +quite safe, being one among two hundred thousand. But time was passing; +he wanted a horse, and might expect to find the canal bridge closely +guarded. + +Having a true Eastern sense of humor behind that saturnine visage of +his, he hit on a plan of surmounting both difficulties with ease. + +Singling out the first well-mounted and half-intoxicated native officer +he met--though, to his credit be it said, he chose a Brahmin subadar of +cavalry--he hailed him boldly. + +"Brother," said he, "I would have speech with thee." + +Now, Chumru took his life in his hands in this matter. For one wearing +the livery of servitude to address a high-caste Brahmin thus was +incurring the risk of being sabered then and there. In fact the subadar +was so amazed that he glared stupidly at the Mohammedan who greeted him +as "brother," and it may be that those fierce eyes looking at him from +different angles had a mesmeric effect. + +"Thou?" he spluttered, reining in his horse, a hardy country-bred, good +for fifty miles without bait. + +"Even I," said Chumru. "I have occupation, but I want help. One will +suffice, though there is gold enough for many." + +"Gold, sayest thou?" + +"Ay, gold in plenty. The dog of a Feringhi whom I served has had it +hidden these two months in the thatch of his house near the Alumbagh. +To-day he is safely bottled up there--" he jerked a thumb towards the +sullen thunder of the bombardment. "I am a poor man, and I may be +stopped if I try to leave the city. Take me up behind thee, brother, and +give me safe passage to the bungalow, and behold, we will share treasure +of a lakh or more!" + +The Brahmin's brain was bemused with drink, but it took in two obvious +elements of the tale at once. Here was a fortune to be gained by merely +cutting a throat at the right moment. + +"That is good talking," said he. "Mount, friend, and leave me to answer +questions." + +Chumru saw that he had gaged his man rightly, and the evil glint in the +subadar's eyes told him the unspoken thought. He climbed up behind the +high-peaked saddle and, after the horse had showed his resentment of a +double burthen, was taken through the bazaar as rapidly as its thronged +streets permitted. Sure enough, the canal bridge was watched. + +"Whither go ye?" demanded the officer in charge. + +"To bring in a Feringhi who is in hiding," said the Brahmin. + +"Shall I send a few men with you?" + +"Nay, we two are plenty--" this with a laugh. + +"Quite plenty," put in Chumru. The officer glanced at him and was +convinced. Being a Mohammedan, he took Chumru's word without question, +which showed the exceeding wisdom of Chumru in selecting a Brahmin for +the sacrifice; thus was he prepared to deal with either party in an +unholy alliance. + +They jogged in silence past the Alumbagh. The Brahmin, on reflection, +decided that he would stab Chumru before the hoard was disturbed and he +could then devise another hiding-place at his leisure. Chumru had long +ago decided to send the Brahmin to the place where all unbelievers go, +at the first suitable opportunity. Hence the advantage lay with him, +because he held a strategic position and could choose his own time. + +Beyond the Alumbagh there were few houses, and these of mean +description, and each moment the subadar's mind was growing clearer +under the prospect of great wealth to be won so easily. + +"Where is this bungalow, friend?" said he at last, seeing nothing but a +straight road in front. + +"Patience, brother. 'Tis now quite near. It lies behind that tope of +trees yonder." + +The other half turned to ascertain in which direction his guide was +pointing. + +"It is not on the main road, then?" + +"No. A man who has gold worth the keeping loves not to dwell where all +men pass." + +A little farther, and Chumru announced: + +"We turn off here." + +It was dark. He thought he had hit upon a by-way, but no sooner did the +horse quit the shadow of the trees by the roadside than he saw that he +had been misled by the wheel-tracks of a ryot's cart. The Brahmin +sniffed suspiciously. + +"Is there no better way than this?" he cried, when his charger nearly +stumbled into a deep ditch. + +"One only, but you may deem it too far," was the quiet answer, and +Chumru, placing his left hand on the Brahmin's mouth, plunged a long, +thin knife up to the hilt between his ribs. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A LONG CHASE + + +It was not Lawrence's order but Malcolm's own suggestion that led to the +desperate task entrusted to the young aide by the Chief. While those few +heroic volunteer horsemen drove back the enemy's cavalry and held the +bridge over the Kokrail until the beaten army made good its retreat, Sir +Henry halted by the roadside and watched the passing of his exhausted +men. He had the aspect of one who hoped that some stray bullet would end +the torment of life. In that grief-stricken hour his indomitable spirit +seemed to falter. Ere night he was the Lawrence of old, but the +magnitude of the calamity that had befallen him was crushing and he +winced beneath it. + +Out of three hundred and fifty white soldiers in the column he had lost +one hundred and nineteen. Every gun served by natives was captured by +the enemy. Worst of all, the moral effect of such a defeat outweighed a +dozen victories. It not only brought about the instant beginnings of the +siege, but its proportions were grossly exaggerated in the public eye. +For the first time in many a year the white soldiers had fled before a +strictly Indian force. They were outnumbered, which was nothing new in +the history of the country, but it must be confessed they were +out-generaled, too. Lawrence, never a believer in Gubbins's forward +policy, showed unwonted hesitancy even during the march to Chinhut: he +halted, advanced and counter-marched the troops in a way that was +foreign to a man of his decisive character. Where he was unaccountably +timid the enemy were unusually bold, and the outcome was disaster. + +Yet in this moment of bitterest adversity he displayed that sympathy for +the sufferings of others that won him the esteem of all who came in +contact with him. + +By some extraordinary blunder of the commissariat the 32d had set forth +that morning without breaking their fast. Now, after a weary march and a +protracted fight in the burning sun, some of the men deliberately lay +down to die. + +"We can go no farther," they said. "We may as well meet death here as a +few yards away. And, when the sepoys overtake us, we shall at least have +breath enough left to die fighting." + +Lawrence, when finally he turned his horse's head toward Lucknow, came +upon such a group. He shook his feet free of the stirrups. + +"Now, my lads," he said quietly, "you have no cause to despair. Catch +hold of the leathers, two of you, and the horse will help you along. Mr. +Malcolm, you can assist in the same way. Another mile will bring us to +the city." + +One of the men, finding it in his heart to pity his haggard-faced +general, thought to console him by saying: + +"We'll try, if it's on'y to please you, your honor, but it's all up with +us, I'm afraid. If the end doesn't come to-day it will surely be with us +to-morrow." + +"Why do you think that?" asked Lawrence. "We must hold the Residency +until the last man falls. What else can we do?" + +"I know that, your honor, but we haven't got the ghost of a chance. +They're a hundred to one, and as well armed as we are. It 'ud be a +different thing if help could come, but it can't. If what people are +saying is true, sir, the nearest red-coats are at Allahabad, an' p'raps +they're hard pressed, too." + +"That is not the way to look at a difficulty. In war it is the +unexpected that happens. Keep your spirits up and you may live to tell +your grandchildren how you fought the rebels at Lucknow. I want you and +every man in the ranks to know that my motto is 'No Surrender.' You have +heard what happened at Cawnpore. Here, in Lucknow, despite to-day's +disaster, we shall fight to a finish." + +An English battery came thundering down the road to take up a fresh +position and assist in covering the retreat. The guns unlimbered near a +well. + +"There!" said Lawrence, "you see how my words have come true. A minute +ago you were ready to fall before the first sowar who lifted his saber +over your head. Go now and help by drawing water for the gunners and +yourselves. Then you can ride back on the carriages when they limber +up." + +Malcolm, to whom the soldier's words brought inspiration, spurred Nejdi +alongside his Chief. + +"Will you permit me to ride to Allahabad, sir, and tell General Neill +how matters stand here?" he said. + +Lawrence looked at him as though the request were so fantastic that he +had not fully grasped its meaning. + +"To Allahabad?" he repeated, turning in the saddle to watch the effect +of the first shot fired by the battery. + +"Yes, sir," cried Malcolm, eagerly. "I know the odds are against me, but +Hodson rode as far through the enemy's country only six weeks ago, and I +did something of the kind, though not so successfully, when I went from +Meerut to Agra and from Agra to Cawnpore." + +"You had an escort, and I can spare not a man." + +"I will go alone, sir." + +"I would gladly avail myself of your offer, but the Residency will be +invested in less than an hour." + +"Let me go now, sir. I am well mounted. In the confusion I may be able +to reach the open country without being noticed." + +"Go, then, in God's name, and may your errand prosper, for you have many +precious lives in your keeping." + +Lawrence held out his hand, and Malcolm clasped it. + +"Tell Neill," said the Chief Commissioner in a low tone of intense +significance, "that we can hold out a fortnight, a month perhaps, or +even a few days longer if buoyed up with hope. That is all. If you +succeed, I shall not forget your services. The Viceroy has given me +plenary powers, and I shall place your name in orders to-night, Captain +Malcolm." + +He kept his promise. When Lucknow was evacuated after the Second Relief, +the official gazettes recorded that Lieutenant Frank Malcolm of the 3d +Cavalry had been promoted to a captaincy, supernumerary on the staff, +for gallantry on the field on June 30, while a special minute provided +that he should attain the rank of major if he reached Allahabad on or +before July 4. + +From the point on the road to Chinhut where Malcolm bade his Chief +farewell, he could see the tower of the Residency, gray among the white +domes and minarets that lined the south bank of the Goomtee. He had no +illusions now as to the course the mutineers would follow. Native rumors +had brought the news of the massacre at Cawnpore, though the ghastly +tragedy of the Well was yet to come. He knew that this elegant city, +resplendent and glorious in the sheen of the setting sun, would soon be +a living hell. A fearsome struggle would surge around that tower where +the British flag was flying. A few hundreds of Europeans would strive to +keep at bay tens of thousands of eager rebels. Would they succeed? Pray +Heaven for that while Winifred lived! + +And in all human probability their fate rested with him. If he were able +to stir the British authorities in the south to almost superhuman +efforts, a relieving force might arrive before the end of July. It was +a great undertaking he had set himself. Yet he would have attempted it +for Winifred's sake alone, and the thought of her anguish, when she +should hear that he was gone, gave him a pang that was not solaced by +the dearest honor a soldier can attain--promotion on the field. + +It was out of the question that he should return to the Residency before +he began his self-imposed mission. Already the enemy's cavalry were +swooping along both flanks of the routed troops. In a few minutes the +only available road, which crossed the Goomtee by a bridge of boats and +led through the suburbs by way of the Dilkusha, would be closed. As it +was he had to press Nejdi into a fast gallop before he could clear the +left wing of the advancing army. Then, easing the pace a little, he +swung off into a by-way, and ere long was cantering down the quiet road +that led to Rai Bareilly and thence to Allahabad. + +At seven o'clock he was ten miles from Lucknow, at eight, nearly twenty. +The quick-falling shadows warned him that if he would procure food for +Nejdi and himself he must seize the next opportunity that presented +itself, while a rest of some sort was absolutely necessary if he meant +to spare his gallant Arab for the trial of endurance that still lay +ahead. + +Though he had never before traveled that road he was acquainted with its +main features. Thirty miles from his present position was the small town +of Rai Bareilly. Fifty miles to the southeast was Partabgarh. Fifty +miles due south of Partabgarh lay Allahabad. The scheme roughly outlined +in his mind was, in the first place, to buy, borrow, or steal a native +pony which would carry him to the outskirts of Rai Bareilly before dawn. +Then remounting Nejdi he would either ride rapidly through the town, or +make a détour, whichever method seemed preferable after inquiry from +such peaceful natives as he met on the road. Four hours beyond Rai +Bareilly he would leave the main road, strike due south for the Ganges, +and follow the left bank of the river until he was opposite Allahabad. +He refused to ask himself what he would do if Allahabad were in the +hands of the rebels. + +"I shall tackle that difficulty about this hour to-morrow," he communed, +with a laugh at his own expense. "Just now, when a hundred miles of +unknown territory face me, I have enough to contend with. So, steady is +the word! good horse! _Cæsarem invehis et fortunas ejus!_" + +Thus far the wayfarers encountered during his journey had treated him +civilly. The ryots, peasant proprietors of the soil, drew their rough +carts aside and salaamed as he passed. These men knew little or nothing, +as yet, of the great events that were taking place on the south and west +of the Ganges. A few educated bunniahs and zemindars,[11] who doubtless +had heard of wild doings in the cities, glanced at him curiously, and +would have asked for news if he had not invariably ridden by at a rapid +pace. + +[Footnote 11: Bunniah, grain dealer; zemindar, land-owner.] + +As it happened, the route he followed was far removed from the track +of murder and rapine that marked the early progress of the Mutiny, and +the mere sight of a British Officer, moving on with such speed and +confidence, must have set these worthy folk a-wondering. Between Rai +Bareilly and the Grand Trunk Road stood the wide barrier of the +sacred river, while the town itself must not be confused with +Bareilly--situated nearly a hundred miles north of Lucknow--which +became notorious as the headquarters of Khan Bahadur Khan, a pensioner +of the British Government, and a ruffian second only to Nana Sahib in +merciless cruelty. + +All unknown to Malcolm, and indeed little recognized as yet in India +save by a few district officials, there was a man in Rai Bareilly that +night who was destined to test the chivalry of Britain on many a +hard-fought field. Ahmed Ullah, famous in history as the Moulvie of +Fyzabad, had crossed the young officer's path once already. When Malcolm +took his untrained charger for the first wild gallop out of Meerut--the +ride that ended ignominiously in the moat of the Kings' of Delhi hunting +lodge--he nearly rode over a Mohammedan priest, as he tore along the +Grand Trunk Road some five miles south of the station. + +It would have been well for India if Nejdi's hoofs had then and there +struck the breath out of that ascetic frame. Of all the firebrands +raised by the Mutiny, the Moulvie of Fyzabad was the fiercest and most +dangerous. Early in the year he was imprisoned for preaching sedition. +Unhappily he was liberated too soon, and, his fanaticism only inflamed +the more by punishment, he went to the Punjab and sowed disaffection far +and wide by his burning zeal for the spread of Islam. By chance he +returned to Fyzabad before the outbreak at Meerut. The feeble loyalty +of the native regiments at Lucknow sufficed to keep all the borderland +of Nepaul quiet for nearly two months. But the reports brought by his +disciples warned the moulvie that the true believer's day of triumph was +approaching. Moreover, the Begum of Oudh, one of three women who were +worth as many army corps to the mutineers, was waiting for him at Rai +Bareilly, a placid eddy in the backwash of the torrents sweeping through +Upper India, and Ahmed Ullah had left Fyzabad on the evening of the 29th +to keep his tryst. + +It was, therefore, a lively brood of scorpions that Malcolm proposed to +disturb when he dismounted from a wretched tat he had purchased at his +first halt, and fed and watered Nejdi again, just as a glimmer of dawn +appeared in the east. According to his calculations he was about a mile +from Rai Bareilly. The hour was the quietest and coolest of the hot +Indian night. Some pattering drops of rain and the appearance of heavy +clouds in the southwest gave premonitions of a fresh outburst of the +monsoon. He was glad of it. Rain would freshen himself and his horse. It +made the ground soft and would retard his speed once he quitted the high +road, but these drawbacks were more than balanced by the absence of the +terrific heat of the previous day. He unstrapped his cloak and flung it +loosely over his shoulders. Then he waited, until the growing light +brought forth the untiring tillers of the fields, and he was able to +glean some sort of information as to the position of affairs in the +town. If the place were occupied by a prowling gang of rebels he might +secure a guide by payment and avoid its narrow streets altogether. At +any rate, it would be a foolish thing to dash through blindly and trust +to luck. The issues at stake were too important for that sort of +imprudent valor. His object was to reach Allahabad that night--not to +hew his way through opposing hordes and risk being cut down in the +process. + +The lowing of cattle and the soft stumbling tread of many unshod feet +told him that some one was approaching. A herd of buffaloes loomed out +of the half light. Their driver, an old man, was quite willing to talk. + +"There are no sahib-log in the town," he said, for Malcolm deemed it +advisable to begin by a question on that score. "The collector-sahib had +a camp here three weeks ago, but he went away, and that was a +misfortune, because the budmashes from Fyzabad came, and honest people +were sore pressed." + +"From Fyzabad, say'st thou? They must be cleared out. Where are they?" + +"You are too late, huzoor. They went to Cawnpore, I have heard. Men talk +of much dacoity in that district. Is that true, sahib?" + +"Yes, but fear not; it will be suppressed. I am going to Allahabad. Is +this the best road?" + +"I have never been so far, sahib, but it lies that way." + +"Is the bazaar quiet now?" + +"I have seen none save our own people these two days, yet it was said in +the bazaar last night that a Begum tarried at the rest-house." + +"A Begum. What Begum?" + +"I know not her name, huzoor, but she is one of the daughters of the +King of Oudh." + +Malcolm was relieved to hear this. The wild notion had seized him that +the Princess Roshinara, a stormy petrel of political affairs just then, +might have drifted to Rai Bareilly by some evil chance. + +"You see this pony?" he said. "Take him. He is yours. I have no further +use for him. Are you sure that there are none to dispute my passage +through the town?" + +The old peasant was so taken aback by the gift that he could scarce +speak intelligibly, but he assured the Presence that at such an hour +none would interfere with him. + +Malcolm decided to risk it. He mounted and rode forward at a sharp trot. +Of course he had not been able to adopt any kind of disguise. While +doing duty at the Residency he had thrown aside the turban reft from +Abdul Huq and he now wore the peaked shako, with white puggaree, +affected by junior staff officers at that period. His long military +cloak, steel scabbard, sabertache and Wellington boots, proclaimed his +profession, while his blue riding-coat and cross-belts were visible in +front, as he meant to have his arms free in case the necessity arose to +use sword or pistol. + +And he rode thus into Rai Bareilly, watchful, determined, ready for any +emergency. So boldly did he advance that he darted past half a dozen men +whose special duty it was to stop and question all travelers. They were +stationed on the flat roofs of two houses, one on each side of the way, +and a rope was stretched across the road in readiness to drop and hinder +the progress of any one who did not halt when summoned. It was a simple +device. It had not been seen by the man who drove the buffaloes, and by +reason of Malcolm's choice of the turf by the side of the road as the +best place for Nejdi, it chanced to dangle high enough to permit their +passing beneath. + +The sentries, though caught napping, tried to make amends for their +carelessness. In the growing light one of them saw Malcolm's +accouterments and he yelled loudly: + +"Ohé, bhai, look out for the Feringhi!" + +Frank, unfortunately, had not noticed the rope. But he heard the cry and +understood that the "brother" to whom it was addressed would probably be +discovered at the end of the short street. He shook Nejdi into a canter, +drew his sword, and looked keenly ahead for the first sign of those who +would bar his path. + +Dawn was peeping grayly over the horizon, and Ahmed Ullah, moulvie and +interpreter of the Koran, standing in an open courtyard, was engaged in +the third of the day's prayers, of which the first was intoned soon +after sunset the previous evening. He was going through the Rêka with +military precision, and as luck would have it, the Kibleh, or direction +of Mecca, brought his fierce gaze to the road along which Malcolm was +galloping. Never did priest become warrior more speedily than Ahmed +Ullah when that warning shout rang out, and he discovered that a British +officer was riding at top speed through the quiet bazaar. Assuming that +this unexpected apparition betokened the arrival of a punitive +detachment, he uttered a loud cry, leaped to the gates of the courtyard +and closed them. + +Malcolm, of course, saw him and regarded his action as that of a +frightened man, who would be only too glad when he could resume his +devotions in peace. Ahmed Ullah, soon to become a claimant of sovereign +power as "King of Hindustan," was not a likely person to let a prize +slip through his fingers thus easily. Keeping up an ululating clamor of +commands, he ran to the roof of the dwelling, snatched up a musket and +took steady aim. By this time Malcolm was beyond the gate and thought +himself safe. Then he saw a rope drawn breast-high across the narrow +street, and gesticulating natives, variously armed, leaning over the +parapets on either hand. He had to decide in the twinkling of an eye +whether to go on or turn back. Probably his retreat would be cut off by +some similar device, so the bolder expedient of an advance offered the +better chance. An incomparable horseman, mounted on an absolutely +trustworthy horse, he lay well forward on Nejdi's neck, resolving to try +and pick up the slack of the rope on his sword and lift it out of the +way. To endeavor to cut through such an obstacle would undoubtedly have +brought about a disaster. It would yield, and the keenest blade might +fail to sever it completely, while any slackening of pace would enable +the hostile guard to shoot him at point-blank range. + +These considerations passed through his mind while Nejdi was covering +some fifty yards. To disconcert the enemy, who were not sepoys and +whose guns were mostly antiquated weapons of the match-lock type, he +pulled out a revolver and fired twice. Then he leaned forward, with +right arm thrown well in front and the point of his sword three feet +beyond Nejdi's head. At that instant, when Frank was unconsciously +offering a bad target, the moulvie fired. The bullet plowed through the +Englishman's right forearm, struck the hilt of the sword and knocked the +weapon out of his hand. Exactly what happened next he never knew. From +the nature of his own bruises afterwards and the manner in which he was +jerked backwards from the saddle, he believed that the rope missed Nejdi +altogether, but caught him by the left shoulder. The height of a horse +extended at the gallop is surprisingly low as compared with the height +of the same animal standing or walking. There was even a remote +possibility that the rope would strike the Arab's forehead and bound +clear of his rider. But that was not to be. Here was Frank hurled to the +roadway, and striving madly to resist the treble shock of his wound, of +the blow dealt by the rope, and of the fall, while Nejdi was tearing +away through Rai Bareilly as though all the djinns of his native desert +were pursuing him. + +Though Malcolm's torn arm was bleeding copiously, and he was stunned by +being thrown so violently flat on his back, no bones were broken. His +rage at the trick fate had played him, the overwhelming bitterness of +another and most lamentable failure, enabled him to struggle to his feet +and empty at his assailants the remaining chambers of the revolver which +was still tightly clutched in his left hand. He missed, luckily, or they +would have butchered him forthwith. In another minute he was standing +before Moulvie Ahmed Ullah, and that earnest advocate of militant Islam +was plying him with mocking questions. + +"Whither so fast, Feringhi? Dost thou run from death, or ride to seek +it? Mayhap thou comest from Lucknow. If so, what news? And where are the +papers thou art carrying?" + +Frank's strength was failing him. To the weakness resulting from loss +of blood was added the knowledge that this time he was trapped without +hope of escape. The magnificent display of self-command entailed by the +effort to rise and face his foes in a last defiance could not endure +much longer. He knew it was near the end when he had difficulty in +finding the necessary words in Urdu. But he spoke, slowly and firmly, +compelling his unwilling brain to form the sentences. + +"I have no papers, and if I had, who are you that demand them?" he said. +"I am an officer of the Company, and I call on all honest and loyal men +to help me in my duty. I promise--to those who assist me to reach +Allahabad--that they will be--pardoned for any past offenses--and well +rewarded...." + +The room swam around him and the grim-visaged moullah became a grotesque +being, with dragon's eyes and a turban like a cloud. Yet he kept on, +hoping against imminent death itself that his words would reach some +willing ear. + +"Any man--who tells General Neill-sahib--at Allahabad--that +help is wanted--at Lucknow--will be made rich.... Help--at +Lucknow--immediately.... I, Malcolm-sahib--of the 3d Cavalry--say...." + +He collapsed in the grasp of the men who were holding him. + +"Thou has said enough, dog of a Nazarene. Take him without and hang +him," growled Ahmed Ullah. + +"Nay," cried a woman's voice from behind a straw portière that closed +the arched veranda of the house. "Thou art too ready with thy sentences, +moulvie. Rather let us bind his wounds and give him food and drink. Then +he will recover, and tell us what we want to know." + +"He hath told us already, Princess," said the other, his harsh accents +sounding more like the snarl of a wolf than a human voice. "He comes +from Lucknow and he seeks succor from Allahabad. That means--" + +"It means that he can be hanged as easily at eventide as at daybreak, +and we shall surely learn the truth, as such men do not breathe lies." + +"He will not speak, Princess." + +"Leave that to me. If I fail, I hand him over to thee forthwith. Let him +be brought within and tended, and let some ride after his horse, as +there may be letters in the wallets. I have spoken, Ahmed Ullah. See +that I am obeyed." + +The moulvie said no word. He went back to his praying mat and bent again +toward the west, where the Holy Kaaba enshrines the ruby sent down from +heaven. But though his lips muttered the rubric of the Koran, his heart +whispered other things, and chief among them was the vow that ere many +days be passed he would so contrive affairs that no woman's whim should +thwart his judgment. + +So the clouded day broke sullenly, with gusts of warm rain and red +gleams of a sun striving to disperse the mists. And the earth soaked and +steamed and threw off fever-laden vapors as she nursed the grain to life +and bade the arid plain clothe itself in summer greenery. It was a bad +day to lie wounded and ill and a prisoner, and despite the cooling +showers, it was a hot day to ride far and fast. + +Hence it was long past noon when a servant announced to the Begum that +the sahib--for thus the man described Malcolm until sharply admonished +to learn the new order of speech--the Nazarene, then, was somewhat +recovered from his faintness. And about the same hour, when a subadar of +the 7th Cavalry clattered into Rai Bareilly and was told that a certain +Feringhi whom he sought was safely laid by the heels there, so sultry +was the atmosphere that he seemed to be quite glad of the news. + +"Shabash!" he cried, as he dismounted. "May I never drink at the White +Pond of the Prophet if that be not good hearing! So you have caught him, +brethren! Wao, wao! you have done a great thing. He is not killed?--No? +That is well, for he is sorely wanted at Lucknow. Tie him tightly, +though. He is a fox in guile, and might give me the slip again. May his +bones bleach in an infidel's grave!--I have hunted him fifty miles, yet +scarce a man I met had seen him!" + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WHEREIN FATE PLAYS TRICKS WITH MALCOLM + + +If it is difficult for the present generation to understand the manners +and ways of its immediate forbears, how much more difficult to ask it to +appreciate the extraordinary features of the siege of Lucknow! Let the +reader who knows London imagine some parish in the heart of the city +barricading itself behind a mud wall against its neighbors: let him +garrison this flimsy fortress with sixteen hundred and ninety-two +combatants, of whom a large number were men of an inferior race and of +doubtful loyalty to those for whom they were fighting, while scores of +the Europeans were infirm pensioners: let him cram the rest of the +available shelter with women and children: let him picture the network +of narrow streets, tall houses and a few open spaces--often separated +from the enemy only by the width of a lane--as being subjected to +interminable bombardment at point-blank range, and he will have a clear +notion of some, at least, of the conditions which obtained in Lucknow +when that gloomy July 1st carried on the murderous work begun on the +previous evening. + +The Residency itself was the only strong building in an enclosure seven +hundred yards long and four hundred yards wide, though by no means +so large in area as these figures suggest. The whole position was +surrounded by an adobe wall and ditch, strengthened at intervals by a +gate or a stouter embrasure for a gun. The other structures, such as +the Banqueting Hall, which was converted into a hospital, the Treasury, +the Brigade Mess, the Begum Kotee, the Barracks, and a few nondescript +houses and offices, were utterly unsuited for defense against musketry +alone. As to their capacity to resist artillery fire, that was a grim +jest with the inmates, who dreaded the fallen masonry as much as the +rebel shells. + +Even the Residency was forced to use its underground rooms for the +protection of the greater part of the women and children, while the +remaining buildings, except the Begum Kotee, which was comparatively +sheltered on all sides, were so exposed to the enemy's guns that when +some sort of clearance was made in October, four hundred and thirty-five +cannon-balls were taken out of the Brigade Mess alone. + +Before the siege commenced the British also occupied a strong palace +called the Muchee Bhowun, standing outside the entrenchment and +commanding the stone bridge across the river Goomtee. A few hours' +experience revealed the deadly peril to which its small garrison was +exposed, and Lawrence decided at all costs to abandon it. A rude +semaphore was erected on the roof of the Residency, and on the first +morning of the siege, three officers signaled to the commandant of the +outlying fort, Colonel Palmer, that he was to spike his guns, blow up +the building and bring his men into the main position. The three did +their signaling under a heavy fire, but they were understood. Happily, +the prospect of loot in the city drew off thousands of the rebels after +sunset, and Colonel Palmer marched out quietly at midnight. A few +minutes later an appalling explosion shook every house in Lucknow. The +Muchee Bhowun, with its immense stores, had been blown to the sky. + +That same day Lawrence received what the Celtic soldiers among the +garrison regarded as a warning of his approaching end. He was working in +his room with his secretary when a shell crashed through the wall and +burst at the feet of the two men. Neither was injured, but Captain +Wilson, one of his staff-officers, begged the Chief to remove his office +to a less exposed place. + +"Nothing of the kind," said Sir Henry, cheerfully. "The sepoys don't +possess an artilleryman good enough to throw a second shell into the +same spot." + +"It will please all of us if you give in on this point, sir," persisted +Wilson. + +"Oh, well, if you put it that way, I will turn out to-morrow," was the +smiling answer. + +Next morning at eight o'clock, after a round of inspection, the general, +worn out by anxiety and want of sleep, threw himself on a bed in a +corner of the room. + +Wilson came in. + +"Don't forget your promise, sir," he said. + +"I have not forgotten, but I am too tired to move now. Give me another +hour or two." + +Lawrence went on to explain some orders to his aide. While they were +talking another shell entered the small apartment, exploded, and filled +the air with dust and stifling fumes. Wilson's ears were stunned by the +noise, but he cried out twice: + +"Sir Henry, are you hurt?" + +Lawrence murmured something, and Wilson rushed to his side. The coverlet +of the bed was crimson with blood. Some men of the 32d ran in and +carried their beloved leader to another room. Then a surgeon came and +pronounced the wound to be mortal. On the morning of the 4th Lawrence +died. He was conscious to the last, and passed his final hours planning +and contriving and making arrangements for the continuance of the +defense. + +"Never surrender!" was his dying injunction. Shot and shell battered +unceasingly against the walls of Dr. Fayrer's house in which he lay +dying, but their terrors never shook that stout heart, and he died as he +lived, a splendid example of an officer and a gentleman, a type of all +that is best and noblest in the British character. + +And Death, who did not spare the Chief, sought lowlier victims. During +the first week of the siege the average number killed daily was twenty. +Even when the troops learnt to avoid the exposed places, and began to +practise the little tricks and artifices that tempt an enemy to reveal +his whereabouts to his own undoing, the daily death-roll was ten for +more than a month. + +There was no real safety anywhere. Even in the Begum Kotee, where +Winifred and the other ladies of the garrison were lodged, some of them +were hit. Twice ere the end of July Winifred awoke in the morning to +find bullets on the floor and the mortar of the wall broken within a few +inches of her head. That she slept soundly under such conditions is a +remarkable tribute to human nature's knack of adapting itself to +circumstances. After a few days of excessive nervousness the most +timorous among the women were heard to complain of the monotony of +existence! + +And two amazing facts stand out from the record of guard-mounting, +cartridge-making, cooking, cleaning, and the rest of the every-day +doings inseparable from life even in a siege. Although the rebels now +numbered at least twenty thousand men, including six thousand trained +soldiers, they were long in hardening their hearts to attempt that +escalade which, if undertaken on the last day of June, could scarcely +have failed to be successful. They were not cowards. They gave proof in +plenty of their courage and fighting stamina. Yet they cringed before +men whom they had learnt to regard as the dominant race. The other +equally surprising element in the situation was the readiness of the +garrison, doomed by all the laws of war to early extinction, to extract +humor out of its forlorn predicament. + +The most dangerous post in the entrenchment was the Cawnpore Battery. +It was commanded by a building known as Johannes' House, whence an +African negro, christened "Bob the Nailer" by the wits of the 32d, +picked off dozens of the defenders during the opening days of the siege. +What quarrel this stranger in a strange land had with the English no one +knows, but the defenders were well aware of his identity, and annoyed +him by exhibiting a most unflattering effigy. Needless to say, the +whites of his eyes and his woolly hair were reproduced with marked +effect, and "Bob the Nailer" gave added testimony of his skill with a +rifle by shooting out both eyes in the dummy figure. + +Winifred had heard of this man. Once she actually saw him while she was +peeping through a forbidden casement. Knowing the wholesale destruction +of her fellow-countrymen with which he was credited, she had it in her +heart to wish that she held a gun at that moment, and she would surely +have done her best to kill him. + +He disappeared and she turned away with a sigh, to meet her uncle +hastening towards her. + +"Ah, Winifred," he cried, "what were you doing there? Looking out, I am +certain. Have you forgotten the punishment inflicted on Lot's wife when +she would not obey orders?" + +"I have just had a glimpse of that dreadful negro in Johannes' House," +she said. + +Mr. Mayne threw down a bundle of clothes he was carrying. He unslung his +rifle. His face, tanned by exposure to sun and rain, lost some of its +brick-red color. + +"Are you sure?" he whispered, as if their voices might betray them. Like +every other man in the garrison he longed to check the career of "Bob +the Nailer." + +"It is too late," said the girl. "He was visible only for an instant. +Look! I saw him at that window." + +She partly opened the wooden shutter again and pointed to an upper story +of the opposite building. Almost instantly a bullet imbedded itself in +the solid planks. Some watcher had noted the opportunity and taken it. +Winifred coolly closed the casement and adjusted its cross-bar. + +"Perhaps it is just as well you missed the chance," she said. "You might +have been shot yourself while you were taking aim." + +"And what about you, my lady?" + +"I sha'n't offend again, uncle, dear. I really could not tell you why I +looked out just now. Things were quiet, I suppose. And I forgot that the +opening of a window would attract attention. But why in the world are +you bringing me portions of Mr. Malcolm's uniform? That is what you have +in the bundle, is it not?" + +"Yes. The three men who shared his room are dead, and the place is +wanted as an extra ward. I happened to hear of it, so I have rescued his +belongings." + +"Do you--do you think he will ever claim them, or that we shall live to +safeguard them?" + +"My dear one, that is as Providence directs. It is something to be +thankful for that we are alive and uninjured. And that reminds me. They +need a lot of bandages in the hospital. Will you tear Malcolm's linen +into strips? I will come for them after the last post."[12] + +[Footnote 12: Non-military readers may need to be reminded that the +"last post" is a bugle-call which signifies the close of the day. It is +usually succeeded by "Lights out."] + +He hurried away, leaving the odd collection of garments with her. The +clothes were her lover's parade uniform, which Malcolm had carried from +Meerut in a valise strapped behind the saddle. The other articles were +purchased in Lucknow and had never been worn. In comparison with the +smart full-dress kit of a cavalry officer and the spotless linen, a +soiled and mud-spattered turban looked singularly out of place. It was +as though some tatterdemalion had thrust himself into a gathering of +dandies. + +Being a woman, Winifred gave no heed to the fact that the metal badge on +the crossed folds was not that worn by an officer, nor did she observe +that it carried the crest of the 2d Cavalry, whereas Malcolm's regiment +was the 3d. But, being also a very thrifty and industrious little +person, she decided to untie the turban, wash it, and use its many yards +of fine muslin for the manufacture of lint. + +The folds of a turban are usually kept in position by pins, but when she +came to examine this one she discovered that it was tied with whip-cord. +Her knowledge of native headgear was not extensive, so this measure of +extra security did not surprise her. A pair of scissors soon overcame +the difficulty; she shook out the neat folds, and a pearl necklace and a +piece of paper fell to the floor. + +She was alone in her room at the moment. No one heard her cry of +surprise, almost of terror. One glance at the glistening pearls told her +that they were of exceeding value. They ranged from the size of a small +pea to that of a large marble; their white sheen and velvet purity +bespoke rareness and skilled selection. The setting alone would vouch +for their quality. Each pearl was secured to its neighbor by clasps and +links of gold, while a brooch-like fastening in front was studded with +fine diamonds. Winifred sank to her knees. She picked up this remarkable +ornament as gingerly as if she were handling a dead snake. In the vivid +light the pearls shimmered with wonderful and ever-changing tints. They +seemed to whisper of love, and hate--of all the passions that stir heart +and brain into frenzy--and through a mist of fear and awed questioning +came a doubt, a suspicion, a searching of her soul as she recalled +certain things which the thrilling events of her recent life had dulled +almost to extinction. + +Her uncle had told her of the Princess Roshinara's words to Malcolm on +that memorable night of May 10, when he rode out from Meerut to help +them. At the time, perhaps, a little pang of jealousy made its presence +felt, for no woman can bear to hear of another woman's overtures to her +lover. The meeting at Bithoor helped to dispel that half-formed +illusion, and she had not troubled since to ask herself why the Princess +Roshinara was so ready to help Malcolm to escape. She never dreamed that +she herself was a pawn in the game that was intended to bring Nana Sahib +to Delhi. But now, with this royal trinket glittering in her hands, she +could hardly fail to connect it with the only Indian princess of whom +she had any knowledge, and the torturing fact was seemingly undeniable +that Malcolm had this priceless necklace in his possession without +telling her of its existence. Certainly he had chosen a singular +hiding-place, and never did man treat such a treasure with such apparent +carelessness. But--there it was. The studied simplicity of its +concealment had been effective. She had heard, long since, how he parted +from Lawrence on the Chinhut road. Since that hour there was no possible +means of communicating with Lucknow, even though he had reached +Allahabad safely. + +And he had never told her a word about it. It was that that rankled. +Poor Winifred rose from her knees in a mood perilously akin to her +hatred of the negro who dealt death or disablement to her friends of the +garrison, but, this time, it was a woman, not a man, whom she regarded +as the enemy. + +Then, in a bitter temper, she stooped again to rescue the bit of +discolored paper that had fallen with the pearls. Her anger was not +lessened by finding that it was covered with Hindustani characters. +They, of course, offered her no clue to the solution of the mystery +that was wringing her heartstrings. If anything, the illegible scrawl +only added to her distress. The document was something unknown; +therefore, it lent itself to distrust. + +At any rate, the turban was destined not to be shredded into lint that +day. She busied herself with tearing up the rest of the linen. When +night came, and Mr. Mayne could leave his post, she showed him the paper +and asked him to translate it. + +He was a good Eastern scholar, but the dull rays of a small oil lamp +were not helpful in a task always difficult to English eyes. He bent his +brows over the script and began to decipher some of the words. + +"'Malcolm-sahib ... the Company's 3d Regiment of Horse ... heaven-born +Princess Roshinara Begum....' Where in the world did you get this, +Winifred, and how did it come into your possession?" he said. + +"It was in Mr. Malcolm's turban--the one you brought me to-day from his +quarters." + +"In his turban? Do you mean that it was hidden there?" + +"Yes, something of the kind." + +Mayne examined the paper again. + +"That is odd," he muttered after a pause. + +"But what does the writing mean? You say it mentions his name and that +of the Princess Roshinara? Surely it has some definite significance?" + +The Commissioner was so taken up with the effort to give each spidery +curve and series of distinguishing dots and vowel marks their proper +bearing in the text that he did not catch the note of disdain in his +niece's voice. + +"I have it now," he said, peering at the document while he held it close +to the lamp. "It is a sort of pass. It declares that Mr. Malcolm is a +friend of the Begum and gives him safe conduct if he visits Delhi within +three days of the date named here, but I cannot tell when that would be, +until I consult a native calendar. It is signed by Bahadur Shah and is +altogether a somewhat curious thing to be in Malcolm's possession. Is +that all you know of it--merely that it was stuck in a fold of his +turban?" + +"This accompanied it," said Winifred, with a restraint that might have +warned her hearer of the passion it strove to conceal. But Mayne was +deaf to Winifred's coldness. If he was startled before, he was +positively amazed when she produced the necklace. + +He took it, appraised its value silently, and scrutinized the +workmanship in the gold links. + +"Made in Delhi," he half whispered. "A wonderful thing, probably worth +two lakhs of rupees,[13] or even more. It is old, too. The craftsman who +fashioned this clasp is not to be found nowadays. Why, it may have been +worn by Nurmahal herself! Each of its fifty pearls could supply a +chapter of a romance. And you found it, together with this safe-conduct, +in Malcolm's turban?" + +[Footnote 13: At that time, $100,000.] + +"Yes, uncle. Do you think I would speak carelessly of such a precious +object? When one has discovered a treasure it is a trait of human nature +to note pretty closely the place where it came to light." + +Mayne was yet too much taken up with puzzling side-issues to pay heed to +Winifred's demeanor. He remembered the extraordinary proposal made by +Roshinara to Malcolm ere she drove away to Delhi from her father's +hunting lodge. Could it be possible that his young friend had met the +princess on other occasions than that which Malcolm laughingly described +as the lunging of Nejdi and the plunging of his master? It occurred to +him now, with a certain chilling misgiving, that he had himself broken +in with a bewildered exclamation when Frank seemed to regard the +Princess's offer of employment in her service as worthy of serious +thought. There were other aspects of the affair, aspects so sinister +that he almost refused to harbor them. Rather to gain time than with any +definite motive, he stooped over the pass again, meaning to read it word +for word. + +"Of course you have not forgotten, uncle, that Mr. Malcolm took us into +his confidence so far as to tell us of the curious letter that reached +him after the second battle outside Delhi?" said Winifred. "It saved him +at Bithoor when the men from Cawnpore meant to hang him, and, seeing +that he had the one article in his possession, it is passing strange +that he should have omitted to mention the other--to me." + +Then the man knew what it all meant to the girl. He placed his arm +around her neck and drew her towards him. + +"My poor Winifred!" he murmured, "you might at least have been spared +such a revelation at this moment." + +His sympathy broke down her pride. She sobbed as though her heart would +yield beneath the strain. For a little while there was no sound in the +room but Winifred's plaints, while ever and anon the walls shook with +the crash of the cannonade and the bursting of shells. + + * * * * * + +Ahmed Ullah, Moulvie of Fyzabad, had a quick ear for the arrival of the +native officer of cavalry from Lucknow. + +"Peace be with thee, brother!" said he, after a shrewd glance at the +travel-worn and blood-stained man and horse. "Thou has ridden far and +fast. What news hast thou of the Jehad,[14] and how fares it at +Lucknow?" + +[Footnote 14: "Religious war."] + +"With thee be peace!" was the reply. "We fought the Nazarenes yesterday +at a place called Chinhut, and sent hundreds of the infidel dogs to the +fifth circle of Jehannum. The few who escaped our swords are penned up +in the Residency, and its walls are now crumbling before our guns. By +the tomb of Nizam-ud-din, the unbelievers must have fallen ere the +present hour." + +The moulvie's wicked eyes sparkled. + +"Praise be to Allah and his Prophet forever!" he cried. "How came this +thing to pass?" + +"My regiment took the lead," said the rissaldar, proudly. "We had long +chafed under the commands of the huzoors. At last we rose and made short +work of our officers. You see here--" and he touched a rent in his right +side, "where one of them tried to stop the thrust that ended him. But I +clave him to the chin, the swine-eater, and when Larrence-sahib attacked +us at Chinhut we chased him over the Canal and through the streets." + +"Wao! wao! This is good hearing! Wast thou sent by some of the faithful +to summon me, brother?" + +"To summon thee and all true believers to the green standard. Yet had I +one other object in riding to Rai Bareilly. A certain Nazarene, Malcolm +by name, an officer of the 3d Cavalry, was bidden by Larrence to make +for Allahabad and seek help. The story runs that the Nazarenes are +mustering there for a last stand ere we drive them into the sea. This +Malcolm-sahib--" + +"Enough!" said the moulvie, fiercely, for his self-love was wounded at +learning that the rebel messenger classed him with the mob. "We have him +here. He is in safe keeping when he is in the hands of Ahmed Ullah!" + +"What!" exclaimed the newcomer with a mighty oath. "Are you the saintly +Moulvie of Fyzabad?" + +"Whom else, then, did you expect to find?" + +"You, indeed, O revered one. But not here. My orders were, once I had +secured the Nazarene, to send urgently to Fyzabad and bid you hurry to +Lucknow with all speed." + +"Ha! Say'st thou, friend. Who gave thee this message?" + +"One whom thou wilt surely listen to. Yet these things are not for every +man to hear. We must speak of them apart." + +The moulvie was appeased. Nay, more, his ambition was fired. + +"Come with me into the house. You are in need of food and rest. Come! We +can talk while you eat." + +He drew nearer, but a woman's voice was raised from behind a screen in +one of the rooms. + +"Tarry yet a minute, friend. I would learn more of events in Lucknow. +Tell us more fully what has taken place there." + +"The Begum of Oudh must be obeyed," said Ahmed Ullah with a warning +glance at the other. He was met with a villainous and intriguing look +that would have satisfied Machiavelli, but the officer bowed low before +the screen. + +"I am, indeed, honored to be the bearer of good tidings to royal ears," +said he. "Doubtless I should have been entrusted with letters for your +highness were not the city in some confusion owing to the fighting." + +"Who commands our troops?" came the sharp demand. + +"At present, your highness, the Nawab of Rampur represents the King of +Oudh." + +"The Nawab of Rampur! That cannot be tolerated. Ahmed Ullah!" + +"I am here," growled the moulvie, smiling sourly. + +"We must depart within the hour. Let my litter be prepared, and send men +on horseback to provide relays of carriers every ten miles. Delay not. +The matter presses." + +There could be no mistaking the agitation of the hidden speaker. That +an admitted rival of her father's dynasty should be even the nominal +leader of the revolt was not to be endured. The mere suggestion of +such a thing was gall and wormwood. None realized better than this +arch-priestess of cabal that a predominating influence gained at the +outset of a new régime might never be weakened by those who were shut +out by circumstances from a share in the control of events. Even the +fanatical moulvie gasped at this intelligence, though his shrewd wit +taught him that the rissaldar had not exchanged glances with him +without good reason. + +"Come, then," said he, "and eat. I have much occupation, and it will +free thy hands if I see to the hanging of the Feringhi forthwith." + +"Nay, that cannot be," was the cool reply, as the two entered the +building. "I would not have ridden so hard through the night for the +mere stringing up of one Nazarene. By the holy Kaaba, we gave dozens +of them a speedier death yesterday." + +"What other errand hast thou? The matter touches only the Nazarene's +attempt to reach Allahabad, I suppose?" + +"That is a small thing. Our brothers at Cawnpore may have secured +Allahabad and other towns in the Doab long ere to-day. This Frank comes +back with me to Lucknow. If I bring him alive I earn a jaghir,[15] if +dead, only a few gold mohurs." + +[Footnote 15: An estate.] + +"Thy words are strange, brother." + +"Not so strange as the need that this Feringhi should live till he +reaches Lucknow. He hath in his keeping certain papers that concern +the Roshinara Begum of Delhi, and he must be made to confess their +whereabouts. So far as that goes, what is the difference between a +tree in Rai Bareilly and a tree in Lucknow?" + +"True, if the affair presses. Nevertheless, to those who follow me, I +may have the bestowing of many jaghirs." + +"I will follow thee with all haste, O holy one," was the answer, "but +a field in a known village is larger than a township in an unknown +kingdom. Let me secure this jaghir first, O worthy of honor, and I shall +come quickly to thee for the others." + +"How came it that Nawab of Rampur assumed the leadership?" inquired +Ahmed Ullah, his mind reverting to the graver topic of the rebellion. + +The other scowled sarcastically. + +"He is of no account," he muttered. "Was I mistaken in thinking that +thou didst not want all my budget opened for a woman? He who gave me a +message for thee was the moullah who dwells near the Imambara. Dost thou +not know him? Ghazi-ud-din. _He_ sent me. 'Tell the Moulvie of Fyzabad +that he is wanted--he will understand,' said he. And now, when I have +eaten, lead me to the Feringhi. Leave him to me. Within two days I shall +have more news for thee." + +The name of Ghazi-ud-din, a firebrand of the front rank in Lucknow, +proved to Ahmed Ullah that his opportunity had come. He gave orders that +the wants of the cavalry officer and his horse were to be attended to, +while he himself bustled off to prepare for an immediate journey. + +When the Begum and the moulvie departed for Lucknow they were +accompanied by nearly the whole of their retinue. Two men were left +to assist the rissaldar in taking care of the prisoner, and these two +vowed by the Prophet that they had never met such a swashbuckler as the +stranger, for he used strange oaths that delighted them and told stories +of the sacking of Lucknow that made them tingle with envy. + +Oddly enough, he was very anxious that the Nazarene's horse should be +recovered, and was so pleased to hear that Nejdi was caught in a field +on the outskirts of the town and brought in during the afternoon that +he promised his assistants a handful of gold mohurs apiece--when they +reached Lucknow. + +Once, ere sunset, he visited the prisoner and cursed him with a fluency +that caused all listeners to own that the warriors of the 7th Cavalry +must, indeed, be fine fellows. + +At last, when Frank was led forth and helped into the saddle, his +guardian's flow of humorous invective reached heights that pleased the +villagers immensely. The Nazarene's hands were tied behind him, and the +gallant rissaldar, holding the Arab's reins, rode by his side. The +moulvie's men followed, and in this guise the quartette quitted Rai +Bareilly for the north. + +They were about a mile on their way and the sun was nearing the horizon, +when the native officer bade his escort halt. + +"Bones of Mahomet!" he cried, "what am I thinking of? My horse has done +fifty miles in twenty-four hours, and the Feringhi's probably more than +that. Hath not the moulvie friends in Rai Bareilly who will lend us a +spare pair?" + +Ahmed Ullah's retainers hazarded the opinion that their master's +presence might be necessary ere friendship stood such a strain. + +"Then why not make the Nazarene pay for his journey?" said the rissaldar +with grim humor. + +He showed skill as a cut-purse in going straight to an inner pocket +where Malcolm carried some small store of money. Taking ten gold mohurs, +he told the men to hasten back to the village and purchase a couple of +strong ponies. + +"Nay," said he, when they made to ride off. "You must go afoot, else I +may never again see you or the tats. I will abide here till you return. +See that you lose no time, but if darkness falls speedily I will await +you in the next village." + +Not daring to argue with this truculent-looking bravo, the men obeyed. +Already it was dusk and daylight would soon fail. No sooner had they +disappeared round the first bend in the road than the rissaldar, +unfastening Malcolm's bonds the while, said with a strange humility: + +"It was easier done than I expected, sahib, but I guessed that my story +about the Nawab of Rampur would send Moulvie and Begum packing. Now we +are free, and we have four horses. Whither shall we go? But, if it be +north, south, east, or west, let us leave the main road, for messengers +may meet the moulvie and that would make him suspicious." + +"Thy counsel is better than mine, good friend," was Frank's answer. "I +am yet dazed with thy success, and my only word is--to Allahabad." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A DAY'S ADVENTURES + + +Though his arm was stiff and painful, the rough bandaging it had +received and the coarse food given him in sufficient quantity at Rai +Bareilly, had partly restored Malcolm's strength. Nevertheless he +thought his mind was failing when, in the dim light of the inner room +in which he was confined, he saw Chumru standing before him. + +His servant's warlike attire was sufficiently bewildering, and the +sonorous objurgations with which he was greeted were not calculated to +dispel the cloud over his wits, but a whispered sentence gave hope, and +hope is a wonderful restorative. + +"Pretend not to know me, sahib, and all will be well," said his +unexpected ally, and, from that instant until they stood together on the +Lucknow road, Malcolm had guarded tongue and eye in the firm faith that +Chumru would save him. + +He was not mistaken. The adroit Mohammedan knew better than to trust his +sahib and himself too long on the highway. + +"They will surely make search for us, huzoor," he said as they headed +across country towards a distant ridge, thickly coated with trees. "The +Begum and Ahmed Ullah met here for a purpose, and their friends will not +fail to tell them of the trouble in Lucknow. I have been shaking in my +boots all day, for 'tis ill resting in the jungle when tigers are loose, +but I knew you could not ride in the sun, and I saw no other way of +getting rid of the moulvie's men than that of sending them back in the +dark." + +"It seems to me," said Malcolm, with a weak laugh, "that you would not +have scrupled to knock both of them on the head if necessary." + +"No, sahib, they are my kin. He who wore this uniform was a Brahmin, and +that makes all the difference. Brother does not slay brother unless +there be a woman in dispute." + +"When did you leave the Residency?" + +"About nine o'clock last night, sahib." + +"Did you see the miss-sahib before you came away?" + +"It was she who told me whither you had gone, sahib." + +"Ah, she knew, then? Did she say aught--send any message?" + +"Only that you would be certain to need my help, sahib." + +That puzzled Frank. Winifred, of course, had said nothing of the kind, +but Chumru assumed that she understood him, so his misrepresentation was +quite honest. + +A level path now enabled them to canter, and they reached the first belt +of trees ten minutes after the moulvie's men set out for Rai Bareilly. +Luck, which was befriending Chumru that day, must have made possible +that burst of speed at the right moment. They were discussing their +plans in the gloom of a grove of giant pipals when the clatter of horses +hard ridden came from the road they had just quitted. + +There could be no doubting the errand that brought a cavalcade thus +furiously from the direction of Lucknow. It was so near a thing that for +a little while they could not be certain they had escaped unseen. But +the riders whirled along towards Rai Bareilly, and in another quarter of +an hour the night would be their best guardian. + +"That settles it," said Malcolm, in whose veins the blood was now +coursing with its normal vitality, though, for the same reason, his +right forearm ached abominably. "It would be folly to attempt the road +again. Let us make for the river. We must find a boat there, and get men +to take us to Allahabad, either by hire or force." + +"How far is it to the river, sahib?" + +"About twenty-five miles." + +"Praise be to Allah! That is better than seventy, for my feet are weary +of that accursed Brahmin's boots." + +They stumbled on, leading the horses, until the first dark hour made +progress impossible. Then, when the evening mists melted and the stars +gave a faint light, they resumed the march, for every mile gained now +was worth five at dawn if perchance their hunters thought of making a +circular sweep of the country in the neighborhood of Rai Bareilly. + +It was a glorious night. The rain of the preceding day had freshened the +air, and towards midnight the moon sailed into the blue arc overhead, so +they were able to mount again and travel at a faster pace. Twice they +were warned by the barking of dogs of the proximity of small villages. +They gave these places a wide berth, since there was no knowing what hap +might bring a ryot who had seen them into communication with the +moulvie's followers. + +Each hamlet marked the center of a cultivated area. They could +distinguish the jungle from the arable land almost by the animals they +disturbed. A gray wolf, skulking through the sparsely wooded waste, +would be succeeded by a herd of timid deer. Then a sounder of pigs, +headed by a ten-inch tusker, would scamper out of the border crop, while +a pack of jackals, rending the calm night with their maniac yelping, +would start every dog within a mile into a frenzy of hoarse barking. +Sometimes a fox slunk across their path. Out of many a tuft they drove a +startled hare. In the dense undergrowth hummed and rustled a hidden life +of greater mystery. + +Where water lodged after the rain there were countless millions of +frogs, croaking in harsh chorus, and being ceaselessly hunted by the +snakes which the monsoon had driven from their nooks and crannies in the +rocks. On such a night all India seems to be dead as a land but +tremendously alive as a storehouse of insects, animals, and reptiles. +Even the air has its strange denizens in the guise of huge beetles and +vampire-winged flying foxes. And that is why men call it the unchanging +East. Civilization has made but few marks on its far-flung plains. Its +peoples are either nomads or dwell in huts of mud and straw and scratch +the earth to grow their crops as their forbears have done since the dawn +of history. + +When the amber and rose tints of dawn gave distance to the horizon the +fugitives estimated that they had traversed some fifteen miles. Malcolm +was ready to drop with fatigue. He was wounded; he had not slept during +two nights; he had fought in a lost battle and ridden sixty-five miles, +without counting his exertions before going to the field of Chinhut. +Nejdi and the horse which brought Chumru from Lucknow were nearly +exhausted. Even the hardy Mohammedan was haggard and spent, and his +oblique eyes glowed like the red embers of a dying fire. + +"Sahib," he said, when they came upon a villager and his wife scraping +opium from unripe poppy-heads in a field, "unless we rest and eat we +shall find no boat on Ganga to-day." + +This was so undeniable that Malcolm did not hesitate to ask the ryot for +milk and eggs. The man was civil. Indeed, he thought the Englishman was +some important official and took Chumru for his native deputy. He threw +down the scoop, handed to his wife an earthen vessel half full of the +milky sap gathered from the plants, and led the "huzoors" at once to his +shieling. Here he produced some ghee and chupatties, and half a dozen +raw eggs. The feast might not tempt an epicure, but its components were +excellent and Frank was well aware that the ghee was exceedingly +nutritious, though nauseating to European taste, being practically +rancid butter made from buffalo milk. + +There was plenty of fodder for the horses, too, and they showed their +good condition by eating freely. The ryot eyed Chumru doubtingly when +Malcolm gave him five rupees. Under ordinary conditions, the sahib's +native assistant would demand the return of the money at the first +convenient moment, and, indeed, Chumru himself was in the habit of +exacting a stiff commission on his master's disbursements. Frank smiled +at the man's embarrassed air. + +"The money is thine, friend," said he, quietly, "and there is more to be +earned if thou art so minded." + +"I am but a poor man--" began the ryot. + +"Just so. Not every day canst thou obtain good payment for a few hours' +work. Now, listen. How far is the Ganges from here?" + +"Less than three hours, sahib." + +"What, for horses?" + +"Not so, sahib. A horse can cover the distance in an hour--if he be not +weary." + +The peasant could use his eyes, it seemed, but Malcolm passed the phrase +without comment. + +"We have lost our way," he said. "We want to reach the river and take +boat speedily to Allahabad. If one like thyself were willing to ride +with us to the nearest village on the bank where boats can be obtained, +we would give him ten rupees, and, moreover, let him keep the horse that +carried him." + +The ryot was delighted with his good fortune. + +"Blessed be Kali!" he cried. "I saw five female ghosts with goats' heads +in a tree last night, and my wife said it betokened a journey and +wealth. Not only can I bring you by the shortest road, huzoor, but my +brother has a budgerow moored at the ghât, meaning to carry my +castor-oil seeds to Mirzapur. I am not ready for him yet for three weeks +or more, and he will ask no better occupation than to drop down stream +with you and your camp." + +"I have no camp," said Malcolm, "but I pay the same rates for the boat." + +"The sahib means that his camp marches by road," put in Chumru, +severely. "Didst not hear him say that we have mislaid the track?" + +The ryot apologized for his stupidity, and Frank recognized that his +retainer disapproved very strongly of such strict adherence to the +truth. On the plea that they must hasten if the midday heat were to be +avoided, they cut short the halt to less than an hour. When they came to +tighten the girths again they found that Chumru's horse had fallen lame. +As Nejdi, too, was showing signs of stiffness, Malcolm mounted one of +the spare animals and led the Arab. Chumru and the ryot bestrode the +third horse, and under the guidance of one who knew every path, they set +out for the Ganges. + +There are few features of the landscape so complex in their windings as +the foot-paths of India. Owing to the immense distances between +towns--the fertile and densely populated Doab offers no standard of +comparison for the remainder of a vast continent--roads were scarce and +far between in Mutiny days. The Grand Trunk Road and the rivers Ganges +and Jumna were the main arteries of traffic. For the rest, men marched +across country, and the narrow ribands of field tracks meandered through +plowed land and jungle, traversed nullah and hill and wood, and +intersected each other in a tangle that was wholly inextricable unless +one traveled by the compass or by well-known landmarks, where such were +visible. + +The ryot, of course, familiar with each yard of the route, practically +followed a straight line. After a steady jog of an hour and a half they +saw the silver thread of the Ganges from the crest of a small ridge that +ran north and south. The river was then about three miles distant, and +they were hurrying down the descent when they came upon an ekka, a +little native two-wheeled cart, without springs, and drawn by a +diminutive pony. Alone among wheeled conveyances, the ekka can leave the +main roads in fairly level country, and this one had evidently brought a +zemindar from a river-side village. + +The man himself, a portly, full-bearded Mohammedan, was examining a +growing crop, and his behavior, no less than the furtive looks cast at +the newcomers by his driver, warned Malcolm that here, for a certainty, +the Mutiny was a known thing. The zemindar's face assumed a +bronze-green tint when he saw the European officer, and the +sulky-looking native perched behind the shafts of the ekka growled +something in the local patois that caused the ryot sitting behind Chumru +to squirm uneasily. + +The other glanced hastily around, as though he hoped to find assistance +near, and Chumru muttered to his master: + +"Have a care, sahib, else we may hop on to a limed twig." + +The boldest course was the best one. Malcolm rode up to the zemindar, +who was separated some forty paces from the ekka. + +"I come from Lucknow," he said. "What news is there from Fattehpore and +Allahabad?" + +The man hesitated. He was so completely taken aback by the sight of an +armed officer riding towards him in broad daylight--for Malcolm having +lost his own sword had taken Chumru's--that he was hardly prepared to +meet the emergency. + +"There is little news," he said, at last, and it was not lost on his +questioner that the customary phrases of respect were omitted, though he +spoke civilly enough. + +"Nevertheless, what is it?" demanded Frank. "Has the Mutiny spread thus +far, or is it confined to Cawnpore?" + +"I know not what you mean," was the self-contained answer. "In this +district we are peaceable people. We look after our crops, even as I am +engaged at this moment, and have no concern with what goes on +elsewhere." + +"A most worthy and honorable sentiment, and I trust it will avail you +when we have hanged all these rebels and we come to inquire into the +conduct of your village. I want you to accompany me now and place my +orderly and myself on board a boat for Allahabad." + +"That is impossible--sahib--" and the words came reluctantly--"there are +no boats on the river these days." + +"Why not?" + +"They are all away, carrying grain and hay." + +"What then, are your crops so forward? This one will not be ready for +harvesting ere another month." + +"You will not find a budgerow on this side. Perchance they will ferry +you across at the village in a small boat, and you will have better +accommodation at Fattehpore." + +"Are we opposite Fattehpore?" + +"Yes--sahib." + +All the while the zemindar's eyes were looking furtively from Frank to +the lower ground. It was a puzzling situation. The man was not actively +hostile, yet his manner betrayed an undercurrent of fear and dislike +that could only be accounted for by the downfall of British power in the +locality. Thinking Chumru could deal better with his fellow-countryman, +Malcolm called him, breaking in on a lively conversation that was going +on between his servant and the ekka-wallah. + +Chumru, who had told the ryot to dismount, came at once. + +"Our friend here says that things are quiet on the river, but there are +no boats to be had," explained Malcolm. Chumru grinned, and the zemindar +regarded him with troubled eyes. + +"Excellent," he said. "We shall go to his house and wait while his +servants look for a boat." + +This suggestion seemed to please the other man. + +"I will go on in front in the ekka," he agreed, "and lead you to my +dwelling speedily." + +Chumru edged nearer his master while their new acquaintance walked +towards the ekka. + +"Jump down and tie both when I give the word, sahib," he whispered. +"There has been murder done here." + +Malcolm understood instantly that his native companion had found the +ekka-wallah more communicative. In fact, Chumru had fooled the man by +pretending a willingness to slay the Feringhi forthwith, and the +sheep-like ryot was now livid with terror at the prospect of witnessing +an immediate killing. + +When the zemindar was close to the ekka, Chumru whipped out one of the +Brahmin's cavalry pistols. + +"Now, sahib!" he cried. Malcolm drew his sword and sprang down. The +zemindar fell on his knees. + +"Spare my life, huzoor, and I will tell thee everything," he roared. + +Were he not so worn with fatigue, and were not the issues depending on +the man's revelations so important, Malcolm could have laughed at this +remarkable change of tone. The flabby, well-fed rascal squealed like a +pig when the point of the sword touched his skin, and the Englishman was +forced to scowl fiercely to hide a smile. + +"Speak, _sug_,"[16] he said. "What of Fattehpore and Allahabad, and be +sure thou has spent thy last hour if thou liest." + +[Footnote 16: A contemptuous use of the word "dog."] + +"Sahib, God knoweth that I can tell thee naught of Allahabad, but the +budmashes at Fattehpore have risen, and Tucker-sahib is dead. They +killed him, I have heard, after a fight on the roof of the cutcherry." + +Malcolm guessed rightly that Mr. Tucker was the judge at that station, +but he must not betray ignorance. + +"And the others--they who fled? What of them?" he said, knowing that the +scenes enacted elsewhere must have had their counterpart at Fattehpore. + +"Wow!" The kneeling man flinched as the sword pricked him again. "There +are two mems[17] in a house near the ghât. They alone remain of those +who crossed. And I saved them, sahib. I swear it, by the Kaaba, I saved +them." + +[Footnote 17: Short for mem-sahibs; ladies.] + +"They are young, doubtless, and good-looking?" + +A new fear shone in the Mohammedan's eyes, and he did not answer. +Frank's gorge rose with a deadly disgust, and it is hard to say that his +sword would not have gone home in another instant had not Chumru +interfered: + +"Kill him not yet, sahib. He may be useful. Bind him and the other slave +back to back. Then I shall help you to truss them properly." + +Chumru soon showed that he meant business. When he was free to replace +the pistol in the holster, which he did all the more readily since he +had never used a firearm in his life, he gagged master and man with +skill, tied them to a tree, and then unfolded the plan which the +ekka-driver's story had suggested. + +The fever of rebellion had spread along the whole of the left bank of +the Ganges as far as Allahabad. A party of fugitives from Fattehpore who +had taken to a boat were pursued, captured, and slain. Two girls who had +managed to cross the river unseen were now lodged in a go-down, or +warehouse, belonging to the very man whom chance had made Malcolm's +prisoner. He was keeping them to curry favor with a local rajah who +headed the outbreak at Fattehpore. It was true that there were no boats +left on this side of the river: they were all on the opposite bank, +being loaded with loot, and the two Englishwomen were merely awaiting +the return of the zemindar's budgerow to be sent to a fate worse than +death. + +Chumru, a Mohammedan himself, was not greatly concerned about the +misfortunes of a couple of women, but he saw plainly that Malcolm could +no more hope to escape under the present conditions than the poor +creatures whose whereabouts had just become known. This was precisely +the blend of intrigue and adventure that appealed to his alert +intelligence. In wriggling through a mesh of difficulties he was lithe +as a snake, and the proposal he now made was certainly bold enough to +commend itself to the most daring. + +He drew Malcolm and the trembling ryot apart. + +"Listen, friend," said he to the latter. "Thou art, indeed, lost if that +fat hog sees thee again. He will harry thee and thy wife and all thy +family to death for having helped us, and it will be in vain to protest +that thou hadst no mind in the matter, for behold, thou didst not lift a +finger when I threatened him with the pistol." + +"Protector of the poor, what was one to do?" whined the ryot. + +"I am not thy protector. 'Tis the sahib here to whom thou must look for +counsel. Attend, now, and I will show thee a road to safety and riches. +Art thou known to either of those men?" + +"I have not seen them before, for I come this way but seldom." + +"'Tis well. The sahib shall sit in the ekka, with the curtains drawn, +while I give it out that I go with my wife to take the miss-sahibs +across the river, for which purpose the worthy zemindar will presently +hand us a written order, as he hath ink, paper, and pen in the ekka. +Thou shalt be driver and come with us on the boat, and when we are in +mid-stream, and the sahib appears at my signal, see that thou hast a +cudgel handy if it be needed. Then, when we reach Allahabad, God +willing, the sahib will give thee many rupees and none will be the +wiser. What say'st thou?" + +"I am a poor man--" + +"Ay, keep to that. 'Tis ever a safe answer. Do you like my notion, +sahib? Otherwise, we must take our chance and wander in the jungle." + +The fact that Chumru's scheme included the rescue of the unhappy girls +imprisoned in the go-down caused Malcolm to approve it without reserve. +The zemindar's gag was removed and he was asked his name. + +"Hossein Beg," said he. + +"Be assured, then," said Malcolm, sternly, "that thy life depends on the +fulfilment of the instructions I now require of thee. See to it, +therefore, that they are written in such wise as to insure success, and +I, for my part, promise to send thee succor ere night falls. Write on +this tablet that the miss-sahibs are to be delivered to the charge of +Rissaldar Ali Khan and his wife, for conveyance to Fattehpore, and bid +thy servants help the rissaldar in every possible way. Believe me, if +aught miscarries in this matter, thou shalt rot to death in thy bonds." + +"Let my servant go with your honor, so that all things may be done +according to your honor's wishes." + +"What then? Wouldst thou juggle with the favor I have shown thee?" + +This time the sword impinged on the Adam's apple in Hossein Beg's +throat, and he shrank as far as his bonds would permit. + +"Say not so, Khudâwand,"[18] he gurgled. "I swear by my father's bones I +meant no ill." + +[Footnote 18: Master.] + +"Mayhap. Nevertheless, I shall take care thy intent is honest, Hossein +Beg. Write now and pay heed to thy words, else jackals shall rend thee +ere to-morrow's dawn." + +By this time the man was reduced to a state of abject submission. +Possibly his offer of the ekka-wallah's services was made in good faith, +but Malcolm liked the looks of the man as little as he liked the looks +of his master, and he preferred to trust to Chumru's nimble wits rather +than the stupid contriving of a peasant, no matter how willing the +latter might be. + +The zemindar, having written, was gagged again, and the pair were left +to that torture of silence and doubt they had not scrupled to inflict on +those who had done them no wrong. They were tied to a tree-trunk in the +heart of a clump, and a hundred men might pass in that lonely place +without discovering them, whereas Hossein Beg and his subordinate could +see easily enough through the leafy screen that enveloped their open-air +prison. + +Half an hour later, Hossein Beg's ekka arrived on the open space that +adjoined the village ghât. At one end was a mosque--at the other a +temple. In the center, at a little distance from the bank, was a square +modern building, evidently the warehouse in which the English ladies +were pent. + +With the ekka came a rissaldar of cavalry, riding one horse and leading +two others. When he dismounted a scabbard clattered at his heels, for +Malcolm now had the pistols between his knees as he sat behind the +tightly drawn curtains of the vehicle. + +"Mohammed Rasul!" shouted the rissaldar, loudly. "Where is Mohammed +Rasul? I must discourse with him instantly." + +A man came running. + +"Ohé, sirdar," he cried. "Behold, I come!" + +A note was thrust into the runner's hands. + +"Read, and quickly," was the imperious order. "I have affairs at +Fattehpore and cannot wait here long. Is there a boat to be hired?" + +"A budgerow is even now approaching, leader of the faithful." + +"Good. There is some disposition to be made of two Feringhi women. Read +that which Hossein Beg hath written, and make haste, I pray thee, +brother." + +Perhaps Mohammed Rasul wondered why his employer wrote in such imploring +strain that he was to obey the worshipful "Ali Khan's" slightest word, +and bestow him and his belongings, together with the two prisoners, on +board a boat for Fattehpore with the utmost speed. However that may be, +he lost no time. The budgerow was warped close to the ghât, her +contents, mostly European furniture, as Malcolm could see through a fold +in the curtain, were promptly unloaded, and preparations made for the +return journey. First, the horses were led on board and secured. Then +two pallid girls, only half clothed, their eyes red with weeping and +their cheeks haggard with misery, were led from the go-down. + +"Ali Khan" was about to guide the ekka along the rough gangway when +Mohammed Rasul interfered. + +"My master says naught concerning the ekka and pony," said he. "He hath +detained Gopi, and this driver is unknown to me. Who will bring them +back when they have served your needs, sirdar?" + +"I will attend to that," replied Chumru, gruffly, and Hossein Beg's +factotum had perforce to be content with the undertaking. + +But fate, which had certainly favored Malcolm and his native comrade +thus far, played them what looked like a jade's trick at the very moment +when success was within their grasp. The ekka pony, frightened by the +lap of the swift-flowing water against the steps beneath, shied, backed, +and strove to reach the shore. Not all Chumru's wiry strength, aided by +the alarmed ryot, could prevent the brute from turning. A wheel slipped +off the staging, the narrow vehicle toppled over, and the amazed +spectators saw a booted and spurred British officer of cavalry sprawling +on the ghât instead of the veiled Mohammedan woman who ought to have +made her appearance in this undignified manner. + +Malcolm was on his feet in a second. + +"Come on, Chumru!" he cried, as he leaped on board the budgerow. He saw +one of the crew take an extra turn of a rope round a cat-head, and fired +at him. Hit or miss, the fellow tumbled overboard, and his mates +followed. Chumru, assisted by the ryot, who elected at this twelfth hour +to throw in his lot with that of the sahib, began to cast off the +cables. Even the two dazed girls helped, once they knew that an +Englishman was fighting in their behalf. + +To add to the excitement on shore Malcolm fired the second pistol at the +men nearest to the boat, which was already beginning to slip away with +the current. Then he rushed to the helm, unlashed it, and turned the +boat's head toward the channel, while Chumru and the ryot, helped by the +girls, hauled at the heavy mat sail. + +Having lashed the helm again in order to keep the budgerow on the +starboard tack, Malcolm was about to lend a hand, despite his wound, +when a spurt of firing from the bank took him by surprise, because he +had seen neither gun nor pistol in the hands of the loungers on the +ghât, and the coolies were certainly unarmed. + +Glancing back he saw a man whom he had last seen in the moulvie's +company at Rai Bareilly gesticulating fiercely as he directed the target +practise of a number of men. A group of lathered horses behind them +showed that they had ridden far and fast, so the accident, which nearly +led to his undoing, had really helped to save him and his companions, +else the fusillade to which they were now subjected must have taken +place while the boat was still tied to the wharf. + +"Lie flat on the deck," he shouted in English, and repeated the words in +Hindustani. He flung himself down by Chumru's side. + +"Haul away!" he gasped. "We will soon be out of range." + +Thus while the cumbrous sail creaked and groaned as it slowly climbed +the mast, and bullets cut through the matting or were imbedded in the +stout woodwork, the latest argosy of Malcolm's fortunes thrust herself +with ever-increasing speed into the ample breast of Mother Ganga. Soon +the firing ceased. Malcolm raised his head. The excited mob on the shore +was already a horde of Lilliputians, and the placid swish of the river +around the roomy craft told him that he was actually free, and on the +way to Allahabad once more. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE SWING OF THE PENDULUM + + +Malcolm's first measured thought was an unpleasant one. It was his +intent to land one of the budgerow's crew at the earliest opportunity +with a written message, which the bearer would probably be unable to +read, addressed to Mohammed Rasul, bidding him go to the assistance of +the unlucky Hossein Beg. That plan was now impracticable. The crew had +bolted. He could neither send the ryot ashore nor trust to the help of +any neighboring village, since men were already galloping along the left +bank with obviously hostile designs. + +As there was a favorable breeze and the current was swift and strong, he +wondered why these pursuers strove to keep the boat in sight. Then it +was borne in on him that they had a definite object. Could it be +possible that they knew of the presence of other craft, lower down the +river?--that he might be called on within the hour to make a last stand +against irresistible odds on the deck of the budgerow? Rather than meet +certain death in that way he would head boldly for the opposite shore, +and trust again to his tired horses for escape to the jungle and the +night. Yet, some plan must be devised to keep faith with that wretched +zemindar. The man would not die if left where he was for another +forty-eight hours, or even longer. But the word of a sahib was a sacred +thing. Whatever the difficulty of communicating with Mohammed Rasul, he +must overcome it somehow. + +In his perplexity, his eyes fell on the two girls. Being ladies from +Fyzabad, they might be able to help him with some knowledge of the +locality. Summoning Chumru to take the helm he went forward and spoke to +them. + +Now it is an enduring fact that a woman's regard for her personal +appearance will engross her mind when graver topics might well be to the +fore. No sooner did these sorrow-laden daughters of Eve realize that +they were in a position of comparative safety, and in the company of a +good-looking young man of their own race, than they attempted to effect +some change in their _toilette_. A handkerchief dipped in the river, a +few twists and coilings of refractory hair, a slight readjustment of +disordered bodices and crumpled skirts--above all, the gleam of the +magic lamp of hope that illumined an abyss of despair--and the amazing +result was that Malcolm found two pretty, shy, tremulous maidens +awaiting him, instead of the disheveled woe-begone women he had seen +pushed down the steps of the ghât. + +He introduced himself with the well-mannered courtesy of the period, and +in response the elder of the pair raised her blue eyes to his and told +him that since the 16th of June until the previous day they had been +hiding in the hut of a native woman, mother of their ayah. + +"My dear father was killed by Mr. Tucker's side," said she. "He was the +deputy commissioner of Fattehpore. Keene is our name--I am Harriet, this +is my sister Grace. We only came out from England last cold weather--" + +A sudden recollection brought a cry of surprise from Frank. + +"Why," he said, "you were fellow-passengers on the _Assaye_ with Miss +Winifred Mayne?" + +"Yes, do you know her? What has become of her? We were told that +everyone at Meerut was killed." + +"Thank Heaven, she was alive and well when I last saw her three days +ago." + +"And her uncle? Is he living? She was very much attached to him. How did +she escape from Meerut?" broke in Grace, eagerly. + +"I wish they had never left Meerut. The Mutiny at that station collapsed +in a couple of hours. Unfortunately they are now both penned up in the +Residency at Lucknow, which is surrounded by goodness only knows how +many thousands of rebels. But I must give you Winifred's recent +history at another time. I want you to tell me something about this +neighborhood. What is the nearest town on the river, and which bank +is it on?" + +"Unfortunately, our acquaintance with this part of India is very +slight," said Miss Harriet Keene, sadly. "We remained at Calcutta four +months with our mother, who died there, without having seen our dear +father after a separation of five years. We came up country in March, +and were going to Naini Tal[19] when the Mutiny broke out. We only saw +the Ganges three or four times before our ayah brought us across on that +terrible night when father was murdered." + +[Footnote 19: A hill station near Lucknow.] + +Malcolm had heard many such tensely dramatic stories from fugitives who +had reached Lucknow during July. Phrases of pity or consolation were +powerless in face of these tragedies. But he could not forbear asking +one question: + +"How did you come to fall into the hands of Hossein Beg?" + +"We were betrayed by some children," was the simple answer. "They saw +our ayah's mother baking chupatties, day by day, sufficient for four +people. My sister and I lived nearly three weeks in a cow-byre, never +daring, of course, to approach even the door. The children made some +talk about the lavish food supply in the old woman's hut, and the story +reached the ears of their father. He, like all the other natives here, +seems to hate Europeans as though they were his deadliest enemies. He +spied on us, discovered our whereabouts, and yesterday morning we were +dragged forth, while the poor creatures to whom we owed our lives were +beaten to death with sticks before our very eyes." + +The speaker was a fair English girl of twenty. Her sister was eighteen, +and their previous experience of the storm and fret of existence was +drawn from an uneventful childhood in India, four years in a Brighton +school, and a twelvemonth in a Brussels convent! + +Malcolm choked back the hard words that rose to his lips, and sought +such local information as the ryot could give him. It was little. The +tiller of the Indian fields lives and dies in his village and has no +interests beyond the horizon. This man visited the Ganges once a year on +a religious feast, and perhaps twice in the same period in connection +with the shipping of grain on his brother's boat. To that extent, but +no further, did his store of general knowledge pass beyond the narrower +limits of those who dwelt far from a river highway. + +Yet it was he who first espied a new and most active peril. + +"Look, huzoor," he cried suddenly. "They have made signs to the +Fattehpore ghât. Two boats are following us." + +And then Malcolm found that the real danger came from the opposite +shore. It was a case of falling on Scylla when trying to avoid +Charybdis. He learnt afterwards that the rebels had organized a code +of signals from bank to bank, owing to the number of the craft with +Europeans on board that sought safety in flight down the river. That +some device must have drawn pursuit from the right bank was obvious. A +couple of roomy budgerows with sails set were racing after him, and the +long sweeps on board each boat were being propelled by willing arms. + +It must be confessed that a feeling of bitter resentment against this +last stroke of ill-luck rose in Malcolm's breast for an instant. He +conquered it. He recalled Lawrence's bold advice, "Never Surrender," +and that inspiriting memory brought strength. + +At that point the Ganges was about a mile and a quarter in width. The +budgerow was some six hundred yards distant from the left bank. Three +miles ahead the river curved to the left round a steep promontory. The +farther shore was marsh-land, so it might be assumed that a hidden +barrier of rock flung off the deep current there, while the one chance +of escape that presented itself was to steer for that very spot and +effect a landing before the enemy could head off the budgerow and force +it under the fire of the horsemen. The Fattehpore boats were a mile in +the rear, but that advantage would be greatly lessened if Malcolm +crossed the stream, and perhaps altogether effaced by the powerful +sweeps at their command. + +However, to cross was the only way, and the only way is ever the best +way. Having once made up his mind Frank coolly reviewed the situation. +Food was the first essential. The boat itself, having been used for +carrying hay, contained sufficient sweepings to feed the horses, and he +set the ryot to work on gathering the odds and ends of forage. A brief +search brought to light a quantity of ghee, boiled rice and dried peas. +He divided the store into five portions, and set a good example to the +others by compelling himself to eat his share of the cooked food at +once, while the peas went into his pockets to be crushed or chewed at +leisure. + +Chumru kept the budgerow steadily on her course, and ere many minutes +elapsed it was plain to be seen that the rebels were alive to the +tactics of their quarry. Fresh gangs manned the sweeps and the riders on +the eastern bank eased their pace to a walk. The space between pursuers +and pursued began to decrease. At the outset Frank thought that this was +the natural outcome of his plan, and gave no heed to it beyond the +ever-growing anxiety of the time problem. But at the end of the first +mile he was seriously concerned at finding that the mutineers were +gaining on him in an incomprehensible manner. The boat was then +seemingly in mid-stream, while the enemy kept close to the shore, and +they were certainly traveling half as fast again, a difference in speed +that the use of the oars hardly accounted for. + +He kept on grimly, however, never deviating from his perspective, which +was the swampy ground on the outer curve of the bend. It was not until +nearly another mile was covered and the mutineers were almost abreast +in the true line of the river, that he knew why they were making such +heart-breaking progress as compared with his own craft. The Ganges, +after the vagrom fashion of all giant rivers, was cutting a new bed +through the sunken reefs towards the low-lying marsh. At the wide elbow +there were really two channels and he was now sailing along the +comparatively motionless water between them! + +Side by side with this terrifying discovery was the certain fact that +his awkwardly built craft would gain little by maneuvering. There was a +new danger, too. At any instant she might run ashore on the shoal that +was surely forming in the center of the river. At all costs that must be +avoided. + +With a smile and a few confident words to the girls, he went aft, took +the helm from Chumru and bade him help the ryot in putting out the port +sweep. The effect was quickly apparent. The budgerow ran into the second +channel, but she allowed her dangerous rivals to approach so close that +the natives opened fire with long range dropping shots. + +It was now a matter of minutes ere the rebel marksmen would render the +deck uninhabitable. To beach the boat, land the horses, and get the +young ladies ashore in safety, had become an absolute impossibility. +Then it occurred to Frank that the Fattehpore men could not know for +certain that there were Englishwomen on board. They could see Chumru, +the ryot, the horses, and of course, the steersman, but the girls were +seated in the well amidships, these river craft being only partly decked +fore and aft. + +A modification of his scheme flashed through his brain, and he decided +to adopt it forthwith. First asking Miss Keene and her sister not to +reveal their presence, no matter what happened, he told Chumru to stand +by the horses and help him to make them leap into the water when he gave +the order. With difficulty he induced the scared ryot to take the rudder +while he explained the new project. It had that element of daring in it +that is worthy of success, being nothing less than an attempt to draw +the rebels' attention entirely to himself and Chumru by making a dash +for the shore, while the ryot was to allow the boat to continue her +course down stream with, apparently, no other tenant than himself. + +Malcolm's theory was that, if he and Chumru made good their landing, +they would hug the river until the budgerow was sufficiently ahead of +pursuit to permit of her being run ashore. Though the plan savored of +deserting the helpless girls, yet was he strong-minded enough to adopt +it. It substituted a forlorn hope for imminent and unavoidable death or +capture, and it gave one last avenue of achievement to the mission on +which he had come from Lucknow. + +At the final moment he communicated it to the two sisters. They agreed +to abide by his decision, and the elder one said with a calm serenity +that lent to her words the symbolism of a prayer: + +"We are all in God's hands, Mr. Malcolm. Whether we live or die we are +assured that you have done and will do all that lies in the power of a +Christian gentleman to save us." + +"I don't like leaving you," he murmured, "but our only weapons are a +sword and a brace of empty pistols. If we run on another half mile we +shall be shot down where we stand without any means of defending +ourselves. On the other hand--" + +Then the budgerow struck a submerged rock with a violence that must have +pitched him overboard were he not holding Nejdi's headstall at the +moment. She careened so badly that the girls shrieked and Malcolm +himself thought she would turn turtle. But she swung clear, righted +herself, and lay broadside on to the current. Another crash, less +violent but even more disastrous, tore away the rudder and wrenched the +spar pulley out of the top of the mast. The heavy sail fell of course, +but by some miracle left the occupants of the boat uninjured. + +And now the maimed craft was carried along sluggishly, drifting back +towards the center of the river, while the men in the other boats set up +a fiendish yell of delight at the catastrophe that had overtaken the +doomed Feringhis. Their skilled boatmen evidently knew of this reef. +They stood away towards the shore, but the triumphant jeering that came +from the crowded decks showed that they meant to pass their dismantled +quarry and wait in safer waters until it lumbered down upon them. + +Malcolm suddenly became aware of his wounded arm. With a curious +fatalism he began to dissect his emotions. He arrived at the conclusion +that the drop from the nervous tension of hope to the relaxation of +sheer despair had dulled his brain and weakened his physical powers. +This, then, was the end. There could be no doubt about it. He quieted +the startled horses with a word or two and spoke to the girls again. + +"You may as well come on deck now," he said. "It is all up with us. If a +friendly bullet puts us out of our misery, so much the better. Otherwise +my advice to you both is to leap into the river rather than be +recaptured." + +Grace was sobbing hysterically, but Harriet, clasping her fondly in her +arms, looked up at him. + +"No," she said, "we must not do that. Our lives are not our own. The +Lord gave and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!" + +Frank winced in his anguish. To a puissant man there is nothing so +galling as helplessness; what a game of battledore and shuttlecock had +been played with him and those bound up with his fortunes since the +moulvie's man-trap brought him headlong to the earth in the main street +of Rai Bareilly! + +"Huzoor!" yelled Chumru, excitedly. "Look! There below! A smoke ship! +And see! Those sons of pigs are making for the bank!" + +Malcolm could scarce believe his eyes when they rested on a small +steamer with the British flag flying from the masthead, coming round the +bend. Yet there could be no mistake about it. British officers in white +uniforms were standing on her bridge, the muzzles of a couple of guns +showed black and business-like over her bows, while her forward deck was +packed with men in the uniform of the Madras Fusiliers. Her commander +seemed to take in the exact position of affairs at a glance, and, +indeed, the half-wrecked and almost empty boat in mid-stream, so eagerly +followed by two thickly crowded craft now close hauled and putting forth +desperate efforts to reach the bank, presented a riddle easy to read. + +That twinge of pain quitted Frank's arm as speedily as it had made its +presence felt. He helped the girls to the raised deck, so that the +people on the steamer could see them. It was not necessary. An officer +waved a hand to them as the sturdy little vessel dashed past, raising a +mighty spume of white froth with her paddles, and soon her guns were +busy. There was no question of quarter. Captain Spurgin had been with +Neill at Allahabad. He knew the story of Massacre Ghât, of Delhi, of +Sitapore, Moradabad, Bareilly, and a score of other stations in Oudh and +the Northwest. His gunners pelted the unwieldy budgerows with round shot +until they began to sink. Then he used grape and rifle fire, until five +minutes after the _Warren Hastings_ came on the scene, there was nought +left of the Fattehpore navy save some shattered wreckage and a few +wretches who strove to swim amidst a hail of lead and in a river +infested with crocodiles. + +When the steamer dropped down stream and picked up the fugitives, +Malcolm learnt that Spurgin was co-operating with Renaud. The one +cleared the river, the other was hanging men on nearly every tree that +lined the Grand Trunk Road. And Havelock, nobly aided by Neill, was +moving heaven and earth to equip a strong force at Allahabad to avenge +Cawnpore and raise the expected siege of Lucknow. + +As Malcolm himself brought the earliest news of the investment, he and +Chumru were put ashore with a small escort, in order that they might +join Major Renaud's column, and hurry to Havelock with his thrilling +tidings. Spurgin promised to visit the village on the east bank, release +Hossein Beg, and make him a hostage for the ryot's welfare. As for +Harriet and Grace Keene, they would be sent south as soon as a carriage +could be procured. + +The two girls bade Frank farewell with a gratitude which was +embarrassing, but Grace, more mercurial than Harriet, ventured to say: + +"I suppose you are longing to see Winifred again, Mr. Malcolm?" + +"Yes," he replied, well knowing the thought that lay behind the words. +"You are her friend, so there is no reason why I should not tell you +that she is my promised wife." + +"Then you are both to be congratulated," put in the elder sister, "for +she is quite the most charming girl we know, and our opinion of you is +not likely to be a poor one after to-day's experiences." + +"What? After an hour's acquaintance?" + +"An hour! There are some hours that are half a lifetime. Good-by, may +Heaven guard and watch over you!" + +Renaud despatched Lawrence's messenger to the south in a dâk-gharry, or +post-carriage. Chumru would have taken the servant's usual perch beside +the driver, but Malcolm would not hear of it. His faithful attendant was +almost as worn with fatigue as he himself; master and man shared the +comfort of the roomy vehicle; and slept for many hours while it rumbled +along the road. + +At dawn on the 4th of July they entered Allahabad. But the driver had +his orders and did not stop in the city. They passed through a sullen +bazaar, and were gazed at by a mob that wore the aspect of a cageful of +tigers in which order has just been induced by the liberal use of +red-hot irons. The travelers were nodding asleep again when the sharp +summons of a British sentry gladdened Malcolm's ears. + +"Who goes there?" + +How alert it sounded! How reminiscent of the old days! How full of +promise of the days that were to come! + +He leaned out and smiled as he told a stolid private of the 64th that he +was "a friend." His uniform acted as a passport, the dâk-gharry crossed +the drawbridge and crept through a narrow tunnel, and he found himself +standing in the great inner parade-ground of the fort. A young officer +approached. + +"Do you wish to see the General? Whom shall I report?" he asked, eyeing +the worn appearance and torn and blood-stained uniforms of Englishman +and native. + +"I am from Lucknow," said Frank. "Will you kindly tell General Havelock +that Captain Malcolm of the 3d Cavalry has brought him a message from +Sir Henry Lawrence?" + +It was the first time he had described himself by his new rank. It sent +a pleasant tingle through his veins and made that injured arm of his +ache again. Lawrence had given him to the 4th, and here he was in +Allahabad on the very date of his Chief's reckoning, after having gone +through adventures that would have satiated Ulysses. + +But the pardonable pride of a young and gallant soldier soon yielded an +inexplicable sensation of humility when he was brought before a small, +slender, erect man, gray-haired, eagle-nosed, with strangely bright and +piercing eyes, and a mouth habitually set in a thin, straight line. This +was Sir Henry Havelock, and Frank felt instantly that he was in the +presence of one who lived in a world apart from his fellows. And, in +truth, Havelock would have been better understood by Cromwell's +Ironsides than by his own generation. He was outside the ordinary run of +mankind. Though aware of a natural timidity, he fought with and +conquered it until his soldiers refused to believe that Havelock knew +what fear was. Conscious of his own military genius he had borne without +comment or complaint a constant supersession by inferiors, and in an age +when levity of thought and manners among officers was often looked upon +as the hall-mark of distinguished social position, he lost no +opportunity of giving his men religious instruction, while every act of +his life was governed by a stern sense of duty. + +Such was the man who listened to Malcolm's account of the proceedings +which led up to the disastrous battle of Chinhut. + +"You say you rode straight from the field on the evening of the 30th," +said he, when Frank had delivered his message of Lucknow's plight. "How +did you travel, and in what state did you find the country you +traversed?" + +Then Frank told him all that had taken place. More than once the young +officer would have cut short the recital, but this Havelock would not +permit. His son was present, that younger Havelock who lived for forty +years to keep ever in the public memory a glorious name, and often the +father would turn towards him and punctuate Malcolm's tale with a nod, +or a brief, "Do you hear that, Harry?" + +At last, the stirring chronicle was ended. + +"Do you wish to remain here and recuperate, or will you join my staff, +with the rank of Major?" asked Havelock. + +Malcolm was hardly able to stammer his acceptance of the appointment +thus offered, but the General had no time for useless talk. + +"About this servant of yours--he seems to have the making of a soldier +in him--will he care to retain the rank he has assumed so creditably?" +he went on. + +Frank rather lost his breath at this suggestion, but he had the presence +of mind to refer the decision to Chumru himself. + +"Kubbi nahin, general-sahib,"[20] was the Mohammedan's emphatic +disclaimer of the honor proposed to be conferred on him. "I am a good +bearer, huzoor, but I should prove a very bad rissaldar. I am not of a +fighting caste. I am a man of peace." + +[Footnote 20: Literally: "Never no general!"] + +"I think you are mistaken," said Havelock, quietly, "but by all means +continue to serve your master. I am sure he is worthy of your devotion. +And now, Major Malcolm, if you will report yourself to General Neill, he +will provide you with quarters and plenty of work." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE MEN WHO WORE SKIRTS + + +That was what the rebels called the 78th,--"the men who wore skirts." + +Now, Highland regiments had fought in India for many a year before the +Mutiny, and the kilt was no new thing in native eyes. The phrase, +therefore, is significant. It crystallizes the legend that went +round--that an army of savage English was marching from Allahabad, and +that its most ferocious corps was dressed in skirts, the men having +sworn never to assume male clothing until they had avenged their +murdered women-folk. + +There could be no better proof that the sepoys and their helpers were +well aware that they had outraged all the laws of war and humanity by +their excesses, and there was a further reason why the garb of old Gaul +was more dreaded throughout India than any other British uniform during +the autumn and cold weather of 1857. Not many Europeans knew it until +long afterwards, but the natives knew, and told the story with bated +breath, and one British officer knew, for he was with the Seaforth +Highlanders in Cawnpore when they took dire vengeance for the Well. + +It is a matter of history how Havelock marched his little army of twelve +hundred men along the Grand Trunk Road from Allahabad. He led a thousand +British soldiers, drawn from the 64th, 84th, and 78th Foot, and the 1st +Madras Fusiliers. Captain Brasyer brought 130 loyal Sikhs to the column: +there were six small guns, and eighteen volunteer cavalry. + +These details should be appreciated before it is possible to understand +the supra-miraculous campaign Havelock conducted. For five days the +expedition tramped north in the rain and heat, through a land given over +to dead men, vultures and carnivorous animals. Renaud and Spurgin had +made no prisoners. They did not slay wantonly, but the slightest shadow +of suspicion falling on any man meant the short shrift of a rope and the +nearest tree. + +At last, on the 12th of August, the main body overtook Renaud, whose +patrols were stopped by a large force of rebels entrenched in a village +four miles south of Fattehpore. The junction took place at one o'clock +in the morning. At daybreak, Havelock sent Colonel Tytler, with the +eighteen volunteer horse, to reconnoiter. The enemy's cavalry, thinking +they had only Renaud's tiny detachment to deal with, charged across the +plain, to find the whole twelve hundred drawn up to receive them. Struck +with a sudden fear, the white-coated troopers reined in their horses. +This was the first real check Nana Sahib had received. It was typical of +the new order. The flood-tide of mutiny had met its barrier rock. +Thenceforth, it ebbed, though it raged madly for a while in the effort +to sweep away the obstruction. + +Without giving the enemy's cavalry time to recover from their surprise, +Havelock threw forward his infantry, Captain Maude, of the Royal +Artillery, rushed his six guns to a point-blank range, there was a short +and sharp fight, and the rebels broke. They were chased through and out +of the town of Fattehpore. All their guns and some valuable stores were +captured, and, greatest marvel in a day of marvels, not one British +soldier had fallen! + +No wonder Havelock wrote to his wife: "One of the prayers oft repeated +since my school-days has been answered, and I have lived to command in a +successful action.... But away with vain glory! Thanks be to God who +gave me the victory." + +That evening Malcolm witnessed the plundering of Fattehpore, which was +permitted in retribution for its recent rebellion. The town lay on the +main road, which, at this point, was removed from the river by many +miles, else he would have ridden to the ghât and sent a message to +Hossein Beg in order to make sure of the safety of the friendly ryot. + +Owing to his knowledge of the vernacular, he managed to pick up a bit of +useful information while questioning a native on this matter. On the +battle-field he came across a state elephant which had been shot through +the body by one of Maude's nine-pounders. The manner of the beast's +death was remarkable--it is not often that an elephant is bowled over by +a cannon-ball like a rabbit by a bullet from a small caliber rifle--and +its trappings betokened that it had carried a person of importance. + +Now he learned that Tantia Topi was the rider, and it was thus he +discovered that Nana Sahib was directing the operations from Cawnpore, +as Tantia Topi was his favorite lieutenant, whereas it was believed +previously that the Brahmin usurper would lead his hosts to take part in +the siege of Lucknow. + +On the 15th a sharp fight gave the British possession of the village of +Aong. The position was dearly won, for the gallant Renaud fell there, +mortally wounded. The men were about to prepare their breakfast after +the battle when news came that the enemy, strongly reinforced from +Cawnpore, were preparing to blow up a bridge over the Pandoo Nuddee, an +unfordable tributary of the Ganges, six miles ahead. Havelock called for +a special effort, the troops responded without a murmur, and advanced +through dense groves of mango trees until they came under fire. For the +second time that day they hurled themselves on the rebels, drove them +headlong out of a well-chosen position, and saved the bridge. + +Cawnpore was now only twenty-three miles distant. With the fickleness of +the rainy season the sky had cleared, and the sun beat down on the +British force with a fury that had not been experienced before that +year, though the hot weather of 1857 was noted for its exceedingly high +temperatures. The elements seemed to have joined with man to try and +stop the advance, but neither Indian sun nor Indian sepoy could +restrain that terrible host. Dogged and uncomplaining, animated rather +by the feelings of the infuriated tigress seeking reprisals for her +slain cubs than by the sentiments of soldiers engaged in an ordinary +campaign, they pressed on, until sixteen miles of that sun-scorched road +were covered. + +Then Havelock commanded a halt in a grove of trees, and two level-headed +sepoys, deserters from Nana Sahib's army, came in and told the British +general that the Nana had brought five thousand men out of Cawnpore to +do battle for his tottering dynasty. It was in vain. Though he displayed +some tactical skill, placed his men well, and did not hesitate to come +under fire in person, he was out-generaled by a flank march and sent +flying to Bithoor, there to curse his fate, befuddle his wits with +brandy, and threaten to drown himself in the Ganges. + +But the battle was not won until one of those strange incidents happened +that distinguish the Mutiny from all other wars. It must never be +forgotten that the sepoys had received their training from British +officers. Their words of command, methods of fighting, even their +uniforms, were based on European models. + +They had regimental bands, too, and the tunes in their repertoire were +those in vogue in Britain, for native music does not lend itself to +military purposes. The musicians, of course, were profoundly ignorant of +the names or significance of the melodies they had been taught to play. + +Hence, when Nana Sahib rallied his men in a village, Havelock called on +the Highlanders and 64th to take it, and the two regiments entered into +a gallant race for the position, while the Highland pipers struck up an +inspiring pibroch. Not to be outdone, a sepoy band responded with "The +Campbells are Coming!" + +And this, of all airs, to the Mackenzies! It was chance, of course, but +it added gall to the venom of the 78th. + +This fourth and greatest victory was a costly one to the British, but it +left their ardor undiminished, their reckless courage intensified. On +the next day they flung themselves against the remnant of the Nana's +army that still tried to bar the way into the city. Vague rumors had +reached the men of the dreadful tragedy enacted on the 15th. They +refused to credit them. None but maniacs would murder helpless women and +children in the belief that the crime would hinder the advance of their +rescuers. So they crushed, tore, beat a path through the suburbs, until +the leading company of Highlanders reached the Bibigarh, the House of +the Woman. + +Malcolm was with them, and he saw a sergeant enter the blood-stained +dwelling, while the men lined up in front of the Well in an awed +silence. The sergeant returned. His brick-red face had paled to an ashen +tint. In his hand he carried the long, rich strands of a woman's hair, +strands that had been hacked off some unhappy Englishwoman's head by +Nana Sahib's butchers. + +He removed his bonnet with the solemnity of a man who is in the presence +of God and death. Passing down the ranks he gave a lock of the hair to +each soldier. + +"One life for every hair before the sun sets," he said quietly. And that +was all, but there are old men yet alive in Cawnpore who remember how +the Highlanders raged through the streets that evening like the wrath of +Heaven. + +General Neill, who came later and assumed the rôle of magistrate, showed +neither pity nor mercy. Every man who fell into his hands, and who was +connected in the slightest degree with the infamy of the Well, was +hanged on a gallows erected in the compound, but not until he had +cleaned with his tongue the allotted square of blood-stained cement that +formed the floor of the house. + +Cawnpore, on the 17th, was indeed a city of dreadful night. The fierce +exultation of successful warfare was gone. The streets were empty save +for prowling dogs, pigs, and venturesome wild beasts. No sound was heard +in the British encampment except the melancholy plaint of the pipes +mourning for the dead, during the interment of those who had fallen. +Even the unconquerable Havelock said to his son, as they and the +officers of the staff sat at dinner: + +"If the worst comes to the worst we can but die with our swords in our +hands." + +Next morning his splendid vitality reasserted itself. He advanced +towards Bithoor and took up a strong position in case Nana Sahib might +attempt to recover the city. But that arch-fiend had been deserted by +the majority of his followers, and he was babbling of suicide to his +fellow Brahmins. + +Meanwhile Neill brought a few more troops from Allahabad, and Havelock +threw the greater portion of his army across the Ganges. Owing to the +difficulty of obtaining boats and skilled boatmen, this was a slow and +dangerous undertaking. It took five days to ferry nine hundred men to +the Oudh side, but Lawrence had said that the Residency could only hold +out fourteen days, and come what might the effort must be made to +relieve him. + +On the 20th while Malcolm was occupied with some details of transport, +Chumru came to him. The bearer was no longer "Ali Khan," the +swashbuckler, but a white-robed domestic, though no change of attire +could rob him of the truculent aspect that was the gift of nature. + +Beside Chumru stood another Mohammedan, an elderly man, who straightened +himself under the sahib's eye and brought up his right hand in a smart +military salute. + +"Huzoor," said Chumru, "this is Ungud, Kumpani pinsin (a pensioner of +the Company), and he would have speech with the Presence." + +"Speak, then, and quickly, for I have occupation," said Malcolm. But he +listened carefully enough to Ungud's words, for the man coolly proposed +to work his way to Lucknow and carry any message to Lawrence that the +General-sahib entrusted to him. + +It was a desperate thing to suggest. The absence of native spies from +either Cawnpore or Lucknow proved that the rebels killed, and probably +tortured all who attempted to run the gauntlet of their investing lines. +Yet Ungud was firm in his offer, so Malcolm brought him to Havelock and +the general at once wrote and gave him a letter to Lawrence, the news of +the great Commissioner's death not having reached the relieving force. + +Frank seized the opportunity to write a few lines to Winifred. He was +charged with the care of Ungud as far as the nearest river ghât, and he +scribbled the following as he rode thither: + + BRITISH FIELD FORCE, + CAWNPORE, July 20th, 1857. + + MY DEAREST WINIFRED: + + If this note is safely delivered, you will know that Sir Henry + Havelock, at the head of a strong force, is on his way to + relieve Lucknow. I am with him, as major on the staff. + + I reached Allahabad on the 4th, thanks wholly to your loving + thought in sending Chumru after me, for I was a prisoner in the + hands of a fanatical moulvie when Chumru came to my assistance. + He saved my life there, and his quick-witted devotion was shown + in many other instances during a most exciting journey. My + thoughts are always with you, dear one, and I offer many a + prayer to the Most High that you may retain your health and + spirits amid the horrors that surround you. Be confident, dear + heart, and bid your uncle tell his comrades of the garrison + that we mean to cut our way to your rescue through all + opposition. + + The bearer will endeavor to return with a reply to the general. + Perhaps you may be able to send a line with him. In any event, + I trust he will see you, and that will bring joy to my soul + when I hear of it. + + Ever your devoted + FRANK. + +By Havelock's order, a light, swift boat was placed at Ungud's disposal, +and Malcolm supplied him with plenty of money for horses and bribes on +the road, while, in the event of success, he would be liberally rewarded +afterwards. + +Now it chanced that on the 20th, about the very hour Ungud set out on +his daring mission, the Moulvie of Fyzabad managed to goad his +co-religionists into a determined assault on the Residency. + +At ten o'clock in the morning the bombardment suddenly ceased. The +garrison sentries noted an unusual gathering of the enemy's forces in +the streets and open spaces that confronted the Bailey Guard and the +other main posts on the city side. + +They gave the alarm and every man rushed to the walls. Even the sick and +wounded left their beds. Men with the fire of fever in their eyes, men +with bandaged limbs and scarce able to crawl, asked for muskets and +lined up alongside their yet unscathed comrades. + +They waited in grim silence, those war-worn soldiers of the Queen. The +signal for a furious struggle was given in dramatic fashion. A mine +exploded, a large section of the defending wall crumbled into ruins, a +hundred guns belched forth a perfect hail of round shot, sharpshooters +stationed in the neighboring houses fired their muskets as rapidly as +they could lift them from piles of loaded weapons at their command, and, +under cover of this fusillade, some three thousand rebels advanced to +the attack. + +They came on with magnificent courage. They actually succeeded in +planting scaling-ladders across the breach, and their leader, a +fierce-looking cavalry rissaldar, leaped into the ditch and stood there, +right in front of the Cawnpore battery, waving a green standard to +encourage his followers. + +He was shot by a man of the 32d, and his body formed the lowermost +layer of a causeway of corpses that soon choked the ditch. But the +concentrated fire of the defenders checked this most audacious of the +many assaults delivered during four hours' fighting. At two o'clock +the attack slackened and died away. The rebels had lost some hundreds, +while the British had only four men killed and twelve wounded. + +There was much jubilation among the garrison at this outcome of the +long-expected and dreaded attack. It added to their spirit of +self-reliance, and it cast down the hopes of the mutineers to a +corresponding degree; because their moral inferiority was proved beyond +dispute. Like all Asiatics, they had not dared to press on in the face +of death. With one whole-hearted rush those three thousand fighters +could have swarmed into the Residency against all the efforts of the few +Europeans and natives who resisted them. But that rush was never made by +the assailants as a mass. Not once in the history of the Mutiny did the +sepoys adopt the "do or die" method that characterized the British +troops in nearly every action of the campaign. + +When the moon rose on the night of the 21st a sharp-eyed sentry saw a +man creeping across the broken ground in front of the Bailey Guard. +He raised his rifle, but his orders were to challenge any one who +approached thus secretly, lest, perchance, a messenger from some +relieving force might be slain by error. + +"Who goes there?" he cried. + +"A friend," was the answer, but the rest of the stranger's words showed +that he was a native. + +The sentry was no linguist. + +"You _baito_[21] where you are," he commanded, bidding a comrade summon +an officer, "or somebody who can talk the lingo." + +[Footnote 21: "Stop."] + +Within a minute the newcomer was admitted. It was Ungud, who had run +the gauntlet of the enemy's pickets and who now triumphantly produced +Havelock's letter to "Larrence-sahib Bahadur." Alas, Henry Lawrence was +dead, but Brigadier Inglis, who succeeded him in the command, now learnt +that Havelock had defeated Nana Sahib, occupied Cawnpore, and was +advancing to the relief of Lucknow. + +How the great news buzzed through the Residency! How men grasped each +other's hands in glee and exultation and sought leave to take the joyful +tidings to the hospital and the women's quarters! + +Mayne aroused Winifred to tell her. + +"Perhaps Malcolm was able to get through to Allahabad," he said. "When +you come to think of the difficulties in the way of our troops--this +man says they have fought three if not four pitched battles between +Fattehpore and Cawnpore--we have been unreasonable in looking for help +so soon." + +"Mr. Malcolm would surely succeed if it were possible. He understands +the native character so well and is so proficient in their language, +that he was the best man who could be chosen for such a task." + +And that was all that Winifred would say about "Mr. Malcolm," who would +have been the most miserable and the most astonished person in India +that night had he known how bitter was the girl's heart against him. + +Though Winifred was not to blame, for the necklace and the pass offered +strong evidence of double-dealing on her lover's part, her unjust +suspicions were doomed to receive a severe shock. + +In the morning she heard that Captain Fulton wished to see her. She left +her quarters by a covered way and waited outside the Begum Kotee until a +soldier found Fulton. + +He came, bringing with him a native. + +"This is the man who arrived from Cawnpore last night, Miss Mayne," he +said. "He has a letter for you, but he refuses to deliver it to any one +but yourself. I fancy," added the gallant engineer officer with a smile, +"that the sender impressed on him the importance of its reaching the +right hands." + +Winifred caught a glimpse of Frank's handwriting. Her face grew scarlet. +For one delightful instant she forgot the harsh thoughts she had +harbored against him. Then the scourge of memory tortured her. Fulton's +kindly assumption that Malcolm was her fiancé must be dispelled and she +bit her lower lip in vexation at the tell-tale rush of color that had +mantled her cheeks when Ungud discharged his trust and gave her the +letter. + +"It is from Captain Malcolm," she said coldly. "I suppose he wishes his +personal belongings to be safeguarded. I am surprised he did not write +to my uncle rather than to me." + +Fulton was surprised, but he laughed lightly. + +"Every one to his taste," he said; "but from what little I have seen of +Malcolm I should wager that nine out of ten letters addressed to the +Mayne family would be intended for you, Miss Winifred. By the way, a +word in your ear. General Inglis hopes to persuade our friend here to +try his luck on a return journey to-night. Perhaps you may have a note +to send on your own account. No one else must know. This is a special +favor, conferred because Malcolm himself procured Ungud's services, but +we cannot ask the man to act as general postman. Good-by." + +He hurried away. Winifred, after the manner of woman, fingered the +unopened letter. + +"Kuch joab hai, miss-sahib?" asked Ungud. + +"There is no answer--yet. I will give you one later." + +The girl's Hindustani went far enough to enable her to frame the reply +intelligibly. Ungud salaamed and left her, probably contrasting in his +own mind the lady's frigidity with the fervid instructions given him by +the officer-sahib. + +Then Winifred went to her own room and opened her letter, and her +woman's heart gleaned the truth from its candor. Of course she cried. +What girl wouldn't? But she smiled through her tears and read the nice +bits over and over again. Not for twenty necklaces and a whole file of +hieroglyphic passes would she doubt Frank any more. + +The reference to Chumru puzzled her and that was a gratifying thing in +itself, for if Frank could be mistaken about her share in Chumru's +departure from Lucknow, why should not she be wrong in her +interpretation of the mysterious presence of the necklace? + +When her uncle came she wept again, being hysterical with the sheer joy +of watching his face while he perused Frank's note. + +A man's bewilderment finds different expression to a woman's. A man +trusts his brain, a woman her heart. + +"If there is one thing absolutely clear in this letter it is that Frank +knows nothing whatever about the pearls you produced from his turban," +said Mr. Mayne, with the frown of a judge who is dealing with a knotty +point in equity. + +"There are--several things--quite clear in it--to me," fluttered +Winifred. + +"Ah, hum, yes. But I mean that it is ridiculous to suppose he would +knowingly leave such a valuable article exposed to the chances and +changes of barrack-room life in a siege. Whatever motive he may have had +in concealing the necklace earlier he would surely have said something +about it now, given some hint as to its value, asked you to take care of +his baggage, or something of the sort." + +"In my heart of hearts I always felt that we were misjudging Frank," +said she. + +Mayne's eyebrows lifted a trifle, but he passed no comment. + +"By the way," he said, "where is the necklace?" + +"Here," she said, pulling a box out of a cupboard. The string of pearls +was coiled up in the midst of the roll of soiled muslin and the badge +was pinned to one of the folds. + +"That is a very unsafe place," said Mayne. "If I were you I would wear +it beneath your bodice." + +"Would you really?" + +"Yes. I can think of no other explanation of the mystery now than that +Frank meant to surprise you with it. You may be sure he obtained it +honorably, so you will only be meeting his wishes by wearing it. At any +rate it will be safer in your possession than in that cupboard." + +"Perhaps you are right," said she. And while she clasped the +diamond-studded brooch in front of her white throat she glanced round +the room for a mirror. + +Her uncle smiled. He was glad that this little cloud had lifted off +Winifred's sky. The sufferings and positive dangers of the siege were +bad enough already without being added to by a private grief. + +He stooped to pick up the turban and his eye fell on the regimental +device of the metal badge. + +"This is not an officer's head-dress," he cried. "And Malcolm belongs to +the 3d Cavalry, whereas this badge was worn by a trooper in the 2d." + +Winifred, who was turning her neck and shoulders this way and that to +get different angles of light, stopped admiring herself and ran to his +side. + +"That is the turban Frank wore during our ride from Cawnpore," she +whispered breathlessly. + +"It may be. But don't you remember that he was bareheaded when we met +him in Nana Sahib's garden? I was knocked almost insensible during the +fight for the boat so I am not sure what happened during the next few +minutes. Nevertheless, I can recall that prior fact beyond cavil. If it +were not for the safe-conduct you found at the same time as the pearls, +I would incline strongly to the belief that Frank obtained this turban +by accident, and is wholly ignorant of its extraordinary contents." + +"I must write at once and tell him how sorry I am that I misjudged him." + +"You dear little goose," cried her uncle amusedly, "Frank will begin to +wonder then what the judging was about. No. Wait until you meet. Write, +by all means, but leave problems for settlement during your first +tête-a-tête." + +So Ungud carried in his turban a loving and sympathetic note, which +Winifred, with no small pride, addressed to "Major Frank Malcolm, +Headquarters Staff, British Field Force, Cawnpore," and she said inside, +among other things, that she hoped this would prove to be the first +letter he received with the inscription of his new rank. + +Ungud also took confidential details from the Brigadier for Havelock's +information, and in three days, being as supple as an eel and cautious +as a leopard, he was back again with a reply from the general to the +effect that the relieving force would arrive in less than a week. + +He brought another missive from Frank, cheery and optimistic in tone and +still blithely oblivious of the existence of such baubles as +hundred-thousand-dollar necklaces. + +And that was all the news that either the garrison or Winifred received +for more than a month, when the intrepid Ungud again entered the lines +to bring Havelock's ominous advice: "Do not negotiate, but rather perish +sword in hand." + +This time there was no letter from Frank, and the alarmed, +half-despairing girl could only learn that the major-sahib was not with +the column, which had been compelled to fall back on Cawnpore after some +heavy fighting in Oudh. Ungud did not think he was dead; but who could +tell? There were so many sahibs who fell, for out of his twelve hundred +Havelock had lost nearly half, and was now eating his heart out in a +weary wait for re-enforcements that were toiling up the thousand miles +of road and river from Calcutta. + +So the blackness of disappointed hope fell on the Residency and its +inmates. Those few natives who had hitherto proved faithful began to +desert in scores. About a third of the European soldiers were dead. +Smallpox and cholera added their ravages to the enemy's unceasing fire +and occasional fierce assaults. Famine and tainted water, and lack of +hospital stores, and every evil device of malign fate that persecutes +people in such straits, were there to harass the unhappy defenders. +Officers and men swore that they would shoot their women-folk with their +own hands rather than permit them to fall into the rebels' clutches, +and, at times, when the siege slackened a little in its continuous +cannonade, the devoted community gave way to lethargy and despondency. + +But let the enemy muster for an attack, these veteran soldiers faced +them with the dogged steadfastness that made them gods among the Asiatic +scum. The Brigadier, too, never allowed his splendid spirit to flag. +Though for three months he had not slept without being fully dressed, +though he worked harder than any other man in the garrison, he was the +life and soul of every outpost that he visited during the day or night. + +Captain Fulton was another human dynamo in their midst. Finding plenty +of miners among the Cornishmen of the 32d, he sunk a countermine for +each mine burrowed by the enemy. His favorite amusement was to sit alone +for hours in a shaft, wait patiently until the rebels bored a way up to +him, and then shoot the foremost workers. + +And in such fashion the siege went on, with houses collapsing, because +they were so riddled with cannon-balls that the walls gave way, and +ever-nearing sapping of the fortifications, and intolerable breaks in +the monsoon, when the heat became so overpowering that even the natives +yielded to the strain--and the days passed, and the weeks, and the +months, until, on September 16, Ungud, tempted by a bribe of five +thousand rupees, crept away for the last time with despatches for +Havelock. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +WHY MALCOLM DID NOT WRITE + + +It was the saddest hour in Havelock's life when he decided that his +Invincibles must retreat. Yet, after another week's fighting, that +course was forced on him. + +On July 25 he plunged fearlessly into Oudh, leaving a wide and rapid +river in his rear, with other rivers, canals, and fortified towns and +villages in front, on three sides swarms of determined enemies gathered +under the standards of Nana Sahib and the Oudh Taluqdars, and everywhere +a hostile if not actually mutinous peasantry. + +With his usual daring, trusting to the unsurpassed élan of his troops, +he fought battles at Onao and Busseerutgunge. Then when the thunder of +the fighting was faintly heard by listeners in the Residency, Havelock +took thought and regretted that he had ventured to leave Cawnpore. + +His force numbered about half the men who marched out of Allahabad on +the 7th. Cholera had broken out; stores were scanty; there was not a +single litter for another wounded man; and, worst of all, ammunition was +failing. To advance farther meant the total destruction of his little +army, the sure and instant fall of the Residency, and the disappearance +of the British flag from an enormous territory. + +Yet he hesitated before he gave the final order. He fell back a couple +of marches and wrote to Neill on the 31st that he could "do nothing for +the relief of Lucknow," until he received a re-enforcement of a thousand +men and a new battery. + +Neill, who was holding Cawnpore with three hundred rifles, returned the +most amazing reply that ever a subordinate officer addressed to his +chief. + +"The natives don't believe you have won any real victories," he wrote, +in effect. "Your retreat has destroyed the prestige of England. While +you are waiting for re-enforcements that cannot arrive Lucknow will be +lost. You must advance again and not halt until you have rescued the +garrison. Then return here sharp, as there is much to be done between +this and Agra and Delhi." + +Neill's zeal outran his discretion. Havelock told him in plain language +his opinion of this curious epistle. + +"Your letter is the most extraordinary I have ever perused," he said.... +"Consideration of the obstruction which would arise in the public +service alone prevents me from placing you under immediate arrest. You +now stand warned. Attempt no further dictation." + +Yet Neill's advice rankled and there were men on Havelock's staff who +agreed with the outspoken Irishman. Neill, however, coolly bottled his +wrath and sent on a company of the 84th and three guns. + +They brought despatches from Sir Patrick Grant, Commander-in-Chief at +Calcutta, telling Havelock that the troops sent from the capital had +been turned aside to deal with mutineers in Behar. + +The gallant Crimean veteran therefore hardened his heart, set out once +more for Lucknow and fought another most successful battle at +Busseerutgunge. There could be no questioning either the victory or its +cost. Another such success and his column would not number a half +battalion. + +That night he watched the weary soldiers digging graves for their fallen +comrades, and, while his brain was torn with conflicting problems, a spy +brought news that the powerful Gwalior Contingent was marching to seize +Cawnpore. He hesitated no longer. As a general he had no right to be +swayed by emotion. He must protect Cawnpore as a base and trust to the +fortune of war that Lucknow might keep the flag flying. + +Malcolm was with him when he formed this resolution. Outwardly cold, Sir +Henry seemed to his youthful observer, who now knew him better, to +resemble a volcano coated with ice. + +"Major," he said, "the column will retreat at daybreak. But I will get +my other aides to make arrangements. Are you quite recovered from your +wound? Are you capable of undergoing somewhat severe exertion, I mean?" + +Frank answered modestly that he thought he had never been better in +health or strength, though he wondered inwardly what sort of exertion +could be more "severe" than his experiences of the preceding three +weeks. + +But Havelock knew what he was talking about, as shall be seen. + +"I want you to make the best of your way to Delhi," he said in his +unbending way. "I leave details to you, except that I would like you to +start to-night if possible. Of course any kind of escort that is +available would be fatal to your success, but, if I remember his record +rightly, that servant of yours may be useful. I do not propose to give +you any despatches. If you get through tell the Commander-in-Chief in +the Punjab exactly how we are situated here. Tell him Lucknow will not +be relieved for nearly two months, but that I will hold Cawnpore till +the last man falls. I hope and trust you may be spared to make the +journey in safety. If you succeed you will receive a gratuity and a step +in rank. Good-by!" + +He held out his hand, and his calm eyes kindled for a moment. Then Frank +found himself walking to his tent and reviewing all that this meant to +Winifred and himself. He was none the less a brave man if his lips +trembled somewhat and there came a tightening of the throat that +suspiciously resembled a sob. + +Two months! Could a delicate girl live so long in another such Inferno +at Lucknow as he had seen in Wheeler's abandoned entrenchment at +Cawnpore? + +"God help us both!" he murmured bitterly, passing a hand involuntarily +over his misty eyes. With the action he brushed away doubt and fears. He +was a soldier again, one to whom hearing and obedience were identical. + +"Chumru," he said, when he found his domestic scratching mud off a coat +with his nails for lack of a clothes-brush, "we set out for Delhi +to-night, you and I." + +"All right, sahib," was the unexpected parry to this astounding thrust, +and Chumru kept on with his task. + +"It is a true thing," said Malcolm, who knew full well that the +Mohammedan understood the extraordinary difficulty of such a mission. +"It is the General-sahib's order, and he wishes you to go with me. Will +you come?" + +"Huzoor, have you ever gone anywhere without me since you came to my hut +that night when I was stricken with smallpox--" + +"Only once, you rascal, and then you came after me to my great good +fortune. Very well, then; that is settled. Stop raising dust and listen. +We ride to-night. Let us discuss the manner of our traveling, for 'tis a +long road and full of mischief." + +Chumru laid aside the garment and tickled his wiry hair underneath his +turban. + +"By the Kaaba," he growled, "such roads lead to Jehannum more easily +than to Delhi. Do you go to the Princess Roshinara, sahib?" + +Malcolm's overwrought feelings found vent in a hearty laugh. + +"What fiend tempted thee to think of her, owl?" he cried. + +"Nay, sahib, no fiend other than a woman. What else would bring your +honor to Delhi? Is there not occupation here in plenty?" + +"I tell thee, image, that the General-sahib hath ordered it. And I am +making for the British camp on the Ridge, not for the city." + +Chumru dismissed the point. He was a fatalist and he probably reserved +his opinion. Malcolm had beguiled the long night after they left Rai +Bareilly with the story of his strange meetings with the King's +daughter. To the Eastern mind there was Kismet in such happenings. + +"I would you had not lost Bahadur Shah's pass, huzoor," he said. "That +would be worth a bagful of gold mohurs on the north road now. But, as +matters stand, we must fall back on walnut juice. You have blue eyes and +fair hair, alack, yet must we--" + +"What! Wouldst thou make me a brother of thine?" demanded Malcolm, +understanding that the walnut juice was intended to darken his skin. + +"There is no other way, huzoor. This is no ride of a night. We shall be +seven days, let us go at the best, and meeting budmashes at every mile. +If you did not talk Urdu like one of us, sahib, I should bid you die +here in peace rather than fall in the first village. Still, we may have +luck, and you can bandage your hair and forehead and swear that those +cursed Feringhis nearly cut your scalp off. But you must be rubbed all +over, sahib, until you are the color of brown leather, for we can have +no patches of white skin showing where, perchance, your garments are +rent." + +Malcolm saw the wisdom of the suggestion and fell in with it. While +Chumru went to compound walnut juice in the nearest bazaar, he, in +pursuance of the plan they had concocted together, got a native writer +to compile a letter which purported to emanate from Nana Sahib, and was +addressed to Bahadur Shah. It was a very convincing document. Malcolm +contributed a garbled history of recent events, and one of the Brahmin's +seals, which came into Havelock's possession when Cawnpore was occupied, +lent verisimilitude to the script. + +Then the Englishman covered himself with an oily compound that Chumru +assured him would darken his skin effectually before morning, though the +present effect was more obvious to the nose than to the eye. Chumru +donned his rissaldar Brahmin's uniform and Malcolm secured a similar +outfit from a native officer on the staff. Well-armed and well-mounted +the pair crossed the Ganges north of Bithoor, gained the Grand Trunk +Road and were far from the British column when they drew rein for their +first halt of more than an hour's duration. + +They had adventures galore on the road to Delhi, but Chumru's repertory +of oaths anent the Nazarenes, and Malcolm's dignified hauteur as a +messenger of the man who ranked higher in the native world than the +octogenarian king, carried them through without grave risk. True, they +had a close shave or two. + +Once a suspicious sepoy who knew every native officer in the 7th +Cavalry, to which corps "Rissaldar Ali Khan" was supposed to belong, had +to be quietly choked to death within earshot of a score of his own +comrades who were marching to the Mogul capital. On another occasion, a +moulvie, or Mohammedan priest, was nearly the cause of their undoing. +Malcolm was not sufficiently expert in the ritual of the Rêka and this +shortcoming aroused the devotee's ire, but he was calmed by Chumru's +assurance that his excellent friend, Laiq Ahmed, was still suffering +from the wound inflicted by the condemned Giaours, and the storm blew +over. + +These incidents simply served to enliven a tedious journey. Its main +features were climatic discomfort and positive starvation. Rain storms, +hot winds, sweltering intervals of intolerable heat--these were vagaries +of nature and might be endured. But the absence of food was a more +serious matter. The passage to and fro of rebel detachments had +converted the Grand Trunk Road into a wilderness. The sepoys paid for +nothing and looted Mohammedans and Hindus alike. After two months of +constant pilfering the unhappy ryots had little left. For the most part +they deserted their hovels, gathered such few valuables as had escaped +the human locusts who devoured their substance, and either retreated to +remote villages or boldly sought a living in some other province. +Indeed, it may be said in all candor that the Mutiny caused far more +misery to the great mass of the people than to the foreign rulers +against whom it was supposed to be directed. The sufferings of the +English residents in India were terrible and the treatment meted out to +them was unspeakably vile, but for one English life sacrificed during +the country's red year there were five hundred natives killed by the +very men who professed to defend their interests. + +Malcolm and Chumru were given proof in plenty of this fact as they rode +along. Generations of local feuds had taught the villagers to construct +their rude shanties in such wise that any place of fairly large +population formed a strong fort. Where the ryots were collected in +sufficient numbers to render such a proceeding possible, they armed +themselves not only against the British but against all the world. + +Many times the travelers were fired at by men who took them for sepoys, +and they often found active hostilities in progress between a party of +desperate rebels who wanted food and a horde of sturdy villagers who +refused to treat with men in any sort of uniform. + +Still, they managed to live. In the fields they found ripening grain and +an abundance of that small millet or pulse-pea known as gram, which is +the staple food of horses in India. Occasionally Malcolm shot a peacock, +but shooting birds with a revolver is a difficult sport and wasteful of +ammunition. Where hares were plentiful Chumru seldom failed to snare one +during the night. These were feast days. At other times they chewed +millet and were thankful for small mercies. + +The journey occupied nearly twice the time of their original estimate. +Nejdi, good horse as he was, wanted a rest; Chumru's steed was liable to +break down any hour; and it was a sheer impossibility to obtain a +remount in that wasted tract. + +All things considered it was a wonderful achievement when, on the +evening of the eleventh day, they began their last march. + +They planned matters so that the Jumna lay between them and their goal. +When they left the tope of trees in which they had slept away the hot +hours their ostensible aim was the bridge of boats which carried the +Meerut road across the river into the imperial city. + +That was their story if they fell in with company. In reality they meant +to leave the dangerous locality with the best speed their horses were +capable of. There could be no doubt that Delhi was the stronghold of the +mutineers. Even discounting by ninety per cent the grandiloquent stories +they heard, it was evident that the British still held the ridge, but +were rather besieged than besiegers. For the rest, the natives were +assured that the foreign rule had passed forever. Their version of the +position was that "great fighting took place daily and the Nazarenes +were being slaughtered in hundreds." + +The one statement nullified the other. Malcolm reasoned, correctly +as it happened, that the British force was able to hold its own, but +not strong enough to take the city; that the Punjab was quiet and +that the general in command on the ridge was biding his time until +re-enforcements arrived. Therefore if Chumru and he could strike the +left bank of the Jumna, a few miles above Delhi, there should be no +difficulty in crossing the stream and reaching the British camp. + +For once, a well-laid scheme did not reveal unforeseen pitfalls. He had +the good fortune to fall in with a corps of irregular horse scouting for +a half-expected flank attack by the rebels, in the gray dawn of the +morning of August 11. Chumru and he were nearly shot by mistake, but +that is ever the risk of those who wear an enemy's uniform, and by this +time, John Company's livery was quite discredited in the land which he, +in his corporate capacity, had opened up to Europeans. + +Moreover, between dirt and walnut-stain Malcolm was like an animated +bronze statue, and it was good to see the incredulous expression on a +brother officer's face when he rode up with the cheery cry: + +"By Jove, old fellow, I am glad to see you. I am Malcolm of the 3d +Cavalry, and I have brought news from General Havelock." + +The leader of the scouting party, a stalwart subaltern of dragoons, +thought that it was a piece of impudence on the part of this "dark" +stranger to address him so familiarly. + +"I happen to be acquainted with Mr. Malcolm--" he began. + +"Not so well as I know him, Saumarez," said Frank, laughing. He had not +counted on his disguise being so complete. But the laugh proved his +identity, for there is more distinctive character in a man's mirth than +in any other inflection of the voice. + +Saumarez testified to an amazed recognition in the approved manner of a +dragoon. + +"Either you are Malcolm or I am bewitched," he cried. Then he looked at +Chumru. + +"This gentleman, no doubt, is at least a brigadier," he went on. "But, +joking apart, have you really ridden from Allahabad?" + +The question showed the lack of information of events farther south +that obtained in the Punjab. By this time the sepoys had torn down +the telegraph posts and cut the wires in all directions. Even between +Cawnpore and Calcutta, whenever they crossed the Grand Trunk Road they +destroyed the telegraph. As one of them said, looking up at a damaged +pole which was about to serve as his gallows: + +"Ah, you are able to hang me now because that cursed wire strangled all +of us in our sleep." + +His metaphor was correct enough. There is no telling what might have +been the course of history in India if the sepoys had stopped +telegraphic communication from the North to Calcutta early in May. + +Malcolm gave Saumarez a summary of affairs in the Northwest Provinces +as they rode on ahead of the troop. + +"And now," he said, "how do matters stand here?" + +"You have used the right word," said the other. "Stand! That is just +what we are doing. We've had three commander-in-chiefs and each one is +more timid than his predecessor. Thank goodness Nicholson arrived four +days ago. Things will begin to move now." + +"Is that the Peshawar Nicholson?" asked Frank, remembering that Hodson +had spoken of a man of that name, a man who would "horse-whip into the +saddle" a general who feared to assume responsibility. + +"Yes. Haven't you seen him? By gad, he's a wonder. A giant of a fellow +with an eye like a hawk and a big black beard that seems, somehow, to +suggest a blacksmith. He turned up at our mess on the first evening he +was in camp. Everybody was laughing and joking as usual and he never +said a word. I didn't understand it at the time, but I noticed that +Nicholson just glowered at each man who told a funny story, and, by +degrees, we were all sitting like mutes at a funeral. Then he said, in a +deep voice that made us jump: 'When some of you gentlemen can spare me a +moment I shall be glad to hear what you have been doing here during the +last ten weeks.' There was no sneer in his words. We have had fighting +enough, Heaven knows, but we felt that by 'doing' he meant 'attacking,' +not 'defending.' Sure as death, he will create a stir. Indeed, the +leaven is working already. He sent me out here this morning, as he has +gone to meet the movable column from Lahore, and there was a rumor of a +sortie from Delhi to cut it off." + +Malcolm fresh from association with Havelock realized that a grave and +serious-minded soldier could ill brook the jests and idle talk that +dominated the average military mess of the period. + +"Nicholson sounds like the right man in the right place," he commented. + +The dragoon vouched for it emphatically. + +"He has put an end to pony-racing and quoits," said he, "and there is to +be no more fighting in our shirt sleeves. Bear in mind, we have had a +deuce of a time. I've been in twenty-one fights myself, and that is not +all. The sepoys usually swarm out hell-for-leather and we rush to meet +them. There is a scrimmage for an hour or so, we shove 'em back, Hodson +gets in a bit of saber-work, we pick up the wounded, tell off a burial +party, and start a cricket match or a gymkhana. Of course the fighting +is stiff while it lasts and my regiment has lost its two best bowlers, a +really sound bat and a crack rider in the pony heats. Still if we don't +lose any ground we gain none, and I can't help agreeing with Nicholson +that war isn't a picnic." + +Frank managed not to smile at the naïveté of his companion. Though +Saumarez was nearly his own age he felt that their difference in rank +was not nearly so great as the divergence in their conception of the +magnitude of the task before Britain in India. Nevertheless Saumarez saw +that Nicholson was a force, and that was something. + +"Is the Hodson you mention the same man who rode from Kurnaul to Meerut +before the affair of Ghazi-ud-din-Nuggur?" he asked. + +"Yes, same chap. A regular firebrand and no mistake. He has gathered a +crowd of dare-devils known as Hodson's Horse, and they go into action +with a dash that I thought was only to be found in regular cavalry. But +here we are at our ghât. That is a weedy-looking Arab you are +riding--plenty of bone, though. Will he go aboard a budgerow without any +fuss?" + +"Oh, yes. He will do most things," was the quiet reply. + +Malcolm dismounted and fondled Nejdi's black muzzle. How little the +light-hearted dragoon guessed what those two had endured together! Nejdi +as a weed was a new rôle. For an instant Frank thought of making a match +with his friend's best charger after Nejdi had had a week's rest. + +It was altogether a changed audience that Havelock's messenger secured +that evening when Nicholson rode to the ridge with the troops sent from +the north by Sir John Lawrence, Edwardes, and Montgomery, while the +generosity of Bartle Frere in sending from Scinde regiments he could ill +spare should be mentioned in the same breath. + +Saumarez's "giant of a fellow" was there, and Archdale Wilson, the +commander-in-chief, and Neville Chamberlain, and Baird-Smith, and Hervey +Greathed. Inspired by the presence of such men Malcolm entered upon a +full account of occurrences at Lucknow, Cawnpore and elsewhere during +the preceding month. His hearers were aware of Henry Lawrence's death +and the beginning of the siege of Lucknow. They had heard of Massacre +Ghât, the Well, and Havelock's advance, but they were dependent on +native rumor and an occasional spy for their information, and Frank's +epic narrative was the first complete and true history that had been +given them. + +He was seldom interrupted. Occasionally when he was tempted to slur over +some of the dangers he had overcome personally, a question from one or +other of the five would force him to be more explicit. + +Naturally, he spoke freely of the magnificent exploits of Havelock's +column and he saw Nicholson ticking off each engagement, each tremendous +march, each fine display of strategic genius on the part of the general, +with an approving nod and shake of his great beard. + +"You have done well, young man," said General Wilson when Frank's long +recital came to an end. "What rank did you hold on General Havelock's +staff?" + +"That of major, sir." + +"You are confirmed in the same rank here. I have no doubt your services +will be further recognized at the close of the campaign." + +"If Havelock had the second thousand men he asked for he would now be +marching here," growled Nicholson. + +No one spoke for a little while. The under meaning of the giant's words +was plain. Havelock had moved while they stood still. The criticism was +a trifle unjust, perhaps, but men with Napoleonic ideas are impatient +of the limitations that afflict their less powerful brethren. If India +were governed exclusively by Nicholsons, Lawrences, Havelocks, Hodsons, +and Neills, there would never have been a mutiny. It was Britain's rare +good fortune that they existed at all and came to the front when the +fiery breath of war had scorched and shriveled the nonentities who held +power and place at the outbreak of hostilities. + +Then some one passed a remark on Frank's appearance. He was bareheaded. +The fair hair and blue eyes that had perplexed Chumru looked strangely +out of keeping with his brown skin. + +"How in the world did you manage to escape detection during your ride +north?" he was asked. + +He explained Chumru's device, and they laughed. Like Havelock, +Baird-Smith thought the Mohammedan would make a good soldier. + +"With all his pluck, sir, he is absolutely afraid of using a pistol," +said Frank. "He was offered the highest rank as a native officer, but he +refused it." + +"Then, by gad, we must make him a zemindar. Tell him I said so and that +we all agree on that point." + +When Frank gave the message to Chumru it was received with a demoniac +grin. + +"By the Holy Kaaba," came the gleeful cry, "I told the Moulvie of +Fyzabad that I was in the way of earning a jaghir, and behold, it is +promised to me!" + +Next day Malcolm, somewhat lighter in tint after a hot bath, made +himself acquainted with the camp. Seldom has war brought together such +a motley assemblage of races as gathered on the Ridge during the siege +of Delhi. The far-off isles of the sea were represented by men from +every shire, and Britain's mixed heritage in the East sent a bewildering +variety of types. Small, compactly built Ghoorkahs hobnobbed with +stalwart Highlanders; lively Irishmen made friends of gaunt, saturnine +Pathans; bearded Sikhs extended grave courtesies to pert-nosed Cockneys; +"gallant little Wales" might be seen tending the needs of wounded +Mohammedans from the Punjab. The language bar proved no obstacle to the +men of the rank and file. A British private would sit and smoke in +solemn and friendly silence with a hook-nosed Afghan, and the two would +rise cheerfully after an hour passed in that fashion with nothing in +common between them save the memory of some deadly thrust averted when +they fought one day in the hollow below Hindu Rao's house, or a draught +of water tendered when one or other lay gasping and almost done to death +in a struggle for the village of Subsee Mundee. + +The British soldier, who has fought and bled in so many lands, showed +his remarkable adaptability to circumstances by the way in which he made +himself at home on the reverse slope of the Ridge. A compact town had +sprung up there with its orderly lines of huts and tents, its long rows +of picketed horses, commissariat bullocks and elephants, its churches, +hospitals, playgrounds, race-course and cemetery. + +Malcolm took in the general scheme of things while he walked along the +Ridge towards the most advanced picket at Hindu Rao's House. On the left +front lay Delhi, beautiful as a dream in the brilliant sunshine. The +intervening valley was scarred and riven with water-courses, strewn with +rocks, covered with ruined mosques, temples, tombs, and houses, and +smothered in an overgrowth of trees, shrubs, and long grasses. Roads +were few, but tortuous paths ran everywhere, and it was easy to see how +the rebels could steal out unobserved during the night and creep close +up to the pickets before they revealed their whereabouts by a burst of +musketry. Happily they never learnt to reserve their fire. Every man +would blaze away at the first alarm, and then, of course, in those days +of muzzle-loaders, the more resolute British troops could get to close +quarters without serious loss. Still the men who held the Ridge had many +casualties, and until Nicholson came the rebel artillery was infinitely +more powerful than the British. Behind his movable column, however, +marched a strong siege train. When that arrived the gunners could make +their presence felt. Thus far not one of the enemy's guns had been +dismounted. + +Frank had ocular proof of their strength in this arm before he +reached Hindu Rao's house. The Guides, picturesque in their loose, +gray-colored shirts and big turbans, sent one of their cavalry squadrons +over the Ridge on some errand. They moved at a sharp canter, but the +Delhi gunners had got the range and were ready, and half a dozen +eighteen-pound balls crashed into the trees and rocks almost in the +exact line of advance. A couple of guns on the British right took up the +challenge, and the duel went on long after the Guides were swallowed up +in the green depths of the valley. + +At last Malcolm stood in the shelter-trench of the picket and gazed at +the city which was the hub of the Mutiny. Beyond the high, red-brick +walls he saw the graceful dome and minarets of the Jumma Musjid, while +to the left towered the frowning battlements of the King's palace. To +the left again, and nearer, was the small dome of St. James's Church +with its lead roof riddled then, as it remains to this day, with the +bullets fired by the rebels in the effort to dislodge the ball and cross +which surmounted it. For the rest his eyes wandered over a noble array +of mosques and temples, flat-roofed houses of nobles of the court and +residences of the wealthy merchants who dwelt in the imperial city. + +The far-flung panorama behind the walls had a curiously peaceful aspect. +Even the puffs of white smoke from the guns, curling upwards like tiny +clouds in the lazy air, had no tremors until a heavy shot hurtled +overhead or struck a resounding blow at the already ruined walls of the +big house near the post. + +The 61st were on picket that day and one of the men, speaking with a +strong Gloucestershire accent, said to Malcolm: + +"Well, zur, they zay we'll be a-lootin' there zoon." + +"I hope so," was the reply, but the phrase set him a-thinking. + +Within that shining palace most probably was a woman to whom he owed his +life. In another palace, many a hundred miles away, was another woman +for whom he would willingly risk that life if only he could save her +from the fate that the private of the 61st was gloating over in +anticipation. + +What a mad jumble of opposites was this useless and horrible war! At any +rate why could not women be kept out of it and let men adjust their +quarrel with the stern arbitrament of sword and gun! + +Then he recalled Chumru's words anent the Princess Roshinara, and the +fancy seized him that if he were destined to enter Delhi with the +besiegers he would surely strive to repay the service she had rendered +Winifred and Mayne and himself at Bithoor. + +That is the way man proposes and that is why the gods smile when they +dispose of man's affairs. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +AT THE KING'S COURT + + +Without guns to breach the walls, even the heroic Nicholson was +powerless against a strongly fortified city. + +The siege train was toiling slowly across the Punjab, but the setting in +of the monsoon rendered the transit of heavy cannon a laborious task. + +On the 24th of August an officer rode in from the town of Baghput, +twenty-five miles to the north, to report that the train was parked +there for the night. + +"What sort of escort accompanies it?" asked Nicholson, when the news +reached him. + +"Almost exclusively natives and few in numbers at that," he was told. + +An hour later a native spy from Delhi came to the camp. + +"The mutineers are mustering for a big march," he said. "They are +providing guns, litters, and commissariat camels, and the story goes +that they mean to fight the Feringhis at Bahadurgarh." + +The place named was a large village, ten miles northwest of the ridge, +and Nicholson guessed instantly that the sepoys had planned the daring +coup of cutting off the siege train. With him, to hear was to act. He +formed a column of two thousand men and a battery of field artillery and +left the camp at dawn on the 25th. If a forced march could accomplish +it, he meant not only to frustrate the enemy's design but inflict a +serious defeat on them. + +Malcolm went with him and never had he taken part in a harder day's +work. The road was a bullock track, a swamp of mud amid the larger swamp +of the ploughed land and jungle. Horses and men floundered through it as +best they might. The guns often sank almost to the trunnions; many a +time the infantry had to help elephants and bullocks to haul them out. + +In seven hours the column only marched nine miles, and then came the +disheartening news that the spy's information was wrong. The rebels had, +indeed, sent out a strong force, but they were at Nujufgarh, miles away +to the right. + +Officers and men ate a slight meal, growled a bit, and swung off in the +new direction. At four o'clock in the afternoon they found the sepoy +army drawn up behind a canal, with its right protected by another canal, +and the center and left posted in fortified villages. Evidently, too, +a stout serai, or inn, a square building surrounding a quadrangle set +apart for the lodgment of camels and merchandise was regarded as a +stronghold. Here were placed six guns and the walls were loopholed for +musketry. + +In a word, had the mutineers been equal in courage and _morale_ to the +British troops, the resultant attack must have ended in disastrous +failure. + +But Nicholson was a leader who took the measure of his adversaries. +Above all, he did not shirk a battle because it was risky. + +The 61st made a flank march, forded the branch canal under fire and were +ordered to lie down. Nicholson rode up to them, a commanding figure on a +seventeen-hands English hunter. + +"Now, 61st," he said, "I want you to take that serai and the guns. You +all know what Sir Colin Campbell told you at Chillianwallah, and you +have heard that he said the same thing at the battle of the Alma. 'Hold +your fire until you see the whites of their eyes,' he said, 'and then, +my boys, we will make short work of it.' Come on! Let us follow his +advice here!" + +Swinging his horse around, he rode straight at serai and battery. +Grape-shot and bullets sang the death-song of many a brave fellow, but +Nicholson was untouched. The 61st leaped to their feet with a yell, +rushed after him, and did not fire a shot until they were within twenty +yards of the enemy. A volley and the bayonet did the rest. They captured +the guns, carried the serai, and pelted the flying rebels with their own +artillery. The 1st Punjabis had a stiff fight before they killed every +man in the village of Nujufgarh on the left, but the battle was won, +practically in defiance of every tenet of military tactics, when the +61st forced their way into the serai. + +Utterly exhausted, the soldiers slept on the soddened ground. That +night, smoking a cigar with his staff, Nicholson commented on the skill +shown in the enemy's disposition. + +"I asked a wounded havildar who it was that led the column, and he told +me the commander was a new arrival, a subadar of the 8th Irregular +Cavalry, named Akhab Khan," he said. + +Malcolm started. Akhab Khan was the young sowar whose life he had spared +at Cawnpore when Winifred and her uncle and himself were escaping from +Bithoor. + +"I knew him well, sir," he could not help saying. "He was not a subadar, +but a lance-corporal. He was one of a small escort that accompanied me +from Agra to the south, but he is a smart soldier, and not at all of the +cut-throat type." + +Nicholson looked at him fixedly. He seemed to be considering some point +suggested by Malcolm's words. + +"If men like him are obtaining commands in Delhi they will prove +awkward," was his brief comment, and Frank did not realize what his +chief was revolving in his mind until, three days later, the Brigadier +asked him to don his disguise again, ride to the southward, and endeavor +to fall in with a batch of mutineers on the way to Delhi. Then he could +enter the city, note the dispositions for the defense, and escape by +joining an attacking party during one of the many raids on the ridge. + +"You will be rendering a national service by your deed," said Nicholson, +gazing into Frank's troubled eyes with that magnetic power that bent +all men to his will. "I know it is a distasteful business, but you are +able to carry it through, and five hours of your observation will be +worth five weeks of native reports. Will you do it?" + +"Yes, sir," said Malcolm, choking back the protest on his lips. He could +not trust himself to say more. He refused even to allow his thoughts to +dwell on such a repellent subject. A spy! What soldier likes the office? +It stifles ambition. It robs war of its glamour. It may call for a +display of the utmost bravery--that calm courage of facing an ignoble +death alone, unheeded, forgotten, which is the finest test of chivalry, +but it can never commend itself to a high-spirited youth. + +Frank had already won distinction in the field; it was hard to be chosen +now for such a doubtful enterprise. + +His worst hour came when he sought Chumru's aid in the matter of +walnut-juice. + +"What is toward, sahib?" asked the Mohammedan. "Have we not seen enough +of India that we must set forth once more?" + +"This time I go alone," said Frank, sadly. "Perchance I shall not be +long absent. You will remain here in charge of my baggage and of certain +letters which I shall give you." + +"Why am I cast aside, sahib?" + +"Nay. Say not so. 'Tis a matter that I must deal with myself, and not +of my own wish, Chumru. I obey the general-sahib's order." + +"Jan Nikkelsen-sahib Bahadur?" + +"Yes. I would refuse any other. But haste thee, for time presses." + +Chumru went off. He returned in half an hour, to find his master sealing +a letter addressed to "Miss Winifred Mayne, to be forwarded, if +possible, with the Lucknow Relief Force." + +There were others to relatives in England, and Frank tied them in a +small packet. + +"If I do not come back within a week--" he began. + +"Nay, sahib, give not instructions to me in the matter. I go with you." + +"It is impossible." + +"Huzoor, it is the order of Jan Nikkelsen-sahib Bahadur. He says I will +be useful, and he hath promised me another jaghir." + +The Mohammedan's statement was true enough. He had waylaid Nicholson and +obtained permission to accompany his master. Like a faithful dog he was +not to be shaken off, and, in his heart of hearts, Malcolm was glad of +it. + +Their preparations were made with the utmost secrecy. The same men who +sold Bahadur Shah's cause to the British were also the professed spies +of the rebels. They were utterly unreliable, yet their tale-bearing in +Delhi might bring instant disaster to Malcolm and his native comrade. + +Nejdi was in good condition again after the tremendous exertions +undergone since he carried his master from Lucknow. Malcolm was in two +minds whether to take him or not, but the chance that his life might +depend on a reliable horse, and, perhaps, a touch of the gambler's +belief in luck, swayed his judgment, and Nejdi was saddled. Chumru rode +a spare charger which Malcolm had purchased at the sale of a dead +officer's effects. Fully equipped in their character as rebel +non-commissioned officers, the two rode forth, crossed the Jumna, +reached the Meerut road unchallenged and turned their horses' heads +toward the bridge of boats that debouched beneath the walls of the +King's palace. + +Provided they met some stragglers on the road they meant to enter the +city with the dawn. By skilful expenditure of money on Malcolm's part +and the exercise of Chumru's peculiar inventiveness in maintaining a +flow of lurid language, they counted on keeping their new-found comrades +in tow while they made the tour of the city. The curiosity of strangers +would be quite natural, and Malcolm hoped they might be able to slip out +again with some expedition planned for the night or the next morning. + +Of course, having undertaken an unpleasant duty he intended to carry it +through. If he did not learn the nature and extent of the enemy's +batteries, the general dispositions for the defense and the state of +feeling among the different sections that composed the rebel garrison, +he must perforce remain longer. But that was in the lap of fate. At +present he could only plan and contrive to the best of his ability. + +Fortune favored the adventurers at first. They encountered a score of +ruffians who had cut themselves adrift from the Gwalior contingent. +Among these strangers Chumru was quickly a hero. He beguiled the way +with tales of derring-do in Oudh and the Doab, and discussed the future +of all unbelievers with an amazing gusto. Malcolm, whose head was +shrouded in a gigantic and blood-stained turban, listened with interest +to his servant's account of the actions outside Cawnpore and on the road +to Lucknow. It was excellent fooling to hear Chumru detailing the +wholesale slaughter of the Nazarenes, while the victors, always the +sepoys, found it advisable to fall back on a strategic position many +miles in the rear after each desperate encounter. + +In this hail-fellow-well-met manner the party crossed the bridge, were +interrogated by a guard at the Water Gate and admitted to the fortress. +It chanced that a first-rate feud was in progress, and the officer, +whose duty it was to question new arrivals, was taking part in it. + +Money was short in the royal treasury. Many thousands of sepoys had +neither been paid nor fed; there was a quarrel between Mohammedans and +Hindoos, because the former insisted on slaughtering cattle; and the +more respectable citizens were clamoring for protection from the +rapacity, insolence and lust of the swaggering soldiers. + +That very day matters had reached a climax. Malcolm found a brawling mob +in front of the Lahore gate of the palace. He caught Chumru's eye and +the latter appealed to a sepoy for information as to the cause of the +racket. + +"The King of Kings hath a quarrel with his son, Mirza Moghul, who is not +over pleased with the recent division of the command," was the answer. + +"What, then? Is there more than one chief?" + +"To be sure. Is there not the Council of the Barah Topi? (Twelve Hats.) +Are not Bakht Khan and Akhab Khan in charge of brigades? Where hast thou +been, brother, that these things are not known to thee?" + +"Be patient with me, I pray thee, friend. I and twenty more, whom thou +seest here, have ridden in within the hour. We come to join the Jehad, +and we are grieved to find a dispute toward when we expected to be led +against the infidels." + +The sepoy laughed scornfully. + +"You will see as many fights here as outside the walls," he muttered, +and moved off, for men were beginning to guard their tongues in Imperial +Delhi. + +A rowdy gang of full five hundred armed mutineers marched up and hustled +the mob right and left as they forced a way to the gate. Their words and +attitude betokened trouble. The opportunity was too good to be lost. +Malcolm dismounted, gave the reins to Chumru, and told him to wait his +return under some trees, somewhat removed from the road, for Akhab Khan +had sharp eyes, and the Mohammedan's grotesque face was well known to +him. Chumru made a fearsome grimace, but Malcolm's order was peremptory. +Summoning a fruit-seller, the bearer led the Gwalior men to the +rendezvous named and distributed mangoes amongst them. + +Frank joined the ruck of the demonstrators and passed through the +portals of the magnificent gate. A long, high-roofed arcade, spacious as +the nave of a cathedral, with raised marble platforms for merchants on +each side, gave access to a quadrangle. In the center stood a fountain, +and round about were grassy lawns and beds of flowers. + +The sepoys tramped on, heedless of the destruction they caused in the +garden. They passed through the noble Nakar Khana, or music-room, and +entered another and larger square, at the further end of which stood the +Diwan-i-Am, or Hall of Public Audience. + +Not even in Agra, and certainly not in gaudy Lucknow, had Malcolm seen +any structure of such striking architectural effect. The elegant roof +was supported on three rows of red sandstone pillars, adorned with +chaste gilding and stucco-work. Open on three sides, the audience +chamber was backed by a wall of white marble, from which a staircase led +to a throne raised about ten feet from the ground and covered with a +rarely beautiful marble canopy borne on four small pillars. + +The throne was empty, but an attendant appeared through the door at the +foot of the stairs, and announced that the Light of the World would +receive his faithful soldiers in a few minutes. + +The impatient warriors snorted their disapproval. They did not like to +be kept waiting, but carried their resentment no further, and Malcolm, +with alert eyes and ears, moved about among them, as by that means he +hoped to avoid attracting attention. + +Even in that moment of deadly peril he could not help admiring the +exquisite skill with which the great marble wall was decorated with +mosaics and paintings of the fauna and flora of India. The mosaics were +wholly composed of precious stones, and the paintings were executed in +rich tints that told of a master hand. There was nothing bizarre or +crude in their conception. They might have adorned some Athenian temple +in the heyday of Greece, and were wholly free from the stiff drawing and +flamboyant coloring usually seen in the East. He did not then know that +a renegade Venetian artist, Austin de Bordeaux, had carried out this +work for Shah Jehan, that great patron of the arts, and in any event, +his appreciation of their excellence was spasmodic, for the broken words +he heard from the excited soldiery warned him that a crisis was imminent +in the fortunes of Delhi. + +"Who is he, then, this havildar of gunners from Bareilly?" said one. + +"And the other, Akhab Khan. They say he fought for the Nazarenes at +Meerut. Mohammed Latif swears he defended the treasury there," chimed in +another. + +"As for me, I care not who leads. I want my pay." + +"I, too. I have not eaten since sunrise yesterday." + +"We shall get neither food nor money till some one clears those accursed +Feringhis off the hill," growled a deep voice close behind Malcolm. + +There was something familiar in the tone. Frank edged away and glanced +at the speaker, whom he recognized instantly as a subadar in his own old +regiment. + +But now a craning of necks and a sudden hush of the animated talk showed +that some development was toward. Servants entered with cushions, which +they disposed round the foot of the throne and at the base of its +canopy. A few nobles and court functionaries lounged in, two gorgeously +appareled guards came through the doorway, and behind them tottered a +feeble old man, robed in white, and wearing on his head an aigrette of +Bird of Paradise plumes, fastened with a gold clasp in which sparkled an +immense emerald. + +Malcolm had seen Bahadur Shah only once before. He remembered how +decorous and dignified was the Mogul court when Britain paid honor to an +ancient dynasty. And now, what a change! The aged emperor had to lift a +trembling hand to obtain a hearing, while, ever and anon, even during +his short address, belated officers and troopers clattered in on +horseback, and did not dismount within the precincts of the sacred Hall +of Audience itself. + +He began by explaining timorously that while affairs remained in their +present unsettled condition he could not arrange matters as he would +have wished. He knew that there were arrears of pay and that the food +supply was irregular. + +"But you do not help me," he said, with some display of spirit. +"Respectable citizens tell me that you plunder their houses and debauch +their wives and daughters. I have issued repeated injunctions +prohibiting robbery and oppression in the city, but to no avail." + +He was interrupted with loud murmurs. + +"What matters it about the bazaar-folk, O King," yelled a sepoy. "We +want food, not a sermon." + +The Emperor seemed to fire up with indignation at the taunt, but he sank +into the chair on the throne. He raised a hand twice to quiet the mob, +and at last they allowed him to continue. + +"I am weary and helpless," he said faintly. "I have resolved to make a +vow to pass the remainder of my life in service acceptable to Allah. I +will relinquish my title and take the garb of a moullah. I am going to +the shrine of Khwaja Sahib, and thence to Mecca, where I hope to end my +sorrowful days." + +This was not the sort of consolation that the mob expected or wanted. A +howl of execration burst forth, but it was stayed by the entrance of two +people from the private portion of the palace. + +There was no need that Malcolm should ask who the pale, haughty, +beautiful woman was who came and stood by her father's side. Roshinara +Begum did not share the Emperor's dejection. She faced the rebels now +with the air of one who knew them for the _canaille_ they were. But that +was only for an instant. A consummate actress, she had a part to play, +and she bent and whispered something to Bahadur Shah with a great show +of pleased vivacity. + +A man who accompanied her stepped to the front of the throne, and his +words soon revealed to Malcolm that he was listening to the Shahzada, +the heir apparent, Mirza Moghul. + +"Why do you come hither to disturb the King's pious meditations?" he +cried angrily. "You were better employed at the batteries, where your +loyal comrades are now firing a salute of twenty-one guns to celebrate +the capture of Agra by the Neemuch Brigade." + +He paused. His statement was news to all present, as, indeed, it well +might be, seeing that it was a lie. But his half petulant, half boastful +tone was convincing, and several voices were raised in a cry of +"Shabash! Good hearing!" + +"This is no time to create mischief and disunion," he went on loudly. +"Help is coming from all quarters. Gwalior, Jhansi, Neemuch and Lucknow +are sending troops to aid us. In three or four days, if Allah be +willing, the Ridge will be taken, and every one of the base unbelievers +humbled and ruined and sent to the fifth circle of hell." + +The man had the actor's trick of making his points. Waiting until an +exultant roar of applause had died away, he delivered his most effective +hit. + +"At the very time you dared to burst in on the Emperor's privacy he was +arranging a loan with certain local bankers that will enable all arrears +of pay to be made up. To-day there will be a free issue of cattle, grain +and rice. Go, then! Tell these things to all men, and trust to the King +of Kings and his faithful advisers, of whom I am at once the nearest and +the most obedient, to lead you to victory against the Nazarenes." + +For the hour these brave words sufficed. The sepoys trooped out and +Malcolm went with them. A backward glance revealed the princess and her +brother engaged in a conversation with Bahadur Shah and a courtier or +two. Their gestures and manner of argument did not bear out the joyful +tidings brought to the conclave by the Shahzada. Indeed, Frank guessed +that they were soundly rating the miserable monarch for having allowed +himself to speak so plainly to his beloved subjects. + +Malcolm knew there was not a word of truth in Mirza Moghul's brief +speech. The Gwalior contingent had gone to Cawnpore. All the men +Bareilly had to send had already arrived with Bakht Khan, the "havildar +of artillery," who was now the King's right hand man. Jhansi, Neemuch +and Lucknow had enough troubles of their own without helping Delhi, and, +as for the bankers' aid, it was easy to guess the nature of the "loan" +that the Emperor hoped to extract from them. + +Indeed, while Malcolm and Chumru and their new associates were wandering +through the streets and making the circuit of the western wall, there +was another incipient riot in the fort. Delay in issuing the promised +rations enraged the hungry troops. A number hurried again to the +Diwan-i-Am, clamored for the king's presence, and told him roundly that +he ought to imprison his sons, who, they said, had stolen their pay. + +"If the Treasury does not find the money," was the threat, "we will kill +you and all your family, for we are masters." + +This later incident came to Malcolm's ears while Chumru was persuading a +grain-dealer to admit that he had some corn hidden away. The sight of +money unlocked the man's lips. + +"Would there were more like you in the King's service," he whined. "I +have not taken a rupee in the way of trade since the huzoors were driven +forth." + +It was easy enough to interpret the unhappy tradesman's real wishes. He +was pining for the restoration of the British Raj. Every man in Delhi, +who had anything to lose, mourned the day that saw the downfall of the +Sirkar.[22] + +[Footnote 22: The Government.] + +"Affairs go badly, then," Malcolm put in. "Speak freely, friend. We are +strangers, and are minded to go back whence we came, for there is naught +but misrule in the city so far as we can see." + +"What can you expect from an old man who writes verses when he should be +punishing malefactors?" said the grain-dealer, bitterly anxious to vent +his wrongs. "If you would act wisely, sirdar, leave this bewitched +place. It is given over to devils. I am a Hindu, as you know, but I am +worse treated by the Brahmins than by men of your faith." + +"Mayhap you have quarreled with some of the sepoys and have a sore +feeling against them?" + +"Think not so, sirdar. Who am I to make enemies of these lords? Every +merchant in the bazaar is of my mind, and I have suffered less than +many, for I am a poor man and have no family." + +In response to Chumru's request the grain-dealer allowed the men to cook +their food in an inner courtyard. While Malcolm extracted additional +details as to the chaos that reigned in the city the newcomers from +Gwalior consulted among themselves. They had seen enough to be convinced +that there were parts of India much preferable to Delhi for residential +purposes. + +"Behold, sirdar!" said one of them after they had eaten, "you led us in, +and now we pray you lead us out again. There are plenty here to fight +the Feringhis, and we may be more useful at Lucknow." + +Malcolm could have laughed at the strangeness of his position, but he +saw in this request the nucleus of a new method of winning his way +beyond the walls. + +"Bide here," he said gruffly, "until Ali Khan and I return, which we +will surely do ere night. Then we shall consider what steps to take. At +present, I am of the same mind as you." + +He wanted to visit the Cashmere Gate and examine its defenses. Then, he +believed, he would have obtained all the information that Nicholson +required. He was certain that Delhi would fall if once the British +secured a footing inside the fortifications. The city was seething with +discontent. Even if left to its own devices it would speedily become +disrupted by the warring elements within its bounds. + +Chumru and he rode first to the Mori Gate. Thence, by a side road, they +followed the wall to the Cashmere Gate. Traveling as rapidly as the +crowded state of the thoroughfare permitted and thus wearing the +semblance of being engaged on some urgent duty, they counted the guns +in each battery and noted their positions. + +Arrived at the Cashmere Gate they loitered there a few minutes. This was +the key of Delhi. Once it was won, a broad road led straight to the +heart of the city, with the palace on one hand and the Chandni Chowk on +the other. + +Malcolm saw with a feeling of unutterable loathing that the mutineers +had converted St. James's Church into a stable. Not so had the founder, +Colonel James Skinner, treated the religions of the people among whom he +lived. The legend goes that the gallant soldier, a veteran of the +Mahratta wars, had married three wives, an Englishwoman, a Mohammedan, +and a Hindu. His own religious views were of the nebulous order, but, so +says the story, being hard pressed once in a fight, he vowed to build a +church to his wife's memory if he escaped. His assailants were driven +off and the vow remained. When he came to give effect to it he was +puzzled to know which wife he should honor, so he built a church, a +mosque and a temple, each at a corner of the triangular space just +within the Cashmere Gate. + +Whether the origin of the structures is correctly stated or not, they +stand to this day where Skinner's workmen placed them, and it was a +dastardly act on the part of men who worshiped in mosque and temple to +profane the hallowed shrine of another and far superior faith. + +Malcolm was sitting motionless on Nejdi, looking at a squad of rebels +erecting fascines in front of a new battery on the river side of the +gate, when Chumru, whose twisted vision seemed to command all points of +the compass, saw that the commander of a cavalry guard stationed there +was regarding them curiously. + +"Turn to the right, huzoor," he muttered. + +Malcolm obeyed instantly. The warning note in Chumru's voice was not to +be denied. It would be folly to wait and question him. + +"Now let us canter," said the other, as soon as the horses were fairly +in the main road. + +"You did well, sahib, to move quickly. There was one in the guard yonder +whose eyes grew bigger each second that he looked at you." + +They heard some shouting at the gate. A bend in the road near the ruined +offices of the _Delhi Gazette_ gave them a chance of increasing the pace +to a gallop. There was a long, straight stretch in front, leading past +the Telegraph Office, the dismantled magazine, and a small cemetery. +Then the road turned again, and by a sharp rise gained the elevated +plateau on which stood the fort. + +Glancing over his shoulder at this point, Malcolm caught sight of a +dozen sowars riding furiously after them. To dissipate any hope that +they might not be in pursuit, he saw the leader point in his direction +and seemingly urge on his comrades. It was impossible to know for +certain what had roused this nest of hornets, though the presence of a +man of the 3d Cavalry in the palace that morning was a sinister fact +that led to only one conclusion. No matter what the motive, he felt that +Chumru and he were trapped. There was no avenue of escape. Whether they +went ahead or made a dash for the city, their pursuers could keep them +well in sight, as their tired horses were incapable of a sustained +effort at top speed after having been on the move nearly twenty hours. + +He had to decide quickly, and his decision must be governed not by +personal considerations but by the needs of his country. If he had been +recognized, the enemy would follow him. Therefore, Chumru might outwit +them were he given a chance. + +"Listen, good friend," he shouted as they clattered up the hill. "Thou +seest the tope of trees in front." + +"Yes, sahib." + +"This, then, is my last order, and it must be obeyed. When we reach +those trees we will bear off towards the palace. Pull up there and +dismount. Give me the reins of your horse, and hide yourself quickly +among the trees. I shall ride on, and you may be able to dodge into some +ditch or nullah till it is dark. Rejoin those men from Gwalior if +possible, and try to get away from the city. Tell the General-sahib what +you have seen and that I sent you. Do you understand?" + +"Huzoor!--" + +"Silence! Wouldst thou have me fail in my duty? It is my parting wish, +Chumru. There is no time for words. Do as I say, or we both die +uselessly." + +There was no answer. The Mohammedan's eyes blazed with the frenzy of a +too complete comprehension of his master's intent. But now they were +behind the trees, and Malcolm was already checking Nejdi. Chumru flung +himself from the saddle and ran. Cowering amid some shrubs of dense +foliage, he watched Malcolm dashing along the road to the Lahore Gate of +the palace. A minute later the rebels thundered past, and they did not +seem to notice that one of the two horses disappearing in the curved +cutting that led to the drawbridge and side entrance of the gate was +riderless. + +Chumru ought to have taken immediate measures to secure his own safety. +But he did nothing of the kind. He lay there, watching the hard-riding +horsemen, and striving most desperately to do them all the harm that the +worst sort of malign imprecations could effect. They, in turn, vanished +in the sunken approach to the fortress, and the unhappy bearer was +imagining the horrible fate that had befallen the master, whom he loved +more than kith or kin, when he saw the same men suddenly reappear and +gallop towards the Delhi Gate, which was situated at a considerable +distance. + +Something had happened to disappoint and annoy them--that much he could +gather from their gestures and impassioned speech. Whatever it was, +Malcolm-sahib apparently was not dead yet, and while there is life there +is hope. + +Chumru proceeded to disrobe. He kicked off his boots, untied his +putties, threw aside the frock-coat and breeches of a cavalry +rissaldar, and stood up in the ordinary white clothing of a native +servant. + +"Shabash!" muttered he, as he unfastened the military badge in his +turban. "There is nothing like a change of clothing to alter a man. Now +I can follow my sahib and none be the wiser." + +With that he walked coolly into the roadway and stepped out leisurely +towards the Lahore Gate. But he found the massive door closed and the +drawbridge raised, and a gruff voice bade him begone, as the gate would +not be opened until the King's orders were received. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +IN THE VORTEX + + +Malcolm was not one to throw his life away without an effort to save it. +Once, during a visit to Delhi, Captain Douglas, the ill-fated commandant +of the Palace Guards, had taken him to his quarters for tiffin. As it +happened, the two entered by the Delhi Gate and walked through the +gardens and corridors to Douglas's rooms, which were situated over the +Lahore Gate. Thus he possessed a vague knowledge of the topography of +the citadel, and his visit that morning had refreshed his memory to a +slight extent. On that slender reed he based some hope of escape. In any +event he prayed that his ruse might better Chumru's chances, and he +promised himself a soldier's death if brought to bay inside the palace. + +Crossing the drawbridge at a fast gallop, he saw a number of guards +looking at him wonderingly. It occurred to him that the exciting events +of the early hours might have led to orders being given on the question +of admitting sepoys in large numbers. If that were so, he might gain +time by a bit of sheer audacity. At any rate, there was no harm in +trying. As he clattered through the gateway he shouted excitedly: + +"Close and bar the door! None must be admitted without the King's +special order!" + +The spectacle of a well-mounted sepoy officer, blood-stained and +travel-worn, who arrived in such desperate haste and was evidently +pursued by a body of horse, so startled the attendants that they banged +and bolted the great door without further ado. + +Already the story was going the rounds that the precious life of Bahadur +Shah had actually been threatened by the overbearing sepoys--what more +likely than that this hard-riding officer was coming to apprise his +majesty of a genuine plot, while the flying squadron in the rear was +striving to cut him down before the fateful message was delivered? + +Not to create too great a stir, Malcolm pulled up both horses at the +entrance to the arcade. + +He called a chaprassi and bade him hold Chumru's steed. Then, learning +from the uproar at the gate that the guards were obeying his +instructions literally, he went on at an easier pace. + +The palace was humming with excitement. Its numerous buildings housed a +multitude of court nobles and other hangers-on to the court, and each of +these had his special coterie of attendants who helped to advance their +own fortunes by clinging to their master's skirts. The jealousies and +intrigues that surround a throne were never more in evidence than at +Delhi during the last hours of the Great Mogul. Already men were +preparing for the final catastrophe. While the ignorant mob was firm in +its belief that the rule of the sahib had passed forever, those few +clearer-headed persons who possessed any claim to the title of statesmen +were convinced that the Mutiny had failed. + +Nearly four months were sped since that fatal Sunday when the rebellion +broke out at Meerut. And what had been achieved? Delhi, the pivot of +Mohammedan hopes, was crowded with a licentious soldiery, who obeyed +only those leaders that pandered to them, who fought only when some +perfervid moullah aroused their worst passions by his eloquence, and who +were terrible only to peaceful citizens. All public credit was +destroyed. The rule of the King, nominal within the walls of his own +palace, was laughed at in the city and ignored beyond its walls. The +provincial satraps and feudatory princes who should be striving to help +their sovereign were wholly devoted to the more congenial task of +carving out kingdoms for themselves. + +Nana Sahib, rehabilitated in Oudh, was opposing Havelock's advance; Khan +Bahadur Khan, an ex-pensioner of the Company, had set up a barbarous +despotism at Bareilly; the Moulvie of Fyzabad, intent on the destruction +of the Residency, meant to establish himself there as "King of +Hindustan" if only that stubborn entrenchment could be carried; Mahudi +Husain, Gaffur Beg, Kunwer Singh, the Ranee of Jhansi, and a host of +other prominent rebels scattered throughout Oudh, Bengal, the Northwest +Provinces and Central India, cared less for Delhi than for their own +private affairs, and were consequently permitting the British to gather +forces by which they could be destroyed piecemeal. + +From Nepaul, the great border state, lying behind the pestilential +jungle of the Terai, came an army of nine thousand Ghoorkahs to help the +British. At Hyderabad, the most powerful Mohammedan principality in +India, the Nizam and his famous minister, Sir Salar Jung, crushed a +Jehad with cannon and grape-shot. In a word, the orgy had ended, and the +day of reckoning was near. + +Malcolm, therefore, was confronted with two separate and hostile sets of +conditions. On the one hand, he was threading his way through a maze of +conflicting interests, and this was a circumstance most favorable to his +chances of escape; on the other, every man regarded his neighbor with +distrust and a stranger with positive suspicion, while Malcolm's +distinguished appearance could not fail to draw many inquiring eyes. + +He crossed the large garden beyond the arcade and was making for an arch +that gave access to the long covered passage leading to the Delhi Gate, +when he saw Akhab Khan standing there. + +The rebel leader was deep in converse with a richly-attired personage +whom Frank discovered afterwards to be the Vizier. Near Akhab Khan an +escort of sowars stood by their horses, and Malcolm felt that the +instant the former lance-corporal set eyes on either Nejdi or himself +recognition would follow as surely as a vulture knows its prey. + +He could neither dawdle nor hesitate. Wheeling Nejdi towards the nearest +arch on the left, he found himself in an open space between the walls of +the fortress and the outer line of buildings. Underneath the broad +terrace, from which troops could defend the battlements, stood a row of +storerooms and go-downs. At a little distance he could distinguish a +line of stables, and the mere sight sent the blood dancing through his +veins. + +If only he could evade capture until nightfall he would no longer feel +that each moment might find him making a last fight against impossible +odds. Dismounting, he led Nejdi to an unoccupied stall. As there was +nothing to be gained by half measures he removed saddle and bridle, hung +them on a peg, put a halter on the Arab, adjusted the heel-ropes, and +hunted the adjoining stalls for forage. + +He came upon some gram in a sack and a quantity of hay. All provender +was alike to Nejdi so long as it was toothsome. He was soon busily +engaged, and Malcolm resolved to avoid observation by grooming him when +any one passed whose gaze might be too inquisitive. + +He took care that sword and revolvers were handy. It was hard to tell +what hue and cry might be raised by the troopers against whom the guards +had closed the Lahore Gate. Perhaps they were searching for two men and +the finding of one horse in charge of a chaprassi might suggest that the +rider of the other and his companion had dodged through the Delhi Gate. +Again, his pursuers might have galloped straight to the other exit and +thus made certain that he was still in the palace. If that were so and +they ferreted him out, as well die here as elsewhere. Meanwhile, he +chewed philosophically at a few grains of the gram and awaited the +outcome of events that were now beyond his control. + +A wild swirl of wind and rain seemed to favor him. There was not much +traffic past his retreat, and that little ceased when a deluge lashed +the dry earth and clouds of vapor rose as though the water were beating +on an oven. Now and again a syce hurried past, with head and shoulders +enveloped in a sack. Once a party of sepoys trudged through the mud, +towards the water bastion of the palace, and the men whom they had +relieved came back the same way a few minutes later. + +Nejdi had seldom been groomed so vigorously as during the passing of +these detachments, but no one gave the slightest heed to the cavalry +officer who was engaged on such an unusual task. If they noticed him at +all it was to wonder that he could be such a fool as to work when there +were hundreds of loafers in the city who could be kicked to the job. + +The rain storm changed into a steady drizzle and the increasing gloom +promised complete darkness within half an hour. Malcolm was beginning to +plan his movements when he became aware of a man wrapped in a heavy +cloak who approached from the direction of the arcade and peered into +every nook and cranny. + +"Now," thought Frank, "comes my first real difficulty. That man is +searching for some one. Whether or not he seeks me he is sure to speak, +and if my presence has been reported he will recognize both Nejdi and me +instantly. If so, I must strangle him with as little ceremony as +possible." + +The newcomer came on. In the half light it was easy to see that he was +not a soldier but a court official. Indeed, before the searcher's glance +rested on the gray Arab, munching contentedly in his stall, or the tall +sowar who stood in obscurity near his head, Frank felt almost sure that +he was face to face with the trusted confidant who had carried out +Roshinara Begum's behests in the garden at Bithoor. + +That fact saved the native's life. The Englishman would have killed him +without compunction were it not for the belief that the man was actually +looking for him and for none other, and with friendly intent, too, else +he would have brought a bodyguard. + +Sure enough, the stranger's first words were of good import. He could +not see clearly into the dark stable and it was necessary to measure +one's utterances in Delhi just then. + +"If you are one who rode into Delhi this morning I would have speech +with you," he muttered softly. + +"Say on," said Malcolm, gripping his sword. + +"Nay, one does not give the Princess Roshinara's instructions without +knowing that they reach the ears they are meant for." + +The Englishman came out from the obscurity. He approached so quickly +that the native started back, being far from prepared for Frank's very +convincing resemblance to a rissaldar of cavalry. + +"I look for one--" he began, but Frank had no mind to lose time. + +"For Malcolm-sahib?" he demanded. + +"It might be some such name," was the hesitating answer. + +"I am he. I saw thee last at Bithoor, when I escaped with Mayne-sahib +and the missy-baba."[23] + +[Footnote 23: The familiar native title for a European young lady.] + +"By Mohammed! I would not have known you, sahib, though now I remember +your face. Come with me, and quickly. Each moment here means danger." + +"Ay, for thee. I am not one to be tricked so easily." + +"Huzoor, have I not sought you without arms or escort? I and another +have searched the palace these two hours. Leave your horse. I will have +him tended. Come, sahib, I pray you. The Begum awaits you, but there are +so many who know of your presence that I shall not be able to save you +if you fall into their hands." + +These were fair-seeming words with the ring of truth about them. At any +rate Malcolm's whereabouts were no longer a secret, and it would not be +war but murder to offer violence to one who came with good intent on his +lips if not in his heart. + +"Lead on," said Frank, sternly, "and remember that I shall not hesitate +to strike at the first sign of treachery." + +"I shall not betray you, sahib, but you must converse with me as we walk +and not draw too many eyes by holding a naked sword." + +This was so manifestly reasonable that Malcolm felt rather ashamed of +his doubts. Yet, he thought it best not to appear to relax his +precautions. + +"I would not pass through the palace with a sword in my hand," he said +with a quiet laugh, "but I have a pistol in my belt, and that will +suffice for six men." + +His guide set off at a rapid pace. When they were near the great arch +leading into the garden they halted in front of a small door in a +dimly-lighted building, and the native rapped twice with his knuckles on +three separate panels. Some bolts were drawn and the two were admitted, +the door being instantly barred behind them by an attendant. The +darkness in the passage was impenetrable. Frank held himself tensely, +but his companion's voice reached him from a little distance in front, +while he heard other bolts being drawn. + +"You will see your way more clearly now," was the reassuring message, +and when the second door was opened the rays of a lamp lit the stone +walls and floor. They went on, through lofty corridors, across +sequestered gardens and by way of many a stately chamber until another +narrow passage terminated in a barred door, guarded by an armed native. +The man's shrill voice betokened his calling, and Frank knew that he was +standing at the entrance to the zenana. + +"There is one other within," said the guard, leering at them. + +"Who is it, slave?" asked Frank's guide scornfully, for he was annoyed +by the eunuch's familiar tone. + +"Nay, I obey orders," was the tart response. "Enter, then, and may Allah +prosper you." + +There was a hint of danger in the otherwise excellent wish, but the man +unlocked the door, and they passed within. + +Frank's wondering eyes rested on a scene of fairy-like beauty, so +exquisite in its colorings and so unexpected withal, that not even his +desperate predicament could repress for an instant the feeling of +astonishment that overwhelmed him. He was standing in a white marble +chamber, pillared and roofed in the Byzantine style, while every shaft +and arch was chiseled into graceful lines and adorned with traceries or +carved festoons of fruit and flowers. The walls were brightened with +mosaics wrought in precious stones. Texts from the Koran in the flowing +Persi-Arabic script, ran above the arches. In the floor, composed of +colored tiles, was set a _pachisi_[24] board, as the wide entrance hall +to a European house might have a chess-board incorporated with the +design of the tiled floor. + +[Footnote 24: A game of the draughts order, much played by native +ladies.] + +Not a garish tint or inharmonious line interfered with the chaste +elegance of the white marble, and the whole apartment, which seemed to +be the ante-room of the ladies' quarters, was lighted with Moorish +lamps. + +Malcolm took in some of these details in one amazed glance, but his +thoughts were recalled sternly to the affairs of the moment by hearing +the ring of spurred heels on the sharp-sounding pavement from behind a +curtained arch. There was no time to retreat nor cross towards an alcove +that promised some slight screen from the soft and penetrating light +that filled the room. He saw that his guide was perturbed, but he asked +no question. With the quick military tread came the frou-frou of silk +and the footfall of slippered feet. Then the curtain was drawn aside and +Akhab Khan entered, followed by the Princess Roshinara. + +Malcolm had the advantage of a few seconds' warning. Even as Akhab Khan +placed his hand on the curtain the Englishman sprang forward, and the +astounded sowar, now a brigadier in the rebel forces, found himself +looking into the muzzle of a revolver. + +"Do not move till I bid you, Akhab Khan," said Malcolm, in his +self-contained way. "I am summoned hither, so I come, but it may be +necessary to secure a hostage for my safe conduct outside the walls +again." + +"You! Malcolm-sahib!" was Akhab Khan's involuntary outburst. + +"Yes, even I. Have you not heard, then, that I rode into the palace +to-day?" + +"There was a report that some Feringhis--some sahibs--were in the city +as spies--" + +"Malcolm-sahib is here because I sent for him," broke in Roshinara. + +"You--_sent_ for him!" + +Akhab Khan's swarthy features paled, and his eyes sparkled wrathfully. +Heedless of Malcolm's implied threat, or perhaps ignoring it, he wheeled +round on the Princess, and his right hand crossed to his sword-hilt. + +"If you so much as turn your head again or lift a hand without my order, +I blow your brains out," said Malcolm in the same unemotional tone. + +"Nay, let him attack a woman if it pleaseth him," cried Roshinara, who +had not drawn back one inch from the place where she was standing when +Malcolm confronted Akhab Khan and herself. "That is what our troops, +officers and men alike, are best fitted for. They love to swagger in the +bazaar, but their valor flies when they see the Ridge." + +Again quite indifferent to the fact that Malcolm's finger was on the +trigger, the rebel leader threw out his hands towards the Begum in a +gesture of agonized protest. + +"Do you not trust me, my heart?" he murmured. "If you knew of this +Nazarene's presence why was I not told?" + +"Because I wished to save you in spite of yourself. Because I would +mourn you if you fell in battle as befits a warrior and the man whom I +love, but I would not have you die on the scaffold, as most of the +others will die ere another month be sped. What hope have we of success? +If forty thousand sepoys cannot overcome the three thousand English on +the Ridge, how shall they prevail against the force that is now +preparing to storm Delhi? I sent for Malcolm-sahib that I might obtain +terms for my father and for thee, Akhab Khan. This man is now in our +power. Let us bargain with him. If he goes free to-day, let him promise +that we shall be spared when the gallows is busy in front of our +palace." + +Each word of this impassioned speech was a revelation to Malcolm. Here +was the fiery beauty of the Mogul court pleading for the lives of her +father and lover, pleading to him, a solitary Briton in the midst of +thousands of mutineers, a prisoner in their stronghold, a spy whose life +was forfeit by the laws of war. Hardly less bewildering than this turn +of fortune's wheel was the whirligig that promoted a poor trooper of the +Company to the position of accepted suitor for the hand of a royal +maiden. Never could there be a more complete unveiling of the Eastern +mind, with all its fatalism, its strange weaknesses, its uncontrollable +passions. + +Akhab Khan stretched out his arms again. + +"Forgive me, my soul, if I did doubt thee," he almost sobbed. + +The girl was the first to recover her self-control. + +"Put away your pistol," she said, fixing her fine eyes on Malcolm, with +a softness in their limpid depths that he had never seen there before. +"If we can contrive, my plighted husband and I, you will not need it +to-night. I was rejoiced to hear that you were within our gates. We are +beaten. I know it. We have lost a kingdom, because wretches like Nana +Dundhu Punt of Bithoor, have forgotten their oaths and preferred +drunken revels to empire. Were they of my mind, were they as loyal and +honorable as the man I hope to marry, we would have driven you and yours +into the sea, Malcolm-sahib. But Allah willed otherwise and we can only +bow to his decree. It is Kismet. I am content. Say, then, if you are +sent in safety to your camp, do you in return guarantee the two lives I +ask of you?" + +Malcolm could not help looking at Akhab Khan before he answered. The +handsome young soldier had folded his arms, and his eyes dwelt on +Roshinara's animated face with a sad fixity that bespoke at once his +love and his despair. + +Then the Englishman placed the revolver in his belt and bowed low before +the woman who reposed such confidence in him. + +"If the issue rested with me, Princess," he said, "you need have no fear +for the future. I am only a poor officer and I have small influence. Yet +I promise that such power as I possess shall be exerted in your behalf, +and I would remind you that we English neither make war on woman nor +treat honorable enemies as felons." + +"My father is a feeble old man," she cried vehemently. "It was not by +his command that your people were slain. And Akhab Khan has never drawn +his sword save in fair fight." + +"I can vouch for Akhab Khan's treatment of those who were at his mercy," +said Malcolm, generously. + +"Nay, sahib, you repaid me that night," said the other, not to be +outdone in this exchange of compliments. "But if I have the happiness to +find such favor with my lady that she plots to save me against my will I +cannot forget that I lead some thousands of sepoys who have faith in me. +You have been examining our defenses all day. Sooner would I fall on my +sword here and now than that I should connive at the giving of +information to an enemy which should lead to the destruction of my men." + +Malcolm had foreseen this pitfall in the smooth road that was seemingly +opening before him. + +"I would prefer to become the bearer of terms than of information," he +said. + +"Terms? What terms? How many hands in this city are free of innocent +blood? Were I or any other to propose a surrender we should be torn limb +from limb." + +"Then I must tell you that I cannot accept your help at the price of +silence. When I undertook this mission I knew its penalties. I am still +prepared to abide by them. Let me remind you that it is I, not you, who +can impose conditions within these four walls." + +Akhab Khan paled again. His was the temperament that shows anger by the +token which reveals cowardice in some men; it is well to beware of him +who enters a fight with bloodless cheeks and gray lips. But Roshinara +sprang between them with an eager cry: + +"What folly is this that exhausts itself on a point of honor? Does not +every spy who brings us details of each gun and picket on the Ridge tell +the sahib-log all that they wish to know of our strength and our +dissensions? Will not the man who warned us of the presence of an +officer-sahib in our midst to-day go back and sell the news of a sepoy +regiment's threat to murder the King? Have done with these idle +words--let us to acts! Nawab-ji!" + +"Heaven-born!" Malcolm's guide advanced with a deep salaam. + +"See to it that my orders are carried out. Mayhap thine own head may +rest easier on its shoulders if there is no mischance." + +The nawab-ji bowed again, and assured the Presence that there would be +no lapse on his part. Akhab Khan had turned away. His attitude betokened +utter dejection, but the Princess, not the first of her sex to barter +ambition for love, was radiant with hope. + +"Go, Malcolm-sahib," she whispered, "and may Allah guard you on the +way!" + +"I have one favor to ask," he said. "My devoted servant, a man named +Chumru--" + +She smiled with the air of a woman who breathes freely once more after +passing through some grave peril. + +"How, then, do you think I found out the identity of the English officer +who had dared to enter Delhi?" she asked. "Your man came to me, not +without difficulty, and told me you were here. It was he who inspired me +with the thought that your presence might be turned to good account. But +go, and quickly. He is safe." + +Frank hardly knew how to bid her farewell until he remembered that, if +of royal birth, Princess Roshinara was also a beautiful woman. He took +her hand and raised it to his lips, a most unusual proceeding in the +East, but the tribute of respect seemed to please her. + +Following the nawab he traversed many corridors and chambers and +ultimately reached an apartment in which Chumru was seated. That +excellent bearer was smoking a hookah, with a couple of palace servants, +and doubtless exchanging spicy gossip with the freedom of Eastern +manners and conversation. + +"Shabash!" he cried when his crooked gaze fell on Malcolm. "By the tomb +of Nizam-ud-din, there are times when women are useful." + +They were let down from a window on the river face of the palace and +taken by a boat to the bank of the Jumna above Ludlow Castle, while the +nawab undertook to deliver their horses next day at the camp. He carried +out his promise to the letter, nor did he forget to put forth a plea in +his own behalf against the hour when British bayonets would be probing +the recesses of the fort and its occupants. + +When Nicholson came out of the mess after supper he found Malcolm +waiting for an audience. Chumru, still wearing the servant's livery in +which the famous brigadier had last seen him, was squatting on the +ground near his master. The general was not apt to waste time in talk, +and he had a singular knack of reading men's thoughts by a look. + +"Glad to see you back again, Major Malcolm," he cried. "I hope you were +successful?" + +"It is for you to decide, sir, when you have heard my story," and +without further preamble Frank gave a clear narrative of his adventures +since dawn. Not a word did he say about the very things he had been sent +to report on, and Nicholson understood that a direct order alone would +unlock his lips. When Frank ended the general frowned and was silent. In +those days men did not hold honor lightly, and Nicholson was a fine type +of soldier and gentleman. + +"Confound it!" he growled, "this is awkward, very awkward," and Malcolm +felt bitterly that the extraordinary turn taken by events in the palace +was in a fair way towards depriving his superiors of the facts they were +so anxious to learn. Suddenly the big man's deep eyes fell on Chumru. + +"Here, you," he growled, "was aught said to thee whereby thou hast a +scruple to tell me how many guns defend the Cashmere Gate?" + +"Huzoor," said Chumru, "there are but two things that concern me, my +master's safety and the size of that jaghir your honor promised me." + +Nicholson laughed with an almost boyish mirth. + +"By gad," he cried, "you are fortunate in your friends, Malcolm." Then +he turned to Chumru again. "The jaghir is of no mean size," he said, +"but I shall see to it that a field is added for every useful fact you +make known." + +Frank listened to his servant's enumeration of the guns and troops at +the Lahore, Mori, and Cashmere Gates, and he was surprised at the +accuracy of Chumru's mental note-taking. + +"I need not have gone at all, sir," he could not help commenting when +the bearer had answered Nicholson's final question. "I seem to have a +Napoleon for a valet." + +The brigadier laid a kindly hand on Frank's shoulder. + +"You forget that you have brought me the most important news of all," he +said. "The enemy is defeated before the first ladder is planted against +their walls. They know it, and, thanks to you, now we know it. My only +remaining difficulty is not to take Delhi, but to screw up our Chief to +make the effort." + +Then his voice sank to a deep growl. + +"But I'll bring him to reason, I will, by Heaven, even if I risk being +cashiered for insubordination!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE EXPIATION + + +Two hours after midnight--that is a time of rest and peace in most +lands. Men have either ceased or not yet begun their toil. Even +warfare, the deadliest task of all, slackens its energy, and the ghostly +reaper leans on his scythe while wearied soldiers sleep. Wellington +knew this when he said that the bravest man was he who possessed +"two-o'clock-in-the-morning" courage, for shadows then become real, +and dangers anticipated but unseen are magnified tenfold. + +Yet, soon after two o'clock in the morning of September 14, 1857, four +thousand five hundred soldiers assembled behind the Ridge for the +greatest achievement that the Mutiny had demanded during the four months +of its wonderful history. They were divided into five columns, one being +a reserve, and the task before them was to carry by assault a strongly +fortified city, surrounded by seven miles of wall and ditch, held by +forty thousand trained soldiers and equipped with ample store of guns +and ammunition. Success meant the certain loss of one man among +four--failure would carry with it a rout and massacre unexampled in +modern war. + +Men had fallen in greater numbers in the Crimea, it is true--a British +army had been swallowed alive in the wild Khyber Pass--but these were +only incidents in prolonged campaigns, whereas the collapse of the +assailants of Delhi would set free a torrent of murder, rapine and +pillage, such as the utmost triumph of the rebels had not yet produced. + +The Punjab, the whole of the Northwest, Central India and Rajputana, all +northern Bengal and Bombay, must have been submerged in the flood if the +gates of Delhi were unbarred. It is not to be marveled at, therefore, +that General Wilson, the Commander-in-Chief, "looked nervous and +anxious" as he rode slowly along the front of the gathering columns, nor +that many of the British officers and men received the Holy Communion at +the hands of their chaplains, ere they mustered for what might prove to +be their last parade. + +In some tents, of their own accord, the soldiers read the Old Testament +lesson of the day. With that extraordinary aptness which the chronicles +of the prophets often display in their relation to current events, the +chapter foretold the doom of Nineveh: "Woe to the bloody city! It is +full of lies and robbery ... draw the waters for the siege, fortify thy +strongholds ... then shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut +thee off; it shall eat thee up like the canker-worm." + +How thrilling, how intensely personal and human, these words must have +sounded in their ears, for it should ever be borne in mind that the +Britons who recovered India in '57 were not only determined to avenge +the barbarities inflicted on unoffending women and children, but were +inspired by a religious enthusiasm that showed itself in almost every +diary kept and letter sent home during the war. + +And now, while the brilliant stars were dimmed by bursting shells and +rockets hissing in glowing curves across the sky, the columns moved +forward. + +English, Scotch, Irish and Welsh--swarthy Pathans, bearded Sikhs, dapper +little Ghoorkahs--marched side by side, from the first column on the +left, commanded by Nicholson, to the fourth, on the extreme right, led +by Reid. + +The plan of attack was daring and soldier-like. John Nicholson, ever +claiming the post of utmost danger, elected to hurl his men across the +breach made by the big guns in the Cashmere Bastion, the strongest of +the many strong positions held by the enemy. The second column, under +Brigadier Jones, was to storm the second breach in the walls at the +Water Bastion. The third, headed by Colonel Campbell, was to pass +through the Cashmere Gate when the gallant six who had promised to blow +open the gate itself had accomplished their task, while the fourth +column, under Major Reid, undertook to clear the suburbs of Kishengunge +and Pahadunpore and force its way into the city by way of the Lahore +Gate. + +Brigadier Longfield, commanding the reserve, had to follow and support +Nicholson. Generally speaking, if each separate attack made good its +objective, the different columns were to line up along the walls, +form posts, and combine for the bombardment and escalade of the +fortress-palace. Nicholson, who directed the assault, had not forgotten +the half-implied bargain made between Malcolm and the Princess +Roshinara. Strict orders were given that the King and members of the +royal family were to be taken prisoners if possible. As for Akhab Khan +and other leaders of rebel brigades, it was impossible to distinguish +them among so many. Not even Nicholson could ask his men to be generous +in giving quarter, when nine out of every ten mutineers they encountered +were less soldiers than slayers of women and children. + +At last, in the darkness, the columns reached their allotted stations +and halted. The engineers, carrying ladders, crept to the front. + +Nicholson placed a hand on Jones's shoulder. + +"Are you ready?" he asked, with the quiet confidence in the success of +his self-imposed mission that caused all men to trust in him implicitly. + +"Yes," answered Jones. + +Nicholson turned to Malcolm and two others of his aides. + +"Tell the gunners to cease fire," he said. + +Left and right they hurried, stumbling over the broken ground to reach +the batteries, which were thundering at short range against the fast +crumbling walls. In No. 2, which Malcolm entered, he found a young +lieutenant of artillery, Frederick Sleigh Roberts, working a heavy gun +almost single-handed, so terribly had the Royal Regiment suffered in +the contest waged with the rebel gunners during seven days and nights. + +Almost simultaneously the three batteries became silent. With a +heart-stirring cheer the Rifles dashed forward and fired a volley to +cover the advance of the ladder-men, and the first step was taken in the +actual capture of Delhi. + +The loud yell of the Rifles served as a signal to the other columns. +The second, gallantly led by Jones, rushed up to the Water Bastion and +entered it, but not until twenty-nine out of thirty-nine men carrying +ladders were killed or wounded. On Jones's right, Nicholson, ever in the +van, seemed to lift his column by sheer strength of will through an +avalanche of musketry, heavy stones, grape-shot and bayonet thrusts, +while the rebels, swarming like wasps to the breach, inspired each other +by hurling threats and curses at the Nazarenes. But to stop Nicholson +and his host they must kill every man, and be killed themselves in the +killing, and, not having the stomach for that sort of fight, they ran. + +Thus far a magnificent success had been achieved. It was carried +further, almost perfected, by the splendid self-sacrifice displayed +by the six who had promised to blow open the Cashmere Gate. To +this day their names are blazoned on a tablet between its two +arches--"Lieutenants Home and Salkeld of the Engineers, Bugler Hawthorne +of the 52d and Sergeants Carmichael, Smith and Burgess of the Bengal +Sappers." Smith and Hawthorne lived to wear the Victoria Crosses +awarded for their feat. The others, while death glazed their eyes and +dimmed their ears, may have known by the rush of men past where they lay +that their sacrifice had not been in vain. The stout timbers and iron +bands were rent by the powder-bags, and the third column fought a +passage through the double gateway into the tiny square in front of St. +James's Church. + +Then, as if the story of Delhi were to serve as a microcosm of fortune's +smiles and frowns in human affairs, the victorious career of the British +columns received a serious, almost a mortal check. The mutineers were +in full retreat, terror-stricken and dismayed. Thousands were already +crossing the bridge of boats when the word went round that the Feringhis +were beaten. + +They were not, but the over-caution against which Nicholson had railed +for months again betrayed itself in the failure of the second column +to capture the Lahore Gate when that vital position lay at its mercy. +Audacity, ever excellent in war, is sound as a proposition of Euclid in +operations against Asiatics. + +Brigadier and men had done what they were asked to do--they ought to +have done more. Having penetrated beyond the Mori Bastion they fell +back and fortified themselves against counter assault, thus displaying +unimpeachable tactics, but bad generalship in view of the enemy's +demoralization. Instantly Akhab Khan, who commanded in that quarter of +the city, claimed a victory. The mutineers flocked back to their +deserted posts. While one section pressed Jones hard, another fell on +Reid's Ghoorkahs and the cavalry brigade. They actually pushed the +counter attack as far as Hindu Rao's house on the Ridge, until Hope +Grant's cavalry and Tomb's magnificent horse artillery tackled them. A +terrific _mêlée_ ensued. Twenty-five out of fifty gunners were killed or +wounded, the 9th Lancers suffered with equal severity, but the rebels +were held, punished, and defeated, after two hours of desperate +conflict. + +The mischance at the Lahore Gate cost England a life she could ill +spare. When he heard what had happened, Nicholson ran to the Mori +Bastion, gathered men from both columns and tried to storm the Lahore +Bastion at all hazards. It was asking too much, but those gallant hearts +did not falter. They followed their beloved leader into a narrow lane, +the only way from the one point to the other. They fell in scores, but +Nicholson's giant figure still towered in front. With sword raised he +shouted to the survivors to come on. Then a bullet struck him in the +chest and he fell. + +With him, for a time, drooped the flag of Britain. The utter confusion +which followed is shown by Lord Robert's statement in his Memoirs that +he found Nicholson lying in a dhooly near the Cashmere Gate, the native +carriers having fled. Although Baird Smith, a skilled engineer and +artillerist, had secured against a _coup de main_ that small portion +of the city occupied by the besiegers, General Wilson was minded to +withdraw the troops. Even now he considered the task of subduing Delhi +to be beyond their powers. Baird Smith insisted that he should hold on. +Nicholson sent a typical message from his deathbed on the Ridge that he +still had strength enough left to struggle to his feet and pistol the +first man who counseled retreat, and the harassed commander-in-chief +consented to the continuance of the fighting. + +Although his judgment was mistaken he had good reasons for it. Akhab +Khan, on whom the real leadership devolved when it became known that the +King and his sons had fled from the palace, tried a ruse that might well +have proved fatal to his adversaries. Counting on the exhaustion of the +British and the privations they had endured during the long months on +the Ridge, he caused the deserted streets, between the Cashmere and Mori +Gates, to be strewed with bottles of wine, beer and spirits. To men +enfeebled by heat and want of food the liquor was more deadly than lead +or steel. Were it not that Akhab Khan himself was shot through the +forehead while trying to repel the advance of Taylor's engineers along +the main road to the palace from the Cashmere Gate, it was well within +the bounds of possibility that the afternoon of the 14th might have +witnessed a British _debacle_. + +In one respect the sepoy commander's death was as serious to his cause +as the loss of Nicholson to the English. The rebels, fighting fiercely +enough in small detachments, but no longer controlled by a man who knew +how to use their vastly superior numbers, allowed themselves to be +dealt with in detail. Soon the British attack was properly organized, +and a six days' orgy of destruction began. + +Although no Briton was seen to injure a woman or child in the streets or +houses of Delhi, the avenging army spared no man. Unhappily thousands of +harmless citizens were slaughtered side by side with the mutineers. The +British had received a great provocation and they exacted a terrible +payment. On the 20th the gates of the palace were battered in and the +British flag was hoisted from its topmost turret. Then, and not till +then, did Delhi fall. The last of the Moguls was driven from the halls +which had witnessed the grandeur and pomp of his imperial predecessors, +and the great city passed into the hands of the new race that had come +to leaven the decaying East. It was a dearly-bought triumph. On +September 14 the conquering army lost sixty-six officers and eleven +hundred and four men. Between May 30 and September 20 the total British +casualties were nearly four thousand. + +Malcolm soon learnt that the Princess Roshinara had fled with her father +and brothers. Probably the death of Akhab Khan had unnerved her, and she +dared not trust to the mercy of the victors. Frank was among the first +to enter the palace. After a few fanatical ghazees were made an end of, +he hurried towards the zenana. It was empty. He searched its glittering +apartments with feverish anxiety, but he met no human being until some +men of the 75th entered and began to prise open boxes and cupboards in +the search for loot. + +After that his duties took him to the Ridge, and it was not until all +was over that he heard how Hodson had captured the King and shot the +royal princes with his own hand. This tragedy took place on the road +from Humayun's Tomb, whither the wretched monarch retreated when it was +seen that Delhi must yield. Hodson claimed to be an executioner, not a +murderer. He held that he acted under the pressure of a mob, intent on +rescuing Mirza Moghul, the heir apparent, and his brother and son. That +all three were cowardly ruffians and merciless in their treatment of +the English captured in Delhi on May 11, cannot be denied, but Hodson's +action was condemned by many, and it was perhaps as well that he found a +soldier's grave during Colin Campbell's advance on Lucknow. + +It was there that the fortune of war next brought Malcolm. Delhi had +scarce quieted down after the storm and fury of the week's street +fighting when Havelock, re-enforced by Outram, drove the relief force +through the insurgent ring around the Residency like some stout ship +forcing her way to port through a raging sea. + +No sooner had he entered the entrenchment on the 25th of September than +the rebel waves surged together again in his rear, and on the 27th the +Residency was again invested almost as closely as ever. But the new +column infused vigor and hope in the hearts of a garrison that had +ceased even to despair. Apathy, a quiet waiting for death, was the +prevalent attitude in Lucknow until the Highland bonnets were seen +tossing above the last line of mutineers that tried to bar their passage +through the streets. At once the besieged took up the offensive. The +lines were greatly extended, the enemy's advanced posts were carried +with the bayonet, troublesome guns were seized and spiked and the rebel +mining operations summarily stopped. + +Two days before Havelock's little army cut its way into Lucknow, Ungud, +the pensioner, crept in to the retrenchment and announced the coming +relief. He was not believed. Twice already had he brought that cheering +message and events had falsified his news. + +Winifred, a worn and pallid Winifred by this time, sought him and asked +for tidings of Malcolm. He had none. There was a rumor that Delhi had +fallen, and an officer had told him that there was a Major Malcolm on +Nicholson's staff. That was all. Not a letter, not a sign, came to +reassure the heart-broken girl, so the joy of Havelock's arrival was +dimmed for her by the uncertainty that obtained in regard to her lover's +fate. + +Then the dreadful waiting began again. After having endured a plague +of heat in the hot weather, the remnant of the original garrison was +subjected to the torment of cold in the months that followed. In Upper +India the change of temperature is so remarkably sudden that it is +incomprehensible to those who live in more favored climes. Early in +October the thermometer falls by many degrees each day. The reason is, +of course, that the diminishing power of the sun permits the earth to +throw off by night the heat, always intense, stored during the day. +Something in the nature of an atmospheric vacuum is thus created, and +the resultant cold continues until the opposite effect brings about the +lasting heat of the summer months, which begin about March 15 in that +part of India. + +But scientific explanations of unpleasant phenomena are poor substitutes +for scanty clothing. In some respects the last position of the +beleaguered garrison was worse than the first, and the days wore on in +seemingly endless misery, until absolutely authentic intelligence +arrived on November 9, that Sir Colin Campbell was at Bunnee and would +march forthwith to relieve the Residency. + +Then Outram, who had succeeded to the chief command as soon as Havelock +joined hands with Inglis, called for a volunteer who would act as Sir +Colin's guide through the network of canals, roads, and scattered +suburbs that added to the dangers of Lucknow's narrow streets, and a +man named Kavanagh, an uncovenanted civilian, offered his services. + +It is not hard to picture Kavanagh's lot if he were captured by the +mutineers. His own views were definite on the point. Beneath his native +disguise he carried a pistol, not for use against an enemy, but to take +his own life if he failed to creep through the investing lines. But he +succeeded, and lived to be the only civilian hero ever awarded the +Victoria Cross. + +Another incident of the march should be noted. Malcolm saw preparations +being made to hang a Mohammedan who was suspected of having ill-treated +Europeans. The man protested his innocence, but he was not listened to. +Then Frank, thinking he remembered his face, questioned him and found he +was the zemindar who helped Winifred, her uncle and himself during the +flight from Cawnpore. + +Such testimony from an officer more than sufficed to outweigh the slight +evidence against the prisoner, who was set at liberty forthwith. During +the remainder of his life he had ample leisure to reflect on the good +fortune that led him to help the people who sought his assistance on +that June night. Were it not for Malcolm's interference he would have +been hanged without mercy, and possibly not without good cause. + +On the afternoon of November 11, Sir Colin Campbell reviewed his little +army. It was drawn up in parade order, on a plain a few miles south +of the Dilkusha. Three thousand four hundred men faced him, and the +smallness of the number is eloquent of the magnitude of their task. +Indeed, that is one of the salient features of each main episode of +the Mutiny. Nicholson at Delhi, Havelock at Cawnpore and on the way to +Lucknow, Colin Campbell in the pending action, and Sir Hugh Rose in many +a hard fought battle in Central India, one and all were called on to +attack and defeat ten times the number of sepoys. + +But what fine troops they were who met the commander-in-chief's gaze +as they stood marshaled there, on that dusty Indian _maidan_. Peel's +sailors, with eight heavy guns, artillerymen standing by the cannon that +had sounded the knell of Delhi from below the Ridge, the 9th Lancers, +who held the right flank when the capture of Hindu Rao's house would +have meant the collapse of the assault, the 8th and 75th Foot, the 2d +and 4th Punjabis--all these had followed the Lion of the Punjab when +he stormed the Cashmere Bastion. Sikh Cavalry, too, and Hodson's wild +horsemen, and many another gallant soldier, fresh from the immortal +siege, returned the General's quiet scrutiny, as he rode past, and +doubtless wondered how he would compare as a leader with the man whom +they had left in the little cemetery at the foot of the Ridge. + +It is on record that from the end of the line came a yell of welcome and +recognition. The 93d Highlanders remembered what Campbell had done in +the Crimea, and their joyful slogan brought a flush to the bronzed face +of the old war dog when he learnt the significance of their greeting. + +Next morning began a three day's battle. Perhaps there was never an +action so spectacular, so thrilling, so amazingly in earnest, as the +continuous fight which brought about the Second Relief of Lucknow. At +the Alumbagh, at the Dilkusha and La Martinière school, at the Secunder +Bagh and the Shah Nujeef, were fought fiercely-contested combats that in +other campaigns would have figured as independent battles, each highly +important in the history of the time. + +The taking of the Shah Nujeef alone was worthy of Homeric praise. It was +a mosque that stood in a garden, bounded by a high and stout wall and +protected by jungle and mud hovels. Its peculiar position, joined to the +number of guns mounted on its walls and the thousands of sepoys who held +it, made it impossible for a devoted artillery to create an effective +breach. Yet, if the relieving force failed here, they failed altogether. +So Sir Colin asked his men for a supreme effort. Riding forward himself, +accompanied by his staff and Sir Adrian Hope, Colonel of the 93d, he +cheered on his loved Highlanders. Cannot one hear the skirl of the pipes +amid that din of cannon and musketry? Cannot one see the shot-torn +colors fluttering in the breeze, the plaids of the gallant Highland +gentlemen who led the 93d, vanishing in the smoke and dust? Middleton's +battery of the Royal Artillery came dashing up, "the drivers waving +their whips, the gunners their caps," unlimbered within forty yards of +the wall, and opened fire with grape. Men and horses fell in scores, but +somehow, anyhow, an entrance was gained and the Shah Nujeef was taken. +Feeble must be the pulse that does not beat faster, dim the eye that +does not kindle, as one hears how those Britons fought and died, but did +not die in vain. + +Next day Captain Garnet Wolseley led a storming party against the Motee +Mahal, and the self-sacrificing heroism of the Shah Nujeef was displayed +again here and with the same result. + +And so the wild fight went on, till Outram and Havelock, Napier, Eyre, +Havelock's son and four other officers ran from the Residency through a +tempest of lead showered on them from the Kaiser Bagh, and Hope Grant, +dashing forward from the van of Colin Campbell's force, shook hands with +the hero of the First Relief. + +Half an hour later Malcolm entered the Residency. At first sight it was +an abode of sorrow. Death and ruin seemed to have combined there to +wreak their spite on mankind and his belongings. Even the men and women +whom he met were tear-laden, and it was not till he heard their happy +voices that he knew they were weeping because of the overwhelming joy in +their souls. + +He hurried on, scanning each excited group for one face that he thought +he would recognize were it fifty years instead of five months since +their last meeting. He, of course, was even a finer-looking and better +set-up soldier now than when he galloped along the flame-lit roads of +Meerut on that never-to-be-forgotten Sunday night in May, and it is not +to be wondered at if he failed to allow for the effect on Winifred of +the ordeal she had gone through. + +Perhaps his keen eyes were covered with a mist, perhaps the growing fear +in his heart forbade his tongue to ask a question, because he dreaded +the answer. Perhaps sheer agitation may have rendered him incapable of +distinguishing one among so many. Howsoever that may be, he knew +nothing, saw no one, until a wan, slim-figured woman, a woman clothed in +tattered rags, down whose pallid cheeks streamed the divine tears of +happiness, touched his arm and sobbed: + +"Are you looking for me--dear?" + + * * * * * + +The Mutiny was by no means ended with the fall of Delhi and the Second +Relief of Lucknow. North and south and east and west the rebels were +hunted with untiring zeal. Sometimes in scattered bands, less often in +formidable armies, they were pursued, encountered and annihilated. +Quickly degenerating into mere robber hordes, they became a pest to the +unhappy villagers in the remoter parts of the different provinces, and +it was long ere the last embers of the fire that had raged so fiercely +were stamped out. Nana Sahib perished miserably under the claws of a +tiger in the Nepaul jungle, the Moulvie of Fyzabad and the Ranei of +Jhansi fell in action, while Tantia Topi was hanged. But the end came, +and on November 1, 1858, amid salvoes of artillery and to the +accompaniment of festivities innumerable, Queen Victoria proclaimed the +abolition of the East India Company, and assumed the sovereignty of the +country. Her Majesty took no territory, confirmed all treaties, promised +religious toleration and civil equality to all her Indian subjects, and +gave full and complete pardon to every rebel who was not a murderer. + +The Queen's gracious and peace-bringing words supplied a fitting close +to India's Red Year. Europeans and natives alike tried to forget both +the crime and its punishment. And that was a good thing in itself. + +The great land of Hindustan has doubled its teeming population and +increased its prosperity out of all comparable reckoning during the +fifty years that have passed since the Mutiny. Many of the descendants +of men who fought against the British Raj are now its trusted servants, +and there is not in India to-day a native gentleman of any importance +who would not assist the Government with his life and fortune to save +his country from the lawless horrors of any similar outbreak. + +But these are matters for the politician and the statesman. It is more +fitting that this story of the lives and fortunes of a few of the actors +in a great human drama should conclude with such particulars of their +subsequent history as have filtered through time's close-woven meshes of +half a century. + +One day in February, not so long ago, a young officer of the Guides, who +had come to Lucknow for "Cup" week, was standing in the porch of the +Mohamed Bagh Club when he heard a young lady bewailing fate in the shape +of a tikka-gharry which had brought her there. Her "people" were at the +Chutter Munzil Club, miles away, for Lucknow is a big place, and she was +already late for tea. + +Being a nice young man, the said officer of the Guides could not bear to +see a nice young woman in distress. + +"My dog-cart is just coming up," he said, "and I am going to the Chutter +Munzil. Won't you let me drive you there?" + +She blushed and hesitated and of course agreed. + +On the way, to maintain a polite conversation, he pointed out several +historic buildings. + +"You are stationed here, I suppose?" she said. + +"No, indeed. My regiment is at Quetta, but I was reared on the records +of Lucknow. My grandmother went through the whole of the siege, and my +grandfather was with the Second Relief. It must have agreed with their +health, for they were both out here two years since, and I went over the +Mutiny ground with them." + +"How interesting! Was that how they met?" + +"No. They were engaged just before the Residency was invested. It is an +awfully interesting yarn, and I should like some day to have a chance of +telling it to you. There is a native princess in it, and a pearl +necklace, which is worth quite a lot of money, and is believed to have +been stolen by a sepoy before my grandfather obtained it, quite by +accident. And the old chap--he was quite a young chap then, you +know--had a remarkable native servant who did so well at the Mutiny that +he became a nawab or something of the sort. Really, the whole thing is +more like a book than a chapter of real life." + +"I had a grandmother in the Mutiny," said the girl, "but she had such a +sad experience that she seldom mentioned it. Her maiden name was Keene, +and her father was killed at Fattehpore--" + +"Keene! Did she ever speak of a man named Malcolm, who saved her and her +sister?" + +"Oh, yes! You don't mean to say--" + +"Yes, really, I'm his grandson. Now, isn't that the queerest thing? Just +imagine the odds against my meeting you here under such conditions? +Please tell me your name, and you'll let me call, won't you?" + +The girl was somewhat breathless. Young Malcolm was looking at her as +though he felt that a special dispensation of Providence had brought +them together. + +"I am sure my mother will be glad to meet you and hear all about those +old days at Lucknow," she said shyly. + +So it may be that the gray ruins of the Residency, over which the flag +flies ever that was kept there so resolutely by the men and women in +'57, saw the beginning of another love idyll, destined to end as happily +as that which had its being amidst the terrors and fury of the Mutiny. + + THE END + + + + + BOOKS ON NATURE STUDY BY + CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS + + Handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents per volume, postpaid. + + + THE KINDRED OF THE WILD. A Book of Animal Life. With + illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull. + +Appeals alike to the young and to the merely youthful-hearted. Close +observation. Graphic description. We get a sense of the great wild and +its denizens. Out of the common. Vigorous and full of character. The +book is one to be enjoyed, all the more because it smacks of the forest +instead of the museum. John Burroughs says: "The volume is in many ways +the most brilliant collection of Animal Stories that has appeared. It +reaches a high order of literary merit." + + + THE HEART OF THE ANCIENT WOOD. Illustrated. + +This book strikes a new note in literature. It is a realistic romance of +the folk of the forest--a romance of the alliance of peace between a +pioneer's daughter in the depths of the ancient wood and the wild beasts +who felt her spell and became her friends. It is not fanciful, with +talking beasts, nor is it merely an exquisite idyl of the beasts +themselves. It is an actual romance, in which the animal characters play +their parts as naturally as do the human. The atmosphere of the book is +enchanting. The reader feels the undulating, whimpering music of the +forest, the power of the shady silences, the dignity of the beasts who +live closest to the heart of the wood. + + + THE WATCHERS OF THE TRAILS. A companion volume to the "Kindred + of the Wild." With 48 full page plates and decorations from + drawings by Charles Livingston Bull. + +These stories are exquisite in their refinement, and yet robust in their +appreciation of some of the rougher phases of woodcraft. "This is a book +full of delight. An additional charm lies in Mr. Bull's faithful and +graphic illustrations, which in fashion all their own tell the story of +the wild life, illuminating and supplementing the pen pictures of the +authors."--_Literary Digest._ + + + RED FOX. The Story of His Adventurous Career in the Ringwaak + Wilds, and His Triumphs over the Enemies of His Kind. With 50 + illustrations, including frontispiece in color and cover design + by Charles Livingston Bull. + +A brilliant chapter in natural history. Infinitely more wholesome +reading than the average tale of sport, since it gives a glimpse of the +hunt from the point of view of the hunted. "True in substance but +fascinating as fiction. It will interest old and young, city-bound and +free-footed, those who know animals and those who do not."--_Chicago +Record Herald._ + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, · · New York + + + + + FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS + IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS + +Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time, library size, +printed on excellent paper--most of them finely illustrated. Full and +handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid. + + + NEDRA, by George Barr McCutcheon, with color frontispiece, and + other illustrations by Harrison Fisher. + +The story of an elopement of a young couple from Chicago, who decide to +go to London, travelling as brother and sister. Their difficulties +commence in New York and become greatly exaggerated when they are +shipwrecked in mid-ocean. The hero finds himself stranded on the island +of Nedra with another girl, whom he has rescued by mistake. The story +gives an account of their finding some of the other passengers, and the +circumstances which resulted from the strange mix-up. + + + POWER LOT, by Sarah P. McLean Greene. Illustrated. + +The story of the reformation of a man and his restoration to +self-respect through the power of honest labor, the exercise of honest +independence, and the aid of clean, healthy, out of door life and +surroundings. The characters take hold of the heart and win sympathy. +The dear old story has never been more lovingly and artistically told. + + + MY MAMIE ROSE. The History of My Regeneration, by Owen Kildare. + Illustrated. + +This _autobiography_ is a powerful book of love and sociology. Reads +like the strangest fiction. Is the strongest truth and deals with the +story of a man's redemption through a woman's love and devotion. + + + JOHN BURT, by Frederick Upham Adams, with illustrations. + +John Burt, a New England lad, goes West to seek his fortune and finds it +in gold mining. He becomes one of the financial factors and pitilessly +crushes his enemies. The story of the Stock Exchange manipulations was +never more vividly and engrossingly told. A love story runs through the +book, and is handled with infinite skill. + + + THE HEART LINE, by Gelett Burgess, with halftone illustrations + by Lester Ralph, and inlay cover in colors. + +A great dramatic story of the city that was. A story of Bohemian life in +San Francisco, before the disaster, presented with mirror-like accuracy. +Compressed into it are all the sparkle, all the gayety, all the wild, +whirling life of the glad, mad, bad, and most delightful city of the +Golden Gate. + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, · · New York + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: + +Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors; otherwise, +every effort has been made to remain true to the author's words and +intent. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Red Year, by Louis Tracy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RED YEAR *** + +***** This file should be named 36478-8.txt or 36478-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/4/7/36478/ + +Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Red Year + A Story of the Indian Mutiny + +Author: Louis Tracy + +Release Date: June 20, 2011 [EBook #36478] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RED YEAR *** + + + + +Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 326px;"> +<img src="images/icover.jpg" width="326" height="500" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="large" /> + +<div class="centerbox bbox"> +<h1>THE RED YEAR</h1> + +<p class="center">A STORY +OF THE INDIAN MUTINY</p> + +<p class="double"> </p> + +<h3>BY</h3> +<h2>LOUIS TRACY</h2> + +<p class="center">AUTHOR OF<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14917">“THE WINGS OF THE MORNING,”</a> “THE PILLAR OF<br /> +LIGHT,” <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19649">“THE CAPTAIN OF THE KANSAS,”</a><br /> +ETC., ETC.</p> + +<p class="double"> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 96px;"> +<img src="images/i001.jpg" width="96" height="50" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="double"> </p> + +<h3>NEW YORK</h3> +<h2>GROSSET & DUNLAP</h2> +<h3>PUBLISHERS</h3></div> + +<hr class="large" /> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1907</span></h4> +<h3><span class="smcap">By EDWARD J. CLODE</span></h3> + +<hr class="tiny" /> +<h4><i>Entered at Stationers’ Hall</i></h4> + +<hr class="large" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="68%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" summary="CONTENTS"> + +<tr><td colspan="2" align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER I.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Meshes of the Net</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#The_Red_Year">1</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER II.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">A Night in May</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER III.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">How Bahadur Shah Proclaimed his Empire</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER IV.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">On the Way to Cawnpore</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER V.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">A Woman Intervenes</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER VI.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Well</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER VII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">To Lucknow</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER VIII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Wherein a Mohammedan Fraternizes with a Brahmin</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_131">131</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER IX.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">A Long Chase</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER X.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Wherein Fate Plays Tricks with Malcolm</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER XI.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">A Day’s Adventures</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_190">190</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER XII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Swing of the Pendulum</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Men who Wore Skirts</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_227">227</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIV.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Why Malcolm did not Write</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_247">247</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER XV.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">At the King’s Court</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_268">268</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVI.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">In the Vortex</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_290">290</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVII.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Expiation</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_309">309</a></td></tr> + +</table></div> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h1><a name="The_Red_Year" id="The_Red_Year"></a><i>The Red Year</i></h1> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>THE MESHES OF THE NET</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">O</span>n a day in January, 1857, a sepoy was sitting by a well in the +cantonment of Dum-Dum, near Calcutta. Though he wore the uniform of John +Company, and his rank was the lowest in the native army, he carried on +his forehead the caste-marks of the Brahmin. In a word, he was more than +noble, being of sacred birth, and the Hindu officers of his regiment, if +they were not heaven-born Brahmins, would grovel before him in secret, +though he must obey their slightest order on parade or in the field.</p> + +<p>To him approached a Lascar.</p> + +<p>“Brother,” said the newcomer, “lend me your brass pot, so that I may +drink, for I have walked far in the sun.”</p> + +<p>The sepoy started as though a snake had stung him. Lascars, the +sailor-men of India, were notoriously free-and-easy in their manners. +Yet how came it that even a low-caste mongrel of a Lascar should offer +such an overt insult to a Brahmin!</p> + +<p>“Do you not know, swine-begotten, that your hog’s lips would contaminate +my lotah?” asked he, putting the scorn of centuries into the words.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p><p>“Contaminate!” grinned the Lascar, neither frightened nor angered. “By +holy Ganga, it is your lips that are contaminated, not mine. Are not the +Government greasing your cartridges with cow’s fat? And can you load +your rifle without biting the forbidden thing? Learn more about your own +caste, brother, before you talk so proudly to others.”</p> + +<p>Not a great matter, this squabble between a sepoy and a Lascar, yet it +lit such a flame in India that rivers of blood must be shed ere it was +quenched. The Brahmin’s mind reeled under the shock of the retort. It +was true, then, what the agents of the dethroned King of Oudh were +saying in the bazaar. The Government were bent on the destruction of +Brahminical supremacy. He and his caste-fellows would lose all that made +life worth living. But they would exact a bitter price for their fall +from high estate.</p> + +<p>“Kill!” he murmured in his frenzy, as he rushed away to tell his +comrades the lie that made the Indian Mutiny possible. “Slay and spare +not! Let us avenge our wrongs so fully that no accursed Feringhi shall +dare again to come hither across the Black Water!”</p> + +<p>The lie and the message flew through India with the inconceivable speed +with which such ill tidings always travels in that country. Ever north +went the news that the British Raj was doomed. Hindu fakirs, aglow with +religious zeal, Mussalman zealots, as eager for dominance in this world +as for a houri-tenanted Paradise in the next, carried the fiery torch of +rebellion far and wide. And so the flame spread, and was fanned <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>to red +fury, though the eyes of few Englishmen could see it, while native +intelligence was aghast at the supineness of their over-lords.</p> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<p>One evening in the month of April, a slim, straight-backed girl stood in +the veranda of a bungalow at Meerut. Her slender figure, garbed in white +muslin, was framed in a creeper-covered arch. The fierce ardor of an +Indian spring had already kissed into life a profusion of red flowers +amid the mass of greenery, and, if Winifred Mayne had sought an +effective setting for her own fair picture, she could not have found one +better fitted to its purpose.</p> + +<p>But she was young enough and pretty enough to pay little heed to pose or +background. In fact, so much of her smooth brow as could be seen under a +broad-brimmed straw hat was wrinkled in a decided frown. Happily, her +bright brown eyes had a glint of humor in them, for Winifred’s wrath was +an evanescent thing, a pallid sprite, rarely seen, and ever ready to be +banished by a smile.</p> + +<p>“There!” she said, tugging at a refractory glove. “Did you hear it? It +actually shrieked as it split. And this is the second pair. I shall +never again believe a word Behari Lal says. Wait till I see him. I’ll +give him such a talking to.”</p> + +<p>“Then I have it in my heart to envy Behari Lal,” said her companion, +glancing up at her from the carriage-way that ran by the side of the few +steps leading down from the veranda.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p><p>“Indeed! May I ask why?” she demanded.</p> + +<p>“Because you yield him a privilege you deny to me.”</p> + +<p>“I was not aware you meant to call to-day. As it is, I am paying a +strictly ceremonial visit. I wish I could speak Hindustani. Now, what +would you say to Behari Lal in such a case?”</p> + +<p>“I hardly know. When I buy gloves, I buy them of sufficient size. Of +course, you have small hands—”</p> + +<p>“Thank you. Please don’t trouble to explain. And now, as you have been +rude to me, I shall not take you to see Mrs. Meredith.”</p> + +<p>“But that is a kindness.”</p> + +<p>“Then you shall come, and be miserable.”</p> + +<p>“For your sake, Miss Mayne, I would face Medusa, let alone the excellent +wife of our Commissary-General, but fate, in the shape of an uncommonly +headstrong Arab, forbids. I have just secured a new charger, and he and +I have to decide this evening whether I go where he wants to go, or he +goes where I want to go. I wheedled him into your compound by sheer +trickery. The really definite issue will be settled forthwith on the +Grand Trunk Road.”</p> + +<p>“I hope you are not running any undue risk,” said the girl, with a +sudden note of anxiety in her voice that was sweetest music to Frank +Malcolm’s ears. For an instant he had a mad impulse to ask if she cared, +but he crushed it ruthlessly, and his bantering reply gave no hint of +the tumult in his breast. Yet he feared to meet her eyes, and was glad +of a saluting sepoy who swaggered jauntily past the open gate.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p><p>“I don’t expect to be deposited in the dust, if that is what you mean,” +he said. “But there is a fair chance that instead of carrying me back to +Meerut my friend Nejdi will take me to Aligarh. You see, he is an Arab +of mettle. If I am too rough with him, it will break his spirit; if too +gentle, he will break my neck. He needs the <i>main de fer sous le gant de +velours</i>. Please forgive me! I really didn’t intend to mention gloves +again.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, go away, you and your Arab. You are both horrid. You dine here +to-morrow night, my uncle said?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, if I don’t send you a telegram from Aligarh. I may be brought +there, you know, against my will.”</p> + +<p>Lifting his hat, he walked towards a huge pipal tree in the compound. +Beneath its far-flung branches a syce was sitting in front of a +finely-proportioned and unusually big Arab horse. Both animal and man +seemed to be dozing, but they woke into activity when the sahib +approached. The Arab pricked his ears, swished his long and arched tail +viciously, and showed the whites of his eyes. A Bedouin of the desert, a +true scion of the incomparable breed of Nejd, he was suspicious of +civilization, and his new owner was a stranger, as yet.</p> + +<p>“Ready for the fray, I see,” murmured Malcolm with a smile. He wasted no +time over preliminaries. Bidding the syce place his thumbs in the steel +rings of the bridle, the young Englishman gathered the reins <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>and a wisp +of gray mane in his left hand. Seizing a favorable moment, when the +struggling animal flinched from the touch of a low-lying branch on the +off side, he vaulted into the saddle. Chunga, the syce, held on until +his master’s feet had found the stirrups. Then he was told to let go, +and Miss Winifred Mayne, niece of a Commissioner of Oudh, quite the most +eligible young lady the Meerut district could produce that year, +witnessed a display of cool, resourceful horsemanship as the enraged +Arab plunged and curvetted through the main gate.</p> + +<p>It left her rather flushed and breathless.</p> + +<p>“I like Mr. Malcolm,” she confided to herself with a little laugh, “but +his manner with women is distinctly brusque! I wonder why!”</p> + +<p>The Grand Trunk Road ran to left and right. To the left it led to the +bazaar, the cantonment, and the civil lines; to the right, after passing +a few houses tenanted by Europeans, it entered the open country on a +long stretch of over a thousand miles to Calcutta and the south. In 1857 +no thoroughfare in the world equaled the Grand Trunk Road. Beginning at +Peshawur, in the extreme north of India, it traversed the Punjab for six +hundred miles as far as Aligarh. Here it broke into the Calcutta and +Bombay branches, each nearly a thousand miles in length. Wide and +straight, well made and tree-lined throughout, it supplied the two great +arteries of Indian life. Malcolm had selected it as a training-ground +that evening, because he meant to weary and subdue his too highly +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>spirited charger. Whether the pace was fast or slow, Nejdi would be +compelled to meet many varieties of traffic, from artillery elephants +and snarling camels down to the humble bullock-cart of the ryot. +Possibly, he would not shy at such monstrosities after twenty miles of a +lathering ride.</p> + +<p>The mad pace set by the Arab when he heard the clatter of his feet on +the hard road chimed in with the turbulent mood of his rider. Frank +Malcolm was a soldier by choice and instinct. When he joined the Indian +army, and became a subaltern in a native cavalry regiment, he determined +to devote himself to his profession. He gave his whole thought to it and +to nothing else. His interests lay in his work. He regarded every +undertaking from the point of view of its influence on his military +education, so it may be conceded instantly that the arrival in Meerut of +an Oudh Commissioner’s pretty niece should not have affected the peace +of mind of this budding Napoleon.</p> + +<p>But a nice young woman can find joints in the armor of the +sternest-souled young man. Her attack is all the more deadly if it be +unpremeditated, and Frank Malcolm had already reached the +self-depreciatory stage wherein a comparatively impecunious subaltern +asks himself the sad question whether it be possible for such a one to +woo and wed a maid of high degree, or her Anglo-Indian equivalent, an +heiress of much prospective wealth and present social importance.</p> + +<p>But money and rank are artificial, the mere varnish of life, and the hot +breath of reality can soon scorch <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>them out of existence. Events were +then shaping themselves in India that were destined to sweep aside +convention for many a day. Had the young Englishman but known it, five +miles from Meerut his Arab’s hoofs threw pebbles over a swarthy moullah, +lank and travel-stained, who was hastening towards the Punjab on a +dreadful errand. The man turned and cursed him as he passed, and vowed +with bitter venom that when the time of reckoning came there would not +be a Feringhi left in all the land. Malcolm, however, would have laughed +had he heard. Affairs of state did not concern him. His only trouble was +that Winifred Mayne stood on a pinnacle far removed from the beaten path +of a cavalry subaltern. So, being in a rare fret and fume, he let the +gray Arab gallop himself white, and, when the high-mettled Nejdi thought +of easing the pace somewhat, he was urged onward with the slight but +utterly unprecedented prick of a spur.</p> + +<p>That was a degradation not to be borne. The Calcutta Brahmin did not +resent the Lascar’s taunt more keenly. With a swerve that almost +unseated Malcolm, the Arab dashed in front of a bullock-cart, swept +between the trees on the west side of the road, leaped a broad ditch, +and crashed into a field of millet. Another ditch, another field, breast +high with tall castor-oil plants, a frantic race through a grove of +mangoes—when Malcolm had to lie flat on Nejdi’s neck to avoid being +swept off by the low branches—and horse and man dived headlong into +deep water.</p> + +<p>The splash, far more than the ducking, frightened <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>the horse. Malcolm, +in that instant of prior warning which the possessor of steady nerves +learns to use so well, disengaged his feet from the stirrups. He was +thrown clear, and, when he came to the surface, he saw that the Arab and +himself were floundering in a moat. Not the pleasantest of +bathing-places anywhere, in India such a sheet of almost stagnant water +has excessive peculiarities. Among other items, it breeds fever and +harbors snakes, so Malcolm floundered rather than swam to the bank, +where he had the negative satisfaction of catching Nejdi’s bridle when +that disconcerted steed scrambled out after him.</p> + +<p>The two were coated with green slime. Being obviously unhurt, they +probably had a forlornly comic aspect. At any rate, a woman’s musical +laugh came from the lofty wall which bounded the moat on the further +side, and a woman’s clear voice said:</p> + +<p>“A bold leap, sahib! Did you mean to scale the fort on horseback? And +why not have chosen a spot where the water was cleaner?”</p> + +<p>Before he could see the speaker, so smothered was he in dripping moss +and weeds, Malcolm knew that some lady of rank had watched his +adventure. She used the pure Persian of the court, and her diction was +refined. Luckily, he had studied Persian as well as its Indian +off-shoot, Hindustani, and he understood the words. He pressed back his +dank hair, squeezed the water and slime off his face, and looked up.</p> + +<p>To his exceeding wonder, his eyes met those of a young Mohammedan woman, +a woman richly garbed, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>and of remarkable appearance. She was unveiled, +an amazing fact in itself, and her creamy skin, arched eyebrows, regular +features, and raven-black hair proclaimed her aristocratic lineage. She +was leaning forward in an embrasure of the battlemented wall. Behind +her, two attendants, oval-faced, brown-skinned women of the people, +peered shyly at the Englishman. When he glanced their way, they +hurriedly adjusted their silk saris, or shawls, so as to hide their +faces. Their mistress used no such bashful subterfuge. She leaned +somewhat farther through the narrow embrasure, revealing by the action +her bejeweled and exquisitely molded arms.</p> + +<p>“Perhaps you do not speak my language,” she said in Urdu, the tongue +most frequently heard in Upper India. “If you will go round to the +gate—that way—” and she waved a graceful hand to the left left—“my +servants will render you some assistance.”</p> + +<p>By that time, Malcolm had regained his wits. A verse of a poem by Hafiz +occurred to him.</p> + +<p>“Princess,” he said, “the radiance of your presence is as the full moon +suddenly illumining the path of a weary traveler, who finds himself on +the edge of a morass.”</p> + +<p>A flash of surprise and pleasure lit the fine eyes of the haughty beauty +perched up there on the palace wall.</p> + +<p>“’Tis well said,” she vowed, smiling with all the rare effect of full +red lips and white even teeth. “Nevertheless, this is no time for +compliments. You need <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>our help, and it shall be given willingly. Make +for the gate, I pray you.”</p> + +<p>She turned, and gave an order to one of the attendants. With another +encouraging smile to Malcolm, she disappeared.</p> + +<p>Leading the Arab, who, with the fatalism of his race, was quiet as a +sheep now that he had found a master, the young officer took the +direction pointed out by the lady. Rounding an angle of the wall, he +came to a causeway spanned by a small bridge, which was guarded by the +machicolated towers of a strong gate. A ponderous door, studded with +great bosses of iron fashioned to represent elephants’ heads, swung +open—half reluctantly it seemed—and he was admitted to a spacious +inner courtyard.</p> + +<p>The number of armed retainers gathered there was unexpectedly large. He +was well acquainted with the Meerut district, yet he had no notion that +such a fortress existed within an hour’s fast ride of the station. The +King of Delhi had a hunting-lodge somewhere in the locality, but he had +never seen the place. If this were it, why should it be crammed with +soldiers? Above all, why should they eye him with such ill-concealed +displeasure? Duty had brought him once to Delhi—it was barely forty +miles from Meerut—and the relations between the feeble old King, +Bahadur Shah, and the British authorities were then most friendly, while +the hangers-on at the Court mixed freely with the Europeans. His quick +intelligence caught at the belief that these men resented his presence +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>because he was brought among them by the command of the lady. He knew +now that he must have seen and spoken to one of the royal princesses. +None other would dare to show herself unveiled to a stranger, and a +white man at that. The manifest annoyance of her household was thus +easily accounted for, but he marveled at the strength of her bodyguard.</p> + +<p>He was given little time for observation. A distinguished-looking man, +evidently vested with authority, bustled forward and addressed him, +civilly enough. Servants came with water and towels, and cleaned his +garments sufficiently to make him presentable, while other men groomed +his horse. He was wet through, of course, but that was not a serious +matter with the thermometer at seventy degrees in the shade, and, +despite the ordinance of the Prophet, a glass of excellent red wine was +handed to him.</p> + +<p>But he saw no more of the Princess. He thought she would hardly dare to +receive him openly, and her deputy gave no sign of admitting him to the +interior of the palace, which loomed around the square of the courtyard +like some great prison.</p> + +<p>A chaprassi recovered his hat, which he had left floating in the moat. +Nejdi allowed him to mount quietly; the stout door had closed on him, +and he was picking his way across the fields towards the Meerut road, +before he quite realized how curious were the circumstances which had +befallen him since he parted from Winifred Mayne in the porch of her +uncle’s bungalow.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p><p>Then he bent forward in the saddle to stroke Nejdi’s curved neck, and +laughed cheerfully.</p> + +<p>“You are wiser than I, good horse,” said he. “When the game is up, you +take things placidly. Here am I, your supposed superior in intellect, in +danger of being bewitched by a woman’s eyes. Whether brown or black, +they play the deuce with a man if they shine in a woman’s head. So ho, +then, boy, let us home and eat, and forget these fairies in muslin and +clinging silk.”</p> + +<p>Yet a month passed, and Frank Malcolm did not succeed in forgetting. +Like any moth hovering round a lamp, the more he was singed the closer +he fluttered, though the memory of the Indian princess’s brilliant black +eyes was soon lost in the sparkle of Winifred’s brown ones.</p> + +<p>As it happened, the young soldier was a prime favorite with the +Commissioner, and it is possible that the course of true love might have +run most smoothly if the red torch of war had not flashed over the land +like the glare of some mighty volcano.</p> + +<p>On Sunday evening, May 10th, Malcolm rode away from his own small +bungalow, and took the Aligarh road. As in all up-country stations, the +European residences in Meerut were scattered over an immense area. The +cantonment was split into two sections by an irregular ravine, or +nullah, running east and west. North of this ditch were many officers’ +bungalows, and the barracks of the European troops, tenanted by a +regiment of dragoons, the 60th Rifles, and a strong force of artillery, +both horse and foot. Between the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>infantry and cavalry barracks stood +the soldiers’ church. Fully two miles away, on the south side of the +ravine, were the sepoy lines, and another group of isolated bungalows. +The native town was in this quarter, while the space intervening between +the British and Indian troops was partly covered with rambling bazaars.</p> + +<p>Malcolm had been detained nearly half an hour by some difficulty which a +subadar had experienced in arranging the details of the night’s guard. +Several men were absent without leave, and he attributed this unusual +occurrence to the severe measures the colonel had taken when certain +troopers refused to use the cartridges supplied for the new Enfield +rifle. But, like every other officer in Meerut, he was confident that +the nearness of the strongest European force in the North-West Provinces +would certainly keep the malcontents quiet. Above all else, he was ready +to stake his life on the loyalty of the great majority of the men of his +own regiment, the 3d Native Cavalry.</p> + +<p>In pushing Nejdi along at a fast canter, therefore, he had no weightier +matter on his mind than the fear that he might have kept Winifred +waiting. When he dashed into the compound, and saw that there was no +dog-cart standing in the porch, he imagined that the girl had gone +without him, or, horrible suspicion, with some other cavalier.</p> + +<p>It was not so. Winifred herself appeared on the veranda as he +dismounted.</p> + +<p>“You are a laggard,” she said severely.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p><p>“I could not help it. I was busy in the orderly-room. But why lose more +time? If that fat pony of yours is rattled along we shall not be very +much behindhand.”</p> + +<p>“You must not speak disrespectfully of my pony. If he is fat, it is due +to content, not laziness. And you are evidently not aware that Evensong +is half an hour later to-day, owing to the heat. Of course, I expected +you earlier, and, if necessary, I would have gone alone, but—”</p> + +<p>She hesitated, and looked over her shoulder into the immense +drawing-room that occupied the center of the bungalow from front to +rear.</p> + +<p>“I don’t mind admitting,” she went on, laughing nervously, “that I am a +wee bit afraid these days—there is so much talk of a native rising. +Uncle gets so cross with me when I say anything of that kind that I keep +my opinions to myself.”</p> + +<p>“The country is unsettled,” said Frank, “and it would be folly to deny +the fact. But, at any rate, you are safe enough in Meerut.”</p> + +<p>“Are you sure? Only yesterday morning eighty-five men of your own +regiment were sent to prison, were they not?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, but they alone were disaffected. Every soldier knows he must obey, +and these fellows refused point-blank to use their cartridges, though +the Colonel said they might tear them instead of biting them. He could +go no further—I wonder he met their stupid whims even thus far.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p><p>“Well, perhaps you are right. Come in, for a minute or two. My uncle is +in a rare temper. You must help to talk him out of it. By the way, where +are all the servants? The dog-cart ought to be here. <i>Koi hai!</i>”<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>No one came in response to her call. Thinking that a syce or chaprassi +would appear in a moment, Frank hung Nejdi’s bridle on a lamp-hook in +the porch, and entered the bungalow.</p> + +<p>He soon discovered that Mr. Mayne’s wrath was due to a statement in a +Calcutta newspaper that a certain Colonel Wheler had been preaching to +his sepoys.</p> + +<p>“What between a psalm-singing Viceroy and commanding officers who hold +conventicles, we are in for a nice hot weather,” growled the +Commissioner, shoving a box of cheroots towards Malcolm when the latter +found him stretched in a long cane chair on the back veranda. “Here is +Lady Canning trying to convert native women, and a number of +missionaries publishing manifestoes about the influence of railways and +steamships in bringing about the spiritual union of the world! I tell +you, Malcolm, India won’t stand it. We can do as we like with Hindu and +Mussalman so long as we leave their respective religions untouched. The +moment those are threatened we enter the danger zone. Confound it, why +can’t we let the people worship God in their own way? If anything, they +are far more religiously inclined than we ourselves. Where is the +Englishman who will flop down in the middle of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>road to say his +prayers at sunset, or measure his length along two thousand miles of a +river bank merely as a penance? Give me authority to pack a shipload of +busy-bodies home to England, and I’ll soon have the country quiet +enough—”</p> + +<p>An ominous sound interrupted the Commissioner’s outburst. Both men heard +the crackle of distant musketry. At first, neither was willing to admit +its significance.</p> + +<p>“Where is Winifred?” demanded Mr. Mayne, suddenly.</p> + +<p>“She is looking for a servant, I fancy. There was none in the front of +the house, and I wanted a man to hold my horse.”</p> + +<p>A far-off volley rumbled over the plain, and a few birds stirred +uneasily among the trees.</p> + +<p>“No servants to be seen—at this hour!”</p> + +<p>They looked at each other in silence.</p> + +<p>“We must find Winifred,” said the older man, rising from his chair.</p> + +<p>“And I must hurry back to my regiment,” said Frank.</p> + +<p>“You think, then, that there is trouble with the native troops?”</p> + +<p>“With the sepoys, yes. I have been told that the 11th and 20th are not +wholly to be trusted. And those volleys are fired by infantry.”</p> + +<p>A rapid step and the rustle of a dress warned them that the girl was +approaching. She came, like a startled fawn.</p> + +<p>“The servants’ quarters are deserted,” she cried. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>“Great columns of +smoke are rising over the trees, and you hear the shooting! Oh, what +does it mean?”</p> + +<p>“It means, my dear, that the Dragoons and the 60th will have to teach +these impudent rebels a much-needed lesson,” said her uncle. “There is +no cause for alarm. Must you really go, Malcolm?”</p> + +<p>“Go!” broke in Winifred with the shrill accents of terror. “Where are +you going?”</p> + +<p>“To my regiment, of course,” said Frank, smiling at her fears. “Probably +we shall be able to put down this outbreak before the white troops +arrive. Good-by. I shall either return, or send a trustworthy messenger, +within an hour.”</p> + +<p>And so, confident and eager, he was gone, and the first moments of the +hour sped when, perhaps, a strong man in control at Meerut might have +saved India.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>A NIGHT IN MAY</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">W</span>inifred, quite unconsciously, had stated the actual incident that led +to the outbreak of the Mutiny. The hot weather was so trying for the +white troops in Meerut, many of whom, under ordinary conditions, would +then have been in the hills, that the General had ordered a Church +Parade in the evening, and at an unusual hour.</p> + +<p>All day long the troopers of the 3d Cavalry nursed their wrath at the +fate of their comrades who had refused to handle the suspected +cartridges. They had seen men whom they regarded as martyrs stripped of +their uniforms and riveted in chains in front of the whole garrison on +the morning of the 9th. Though fear of the British force in the +cantonment kept them quiet, Hindu vied with Mussalman in muttered +execrations of the dominant race. The fact that the day following the +punishment parade was a Sunday brought about a certain relaxation from +discipline. The men loafed in the bazaars, were taunted by courtesans +with lack of courage, and either drowned their troubles in strong drink +or drew together in knots to talk treason.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a sepoy raced up to the cavalry lines with thrilling news.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p><p>“The Rifles and Artillery are coming to disarm all the native +regiments!” he shouted.</p> + +<p>He had watched the 60th falling in for the Church Parade, and, in view +of the action taken at Barrackpore and Lucknow—sepoy battalions having +been disbanded in both stations for mutinous conduct—he instantly +jumped to the conclusion that the military authorities at Meerut meant +to steal a march on the disaffected troops. His warning cry was as a +torch laid to a gunpowder train.</p> + +<p>The 3d Cavalry, Malcolm’s own corps, swarmed out of bazaar and quarters +like angry wasps. Nearly half the regiment ran to secure their picketed +horses, armed themselves in hot haste, and galloped to the gaol. +Smashing open the door, they freed the imprisoned troopers, struck off +their fetters, and took no measures to prevent the escape of the general +horde of convicts. Yet, even in that moment of frenzy, some of the men +remained true to their colors. Captain Craigie and Lieutenant Melville +Clarke, hearing the uproar, mounted their chargers, rode to the lines, +and actually brought their troop to the parade ground in perfect +discipline. Meanwhile, the alarm had spread to the sepoys. No one knew +exactly what caused all the commotion. Wild rumors spread, but no man +could speak definitely. The British officers of the 11th and 20th +regiments were getting their men into something like order when a +sowar<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> clattered up, and yelled to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>the infantry that the European +troops were marching to disarm them.</p> + +<p>At once, the 20th broke in confusion, seized their muskets, and procured +ammunition. The 11th wavered, and were listening to the appeal of their +beloved commanding officer, Colonel Finnis, when some of the 20th came +back and fired at him. He fell, pierced with many bullets, the first +victim of India’s Red Year. His men hesitated no longer. Afire with +religious fanaticism, they, too, armed themselves, and dispersed in +search of loot and human prey. They acted on no preconcerted plan. The +trained troops simply formed the nucleus of an armed mob, its numbers +ever swelling as the convicts from the gaol, the bad characters from the +city, and even the native police, joined in the work of murder and +destruction. They had no leader. Each man emulated his neighbor in +ferocity. Like a pack of wolves on the trail, they followed the scent of +blood.</p> + +<p>The rapid spread of the revolt was not a whit less marvelous than its +lack of method or cohesion. Many writers have put forward the theory +that, by accident, the mutiny broke out half an hour too soon, and that +the rebels meant to surprise the unarmed white garrison while in church.</p> + +<p>In reality, nothing was further from their thoughts. If, in a nebulous +way, a date was fixed for a combined rising of the native army, it was +Sunday, May 31, three weeks later than the day of the outbreak. The +soldiers, helped by the scum of the bazaar, after <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>indulging in an orgy +of bloodshed and plunder, dispersed and ran for their lives, fearing +that the avenging British were hot on their heels. And that was all. +There was no plan, no settled purpose. Hate and greed nerved men’s +hands, but head there was none.</p> + +<p>Malcolm’s ride towards the center of the station gave proof in plenty +that the mutineers were a disorganized rabble, inspired only by +unreasoning rancor against all Europeans, and, like every mob, eager for +pillage. At first, he met but few native soldiers. The rioters were +budmashes, the predatory class which any city in the world can produce +in the twinkling of an eye when the strong arm of the law is paralyzed. +Armed with swords and clubs, gangs of men rushed from house to house, +murdering the helpless inmates, mostly women and children, seizing such +valuables as they could find, and setting the buildings on fire. These +ghouls practised the most unheard-of atrocities. They spared no one. +Finding a woman lying ill in bed, they poured oil over the bed clothes, +and thus started, with a human holocaust, the fire that destroyed the +bungalow.</p> + +<p>They were rank cowards, too. Another Englishwoman, also an invalid, was +fortunate in possessing a devoted ayah. This faithful creature saved her +mistress by her quick-witted shriek that the mem-sahib must be avoided +at all costs, as she was suffering from smallpox! The destroyers fled in +terror, not waiting even to fire the house.</p> + +<p>It was not until later days that Malcolm knew the real nature of the +scene through which he rode. He <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>saw the flames, he heard the Mohammedan +yell of “Ali! Ali!” and the Hindu shriek of “Jai! Jai!” but the quick +fall of night, its growing dusk deepened by the spreading clouds of +smoke, and his own desperate haste to reach the cavalry lines, prevented +him from appreciating the full extent of the horrors surrounding his +path.</p> + +<p>Arrived at the parade ground, he met Craigie and Melville Clarke, with +the one troop that remained of the regiment of which he was so proud. +There were no other officers to be seen, so these three held a +consultation. They were sure that the white troops would soon put an end +to the prevalent disorder, and they decided to do what they could, +within a limited area, to save life and property. Riding towards his own +bungalow to obtain a sword and a couple of revolvers, Malcolm came upon +a howling mob in the act of swarming into the compound of Craigie’s +house. Some score of troopers heard his fierce cry for help, and fell +upon the would-be murderers, for Mrs. Craigie and her children were +alone in the bungalow. The riff-raff were soon driven off, and Malcolm, +not yet realizing the gravity of the <i>émeute</i>, told the men to safeguard +the mem-sahib until they received further orders, while he went to +rejoin his senior officer.</p> + +<p>Incredible as it may seem, the tiny detachment obeyed him to the letter. +They held the compound against repeated assaults, and lost several men +in hand-to-hand fighting.</p> + +<p>The history of that terrible hour is brightened by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>many such instances +of native fealty. The Treasury Guard, composed of men of the 8th +Irregular Cavalry, not only refused to join the rebels but defended +their charge boldly. A week later, of their own free will, they escorted +the treasure and records from Meerut to Agra, the transfer being made +for greater safety, and beat off several attacks by insurgents on the +way. They were well rewarded for their fidelity, yet, such was the power +of fanaticism, within less than two months they deserted to a man!</p> + +<p>The acting Commissioner of Meerut, Mr. Greathed, whose residence was in +the center of the sacked area, took his wife to the flat roof of his +house when he found that escape was impossible. A gang of ruffians +ransacked every room, and, piling the furniture, set it alight, but a +trustworthy servant, named Golab Khan, told them that he would reveal +the hiding-place of the sahib and mem-sahib if they followed quickly. He +thus decoyed them away, and the fortunate couple were enabled to reach +the British lines under cover of the darkness.</p> + +<p>And, while the sky flamed red over a thousand fires, and the blood of +unhappy Europeans, either civilian families or the wives and children of +military officers, was being spilt like water, where were the two +regiments of white troops who, by prompt action, could have saved Meerut +and prevented the siege of Delhi?</p> + +<p>That obvious question must receive a strange answer. They were +bivouacked on their parade-ground, doing nothing. The General in command +of the station was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>a feeble old man, suffering from senile decay. His +Brigadier, Archdale Wilson, issued orders that were foolish. He sent the +Dragoons to guard the empty gaol! After a long delay in issuing +ammunition to the Rifles, he marched them and the gunners to the +deserted parade-ground of the native infantry. They found a few belated +sowars of the 3d Cavalry, who took refuge in a wood, and the artillery +opened fire at the trees! News came that the rebels were plundering the +British quarters, and the infantry went there in hot haste. And then +they halted, though the mutineers were crying, “Quick, brother, quick! +The white men are coming!” and the scared suggestion went round: “To +Delhi! That is our only chance!”</p> + +<p>The moon rose on a terrified mob trudging or riding the forty miles of +road between Meerut and the Mogul capital. All night long they expected +to hear the roar of the pursuing guns, to find the sabers of the +Dragoons flashing over their heads. But they were quite safe. Archdale +Wilson had ordered his men to bivouac, and they obeyed, though it is +within the bounds of probability that had the rank and file known what +the morrow’s sun would reveal, there might have been another Mutiny in +Meerut that night, a Mutiny of Revenge and Reprisal.</p> + +<p>It was not that wise and courageous counsel was lacking. Captain Rosser +offered to cut off the flight of the rebels to Delhi if one squadron of +his dragoons and a few guns were given to him. Lieutenant Möller, of the +11th Native Infantry, appealed to General Hewitt for permission to ride +alone to Delhi, and warn the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>authorities there of the outbreak. +Sanction was refused in both cases. The bivouac was evidently deemed a +masterpiece of strategy.</p> + +<p>That Möller would have saved Delhi cannot be doubted. Next day, finding +that the wife of a brother officer had been killed, he sought and +obtained evidence of the identity of the poor lady’s murderer, traced +the man, followed him, arrested him single-handed, and brought him +before a drumhead court martial, by whose order he was hanged forthwith.</p> + +<p>Craigie, Rosser, Möller, and a few other brave spirits showed what could +have been done. But negligence and apathy were stronger that night than +courage or self-reliance. For good or ill, the torrent of rebellion was +suffered to break loose, and it soon engulfed a continent.</p> + +<p>Malcolm failed to find Craigie, who had taken his troop in the direction +of some heavy firing. Passing a bungalow that was blazing furiously, he +saw in the compound the corpses of two women. A little farther on, he +discovered the bodies of a man and four children in the center of the +road, and he recognized, in the man, a well-known Scotch trader whose +shop was the largest and best in Meerut.</p> + +<p>Then, for the first time, he understood what this appalling thing meant. +He thought of Winifred, and his blood went cold. She and her uncle were +alone in that remote house, far away on the Aligarh Road, and completely +cut off from the comparatively safe northerly side of the station.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p><p>Giving heed to nought save this new horror of his imagination, he +wheeled Nejdi, and rode at top speed towards Mr. Mayne’s bungalow. As he +neared it, his worst fears were confirmed. One wing was on fire, but the +flames had almost burnt themselves out. Charred beams and blackened +walls showed stark and gaunt in the glow of a smoldering mass of +wreckage. Twice he rode round the ruined house, calling he knew not what +in his agony, and looking with the eyes of one on the verge of lunacy +for some dread token of the fate that had overtaken the inmates.</p> + +<p>He came across several bodies. They were all natives. One or two were +servants, he fancied, but the rest were marauders from the city. Calming +himself, with the coolness of utter despair, he dismounted, and examined +the slain. Their injuries had been inflicted with some sharp, heavy +instrument. None of them bore gunshot wounds. That was strange. If there +was a fight, and Mayne, perhaps even Winifred, had taken part in the +defense, they must have used the sporting rifles in the house. And that +suggested an examination of the dark interior. He dreaded the task, but +it must not be shirked.</p> + +<p>The porch was intact, and he hung Nejdi’s bridle on the hook where he +had placed it little more than an hour ago. The spacious drawing-room +had been gutted. The doors (Indian bungalows have hardly any windows, +each door being half glass) were open front and back. The room was +empty, thank Heaven! He was about to enter and search the remaining +apartments <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>which had escaped the fire when a curiously cracked voice +hailed him from the foot of the garden.</p> + +<p>“Hallt! Who go dare?” it cried, in the queer jargon of the native +regiments.</p> + +<p>Malcolm saw a man hurrying toward him. He recognized him as a pensioner +named Syed Mir Khan, an Afghan. The old man, a born fire-eater, insisted +on speaking English to the <i>sahib-log</i>, unless, by rare chance, he +encountered some person acquainted with Pushtu, his native language.</p> + +<p>“I come quick, sahib,” he shouted. “I know all things. I save sahib and +miss-sahib. Yes, by dam, I slewed the cut-heads.”</p> + +<p>As he came nearer, he brandished a huge tulwar, and the split skulls and +severed vertebræ of certain gentry lying in the garden became +explicable. Delighted in having a sahib to listen, he went on:</p> + +<p>“The mob appearing, I attacked them with great ferocity—yes, like +terrible lion, by George. My fighting was immense. I had many actions +with the pigs.”</p> + +<p>At last, he quieted down sufficiently to tell Malcolm what had happened. +He, with others, thinking the miss-sahib had gone to church, was smoking +the hookah of gossip in a neighboring compound. It was an instance of +the amazing rapidity with which the rioters spread over the station that +a number of them reached the Maynes’ bungalow five minutes after the +first alarm was given. It should be explained here that Mr. Mayne, being +a Commissioner of Oudh, was only <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>visiting Meerut in order to learn the +details of a system of revenue collection which it was proposed to adopt +on the sequestered estates of the Oudh taluqdars. He had rented one of +the best houses in the place, the owner being in Simla, and Syed Mir +Khan held a position akin to that of caretaker in a British household. +The looters knew how valuable were the contents of such an important +residence, and the earliest contingent thought they would have matters +entirely their own way.</p> + +<p>As soon as Malcolm left, however, Mr. Mayne loaded all his guns, while +Winifred made more successful search for some of the servants. The +Afghan was true to his salt, and their own retainers, who had come with +them from Lucknow, remained steadfast at this crisis. Hence, the mob +received a warm reception, but the fighting had taken place outside the +bungalow, the defenders lining a wall at the edge of the compound. +Indeed, a score of bodies lying there had not been seen by Malcolm +during his first frenzied examination of the house.</p> + +<p>Then an official of the Salt Department, driving past with his wife and +child, shouted to Mr. Mayne that he must not lose an instant if he would +save his niece and himself.</p> + +<p>“The sepoys have risen,” was the horrifying message he brought. “They +have surprised and killed all the white troops. They are sacking the +whole station. You see the fires there? That is their work. This road is +clear, but the Delhi road is blocked.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p><p>Some distant yelling caused the man to flog his horse into a fast trot +again; and he and his weeping companions vanished into the gloom.</p> + +<p>Mayne could not choose but believe. Indeed, many days elapsed before a +large part of India would credit the fact that the British regiments in +Meerut had not been massacred. A carriage and pair were harnessed. +Several servants were mounted on all the available horses and ponies, +and Mr. Mayne and Winifred had gone down the Grand Trunk Road towards +Bulandshahr and Aligarh.</p> + +<p>“Going half an hour,” said Syed Mir Khan, volubly. “I stand fast, +slaying budmashes. They make rush in thousands, and I retreat with great +glory. Then they put blazes in bungalow.”</p> + +<p>Now, Malcolm also might have accepted the sensational story of the Salt +Department inspector, if, at that instant, the boom of a heavy gun had +not come from the direction of the sepoy parade-ground. Another +followed, and another, in the steady sequence of a trained battery. As +he had just ridden from that very spot, which was then almost deserted, +he was sure that the British troops had come from their cantonment. The +discovery that Winifred was yet living, and in comparative safety, +cleared his brain as though he had partaken of some magic elixir. He +knew that Meerut itself was now the safest refuge within a hundred +miles. Probably the bulk of the mutineers would strive to reach Delhi, +and, of course, the dragoons and artillery would cut them off during the +night. But he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>had seen many squads of rebels, mounted and on foot, +hastening along the Grand Trunk Road, and it was no secret that +detachments of the 9th Native Infantry at Bulandshahr and Aligarh were +seething with Brahminical hatred of the abhorred cartridges.</p> + +<p>Each second he became more convinced that Winifred and her uncle were +being carried into a peril far greater than that which they had escaped. +Decision and action were the same thing where he was concerned. Bidding +the Afghan endeavor to find Captain Craigie, who might be trusted to +send a portion of his troop to scour the road for some miles, and +assuring the man of a big reward for his services, Frank mounted and +galloped south. He counted on overtaking the fugitives in an hour, and +persuading them to return with him. He rode with drawn sword, lest he +might be attacked on the way, but it was a remarkable tribute to +Möller’s wisdom in offering to ride to Delhi that no man molested him, +and such sepoys as he passed skulked off into the fields where they saw +the glint of his saber and recognized him as a British officer. They had +no difficulty in that respect. A glorious full moon was flooding the +peaceful plain with light. The trunks of the tall trees lining the road +barred its white riband with black shadows, but Nejdi, good horse that +he was, felt that this was no time for skittishness, and repressed the +inclination to jump these impalpable obstacles.</p> + +<p>And he made excellent progress. Eight miles from Meerut, in a tiny +village of mud hovels which horse and rider had every reason to +remember, they suddenly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>dashed into a large company of mounted men and +a motley collection of vehicles. There were voices raised, too, in +heated dispute, and a small crowd was gathered near a lumbering +carriage, whose tawdry trappings and display of gold work betokened the +state equipage of some native dignitary.</p> + +<p>Drawn up by its side was a European traveling barouche, empty, but +Malcolm’s keen eyes soon picked out the figures of Winifred and her +uncle, standing in the midst of an excited crowd of natives. So great +was the hubbub that he was not noticed until he pulled up.</p> + +<p>“I have come to bring you back to Meerut, Mr. Mayne,” he cried. “The +mutiny has been quelled. Our troops are in command of the station and of +all the main roads. You can return without the slightest risk, I assure +you.”</p> + +<p>He spoke clearly and slowly, well knowing that some among the natives +would understand him. His appearance, no less than his words, created a +rare stir. The clamor of tongues was stilled. Men looked at him as +though he had fallen from the sky. He could not be certain, but he +guessed, that he had arrived at a critical moment. Indeed, the lives of +his friends were actually in deadliest jeopardy, and there was no +knowing what turn the events of the next minute might have taken. But a +glance at Winifred’s distraught face told him a good deal. He must be +bold, with the careless boldness of the man who has the means of making +his will respected.</p> + +<p>“Stand aside, there!” he said in Hindustani. “And <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>you had better clear +the roadway. A troop of cavalry is riding fast behind.”</p> + +<p>He dismounted, drew Nejdi’s bridle over his left arm, and went towards +Winifred. The girl looked at him with a wistfulness that was pitiful. +Hope was struggling in her soul against the fear of grim death.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Frank!” she sighed, holding out both her hands. “Oh, Frank, I am so +frightened. We had a dreadful time at the bungalow, and these men look +so fierce and cruel! Have you really brought help?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” he said confidently. “You need have no further anxiety. Please +get into your carriage.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Mayne said something, but Malcolm never knew what it was, for +Winifred fainted, and would have fallen had he not caught her.</p> + +<p>“This Feringhi has a loud voice,” a man near him growled. “He talks of +cavalry. Where are they?”</p> + +<p>“The Meerut road is empty,” commented another.</p> + +<p>“We have the Begum’s order,” said the first speaker, more loudly. “Let +us obey, or it may be an evil thing for us.”</p> + +<p>“One of the daughters of Bahadur Shah is here,” murmured Mayne rapidly. +“She says we are to be taken to Delhi, and slain if we resist. Where are +your men? My poor niece! To think that I should have brought her from +England for this!”</p> + +<p>Malcolm, still holding Winifred’s unconscious form clasped to his +breast, laughed loudly.</p> + +<p>“Mayne-sahib tells me that you have all gone mad,” he shouted in the +vernacular. “Have you no ears? <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>Did you not hear the British artillery +firing on the rebels a little time since? Ere day breaks the road to +Delhi will be held by the white troops. What foolish talk is this of +taking Mayne-sahib thither as a prisoner?”</p> + +<p>The door of the bedizened traveling-coach was flung open, and the +Mohammedan lady who had befriended Frank when he fell into the moat +appeared. She alighted, and her aggressive servants drew away somewhat.</p> + +<p>“It is my order,” she said imperiously. “Who are you that you should +dispute it?”</p> + +<p>“I regret the heat of my words, Princess,” he replied, grasping the +frail chance that presented itself of wriggling out of a desperate +situation. “Nevertheless, it is true that the native regiments at Meerut +have been dispersed, and you yourself may have heard the guns as they +advanced along the Delhi road. Why should I be here otherwise? I came to +escort my friends back to Meerut.”</p> + +<p>The Princess came nearer. In the brilliant moonlight she had an +unearthly beauty—at once weird and Sybilline—but her animated features +were chilled with disdain, and she pointed to the girl whose pallid face +lay against Frank’s shoulder.</p> + +<p>“You are lying,” she said. “You are not the first man who has lied for a +woman’s sake. That is why you are here.”</p> + +<p>“Princess, I have spoken nothing but the truth,” he answered. “If you +still doubt my word, let some of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>your men ride back with us. They will +soon convince you. Perchance, the information may not be without its +value to you also.”</p> + +<p>The thrust was daring, but she parried it adroitly.</p> + +<p>“No matter what has happened in Meerut, the destined end is the same,” +she retorted. Then she fired into subdued passion. “The British Raj is +doomed,” she muttered, lowering her voice, and bringing her magnificent +eyes close to his. “It is gone, like an evil dream. Listen, +Malcolm-sahib. You are a young man, and ambitious. They say you are a +good soldier. Come with me. I want some one I can trust. Though I am a +king’s daughter, there are difficulties in my path that call for a sword +in the hands of a man not afraid to use it. Come! Let that weakling girl +go where she lists—I care not. I offer you life, and wealth, and a +career. She will lead you to death. What say you? Choose quickly. I am +now going to Delhi, and to-morrow’s sun shall see my father a king in +reality as well as in name.”</p> + +<p>Malcolm’s first impression was that the Princess had lost her senses. He +had yet to learn how completely the supporters of the Mogul dynasty were +convinced of the approaching downfall of British supremacy in India. But +his active brain fastened on to two considerations of exceeding +importance. By temporizing, by misleading this arrogant woman, if +necessary, he might not only secure freedom for Winifred and Mayne, but +gather most valuable information as to the immediate plans of the +rebels.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p><p>“Your words are tempting to a soldier of fortune, Princess,” he said.</p> + +<p>“Malcolm—” broke in Mayne, who, of course, understood all that passed.</p> + +<p>“For Heaven’s sake do not interfere,” said Frank in English. “Suffer my +friends to depart, Princess,” he went on in Persian. “It is better so. +Then I shall await your instructions.”</p> + +<p>“Ah, you agree, then? That is good hearing. Yes, your white doll can go, +and the gray-beard, too. Ere many days have passed there will be no +place for them in all India.”</p> + +<p>A commotion among the ring of soldiers and servants interrupted her. The +stout, important-looking man whom Malcolm had seen in the hunting lodge +on the occasion of his ducking, came towards them with hurried strides. +The Princess seemed to be disconcerted by his arrival. Her expressive +face betrayed her. Sullen anger, not unmixed with fear, robbed her of +her good looks. Her whole aspect changed. She had the cowed appearance +of one of her own serving-women.</p> + +<p>“Remember!” she murmured. “You must obey me, none else. Come when I send +for you!”</p> + +<p>The man, who now carried on his forehead the insignia of a Brahmin, had +no sooner reached the small space between the carriages than Mr. Mayne +cried delightedly to Malcolm:</p> + +<p>“Why, if this is not Nana Sahib! Here is a piece of good luck! I know +him well. If he has any control over this mob, we are perfectly safe.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p><p>Nana Sahib acknowledged the Commissioner’s greeting with smiling +politeness. But first he held a whispered colloquy with the Princess, +whom he entreated, or persuaded, to re-enter her gorgeous vehicle. She +drove away without another glance at Malcolm. Perhaps she did not dare +to show her favor in the newcomer’s presence.</p> + +<p>Then Nana Sahib turned to the Europeans.</p> + +<p>“Let the miss-sahib be placed in her carriage,” he said suavely. “She +will soon revive in the air, and we march at once for Aligarh. Will you +accept my escort thus far, Mayne-sahib, or farther south, if you wish +it? I think you will be safer with me than in taking the Meerut road +to-night.”</p> + +<p>Mayne agreed gladly. The commanding influence of this highly-placed +native nobleman, who, despite an adverse decision of the Government, was +regarded by every Mahratta as Peishwa, the ruler of a vast territory in +Western India, seemed to offer more stable support that night than the +broken reed of British authority in Meerut. Moreover, the Commissioner +wished to reach Lucknow without delay. If the country were in for a +period of disturbance, his duty lay there, and he was planning already +to send Winifred to Calcutta from Cawnpore, and thence to England until +the time of political trouble had passed.</p> + +<p>“I am sure I am doing right,” he said in answer to Frank’s +remonstrances. “Don’t you understand, a native in Nana Sahib’s position +must be well informed as to the exact position of affairs. By helping me +he is safeguarding himself. I am only too thankful he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>was able to +subdue that fiery harpy, the Begum. She threatened me in the most +outrageous manner before you came. Of course, Winifred and I will be +ever-lastingly grateful to you for coming to our assistance. You are +alone, I suppose?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, though some of our troopers may turn up any minute.”</p> + +<p>“I fear not,” said the older man gravely. “This is a bad business, +Malcolm. The Begum said too much. There are worse times in store for us. +Do you really believe you can reach Meerut safely?”</p> + +<p>“I rode here without hindrance.”</p> + +<p>“Let me advise you, then, to slip away before we start. That woman meant +mischief, or she would never have dared to suggest that a British +officer should throw in his lot with hers. Waste no time, and don’t +spare that good horse of yours. Be sure I shall tell Winifred all you +have done for us. She is pulling round, I think, and it will be better +that she should not see you again. Besides, the Nana’s escort are +preparing to march.”</p> + +<p>Frank’s latest memory of the girl he loved was a sad one. Her white face +looked ethereal in the moonlight, and her bloodless lips were quivering +with returning life. It was hard to leave her in such a plight, but it +would only unnerve her again if he waited until she was conscious to bid +her farewell.</p> + +<p>So he rode back to Meerut, a solitary European on the eight miles of +road, and no man challenged him till he reached the famous bivouac of +the white garrison, the bivouac that made the Mutiny an accomplished +fact.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>HOW BAHADUR SHAH PROCLAIMED HIS EMPIRE</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">O</span>n the morning of the 11th, the sun that laid bare the horrors of Meerut +shone brightly on the placid splendor of Delhi. This great city, the +Rome of Asia, was also the Metz of Upper India, its old-fashioned though +strong defenses having been modernized by the genius of a Napier. +Resting on the Jumna, it might best be described as of half-moon shape, +with the straight edge running north and south along the right bank of +the river.</p> + +<p>In the center of the river line stood the imposing red sandstone palace +of Bahadur Shah, last of the Moguls. North of this citadel were the +magazine, the Church, some European houses, and the cutcherry, or group +of minor law courts, while the main thoroughfare leading in that +direction passed through the Kashmir Gate. Southward from the fort +stretched the European residential suburb known as Darya Gunj (or, as it +would be called in England, the “Riverside District”) out of which the +Delhi Gate gave access to the open country and the road to Humayun’s +Tomb. Another gate, the Raj Ghât, opened toward the river between the +palace and Darya Gunj. Thus, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>walls of city and palace ran almost +straight for two miles from the Kashmir Gate on the north to the Delhi +Gate on the south, while the main road connecting the two passed the +fort on the landward side.</p> + +<p>The Lahore Gate of the palace, a magnificent structure, commanded the +bazaar and its chief street, the superb Chandni Chowk, which extended +due west for nearly two miles to the Lahore Gate of the city itself. +Near the palace, in a very large garden, stood the spacious premises of +the Delhi Bank. A little farther on, but on the opposite side of the +Chowk, was the Kotwallee, or police station, and still farther, +practically in the center of the dense bazaar, two stone elephants +marked the entrance to the beautiful park now known as the Queen’s +Gardens.</p> + +<p>The remainder of the space within the walls was packed with the houses +and shops of well-to-do traders, and the lofty tenements or mud hovels +in which dwelt a population of artisans noted not only for their +artistic skill but for a spirit of lawlessness, a turbulent fanaticism, +that had led to many scenes of violence in the city’s earlier history.</p> + +<p>The whole of Delhi, as well as the palace—which had its own separate +fortifications—was surrounded by a wall seven miles long, twenty-four +feet in height, well supplied with bastions, and containing ten huge +gates, each a small fort in itself. The wall was protected by a dry +fosse, or ditch, twenty-five feet wide and about twenty feet deep; this, +in turn, was guarded by a counterscarp and glacis.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p><p>On the northwest side of Delhi, and about a mile distant from the river, +an irregular, rock-strewn spine of land, called the Ridge, rose above +the general level of the plain, and afforded a panoramic view of the +city and palace. The rising ground began about half a mile from the Mori +Gate—which was situated on what may be termed the landward side of the +Kashmir Gate. It followed a course parallel with the river for two +miles, and at its northerly extremity were situated the principal +European bungalows and the military cantonment.</p> + +<p>Delhi was the center of Mohammedan hopes; its palace held the lineal +descendant of Aurangzebe, with his children and grandchildren; it was +stored to repletion with munitions of war; yet, such was the +inconceivable folly of the rulers of India at that time, the nearest +British regiments were stationed in Meerut, while the place swarmed with +native troops, horse, foot and artillery!</p> + +<p>A May morning in the Punjab must not be confused with its prototype in +Britain. Undimmed by cloud, unchecked by cooling breeze, the sun +scorches the earth from the moment his glowing rays first peep over the +horizon. Thus men who value their health and have work to be done rise +at an hour when London’s streets are emptiest. Merchants were busy in +the bazaar, soldiers were on parade, judges were sitting in the courts +of the cutcherry, and the European housewives of the station were making +their morning purchases of food for breakfast and dinner, when some of +the loungers on the river-side wall saw groups of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>horsemen raising the +dust on the Meerut road beyond the bridge of boats which spanned the +Jumna.</p> + +<p>The word went round that something unusual had happened. Already the +idlers had noted the arrival of a dust-laden royal carriage, which +crossed the pontoons at breakneck speed and entered by the Calcutta +Gate. That incident, trivial in itself, became important when those +hard-riding horsemen came in sight. The political air was charged with +electricity. None knew whether it would end in summer lightning or in a +tornado, so there was much running to and fro, and gesticulations, and +excited whisperings among those watchers on the walls.</p> + +<p>Vague murmurs of doubt and surprise reached the ears of two of the +British magistrates. They hurriedly adjourned the cases they were trying +and sent for their horses. One rode hard to the cantonment and told +Brigadier Graves what he had seen and heard; the other, knowing the +immense importance of the chief magazine, went there to warn Lieutenant +Willoughby, the officer in charge.</p> + +<p>Here, then, in Delhi, were men of prompt decision, but the troops on +whom they could have depended were forty miles away in Meerut, in that +never-to-be-forgotten bivouac. Meanwhile, the vanguard of the Meerut +rebels had arrived. Mostly troopers of Malcolm’s regiment, with some few +sepoys who had stolen ponies on the way, they crossed the Jumna, some +going straight to the palace by way of the bridge of boats, while others +forded the river to the south and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>made for the gaol, where, as usual, +they released the prisoners. This trick of emptying the penitentiaries +was more adroit than it seems at first sight. Not only were the +mutineers sure of obtaining hearty assistance in their campaign of +robbery and murder, but every gaol-bird headed direct for his native +town as soon as he was gorged with plunder. There was no better means of +disseminating the belief that the British power had crumbled to atoms. +The convicts boasted that they had been set free by the rebels; they +paraded their ill-gotten gains and incited ignorant villagers to emulate +the example of the towns. Thus a skilful and damaging blow was struck at +British prestige. Neither Mohammedan moullah nor Hindu fakir carried +such conviction to ill-informed minds as the appearance of some known +malefactor decked out in the jewels and trinkets of murdered +Englishwomen.</p> + +<p>The foremost of the mutineers reined in their weary horses beneath a +balcony on which Bahadur Shah, a decrepit old man of eighty, awaited +them.</p> + +<p>By his side stood his youngest daughter, the Roshinara Begum. Her eyes +were blazing with triumph, yet her lips curved with contempt at the +attitude of her trembling father.</p> + +<p>“You see!” she cried. “Have I not spoken truly? These are the men who +sacked Meerut. Scarce a Feringhi lives there save those whom I have +saved to good purpose. Admit your troops! Proclaim yourself their ruler. +A moment’s firmness will win back your empire.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p><p>The aged monarch, now that the hour was at hand that astrologers had +predicted and his courtiers had promised for many a year, faltered his +dread lest they were not all committing a great mistake.</p> + +<p>“This is no woman’s work,” he protested. “Where are my sons? Where is +the Shahzada, Mirza Mogul?”</p> + +<p>She knew. The heir apparent and his brothers were cowering in fear, +afraid to strike, yet hoping that others would strike for them. She +almost dragged her father to the front of the balcony. The troopers +recognized him with a fierce shout. A hundred sabers were waved +frantically.</p> + +<p>“Help us, O King!” they cried. “We pray your help in our fight for the +faith!”</p> + +<p>Captain Douglas, commandant of the palace guards, hearing the uproar ran +to the King. He did not notice the girl Roshinara, who stood there like +a caged tigress.</p> + +<p>“How dare you intrude on the King’s privacy?” he cried, striving to +overawe the rebels by his cool demeanor. “You must lay down your arms if +you wish His Majesty’s clemency. He is here in person and that is his +command.”</p> + +<p>A yell of defiance greeted his bold words. The Begum made a signal with +her hand which was promptly understood. Away clattered the troopers +towards the Raj Ghât Gate. There they were admitted without parley. The +city hell hounds sprang to meet them and the slaughter of inoffensive +Europeans began in Darya Gunj.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p><p>It was soon in full swing. The vile deeds of the night at Meerut were +re-enacted in the vivid sunlight at Delhi. Leaving their willing allies +to carry sword and torch through the small community in that quarter the +sowars rode to the Lahore Gate of the palace. It was thrown open by the +King’s guards and dependents. Captain Douglas, and the Commissioner, Mr. +Fraser, made vain appeals to men whose knees would have trembled at +their frown a few minutes earlier. Thinking to escape and summon +assistance from the cantonment, Douglas mounted the wall and leaped into +the moat. He broke one, if not both, of his legs. Some scared coolies +lifted him and carried him back to the interior of the palace. Fraser +tried to protect him while he was being taken to his apartments over the +Lahore Gate, but a jeweler from the bazaar stabbed the Commissioner and +he was killed by the guards. Then the mob rushed up-stairs and massacred +the collector, the chaplain, the chaplain’s daughter, a lady who was +their guest, and the injured Douglas.</p> + +<p>Another dreadful scene was enacted in the Delhi Bank. The manager and +his brave wife, assisted by a few friends who happened to be in the +building at the moment, made a stubborn resistance, but they were all +cut down. The masters in the Government colleges were surprised and +murdered in their class-rooms. The missionaries, whether European or +native, were slaughtered in their houses and schools. The editorial +staff and compositors of the <i>Delhi Gazette</i>, having just produced a +special edition of the paper announcing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>the crisis, were all stabbed or +bludgeoned to death. In the telegraph office a young signaler was +sending a thrilling message to Umballa, Lahore and the north.</p> + +<p>“The sepoys have come in from Meerut,” he announced with the slow tick +of the earliest form of apparatus. “They are burning everything. Mr. +Todd is dead, and, we hear, several Europeans. We must shut up.”</p> + +<p>That was his requiem. The startled operators at Umballa could obtain no +further intelligence and the boy was slain at his post.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>The magistrate who galloped to the cantonment found no laggards there. +Brigadier Graves sent Colonel Ripley with part of the 54th Native +Infantry to occupy the Kashmir Gate. The remainder of the 54th escorted +two guns under Captain de Teissier.</p> + +<p>Ripley reached the main guard, just within the gate, when some troopers +of the 3d rode up. The Colonel ordered his men to fire at them. The +sepoys refused to obey, and the sowars, drawing their pistols, shot dead +or severely wounded six British officers. Then the 54th bayoneted their +Colonel, but, hearing the rumble of de Teissier’s guns, fled into the +city. The guard of the gate, composed of men of the 38th, went with +them, but their officer, Captain Wallace, had ridden, fortunately for +himself, to hurry the guns. He <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>was sent on to the cantonment to ask for +re-enforcements. Not a man of the 38th would follow him, but the 74th +commanded by Major Abbott, proclaimed their loyalty and asked to be led +against the mutineers.</p> + +<p>Perforce their commander trusted them. He brought them to the Kashmir +Gate with two more guns, while the Brigadier and his staff, wondering +why they heard nothing of the pursuing British from Meerut, thought it +advisable to gather the women and children and other helpless persons, +both European and native, in the Flagstaff Tower, a small building +situated on the northern extremity of the Ridge.</p> + +<p>There for some hours a great company of frightened people endured all +the discomforts of terrific heat, hunger, and thirst, while wives and +mothers, striving to soothe their wailing little ones, were themselves +consumed with anxiety as to the fate of husbands and sons.</p> + +<p>At the main guard there was a deadlock. Major Abbott and his brother +officers, trying to keep their men loyal, stood fast and listened to the +distant turmoil in the city. Like the soldiers in Meerut, they never +guessed a tithe of the horrors enacted there. They were sure that the +white troops in Meerut would soon arrive and put an end to the prevalent +anarchy. Yet the day sped and help came not.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the sound of a tremendous explosion rent the air and a dense +cloud of white smoke, succeeded by a pall of dust, rose between the gate +and the palace. Willoughby had blown up the magazine! Why? Two +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>artillery subalterns who had fought their way through a mob stricken +with panic for the moment, soon arrived. Their story fills one of the +great pages of history.</p> + +<p>Lieutenant Willoughby, a boyish-looking subaltern of artillery, whose +shy, refined manners hid a heroic soul, lost no time in making his +dispositions for the defense of the magazine when he knew that a mutiny +was imminent. He had with him eight Englishmen, Lieutenants Forrest and +Raynor, Conductors Buckley, Shaw and Scully, Sub-Conductor Crow, and +Sergeants Edwards and Stewart. The nine barricaded the outer gates and +placed in the best positions guns loaded with grape. They laid a train +from the powder store to a tree in the yard. Scully stood there. He +promised to fire the powder when his young commander gave the signal.</p> + +<p>Then they waited. A stormy episode was taking place inside the fort. +Bahadur Shah held out against the vehement urging of his daughter aided +now by the counsel of her brothers. Ever and anon he went to the river +balcony which afforded a view of the Meerut road. At last he sent +mounted men across the river. When these scouts returned and he was +quite certain that none but rebel sepoys were streaming towards Delhi +from Meerut, he yielded.</p> + +<p>The surrender of the magazine was demanded in his name. His adherents +tried to rush the gate and walls, and were shot down in scores. The +attack grew more furious and sustained. The white men served their +smoking cannon with a wild energy that, for a time, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>made the gallant +nine equal to a thousand. Of course such a struggle could have only one +end. Willoughby, in his turn, ran to the river bastion. Like the king, +he looked towards Meerut. Like the king, he saw none but mutineers. +Then, when the enemy were clambering over the walls and rushing into the +little fort from all directions, he raised his sword and looked at +Conductor Buckley. Buckley lifted his hat, the agreed signal, and Scully +fired the train. Hundreds of rebels were blown to pieces, as they were +already inside the magazine. Scully was killed where he stood. +Willoughby leaped from the walls, crossed the river, and met his death +while striving to reach Meerut. Lieutenants Forrest and Raynor, +Conductors Buckley and Shaw, and Sergeant Stewart escaped, and were +given the Victoria Cross.</p> + +<p>Yet, so curiously constituted is the native mind, the blowing-up of the +magazine was the final tocsin of revolt. It seemed to place beyond doubt +that which all men were saying. The king was fighting the English. Islam +was in the field against the Nazarene. The Mogul Empire was born again +and the iron grip of British rule was relaxed. At once the sepoys at the +Kashmir Gate fired a volley at the nearest officers, of whom three fell +dead.</p> + +<p>Two survivors rushed up the bastion and jumped into the ditch. Others, +hearing the shrieks of some women in the guard room, poor creatures who +had escaped from the city, ran through a hail of bullets and got them +out. Fastening belts and handkerchiefs <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>together, the men lowered the +women into the fosse and, with extraordinary exertions, lifted them up +the opposite side.</p> + +<p>At the Flagstaff Tower the 74th and the remainder of the 38th suddenly +told their officers that they would obey them no longer. When this last +shred of hope was gone, the Brigadier reluctantly gave the order to +retreat. The women and children were placed in carriages and a mournful +procession began to straggle through the deserted cantonment along the +Alipur Road.</p> + +<p>Soon the fugitives saw their bungalows on fire. “Then,” says that +accurate and impartial historian of the Mutiny, Mr. T. R. E. Holmes, +“began that piteous flight, the first of many such incidents which +hardened the hearts of the British to inflict a terrible revenge.... +Driven to hide in jungles or morasses from despicable vagrants—robbed, +and scourged, and mocked by villagers who had entrapped them with +promises of help—scorched by the blazing sun, blistered by burning +winds, half-drowned in rivers which they had to ford or swim across, +naked, weary and starving, they wandered on; while some fell dead by the +wayside, and others, unable to move farther, were abandoned by their +sorrowing friends to die on the road.”</p> + +<p>In such wise did the British leave Imperial Delhi. They came back, +later, but many things had to happen meanwhile.</p> + +<p>The volcanic outburst in the Delhi district might have been paralleled +farther north were not the Punjab <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>fortunate in its rulers. Sir John +Lawrence was Chief Commissioner at Lahore. When that fateful telegram +from Delhi was received in the capital of the Punjab he was on his way +to Murree, a charming and secluded hill station, for the benefit of his +health. But, like most great men, Lawrence had the faculty of +surrounding himself with able lieutenants.</p> + +<p>His deputy, Robert Montgomery, whose singularly benevolent aspect +concealed an iron will, saw at once that if the Punjab followed the lead +of Meerut and Delhi, India would be lost. Lahore had a mixed population +of a hundred thousand Sikhs and Mohammedans, born soldiers every man, +and ready to take any side that promised to settle disputes by cold +steel rather than legal codes. If these hot heads, with their millions +of co-religionists in the land of the Five Rivers, were allowed to gain +the upper hand, they would sweep through the country from the mountains +to the sea.</p> + +<p>The troops, British and native, were stationed in the cantonment of +Mian-mir, some five miles from Lahore. There were one native cavalry +regiment and three native infantry battalions whose loyalty might be +measured by minutes as soon as they learnt that the standard of Bahadur +Shah was floating over the palace at Delhi. To quell them the +authorities had the 81st Foot and two batteries of horse artillery, or, +proportionately, far less a force than that at Meerut, the Britons being +outnumbered eight times by the natives.</p> + +<p>Montgomery coolly drove to Mian-mir on the morning of the 12th, took +counsel with the Brigadier, Stuart <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>Corbett, and made his plans. A ball +was fixed for that night. All society attended it, and men who knew that +the morrow’s sun might set on a scene of bloodshed and desolation danced +gaily with the ladies of Lahore. Surely those few who were in the secret +of the scheme arranged by Montgomery and Corbett must have thought of a +more famous ball at Brussels on a June night in 1815.</p> + +<p>Next morning the garrison fell in for a general parade of all arms. The +artillery and 81st were on the right of the line, the native infantry in +the center, and the sowars on the left. A proclamation by Government +announcing the disbandment of the 34th at Barrackpore was read, and may +have given some inkling of coming events to the more thoughtful among +the sepoys. But they had no time for secret murmurings. Maneuvers began +instantly. In a few minutes the native troops found themselves +confronted by the 81st and the two batteries of artillery.</p> + +<p>Riding between the opposing lines, the Brigadier told the would-be +mutineers that he meant to save them from temptation by disarming them.</p> + +<p>“Pile arms!” came the resolute command.</p> + +<p>They hesitated. The intervening space was small. By sheer weight of +numbers they could have borne down the British.</p> + +<p>“Eighty-first—load!” rang out the ominous order.</p> + +<p>As the ears of the startled men caught the ring of the ramrods in the +Enfield rifles, their eyes saw the lighted port fires of the gunners. +They were trapped, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>they knew it. They threw down their weapons with +sullen obedience and the first great step towards the re-conquest of +India was taken.</p> + +<p>Inspired by Montgomery the district officers at Umritsar, Mooltan, +Phillour, and many another European center in the midst of warlike and +impetuous races, followed his example and precept. Brigadier Innes at +Ferozpore hesitated. He tried half measures. He separated his two native +regiments and thought to disarm them on the morrow. That night one of +them endeavored to storm the magazine, burnt and plundered the station, +and marched off towards Delhi. But Innes then made amends. He pursued +and dispersed them. Only scattered remnants of the corps reached the +Mogul capital.</p> + +<p>Thus Robert Montgomery, the even-tempered, suave, smooth-spoken Deputy +Commissioner of Lahore! In the far north, at Peshawur, four other men of +action gathered in conclave. The gay, imaginative, earnest-minded +Herbert Edwardes, the hard-headed veteran, Sydney Cotton, the dashing +soldier, Neville Chamberlain, and the lustrous-eyed, black-bearded, +impetuous giant, John Nicholson—that genius who at thirty-five had +already been deified by a brotherhood of Indian fakirs and placed by +Mohammedans among the legendary heroes of their faith—these four sat in +council and asked, “How best shall we serve England?”</p> + +<p>They answered that question with their swords.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>ON THE WAY TO CAWNPORE</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">I</span>n Meerut reigned that blessed thing, Pax Britannica, otherwise known as +the British bulldog. But the bulldog was kept on the chain and peace +obtained only within his kennel. Malcolm, deprived of his regiment, +gathered under his command a few young civilians who were eager to act +as volunteer cavalry, and was given a grudging permission to ride out to +the isolated bungalows of some indigo planters, on the chance that the +occupants might have defended themselves successfully against the +rioters.</p> + +<p>In each case the tiny detachment discovered blackened walls and unburied +corpses. The Meerut district abounded with Goojers, the hereditary +thieves of India, and these untamed savages had lost none of their +wild-beast ferocity under fifty years of British rule. They killed and +robbed with an impartiality that was worthy of a better cause. When +Europeans, native travelers and mails were swept out of existence they +fought each other. Village boundaries which had been determined under +Wellesley’s strong government at the beginning of the century were +re-arranged now with match-lock, spear and tulwar. Old feuds were +settled in the old way and six inches of steel were more potent <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>than +the longest Order in Council. Yet these ghouls fled at the sight of the +smallest white force, and Malcolm and his irregulars rode unopposed +through a blood-stained and deserted land.</p> + +<p>On the 21st of May, eleven days after the outbreak of the Mutiny, though +never a dragoon or horse gunner had left Meerut cantonment since they +marched back to their quarters from the ever-memorable bivouac, Malcolm +led his light horsemen north, along the Grand Trunk Road in the +direction of Mazuffernugger.</p> + +<p>A native brought news that a collector and his wife were hiding in a +swamp near the road. Happily, in this instance, the two were rescued, +more dead than alive. The man, ruler of a territory as big as the North +Riding of Yorkshire, his wife, a young and well-born Englishwoman, were +in the last stage of misery. The unhappy lady, half demented, was +nursing a dead baby. When the child was taken from her she fell +unconscious and had to be carried to Meerut on a rough litter.</p> + +<p>The little cavalcade was returning slowly to the station<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> when one of +the troopers caught the hoof beats of a galloping horse behind them. +Malcolm reined up, and soon a British officer appeared round a bend in +the road. Mounted on a hardy country-bred, and wearing the semi-native +uniform of the Company’s regiments, the aspect of the stranger was +sufficiently remarkable to attract attention apart from the fact that he +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>came absolutely alone from a quarter where it was courting death to +travel without an escort. He was tall and spare of build, with reddish +brown hair and beard, blue eyes that gleamed with the cold fire of +steel, close-set lips, firm chin, and the slightly-hooked nose with thin +nostrils that seems to be one of nature’s tokens of the man born to +command his fellows when the strong arm and clear brain are needed in +the battle-field.</p> + +<p>He rode easily, with a loose rein, and he waved his disengaged hand the +instant he caught sight of the white faces.</p> + +<p>“Are you from Meerut?” he asked, his voice and manner conveying a +curious blend of brusqueness and gentility, as his tired horse willingly +pulled up alongside Nejdi.</p> + +<p>“Yes. And you?” said Malcolm, trying to conceal his amazement at this +apparition.</p> + +<p>“I am Lieutenant Hodson of the 1st Bengal Fusiliers. I have ridden from +Kurnaul, where the Commander-in-Chief is waiting until communication is +opened with Meerut. Where is General Hewitt?”</p> + +<p>“I will take you to him! From Kurnaul, did you say? When did you start?”</p> + +<p>“About this hour yesterday.”</p> + +<p>Malcolm knew then that this curt-spoken cavalier had ridden nearly a +hundred miles through an enemy’s country in twenty-four hours.</p> + +<p>“Is your horse equal to another hour’s canter?” he inquired.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p><p>“He ought to be. I took him from a bunniah when my own fell dead in a +village about ten miles in the rear.”</p> + +<p>Bidding a young bank manager take charge of the detachment, Frank led +the newcomer rapidly to headquarters. Hodson asked a few questions and +made his companion’s blood boil by the unveiled contempt he displayed on +hearing of the inaction at Meerut.</p> + +<p>“You want Nicholson here,” said he, laughing with grim mirth. “By all +the gods, he would horse-whip your general into the saddle.”</p> + +<p>“Hewitt is an old man, and cautious, therefore,” explained Frank, in +loyal defense of his chief. “Perhaps he deems it right to await the +orders you are now bringing.”</p> + +<p>“An old man! You mean an old woman, perhaps? I come from one. I had to +go on my knees almost before I could persuade Anson to let me start.”</p> + +<p>“Well, you must admit that you have made a daring and lucky ride?”</p> + +<p>“Nonsense! Why is one a soldier! I would cross the infernal regions if +the need arose. If I had been in Meerut on that Sunday evening, no +general that ever lived could have kept me out of Delhi before daybreak. +The way to stop this mutiny was to capture that doddering old king and +hold him as a hostage, and twenty determined men could have done it +easily in the confusion.”</p> + +<p>That was William Hodson’s way. Men who met him began by disliking his +hectoring, supercilious <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>bearing. They soon learnt to forget his +gruffness and think only of his gallantry and good-comradeship.</p> + +<p>At any rate his stirring advice and the dispatches he brought roused the +military authorities at Meerut into activity. Carrying with him a letter +to the Commander-in-Chief he quitted Meerut again that night, and +dismounted outside Anson’s tent at Kurnaul at dawn on the second day!</p> + +<p>On the 27th, Archdale Wilson led the garrison towards the rendezvous +fixed on by the force hurriedly collected in the Punjab for the relief +of Delhi. On the afternoon of the 30th, cavalry vedettes reported the +presence of a strong body of mutineers on the right bank of the river +Hindun, near the village of Ghazi-ud-din Nuggur and at a place where a +high ridge commanded an iron suspension bridge. It was found afterwards +that the rebels meant to fight the two British forces in detail before +they could effect a junction. The generalship of the idea was good, but +the sepoys did not count on the pent-up wrath of the British soldiers, +who were burning to avenge their murdered countrymen and dishonored +countrywomen, for it was now becoming known that many a fair English +lady had met a fate worse than death ere sword or bullet stilled her +anguish.</p> + +<p>A company of the 60th Rifles dashed forward to seize the bridge, +Lieutenant Light and his men took up the enemy’s challenge with their +heavy eighteen-pounders, and Colonel Mackenzie and Major Tombs, at the +head of two batteries of horse artillery, crossed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>the river and turned +the left flank of the sepoy force. Then the Rifles extended and charged, +the mutineers yielded, and Colonel Custance with his dragoons sabered +them mercilessly for some miles.</p> + +<p>Next morning, Whit-Sunday, while the chaplains were conducting the +burial service over those who had fallen, the mutineers came out of +Delhi again. A severe action began instantly. Tombs had two horses shot +under him, and thirteen out of fifty men in his battery were killed or +wounded. But the issue was never in doubt. After three hours’ hard +fighting the rebels broke and fled. So those men in Meerut could give a +good account of themselves when permitted! Actually, they won the two +first battles of the campaign.</p> + +<p>Exhausted by two days’ strenuous warfare in the burning sun, they could +not take up the pursuit. The men were resting on the field when a +battalion of Ghoorkahs, the little fighting men of Nepaul, arrived under +the command of Colonel Reid. They had marched by way of Bulandshahr, and +Malcolm heard to his dismay that the native infantry detachment +stationed there, aided by the whole population of the district, had +committed the wildest excesses.</p> + +<p>Yet Winifred and her uncle had passed through that town on the road to +Cawnpore. Aligarh, too, was in flames, said Reid, and there was no +communication open with Agra, the seat of Government for the North-West +Provinces. There was a bare possibility that the Maynes might have +reached Agra, or that Nana Sahib had protected them for his own sake. +Such slender <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>hopes brought no comfort. Black despair sat in Malcolm’s +heart until the Brigadier sent for him and ordered him to take charge of +the guard that would escort the records and treasure from Meerut to +Agra. He hailed this dangerous mission with gloomy joy. Love had no +place in a soldier’s life, he told himself. Henceforth he must remember +Winifred only when his sword was at the throat of some wretched mutineer +appealing for mercy.</p> + +<p>He went to his tent to supervise the packing of his few belongings. His +bearer,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> a Punjabi Mohammedan, who cursed the sepoys fluently for +disturbing the country during the hot weather, handed him a note which +had been brought by a camp follower.</p> + +<p>It was written in Persi-Arabic script, a sort of Arabic shorthand that +demands the exercise of time and patience ere it can be deciphered by +one not thoroughly acquainted with it. Thinking it was a request for +employment which he could not offer, Malcolm stuffed it carelessly into +a pocket. He rode to Meerut, placed himself at the head of the 8th +Irregular Cavalry, a detachment whose extraordinary fidelity has already +been narrated, and set forth next morning with his train of bullock +carts and their escort.</p> + +<p>He called the first halt in the village where he had parted from +Winifred. The headman professed himself unable to give any information, +but the application of a stirrup leather to his bare back while his +wrists were tied to a cart wheel soon loosened his tongue.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p><p>The king’s hunting lodge was empty, he whined; and the Roshinara Begum +had gone to Delhi. Nana Sahib’s cavalcade went south soon after the +Begum’s departure, and a moullah had told him, the headman, that the +Nana had hastened through Aligarh on his way to Cawnpore, not turning +aside to visit Agra, which was fifty miles down the Bombay branch of the +Grand Trunk Road.</p> + +<p>Malcolm drew a negative comfort from the moullah’s tale. That night he +encamped near a fair-sized village which was ominously denuded of men. +Approaching a native hut to ask for a piece of charcoal wherewith to +light a cigar, he happened to look inside. To his very great surprise he +saw, standing in a corner, a complete suit of European armor, made of +tin, it is true, but a sufficiently bewildering “find” in a Goojer +hovel.</p> + +<p>A woman came running from a neighbor’s house. While giving him the +charcoal she hastily closed the rude door. She pretended not to +understand him when he sought an explanation of the armor, whereupon he +seized her, and led her, shrieking, among his own men. The commotion +brought other villagers on the scene, as he guessed it would. A few +fierce threats, backed by a liberal display of naked steel, quickly +evoked the curious fact that nearly all the able-bodied inhabitants “had +gone to see the sahib-log<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> dance.”</p> + +<p>Even Malcolm’s native troops were puzzled by this story, but a further +string of terrifying words and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>more saber flourishing led to a direct +statement that the white people who were to “dance” had been captured +near the village quite a week earlier and imprisoned in a ruined tomb +about a mile from the road. It was risky work to leave the valuable +convoy for an instant, but Malcolm felt that he must probe this mystery. +Taking half a dozen men with him, and compelling the woman to act as +guide, he went to the tomb in the dark.</p> + +<p>The building, a mosque-like structure of considerable size, was situated +in the midst of a grove of mango trees. A clear space in front of the +tomb was lighted with oil lamps and bonfires. It was packed with +uproarious natives, and Malcolm’s astonished gaze rested on three +European acrobats doing some feat of balancing. A clown was cracking +jokes in French, some nuns were singing dolefully, and a trio of girls, +wearing the conventional gauze and spangles of circus riders, were +standing near a couple of piebald ponies.</p> + +<p>He and his men dashed in among the audience and the Goojers ran for dear +life when they caught sight of a sahib at the head of an armed party. +The performers and the nuns nearly died of fright, believing that their +last hour had surely come. But they soon recovered from their fear only +to collapse more completely from joy. A French circus, it appeared, had +camped near a party of nuns in the village on the main road, and were +captured there when the news came that the English were swept out of +existence. Most fortunately for themselves the nuns were regarded <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>as +part of the show, and the villagers, after robbing all of them, penned +them in the mosque and made them give a nightly performance. There were +five men and three women in the circus troupe, and among the four nuns +was the grave reverend mother of a convent.</p> + +<p>Malcolm brought them to the village and caused it to be made known that +unless every article of value and every rupee in money stolen from these +unfortunate people, together with a heavy fine, were brought to him by +daybreak, he would not only fire each hut and destroy the standing +crops, but he would also hang every adult male belonging to the place he +could lay hands on.</p> + +<p>These hereditary thieves could appreciate a man who spoke like that. +They met him fairly and paid in full. When the convoy moved off, even +that amazing suit of armor, which was used for the state entry of the +circus into a town, was strapped on to the back of a trick pony.</p> + +<p>The nuns, he ascertained, were coming from Fategarh to Umballa and they +had met the great retinue of Nana Sahib below Aligarh. With him were two +Europeans, a young lady and an elderly gentleman, but they were +traveling so rapidly that it was impossible to learn who they were or +whither they were going.</p> + +<p>Here, then, was really good news. Like every other Englishman in India +Malcolm believed that the Mutiny was confined to a very small area, of +which his own station was the center. He thought that if Winifred <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>and +her uncle reached Cawnpore they would be quite safe.</p> + +<p>He brightened up so thoroughly that he quite enjoyed a sharp fight next +day when the budmashes of Bulandshahr regarded the straggling convoy as +an easy prey.</p> + +<p>There were three or four such affairs ere they reached Agra, and his +Frenchmen proved themselves to be soldiers as well as acrobats. On the +evening of the 2d of June he marched his cavalcade into the splendid +fortress immortalized by its marble memorials of the great days of the +Mogul empire.</p> + +<p>The fact that a young subaltern had brought a convoy from Meerut was +seized on by the weak and amiable John Colvin, Lieutenant Governor of +the North-West Provinces, as a convincing proof of his theory that the +bulk of the native army might be trusted, and that order would soon be +restored. Each day he was sending serenely confident telegrams to +Calcutta and receiving equally reassuring ones from a fatuous Viceroy. +It was with the utmost difficulty that his wiser subordinates got him to +disarm the sepoy regiments in Agra itself. He vehemently assured the +Viceroy that the worst days of the outbreak were over and issued a +proclamation offering forgiveness to all mutineers who gave up their +arms, “except those who had instigated others to revolt, or taken part +in the murder of Europeans.”</p> + +<p>Such a man was sure to regard Malcolm’s bold journey from the wrong +point of view. So delighted was he that he gave the sowars two months’ +pay, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>lauded Malcolm in the <i>Gazette</i>, and forthwith despatched him on a +special mission to General Sir Hugh Wheeler at Cawnpore, to whom he +recommended Frank for promotion and appointment as aide-de-camp.</p> + +<p>This curious sequence of events led to Malcolm’s following Winifred +Mayne along the road she had taken exactly three weeks earlier. The +route to Cawnpore lay through Etawah, a place where revolt had already +broken out, but which had been evacuated by the mutineers, who, like +those at Aligarh, Bulandshahr, Mainpuri, Meerut, and a score of other +towns, ran off to Delhi after butchering all the Europeans within range.</p> + +<p>With a small escort of six troopers, his servant, and two pack-horses, +he traveled fast. As night was falling on June 4th, he re-entered the +Grand Trunk Road some three miles north of Bithoor, where, all unknown +to him, Nana Sahib’s splendid palace stood on the banks of the Ganges.</p> + +<p>It was his prudent habit to halt in small villages only. Towns might be +traversed quickly without much risk, as even the tiniest display of +force insured safety, but it was wise not to permit the size of his +escort to be noted at leisure, when a surprise attack might be made in +the darkness.</p> + +<p>Therefore, expecting to arrive at Cawnpore early next day, he elected +not to push on to Bithoor, and proposed to pass the night under the +branches of a great pipal tree. Chumru, his Mohammedan bearer, was a +good cook, in addition to his many other acquirements. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>Having +purchased, or made his master pay for, which is not always the same +thing in India, a small kid (by which please understand a young goat) in +the village, he lit a fire, slew the kid, to the accompaniment of an +appropriate verse from the Koran, and compounded an excellent stew.</p> + +<p>A native woman brought some chupatties and milk, and Malcolm, being +sharp set with hunger, ate as a man can only eat when he is young, and +in splendid health, and has ridden hard all day.</p> + +<p>He had a cigar left, too, and he was searching his pockets for a piece +of paper to light it when he brought forth that Persi-Arabic letter +which reached him at the close of the second battle of Ghazi-ud-din +Nuggur.</p> + +<p>He was on the point of rolling it into a spill, but some subtle +influence stopped him. He rose, walked to Chumru’s fire, and lit the +cigar with a burning stick. Then summoning a smart young jemadar with +whom he had talked a good deal during the journey, he asked him to read +the chit. The woman who supplied the chupatties fetched a tiny lamp. She +held it while the trooper bent over the strange scrawl, and ran his eyes +along it to learn the context.</p> + +<p>And this is what he read:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“To all whom it may concern—Be it known that Malcolm-sahib, +late of the Company’s 3d Regiment of Horse, is a friend of the +heaven-born princess Roshinara Begum, and, provided he comes to +the palace at Delhi within three days from the date hereof, he +is to be given safe conduct by all who owe allegiance to the +Light of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>the World, the renowned King of Kings and lord of all +India, Bahadur Shah, Fuzl-Ilahi, Panah-i-din.”</p></div> + +<p>The trooper scowled. Those concluding words—“By the grace of God, +Defender of the Faith”—perhaps touched a sore place, for he, too, was a +true believer.</p> + +<p>“You are a long way from Delhi, sahib, and the chit is a week old. I +suppose you did not pay the expected visit to her Highness the Begum?” +he said.</p> + +<p>“If you are talking of the Begum Roshinara, daughter of the King of +Delhi,” put in the woman, who was ready enough to indulge in a gossip +with these good-looking soldiers, “she passed through this place +to-day.”</p> + +<p>“Surely you are telling some idle tale of the bazaar,” said Malcolm.</p> + +<p>“No, sahib. My brother is a grass-cutter in the Nana’s stables. While I +was at the well this morning a carriage came down the road. It was a +rajah’s carriage, and there were men riding before and behind. I asked +my brother if he had seen it, and he said that it brought the Begum to +Bithoor, where she is to wed the Nana.”</p> + +<p>“What! A Mohammedan princess marry a Brahmin!”</p> + +<p>“It may be so, sahib. They say these great people do not consider such +things when there is aught to be gained.”</p> + +<p>“But what good purpose can this marriage serve?”</p> + +<p>The woman looked up at Malcolm under her long eyelashes.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p><p>“Where have you been, sahib, that you have not heard that the sepoys +have proclaimed the Nana as King?” she asked timidly.</p> + +<p>“King! Is he going to fight the Begum’s father?”</p> + +<p>“I know not, sahib, but Delhi is far off, and Cawnpore is near. +Perchance they may both be kings.”</p> + +<p>A man’s voice called from the darkness, and the woman hurried away. +Malcolm, of course, was in a position to appraise the accuracy of her +story. He knew that the Nana, a native dignitary with a grievance +against the Government, was a guest of Bahadur Shah a month before the +Mutiny broke out, and was at the Meerut hunting lodge on the very night +of its inception. Judging by Princess Roshinara’s words, her relations +with the Brahmin leader were far from lover-like. What, then, did this +sudden journey to Cawnpore portend? Was Sir Hugh Wheeler aware of the +proposed marriage, with all the terrible consequences that it heralded? +At any rate, his line of action was clear.</p> + +<p>“Get the men together, Akhab Khan,” he said to the jemadar. “We march at +once.”</p> + +<p>Within five minutes they were on the road. There was no moon, and the +trees bordering both sides of the way made the darkness intense. The +still atmosphere, too, was almost overpowering. The dry earth, sun-baked +to a depth of many feet, was giving off its store of heat accumulated +during the day. The air seemed to be quivering as though it were laden +with the fumes of a furnace. It was a night when men might die or go mad +under the mere strain of existence. Its very <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>languor was intoxicating. +Nature seemed to brood over some wild revel. A fearsome thunderstorm or +howling tornado of dust might reveal her fickleness of mood at any +moment.</p> + +<p>It was man, not the elements, that was destined to war that night. The +small party of horsemen were riding through the scattered houses of +Bithoor, and had passed a brilliantly lighted palace which Malcolm took +to be the residence of Nana Sahib, when they were suddenly ordered to +halt. Some native soldiers, not wearing the Company’s uniform, formed a +line across the road. Malcolm, drawing his sword, advanced towards them.</p> + +<p>“Whose troops are you?” he shouted.</p> + +<p>There was no direct answer, but a score of men, armed with muskets and +bayonets, and carrying a number of lanterns, came nearer. It must be +remembered that Malcolm, a subaltern of the 3d Cavalry, wore a turban +and sash. He spoke Urdu exceedingly well, and it was difficult in the +gloom to recognize him as a European.</p> + +<p>“We have orders to stop and examine all wayfarers—” began some man in +authority; but a lifted lantern revealed Frank’s white face; instantly +several guns were pointed at him.</p> + +<p>“Follow me!” he cried to his escort.</p> + +<p>A touch of the spurs sent Nejdi with a mighty bound into the midst of +the rabble who held the road. Malcolm bent low in the saddle and a +scattered volley revealed the tree-shrouded houses in a series of bright +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>flashes. Fortunately, under such conditions, there is more room to miss +than to hit. None of the bullets harmed horse or man, and the sowars +were not quite near enough to be in the line of fire. After a quick +sweep or two with his sword, Malcolm saw that his men were laying about +them heartily. A pack-horse, however, had stumbled, bringing down the +animal ridden by Chumru, the bearer. To save his faithful servant Frank +wheeled Nejdi, and cut down a native who was lunging at Chumru with a +bayonet.</p> + +<p>More shots were fired and a sowar was wounded. He fell, shouting to his +comrades for help. A general mêlée ensued. The troopers slashed at the +men on foot and the sepoys fired indiscriminately at any one on +horseback. The uproar was so great and the fighting so strenuous that +Malcolm did not hear the approach of a body of cavalry until a loud +voice bawled:</p> + +<p>“Why should brothers slay brothers? Cease your quarreling, in the name +of the faith! Are there not plenty of accursed Feringhis on whom to try +your blades?”</p> + +<p>Then the young officer saw, too late, that he was surrounded by a ring +of steel. Yet he strove to rally his escort, got four of the men to obey +his command, and, placing himself in front, led them at the vague forms +that blocked the road to Cawnpore. In the confusion, he might have cut +his way through had not Nejdi unfortunately jumped over a wounded man at +the instant Frank was aiming a blow at a sowar. His sword swished +harmlessly in the air, and his adversary, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>hitting out wildly, struck +the Englishman’s head with the forte of his saber. The violent shock +dazed Malcolm for a second, but all might yet have been well were it not +for an unavoidable accident. A sepoy’s bayonet became entangled in the +reins. In the effort to free his weapon the man gave such a tug to the +bit on the near side that the Arab crossed his fore-legs and fell, +throwing his rider violently. Frank landed fairly on his head. His +turban saved his neck, but could not prevent a momentary concussion. For +a while he lay as one dead.</p> + +<p>When he came to his senses he found that his arms were tied behind his +back, that he had been carried under a big tree, and that a tall native, +in the uniform of a subadar of the 2d Bengal Cavalry, was holding a +lantern close to his face.</p> + +<p>“I am an officer of the 3d Cavalry,” he said, trying to rise. “Why do +you, a man in my own service, suffer me to be bound?”</p> + +<p>“You are no officer of mine, Feringhi,” was the scornful reply. “You are +safely trussed because we thought it better sport to dangle you from a +bough than to stab you where you dropped. Quick, there, with that +heel-rope, Abdul Huq. We have occupation. Let us hang this crow here to +show other Nazarenes what they may expect. And we have no time to lose. +The Nana may appear at any moment.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>A WOMAN INTERVENES</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>hat ominous order filled Malcolm’s soul with a fierce rage. He was not +afraid of death. The wine of life ran too strongly in his veins that +craven fear should so suddenly quell the excitement of the combat that +had ended thus disastrously. But his complete helplessness—the fact +that he was to be hanged like some wretched felon by men wearing the +uniform of which he had been so proud—these things stirred him to the +verge of frenzy.</p> + +<p>Oddly enough, in that moment of anguish he thought of Hodson, the man +who rode alone from Kurnaul to Meerut. Why had Hodson succeeded? Would +Hodson, knowing the exceeding importance of his mission, have turned to +rescue a servant or raise a fallen horse? Would he not rather have +dashed on like a thunderbolt, trusting to the superior speed of his +charger to carry him clear of his assailants? And Nejdi! What had become +of that trusted friend? Never before, Arab though he was, had he been +guilty of a stumble. Perhaps he was shot, and sobbing out his gallant +life on the road, almost at the foot of the tree which would be his +master’s gallows.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p><p>A doomed man indulges in strange reveries. Malcolm was almost as greatly +concerned with Nejdi’s imagined fate as with his own desperate plight +when the trooper who answered to the name of Abdul Huq brought the +heel-rope that was to serve as a halter.</p> + +<p>The man was a Pathan, swarthy, lean, and sinewy, with the nose and eyes +of a bird of prey. Though a hawk would show mercy to a fledgling sparrow +sooner than this cut-throat to a captive, the robber instinct in him +made him pause before he tied the fatal noose.</p> + +<p>“Have you gone through the Nazarene’s pockets, sirdar?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“No,” was the impatient answer. “Of what avail is it? These +chota-sahibs<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> have no money. And Cawnpore awaits us.”</p> + +<p>“Nevertheless, every rupee counts. And he may be carrying letters of +value to the Maharajah. Once he is swinging up there he will be out of +reach, and our caste does not permit us to defile our hands by touching +a dead body.”</p> + +<p>While the callous ruffian was delivering himself of this curious blend +of cynicism and dogma, his skilled fingers were rifling Malcolm’s +pockets. First he drew forth a sealed packet addressed to Sir Hugh +Wheeler. He recognized the government envelope and, though neither of +the pair could read English, Abdul Huq handed it to his leader with an +“I-told-you-so” air.</p> + +<p>It was in Frank’s mind to revile the men, but, most happily, he composed +himself sufficiently to resolve <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>that he would die like an officer and a +gentleman, while the last words on his lips would be a prayer.</p> + +<p>The next document produced was the Persi-Arabic scrawl which purported +to be a “safe-conduct” issued by Bahadur Shah, whom the rebels acclaimed +as their ruler. Until that instant, the Englishman had given no thought +to it. But when he saw the look of consternation that flitted across the +face of the subadar when his eyes took in the meaning of the writing, +despair yielded to hope, and he managed to say thickly:</p> + +<p>“Perhaps you will understand now that you ought to have asked my +business ere you proposed to hang me off hand.”</p> + +<p>His active brain devised a dozen expedients to account for his presence +in Bithoor, but the native officer was far too shrewd to be beguiled +into setting his prisoner at liberty. After re-reading the pass, to make +sure of its significance, the rebel leader curtly told Abdul Huq and +another sowar to bring the Feringhi into the presence of the Maharajah, +by which title he evidently indicated Nana Sahib.</p> + +<p>The order was, at least, a reprieve, and Malcolm breathed more easily. +He even asked confidently about his horse and the members of his escort. +He was given no reply save a muttered curse, a command to hold his +tongue, and an angry tug at his tied arms.</p> + +<p>It is hard to picture the degradation of such treatment of a British +officer by a native trooper. The Calcutta Brahmin who was taunted by a +Lascar—a warrior-priest insulted by a social leper—scarce <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>flinched +more keenly under the jibe than did Malcolm when he heard the tone of +his captors. Truly the flag of Britain was trailing in the mire, or +these men would not have dared to address him in that fashion. In that +bitter moment he felt for the first time that the Mutiny was a real +thing. Hitherto, in spite of the murders and incendiarism of Meerut, the +risings in other stations, the proclamation of Bahadur Shah as Emperor, +and the actual conflicts with the Mogul’s armed retainers on the +battle-field of Ghazi-ud-din Nuggur, Malcolm was inclined to treat the +outburst as a mere blaze of local fanaticism, a blaze that would soon be +stamped under heel by the combined efforts of the East India Company’s +troops and the Queen’s Forces. Now, at last, he saw the depth of hate +with which British dominion was regarded in India. He heard Mohammedans +alluding to a Brahmin as a leader—so might a wolf and a snake make +common alliance against a watch dog. From that hour dated a new and +sterner conception of the task that lay before him and every other +Briton in the country. The Mutiny was no longer a welcome variant to the +tedium of the hot weather. It was a life-and-death struggle between West +and East, between civilization and barbarism, between the laws of +Christianity and the lawlessness of Mahomet, supported by the cruel, +inhuman, and nebulous doctrines of Hinduism.</p> + +<p>Not that these thoughts took shape and coherence in Malcolm’s brain as +he was being hurried to the house of Nana Sahib. A man may note the +deadly malice <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>of a cobra’s eye, but it is not when the poison fangs are +ready to strike that he stops to consider the philosophy underlying the +creature’s malign hatred of mankind.</p> + +<p>Events were in a rare fret and fume in the neighborhood of Cawnpore that +night. As a matter of historical fact, while Malcolm was hearing from +the villager that Roshinara Begum had come to Bithoor, the 1st Native +Infantry and 2d Cavalry had risen at Cawnpore.</p> + +<p>Nana Sahib was deep in intrigue with all the sepoy regiments stationed +there, and his adherents ultimately managed to persuade these two corps +to throw off their allegiance to the British Raj. Following the +recognized routine they burst open the gaol, burnt the public offices, +robbed the Treasury, and secured possession of the Magazine. Then, while +the ever-swelling mob of criminals and loafers made pandemonium in the +bazaar, the saner spirits among the mutineers hurried to Bithoor to +ascertain the will of the man who, by common consent, was regarded as +their leader.</p> + +<p>He was expecting them, eagerly perhaps, but with a certain quaking that +demanded the assistance of the “Raja’s peg,” a blend of champagne and +brandy that is calculated to fire heart and brain to madness more +speedily than any other intoxicant. He was conversing with his nephew, +Rao Sahib, and his chief lieutenants, Tantia Topi and a Mohammedan named +Azim-Ullah, when the native officers of the rebel regiments clattered +into his presence.</p> + +<p>“Maharajah,” said their chief, “a kingdom is yours <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>if you join us, but +it is death if you side with the Nazarenes.”</p> + +<p>He laughed, with the fine air of one who sees approaching the fruition +of long-cherished plans. He advanced a pace, confidently.</p> + +<p>“What have I to do with the British?” he asked. “Are they not my +enemies, too? I am altogether with you.”</p> + +<p>“Will you lead us to Delhi, Maharajah?”</p> + +<p>“Why not? That is the natural rallying ground of all who wish the +downfall of the present Government.”</p> + +<p>“Then behold, O honored one, we offer you our fealty.”</p> + +<p>They pressed near him, tendering the hilts of their swords. He touched +each weapon, and placed his hands on the head of its owner, vowing that +he would keep his word and be faithful to the trust they reposed in him.</p> + +<p>“Our brothers of the 53d and 56th have not joined us yet,” said one.</p> + +<p>“Then let us ride forth and win them to our side,” said the Nana +grandiloquently. He went into the courtyard, mounted a gaily-caparisoned +horse, and, surrounded by the rebel cohort, cantered off towards +Cawnpore.</p> + +<p>Thus it befell that the mob of horsemen pressed past Malcolm and his +guards as they entered the palace. The subadar tried in vain to attract +the Nana’s attention. Fearing lest he might be forgotten if he were not +in the forefront of the conspiracy, this man <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>bade his subordinates take +their prisoner before the Begum, and ran off to secure his horse and +race after the others. He counted on the despatches gaining him a +hearing.</p> + +<p>Abdul Huq, more crafty than his chief, smiled.</p> + +<p>“Better serve a king’s daughter than these Shia dogs who are so ready to +fawn on a Brahmin,” said he to his comrade, another Pathan, and a Sunni +like himself, for Islam, united against Christendom, is divided into +seventy-two warring sects. Hence the wavering loyalty of two sepoy +battalions in Cawnpore carried Malcolm out of the Nana’s path, and led +him straight to the presence of Princess Roshinara.</p> + +<p>The lapse of three weeks had paled that lady’s glowing cheeks and +deepened the luster of her eyes. Not only was she worn by anxiety, in +addition to the physical fatigue of the long journey from Delhi, but the +day’s happenings had not helped to lighten the load of care. Yet she was +genuinely amazed at seeing Malcolm.</p> + +<p>“How come you to be here?” she cried instantly, addressing him before +Abdul Huq could open his mouth in explanation.</p> + +<p>“As your Highness can see for yourself, I am brought hither forcibly by +these slaves,” said Frank, thinking that now or never must he display a +bold front.</p> + +<p>“How did you learn that I had left Delhi?”</p> + +<p>“The journeyings of the Princess Roshinara are known to many.”</p> + +<p>“But you came not when I summoned you.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p><p>“Your Highness’s letter did not reach me until after the affair on the +Hindun river.”</p> + +<p>“What is all this idle talk?” broke in Abdul Huq roughly. “This Feringhi +was carrying despatches—”</p> + +<p>“Peace, dog!” cried the Begum. “Unfasten the Sahib’s arms, and be gone. +What! Dost thou hesitate!”</p> + +<p>She clapped her hands, and some members of her bodyguard ran forward.</p> + +<p>“Throw these troopers into the courtyard,” she commanded. “If they +resist—”</p> + +<p>But the Pathans were too wise to refuse obedience. Not yet had the +rebels felt their true power. They sullenly untied Malcolm’s bonds, and +disappeared. Using eyes and ears each moment to better advantage, Frank +was alive to the confusion that reigned in Nana Sahib’s abode. Men ran +hither and thither in aimless disorder. The Brahmin’s retainers were +like jackals who knew that the lion had killed and the feast was spread. +The only servants who preserved the least semblance of discipline were +those of the Princess Roshinara. It was an hour when the cool brain +might contrive its own ends.</p> + +<p>“I am, indeed, much beholden to you, Princess,” said Frank. “I pray you +extend your clemency to my men. I have an escort of six sowars, and a +servant. Some of them are wounded. My horse, too, which I value +highly—”</p> + +<p>He paused. He saw quite clearly that she paid no heed to a word that he +was saying. Her black eyes <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>were fixed intently on his face, but she was +thinking, weighing in her mind some suddenly-formed project. He was a +pawn in the game on the political chess-board, and some drastic move was +imminent.</p> + +<p>Some part of his speech had reached her intelligence. She caught him by +the wrist and hurried him along a corridor into a garden, muttering as +she went:</p> + +<p>“Allah hath sent thee, Malcolm-sahib. What matters thy men and a horse? +Yet will I see to their safety, if that be possible. Yes, yes, I must do +that. You will need them. And remember, I am trusting thee. Wilt thou +obey my behests?”</p> + +<p>“I would be capable of little gratitude if I refused, Princess,” said +he, wondering what new outlet the whirligig of events would provide.</p> + +<p>Leading him past an astonished guardian of the zenana, who dared not +protest when this imperial lady thought fit to profane the sacred portal +by admitting an infidel, she brought Malcolm through a door into a +larger garden surrounded by a high wall. She pointed to a pavilion at +its farthest extremity.</p> + +<p>“Wait there,” she said. “When those come to you whom you will have faith +in, do that which he who brings them shall tell you. Fail not. Your own +life and the lives of your friends will hang on a thread, yet trust me +that it shall not be severed while you obey my commands.”</p> + +<p>With that cryptic message she ran back to the door, which was +immediately slammed behind her. Having just been snatched from the very +gate of eternity by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>the Begum’s good offices, Malcolm determined to +fall in with her whims so long as they did not interfere with his duty. +Although Cawnpore was in the hands of the mutineers and he had lost his +despatches, he determined, at all costs, to reach Sir Hugh Wheeler if +that fine old commander were still living. Meanwhile, he hastened to the +baraduri, an elegant structure which was approached by a flight of steps +and stood in the angle of two high battlemented walls.</p> + +<p>The place was empty and singularly peaceful after the uproar of the +village and of that portion of the palace which faced the Grand Trunk +Road.</p> + +<p>Overhead the sky was clear and starlit, but beyond the walls stretched a +low, half luminous bank of mist, and he was peering that way fully a +minute before he ascertained that the garden stood on the right bank of +the Ganges. Almost at his feet, the great river was murmuring on its +quiet course to the sea, and the mist was due to the evaporation of its +waters, which were mainly composed of melted snow from the ice-capped +Himalayas.</p> + +<p>When his eyes grew accustomed to his surroundings he made out the shape +of a native boat moored beneath the wall. It had evidently brought a +cargo of forage to Bithoor. So still was the air that the scent of the +hay lingered yet in the locality.</p> + +<p>Between Bithoor and Cawnpore the Ganges takes a wide bend. At first +Malcolm scarce knew in which quarter to look for the city, but distant +reports and the glare of burning dwellings soon told him more than its +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>mere direction. So Cawnpore, in its turn, had yielded to the canker +that was gnawing the vitals of India! He wondered if Allahabad had +fallen. And Benares? And the populous towns of Bengal—perhaps even the +capital city itself? The Punjab was safe. Hodson told him that. But +would it remain safe? He had heard queer tales of the men who dwelt in +the bazaars of Lahore, Umritsar, Rawalpindi, and the rest. Nicholson and +John Lawrence were there; could they hold those warrior-tribes in +subjection, or, better still, in leash? He might not hazard an opinion. +His sky had fallen. This land of his adoption was his no longer. He was +an outlaw, hunted and despised, depending for his life on the caprice of +a fickle-minded woman. Then he thought of the way his comrades of the +60th, of the Dragoons and the Artillery, had chased the sepoys from the +Hindun, and his soul grew strong again. Led by British officers, the +native troops were excellent, but, deprived of the only leaders they +really respected, they became an armed mob, terrible to women and +children, but of slight account against British-born men.</p> + +<p>His musings were disturbed by the sound of horses advancing quietly +across a paddy field which skirted that side of the wall running at a +right angle with the river. It was impossible to see far owing to the +mist that clung close to the ground, but he could not be mistaken as to +the presence of a small body of mounted men within a few yards. They had +halted, too, but his alert ears caught the occasional clink of +accouterments, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>and the pawing of a horse in the soft earth. He racked +his brain to try to discover some connection between this cavalry post +and the parting admonition given by the Begum Roshinara, and he might +have guessed the riddle in part had he not heard hurried footsteps in +the garden. They came, not from the door by which he was admitted, but +from the Palace itself. Whoever the newcomers were they made straight +for the pavilion, and, as he was unarmed, he did not hesitate to show +himself against the sky line. For ill or well, he wanted to know his +fate, and he determined to spring over the battlements in the hope of +reaching the river if he received the slightest warning of hostile +intent by those who sought him.</p> + +<p>“Is that you, Malcolm?” said a low voice, and his heart leaped when he +recognized Mr. Mayne’s accents.</p> + +<p>“Yes. Can it be possible that you are here?”</p> + +<p>He ran down the stone steps. On the level of the garden he could see +three figures, one a white-robed native, one a man in European garments, +and the third a woman wrapped in a dark cloak. A suppressed sob uttered +by the woman sent a gush of hot blood to his face. He sprang forward. In +another instant Winifred was in his arms. And that was their unspoken +declaration of love—in the garden of Nana Sahib’s house at +Bithoor—while within hail were thousands who would gladly have torn +them limb from limb, and the southern horizon was aflame with the light +of their brethren’s dwelling-places.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Frank, dear,” whispered the girl brokenly, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>“what evil fortune has +led you within these walls? Yet, I thank God for it. Promise you will +kill me ere they drag me from your side again.”</p> + +<p>“Hush, Winifred. For the sake of all of us calm yourself,” said her +uncle. “This man says he has brought us here to help us to escape. +Surely you can find in Malcolm’s presence some earnest of his good +faith.”</p> + +<p>The native now intervened. Speaking with a certain dignity and using the +language of the court, he said that they had not a moment to lose. They +must descend the wall by means of a rope, and in the field beyond they +would find three of the officer-sahib’s men, with his horse and a couple +of spare animals. Keeping close to the river until they came to a +tree-lined nullah—a small ravine cut by a minor tributary of the +Ganges—they should follow this latter till they approached the Grand +Trunk Road, taking care not to be seen as they crossed that +thoroughfare. Then, making a détour, they must avoid the village, and +endeavor to strike the road again about two miles to the north of +Bithoor, thereafter traveling at top speed towards Meerut, but letting +it be known in the hamlets on the way that they came from Cawnpore.</p> + +<p>This unlooked-for ally impressed the concluding stipulation strongly on +Malcolm, but, when asked for a reason, he said simply:</p> + +<p>“It is the Princess’s order. Come! There is no time for further speech. +Here is the rope.”</p> + +<p>He uncoiled a long cord from beneath his cummerbund, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>and, running up +the steps, adjusted it to a pillar of the baraduri with an ease and +quickness that showed familiarity with such means of exit from a +closely-guarded residence.</p> + +<p>“Now, you first, sahib,” said he to Malcolm. “Then we will lower the +miss-sahib, and the burra-sahib can follow.”</p> + +<p>There was nothing to be gained by questioning him, especially as Mayne +murmured that he could explain a good deal of the mystery underlying the +Begum’s wish that they should go north. The exterior field was reached +without any difficulty. Within twenty yards they encountered a little +group of mounted men, and Malcolm found, to his great delight, that +Chumru, his bearer, was holding Nejdi’s bridle, while his companions +were Akhab Khan and two troopers who had ridden from Agra. To make the +miracle more complete, Malcolm’s sword was tied to the Arab’s saddle and +his revolvers were still in the holsters.</p> + +<p>Winifred, making the best of a man’s saddle until they could improvise a +crutch at their first halt, would admit of no difficulty in that +respect. The fact that her lover was present had lightened her heart of +the terror which had possessed her during many days.</p> + +<p>They were on the move, with the two sharp-eyed sowars leading, when the +noise made by a number of horsemen, coming toward them on the landward +side and in front, brought them to an abrupt halt.</p> + +<p>“Spread out to the right until you reach the river,” cried a rough +voice, which Malcolm was sure he identified <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>as belonging to Abdul Huq. +“Then we cannot miss them. And remember, brothers, if we secure the girl +unharmed, we shall earn a rich reward from the Maharajah.”</p> + +<p>Winifred, shivering with fear again, knew not what the man said, but she +drew near to Malcolm and whispered:</p> + +<p>“Not into their hands, Frank, for God’s sake!”</p> + +<p>The movement of her horse’s feet had not passed unnoticed.</p> + +<p>“Be sharp, there!” snarled the Pathan again. “They are not far off, and +only six of them. Shout, you on the right when you are on the bank.”</p> + +<p>“None can pass between me and the stream,” replied a more distant voice.</p> + +<p>“Forward, then! Keep line! Not too fast, you near the wall.”</p> + +<p>Frank loosened his sword from its fastenings and took a revolver in his +left hand, in which he also held the reins. He judged Abdul Huq to be +some fifty yards distant, and he was well aware that the fog became +thinner with each yard as he turned his back on the river.</p> + +<p>“Take Winifred back to the angle of the wall,” he whispered to Mayne. +“You will find a budgerow<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> there. Get your horses on board, if +possible, and I shall join you in a minute or less. If I manage to +scatter these devils, we shall outwit them yet.”</p> + +<p>It was hopeless, he knew, to attempt to ride through <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>the enemy’s +cordon. There would be a running fight against superior numbers, and +Winifred’s presence made that a last resource. The most fortunate +accident of the deserted craft being moored beneath the palace wall +offered a far more probable means of escape. What blunder or treachery +had led to this attack he could not imagine. Nor was he greatly troubled +with speculation on that point. Winifred must be saved, he had a sword +in his hand, and he was mounted on the best horse in India. What better +hap could a cavalry subaltern desire than such a fight under such +conditions?</p> + +<p>In order not only to drown the girl’s protest when her uncle turned her +horse’s head, but also to deceive opponents, Frank thundered forth an +order that was familiar to their ears.</p> + +<p>“The troop will advance! Draw swords! Walk—trot—charge!”</p> + +<p>Chumru, though no fighting-man, realized that he was expected to make a +row and uttered a bloodcurdling yell. Inspired by their officer’s +example the two sowars dashed after him with splendid courage. They were +on their startled pursuers so soon, the line having narrowed more +quickly than they expected, that they hurtled right through the opposing +force without a blow being struck or a shot fired. As it chanced, no +better maneuver could have been effected. When they wheeled and Frank +managed to shoot two men at close range, it seemed to the amazed rebels +that they were being attacked from the very quarter from which they had +advanced.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p><p>Under such conditions even the steadiest of troops will break, and at +least endeavor to reach a place where their adversaries are not shrouded +in a dense mist. And that was exactly what occurred in this instance. +Nearly all the mutineers swung round and galloped headlong for the +landward boundary of the paddy field. Shouting to his two plucky +assistants to come back, Frank called out to Chumru and bade him join +them. He was hurrying towards the corner of the palace grounds when a +shriek from Winifred set his teeth on edge.</p> + +<p>“I am coming,” he cried. “What has happened? Where are you, Mayne?”</p> + +<p>“Here, close to the boat. Look out there! Two sowars are carrying off my +niece. For Heaven’s sake, save her! I am wounded, but never mind me.”</p> + +<p>Malcolm had the hunter’s lore, a species of Red Indian cunning in the +stalker’s art. Instead of rushing blindly forward he halted his men +promptly and listened. Sure enough, he heard stumbling footsteps by the +water’s edge. Leaping from Nejdi’s back, he sprang down the crumbling +bank and came almost on top of Abdul Huq and his brother Pathan. Their +progress was hindered by Winifred’s frantic struggles and their own +brutal efforts to stop her from screaming, and they were taken unaware +by Frank’s unexpected leap.</p> + +<p>A thrust that went home caused a vacancy in a border clan, but, before +the avenger could withdraw his weapon, Abdul Huq was swinging his +tulwar. He was no novice in the art, and Malcolm must have gone <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>down +under the blow had not Winifred seen its murderous purpose and seized +the man’s arm. That gave her lover the second he needed. He recovered +his sword, but was too near to stab or cut, so he met the case by +dealing the swarthy one a blow with the hilt between the eyes that would +have felled an ox. Never before had the Englishman hit any man with such +vigorous good will. This rascal was owed a debt for the indignity he had +offered the sahib in the village, and now he was paid in full.</p> + +<p>He fell insensible, with part of his body resting in the water. It was a +queer moment for noting a trivial thing, yet Frank saw that the man’s +turban did not fall off. He had lost his own turban during the mêlée on +the Grand Trunk Road, and, as it would soon be daylight, he stooped to +secure Abdul Huq’s headgear. Oddly enough, it was fastened by a piece of +cord under the Pathan’s chin—an almost unheard-of device this, to be +adopted by a native. With a sharp pull Frank broke the cord and jammed +the turban on his head. He was determined to have it, if only because no +greater insult can be inflicted on a Mohammedan than to bare his head.</p> + +<p>The incident did not demand more than a few seconds for its transaction +and Winifred hardly noticed it, so unstrung was she. Without more ado +Malcolm took her in his arms and carried her up the bank. He told the +troopers and his servant to follow with the horses as quietly as +possible and led the way towards the budgerow.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p><p>Arrived at the boat, they found Mayne standing in the water and leaning +helplessly against the side of the craft. He had been struck down by one +of the precious pair who thought to carry off Winifred, but, luckily, it +was a glancing blow and not serious in its after effects.</p> + +<p>With a rapidity that was almost magical the horses were put on board, +the boat shoved off, and the huge mat sail hoisted to get the benefit of +any breeze that might be found in mid-stream. The current carried them +away at a fair rate, and, as they passed the place where Abdul Huq had +fallen in the river Malcolm fancied he heard a splash and a gurgle, as +though a crocodile had found something of interest.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>THE WELL</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">N</span>ot until many months later did Malcolm learn the true cause of +Roshinara Begum’s anxiety that he and his friends should hasten to +Meerut, and let it be known on the way that they came from Cawnpore. Yet +there were those in Bithoor that night who fully appreciated the +tremendous influence on the course of political events that the +direction of Winifred’s flight might exercise. The girl herself little +dreamed she was such an important personage. But that is often the case +with those who are destined to make history. In this instance, the +balking of a Brahmin prince’s passions was destined to change the whole +trend of affairs in northern India.</p> + +<p>Nana Sahib escorted Mayne from Meerut to Cawnpore because the +safeguarding of the Judicial Commissioner of Oudh was a strong card to +play in that parlous game of empire. As he traveled south reports +reached him on every hand that nothing could now stop the spread of the +Mutiny, and, with greater certainty in his plans came a project that he +would not have dared to harbor even a week earlier.</p> + +<p>Winifred, naturally a high-spirited and lively girl, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>soon recovered +from the fright of that fateful Sunday evening. She had seen little of +the tragedy enacted in Meerut; she knew less of its real horrors. +Notwithstanding the intense heat the open-air life of the march was +healthy, and, in many respects, agreeable. The Nana was a courteous and +considerate host. He took good care that his secret intelligence of +occurrences at Delhi and other stations should remain hidden from Mayne, +and, while his ambitions mounted each hour, he cast many a veiled glance +at the graceful beauty of the fair English girl who moved like a sylph +among the brown-skinned satyrs surrounding her.</p> + +<p>Once the party had reached Bithoor the Nana’s tone changed. Instead of +sending his European guests into Cawnpore, whence safe transit to +Calcutta was still practicable, he kept them in his palace, on the +pretext that the roads were disturbed. He contrived, at first, to +hoodwink Mr. Mayne by giving him genuine news of the wholesale outbreak +in the North-West, and by adding wholly false tidings of massacres at +Allahabad, Benares, and towns in Upper Bengal. At last, when Mayne +insisted on going into Cawnpore, the native threw aside pretense, said +he could not “allow” him to depart, and virtually made uncle and niece +prisoners.</p> + +<p>But he treated them well. A clear-headed Brahmin, to whom intrigue was +the breath of life, was not likely to make the mistake of being too +precipitate in his actions. The wave of religious fanaticism sweeping +over the land might recede as rapidly as it had risen. Muslim and Hindu, +Pathan and Brahmin, hereditary <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>foes who fraternized to-day, might be at +each other’s throats to-morrow. So the Nana was a courteous jailer. +Beyond the loss of their liberty the captives had nothing to complain +of, and he met Mayne’s vehement reproaches with unmoved good humor, +protesting all the while that he was acting for the best.</p> + +<p>Winifred took fright, however. Her woman’s intuition looked beneath the +mask. For her uncle’s sake she kept her suspicions to herself, but she +suffered much in secret, and her distress might well have moved a man of +finer character to sympathy. Each time she met the Nana he treated her +with more apparent friendliness. She recoiled from his advances as she +might shrink from a venomous snake.</p> + +<p>Fortunately there were others in Bithoor who understood the Brahmin’s +motives, and saw therein the germ of failure for their own plans. Nana +Sahib was an exceedingly important factor in the success of the scheme +that meditated the re-establishment of the Mogul dynasty. Recognized by +the Mahrattas, the great warlike race of western India, as their leader, +looked on as the pivot of Hindu support to the Mohammedan monarchy, it +was absolutely essential that he should captain the rebel garrison of +Cawnpore in a triumphant march to Delhi. For that reason a marriage +distasteful to both had already been arranged between him and the +Roshinara Begum. For that reason he had traveled to many centers of +disaffection during the months of March and April, winning doubtful +Hindu princes to the side of Bahadur Shah, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>by his tact and ready +diplomacy. For that reason too, the native officers of the first +regiments in revolt at Cawnpore made him swear, even at the twelfth +hour, that he would lead them to Delhi.</p> + +<p>His unforeseen infatuation for an Englishwoman might upset the +carefully-laid plot. Under other conditions a dose of poison would have +removed poor Winifred from the scene, but that simple expedient was not +to be thought of, as the Nana’s vengeful disposition was sufficiently +well known to his associates to make them fear the outcome. Therefore +they left nothing to chance, and actually brought the Princess Roshinara +post haste from the north, believing that her presence would insure the +inconstant wooer’s return with her at the right moment.</p> + +<p>While the majority pulled in one way there was an active minority that +wished the Nana to set up an independent kingdom. His nephew and his +Mohammedan friend, Azim-ullah, were convinced that their faction would +lose all influence as soon as their chief was swallowed up in the +maelstrom of the imperial court. If Winifred supplied the spell that +kept the Nana at Bithoor, they were quite content that it should be +allowed to exercise its power.</p> + +<p>Hence, Malcolm’s arrival gave the Begum a chance that her quick wit +seized upon. Why not, she argued, connive at the Englishwoman’s escape, +and let it become known that she had fled back to Meerut? When the Nana +returned from Cawnpore, flushed with wine and conquest, this should be +the first news that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>greeted him, and his amorous rage would go hand in +hand with the other considerations that urged his immediate departure +for the Mogul capital. That was not the device of a woman who loved—it +savored rather of the cool state-craft of a Lucrezia Borgia.</p> + +<p>No more curious mixture of plot and counterplot than this minor chapter +of the Bithoor romance came to light during that disastrous upheaval in +India. Never did events of the utmost magnitude hinge on incidents so +trivial to the community at large. A truculent thief like Abdul Huq was +able to defeat the intent of a king’s daughter, and a couple of alert +troopers, riding to a bluff overlooking the river, could report that +they saw the budgerow on which the sahib-log escaped drifting down +stream towards Cawnpore! Thus the intrigue miscarried twice. Winifred +was free; the clear inference to be drawn from the boat’s course was +that her uncle and Malcolm would bring her straight to the protection of +their friends in the cantonment.</p> + +<p>There was a scene of violence, nearly culminating in murder, when Nana +Sahib came to Bithoor at dawn. He met the scorn of Roshinara with a +furious insolence that stopped short of bloodshed only on account of the +prudence still governing most of his actions. Not yet was he drunk with +power. That madness was soon to obsess him. But he lent a willing ear to +the counsels of Rao Sahib and Azim-ullah. Soon after daybreak he +galloped to Kulianpur, on the road to Delhi, whither some thousands of +sepoys had already gone, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>harangued them eloquently on the glory, +not to speak of the loot, they would acquire by attacking the accursed +English at Cawnpore.</p> + +<p>They were easily swayed. Acclaiming the Nana as a prince worthy of +obedience they marched after him, and thus sealed the doom of many +hundreds of unhappy beings who thought until that moment they would be +spared the dreadful fate that had befallen other stations.</p> + +<p>Oddly enough, the high-born Brahmin who now saw his hopes of regal power +in a fair way towards realization placed one act of soldierly courtesy +to his credit before he made his name a synonym for all that is base and +despicable in the conduct of warfare. He wrote a letter to Sir Hugh +Wheeler warning the gallant old general that he might expect to be +attacked forthwith. Perhaps it is straining a point to credit him with +any sense of fair play. The letter may have been a last flicker of +respect for the power of Britain, and inspired by a haunting fear of the +consequences if the Mutiny failed. It is probable he wished to provide +written proof of a plea that he was an unwilling agent in the clutch of +a mutinous army. However that may be, he wrote, and never did letter +carry more bitter disappointment to a Christian community.</p> + +<p>Sir Hugh Wheeler having decided, most unfortunately as it happened, +against occupying the strongly-built magazine on the river bank as a +refuge, had constructed a flimsy entrenchment on a level plain close to +the native lines. He was sure the sepoys <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>would revolt, but he believed +they would hurry off to Delhi, and he refused to give them an excuse for +rebellion by seizing the magazine. Towards the end of May he wrote to +Henry Lawrence at Lucknow for help, and Lawrence generously sent him +fifty men of the 32d and half a battery of guns, though even this small +force could ill be spared from the capital of Oudh. Sir Hugh made the +further mistake of crediting Nana Sahib’s professions of loyalty. He +actually entrusted the Treasury to the protection of the Nana’s +retainers, in spite of Lawrence’s plainly-worded warning that the +Brahmin’s recent movements placed him under grave suspicion.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, Wheeler acted with method. His judgment was clear, if +occasionally mistaken, and he had every reason to believe that the only +attacks he would be called on to repel would be made by the bazaar mob.</p> + +<p>On the night of June 4th, the thousand men, women and children who had +gathered behind the four-foot mud wall that formed the entrenchment were +left unmolested by the mutineers. During the 5th they watched the +destruction of their bungalows, and knew that the rebels were plundering +the city, robbing rich native merchants quite as readily as they killed +any Europeans who were not under Wheeler’s charge. Late that day came +Nana Sahib’s letter. It was a bitter disappointment, but “the valiant +never taste death but once,” and the Britons in Cawnpore resolved to +teach the mutineers that the men who had conquered <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>them many times in +the field could repeat the lesson again and again.</p> + +<p>About ten o’clock on the morning of the 6th, flames rising from houses +near at hand gave evidence of the approach of the rebels. Irregular +spurts of musketry heralded the appearance of confused masses of armed +men. A cannon-ball crashed through the mud wall and bounded across the +enclosure. A bugle sounded shrilly and the defenders ran to their posts. +The wailing of women and the cries of frightened children, helpless +creatures only half protected by two barracks situated in the southern +corner of the entrenchment, mingled with the din of the answering guns, +and in that fatal hour the siege of Cawnpore began.</p> + +<p>In the tear-stained story of humanity there has never been aught to +surpass the thrilling record of Cawnpore. It contains every element of +heroism and tragedy. Four hundred English soldiers, seventy of whom were +invalids, with a few dozens of civilians and faithful sepoys—standing +behind a breast-high fortification that would not stop a bullet—exposed +to the fierce rays of an Indian sun—ill-fed, almost waterless, and +driven to numb despair by the sufferings of their loved ones—these men, +enduring all and daring all, held at bay four thousand well-armed, +well-housed, and well-fed troops for twenty-one days.</p> + +<p>Not for a moment was the strain relaxed. Day and night the rebels poured +into the entrenchment a ceaseless hail of iron and lead. Cannon-balls, +solid and red-hot, shells with carefully arranged time fuses, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>bullets from those self-same cartridges that the superfine feelings of +Brahmin soldiers forbade them to touch, were hurled at the hapless +garrison from all quarters. In the first week every gunner in the place +was killed or wounded. Women and children were shot as though they were +in the front line of the defense. No corner was safe from the enemy’s +fire. Every human being behind that absurdly inadequate wall was exposed +to constant and equal danger.</p> + +<p>Here is an extract from Holmes’s history:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“A private was walking with his wife when a single bullet +killed him, broke both her arms, and wounded an infant she was +carrying. An officer was talking with a comrade at the main +guard when a musket-ball struck him; and, as he was limping +painfully to the barracks to have his wound dressed, Lieutenant +Mowbray-Thomson of the 56th, who was supporting him, was struck +also, and both fell helplessly to the ground. Presently as +Thomson lay wofully sick of his wound, another officer came to +condole with him, and he too received a wound from which he +died before the end of the siege. Young Godfrey Wheeler, a son +of the General, was lying wounded in one of the barracks when a +round shot crashed through the walls of the room and carried +off his head in the sight of his mother and sisters. Little +children, straggling outside the wall, were deliberately shot +down.”</p></div> + +<p>On the night of June the 11th a red-hot cannon-ball set fire to one of +the barracks which was used as a hospital. The flames inspired the +enemy’s gunners to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>fresh efforts and provided them with an excellent +target, yet the garrison dared all perils of gun-fire and falling +rafters and masonry, while they rescued the inmates. It is on record +that the gallant men of the 32d, when the flames had subsided, though a +heavy fusillade was still kept up by the rebels, were seen raking the +ashes in order to find their lost medals, the medals they had won in the +deadly fighting that preceded the fall of Sevastopol.</p> + +<p>On the next day the sepoy army, though so boastful and vainglorious, +dared to make their first attempt to carry the entrenchment by assault. +By one bold charge they must have crushed the defenders, if by sheer +weight of numbers alone. They advanced, with fiendish yells and much +seeming confidence. But they could not face those stern warriors who +lined the shattered wall. After a short but fierce struggle they fled, +leaving the plain littered with corpses.</p> + +<p>So the safer bombardment was renewed, its fury envenomed by the +conscious disparity of the besiegers when they tried to press home the +attack. Each day the garrison dwindled; each day the rebels received +fresh accessions of strength. Of the few guns mounted in the British +position, one had lost its muzzle, another was thrown from its carriage +and two were so battered by the enemy’s artillery that they could not be +used. The hospital fire had destroyed all the surgical instruments and +medical stores, so the wounded had to lie waiting for death, while those +who still bore arms eked out existence on a daily dole of a handful of +flour and a few ounces of split peas.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p><p>Yet the men of Cawnpore fought on, while their wives and sisters and +daughters helped uncomplainingly, making up packets of ammunition, +loading rifles for the men to fire, and even giving their stockings to +the gunners to provide cases for grape-shot.</p> + +<p>There was only one well inside the entrenchment. Knowing its paramount +importance, the rebels mounted guns in such wise that a constant fire +could be kept up throughout the night on that special point. Yet there +never was lacking a volunteer, either man or woman, to go to that well +and obtain the precious water. It remains to this day a mournful relic +of the siege, with its broken gear and shattered circular wall, while +the indentations made by such of the cannon-balls as failed to dislodge +the masonry are plain to be seen.</p> + +<p>The sepoys spared none. Tiny children, tottering to the well in broad +daylight, were pelted with musketry. Conceivably that might be war. When +beleaguered people will not yield humanity must stand aside and weep. +There was a deed to come that was not war, but the black horror of +abomination, worthy of the excesses of a man-eating tiger, though shorn +of the tiger’s excuse that he kills in order that he may live. The well +in the entrenchment was the Well of Life. There was another well in +Cawnpore destined to be the Well of Death.</p> + +<p>If proof were needed of the extraordinary condition of India during the +early period of the Mutiny, it was given by an incident that occurred +soon after the first assault was beaten off. In broad daylight, while +the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>garrison were maintaining the unceasing duel of cannon and small +arms, they were astounded by the spectacle of a British officer +galloping across the plain. He was fired at by the sepoys, of course, +but horse and man escaped untouched and the low barrier was leaped +without effort. The newcomer was Lieutenant Bolton of the 7th Cavalry. +Sent out from Lucknow on district duty he was suddenly deserted by his +men, and he rode alone towards Cawnpore, the nearest British station. +Unhappily the story of that adventurous ride is lost for ever. Poor +Bolton supplied Cawnpore’s last re-enforcement.</p> + +<p>Sir Hugh Wheeler, ably seconded in the defense by Captain Moore of the +32d, sent out emissaries, Eurasians and natives, to seek aid from +Lucknow and Allahabad, the one about thirty-five, the other a hundred +miles distant. Lawrence wrote “with a breaking heart” that he could +spare no troops from Lucknow. The messengers never even reached +Allahabad.</p> + +<p>On June 23 the Nana’s hosts again nerved themselves for a desperate +attack, and again were they flung off from that tumble-down wall. Then, +all their valor fled, they fell back on a foul device. A white woman, +Mrs. Henry Jacobi, who had been taken prisoner early in the month, +crossed the plain holding a white flag. Wheeler and Moore and other +senior officers went to meet her. She carried a letter from Nana Sahib, +offering safe conduct to Allahabad for all the garrison “except those +who were connected with the acts of Lord Dalhousie.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p><p>Now Dalhousie resigned the vice-royalty in February, 1856. It was he who +had refused to continue to Nana Sahib the Peishwa’s pension; assuredly +there was none in Cawnpore responsible for the acts of a former viceroy. +At any rate, whatsoever that curious reservation meant, the majority of +the staff were opposed to surrender. Unfortunately Captain Moore, whose +bravery was in the mouths of all, who, though wounded and ill, had been +“the life and soul of the defense,” persuaded Sir Hugh Wheeler and the +others that an honorable capitulation was their sole resource. Succor +could not arrive, he argued, and they were in duty bound to save the +surviving civilians and the women and children.</p> + +<p>So an armistice was agreed to on June 26, and representatives of both +sides met to discuss terms. It was arranged that the garrison should +evacuate their position, surrender their guns and treasure, retain their +rifles and a quantity of ammunition, and be provided with river +transport to Allahabad.</p> + +<p>The Nana asked that the defenders should march out that night. Wheeler +refused.</p> + +<p>“I shall renew the bombardment, and put every one of you to death in a +few days,” threatened the Brahmin.</p> + +<p>“Try it,” said the Englishman. “I still have enough powder left to blow +both armies into the air.”</p> + +<p>But the Nana meant to have no more fighting on equal terms. He signed +the treaty, the guns were given up, and, on the night of June 26th, +peace reigned within the ruined entrenchment.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p><p>Next morning that glorious garrison quitted the shot-torn plain they had +hallowed by their deeds. And even the rebels pitied them. “As the wan +and ragged column filed along the road, the women and children in +bullock-carriages or on elephants, the wounded in palanquins, the +fighting men on foot, sepoys came clustering round the officers they had +betrayed, and talked in wonder and admiration of the surpassing heroism +of the defense.”</p> + +<p>Those men of the rank and file at least were soldiers. They knew nothing +of the awful project concocted by the Nana and his chief associates, Rao +Sahib, Tantia Topi, and Azim-ullah.</p> + +<p>The procession made its way slowly towards the river, three quarters of +a mile to the east. No doubt there were joyful hearts even in that +sorrow-laden band. Men and women must have thought of far-off homes in +England, and hoped that God would spare them to see their beloved +country once more. Even the children, wide-eyed innocents, could not +fail to be thankful that the noise of the guns had ceased, while the +wounded were cheered by the belief that food and stores in plenty would +soon be available.</p> + +<p>At the foot of a tree-clad ravine leading to the Ganges were stationed a +number of heavy native boats, with thatched roofs to shield the +occupants from the sun. They were partly drawn up on the mud at the +water’s edge to render easy the work of embarkation. Without hurry or +confusion, the wounded, and the women and children, were placed on +board.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p><p>Then some one noticed that the thatch on one of the boats was smoking, +and it was found that glowing charcoal had been thrust into the straw. +About the same time it was discovered that the boats had neither oars, +nor rudders, nor supplies of food. Before the dread significance of +these things became clear, a bugle-call rang out. At once, both banks of +the river became alive with armed sepoys, and a murderous rifle-fire was +opened on the crowded boats. Guns, hidden among the trees, belched +red-hot shot and grape at them, and the smoldering straw of the thatched +roofs burst into flames.</p> + +<p>Awakened to the unspeakable treachery of their foe, officers and men +rushed into the water and strove with might and main to shove the boats +into deep water. They failed, for the unwieldy craft had been hauled +purposely too high.</p> + +<p>Here Ashe and Moore, and Bolton, hero of that lonely ride through the +enemy’s country, fell. Here, too, men shot their own wives and children +rather than permit them to fall into the hands of the fiends who had +planned the massacre. Savage troopers urged their horses into the water +and slashed cowering women with their sabers. Infants were torn from +their mothers’ arms, and tossed by sepoys from bayonet to bayonet. The +sick and wounded, lying helpless in the burning craft, died in the agony +of fire, and the few bold spirits who even in that ghastly hour tried to +beat off their cowardly assailants were surrounded and shot down by +overwhelming numbers.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p><p>One heavily-laden boat was dragged into the stream, and a few officers +and men clambered on board. The voyage they made would supply material +for an epic. They were followed along the banks and pursued by armed +craft on the river. They fought all day and throughout the night, and, +when the ungoverned boat ran ashore during a wild squall of wind and +rain at daybreak, the surviving soldiers, a sergeant and eleven men, +headed by Mowbray-Thomson of the 56th, and Delafosse of the 53d, sprang +out and charged some hundreds of sepoys and hostile villagers who had +gathered on the bank.</p> + +<p>The craven-hearted gang yielded before the Englishmen’s fierce +onslaught. The tiny band turned to fight their way back, and found that +the boat had drifted off again! Then they seized a Hindu temple on the +bank and held it until the sepoys piled burning timber against the rear +walls and threw bags of powder on the fire!</p> + +<p>Fixing bayonets and leaving the sergeant dead in the doorway, they +charged again into the mass of the enemy. Six fell. The remainder +reached the river, threw aside their guns, and plunged boldly in. Two +were shot while swimming, and one man, unable to swim any distance, +coolly made his way ashore again and faced his murderers until he sank +beneath their blows.</p> + +<p>Mowbray-Thomson, Delafosse, and Privates Murphy and Sullivan, swam six +miles with the stream, and were finally rescued and helped by a friendly +native.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p><p>Those four were all who came alive out of the Inferno of Cawnpore. The +boat, after clearing the shoal, was captured by the mutineers. Major +Vibart of the 2d Cavalry, who was so severely wounded that he could not +join in the earlier fighting, and some eighty helpless souls under his +command, were brought back to the city of death. There, by orders of the +Nana, the men were slain forthwith and the women and children were taken +to a building in which they found one hundred and twenty-five others, +who had been spared for the Brahmin’s own terrible purposes from the +butchery at Massacre Ghât on the 27th.</p> + +<p>Returning to Bithoor the Nana was proclaimed Peishwa amid the booming of +cannon and the plaudits of his retainers. He passed a week in drunken +revels and debauchery, and when, in ignorance of its fate, a small +company of European fugitives from Fategarh sought refuge at Cawnpore, +he amused himself by having all the men but three killed in his +presence. These three and the women and children who accompanied them, +were sent to a small house known as the Bibigarh, in which the whole of +the captives, now numbering two hundred and eleven, were imprisoned.</p> + +<p>Many died, and they were happiest. The survivors were subjected to every +indignity, given the coarsest food, and forced to grind corn for their +conqueror, who, early in July, took up his abode in a large building at +Cawnpore overlooking the house in which the unhappy people were penned.</p> + +<p>But the period of their earthly sufferings was drawing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>to a close. An +avenging army was moving swiftly up the Grand Trunk Road from Allahabad. +The Nana’s nephew and two of his lieutenants, leading a large force +against the British, were badly defeated. On the 15th of July came the +alarming tidings that the Feringhis were only a day’s march from the +city.</p> + +<p>The Furies must have chosen that date. The Nana, the man who thought +himself fit to be a king, decided that Havelock would turn back if there +were no more English left in Cawnpore! So as a preliminary to the +greater tragedy, five men who had escaped death thus far—no one knows +whence two of them came—were brought forth and slaughtered at the feet +of the renowned Peishwa. Then a squad of sepoys were told to “shoot all +the women and children in the Bibigarh through the windows of the +house.”</p> + +<p>Poor wretches—they were afraid to refuse, yet their gorge rose at the +deed, and they fired at the ceiling!</p> + +<p>Such weakness was annoying to the puissant Brahmin. He selected two +Mohammedan butchers, an Afghan, and two out-caste Hindus, to do his +bidding. Armed with long knives these five fiends entered the shambles. +Alas, how can the scene that followed be described!</p> + +<p>Yet, not even then was the sacrifice complete. Some who were wounded but +not killed, a few children who crept under the garments of their dead +mothers, lived until the morning. Not all the native soldiers were so +lost to human sympathies that they did not shudder at the groans and +muffled cries that came all night from the house of sorrow. Some of them +have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>left records of sights and sounds too horrible to translate from +their Eastern tongue.</p> + +<p>But the rumble of distant guns told the destroyer that his short-lived +hour of triumph was nearly sped. In a paroxysm of rage and fear, he gave +the final order, and the Well of Cawnpore thereby attained its ghastly +immortality. By his command all that piteous company of women and +children, the living and the dead together, were thrown into a deep well +that stood in the garden of Bibigarh—the House of the Woman.</p> + +<p>It was thus that Nana Sahib strove to cloak his crime. Yet never did +foul murderer flaunt deed more glaringly in the face of Heaven. Fifty +years have passed, myriads of human beings have lived and died since the +well swallowed the Nana’s victims, but the memory of those gracious +women, of those golden-haired children, of those dear little infants +born while the guns thundered around the entrenchment, shall endure +forever. The Nana sought oblivion and forgetfulness for his sin. He +earned the anger of the gods and the malediction of the world, then and +for all time.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>TO LUCKNOW</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>he tragedy of Massacre Ghât, intensified by the crowning infamy of the +Well, brought a new element into the struggle. Hitherto not one European +in a hundred in India regarded the Mutiny as other than a local, though +serious, attempt to revive a fallen dynasty. The excesses at Meerut, +Delhi, and other towns were looked upon as the work of unbridled mobs. +Sepoys who revolted and shot their officers came under a different +category to the slayers of tender women and children. But the planned +and ordered treachery of Cawnpore changed all that. Thenceforth every +British-born man in the country not only realized that the government +had been forced into a Titanic contest, but he was also swayed by a +personal and absorbing lust for vengeance. Officers and men, regulars +and volunteers alike, took the field with the fixed intent of exacting +an expiatory life for each hair on the head of those unhappy victims. +And they kept the vow they made. To this day, though half a century has +passed, the fertile plain of the Doab—that great tract between the +Ganges and the Jumna—is dotted with the ruins of gutted towns and +depopulated <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>villages. But that was not yet. India was fated to be +almost lost before it was won again.</p> + +<p>On the night of June 4th, when the roomy budgerow carrying Winifred +Mayne and her escort drifted away from the walls of the Nana’s palace at +Bithoor, there was not a breath of wind on the river. The mat sail was +useless, but a four-mile-an-hour current carried the unwieldy craft +slowly down stream, and there was not the slightest doubt in the minds +of either of the Englishmen on board as to their course of action.</p> + +<p>Mr. Mayne was acquainted with Cawnpore and Sir Hugh Wheeler was an old +friend of his.</p> + +<p>“Wheeler has no great force at his disposal,” said he to Malcolm. “It is +evident that the native regiments have just broken out here, but, by +this time, our people in the cantonment must have heard of events +elsewhere, and they have surely seized the Magazine, which is well +fortified and stands on the river. If I can believe a word that the Nana +said, the sepoys will rush off to Delhi to-night, just as they did at +Meerut, Aligarh, and Etawah. I am convinced that our best plan is to hug +the right bank and disembark near the Magazine.”</p> + +<p>“Is it far?” asked Malcolm.</p> + +<p>“About eight miles.”</p> + +<p>“I wonder why the Begum was so insistent that we should go back along +the Grand Trunk Road?”</p> + +<p>Mayne hesitated. He knew that Winifred was listening.</p> + +<p>“It is hard to account for the vagaries of a woman’s <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>mind, or, shall I +say, of the mind of such a woman,” he answered lightly. “You will +remember that when you came to our assistance outside Meerut she was +determined to take us, willy-nilly, to Delhi.”</p> + +<p>Malcolm, who had heard Roshinara’s impassioned speech and looked into +her blazing eyes, thought that her motives were stronger than mere +caprice. He never dreamed of the true reason, but he feared that she +knew Cawnpore had fallen and her curiously friendly regard for himself +might have inspired her advice. Here, again, Winifred’s presence tied +his tongue.</p> + +<p>“Well,” he said, with a cheerless laugh, “I, at any rate, must endeavor +to reach Wheeler. I am supposed to be bearing despatches, but they were +taken from me when I was knocked off my horse in the village—”</p> + +<p>“Were you attacked?” asked Winifred, and the quiet solicitude in her +voice was sweetest music in her lover’s ears.</p> + +<p>His brief recital of the night’s adventures was followed by the story of +the others’ journey and detention at Bithoor. It may be thought that Mr. +Mayne, with his long experience of India, should have read more clearly +the sinister lesson to be derived from the treatment meted out that +night to a British Officer by the detachment of sowars, amplified, as it +was, by their open references to the Nana as a Maharajah. But he was not +yet disillusioned. And, if his judgment were at fault, he erred in good +company, for Sir Henry <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>Lawrence, Chief Commissioner at Lucknow, was +even then resisting the appeals, the almost insubordinate urging, of the +headstrong Martin Gubbins that the sepoys in the capital of Oudh should +be disarmed.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the boat lurched onward. Soon a red glow in the sky proclaimed +that they were nearing Cawnpore. Though well aware that the European +houses were on fire, they were confident that the Magazine would be +held. They helped Akhab Khan, Chumru, and the two troopers to rig a pair +of long sweeps, and prepared to guide the budgerow to the landing-place.</p> + +<p>Winifred was stationed at the rudder. As it chanced the three sowars +took one oar and Chumru helped the sahibs with the other, and the two +sets of rowers were partly screened from each other by the horses. +Malcolm was saying something to Winifred when the native bent near him +and whispered:</p> + +<p>“Talk on, sahib, but listen! Your men intend to jump ashore and leave +you. They have been bitten by the wolf. Don’t try to stop them. Name of +Allah, let them go!”</p> + +<p>Frank’s heart throbbed under this dramatic development. He had no reason +to doubt his servant’s statement. The faithful fellow had nursed him +through a fever with the devotion of a brother, and Malcolm had +reciprocated this fidelity by refusing to part with him when he, in +turn, was stricken down by smallpox. In fact, Frank was the only +European in Meerut who would employ the man, whose extraordinary +appearance <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>went against him. Cross-eyed, wide-mouthed, and +broken-nosed, with a straggling black beard that ill concealed the +tokens on his face of the dread disease from which he had suffered, +Chumru looked a cut-throat of the worst type, “a hungry, lean-fac’d +villain, a mere anatomy.” Aware of his own ill repute, he made the most +of it. He tied his turban with an aggressive twist, and was wont to +scowl so vindictively at the mess khamsamah that his master, quite +unconsciously, always secured the wing of a chicken or the best cut of +the joint.</p> + +<p>Yet this gnome-like creature was true to his salt at a time when he must +have felt that his sahib, together with every other sahib in India, was +doomed; his eyes now shot fiery, if oblique, shafts of indignation as he +muttered his thrilling news.</p> + +<p>Malcolm did not attempt to question him. He glanced at the sowars, and +saw that their carbines were slung across their shoulders. Chumru +interpreted the look correctly.</p> + +<p>“Akhab Khan prevented those Shia dogs from shooting you and +Mayne-sahib,” went on the low murmur. “They said, huzoor, that the Nana +wanted the miss-sahib, and that they were fools to help you in taking +her away, but Akhab Khan swore he would fight on your honor’s side if +they unslung their guns. They do not know I heard them as I was sitting +behind the mast, and I took care to creep off when their heads were +turned toward the shore.”</p> + +<p>“Here we are,” cried Mayne, who little guessed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>what Chumru’s mumbling +portended. “There is the ghât.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> If it were not for the mist we could +see the Magazine just below, on the left.”</p> + +<p>Assuredly, Frank Malcolm’s human clay was being tested in the furnace +that night. He had to decide instantly what line to follow. In a minute +or less the boat would bump against the lowermost steps, and, if Akhab +Khan and his companions were, indeed, traitors, the others on board were +completely at their mercy. Mayne was unarmed, Chumru’s fighting +equipment lay wholly in his aspect, while Malcolm’s revolvers were in +the holsters, and his sword was tied to Nejdi’s saddle, its scabbard and +belt having been thrown aside while Abdul Huq was robbing him.</p> + +<p>The broad-beamed budgerow presented a strangely accurate microcosm of +India at that moment. The English people on her deck were numerically +inferior to the natives, and deprived by accident of the arms that might +have equalized matters. Their little army was breathing mutiny, but was +itself divided, if Chumru were not mistaken, seeing that all were for +revolt, but one held out that the Feringhis’ lives should be spared. +And, even there, the cruel dilemma that offered itself to the ruler of +every European community in the country was not to be avoided, for, if +Malcolm tried to obtain his weapons his action might be the signal for a +murderous attack, while, if he made no move, he left it entirely at the +troopers’ discretion whether or <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>not he and Mayne should be shot down +without the power to strike a blow in self-defense.</p> + +<p>Luckily he had the gift of prompt decision that is nine tenths of +generalship. Saying not a word to alarm Mayne, who was still weak from +the wound received an hour earlier, he crossed the deck, halting on the +way to rub Nejdi’s black muzzle.</p> + +<p>The sowars were watching him. With steady thrust of the port sweep they +were heading the budgerow toward the ghât.</p> + +<p>He went nearer and caught the end of the heavy oar.</p> + +<p>“Pull hard, now,” he said encouragingly, “and we will be out of the +current.”</p> + +<p>He was facing the three men, and his order was a quite natural one under +the circumstances. Obviously, he meant to help. Stretching their arms +for a long and strong stroke, they laid on with a will. Instantly, he +pressed the oar downwards, thus forcing the blade out of the water, and +threw all his strength into its unexpected yielding. Before they could +so much as utter a yell, Akhab Khan and another were swept headlong into +the river, while the third man lay on his back on the deck with Frank on +top of him. The simplicity of the maneuver insured its success. Neither +Mayne nor Winifred understood what had happened until Malcolm had +disarmed the trooper, taken his cartridge pouch, and thrown him +overboard to sink or swim as fate might direct. He regretted the loss of +Akhab Khan, but he recalled the queer expression on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>man’s face when +he read Bahadur Shah’s sonorous titles.</p> + +<p>“Light of the World, Renowned King of Kings, Lord of all India, +Fuzl-Ilahi, Panah-i-din!”</p> + +<p>That appeal to the faith was too powerful to be withstood. Yet Malcolm +was glad the man had been chivalrous in his fall, for he had taken a +liking to him.</p> + +<p>Chumru, of course, after the first gasp of surprise, appreciated the +sahib’s strategy.</p> + +<p>“Shabash!” he cried, “Wao, wao, huzoor!<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> May I never see the White +Pond of the Prophet if that was not well planned.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, what is it?” came Winifred’s startled exclamation. It was so dark, +and the horses, no less than the sail, so obscured her view of the fore +part of the boat, that she could only dimly make out Malcolm’s figure, +though the sounds of the scuffle and splashing were unmistakable.</p> + +<p>“We are disbanding our native forces—that is all,” said Frank. “Press +the tiller more to the left, please. Yes, that is right. Now, keep it +there until we touch the steps.”</p> + +<p>The shimmering surface of the river near the boat was broken up into +ripples surrounding a black object. Malcolm heard the quick panting of +one in whose lungs water had mixed with air, and he hated to think of +even a rebel drowning before his eyes. Moved by pity, he swung the big +oar on its wooden rest until the blade touched the exhausted man, whose +hands shot <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>out in the hope of succor. After some spluttering a broken +voice supplicated:</p> + +<p>“Mercy, sahib! I saved you when you were in my power. Show pity now to +me.”</p> + +<p>“It is true, then, that you meant to desert, Akhab Khan?” said Frank +sternly.</p> + +<p>“Yes, sahib. One cannot fight against one’s brothers, but I swear by the +Prophet—”</p> + +<p>“Nay, your oaths are not needed. You, at least, did not wish to commit +murder. Cling to that oar. The ghât is close at hand.”</p> + +<p>“Then, sahib, I can still show my gratitude. If you would save the +miss-sahib, do not land here. The Magazine has been taken. The cavalry +have looted the Treasury. All the sahib-log have fallen.”</p> + +<p>“Is this a true thing that thou sayest?”</p> + +<p>“May I sink back into the pit if it be not the tale we heard at +Bithoor!”</p> + +<p>By this time Mayne was at Frank’s side.</p> + +<p>“I fear we have dropped into a hornets’ nest,” said he. “There is +certainly an unusual turmoil in the bazaar, and houses are on fire in +all directions.”</p> + +<p>Even while they were listening to the fitful bellowing of a distant mob +bent on mad revel a crackle of musketry rang out, but died away as +quickly. The budgerow grounded lightly when her prow ran against the +stonework of the ghât. Again did Malcolm make up his mind on the spur of +the moment.</p> + +<p>“I will spare your life on one condition, Akhab Khan,” he said. “Go +ashore and learn what has <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>taken place at the Magazine. Return here, +alone, within five minutes. Mark you, I say ‘alone.’ If I see more than +one who comes I shall shoot.”</p> + +<p>“Huzoor, I shall not betray you.”</p> + +<p>“Go, then.”</p> + +<p>He drew the man through the water until his feet touched the steps. +Climbing up unsteadily, Akhab Khan disappeared in the gloom. Then they +waited in silence. The heavy breath of the bazaar was pungent in their +nostrils, and, for a few seconds, they listened to the trooper’s +retreating footsteps. Frank leaped ashore and pushed the boat off, while +Mayne held her by jamming the leeward oar into the mud. It was best to +make sure.</p> + +<p>They did not speak. Their ears were strained as their tumultuous +thoughts. At last, some one came, a man, and his firm tread of boot-shod +feet betokened a soldier. It was the rebel who had become their scout.</p> + +<p>“Sahib,” said he, “it is even as I told you. Cawnpore is lost to you.”</p> + +<p>“And you, Akhab Khan, do you go or stay?”</p> + +<p>There was another moment of tense silence.</p> + +<p>“Would you have me draw sword against the men of my own faith?” was the +despairing answer.</p> + +<p>“It would not be for the first time,” said Malcolm coldly. “But I could +never trust thee again. Yet hast thou chosen wrongly, Akhab Khan. When +thy day of reckoning comes, may it be remembered in thy favor that thou +didst turn most unwillingly against thy masters!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p><p>Akhab Khan raised his right hand in a military salute. Suddenly, his +erect form became indistinct, and faded out of sight. The boat was +traveling down stream once more. Around her the river lapped lazily, and +the solemn quietude of the mist-covered waters was accentuated by the +far-off turmoil in the city.</p> + +<p>The huge sail thrust its yard high above the fog bank, and watchers on +the river side saw it. Some one hailed in the vernacular, and Chumru +replied that they came from Bithoor with hay. Prompted by Malcolm he +went on:</p> + +<p>“How goes the good work, brother?”</p> + +<p>“Rarely,” came the voice. “I have already requited two bunniahs to whom +I owed money. Gold is to be had for the taking. Leave thy budgerow at +the bridge, friend, and join us.”</p> + +<p>The raucous, half-drunken accents substantiated Akhab Khan’s story. The +unseen speaker was evidently himself a boatman. He was rejoicing in the +upheaval that permitted debts to be paid with a bludgeon and money to be +made without toil.</p> + +<p>Mayne caught Frank by the arm.</p> + +<p>“We are drifting towards the bridge of boats that carries the road to +Lucknow across the river,” he said, in the hurried tone of a man who +sees a new and paralyzing danger. “There is a drawbridge for river +traffic, but how shall we find it, and, in any event, we must be seen.”</p> + +<p>“Are there many houses on the opposite bank?” asked Malcolm.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p><p>“Not many. They are mostly mud hovels. What is in your mind?”</p> + +<p>“We might endeavor to cross the river before we reach the bridge. By +riding boldly along the Lucknow Road we shall place many miles between +ourselves and Cawnpore before day breaks.”</p> + +<p>“That certainly seems to offer our best chance. We have plenty of horses +and we ought to be in Lucknow soon after dawn.”</p> + +<p>“What if matters are as bad there?”</p> + +<p>“Impossible! Lawrence has a whole regiment with him, the 32d, and plenty +of guns. Poor Wheeler, at Cawnpore, commanded a depôt, mostly officials +on the staff, and invalids. At any rate, Malcolm, we must have some +objective. Lucknow spells hope. Neither Meerut nor Allahabad is +attainable. And what will become of Winifred if we fail to reach some +station that still holds out?”</p> + +<p>The girl herself now came to them.</p> + +<p>“I refuse to remain alone any longer,” she said. “I don’t know a quarter +of what is going on. I have tied the tiller with a rope. Please tell me +what is happening and why a man shouted to Chumru from the bank.”</p> + +<p>She spoke calmly, with the pleasantly modulated voice of a well-bred +Englishwoman. If aught were wanted to enhance the contrast between the +peace of the river and the devildom of Cawnpore it was given in full +measure by her presence there. How little did she realize the long +drawn-out agony that was even <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>then beginning for her sisters in that +ill-fated entrenchment! It was the idle whim of fortune that she was not +with them. And not one was destined to live—not one among hundreds!</p> + +<p>But it was a time for action, not for speech. Malcolm asked her gently +to go back to the helm and keep it jammed hard-a-starboard until they +arrived at the left bank. Then he took an oar and Mayne and Chumru +tackled the other. The three men pulled manfully athwart the stream. +They could not tell what progress they were making, and the Ganges ran +swiftly in mid-channel, being five times as wide as the Thames at London +Bridge. Yet they toiled on with desperate energy. They had crossed the +swirl of deep water when a low, straight-edged barrier appeared on the +starboard side, and, before they could attempt to avert the calamity, +the budgerow crashed against a pontoon and drove its bows under the +superstructure. It was locked there so firmly that a score of men had to +labor for hours next day ere it could be cleared.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, that which they regarded as a misfortune was a blessing. +The shock of the collision alarmed the horses, and one of them climbed +like a cat on to the bridge. Frank sprang after him and caught the reins +before the startled creature could break away. And that which one horse +could do might be done by seven. Bidding Chumru arrange some planks to +give the others better foothold, he told Winifred and Mayne to join him +and help in holding the animals as they gained the roadway. A couple of +natives who ran up <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>from the Lucknow side were peremptorily ordered to +stand. Indeed, they were harmless coolies and soon they offered to +assist, for the deadly work in Cawnpore that night was scarcely known to +them as yet. In a couple of minutes the fugitives were mounted, each of +the men leading a spare horse and advancing at a steady trot; though the +bridge swayed and creaked a good deal under this forbidden pace, they +soon found by the upward grade that they were crossing the sloping mud +bank leading to the actual highway.</p> + +<p>Thirty-five miles of excellent road now separated them from Lucknow. The +hour was not late, about half past ten, so they had fully six hours of +starlit obscurity in which to travel, because, though the month was +June, India is not favored with the prolonged twilight of dawn and eve +familiar to other latitudes.</p> + +<p>They clattered through the outlying bazaar without disturbing a soul. +Probably every man, woman and child able to walk was adding to the din +in the great city beyond the river. Pariah dogs yelped at them, some +heavy carts drawn across the road caused a momentary halt, and a herd of +untended buffaloes lying patiently near their byre told the story of the +excitement that had drawn their keeper across the bridge.</p> + +<p>Soon they were in the open, and a fast canter became permissible. They +passed by many a temple devoted to Kali or elephant-headed Buddha, by +many a sacred mosque or tomb of Mohammedan saint, by many a holy tree +decorated with ribbons in honor of its tutelary <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>deity. Now they were +flying between lanes of sugarcane or tall castor-oil plants, now +traversing arid spaces where <i>reh</i>, the efflorescent salt of the earth, +had killed all vegetation and reduced a once fertile land to a desert.</p> + +<p>Five miles from Cawnpore they swept through the hamlet of Mungulwar. +They saw no one, and no one seemed to see them, though it is hard to say +in India what eyes may not be peering through wattle screen or heavy +barred door. In the larger village of Onao they met a group of +chowkidars, or watchmen, in the main street. These men salaamed to the +sahib-log, probably on account of the stir created by the horses. +Without drawing rein, they pushed on to Busseerutgunge, crossed the +river Sai and neared the village of Bunnee.</p> + +<p>If only men could read the future, how Malcolm’s soldier spirit would +have kindled as Mayne told him the names of those squalid communities! +Each yard of that road was destined to be sprinkled with British blood, +while its ditches would be choked with the bodies of mutineers. But +these things were behind the veil, and the one dominant thought +possessing Malcolm now was that unless Winifred and her uncle obtained +food of some sort they must fall from their saddles with sheer +exhaustion. He and his servant had made a substantial meal early in the +evening, but the others had eaten nothing owing to the alarm and +confusion that reigned at Bithoor.</p> + +<p>Winifred, indeed, in response to a question, said <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>faintly that she +thought she could keep going if she had a drink of milk. Such an +admission, coming from her brave lips, warned Frank that he must call a +halt regardless of loss of time. Assuredly, this was an occasion when +the sacrifice of a few minutes might avoid the grave risk of a breakdown +after daybreak. So when they entered Bunnee they pulled up, and +discussed ways and means of getting something to eat.</p> + +<p>It was then that Malcolm gave evidence that his devotion to the +soldier’s art had not been practised in vain. Mr. Mayne thought they +should rouse the household at the first reputable looking dwelling they +found.</p> + +<p>“No,” said Frank. “Mounted, and in motion, we have some chance of escape +unless we fall in with hostile cavalry. On foot, we are at the mercy of +any prowling rascals who may be on the warpath. Let us rather look out +for a place somewhat removed from the main road. There we do not court +observation, and we are sufficiently well armed to protect ourselves +from any hostile move on the part of those we summon.”</p> + +<p>The older man agreed. Rank and wealth count for little in the great +crises of life. Here was a Judicial Commissioner of Oudh a fugitive in +his own province, and ready to obey a subaltern’s slightest wish!</p> + +<p>Chumru quickly picked out the house of a zemindar, or land-owner, which +stood in its own walled enclosure behind a clump of trees. A rough track +led to the gate, and Frank knocked loudly on an iron-studded door.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p><p>He used the butt end of a revolver, so his rat-tat was imperative +enough, but the garden might have been a graveyard for all the notice +that was taken by the inhabitants. He knocked again, with equal +vehemence and with the same result. But he knew his zemindar, and after +waiting a reasonable interval he said clearly:</p> + +<p>“Unless the door is opened at once it will be forced. I am an officer of +the Company, and I demand an entry.”</p> + +<p>“Coming, sahib,” said an anxious voice. “We knew not who knocked, and +there are many budmashes about these nights.”</p> + +<p>The door yielded to the withdrawal of bolts, but it was still held on a +chain. A man peeped out, satisfied himself that there really were +sahib-log waiting at his gate, and then unfastened the chain, with +apologies for his forgetfulness. Three men servants, armed with lathis, +long sticks with heavy iron ferrules at both ends, stood behind him, and +they all appeared to be exceedingly relieved when they heard that their +midnight visitors only asked for water, milk, eggs, and chupatties, on +the score that they were belated and had no food.</p> + +<p>The zemindar civilly invited them to enter, but Frank as civilly +declined, fearing that the smallness of their number, the absence of a +retinue, and the cavalry accouterments of the horses, might arouse +comment, if not suspicion.</p> + +<p>Happily the owner of the house recognized Mr. Mayne, and then he +bestirred himself. All they sought <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>for, and more, was brought. Chairs +were provided—rare luxuries in native dwellings at that date—and, this +being a Mohammedan family, some excellent cooked meat was added to the +feast. Before long Winifred was able to smile and say that she had not +been so disgracefully hungry since she left school.</p> + +<p>The zemindar courteously insisted that they should taste some mangoes on +which he prided himself, and he also staged a quantity of <i>lichis</i>, a +delicious fruit, closely resembling a plover’s egg in appearance, +peculiar to India. Nor were the horses forgotten. They were watered and +fed, and if by this time the nature of the cavalcade had been +recognized, there was no change in the man’s hospitable demeanor.</p> + +<p>Not for an instant did Frank’s watchful attitude relax. While Mr. Mayne +and the zemindar discoursed on the disturbed state of the country he +snatched the opportunity to exchange a few tender words with Winifred. +But his eyes and ears were alert, and he was the first to hear the +advent of a large body of horses along the main road.</p> + +<p>He stood up instantly, blew out a lantern which was placed on the ground +for the benefit of himself and the others, and said quietly:</p> + +<p>“A regiment of cavalry is approaching. We do not wish to be seen by +them. Let no man stir or show a light until they have gone.”</p> + +<p>He had the military trick of putting an emphatic order in the fewest and +simplest words. A threat was out of the question, after the manner in +which the party <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>had been received, but it is likely that each native +present felt that his life would not be of great value if he attempted +to draw the attention of the passers-by to the presence of Europeans at +the door of that secluded zemindari.</p> + +<p>The tramp of horses’ feet and the jingle of arms and trappings could now +be distinguished plainly. At first Winifred feared that they were troops +sent in pursuit of them by the Nana, and she whispered the question:</p> + +<p>“Are they from Cawnpore, Frank?”</p> + +<p>“No,” he answered, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I cannot +see them, but their horses are walking, so they cannot have come our +way. They are cavalry advancing from the direction of Lucknow.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps they are marching to the relief of Cawnpore?”</p> + +<p>“Let us hope so. But we must not risk being seen.”</p> + +<p>“Your words are despondent, dear. Do you think the whole native army is +against us?”</p> + +<p>“I scarcely know what to think, sweetheart. Things look black in so many +directions. Once we are in Lucknow, and able to hear what has really +happened elsewhere, we shall be better able to judge.”</p> + +<p>The ghostly squadrons clanked past, unseen and unseeing. When the road +was quiet again Winifred and her small bodyguard remounted. The zemindar +was not a man who would accept payment, so Mr. Mayne gave his servants +some money. It may be that this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>Mohammedan gentleman wondered if he had +acted rightly when the emissaries of the Nana scoured the country next +day for news of the miss-sahib and two sahibs who rode towards Lucknow +in the small hours of the morning. Being a wise man he held his peace. +He had cast his bread upon the waters, and did not regret it, though he +little reckoned on the return it would make after many days.</p> + +<p>Reinvigorated by the excellent meal, the travelers found that their +horses had benefited as greatly as they themselves by the food and brief +rest.</p> + +<p>They had no more adventures on the way. Winifred did not object to +riding astride while it was dark, but she did not like the experience in +broad daylight, and when they met a Eurasian in a tikka-gharry, or hired +conveyance, in the environs of Lucknow, she was almost as delighted to +secure the vehicle as to learn that the city, though disturbed, was +“quite safe from mutiny.”</p> + +<p>That was the man’s phrase, and it was eloquent of faith in the genius of +Henry Lawrence.</p> + +<p>“Quite safe!” he assured them, though they had only escaped capture by a +detachment of rebel cavalry by the merest fluke three hours earlier.</p> + +<p>They were standing opposite the gate of a great walled enclosure known +as the Alumbagh, a summer retreat built by an old nawab for a favorite +wife. And that was in June! In six short months Havelock would be lying +there in his grave, and men would be talking from pole to pole of the +wondrous things done <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>at Lucknow, both by those who held it and those +who twice relieved it.</p> + +<p>“Quite safe!”</p> + +<p>It was high time men ceased to use that phrase in India.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>WHEREIN A MOHAMMEDAN FRATERNIZES WITH<br /> A BRAHMIN</h3> + +<p style="float: left; font-size: 100%; line-height: 80%; margin-top: 0;">“</p><p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">W</span>e seem to be attracting a fair share of attention,” said Malcolm, as +they crossed a bridge over the canal that bounded Lucknow on the south +and east.</p> + +<p>“We look rather odd, don’t we?” asked Winifred, cheerfully. “Three +mounted men leading four horses, and a disheveled lady in a ramshackle +vehicle like this, would draw the eyes of a mob anywhere. Thank +goodness, though, the people appear to be quite peaceably inclined.”</p> + +<p>“Y-yes.”</p> + +<p>“Why do you agree so grudgingly?”</p> + +<p>“Well, I have not been here before—are the streets usually so crowded +at this hour?”</p> + +<p>“Lucknow, like every other Indian city, is early astir. Perhaps they +have heard of the fall of Cawnpore. It is one of the marvels of India +how quickly news spreads. Isn’t that so, uncle?”</p> + +<p>“No man knows how rumor travels here,” said Mr. Mayne. “It beats the +telegraph at times. But the probability is that Lucknow has surprises in +store for us. While we were bottled up in Bithoor things have been +happening elsewhere.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p><p>His guess was only too accurate. Not only had Nana Sahib long been in +treaty with the disaffected Oudh taluqdars, but Lucknow itself was +writhing in the first stages of rebellion. Although by popular reckoning +the mutiny broke out at Meerut on May 10, there was trouble in Lucknow +in April with the 48th Infantry, and again on May 3, when Lawrence’s +firm measures alone prevented the 7th Oudh Irregulars from murdering +their officers. There was little reason to hope that this, the third +city in India, should not yield readily to sedition-mongers. The +dethroned King of Oudh, with his courtiers and ministers, still +maintained a sort of royal state in his residence at Calcutta, and his +emissaries were active in the greased cartridge propaganda, telling +Hindus that the paper wrappers were dipped in the fat of cows, while, +for the benefit of Mohammedans, a variant of the story was supplied by +the substitution of pig’s lard.</p> + +<p>It is believed too, that the passing of a chupatty, or flat cake, from +village to village in the Northwest Provinces early in January was set +on foot by one of these agitators as a token that the Government was +plotting to overthrow the religions of the people. The exact +significance of that mysterious symbol has never been ascertained. Like +the “snowball” petition of the West, once started, it soon lost its +first meaning. Many natives regarded it merely as the fulfilment of a +devotee’s vow, but in the majority of instances it had an unsettling +effect on the simple folk who received it, and this was precisely what +its originator desired.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p><p>Lucknow was not only the natural pivot of a rich agricultural district, +but it hummed with prosperous trade. Every type of Indian humanity +gathered in its narrow streets and lofty houses, and excitement rose to +fever heat when the local trouble with the sepoys was given force to by +the isolation of the Meerut white garrison, the seizure of Delhi and the +sacking of many European stations in the Northwest. On May 30, the 71st +Native Infantry had the impudence to fire on the 32d Foot, and were +severely mauled for their pains. They ran off, but not until they had +murdered Brigadier-General Handscombe and Lieutenant Grant, one of their +own officers. The standard of the Prophet was raised in the bazaar and a +fanatical mob rallied round it. They killed a Mr. Menpes, who lived in +the city, and were then dispersed by the police.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately the 7th Cavalry deserted when Lawrence marched to the +race-course next day to punish the mutinous sepoys who had gathered +there. But despite the lack of a mounted force, a number of prisoners +were taken and hanged in batches on a gallows erected on the Muchee +Bhowun, a fortress palace situated near the Residency.</p> + +<p>Thus Lawrence had scotched the snake, but like Wheeler at Cawnpore and +many another in India at that time, he refused to kill it by disarming +the native regiments under his command. Nevertheless they feared him. +They dared not show their fangs in Lucknow. They stole away in companies +and squadrons, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>glutting their predatory instincts by slaughter and +pillage elsewhere before they headed for Delhi or joined one of the +numerous pretenders who sprang into being in emulation of Nana Sahib. It +was one of these rebel detachments that passed the four fugitives from +Cawnpore on the outskirts of Bunnee. Scattered throughout the province +they proved as merciless and terrible to wealthy natives as to the +Europeans whom they met in flight along the main roads.</p> + +<p>The chaos into which the whole country fell with such extraordinary +swiftness is demonstrated by the varying treatment meted out to +different people. Winifred and her uncle, under Malcolm’s bold +leadership, reached Lucknow with comparative ease. Poor little Sophy +Christian, aged three, having lost her mother in the massacre of +Sitapore, was taken off into the jungle by Sir Mountstuart Jackson, his +sister Madeline, a young officer named Burnes, and Surgeon-Major Morton. +They fell in with Captain and Mrs. Philip Orr and their child, refugees +from Aurungabad, and the whole party experienced almost incredible +sufferings <i>during nine months</i>. Mrs. Orr, her little girl and Miss +Jackson did not escape from their final prison at Lucknow until the end +of March, 1858. Sophy Christian, who was always asking pathetically “why +mummie didn’t come,” died of the hardships she had to endure, while the +men were shot in cold blood by the sepoys on November 16.</p> + +<p>Yet in many instances the rebels either told their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>officers to go away +or escorted them to the nearest European station, while the villagers, +though usually hostile, sometimes treated the luckless sahib-log with +genuine kindness and sympathy.</p> + +<p>Mr. Mayne of course had his own house in the cantonment, which was +situated north of the city, across the river Goomtee. Malcolm wished to +see uncle and niece safely established in their bungalow before he +reported himself at the Residency, but the older man thought they should +all go straight to the Chief Commissioner and tell him what had happened +at Cawnpore.</p> + +<p>Threading the packed bazaar towards the Bailey Guard—that gate of the +Residency which was destined to become for ever famous—they encountered +Captain Gould Weston, the local Superintendent of Police, and his first +words undeceived them as to the true position of affairs.</p> + +<p>“You left Cawnpore last night!” he cried. “Then you were amazingly +lucky. Wheeler has just telegraphed that he expects to be invested by +the rebels to-day. Not that you will be much better off here in some +respects, as we are all living in the Residency. I suppose you know your +house has gone, Mayne?”</p> + +<p>“Gone! Do you mean that it is destroyed?”</p> + +<p>“Burnt to the ground. There is hardly a building left in the +cantonment.”</p> + +<p>“But what were the troops doing? At any rate, you are not besieged here +yet.”</p> + +<p>“We are on the verge of it. Unfortunately the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>Chief won’t bring himself +to disarm the sepoys, and the city is drifting into a worse condition +daily. Half of the native corps have bolted, and the rest are ripe for +trouble at the first opportunity. The fires are the work of +incendiaries. We have caught and hanged a few, but they are swarming +everywhere.”</p> + +<p>“You say Wheeler has been in communication with you this morning,” said +the perplexed civilian. “Are you sure? It is true we escaped in the +first instance from Bithoor, but Cawnpore was in flames last night and +the Magazine in possession of the mutineers.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes. We know that. The one thing these black rascals don’t +understand is the importance of cutting the telegraph wires. Wheeler has +thrown up an entrenchment in the middle of a <i>maidan</i>. I am afraid he is +in a tight place, as he is asking for help which we cannot send. Well, +good-by! Hope to see you at tiffin. Miss Mayne must make herself as +comfortable as she can in the women’s quarters, and pray, like the rest +of us, that this storm may soon blow over.”</p> + +<p>He rode off, followed by an escort of mounted police. Malcolm, who had +taken no part in the conversation, listened to Weston’s words with a +sinking heart. He had failed doubly, then, in the mission entrusted to +him by Colvin. Not only were his despatches lost, but he was mistaken in +believing that the Cawnpore garrison was overpowered. He had turned back +at a moment when he should have strained every nerve to reach his +destination. That was intolerable. The memory of the hawk-nosed, +steel-eyed officer who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>rode from Kurnaul to Meerut in twenty-four hours +smote him like a whip. Would Hodson—the man who was prepared to cross +the infernal regions if duty called—would <i>he</i> have quitted Cawnpore +without making sure that Sir Hugh Wheeler was dead or a prisoner?</p> + +<p>The answer to that unspoken question brought such a look of pain to +Frank’s face that Winifred, watching him from the carriage window, +wondered what was wrong. She, too, had heard the policeman’s statement +and was greatly relieved by it. Why should her lover be so perturbed, +she wondered? Was it not good news that the English in Cawnpore were at +least endeavoring to hold Nana Sahib at bay? It was on the tip of her +tongue to ask what sudden cloud had fallen on him when the carriage +swung through a gateway and she found herself inside the Residency. The +breathless greetings exchanged between herself and many of her friends +among the ladies of the garrison drove from her mind the misery she had +seen in Frank’s stern-set features. But the thought recurred later and +she spoke of it.</p> + +<p>Now Malcolm had already visited Sir Henry Lawrence and told him the +exact circumstances. The Chief Commissioner exonerated him from any +blame and, as a temporary matter, appointed him an extra A.D.C. on his +staff. But the sore rankled and it was destined in due time to affect +the young officer’s fortunes in the most unexpected way.</p> + +<p>Above all else he did not want Winifred to know that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>solicitude in her +behalf had drawn him from the path of duty. So he fenced with her +sympathetic inquiries, and she, womanlike, began to search for some +shortcoming on her own part to account for her lover’s gloom. Thus, not +a rift, but an absence of full and complete understanding, existed +between them, and each was conscious of it, though Malcolm alone knew +its cause.</p> + +<p>But that little cloud only darkened their own small world. Around them +was the clash of arms and the din of preparation for the “fortnight’s +siege” which Lawrence thought the Residency might withstand if held +resolutely! In truth, there never was a fortification, with the +exception of that four-foot mud wall at Cawnpore, less calculated to +repel the assault of a determined foe than the ill-planned defenses +which provided the last English refuge in Oudh.</p> + +<p>Winifred soon proved that she was of good metal. The alarms and +excursions of the past three weeks were naturally trying to a girl born +and bred in a quiet Devon village. But heredity, mostly blamed for the +transmission of bad qualities, supplies good ones, too, whether in man +or maid. Descended on her father’s side from a race of soldiers and +diplomats, her mother was a Yorkshire Trenholme, and it is said on +Hambledon Moor that there were Trenholmes in Yorkshire before there was +a king in England. In spite of the terrific heat and the discomfort of +her new surroundings she made light of difficulties, found solace +herself by cheering others, and quickly attained a prominent <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>place in +that small band of devoted women whose names will live until the story +of Lucknow is forgotten.</p> + +<p>She met Frank only occasionally and by chance, their days being full of +work and striving. A smile, a few tender words, perhaps nothing more +than a hurried wave of the hand in passing, constituted their love +idyll, for Lawrence fell ill and his aides were kept busy, day and +night, in passing to and fro between the bedside of the stricken leader +and the many posts where his counsel was sought or the hasty provision +of defense lagged for his orders.</p> + +<p>The Chief was so worn out with anxiety and sleepless labor that on June +9 he delegated his authority to a provisional council. Then the +impetuous and chivalric Martin Gubbins, Financial Commissioner of Oudh, +saw a means of attaining by compromise that which he had vainly urged on +Lawrence—he persuaded the commanding officers of the native regiments +in Lucknow to tell their men to go home on furlough until November.</p> + +<p>This was actually done, but Lawrence was so indignant when he heard of +it that he dissolved the council on June 12 and sent Malcolm and other +officers to recall the sepoys. Five hundred came back, vowing that they +would stand by “Lar-rence-sahib Bahadur” till the last. They kept their +word; they shared the danger and glory of the siege with the 32d and the +British Artillery.</p> + +<p>Gubbins, a born firebrand, then pressed his superior to attack a rebel +force that had gathered at the village <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>of Chinhut, ten miles northeast +of Lucknow. Unfortunately Lawrence yielded, marched out with seven +hundred men, half of whom were Europeans, and was badly defeated, owing +to the desertion of some native gunners at a critical moment.</p> + +<p>A disastrous rout followed. Colonel Case of the 32d, trying vainly with +his men to stop the native runaways, was shot dead. For three miles the +enemy’s horse artillery pelted the helpless troops with grape, and the +massacre of every man in the small column was prevented only by the +bravery of a tiny squadron of volunteer cavalry, which held a bridge +until the harassed infantry were able to cross.</p> + +<p>Lawrence, when the day was lost, rode back to prepare the hapless +Europeans in the city for the hazard that now threatened. The investment +of the Residency could not be prevented. It was a question whether the +mutineers would not surge over it in triumph within the hour.</p> + +<p>From the windows of the lofty building which gave its name to the +cluster of houses within the walls, the despairing women saw their +exhausted fellow-countrymen fighting a dogged rear-guard action against +twenty times as many rebels. Some poor creatures, straining their eyes +to find in the ranks of the survivors the husband they would never see +again, clasped their children to their breasts and shrieked in agony. +Others, like Lady Inglis, knelt and read the Litany. A few, and among +them was Winifred, ran out with vessels full of water and tended the +wants of the almost choking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>soldiers who were staggering to the shelter +of the veranda.</p> + +<p>She had seen Lawrence gallop to his quarters, and his drawn, haggard +face told her the worst. He was accompanied by two staff officers, but +Malcolm was not with him. The pandemonium that reigned everywhere for +many minutes made it impossible that she should obtain any news of her +lover’s fate. While the soldiers were flocking through the narrow +streets that flanked or enfiladed the walls, the native servants and +coolies engaged on the defenses deserted <i>en masse</i>. The rebel artillery +was beginning to batter the more exposed buildings; the British guns +already in position took up the challenge; sepoys seized the adjoining +houses and commenced a deadly musketry fire that was far more effective +than the terrifying cannonade; and the men of the garrison who had not +taken part in that fatal sortie rushed to their posts, determined to +stem at all costs the imminent assault of the victorious mutineers.</p> + +<p>An officer seeing Winifred carrying water to some men who were lying in +a position that would soon be swept by two guns mounted near a bridge +across the Goomtee, known as the Iron Bridge, ordered the soldiers to +seek a safer refuge.</p> + +<p>“And you, Miss Mayne, you must not remain here,” he went on. “You will +only lose your life, and we want brave women like you to live.”</p> + +<p>Winifred recognized him though his face was blackened with powder and +grime. Her own wild imaginings <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>made death seem preferable to the +anguish of her belief that Frank had fallen.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Captain Fulton,” she said, “can you tell me what has become of—of +Mr. Malcolm?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” he said, summoning a gallant smile as an earnest of good news. “I +heard the Chief tell him to make the best of his way to Allahabad. That +is the only quarter from which help can be expected, and to-day’s +disaster renders help imperative. Now, my dear child, don’t take it to +heart in that way. Malcolm will win through, never fear! He is just the +man for such a task, and each mile he covers means—” he paused; a round +shot crashed against a gable and brought down a chimney with a loud +rattle of falling bricks—“means so many minutes less of this sort of +thing.”</p> + +<p>But Winifred neither saw nor heard. Her eyes were blinded with tears, +her brain dazed by the knowledge that her lover had undertaken alone a +journey declared impossible from the more favorably situated station of +Cawnpore many days earlier.</p> + +<p>She managed somehow to find her uncle. Perhaps Fulton spared a moment to +take her to him. She never knew. When next her ordered mind appreciated +her environment that last day of June, 1857, was drawing to its close +and the glare of rebel watch fires, heightened by the constant flashes +of an unceasing bombardment, told her that the siege of Lucknow had +begun.</p> + +<p>Then she remembered that Mr. Mayne had taken <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>her to one of the cellars +in the Residency in which the women and children were secure from the +leaden hail that was beating on the walls. She had a vague notion that +he carried a gun and a cartridge belt, and a new panic seized her lest +the Moloch of war had devoured her only relative, for her father had +been killed at the battle of Alma, and her mother’s death, three years +later, had led to her sailing for India to take charge of her uncle’s +household.</p> + +<p>The women near at hand were too sorrow-laden to give any real +information. They only knew that every man within the Residency walls, +even the one-armed, one-legged, decrepit pensioners who had lost limbs +or health in the service of the Company, were mustered behind the frail +defenses.</p> + +<p>To a girl of her temperament inaction was the least endurable of evils. +Now that the shock of Malcolm’s departure had passed she longed to seek +oblivion in work, while existence in that stifling underground +atmosphere, with its dense crowd of heart-broken women and complaining +children, was almost intolerable.</p> + +<p>In defiance of orders—of which, however, she was then ignorant—she +went to the ground floor. Passing out into the darkness she crossed an +open space to the hospital, and it chanced that the first person she +encountered was Chumru, Malcolm’s bearer.</p> + +<p>The man’s grim features changed their habitual scowl to a demoniac grin +when he saw her.</p> + +<p>“Ohé, miss-sahib,” he cried, “this meeting is my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>good fortune, for +surely you can tell me where my sahib is?”</p> + +<p>Winifred was not yet well versed in Hindustani, but she caught some of +the words, and the contortions of Chumru’s expressive countenance were +familiar to her, as she had laughed many a time at Malcolm’s recitals of +his ill-favored servant’s undeserved repute as a villain of parts.</p> + +<p>“Your sahib is gone to Allahabad,” she managed to say before the thought +came tardily that perhaps it was not wise to make known the Chief +Commissioner’s behests in this manner.</p> + +<p>“To Illah-hábàd! Shade of Mahomet, how can he go that far without me?” +exclaimed Chumru. “Who will cook his food and brush his clothes? Who +will see to it that he is not robbed on the road by every thief that +ever reared a chicken or milked a cow? I feared that some evil thing had +befallen him, but this is worse than aught that entered my head.”</p> + +<p>All this was lost on Winifred. She imagined that the native was +bewailing his master’s certain death in striving to carry out a +desperate mission, whereas he was really thinking that the most +disturbing element about the sahib’s journey was his own absence.</p> + +<p>Seeing the distress in her face, Chumru was sure that she sympathized +with his views.</p> + +<p>“Never mind, miss-sahib,” said he confidentially, “I will slip away now, +steal a horse and follow him.”</p> + +<p>Without another word he hastened out of the building and left her +wondering what he meant. She <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>repeated the brief phrases, as well as she +could recall them, to a Eurasian whom she found acting as a +water-carrier.</p> + +<p>This man translated Chumru’s parting statement quite accurately, and +when Mr. Mayne came at last from the Bailey Guard where he had been +stationed until relieved after nightfall, he horrified her by telling +her the truth—that it was a hundred chances to one against the +unfortunate bearer’s escape if he did really endeavor to break through +the investing lines.</p> + +<p>And indeed few men could have escaped from the entrenchment that night. +Any one who climbed to the third story of the Residency—itself the +highest building within the walls and standing on the most elevated +site—would soon be dispossessed of the fantastic notion that any corner +was left unguarded by the rebels. A few houses had been demolished by +Lawrence’s orders, it is true, but his deep respect for native ideals +had left untouched the swarm of mosques and temples that stood between +the Residency and the river.</p> + +<p>“Spare their holy places!” he said, yet Mohammedan and Hindu did not +scruple now to mask guns in the sacred enclosures and loop-hole the +hallowed walls for musketry. On the city side, narrow lanes, lofty +houses and strongly-built palaces offered secure protection to the +besiegers. The British position was girt with the thousand gleams of a +lightning more harmful than that devised by nature, for each spurt of +flame meant that field-piece or rifle was sending some messenger of +death into the tiny area over which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>floated the flag of England. Within +this outer circle of fire was a lesser one; the garrison made up for +lack of numbers by a fixed resolve to hold each post until every man +fell. To modern ideas, the distance between these opposing rings was +absurdly small. As the siege progressed besiegers and besieged actually +came to know each other by sight. Even from the first they were seldom +separated by more than the width of an ordinary street, and conversation +was always maintained, the threats of the mutineers being countered by +the scornful defiance of the defenders.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless Chumru prevailed on Captain Weston to allow him to drop to +the ground outside the Bailey Guard. The Police Superintendent, a +commander who was now fighting his own corps, accepted the bearer’s +promise that if he were not killed or captured he would make the best of +his way to Allahabad, and even if he did not find his master, tell the +British officer in charge there of the plight of Lucknow.</p> + +<p>Chumru, who had no knowledge of warfare beyond his recent experiences, +was acquainted with the golden rule that the shorter the time spent as +an involuntary target the less chance is there of being hit. As soon as +he reached the earth from the top of the wall he took to his heels and +ran like a hare in the direction of some houses that stood near the +Clock Tower.</p> + +<p>He was fired at, of course, but missed, and the sepoys soon ceased their +efforts to put a bullet through him because they fancied he was a +deserter.</p> + +<p>As soon as they saw his face they had no doubts <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>whatever on that score. +Indeed, were it his unhappy lot to fall in with the British patrols +already beginning to feel their way north from Bengal along the Grand +Trunk Road he would assuredly have been hanged at sight on his mere +appearance.</p> + +<p>Chumru’s answers to the questions showered on him were magnificently +untrue. According to him the Residency was already a ruin and its +precincts a shambles. The accursed Feringhis might hold out till the +morning, but he doubted it. Allah smite them!—that was why he chanced +being shot by his brethren rather than be slain by mistake next day when +the men of Oudh took vengeance on their oppressors. He could not get +away earlier because he was a prisoner, locked up by the huzoors, +forsooth, for a trifling matter of a few rupees left behind by one of +the white dogs who fell that day at Chinhut.</p> + +<p>In brief, Chumru abused the English with such an air that he was +regarded by the rebels as quite an acquisition. They had not learned, as +yet, that it was better to shoot a dozen belated friends than permit one +spy to win his way through their lines.</p> + +<p>Watching his opportunity, he slipped off into the bazaar. Now he was +quite safe, being one among two hundred thousand. But time was passing; +he wanted a horse, and might expect to find the canal bridge closely +guarded.</p> + +<p>Having a true Eastern sense of humor behind that saturnine visage of +his, he hit on a plan of surmounting both difficulties with ease.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p><p>Singling out the first well-mounted and half-intoxicated native officer +he met—though, to his credit be it said, he chose a Brahmin subadar of +cavalry—he hailed him boldly.</p> + +<p>“Brother,” said he, “I would have speech with thee.”</p> + +<p>Now, Chumru took his life in his hands in this matter. For one wearing +the livery of servitude to address a high-caste Brahmin thus was +incurring the risk of being sabered then and there. In fact the subadar +was so amazed that he glared stupidly at the Mohammedan who greeted him +as “brother,” and it may be that those fierce eyes looking at him from +different angles had a mesmeric effect.</p> + +<p>“Thou?” he spluttered, reining in his horse, a hardy country-bred, good +for fifty miles without bait.</p> + +<p>“Even I,” said Chumru. “I have occupation, but I want help. One will +suffice, though there is gold enough for many.”</p> + +<p>“Gold, sayest thou?”</p> + +<p>“Ay, gold in plenty. The dog of a Feringhi whom I served has had it +hidden these two months in the thatch of his house near the Alumbagh. +To-day he is safely bottled up there—” he jerked a thumb towards the +sullen thunder of the bombardment. “I am a poor man, and I may be +stopped if I try to leave the city. Take me up behind thee, brother, and +give me safe passage to the bungalow, and behold, we will share treasure +of a lakh or more!”</p> + +<p>The Brahmin’s brain was bemused with drink, but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>it took in two obvious +elements of the tale at once. Here was a fortune to be gained by merely +cutting a throat at the right moment.</p> + +<p>“That is good talking,” said he. “Mount, friend, and leave me to answer +questions.”</p> + +<p>Chumru saw that he had gaged his man rightly, and the evil glint in the +subadar’s eyes told him the unspoken thought. He climbed up behind the +high-peaked saddle and, after the horse had showed his resentment of a +double burthen, was taken through the bazaar as rapidly as its thronged +streets permitted. Sure enough, the canal bridge was watched.</p> + +<p>“Whither go ye?” demanded the officer in charge.</p> + +<p>“To bring in a Feringhi who is in hiding,” said the Brahmin.</p> + +<p>“Shall I send a few men with you?”</p> + +<p>“Nay, we two are plenty—” this with a laugh.</p> + +<p>“Quite plenty,” put in Chumru. The officer glanced at him and was +convinced. Being a Mohammedan, he took Chumru’s word without question, +which showed the exceeding wisdom of Chumru in selecting a Brahmin for +the sacrifice; thus was he prepared to deal with either party in an +unholy alliance.</p> + +<p>They jogged in silence past the Alumbagh. The Brahmin, on reflection, +decided that he would stab Chumru before the hoard was disturbed and he +could then devise another hiding-place at his leisure. Chumru had long +ago decided to send the Brahmin to the place where all unbelievers go, +at the first suitable opportunity. Hence the advantage lay with him, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>because he held a strategic position and could choose his own time.</p> + +<p>Beyond the Alumbagh there were few houses, and these of mean +description, and each moment the subadar’s mind was growing clearer +under the prospect of great wealth to be won so easily.</p> + +<p>“Where is this bungalow, friend?” said he at last, seeing nothing but a +straight road in front.</p> + +<p>“Patience, brother. ’Tis now quite near. It lies behind that tope of +trees yonder.”</p> + +<p>The other half turned to ascertain in which direction his guide was +pointing.</p> + +<p>“It is not on the main road, then?”</p> + +<p>“No. A man who has gold worth the keeping loves not to dwell where all +men pass.”</p> + +<p>A little farther, and Chumru announced:</p> + +<p>“We turn off here.”</p> + +<p>It was dark. He thought he had hit upon a by-way, but no sooner did the +horse quit the shadow of the trees by the roadside than he saw that he +had been misled by the wheel-tracks of a ryot’s cart. The Brahmin +sniffed suspiciously.</p> + +<p>“Is there no better way than this?” he cried, when his charger nearly +stumbled into a deep ditch.</p> + +<p>“One only, but you may deem it too far,” was the quiet answer, and +Chumru, placing his left hand on the Brahmin’s mouth, plunged a long, +thin knife up to the hilt between his ribs.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>A LONG CHASE</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">I</span>t was not Lawrence’s order but Malcolm’s own suggestion that led to the +desperate task entrusted to the young aide by the Chief. While those few +heroic volunteer horsemen drove back the enemy’s cavalry and held the +bridge over the Kokrail until the beaten army made good its retreat, Sir +Henry halted by the roadside and watched the passing of his exhausted +men. He had the aspect of one who hoped that some stray bullet would end +the torment of life. In that grief-stricken hour his indomitable spirit +seemed to falter. Ere night he was the Lawrence of old, but the +magnitude of the calamity that had befallen him was crushing and he +winced beneath it.</p> + +<p>Out of three hundred and fifty white soldiers in the column he had lost +one hundred and nineteen. Every gun served by natives was captured by +the enemy. Worst of all, the moral effect of such a defeat outweighed a +dozen victories. It not only brought about the instant beginnings of the +siege, but its proportions were grossly exaggerated in the public eye. +For the first time in many a year the white soldiers had fled before a +strictly Indian force. They were outnumbered, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>which was nothing new in +the history of the country, but it must be confessed they were +out-generaled, too. Lawrence, never a believer in Gubbins’s forward +policy, showed unwonted hesitancy even during the march to Chinhut: he +halted, advanced and counter-marched the troops in a way that was +foreign to a man of his decisive character. Where he was unaccountably +timid the enemy were unusually bold, and the outcome was disaster.</p> + +<p>Yet in this moment of bitterest adversity he displayed that sympathy for +the sufferings of others that won him the esteem of all who came in +contact with him.</p> + +<p>By some extraordinary blunder of the commissariat the 32d had set forth +that morning without breaking their fast. Now, after a weary march and a +protracted fight in the burning sun, some of the men deliberately lay +down to die.</p> + +<p>“We can go no farther,” they said. “We may as well meet death here as a +few yards away. And, when the sepoys overtake us, we shall at least have +breath enough left to die fighting.”</p> + +<p>Lawrence, when finally he turned his horse’s head toward Lucknow, came +upon such a group. He shook his feet free of the stirrups.</p> + +<p>“Now, my lads,” he said quietly, “you have no cause to despair. Catch +hold of the leathers, two of you, and the horse will help you along. Mr. +Malcolm, you can assist in the same way. Another mile will bring us to +the city.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p><p>One of the men, finding it in his heart to pity his haggard-faced +general, thought to console him by saying:</p> + +<p>“We’ll try, if it’s on’y to please you, your honor, but it’s all up with +us, I’m afraid. If the end doesn’t come to-day it will surely be with us +to-morrow.”</p> + +<p>“Why do you think that?” asked Lawrence. “We must hold the Residency +until the last man falls. What else can we do?”</p> + +<p>“I know that, your honor, but we haven’t got the ghost of a chance. +They’re a hundred to one, and as well armed as we are. It ’ud be a +different thing if help could come, but it can’t. If what people are +saying is true, sir, the nearest red-coats are at Allahabad, an’ p’raps +they’re hard pressed, too.”</p> + +<p>“That is not the way to look at a difficulty. In war it is the +unexpected that happens. Keep your spirits up and you may live to tell +your grandchildren how you fought the rebels at Lucknow. I want you and +every man in the ranks to know that my motto is ‘No Surrender.’ You have +heard what happened at Cawnpore. Here, in Lucknow, despite to-day’s +disaster, we shall fight to a finish.”</p> + +<p>An English battery came thundering down the road to take up a fresh +position and assist in covering the retreat. The guns unlimbered near a +well.</p> + +<p>“There!” said Lawrence, “you see how my words have come true. A minute +ago you were ready to fall before the first sowar who lifted his saber +over your head. Go now and help by drawing water for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>the gunners and +yourselves. Then you can ride back on the carriages when they limber +up.”</p> + +<p>Malcolm, to whom the soldier’s words brought inspiration, spurred Nejdi +alongside his Chief.</p> + +<p>“Will you permit me to ride to Allahabad, sir, and tell General Neill +how matters stand here?” he said.</p> + +<p>Lawrence looked at him as though the request were so fantastic that he +had not fully grasped its meaning.</p> + +<p>“To Allahabad?” he repeated, turning in the saddle to watch the effect +of the first shot fired by the battery.</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir,” cried Malcolm, eagerly. “I know the odds are against me, but +Hodson rode as far through the enemy’s country only six weeks ago, and I +did something of the kind, though not so successfully, when I went from +Meerut to Agra and from Agra to Cawnpore.”</p> + +<p>“You had an escort, and I can spare not a man.”</p> + +<p>“I will go alone, sir.”</p> + +<p>“I would gladly avail myself of your offer, but the Residency will be +invested in less than an hour.”</p> + +<p>“Let me go now, sir. I am well mounted. In the confusion I may be able +to reach the open country without being noticed.”</p> + +<p>“Go, then, in God’s name, and may your errand prosper, for you have many +precious lives in your keeping.”</p> + +<p>Lawrence held out his hand, and Malcolm clasped it.</p> + +<p>“Tell Neill,” said the Chief Commissioner in a low tone of intense +significance, “that we can hold out a fortnight, a month perhaps, or +even a few days longer <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>if buoyed up with hope. That is all. If you +succeed, I shall not forget your services. The Viceroy has given me +plenary powers, and I shall place your name in orders to-night, Captain +Malcolm.”</p> + +<p>He kept his promise. When Lucknow was evacuated after the Second Relief, +the official gazettes recorded that Lieutenant Frank Malcolm of the 3d +Cavalry had been promoted to a captaincy, supernumerary on the staff, +for gallantry on the field on June 30, while a special minute provided +that he should attain the rank of major if he reached Allahabad on or +before July 4.</p> + +<p>From the point on the road to Chinhut where Malcolm bade his Chief +farewell, he could see the tower of the Residency, gray among the white +domes and minarets that lined the south bank of the Goomtee. He had no +illusions now as to the course the mutineers would follow. Native rumors +had brought the news of the massacre at Cawnpore, though the ghastly +tragedy of the Well was yet to come. He knew that this elegant city, +resplendent and glorious in the sheen of the setting sun, would soon be +a living hell. A fearsome struggle would surge around that tower where +the British flag was flying. A few hundreds of Europeans would strive to +keep at bay tens of thousands of eager rebels. Would they succeed? Pray +Heaven for that while Winifred lived!</p> + +<p>And in all human probability their fate rested with him. If he were able +to stir the British authorities in the south to almost superhuman +efforts, a relieving <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>force might arrive before the end of July. It was +a great undertaking he had set himself. Yet he would have attempted it +for Winifred’s sake alone, and the thought of her anguish, when she +should hear that he was gone, gave him a pang that was not solaced by +the dearest honor a soldier can attain—promotion on the field.</p> + +<p>It was out of the question that he should return to the Residency before +he began his self-imposed mission. Already the enemy’s cavalry were +swooping along both flanks of the routed troops. In a few minutes the +only available road, which crossed the Goomtee by a bridge of boats and +led through the suburbs by way of the Dilkusha, would be closed. As it +was he had to press Nejdi into a fast gallop before he could clear the +left wing of the advancing army. Then, easing the pace a little, he +swung off into a by-way, and ere long was cantering down the quiet road +that led to Rai Bareilly and thence to Allahabad.</p> + +<p>At seven o’clock he was ten miles from Lucknow, at eight, nearly twenty. +The quick-falling shadows warned him that if he would procure food for +Nejdi and himself he must seize the next opportunity that presented +itself, while a rest of some sort was absolutely necessary if he meant +to spare his gallant Arab for the trial of endurance that still lay +ahead.</p> + +<p>Though he had never before traveled that road he was acquainted with its +main features. Thirty miles from his present position was the small town +of Rai Bareilly. Fifty miles to the southeast was Partabgarh. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>Fifty +miles due south of Partabgarh lay Allahabad. The scheme roughly outlined +in his mind was, in the first place, to buy, borrow, or steal a native +pony which would carry him to the outskirts of Rai Bareilly before dawn. +Then remounting Nejdi he would either ride rapidly through the town, or +make a détour, whichever method seemed preferable after inquiry from +such peaceful natives as he met on the road. Four hours beyond Rai +Bareilly he would leave the main road, strike due south for the Ganges, +and follow the left bank of the river until he was opposite Allahabad. +He refused to ask himself what he would do if Allahabad were in the +hands of the rebels.</p> + +<p>“I shall tackle that difficulty about this hour to-morrow,” he communed, +with a laugh at his own expense. “Just now, when a hundred miles of +unknown territory face me, I have enough to contend with. So, steady is +the word! good horse! <i>Cæsarem invehis et fortunas ejus!</i>”</p> + +<p>Thus far the wayfarers encountered during his journey had treated him +civilly. The ryots, peasant proprietors of the soil, drew their rough +carts aside and salaamed as he passed. These men knew little or nothing, +as yet, of the great events that were taking place on the south and west +of the Ganges. A few educated bunniahs and zemindars,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> who doubtless +had heard of wild doings in the cities, glanced at him curiously, and +would have asked for news if he had not invariably ridden by at a rapid +pace.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p><p>As it happened, the route he followed was far removed from the track +of murder and rapine that marked the early progress of the Mutiny, and +the mere sight of a British Officer, moving on with such speed and +confidence, must have set these worthy folk a-wondering. Between Rai +Bareilly and the Grand Trunk Road stood the wide barrier of the +sacred river, while the town itself must not be confused with +Bareilly—situated nearly a hundred miles north of Lucknow—which +became notorious as the headquarters of Khan Bahadur Khan, a pensioner +of the British Government, and a ruffian second only to Nana Sahib in +merciless cruelty.</p> + +<p>All unknown to Malcolm, and indeed little recognized as yet in India +save by a few district officials, there was a man in Rai Bareilly that +night who was destined to test the chivalry of Britain on many a +hard-fought field. Ahmed Ullah, famous in history as the Moulvie of +Fyzabad, had crossed the young officer’s path once already. When Malcolm +took his untrained charger for the first wild gallop out of Meerut—the +ride that ended ignominiously in the moat of the Kings’ of Delhi hunting +lodge—he nearly rode over a Mohammedan priest, as he tore along the +Grand Trunk Road some five miles south of the station.</p> + +<p>It would have been well for India if Nejdi’s hoofs had then and there +struck the breath out of that ascetic frame. Of all the firebrands +raised by the Mutiny, the Moulvie of Fyzabad was the fiercest and most +dangerous. Early in the year he was imprisoned for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>preaching sedition. +Unhappily he was liberated too soon, and, his fanaticism only inflamed +the more by punishment, he went to the Punjab and sowed disaffection far +and wide by his burning zeal for the spread of Islam. By chance he +returned to Fyzabad before the outbreak at Meerut. The feeble loyalty +of the native regiments at Lucknow sufficed to keep all the borderland +of Nepaul quiet for nearly two months. But the reports brought by his +disciples warned the moulvie that the true believer’s day of triumph was +approaching. Moreover, the Begum of Oudh, one of three women who were +worth as many army corps to the mutineers, was waiting for him at Rai +Bareilly, a placid eddy in the backwash of the torrents sweeping through +Upper India, and Ahmed Ullah had left Fyzabad on the evening of the 29th +to keep his tryst.</p> + +<p>It was, therefore, a lively brood of scorpions that Malcolm proposed to +disturb when he dismounted from a wretched tat he had purchased at his +first halt, and fed and watered Nejdi again, just as a glimmer of dawn +appeared in the east. According to his calculations he was about a mile +from Rai Bareilly. The hour was the quietest and coolest of the hot +Indian night. Some pattering drops of rain and the appearance of heavy +clouds in the southwest gave premonitions of a fresh outburst of the +monsoon. He was glad of it. Rain would freshen himself and his horse. It +made the ground soft and would retard his speed once he quitted the high +road, but these drawbacks were more than balanced by the absence of the +terrific <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>heat of the previous day. He unstrapped his cloak and flung it +loosely over his shoulders. Then he waited, until the growing light +brought forth the untiring tillers of the fields, and he was able to +glean some sort of information as to the position of affairs in the +town. If the place were occupied by a prowling gang of rebels he might +secure a guide by payment and avoid its narrow streets altogether. At +any rate, it would be a foolish thing to dash through blindly and trust +to luck. The issues at stake were too important for that sort of +imprudent valor. His object was to reach Allahabad that night—not to +hew his way through opposing hordes and risk being cut down in the +process.</p> + +<p>The lowing of cattle and the soft stumbling tread of many unshod feet +told him that some one was approaching. A herd of buffaloes loomed out +of the half light. Their driver, an old man, was quite willing to talk.</p> + +<p>“There are no sahib-log in the town,” he said, for Malcolm deemed it +advisable to begin by a question on that score. “The collector-sahib had +a camp here three weeks ago, but he went away, and that was a +misfortune, because the budmashes from Fyzabad came, and honest people +were sore pressed.”</p> + +<p>“From Fyzabad, say’st thou? They must be cleared out. Where are they?”</p> + +<p>“You are too late, huzoor. They went to Cawnpore, I have heard. Men talk +of much dacoity in that district. Is that true, sahib?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p><p>“Yes, but fear not; it will be suppressed. I am going to Allahabad. Is +this the best road?”</p> + +<p>“I have never been so far, sahib, but it lies that way.”</p> + +<p>“Is the bazaar quiet now?”</p> + +<p>“I have seen none save our own people these two days, yet it was said in +the bazaar last night that a Begum tarried at the rest-house.”</p> + +<p>“A Begum. What Begum?”</p> + +<p>“I know not her name, huzoor, but she is one of the daughters of the +King of Oudh.”</p> + +<p>Malcolm was relieved to hear this. The wild notion had seized him that +the Princess Roshinara, a stormy petrel of political affairs just then, +might have drifted to Rai Bareilly by some evil chance.</p> + +<p>“You see this pony?” he said. “Take him. He is yours. I have no further +use for him. Are you sure that there are none to dispute my passage +through the town?”</p> + +<p>The old peasant was so taken aback by the gift that he could scarce +speak intelligibly, but he assured the Presence that at such an hour +none would interfere with him.</p> + +<p>Malcolm decided to risk it. He mounted and rode forward at a sharp trot. +Of course he had not been able to adopt any kind of disguise. While +doing duty at the Residency he had thrown aside the turban reft from +Abdul Huq and he now wore the peaked shako, with white puggaree, +affected by junior staff officers at that period. His long military +cloak, steel scabbard, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>sabertache and Wellington boots, proclaimed his +profession, while his blue riding-coat and cross-belts were visible in +front, as he meant to have his arms free in case the necessity arose to +use sword or pistol.</p> + +<p>And he rode thus into Rai Bareilly, watchful, determined, ready for any +emergency. So boldly did he advance that he darted past half a dozen men +whose special duty it was to stop and question all travelers. They were +stationed on the flat roofs of two houses, one on each side of the way, +and a rope was stretched across the road in readiness to drop and hinder +the progress of any one who did not halt when summoned. It was a simple +device. It had not been seen by the man who drove the buffaloes, and by +reason of Malcolm’s choice of the turf by the side of the road as the +best place for Nejdi, it chanced to dangle high enough to permit their +passing beneath.</p> + +<p>The sentries, though caught napping, tried to make amends for their +carelessness. In the growing light one of them saw Malcolm’s +accouterments and he yelled loudly:</p> + +<p>“Ohé, bhai, look out for the Feringhi!”</p> + +<p>Frank, unfortunately, had not noticed the rope. But he heard the cry and +understood that the “brother” to whom it was addressed would probably be +discovered at the end of the short street. He shook Nejdi into a canter, +drew his sword, and looked keenly ahead for the first sign of those who +would bar his path.</p> + +<p>Dawn was peeping grayly over the horizon, and Ahmed Ullah, moulvie and +interpreter of the Koran, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>standing in an open courtyard, was engaged in +the third of the day’s prayers, of which the first was intoned soon +after sunset the previous evening. He was going through the Rêka with +military precision, and as luck would have it, the Kibleh, or direction +of Mecca, brought his fierce gaze to the road along which Malcolm was +galloping. Never did priest become warrior more speedily than Ahmed +Ullah when that warning shout rang out, and he discovered that a British +officer was riding at top speed through the quiet bazaar. Assuming that +this unexpected apparition betokened the arrival of a punitive +detachment, he uttered a loud cry, leaped to the gates of the courtyard +and closed them.</p> + +<p>Malcolm, of course, saw him and regarded his action as that of a +frightened man, who would be only too glad when he could resume his +devotions in peace. Ahmed Ullah, soon to become a claimant of sovereign +power as “King of Hindustan,” was not a likely person to let a prize +slip through his fingers thus easily. Keeping up an ululating clamor of +commands, he ran to the roof of the dwelling, snatched up a musket and +took steady aim. By this time Malcolm was beyond the gate and thought +himself safe. Then he saw a rope drawn breast-high across the narrow +street, and gesticulating natives, variously armed, leaning over the +parapets on either hand. He had to decide in the twinkling of an eye +whether to go on or turn back. Probably his retreat would be cut off by +some similar device, so the bolder expedient of an advance offered <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>the +better chance. An incomparable horseman, mounted on an absolutely +trustworthy horse, he lay well forward on Nejdi’s neck, resolving to try +and pick up the slack of the rope on his sword and lift it out of the +way. To endeavor to cut through such an obstacle would undoubtedly have +brought about a disaster. It would yield, and the keenest blade might +fail to sever it completely, while any slackening of pace would enable +the hostile guard to shoot him at point-blank range.</p> + +<p>These considerations passed through his mind while Nejdi was covering +some fifty yards. To disconcert the enemy, who were not sepoys and whose +guns were mostly antiquated weapons of the match-lock type, he pulled +out a revolver and fired twice. Then he leaned forward, with right arm +thrown well in front and the point of his sword three feet beyond +Nejdi’s head. At that instant, when Frank was unconsciously offering a +bad target, the moulvie fired. The bullet plowed through the +Englishman’s right forearm, struck the hilt of the sword and knocked the +weapon out of his hand. Exactly what happened next he never knew. From +the nature of his own bruises afterwards and the manner in which he was +jerked backwards from the saddle, he believed that the rope missed Nejdi +altogether, but caught him by the left shoulder. The height of a horse +extended at the gallop is surprisingly low as compared with the height +of the same animal standing or walking. There was even a remote +possibility that the rope would strike the Arab’s forehead <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>and bound +clear of his rider. But that was not to be. Here was Frank hurled to the +roadway, and striving madly to resist the treble shock of his wound, of +the blow dealt by the rope, and of the fall, while Nejdi was tearing +away through Rai Bareilly as though all the djinns of his native desert +were pursuing him.</p> + +<p>Though Malcolm’s torn arm was bleeding copiously, and he was stunned by +being thrown so violently flat on his back, no bones were broken. His +rage at the trick fate had played him, the overwhelming bitterness of +another and most lamentable failure, enabled him to struggle to his feet +and empty at his assailants the remaining chambers of the revolver which +was still tightly clutched in his left hand. He missed, luckily, or they +would have butchered him forthwith. In another minute he was standing +before Moulvie Ahmed Ullah, and that earnest advocate of militant Islam +was plying him with mocking questions.</p> + +<p>“Whither so fast, Feringhi? Dost thou run from death, or ride to seek +it? Mayhap thou comest from Lucknow. If so, what news? And where are the +papers thou art carrying?”</p> + +<p>Frank’s strength was failing him. To the weakness resulting from loss of +blood was added the knowledge that this time he was trapped without hope +of escape. The magnificent display of self-command entailed by the +effort to rise and face his foes in a last defiance could not endure +much longer. He knew it was near the end when he had difficulty in +finding the necessary words in Urdu. But he spoke, slowly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>and firmly, +compelling his unwilling brain to form the sentences.</p> + +<p>“I have no papers, and if I had, who are you that demand them?” he said. +“I am an officer of the Company, and I call on all honest and loyal men +to help me in my duty. I promise—to those who assist me to reach +Allahabad—that they will be—pardoned for any past offenses—and well +rewarded....”</p> + +<p>The room swam around him and the grim-visaged moullah became a grotesque +being, with dragon’s eyes and a turban like a cloud. Yet he kept on, +hoping against imminent death itself that his words would reach some +willing ear.</p> + +<p>“Any man—who tells General Neill-sahib—at Allahabad—that +help is wanted—at Lucknow—will be made rich.... Help—at +Lucknow—immediately.... I, Malcolm-sahib—of the 3d Cavalry—say....”</p> + +<p>He collapsed in the grasp of the men who were holding him.</p> + +<p>“Thou has said enough, dog of a Nazarene. Take him without and hang +him,” growled Ahmed Ullah.</p> + +<p>“Nay,” cried a woman’s voice from behind a straw portière that closed +the arched veranda of the house. “Thou art too ready with thy sentences, +moulvie. Rather let us bind his wounds and give him food and drink. Then +he will recover, and tell us what we want to know.”</p> + +<p>“He hath told us already, Princess,” said the other, his harsh accents +sounding more like the snarl of a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>wolf than a human voice. “He comes +from Lucknow and he seeks succor from Allahabad. That means—”</p> + +<p>“It means that he can be hanged as easily at eventide as at daybreak, +and we shall surely learn the truth, as such men do not breathe lies.”</p> + +<p>“He will not speak, Princess.”</p> + +<p>“Leave that to me. If I fail, I hand him over to thee forthwith. Let him +be brought within and tended, and let some ride after his horse, as +there may be letters in the wallets. I have spoken, Ahmed Ullah. See +that I am obeyed.”</p> + +<p>The moulvie said no word. He went back to his praying mat and bent again +toward the west, where the Holy Kaaba enshrines the ruby sent down from +heaven. But though his lips muttered the rubric of the Koran, his heart +whispered other things, and chief among them was the vow that ere many +days be passed he would so contrive affairs that no woman’s whim should +thwart his judgment.</p> + +<p>So the clouded day broke sullenly, with gusts of warm rain and red +gleams of a sun striving to disperse the mists. And the earth soaked and +steamed and threw off fever-laden vapors as she nursed the grain to life +and bade the arid plain clothe itself in summer greenery. It was a bad +day to lie wounded and ill and a prisoner, and despite the cooling +showers, it was a hot day to ride far and fast.</p> + +<p>Hence it was long past noon when a servant announced to the Begum that +the sahib—for thus the man described Malcolm until sharply admonished +to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>learn the new order of speech—the Nazarene, then, was somewhat +recovered from his faintness. And about the same hour, when a subadar of +the 7th Cavalry clattered into Rai Bareilly and was told that a certain +Feringhi whom he sought was safely laid by the heels there, so sultry +was the atmosphere that he seemed to be quite glad of the news.</p> + +<p>“Shabash!” he cried, as he dismounted. “May I never drink at the White +Pond of the Prophet if that be not good hearing! So you have caught him, +brethren! Wao, wao! you have done a great thing. He is not killed?—No? +That is well, for he is sorely wanted at Lucknow. Tie him tightly, +though. He is a fox in guile, and might give me the slip again. May his +bones bleach in an infidel’s grave!—I have hunted him fifty miles, yet +scarce a man I met had seen him!”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>WHEREIN FATE PLAYS TRICKS WITH MALCOLM</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">I</span>f it is difficult for the present generation to understand the manners +and ways of its immediate forbears, how much more difficult to ask it to +appreciate the extraordinary features of the siege of Lucknow! Let the +reader who knows London imagine some parish in the heart of the city +barricading itself behind a mud wall against its neighbors: let him +garrison this flimsy fortress with sixteen hundred and ninety-two +combatants, of whom a large number were men of an inferior race and of +doubtful loyalty to those for whom they were fighting, while scores of +the Europeans were infirm pensioners: let him cram the rest of the +available shelter with women and children: let him picture the network +of narrow streets, tall houses and a few open spaces—often separated +from the enemy only by the width of a lane—as being subjected to +interminable bombardment at point-blank range, and he will have a clear +notion of some, at least, of the conditions which obtained in Lucknow +when that gloomy July 1st carried on the murderous work begun on the +previous evening.</p> + +<p>The Residency itself was the only strong building in an enclosure seven +hundred yards long and four hundred <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>yards wide, though by no means so +large in area as these figures suggest. The whole position was +surrounded by an adobe wall and ditch, strengthened at intervals by a +gate or a stouter embrasure for a gun. The other structures, such as the +Banqueting Hall, which was converted into a hospital, the Treasury, the +Brigade Mess, the Begum Kotee, the Barracks, and a few nondescript +houses and offices, were utterly unsuited for defense against musketry +alone. As to their capacity to resist artillery fire, that was a grim +jest with the inmates, who dreaded the fallen masonry as much as the +rebel shells.</p> + +<p>Even the Residency was forced to use its underground rooms for the +protection of the greater part of the women and children, while the +remaining buildings, except the Begum Kotee, which was comparatively +sheltered on all sides, were so exposed to the enemy’s guns that when +some sort of clearance was made in October, four hundred and thirty-five +cannon-balls were taken out of the Brigade Mess alone.</p> + +<p>Before the siege commenced the British also occupied a strong palace +called the Muchee Bhowun, standing outside the entrenchment and +commanding the stone bridge across the river Goomtee. A few hours’ +experience revealed the deadly peril to which its small garrison was +exposed, and Lawrence decided at all costs to abandon it. A rude +semaphore was erected on the roof of the Residency, and on the first +morning of the siege, three officers signaled to the commandant of the +outlying fort, Colonel Palmer, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>that he was to spike his guns, blow up +the building and bring his men into the main position. The three did +their signaling under a heavy fire, but they were understood. Happily, +the prospect of loot in the city drew off thousands of the rebels after +sunset, and Colonel Palmer marched out quietly at midnight. A few +minutes later an appalling explosion shook every house in Lucknow. The +Muchee Bhowun, with its immense stores, had been blown to the sky.</p> + +<p>That same day Lawrence received what the Celtic soldiers among the +garrison regarded as a warning of his approaching end. He was working in +his room with his secretary when a shell crashed through the wall and +burst at the feet of the two men. Neither was injured, but Captain +Wilson, one of his staff-officers, begged the Chief to remove his office +to a less exposed place.</p> + +<p>“Nothing of the kind,” said Sir Henry, cheerfully. “The sepoys don’t +possess an artilleryman good enough to throw a second shell into the +same spot.”</p> + +<p>“It will please all of us if you give in on this point, sir,” persisted +Wilson.</p> + +<p>“Oh, well, if you put it that way, I will turn out to-morrow,” was the +smiling answer.</p> + +<p>Next morning at eight o’clock, after a round of inspection, the general, +worn out by anxiety and want of sleep, threw himself on a bed in a +corner of the room.</p> + +<p>Wilson came in.</p> + +<p>“Don’t forget your promise, sir,” he said.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p><p>“I have not forgotten, but I am too tired to move now. Give me another +hour or two.”</p> + +<p>Lawrence went on to explain some orders to his aide. While they were +talking another shell entered the small apartment, exploded, and filled +the air with dust and stifling fumes. Wilson’s ears were stunned by the +noise, but he cried out twice:</p> + +<p>“Sir Henry, are you hurt?”</p> + +<p>Lawrence murmured something, and Wilson rushed to his side. The coverlet +of the bed was crimson with blood. Some men of the 32d ran in and +carried their beloved leader to another room. Then a surgeon came and +pronounced the wound to be mortal. On the morning of the 4th Lawrence +died. He was conscious to the last, and passed his final hours planning +and contriving and making arrangements for the continuance of the +defense.</p> + +<p>“Never surrender!” was his dying injunction. Shot and shell battered +unceasingly against the walls of Dr. Fayrer’s house in which he lay +dying, but their terrors never shook that stout heart, and he died as he +lived, a splendid example of an officer and a gentleman, a type of all +that is best and noblest in the British character.</p> + +<p>And Death, who did not spare the Chief, sought lowlier victims. During +the first week of the siege the average number killed daily was twenty. +Even when the troops learnt to avoid the exposed places, and began to +practise the little tricks and artifices that tempt an enemy to reveal +his whereabouts to his own <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>undoing, the daily death-roll was ten for +more than a month.</p> + +<p>There was no real safety anywhere. Even in the Begum Kotee, where +Winifred and the other ladies of the garrison were lodged, some of them +were hit. Twice ere the end of July Winifred awoke in the morning to +find bullets on the floor and the mortar of the wall broken within a few +inches of her head. That she slept soundly under such conditions is a +remarkable tribute to human nature’s knack of adapting itself to +circumstances. After a few days of excessive nervousness the most +timorous among the women were heard to complain of the monotony of +existence!</p> + +<p>And two amazing facts stand out from the record of guard-mounting, +cartridge-making, cooking, cleaning, and the rest of the every-day +doings inseparable from life even in a siege. Although the rebels now +numbered at least twenty thousand men, including six thousand trained +soldiers, they were long in hardening their hearts to attempt that +escalade which, if undertaken on the last day of June, could scarcely +have failed to be successful. They were not cowards. They gave proof in +plenty of their courage and fighting stamina. Yet they cringed before +men whom they had learnt to regard as the dominant race. The other +equally surprising element in the situation was the readiness of the +garrison, doomed by all the laws of war to early extinction, to extract +humor out of its forlorn predicament.</p> + +<p>The most dangerous post in the entrenchment was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>the Cawnpore Battery. +It was commanded by a building known as Johannes’ House, whence an +African negro, christened “Bob the Nailer” by the wits of the 32d, +picked off dozens of the defenders during the opening days of the siege. +What quarrel this stranger in a strange land had with the English no one +knows, but the defenders were well aware of his identity, and annoyed +him by exhibiting a most unflattering effigy. Needless to say, the +whites of his eyes and his woolly hair were reproduced with marked +effect, and “Bob the Nailer” gave added testimony of his skill with a +rifle by shooting out both eyes in the dummy figure.</p> + +<p>Winifred had heard of this man. Once she actually saw him while she was +peeping through a forbidden casement. Knowing the wholesale destruction +of her fellow-countrymen with which he was credited, she had it in her +heart to wish that she held a gun at that moment, and she would surely +have done her best to kill him.</p> + +<p>He disappeared and she turned away with a sigh, to meet her uncle +hastening towards her.</p> + +<p>“Ah, Winifred,” he cried, “what were you doing there? Looking out, I am +certain. Have you forgotten the punishment inflicted on Lot’s wife when +she would not obey orders?”</p> + +<p>“I have just had a glimpse of that dreadful negro in Johannes’ House,” +she said.</p> + +<p>Mr. Mayne threw down a bundle of clothes he was carrying. He unslung his +rifle. His face, tanned by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>exposure to sun and rain, lost some of its +brick-red color.</p> + +<p>“Are you sure?” he whispered, as if their voices might betray them. Like +every other man in the garrison he longed to check the career of “Bob +the Nailer.”</p> + +<p>“It is too late,” said the girl. “He was visible only for an instant. +Look! I saw him at that window.”</p> + +<p>She partly opened the wooden shutter again and pointed to an upper story +of the opposite building. Almost instantly a bullet imbedded itself in +the solid planks. Some watcher had noted the opportunity and taken it. +Winifred coolly closed the casement and adjusted its cross-bar.</p> + +<p>“Perhaps it is just as well you missed the chance,” she said. “You might +have been shot yourself while you were taking aim.”</p> + +<p>“And what about you, my lady?”</p> + +<p>“I sha’n’t offend again, uncle, dear. I really could not tell you why I +looked out just now. Things were quiet, I suppose. And I forgot that the +opening of a window would attract attention. But why in the world are +you bringing me portions of Mr. Malcolm’s uniform? That is what you have +in the bundle, is it not?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. The three men who shared his room are dead, and the place is +wanted as an extra ward. I happened to hear of it, so I have rescued his +belongings.”</p> + +<p>“Do you—do you think he will ever claim them, or that we shall live to +safeguard them?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p><p>“My dear one, that is as Providence directs. It is something to be +thankful for that we are alive and uninjured. And that reminds me. They +need a lot of bandages in the hospital. Will you tear Malcolm’s linen +into strips? I will come for them after the last post.”<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>He hurried away, leaving the odd collection of garments with her. The +clothes were her lover’s parade uniform, which Malcolm had carried from +Meerut in a valise strapped behind the saddle. The other articles were +purchased in Lucknow and had never been worn. In comparison with the +smart full-dress kit of a cavalry officer and the spotless linen, a +soiled and mud-spattered turban looked singularly out of place. It was +as though some tatterdemalion had thrust himself into a gathering of +dandies.</p> + +<p>Being a woman, Winifred gave no heed to the fact that the metal badge on +the crossed folds was not that worn by an officer, nor did she observe +that it carried the crest of the 2d Cavalry, whereas Malcolm’s regiment +was the 3d. But, being also a very thrifty and industrious little +person, she decided to untie the turban, wash it, and use its many yards +of fine muslin for the manufacture of lint.</p> + +<p>The folds of a turban are usually kept in position by pins, but when she +came to examine this one she discovered that it was tied with whip-cord. +Her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>knowledge of native headgear was not extensive, so this measure of +extra security did not surprise her. A pair of scissors soon overcame +the difficulty; she shook out the neat folds, and a pearl necklace and a +piece of paper fell to the floor.</p> + +<p>She was alone in her room at the moment. No one heard her cry of +surprise, almost of terror. One glance at the glistening pearls told her +that they were of exceeding value. They ranged from the size of a small +pea to that of a large marble; their white sheen and velvet purity +bespoke rareness and skilled selection. The setting alone would vouch +for their quality. Each pearl was secured to its neighbor by clasps and +links of gold, while a brooch-like fastening in front was studded with +fine diamonds. Winifred sank to her knees. She picked up this remarkable +ornament as gingerly as if she were handling a dead snake. In the vivid +light the pearls shimmered with wonderful and ever-changing tints. They +seemed to whisper of love, and hate—of all the passions that stir heart +and brain into frenzy—and through a mist of fear and awed questioning +came a doubt, a suspicion, a searching of her soul as she recalled +certain things which the thrilling events of her recent life had dulled +almost to extinction.</p> + +<p>Her uncle had told her of the Princess Roshinara’s words to Malcolm on +that memorable night of May 10, when he rode out from Meerut to help +them. At the time, perhaps, a little pang of jealousy made its presence +felt, for no woman can bear to hear of another <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>woman’s overtures to her +lover. The meeting at Bithoor helped to dispel that half-formed +illusion, and she had not troubled since to ask herself why the Princess +Roshinara was so ready to help Malcolm to escape. She never dreamed that +she herself was a pawn in the game that was intended to bring Nana Sahib +to Delhi. But now, with this royal trinket glittering in her hands, she +could hardly fail to connect it with the only Indian princess of whom +she had any knowledge, and the torturing fact was seemingly undeniable +that Malcolm had this priceless necklace in his possession without +telling her of its existence. Certainly he had chosen a singular +hiding-place, and never did man treat such a treasure with such apparent +carelessness. But—there it was. The studied simplicity of its +concealment had been effective. She had heard, long since, how he parted +from Lawrence on the Chinhut road. Since that hour there was no possible +means of communicating with Lucknow, even though he had reached +Allahabad safely.</p> + +<p>And he had never told her a word about it. It was that that rankled. +Poor Winifred rose from her knees in a mood perilously akin to her +hatred of the negro who dealt death or disablement to her friends of the +garrison, but, this time, it was a woman, not a man, whom she regarded +as the enemy.</p> + +<p>Then, in a bitter temper, she stooped again to rescue the bit of +discolored paper that had fallen with the pearls. Her anger was not +lessened by finding that it was covered with Hindustani characters. +They, of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>course, offered her no clue to the solution of the mystery +that was wringing her heartstrings. If anything, the illegible scrawl +only added to her distress. The document was something unknown; +therefore, it lent itself to distrust.</p> + +<p>At any rate, the turban was destined not to be shredded into lint that +day. She busied herself with tearing up the rest of the linen. When +night came, and Mr. Mayne could leave his post, she showed him the paper +and asked him to translate it.</p> + +<p>He was a good Eastern scholar, but the dull rays of a small oil lamp +were not helpful in a task always difficult to English eyes. He bent his +brows over the script and began to decipher some of the words.</p> + +<p>“‘Malcolm-sahib ... the Company’s 3d Regiment of Horse ... heaven-born +Princess Roshinara Begum....’ Where in the world did you get this, +Winifred, and how did it come into your possession?” he said.</p> + +<p>“It was in Mr. Malcolm’s turban—the one you brought me to-day from his +quarters.”</p> + +<p>“In his turban? Do you mean that it was hidden there?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, something of the kind.”</p> + +<p>Mayne examined the paper again.</p> + +<p>“That is odd,” he muttered after a pause.</p> + +<p>“But what does the writing mean? You say it mentions his name and that +of the Princess Roshinara? Surely it has some definite significance?”</p> + +<p>The Commissioner was so taken up with the effort <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>to give each spidery +curve and series of distinguishing dots and vowel marks their proper +bearing in the text that he did not catch the note of disdain in his +niece’s voice.</p> + +<p>“I have it now,” he said, peering at the document while he held it close +to the lamp. “It is a sort of pass. It declares that Mr. Malcolm is a +friend of the Begum and gives him safe conduct if he visits Delhi within +three days of the date named here, but I cannot tell when that would be, +until I consult a native calendar. It is signed by Bahadur Shah and is +altogether a somewhat curious thing to be in Malcolm’s possession. Is +that all you know of it—merely that it was stuck in a fold of his +turban?”</p> + +<p>“This accompanied it,” said Winifred, with a restraint that might have +warned her hearer of the passion it strove to conceal. But Mayne was +deaf to Winifred’s coldness. If he was startled before, he was +positively amazed when she produced the necklace.</p> + +<p>He took it, appraised its value silently, and scrutinized the +workmanship in the gold links.</p> + +<p>“Made in Delhi,” he half whispered. “A wonderful thing, probably worth +two lakhs of rupees,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> or even more. It is old, too. The craftsman who +fashioned this clasp is not to be found nowadays. Why, it may have been +worn by Nurmahal herself! Each of its fifty pearls could supply a +chapter of a romance. And you found it, together with this safe-conduct, +in Malcolm’s turban?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p><p>“Yes, uncle. Do you think I would speak carelessly of such a precious +object? When one has discovered a treasure it is a trait of human nature +to note pretty closely the place where it came to light.”</p> + +<p>Mayne was yet too much taken up with puzzling side-issues to pay heed to +Winifred’s demeanor. He remembered the extraordinary proposal made by +Roshinara to Malcolm ere she drove away to Delhi from her father’s +hunting lodge. Could it be possible that his young friend had met the +princess on other occasions than that which Malcolm laughingly described +as the lunging of Nejdi and the plunging of his master? It occurred to +him now, with a certain chilling misgiving, that he had himself broken +in with a bewildered exclamation when Frank seemed to regard the +Princess’s offer of employment in her service as worthy of serious +thought. There were other aspects of the affair, aspects so sinister +that he almost refused to harbor them. Rather to gain time than with any +definite motive, he stooped over the pass again, meaning to read it word +for word.</p> + +<p>“Of course you have not forgotten, uncle, that Mr. Malcolm took us into +his confidence so far as to tell us of the curious letter that reached +him after the second battle outside Delhi?” said Winifred. “It saved him +at Bithoor when the men from Cawnpore meant to hang him, and, seeing +that he had the one article in his possession, it is passing strange +that he should have omitted to mention the other—to me.”</p> + +<p>Then the man knew what it all meant to the girl. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>He placed his arm +around her neck and drew her towards him.</p> + +<p>“My poor Winifred!” he murmured, “you might at least have been spared +such a revelation at this moment.”</p> + +<p>His sympathy broke down her pride. She sobbed as though her heart would +yield beneath the strain. For a little while there was no sound in the +room but Winifred’s plaints, while ever and anon the walls shook with +the crash of the cannonade and the bursting of shells.</p> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<p>Ahmed Ullah, Moulvie of Fyzabad, had a quick ear for the arrival of the +native officer of cavalry from Lucknow.</p> + +<p>“Peace be with thee, brother!” said he, after a shrewd glance at the +travel-worn and blood-stained man and horse. “Thou has ridden far and +fast. What news hast thou of the Jehad,<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> and how fares it at +Lucknow?”</p> + +<p>“With thee be peace!” was the reply. “We fought the Nazarenes yesterday +at a place called Chinhut, and sent hundreds of the infidel dogs to the +fifth circle of Jehannum. The few who escaped our swords are penned up +in the Residency, and its walls are now crumbling before our guns. By +the tomb of Nizam-ud-din, the unbelievers must have fallen ere the +present hour.”</p> + +<p>The moulvie’s wicked eyes sparkled.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p><p>“Praise be to Allah and his Prophet forever!” he cried. “How came this +thing to pass?”</p> + +<p>“My regiment took the lead,” said the rissaldar, proudly. “We had long +chafed under the commands of the huzoors. At last we rose and made short +work of our officers. You see here—” and he touched a rent in his right +side, “where one of them tried to stop the thrust that ended him. But I +clave him to the chin, the swine-eater, and when Larrence-sahib attacked +us at Chinhut we chased him over the Canal and through the streets.”</p> + +<p>“Wao! wao! This is good hearing! Wast thou sent by some of the faithful +to summon me, brother?”</p> + +<p>“To summon thee and all true believers to the green standard. Yet had I +one other object in riding to Rai Bareilly. A certain Nazarene, Malcolm +by name, an officer of the 3d Cavalry, was bidden by Larrence to make +for Allahabad and seek help. The story runs that the Nazarenes are +mustering there for a last stand ere we drive them into the sea. This +Malcolm-sahib—”</p> + +<p>“Enough!” said the moulvie, fiercely, for his self-love was wounded at +learning that the rebel messenger classed him with the mob. “We have him +here. He is in safe keeping when he is in the hands of Ahmed Ullah!”</p> + +<p>“What!” exclaimed the newcomer with a mighty oath. “Are you the saintly +Moulvie of Fyzabad?”</p> + +<p>“Whom else, then, did you expect to find?”</p> + +<p>“You, indeed, O revered one. But not here. My orders were, once I had +secured the Nazarene, to send <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>urgently to Fyzabad and bid you hurry to +Lucknow with all speed.”</p> + +<p>“Ha! Say’st thou, friend. Who gave thee this message?”</p> + +<p>“One whom thou wilt surely listen to. Yet these things are not for every +man to hear. We must speak of them apart.”</p> + +<p>The moulvie was appeased. Nay, more, his ambition was fired.</p> + +<p>“Come with me into the house. You are in need of food and rest. Come! We +can talk while you eat.”</p> + +<p>He drew nearer, but a woman’s voice was raised from behind a screen in +one of the rooms.</p> + +<p>“Tarry yet a minute, friend. I would learn more of events in Lucknow. +Tell us more fully what has taken place there.”</p> + +<p>“The Begum of Oudh must be obeyed,” said Ahmed Ullah with a warning +glance at the other. He was met with a villainous and intriguing look +that would have satisfied Machiavelli, but the officer bowed low before +the screen.</p> + +<p>“I am, indeed, honored to be the bearer of good tidings to royal ears,” +said he. “Doubtless I should have been entrusted with letters for your +highness were not the city in some confusion owing to the fighting.”</p> + +<p>“Who commands our troops?” came the sharp demand.</p> + +<p>“At present, your highness, the Nawab of Rampur represents the King of +Oudh.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p><p>“The Nawab of Rampur! That cannot be tolerated. Ahmed Ullah!”</p> + +<p>“I am here,” growled the moulvie, smiling sourly.</p> + +<p>“We must depart within the hour. Let my litter be prepared, and send men +on horseback to provide relays of carriers every ten miles. Delay not. +The matter presses.”</p> + +<p>There could be no mistaking the agitation of the hidden speaker. That an +admitted rival of her father’s dynasty should be even the nominal leader +of the revolt was not to be endured. The mere suggestion of such a thing +was gall and wormwood. None realized better than this arch-priestess of +cabal that a predominating influence gained at the outset of a new +régime might never be weakened by those who were shut out by +circumstances from a share in the control of events. Even the fanatical +moulvie gasped at this intelligence, though his shrewd wit taught him +that the rissaldar had not exchanged glances with him without good +reason.</p> + +<p>“Come, then,” said he, “and eat. I have much occupation, and it will +free thy hands if I see to the hanging of the Feringhi forthwith.”</p> + +<p>“Nay, that cannot be,” was the cool reply, as the two entered the +building. “I would not have ridden so hard through the night for the +mere stringing up of one Nazarene. By the holy Kaaba, we gave dozens of +them a speedier death yesterday.”</p> + +<p>“What other errand hast thou? The matter touches only the Nazarene’s +attempt to reach Allahabad, I suppose?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p><p>“That is a small thing. Our brothers at Cawnpore may have secured +Allahabad and other towns in the Doab long ere to-day. This Frank comes +back with me to Lucknow. If I bring him alive I earn a jaghir,<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> if +dead, only a few gold mohurs.”</p> + +<p>“Thy words are strange, brother.”</p> + +<p>“Not so strange as the need that this Feringhi should live till he +reaches Lucknow. He hath in his keeping certain papers that concern the +Roshinara Begum of Delhi, and he must be made to confess their +whereabouts. So far as that goes, what is the difference between a tree +in Rai Bareilly and a tree in Lucknow?”</p> + +<p>“True, if the affair presses. Nevertheless, to those who follow me, I +may have the bestowing of many jaghirs.”</p> + +<p>“I will follow thee with all haste, O holy one,” was the answer, “but a +field in a known village is larger than a township in an unknown +kingdom. Let me secure this jaghir first, O worthy of honor, and I shall +come quickly to thee for the others.”</p> + +<p>“How came it that Nawab of Rampur assumed the leadership?” inquired +Ahmed Ullah, his mind reverting to the graver topic of the rebellion.</p> + +<p>The other scowled sarcastically.</p> + +<p>“He is of no account,” he muttered. “Was I mistaken in thinking that +thou didst not want all my budget opened for a woman? He who gave me a +message for thee was the moullah who dwells near the Imambara. Dost thou +not know him? Ghazi-ud-din. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span><i>He</i> sent me. ‘Tell the Moulvie of Fyzabad +that he is wanted—he will understand,’ said he. And now, when I have +eaten, lead me to the Feringhi. Leave him to me. Within two days I shall +have more news for thee.”</p> + +<p>The name of Ghazi-ud-din, a firebrand of the front rank in Lucknow, +proved to Ahmed Ullah that his opportunity had come. He gave orders that +the wants of the cavalry officer and his horse were to be attended to, +while he himself bustled off to prepare for an immediate journey.</p> + +<p>When the Begum and the moulvie departed for Lucknow they were +accompanied by nearly the whole of their retinue. Two men were left to +assist the rissaldar in taking care of the prisoner, and these two vowed +by the Prophet that they had never met such a swashbuckler as the +stranger, for he used strange oaths that delighted them and told stories +of the sacking of Lucknow that made them tingle with envy.</p> + +<p>Oddly enough, he was very anxious that the Nazarene’s horse should be +recovered, and was so pleased to hear that Nejdi was caught in a field +on the outskirts of the town and brought in during the afternoon that he +promised his assistants a handful of gold mohurs apiece—when they +reached Lucknow.</p> + +<p>Once, ere sunset, he visited the prisoner and cursed him with a fluency +that caused all listeners to own that the warriors of the 7th Cavalry +must, indeed, be fine fellows.</p> + +<p>At last, when Frank was led forth and helped into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>the saddle, his +guardian’s flow of humorous invective reached heights that pleased the +villagers immensely. The Nazarene’s hands were tied behind him, and the +gallant rissaldar, holding the Arab’s reins, rode by his side. The +moulvie’s men followed, and in this guise the quartette quitted Rai +Bareilly for the north.</p> + +<p>They were about a mile on their way and the sun was nearing the horizon, +when the native officer bade his escort halt.</p> + +<p>“Bones of Mahomet!” he cried, “what am I thinking of? My horse has done +fifty miles in twenty-four hours, and the Feringhi’s probably more than +that. Hath not the moulvie friends in Rai Bareilly who will lend us a +spare pair?”</p> + +<p>Ahmed Ullah’s retainers hazarded the opinion that their master’s +presence might be necessary ere friendship stood such a strain.</p> + +<p>“Then why not make the Nazarene pay for his journey?” said the rissaldar +with grim humor.</p> + +<p>He showed skill as a cut-purse in going straight to an inner pocket +where Malcolm carried some small store of money. Taking ten gold mohurs, +he told the men to hasten back to the village and purchase a couple of +strong ponies.</p> + +<p>“Nay,” said he, when they made to ride off. “You must go afoot, else I +may never again see you or the tats. I will abide here till you return. +See that you lose no time, but if darkness falls speedily I will await +you in the next village.”</p> + +<p>Not daring to argue with this truculent-looking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>bravo, the men obeyed. +Already it was dusk and daylight would soon fail. No sooner had they +disappeared round the first bend in the road than the rissaldar, +unfastening Malcolm’s bonds the while, said with a strange humility:</p> + +<p>“It was easier done than I expected, sahib, but I guessed that my story +about the Nawab of Rampur would send Moulvie and Begum packing. Now we +are free, and we have four horses. Whither shall we go? But, if it be +north, south, east, or west, let us leave the main road, for messengers +may meet the moulvie and that would make him suspicious.”</p> + +<p>“Thy counsel is better than mine, good friend,” was Frank’s answer. “I +am yet dazed with thy success, and my only word is—to Allahabad.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>A DAY’S ADVENTURES</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>hough his arm was stiff and painful, the rough bandaging it had +received and the coarse food given him in sufficient quantity at Rai +Bareilly, had partly restored Malcolm’s strength. Nevertheless he +thought his mind was failing when, in the dim light of the inner room in +which he was confined, he saw Chumru standing before him.</p> + +<p>His servant’s warlike attire was sufficiently bewildering, and the +sonorous objurgations with which he was greeted were not calculated to +dispel the cloud over his wits, but a whispered sentence gave hope, and +hope is a wonderful restorative.</p> + +<p>“Pretend not to know me, sahib, and all will be well,” said his +unexpected ally, and, from that instant until they stood together on the +Lucknow road, Malcolm had guarded tongue and eye in the firm faith that +Chumru would save him.</p> + +<p>He was not mistaken. The adroit Mohammedan knew better than to trust his +sahib and himself too long on the highway.</p> + +<p>“They will surely make search for us, huzoor,” he said as they headed +across country towards a distant <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>ridge, thickly coated with trees. “The +Begum and Ahmed Ullah met here for a purpose, and their friends will not +fail to tell them of the trouble in Lucknow. I have been shaking in my +boots all day, for ’tis ill resting in the jungle when tigers are loose, +but I knew you could not ride in the sun, and I saw no other way of +getting rid of the moulvie’s men than that of sending them back in the +dark.”</p> + +<p>“It seems to me,” said Malcolm, with a weak laugh, “that you would not +have scrupled to knock both of them on the head if necessary.”</p> + +<p>“No, sahib, they are my kin. He who wore this uniform was a Brahmin, and +that makes all the difference. Brother does not slay brother unless +there be a woman in dispute.”</p> + +<p>“When did you leave the Residency?”</p> + +<p>“About nine o’clock last night, sahib.”</p> + +<p>“Did you see the miss-sahib before you came away?”</p> + +<p>“It was she who told me whither you had gone, sahib.”</p> + +<p>“Ah, she knew, then? Did she say aught—send any message?”</p> + +<p>“Only that you would be certain to need my help, sahib.”</p> + +<p>That puzzled Frank. Winifred, of course, had said nothing of the kind, +but Chumru assumed that she understood him, so his misrepresentation was +quite honest.</p> + +<p>A level path now enabled them to canter, and they reached the first belt +of trees ten minutes after the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>moulvie’s men set out for Rai Bareilly. +Luck, which was befriending Chumru that day, must have made possible +that burst of speed at the right moment. They were discussing their +plans in the gloom of a grove of giant pipals when the clatter of horses +hard ridden came from the road they had just quitted.</p> + +<p>There could be no doubting the errand that brought a cavalcade thus +furiously from the direction of Lucknow. It was so near a thing that for +a little while they could not be certain they had escaped unseen. But +the riders whirled along towards Rai Bareilly, and in another quarter of +an hour the night would be their best guardian.</p> + +<p>“That settles it,” said Malcolm, in whose veins the blood was now +coursing with its normal vitality, though, for the same reason, his +right forearm ached abominably. “It would be folly to attempt the road +again. Let us make for the river. We must find a boat there, and get men +to take us to Allahabad, either by hire or force.”</p> + +<p>“How far is it to the river, sahib?”</p> + +<p>“About twenty-five miles.”</p> + +<p>“Praise be to Allah! That is better than seventy, for my feet are weary +of that accursed Brahmin’s boots.”</p> + +<p>They stumbled on, leading the horses, until the first dark hour made +progress impossible. Then, when the evening mists melted and the stars +gave a faint light, they resumed the march, for every mile gained now +was worth five at dawn if perchance their hunters <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>thought of making a +circular sweep of the country in the neighborhood of Rai Bareilly.</p> + +<p>It was a glorious night. The rain of the preceding day had freshened the +air, and towards midnight the moon sailed into the blue arc overhead, so +they were able to mount again and travel at a faster pace. Twice they +were warned by the barking of dogs of the proximity of small villages. +They gave these places a wide berth, since there was no knowing what hap +might bring a ryot who had seen them into communication with the +moulvie’s followers.</p> + +<p>Each hamlet marked the center of a cultivated area. They could +distinguish the jungle from the arable land almost by the animals they +disturbed. A gray wolf, skulking through the sparsely wooded waste, +would be succeeded by a herd of timid deer. Then a sounder of pigs, +headed by a ten-inch tusker, would scamper out of the border crop, while +a pack of jackals, rending the calm night with their maniac yelping, +would start every dog within a mile into a frenzy of hoarse barking. +Sometimes a fox slunk across their path. Out of many a tuft they drove a +startled hare. In the dense undergrowth hummed and rustled a hidden life +of greater mystery.</p> + +<p>Where water lodged after the rain there were countless millions of +frogs, croaking in harsh chorus, and being ceaselessly hunted by the +snakes which the monsoon had driven from their nooks and crannies in the +rocks. On such a night all India seems to be dead as a land but +tremendously alive as a storehouse <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>of insects, animals, and reptiles. +Even the air has its strange denizens in the guise of huge beetles and +vampire-winged flying foxes. And that is why men call it the unchanging +East. Civilization has made but few marks on its far-flung plains. Its +peoples are either nomads or dwell in huts of mud and straw and scratch +the earth to grow their crops as their forbears have done since the dawn +of history.</p> + +<p>When the amber and rose tints of dawn gave distance to the horizon the +fugitives estimated that they had traversed some fifteen miles. Malcolm +was ready to drop with fatigue. He was wounded; he had not slept during +two nights; he had fought in a lost battle and ridden sixty-five miles, +without counting his exertions before going to the field of Chinhut. +Nejdi and the horse which brought Chumru from Lucknow were nearly +exhausted. Even the hardy Mohammedan was haggard and spent, and his +oblique eyes glowed like the red embers of a dying fire.</p> + +<p>“Sahib,” he said, when they came upon a villager and his wife scraping +opium from unripe poppy-heads in a field, “unless we rest and eat we +shall find no boat on Ganga to-day.”</p> + +<p>This was so undeniable that Malcolm did not hesitate to ask the ryot for +milk and eggs. The man was civil. Indeed, he thought the Englishman was +some important official and took Chumru for his native deputy. He threw +down the scoop, handed to his wife an earthen vessel half full of the +milky sap gathered from the plants, and led the “huzoors” at once to his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>shieling. Here he produced some ghee and chupatties, and half a dozen +raw eggs. The feast might not tempt an epicure, but its components were +excellent and Frank was well aware that the ghee was exceedingly +nutritious, though nauseating to European taste, being practically +rancid butter made from buffalo milk.</p> + +<p>There was plenty of fodder for the horses, too, and they showed their +good condition by eating freely. The ryot eyed Chumru doubtingly when +Malcolm gave him five rupees. Under ordinary conditions, the sahib’s +native assistant would demand the return of the money at the first +convenient moment, and, indeed, Chumru himself was in the habit of +exacting a stiff commission on his master’s disbursements. Frank smiled +at the man’s embarrassed air.</p> + +<p>“The money is thine, friend,” said he, quietly, “and there is more to be +earned if thou art so minded.”</p> + +<p>“I am but a poor man—” began the ryot.</p> + +<p>“Just so. Not every day canst thou obtain good payment for a few hours’ +work. Now, listen. How far is the Ganges from here?”</p> + +<p>“Less than three hours, sahib.”</p> + +<p>“What, for horses?”</p> + +<p>“Not so, sahib. A horse can cover the distance in an hour—if he be not +weary.”</p> + +<p>The peasant could use his eyes, it seemed, but Malcolm passed the phrase +without comment.</p> + +<p>“We have lost our way,” he said. “We want to reach the river and take +boat speedily to Allahabad. If one like thyself were willing to ride +with us to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>nearest village on the bank where boats can be obtained, +we would give him ten rupees, and, moreover, let him keep the horse that +carried him.”</p> + +<p>The ryot was delighted with his good fortune.</p> + +<p>“Blessed be Kali!” he cried. “I saw five female ghosts with goats’ heads +in a tree last night, and my wife said it betokened a journey and +wealth. Not only can I bring you by the shortest road, huzoor, but my +brother has a budgerow moored at the ghât, meaning to carry my +castor-oil seeds to Mirzapur. I am not ready for him yet for three weeks +or more, and he will ask no better occupation than to drop down stream +with you and your camp.”</p> + +<p>“I have no camp,” said Malcolm, “but I pay the same rates for the boat.”</p> + +<p>“The sahib means that his camp marches by road,” put in Chumru, +severely. “Didst not hear him say that we have mislaid the track?”</p> + +<p>The ryot apologized for his stupidity, and Frank recognized that his +retainer disapproved very strongly of such strict adherence to the +truth. On the plea that they must hasten if the midday heat were to be +avoided, they cut short the halt to less than an hour. When they came to +tighten the girths again they found that Chumru’s horse had fallen lame. +As Nejdi, too, was showing signs of stiffness, Malcolm mounted one of +the spare animals and led the Arab. Chumru and the ryot bestrode the +third horse, and under the guidance of one who knew every path, they set +out for the Ganges.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p><p>There are few features of the landscape so complex in their windings as +the foot-paths of India. Owing to the immense distances between +towns—the fertile and densely populated Doab offers no standard of +comparison for the remainder of a vast continent—roads were scarce and +far between in Mutiny days. The Grand Trunk Road and the rivers Ganges +and Jumna were the main arteries of traffic. For the rest, men marched +across country, and the narrow ribands of field tracks meandered through +plowed land and jungle, traversed nullah and hill and wood, and +intersected each other in a tangle that was wholly inextricable unless +one traveled by the compass or by well-known landmarks, where such were +visible.</p> + +<p>The ryot, of course, familiar with each yard of the route, practically +followed a straight line. After a steady jog of an hour and a half they +saw the silver thread of the Ganges from the crest of a small ridge that +ran north and south. The river was then about three miles distant, and +they were hurrying down the descent when they came upon an ekka, a +little native two-wheeled cart, without springs, and drawn by a +diminutive pony. Alone among wheeled conveyances, the ekka can leave the +main roads in fairly level country, and this one had evidently brought a +zemindar from a river-side village.</p> + +<p>The man himself, a portly, full-bearded Mohammedan, was examining a +growing crop, and his behavior, no less than the furtive looks cast at +the newcomers by his driver, warned Malcolm that here, for a certainty, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>the Mutiny was a known thing. The zemindar’s face assumed a +bronze-green tint when he saw the European officer, and the +sulky-looking native perched behind the shafts of the ekka growled +something in the local patois that caused the ryot sitting behind Chumru +to squirm uneasily.</p> + +<p>The other glanced hastily around, as though he hoped to find assistance +near, and Chumru muttered to his master:</p> + +<p>“Have a care, sahib, else we may hop on to a limed twig.”</p> + +<p>The boldest course was the best one. Malcolm rode up to the zemindar, +who was separated some forty paces from the ekka.</p> + +<p>“I come from Lucknow,” he said. “What news is there from Fattehpore and +Allahabad?”</p> + +<p>The man hesitated. He was so completely taken aback by the sight of an +armed officer riding towards him in broad daylight—for Malcolm having +lost his own sword had taken Chumru’s—that he was hardly prepared to +meet the emergency.</p> + +<p>“There is little news,” he said, at last, and it was not lost on his +questioner that the customary phrases of respect were omitted, though he +spoke civilly enough.</p> + +<p>“Nevertheless, what is it?” demanded Frank. “Has the Mutiny spread thus +far, or is it confined to Cawnpore?”</p> + +<p>“I know not what you mean,” was the self-contained answer. “In this +district we are peaceable people. We look after our crops, even as I am +engaged <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>at this moment, and have no concern with what goes on +elsewhere.”</p> + +<p>“A most worthy and honorable sentiment, and I trust it will avail you +when we have hanged all these rebels and we come to inquire into the +conduct of your village. I want you to accompany me now and place my +orderly and myself on board a boat for Allahabad.”</p> + +<p>“That is impossible—sahib—” and the words came reluctantly—“there are +no boats on the river these days.”</p> + +<p>“Why not?”</p> + +<p>“They are all away, carrying grain and hay.”</p> + +<p>“What then, are your crops so forward? This one will not be ready for +harvesting ere another month.”</p> + +<p>“You will not find a budgerow on this side. Perchance they will ferry +you across at the village in a small boat, and you will have better +accommodation at Fattehpore.”</p> + +<p>“Are we opposite Fattehpore?”</p> + +<p>“Yes—sahib.”</p> + +<p>All the while the zemindar’s eyes were looking furtively from Frank to +the lower ground. It was a puzzling situation. The man was not actively +hostile, yet his manner betrayed an undercurrent of fear and dislike +that could only be accounted for by the downfall of British power in the +locality. Thinking Chumru could deal better with his fellow-countryman, +Malcolm called him, breaking in on a lively conversation that was going +on between his servant and the ekka-wallah.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p><p>Chumru, who had told the ryot to dismount, came at once.</p> + +<p>“Our friend here says that things are quiet on the river, but there are +no boats to be had,” explained Malcolm. Chumru grinned, and the zemindar +regarded him with troubled eyes.</p> + +<p>“Excellent,” he said. “We shall go to his house and wait while his +servants look for a boat.”</p> + +<p>This suggestion seemed to please the other man.</p> + +<p>“I will go on in front in the ekka,” he agreed, “and lead you to my +dwelling speedily.”</p> + +<p>Chumru edged nearer his master while their new acquaintance walked +towards the ekka.</p> + +<p>“Jump down and tie both when I give the word, sahib,” he whispered. +“There has been murder done here.”</p> + +<p>Malcolm understood instantly that his native companion had found the +ekka-wallah more communicative. In fact, Chumru had fooled the man by +pretending a willingness to slay the Feringhi forthwith, and the +sheep-like ryot was now livid with terror at the prospect of witnessing +an immediate killing.</p> + +<p>When the zemindar was close to the ekka, Chumru whipped out one of the +Brahmin’s cavalry pistols.</p> + +<p>“Now, sahib!” he cried. Malcolm drew his sword and sprang down. The +zemindar fell on his knees.</p> + +<p>“Spare my life, huzoor, and I will tell thee everything,” he roared.</p> + +<p>Were he not so worn with fatigue, and were not the issues depending on +the man’s revelations so important, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> Malcolm could have laughed at this +remarkable change of tone. The flabby, well-fed rascal squealed like a +pig when the point of the sword touched his skin, and the Englishman was +forced to scowl fiercely to hide a smile.</p> + +<p>“Speak, <i>sug</i>,”<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> he said. “What of Fattehpore and Allahabad, and be +sure thou has spent thy last hour if thou liest.”</p> + +<p>“Sahib, God knoweth that I can tell thee naught of Allahabad, but the +budmashes at Fattehpore have risen, and Tucker-sahib is dead. They +killed him, I have heard, after a fight on the roof of the cutcherry.”</p> + +<p>Malcolm guessed rightly that Mr. Tucker was the judge at that station, +but he must not betray ignorance.</p> + +<p>“And the others—they who fled? What of them?” he said, knowing that the +scenes enacted elsewhere must have had their counterpart at Fattehpore.</p> + +<p>“Wow!” The kneeling man flinched as the sword pricked him again. “There +are two mems<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> in a house near the ghât. They alone remain of those +who crossed. And I saved them, sahib. I swear it, by the Kaaba, I saved +them.”</p> + +<p>“They are young, doubtless, and good-looking?”</p> + +<p>A new fear shone in the Mohammedan’s eyes, and he did not answer. +Frank’s gorge rose with a deadly disgust, and it is hard to say that his +sword would not have gone home in another instant had not Chumru +interfered:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p><p>“Kill him not yet, sahib. He may be useful. Bind him and the other slave +back to back. Then I shall help you to truss them properly.”</p> + +<p>Chumru soon showed that he meant business. When he was free to replace +the pistol in the holster, which he did all the more readily since he +had never used a firearm in his life, he gagged master and man with +skill, tied them to a tree, and then unfolded the plan which the +ekka-driver’s story had suggested.</p> + +<p>The fever of rebellion had spread along the whole of the left bank of +the Ganges as far as Allahabad. A party of fugitives from Fattehpore who +had taken to a boat were pursued, captured, and slain. Two girls who had +managed to cross the river unseen were now lodged in a go-down, or +warehouse, belonging to the very man whom chance had made Malcolm’s +prisoner. He was keeping them to curry favor with a local rajah who +headed the outbreak at Fattehpore. It was true that there were no boats +left on this side of the river: they were all on the opposite bank, +being loaded with loot, and the two Englishwomen were merely awaiting +the return of the zemindar’s budgerow to be sent to a fate worse than +death.</p> + +<p>Chumru, a Mohammedan himself, was not greatly concerned about the +misfortunes of a couple of women, but he saw plainly that Malcolm could +no more hope to escape under the present conditions than the poor +creatures whose whereabouts had just become known. This was precisely +the blend of intrigue and adventure that appealed to his alert +intelligence. In wriggling through <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>a mesh of difficulties he was lithe +as a snake, and the proposal he now made was certainly bold enough to +commend itself to the most daring.</p> + +<p>He drew Malcolm and the trembling ryot apart.</p> + +<p>“Listen, friend,” said he to the latter. “Thou art, indeed, lost if that +fat hog sees thee again. He will harry thee and thy wife and all thy +family to death for having helped us, and it will be in vain to protest +that thou hadst no mind in the matter, for behold, thou didst not lift a +finger when I threatened him with the pistol.”</p> + +<p>“Protector of the poor, what was one to do?” whined the ryot.</p> + +<p>“I am not thy protector. ’Tis the sahib here to whom thou must look for +counsel. Attend, now, and I will show thee a road to safety and riches. +Art thou known to either of those men?”</p> + +<p>“I have not seen them before, for I come this way but seldom.”</p> + +<p>“’Tis well. The sahib shall sit in the ekka, with the curtains drawn, +while I give it out that I go with my wife to take the miss-sahibs +across the river, for which purpose the worthy zemindar will presently +hand us a written order, as he hath ink, paper, and pen in the ekka. +Thou shalt be driver and come with us on the boat, and when we are in +mid-stream, and the sahib appears at my signal, see that thou hast a +cudgel handy if it be needed. Then, when we reach Allahabad, God +willing, the sahib will give thee many rupees and none will be the +wiser. What say’st thou?”</p> + +<p>“I am a poor man—”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p><p>“Ay, keep to that. ’Tis ever a safe answer. Do you like my notion, +sahib? Otherwise, we must take our chance and wander in the jungle.”</p> + +<p>The fact that Chumru’s scheme included the rescue of the unhappy girls +imprisoned in the go-down caused Malcolm to approve it without reserve. +The zemindar’s gag was removed and he was asked his name.</p> + +<p>“Hossein Beg,” said he.</p> + +<p>“Be assured, then,” said Malcolm, sternly, “that thy life depends on the +fulfilment of the instructions I now require of thee. See to it, +therefore, that they are written in such wise as to insure success, and +I, for my part, promise to send thee succor ere night falls. Write on +this tablet that the miss-sahibs are to be delivered to the charge of +Rissaldar Ali Khan and his wife, for conveyance to Fattehpore, and bid +thy servants help the rissaldar in every possible way. Believe me, if +aught miscarries in this matter, thou shalt rot to death in thy bonds.”</p> + +<p>“Let my servant go with your honor, so that all things may be done +according to your honor’s wishes.”</p> + +<p>“What then? Wouldst thou juggle with the favor I have shown thee?”</p> + +<p>This time the sword impinged on the Adam’s apple in Hossein Beg’s +throat, and he shrank as far as his bonds would permit.</p> + +<p>“Say not so, Khudâwand,”<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> he gurgled. “I swear by my father’s bones I +meant no ill.”</p> + +<p>“Mayhap. Nevertheless, I shall take care thy intent <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>is honest, Hossein +Beg. Write now and pay heed to thy words, else jackals shall rend thee +ere to-morrow’s dawn.”</p> + +<p>By this time the man was reduced to a state of abject submission. +Possibly his offer of the ekka-wallah’s services was made in good faith, +but Malcolm liked the looks of the man as little as he liked the looks +of his master, and he preferred to trust to Chumru’s nimble wits rather +than the stupid contriving of a peasant, no matter how willing the +latter might be.</p> + +<p>The zemindar, having written, was gagged again, and the pair were left +to that torture of silence and doubt they had not scrupled to inflict on +those who had done them no wrong. They were tied to a tree-trunk in the +heart of a clump, and a hundred men might pass in that lonely place +without discovering them, whereas Hossein Beg and his subordinate could +see easily enough through the leafy screen that enveloped their open-air +prison.</p> + +<p>Half an hour later, Hossein Beg’s ekka arrived on the open space that +adjoined the village ghât. At one end was a mosque—at the other a +temple. In the center, at a little distance from the bank, was a square +modern building, evidently the warehouse in which the English ladies +were pent.</p> + +<p>With the ekka came a rissaldar of cavalry, riding one horse and leading +two others. When he dismounted a scabbard clattered at his heels, for +Malcolm now had the pistols between his knees as he sat behind the +tightly drawn curtains of the vehicle.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p><p>“Mohammed Rasul!” shouted the rissaldar, loudly. “Where is Mohammed +Rasul? I must discourse with him instantly.”</p> + +<p>A man came running.</p> + +<p>“Ohé, sirdar,” he cried. “Behold, I come!”</p> + +<p>A note was thrust into the runner’s hands.</p> + +<p>“Read, and quickly,” was the imperious order. “I have affairs at +Fattehpore and cannot wait here long. Is there a boat to be hired?”</p> + +<p>“A budgerow is even now approaching, leader of the faithful.”</p> + +<p>“Good. There is some disposition to be made of two Feringhi women. Read +that which Hossein Beg hath written, and make haste, I pray thee, +brother.”</p> + +<p>Perhaps Mohammed Rasul wondered why his employer wrote in such imploring +strain that he was to obey the worshipful “Ali Khan’s” slightest word, +and bestow him and his belongings, together with the two prisoners, on +board a boat for Fattehpore with the utmost speed. However that may be, +he lost no time. The budgerow was warped close to the ghât, her +contents, mostly European furniture, as Malcolm could see through a fold +in the curtain, were promptly unloaded, and preparations made for the +return journey. First, the horses were led on board and secured. Then +two pallid girls, only half clothed, their eyes red with weeping and +their cheeks haggard with misery, were led from the go-down.</p> + +<p>“Ali Khan” was about to guide the ekka along the rough gangway when +Mohammed Rasul interfered.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p><p>“My master says naught concerning the ekka and pony,” said he. “He hath +detained Gopi, and this driver is unknown to me. Who will bring them +back when they have served your needs, sirdar?”</p> + +<p>“I will attend to that,” replied Chumru, gruffly, and Hossein Beg’s +factotum had perforce to be content with the undertaking.</p> + +<p>But fate, which had certainly favored Malcolm and his native comrade +thus far, played them what looked like a jade’s trick at the very moment +when success was within their grasp. The ekka pony, frightened by the +lap of the swift-flowing water against the steps beneath, shied, backed, +and strove to reach the shore. Not all Chumru’s wiry strength, aided by +the alarmed ryot, could prevent the brute from turning. A wheel slipped +off the staging, the narrow vehicle toppled over, and the amazed +spectators saw a booted and spurred British officer of cavalry sprawling +on the ghât instead of the veiled Mohammedan woman who ought to have +made her appearance in this undignified manner.</p> + +<p>Malcolm was on his feet in a second.</p> + +<p>“Come on, Chumru!” he cried, as he leaped on board the budgerow. He saw +one of the crew take an extra turn of a rope round a cat-head, and fired +at him. Hit or miss, the fellow tumbled overboard, and his mates +followed. Chumru, assisted by the ryot, who elected at this twelfth hour +to throw in his lot with that of the sahib, began to cast off the +cables. Even the two dazed girls helped, once they knew that an +Englishman was fighting in their behalf.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p><p>To add to the excitement on shore Malcolm fired the second pistol at the +men nearest to the boat, which was already beginning to slip away with +the current. Then he rushed to the helm, unlashed it, and turned the +boat’s head toward the channel, while Chumru and the ryot, helped by the +girls, hauled at the heavy mat sail.</p> + +<p>Having lashed the helm again in order to keep the budgerow on the +starboard tack, Malcolm was about to lend a hand, despite his wound, +when a spurt of firing from the bank took him by surprise, because he +had seen neither gun nor pistol in the hands of the loungers on the +ghât, and the coolies were certainly unarmed.</p> + +<p>Glancing back he saw a man whom he had last seen in the moulvie’s +company at Rai Bareilly gesticulating fiercely as he directed the target +practise of a number of men. A group of lathered horses behind them +showed that they had ridden far and fast, so the accident, which nearly +led to his undoing, had really helped to save him and his companions, +else the fusillade to which they were now subjected must have taken +place while the boat was still tied to the wharf.</p> + +<p>“Lie flat on the deck,” he shouted in English, and repeated the words in +Hindustani. He flung himself down by Chumru’s side.</p> + +<p>“Haul away!” he gasped. “We will soon be out of range.”</p> + +<p>Thus while the cumbrous sail creaked and groaned as it slowly climbed +the mast, and bullets cut through <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>the matting or were imbedded in the +stout woodwork, the latest argosy of Malcolm’s fortunes thrust herself +with ever-increasing speed into the ample breast of Mother Ganga. Soon +the firing ceased. Malcolm raised his head. The excited mob on the shore +was already a horde of Lilliputians, and the placid swish of the river +around the roomy craft told him that he was actually free, and on the +way to Allahabad once more.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>THE SWING OF THE PENDULUM</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">M</span>alcolm’s first measured thought was an unpleasant one. It was his +intent to land one of the budgerow’s crew at the earliest opportunity +with a written message, which the bearer would probably be unable to +read, addressed to Mohammed Rasul, bidding him go to the assistance of +the unlucky Hossein Beg. That plan was now impracticable. The crew had +bolted. He could neither send the ryot ashore nor trust to the help of +any neighboring village, since men were already galloping along the left +bank with obviously hostile designs.</p> + +<p>As there was a favorable breeze and the current was swift and strong, he +wondered why these pursuers strove to keep the boat in sight. Then it +was borne in on him that they had a definite object. Could it be +possible that they knew of the presence of other craft, lower down the +river?—that he might be called on within the hour to make a last stand +against irresistible odds on the deck of the budgerow? Rather than meet +certain death in that way he would head boldly for the opposite shore, +and trust again to his tired horses for escape to the jungle and the +night. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>Yet, some plan must be devised to keep faith with that wretched +zemindar. The man would not die if left where he was for another +forty-eight hours, or even longer. But the word of a sahib was a sacred +thing. Whatever the difficulty of communicating with Mohammed Rasul, he +must overcome it somehow.</p> + +<p>In his perplexity, his eyes fell on the two girls. Being ladies from +Fyzabad, they might be able to help him with some knowledge of the +locality. Summoning Chumru to take the helm he went forward and spoke to +them.</p> + +<p>Now it is an enduring fact that a woman’s regard for her personal +appearance will engross her mind when graver topics might well be to the +fore. No sooner did these sorrow-laden daughters of Eve realize that +they were in a position of comparative safety, and in the company of a +good-looking young man of their own race, than they attempted to effect +some change in their <i>toilette</i>. A handkerchief dipped in the river, a +few twists and coilings of refractory hair, a slight readjustment of +disordered bodices and crumpled skirts—above all, the gleam of the +magic lamp of hope that illumined an abyss of despair—and the amazing +result was that Malcolm found two pretty, shy, tremulous maidens +awaiting him, instead of the disheveled woe-begone women he had seen +pushed down the steps of the ghât.</p> + +<p>He introduced himself with the well-mannered courtesy of the period, and +in response the elder of the pair raised her blue eyes to his and told +him that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>since the 16th of June until the previous day they had been +hiding in the hut of a native woman, mother of their ayah.</p> + +<p>“My dear father was killed by Mr. Tucker’s side,” said she. “He was the +deputy commissioner of Fattehpore. Keene is our name—I am Harriet, this +is my sister Grace. We only came out from England last cold weather—”</p> + +<p>A sudden recollection brought a cry of surprise from Frank.</p> + +<p>“Why,” he said, “you were fellow-passengers on the <i>Assaye</i> with Miss +Winifred Mayne?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, do you know her? What has become of her? We were told that +everyone at Meerut was killed.”</p> + +<p>“Thank Heaven, she was alive and well when I last saw her three days +ago.”</p> + +<p>“And her uncle? Is he living? She was very much attached to him. How did +she escape from Meerut?” broke in Grace, eagerly.</p> + +<p>“I wish they had never left Meerut. The Mutiny at that station collapsed +in a couple of hours. Unfortunately they are now both penned up in the +Residency at Lucknow, which is surrounded by goodness only knows how +many thousands of rebels. But I must give you Winifred’s recent history +at another time. I want you to tell me something about this +neighborhood. What is the nearest town on the river, and which bank is +it on?”</p> + +<p>“Unfortunately, our acquaintance with this part of India is very +slight,” said Miss Harriet Keene, sadly. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>“We remained at Calcutta four +months with our mother, who died there, without having seen our dear +father after a separation of five years. We came up country in March, +and were going to Naini Tal<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> when the Mutiny broke out. We only saw +the Ganges three or four times before our ayah brought us across on that +terrible night when father was murdered.”</p> + +<p>Malcolm had heard many such tensely dramatic stories from fugitives who +had reached Lucknow during July. Phrases of pity or consolation were +powerless in face of these tragedies. But he could not forbear asking +one question:</p> + +<p>“How did you come to fall into the hands of Hossein Beg?”</p> + +<p>“We were betrayed by some children,” was the simple answer. “They saw +our ayah’s mother baking chupatties, day by day, sufficient for four +people. My sister and I lived nearly three weeks in a cow-byre, never +daring, of course, to approach even the door. The children made some +talk about the lavish food supply in the old woman’s hut, and the story +reached the ears of their father. He, like all the other natives here, +seems to hate Europeans as though they were his deadliest enemies. He +spied on us, discovered our whereabouts, and yesterday morning we were +dragged forth, while the poor creatures to whom we owed our lives were +beaten to death with sticks before our very eyes.”</p> + +<p>The speaker was a fair English girl of twenty. Her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>sister was eighteen, +and their previous experience of the storm and fret of existence was +drawn from an uneventful childhood in India, four years in a Brighton +school, and a twelvemonth in a Brussels convent!</p> + +<p>Malcolm choked back the hard words that rose to his lips, and sought +such local information as the ryot could give him. It was little. The +tiller of the Indian fields lives and dies in his village and has no +interests beyond the horizon. This man visited the Ganges once a year on +a religious feast, and perhaps twice in the same period in connection +with the shipping of grain on his brother’s boat. To that extent, but no +further, did his store of general knowledge pass beyond the narrower +limits of those who dwelt far from a river highway.</p> + +<p>Yet it was he who first espied a new and most active peril.</p> + +<p>“Look, huzoor,” he cried suddenly. “They have made signs to the +Fattehpore ghât. Two boats are following us.”</p> + +<p>And then Malcolm found that the real danger came from the opposite +shore. It was a case of falling on Scylla when trying to avoid +Charybdis. He learnt afterwards that the rebels had organized a code of +signals from bank to bank, owing to the number of the craft with +Europeans on board that sought safety in flight down the river. That +some device must have drawn pursuit from the right bank was obvious. A +couple of roomy budgerows with sails set were racing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>after him, and the +long sweeps on board each boat were being propelled by willing arms.</p> + +<p>It must be confessed that a feeling of bitter resentment against this +last stroke of ill-luck rose in Malcolm’s breast for an instant. He +conquered it. He recalled Lawrence’s bold advice, “Never Surrender,” and +that inspiriting memory brought strength.</p> + +<p>At that point the Ganges was about a mile and a quarter in width. The +budgerow was some six hundred yards distant from the left bank. Three +miles ahead the river curved to the left round a steep promontory. The +farther shore was marsh-land, so it might be assumed that a hidden +barrier of rock flung off the deep current there, while the one chance +of escape that presented itself was to steer for that very spot and +effect a landing before the enemy could head off the budgerow and force +it under the fire of the horsemen. The Fattehpore boats were a mile in +the rear, but that advantage would be greatly lessened if Malcolm +crossed the stream, and perhaps altogether effaced by the powerful +sweeps at their command.</p> + +<p>However, to cross was the only way, and the only way is ever the best +way. Having once made up his mind Frank coolly reviewed the situation. +Food was the first essential. The boat itself, having been used for +carrying hay, contained sufficient sweepings to feed the horses, and he +set the ryot to work on gathering the odds and ends of forage. A brief +search brought to light a quantity of ghee, boiled rice and dried peas. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>He divided the store into five portions, and set a good example to the +others by compelling himself to eat his share of the cooked food at +once, while the peas went into his pockets to be crushed or chewed at +leisure.</p> + +<p>Chumru kept the budgerow steadily on her course, and ere many minutes +elapsed it was plain to be seen that the rebels were alive to the +tactics of their quarry. Fresh gangs manned the sweeps and the riders on +the eastern bank eased their pace to a walk. The space between pursuers +and pursued began to decrease. At the outset Frank thought that this was +the natural outcome of his plan, and gave no heed to it beyond the +ever-growing anxiety of the time problem. But at the end of the first +mile he was seriously concerned at finding that the mutineers were +gaining on him in an incomprehensible manner. The boat was then +seemingly in mid-stream, while the enemy kept close to the shore, and +they were certainly traveling half as fast again, a difference in speed +that the use of the oars hardly accounted for.</p> + +<p>He kept on grimly, however, never deviating from his perspective, which +was the swampy ground on the outer curve of the bend. It was not until +nearly another mile was covered and the mutineers were almost abreast in +the true line of the river, that he knew why they were making such +heart-breaking progress as compared with his own craft. The Ganges, +after the vagrom fashion of all giant rivers, was cutting a new bed +through the sunken reefs towards the low-lying marsh. At the wide elbow +there were really two <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>channels and he was now sailing along the +comparatively motionless water between them!</p> + +<p>Side by side with this terrifying discovery was the certain fact that +his awkwardly built craft would gain little by maneuvering. There was a +new danger, too. At any instant she might run ashore on the shoal that +was surely forming in the center of the river. At all costs that must be +avoided.</p> + +<p>With a smile and a few confident words to the girls, he went aft, took +the helm from Chumru and bade him help the ryot in putting out the port +sweep. The effect was quickly apparent. The budgerow ran into the second +channel, but she allowed her dangerous rivals to approach so close that +the natives opened fire with long range dropping shots.</p> + +<p>It was now a matter of minutes ere the rebel marksmen would render the +deck uninhabitable. To beach the boat, land the horses, and get the +young ladies ashore in safety, had become an absolute impossibility. +Then it occurred to Frank that the Fattehpore men could not know for +certain that there were Englishwomen on board. They could see Chumru, +the ryot, the horses, and of course, the steersman, but the girls were +seated in the well amidships, these river craft being only partly decked +fore and aft.</p> + +<p>A modification of his scheme flashed through his brain, and he decided +to adopt it forthwith. First asking Miss Keene and her sister not to +reveal their presence, no matter what happened, he told Chumru <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>to stand +by the horses and help him to make them leap into the water when he gave +the order. With difficulty he induced the scared ryot to take the rudder +while he explained the new project. It had that element of daring in it +that is worthy of success, being nothing less than an attempt to draw +the rebels’ attention entirely to himself and Chumru by making a dash +for the shore, while the ryot was to allow the boat to continue her +course down stream with, apparently, no other tenant than himself.</p> + +<p>Malcolm’s theory was that, if he and Chumru made good their landing, +they would hug the river until the budgerow was sufficiently ahead of +pursuit to permit of her being run ashore. Though the plan savored of +deserting the helpless girls, yet was he strong-minded enough to adopt +it. It substituted a forlorn hope for imminent and unavoidable death or +capture, and it gave one last avenue of achievement to the mission on +which he had come from Lucknow.</p> + +<p>At the final moment he communicated it to the two sisters. They agreed +to abide by his decision, and the elder one said with a calm serenity +that lent to her words the symbolism of a prayer:</p> + +<p>“We are all in God’s hands, Mr. Malcolm. Whether we live or die we are +assured that you have done and will do all that lies in the power of a +Christian gentleman to save us.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t like leaving you,” he murmured, “but our only weapons are a +sword and a brace of empty pistols. If we run on another half mile we +shall be shot down <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>where we stand without any means of defending +ourselves. On the other hand—”</p> + +<p>Then the budgerow struck a submerged rock with a violence that must have +pitched him overboard were he not holding Nejdi’s headstall at the +moment. She careened so badly that the girls shrieked and Malcolm +himself thought she would turn turtle. But she swung clear, righted +herself, and lay broadside on to the current. Another crash, less +violent but even more disastrous, tore away the rudder and wrenched the +spar pulley out of the top of the mast. The heavy sail fell of course, +but by some miracle left the occupants of the boat uninjured.</p> + +<p>And now the maimed craft was carried along sluggishly, drifting back +towards the center of the river, while the men in the other boats set up +a fiendish yell of delight at the catastrophe that had overtaken the +doomed Feringhis. Their skilled boatmen evidently knew of this reef. +They stood away towards the shore, but the triumphant jeering that came +from the crowded decks showed that they meant to pass their dismantled +quarry and wait in safer waters until it lumbered down upon them.</p> + +<p>Malcolm suddenly became aware of his wounded arm. With a curious +fatalism he began to dissect his emotions. He arrived at the conclusion +that the drop from the nervous tension of hope to the relaxation of +sheer despair had dulled his brain and weakened his physical powers. +This, then, was the end. There could be no doubt about it. He quieted +the startled <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>horses with a word or two and spoke to the girls again.</p> + +<p>“You may as well come on deck now,” he said. “It is all up with us. If a +friendly bullet puts us out of our misery, so much the better. Otherwise +my advice to you both is to leap into the river rather than be +recaptured.”</p> + +<p>Grace was sobbing hysterically, but Harriet, clasping her fondly in her +arms, looked up at him.</p> + +<p>“No,” she said, “we must not do that. Our lives are not our own. The +Lord gave and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!”</p> + +<p>Frank winced in his anguish. To a puissant man there is nothing so +galling as helplessness; what a game of battledore and shuttlecock had +been played with him and those bound up with his fortunes since the +moulvie’s man-trap brought him headlong to the earth in the main street +of Rai Bareilly!</p> + +<p>“Huzoor!” yelled Chumru, excitedly. “Look! There below! A smoke ship! +And see! Those sons of pigs are making for the bank!”</p> + +<p>Malcolm could scarce believe his eyes when they rested on a small +steamer with the British flag flying from the masthead, coming round the +bend. Yet there could be no mistake about it. British officers in white +uniforms were standing on her bridge, the muzzles of a couple of guns +showed black and business-like over her bows, while her forward deck was +packed with men in the uniform of the Madras Fusiliers. Her commander +seemed to take in the exact position of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>affairs at a glance, and, +indeed, the half-wrecked and almost empty boat in mid-stream, so eagerly +followed by two thickly crowded craft now close hauled and putting forth +desperate efforts to reach the bank, presented a riddle easy to read.</p> + +<p>That twinge of pain quitted Frank’s arm as speedily as it had made its +presence felt. He helped the girls to the raised deck, so that the +people on the steamer could see them. It was not necessary. An officer +waved a hand to them as the sturdy little vessel dashed past, raising a +mighty spume of white froth with her paddles, and soon her guns were +busy. There was no question of quarter. Captain Spurgin had been with +Neill at Allahabad. He knew the story of Massacre Ghât, of Delhi, of +Sitapore, Moradabad, Bareilly, and a score of other stations in Oudh and +the Northwest. His gunners pelted the unwieldy budgerows with round shot +until they began to sink. Then he used grape and rifle fire, until five +minutes after the <i>Warren Hastings</i> came on the scene, there was nought +left of the Fattehpore navy save some shattered wreckage and a few +wretches who strove to swim amidst a hail of lead and in a river +infested with crocodiles.</p> + +<p>When the steamer dropped down stream and picked up the fugitives, +Malcolm learnt that Spurgin was co-operating with Renaud. The one +cleared the river, the other was hanging men on nearly every tree that +lined the Grand Trunk Road. And Havelock, nobly aided by Neill, was +moving heaven and earth to equip a strong force at Allahabad to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>avenge +Cawnpore and raise the expected siege of Lucknow.</p> + +<p>As Malcolm himself brought the earliest news of the investment, he and +Chumru were put ashore with a small escort, in order that they might +join Major Renaud’s column, and hurry to Havelock with his thrilling +tidings. Spurgin promised to visit the village on the east bank, release +Hossein Beg, and make him a hostage for the ryot’s welfare. As for +Harriet and Grace Keene, they would be sent south as soon as a carriage +could be procured.</p> + +<p>The two girls bade Frank farewell with a gratitude which was +embarrassing, but Grace, more mercurial than Harriet, ventured to say:</p> + +<p>“I suppose you are longing to see Winifred again, Mr. Malcolm?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” he replied, well knowing the thought that lay behind the words. +“You are her friend, so there is no reason why I should not tell you +that she is my promised wife.”</p> + +<p>“Then you are both to be congratulated,” put in the elder sister, “for +she is quite the most charming girl we know, and our opinion of you is +not likely to be a poor one after to-day’s experiences.”</p> + +<p>“What? After an hour’s acquaintance?”</p> + +<p>“An hour! There are some hours that are half a lifetime. Good-by, may +Heaven guard and watch over you!”</p> + +<p>Renaud despatched Lawrence’s messenger to the south in a dâk-gharry, or +post-carriage. Chumru <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>would have taken the servant’s usual perch beside +the driver, but Malcolm would not hear of it. His faithful attendant was +almost as worn with fatigue as he himself; master and man shared the +comfort of the roomy vehicle; and slept for many hours while it rumbled +along the road.</p> + +<p>At dawn on the 4th of July they entered Allahabad. But the driver had +his orders and did not stop in the city. They passed through a sullen +bazaar, and were gazed at by a mob that wore the aspect of a cageful of +tigers in which order has just been induced by the liberal use of +red-hot irons. The travelers were nodding asleep again when the sharp +summons of a British sentry gladdened Malcolm’s ears.</p> + +<p>“Who goes there?”</p> + +<p>How alert it sounded! How reminiscent of the old days! How full of +promise of the days that were to come!</p> + +<p>He leaned out and smiled as he told a stolid private of the 64th that he +was “a friend.” His uniform acted as a passport, the dâk-gharry crossed +the drawbridge and crept through a narrow tunnel, and he found himself +standing in the great inner parade-ground of the fort. A young officer +approached.</p> + +<p>“Do you wish to see the General? Whom shall I report?” he asked, eyeing +the worn appearance and torn and blood-stained uniforms of Englishman +and native.</p> + +<p>“I am from Lucknow,” said Frank. “Will you kindly tell General Havelock +that Captain Malcolm <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>of the 3d Cavalry has brought him a message from +Sir Henry Lawrence?”</p> + +<p>It was the first time he had described himself by his new rank. It sent +a pleasant tingle through his veins and made that injured arm of his +ache again. Lawrence had given him to the 4th, and here he was in +Allahabad on the very date of his Chief’s reckoning, after having gone +through adventures that would have satiated Ulysses.</p> + +<p>But the pardonable pride of a young and gallant soldier soon yielded an +inexplicable sensation of humility when he was brought before a small, +slender, erect man, gray-haired, eagle-nosed, with strangely bright and +piercing eyes, and a mouth habitually set in a thin, straight line. This +was Sir Henry Havelock, and Frank felt instantly that he was in the +presence of one who lived in a world apart from his fellows. And, in +truth, Havelock would have been better understood by Cromwell’s +Ironsides than by his own generation. He was outside the ordinary run of +mankind. Though aware of a natural timidity, he fought with and +conquered it until his soldiers refused to believe that Havelock knew +what fear was. Conscious of his own military genius he had borne without +comment or complaint a constant supersession by inferiors, and in an age +when levity of thought and manners among officers was often looked upon +as the hall-mark of distinguished social position, he lost no +opportunity of giving his men religious instruction, while every act of +his life was governed by a stern sense of duty.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p><p>Such was the man who listened to Malcolm’s account of the proceedings +which led up to the disastrous battle of Chinhut.</p> + +<p>“You say you rode straight from the field on the evening of the 30th,” +said he, when Frank had delivered his message of Lucknow’s plight. “How +did you travel, and in what state did you find the country you +traversed?”</p> + +<p>Then Frank told him all that had taken place. More than once the young +officer would have cut short the recital, but this Havelock would not +permit. His son was present, that younger Havelock who lived for forty +years to keep ever in the public memory a glorious name, and often the +father would turn towards him and punctuate Malcolm’s tale with a nod, +or a brief, “Do you hear that, Harry?”</p> + +<p>At last, the stirring chronicle was ended.</p> + +<p>“Do you wish to remain here and recuperate, or will you join my staff, +with the rank of Major?” asked Havelock.</p> + +<p>Malcolm was hardly able to stammer his acceptance of the appointment +thus offered, but the General had no time for useless talk.</p> + +<p>“About this servant of yours—he seems to have the making of a soldier +in him—will he care to retain the rank he has assumed so creditably?” +he went on.</p> + +<p>Frank rather lost his breath at this suggestion, but he had the presence +of mind to refer the decision to Chumru himself.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p><p>“Kubbi nahin, general-sahib,”<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> was the Mohammedan’s emphatic +disclaimer of the honor proposed to be conferred on him. “I am a good +bearer, huzoor, but I should prove a very bad rissaldar. I am not of a +fighting caste. I am a man of peace.”</p> + +<p>“I think you are mistaken,” said Havelock, quietly, “but by all means +continue to serve your master. I am sure he is worthy of your devotion. +And now, Major Malcolm, if you will report yourself to General Neill, he +will provide you with quarters and plenty of work.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>THE MEN WHO WORE SKIRTS</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>hat was what the rebels called the 78th,—“the men who wore skirts.”</p> + +<p>Now, Highland regiments had fought in India for many a year before the +Mutiny, and the kilt was no new thing in native eyes. The phrase, +therefore, is significant. It crystallizes the legend that went +round—that an army of savage English was marching from Allahabad, and +that its most ferocious corps was dressed in skirts, the men having +sworn never to assume male clothing until they had avenged their +murdered women-folk.</p> + +<p>There could be no better proof that the sepoys and their helpers were +well aware that they had outraged all the laws of war and humanity by +their excesses, and there was a further reason why the garb of old Gaul +was more dreaded throughout India than any other British uniform during +the autumn and cold weather of 1857. Not many Europeans knew it until +long afterwards, but the natives knew, and told the story with bated +breath, and one British officer knew, for he was with the Seaforth +Highlanders in Cawnpore when they took dire vengeance for the Well.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p><p>It is a matter of history how Havelock marched his little army of twelve +hundred men along the Grand Trunk Road from Allahabad. He led a thousand +British soldiers, drawn from the 64th, 84th, and 78th Foot, and the 1st +Madras Fusiliers. Captain Brasyer brought 130 loyal Sikhs to the column: +there were six small guns, and eighteen volunteer cavalry.</p> + +<p>These details should be appreciated before it is possible to understand +the supra-miraculous campaign Havelock conducted. For five days the +expedition tramped north in the rain and heat, through a land given over +to dead men, vultures and carnivorous animals. Renaud and Spurgin had +made no prisoners. They did not slay wantonly, but the slightest shadow +of suspicion falling on any man meant the short shrift of a rope and the +nearest tree.</p> + +<p>At last, on the 12th of August, the main body overtook Renaud, whose +patrols were stopped by a large force of rebels entrenched in a village +four miles south of Fattehpore. The junction took place at one o’clock +in the morning. At daybreak, Havelock sent Colonel Tytler, with the +eighteen volunteer horse, to reconnoiter. The enemy’s cavalry, thinking +they had only Renaud’s tiny detachment to deal with, charged across the +plain, to find the whole twelve hundred drawn up to receive them. Struck +with a sudden fear, the white-coated troopers reined in their horses. +This was the first real check Nana Sahib had received. It was typical of +the new order. The flood-tide of mutiny had met its barrier rock. +Thenceforth, it ebbed, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>though it raged madly for a while in the effort +to sweep away the obstruction.</p> + +<p>Without giving the enemy’s cavalry time to recover from their surprise, +Havelock threw forward his infantry, Captain Maude, of the Royal +Artillery, rushed his six guns to a point-blank range, there was a short +and sharp fight, and the rebels broke. They were chased through and out +of the town of Fattehpore. All their guns and some valuable stores were +captured, and, greatest marvel in a day of marvels, not one British +soldier had fallen!</p> + +<p>No wonder Havelock wrote to his wife: “One of the prayers oft repeated +since my school-days has been answered, and I have lived to command in a +successful action.... But away with vain glory! Thanks be to God who +gave me the victory.”</p> + +<p>That evening Malcolm witnessed the plundering of Fattehpore, which was +permitted in retribution for its recent rebellion. The town lay on the +main road, which, at this point, was removed from the river by many +miles, else he would have ridden to the ghât and sent a message to +Hossein Beg in order to make sure of the safety of the friendly ryot.</p> + +<p>Owing to his knowledge of the vernacular, he managed to pick up a bit of +useful information while questioning a native on this matter. On the +battle-field he came across a state elephant which had been shot through +the body by one of Maude’s nine-pounders. The manner of the beast’s +death was remarkable—it is not often that an elephant is bowled over by +a cannon-ball <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>like a rabbit by a bullet from a small caliber rifle—and +its trappings betokened that it had carried a person of importance.</p> + +<p>Now he learned that Tantia Topi was the rider, and it was thus he +discovered that Nana Sahib was directing the operations from Cawnpore, +as Tantia Topi was his favorite lieutenant, whereas it was believed +previously that the Brahmin usurper would lead his hosts to take part in +the siege of Lucknow.</p> + +<p>On the 15th a sharp fight gave the British possession of the village of +Aong. The position was dearly won, for the gallant Renaud fell there, +mortally wounded. The men were about to prepare their breakfast after +the battle when news came that the enemy, strongly reinforced from +Cawnpore, were preparing to blow up a bridge over the Pandoo Nuddee, an +unfordable tributary of the Ganges, six miles ahead. Havelock called for +a special effort, the troops responded without a murmur, and advanced +through dense groves of mango trees until they came under fire. For the +second time that day they hurled themselves on the rebels, drove them +headlong out of a well-chosen position, and saved the bridge.</p> + +<p>Cawnpore was now only twenty-three miles distant. With the fickleness of +the rainy season the sky had cleared, and the sun beat down on the +British force with a fury that had not been experienced before that +year, though the hot weather of 1857 was noted for its exceedingly high +temperatures. The elements seemed to have joined with man to try and +stop the advance, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>but neither Indian sun nor Indian sepoy could +restrain that terrible host. Dogged and uncomplaining, animated rather +by the feelings of the infuriated tigress seeking reprisals for her +slain cubs than by the sentiments of soldiers engaged in an ordinary +campaign, they pressed on, until sixteen miles of that sun-scorched road +were covered.</p> + +<p>Then Havelock commanded a halt in a grove of trees, and two level-headed +sepoys, deserters from Nana Sahib’s army, came in and told the British +general that the Nana had brought five thousand men out of Cawnpore to +do battle for his tottering dynasty. It was in vain. Though he displayed +some tactical skill, placed his men well, and did not hesitate to come +under fire in person, he was out-generaled by a flank march and sent +flying to Bithoor, there to curse his fate, befuddle his wits with +brandy, and threaten to drown himself in the Ganges.</p> + +<p>But the battle was not won until one of those strange incidents happened +that distinguish the Mutiny from all other wars. It must never be +forgotten that the sepoys had received their training from British +officers. Their words of command, methods of fighting, even their +uniforms, were based on European models.</p> + +<p>They had regimental bands, too, and the tunes in their repertoire were +those in vogue in Britain, for native music does not lend itself to +military purposes. The musicians, of course, were profoundly ignorant of +the names or significance of the melodies they had been taught to play.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p><p>Hence, when Nana Sahib rallied his men in a village, Havelock called on +the Highlanders and 64th to take it, and the two regiments entered into +a gallant race for the position, while the Highland pipers struck up an +inspiring pibroch. Not to be outdone, a sepoy band responded with “The +Campbells are Coming!”</p> + +<p>And this, of all airs, to the Mackenzies! It was chance, of course, but +it added gall to the venom of the 78th.</p> + +<p>This fourth and greatest victory was a costly one to the British, but it +left their ardor undiminished, their reckless courage intensified. On +the next day they flung themselves against the remnant of the Nana’s +army that still tried to bar the way into the city. Vague rumors had +reached the men of the dreadful tragedy enacted on the 15th. They +refused to credit them. None but maniacs would murder helpless women and +children in the belief that the crime would hinder the advance of their +rescuers. So they crushed, tore, beat a path through the suburbs, until +the leading company of Highlanders reached the Bibigarh, the House of +the Woman.</p> + +<p>Malcolm was with them, and he saw a sergeant enter the blood-stained +dwelling, while the men lined up in front of the Well in an awed +silence. The sergeant returned. His brick-red face had paled to an ashen +tint. In his hand he carried the long, rich strands of a woman’s hair, +strands that had been hacked off some unhappy Englishwoman’s head by +Nana Sahib’s butchers.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p><p>He removed his bonnet with the solemnity of a man who is in the presence +of God and death. Passing down the ranks he gave a lock of the hair to +each soldier.</p> + +<p>“One life for every hair before the sun sets,” he said quietly. And that +was all, but there are old men yet alive in Cawnpore who remember how +the Highlanders raged through the streets that evening like the wrath of +Heaven.</p> + +<p>General Neill, who came later and assumed the rôle of magistrate, showed +neither pity nor mercy. Every man who fell into his hands, and who was +connected in the slightest degree with the infamy of the Well, was +hanged on a gallows erected in the compound, but not until he had +cleaned with his tongue the allotted square of blood-stained cement that +formed the floor of the house.</p> + +<p>Cawnpore, on the 17th, was indeed a city of dreadful night. The fierce +exultation of successful warfare was gone. The streets were empty save +for prowling dogs, pigs, and venturesome wild beasts. No sound was heard +in the British encampment except the melancholy plaint of the pipes +mourning for the dead, during the interment of those who had fallen. +Even the unconquerable Havelock said to his son, as they and the +officers of the staff sat at dinner:</p> + +<p>“If the worst comes to the worst we can but die with our swords in our +hands.”</p> + +<p>Next morning his splendid vitality reasserted itself. He advanced +towards Bithoor and took up a strong <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>position in case Nana Sahib might +attempt to recover the city. But that arch-fiend had been deserted by +the majority of his followers, and he was babbling of suicide to his +fellow Brahmins.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Neill brought a few more troops from Allahabad, and Havelock +threw the greater portion of his army across the Ganges. Owing to the +difficulty of obtaining boats and skilled boatmen, this was a slow and +dangerous undertaking. It took five days to ferry nine hundred men to +the Oudh side, but Lawrence had said that the Residency could only hold +out fourteen days, and come what might the effort must be made to +relieve him.</p> + +<p>On the 20th while Malcolm was occupied with some details of transport, +Chumru came to him. The bearer was no longer “Ali Khan,” the +swashbuckler, but a white-robed domestic, though no change of attire +could rob him of the truculent aspect that was the gift of nature.</p> + +<p>Beside Chumru stood another Mohammedan, an elderly man, who straightened +himself under the sahib’s eye and brought up his right hand in a smart +military salute.</p> + +<p>“Huzoor,” said Chumru, “this is Ungud, Kumpani pinsin (a pensioner of +the Company), and he would have speech with the Presence.”</p> + +<p>“Speak, then, and quickly, for I have occupation,” said Malcolm. But he +listened carefully enough to Ungud’s words, for the man coolly proposed +to work his way to Lucknow and carry any message to Lawrence that the +General-sahib entrusted to him.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span></p><p>It was a desperate thing to suggest. The absence of native spies from +either Cawnpore or Lucknow proved that the rebels killed, and probably +tortured all who attempted to run the gauntlet of their investing lines. +Yet Ungud was firm in his offer, so Malcolm brought him to Havelock and +the general at once wrote and gave him a letter to Lawrence, the news of +the great Commissioner’s death not having reached the relieving force.</p> + +<p>Frank seized the opportunity to write a few lines to Winifred. He was +charged with the care of Ungud as far as the nearest river ghât, and he +scribbled the following as he rode thither:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="right"><span style="margin-right: 3em;"><span class="smcap">British Field Force</span>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 1.5em;"><span class="smcap">Cawnpore</span>, July 20th, 1857.</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My dearest Winifred</span>:</p> + +<p>If this note is safely delivered, you will know that Sir Henry +Havelock, at the head of a strong force, is on his way to +relieve Lucknow. I am with him, as major on the staff.</p> + +<p>I reached Allahabad on the 4th, thanks wholly to your loving +thought in sending Chumru after me, for I was a prisoner in the +hands of a fanatical moulvie when Chumru came to my assistance. +He saved my life there, and his quick-witted devotion was shown +in many other instances during a most exciting journey. My +thoughts are always with you, dear one, and I offer many a +prayer to the Most High that you may retain your health and +spirits amid the horrors that surround you. Be confident, dear +heart, and bid your uncle tell his comrades of the garrison +that we mean to cut our way to your rescue through all +opposition.</p> + +<p>The bearer will endeavor to return with a reply to the general. +Perhaps you may be able to send a line with him. In any event, +I trust he will see you, and that will bring joy to my soul +when I hear of it.</p> + +<p class="right"><span style="margin-right: 3em;">Ever your devoted</span><br /> +<span class="smcap"><span style="margin-right: 1.5em;">Frank.</span></span></p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p><p>By Havelock’s order, a light, swift boat was placed at Ungud’s disposal, +and Malcolm supplied him with plenty of money for horses and bribes on +the road, while, in the event of success, he would be liberally rewarded +afterwards.</p> + +<p>Now it chanced that on the 20th, about the very hour Ungud set out on +his daring mission, the Moulvie of Fyzabad managed to goad his +co-religionists into a determined assault on the Residency.</p> + +<p>At ten o’clock in the morning the bombardment suddenly ceased. The +garrison sentries noted an unusual gathering of the enemy’s forces in +the streets and open spaces that confronted the Bailey Guard and the +other main posts on the city side.</p> + +<p>They gave the alarm and every man rushed to the walls. Even the sick and +wounded left their beds. Men with the fire of fever in their eyes, men +with bandaged limbs and scarce able to crawl, asked for muskets and +lined up alongside their yet unscathed comrades.</p> + +<p>They waited in grim silence, those war-worn soldiers of the Queen. The +signal for a furious struggle was given in dramatic fashion. A mine +exploded, a large section of the defending wall crumbled into ruins, a +hundred guns belched forth a perfect hail of round shot, sharpshooters +stationed in the neighboring houses fired their muskets as rapidly as +they could lift them from piles of loaded weapons at their command, and, +under cover of this fusillade, some three thousand rebels advanced to +the attack.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p><p>They came on with magnificent courage. They actually succeeded in +planting scaling-ladders across the breach, and their leader, a +fierce-looking cavalry rissaldar, leaped into the ditch and stood there, +right in front of the Cawnpore battery, waving a green standard to +encourage his followers.</p> + +<p>He was shot by a man of the 32d, and his body formed the lowermost layer +of a causeway of corpses that soon choked the ditch. But the +concentrated fire of the defenders checked this most audacious of the +many assaults delivered during four hours’ fighting. At two o’clock the +attack slackened and died away. The rebels had lost some hundreds, while +the British had only four men killed and twelve wounded.</p> + +<p>There was much jubilation among the garrison at this outcome of the +long-expected and dreaded attack. It added to their spirit of +self-reliance, and it cast down the hopes of the mutineers to a +corresponding degree; because their moral inferiority was proved beyond +dispute. Like all Asiatics, they had not dared to press on in the face +of death. With one whole-hearted rush those three thousand fighters +could have swarmed into the Residency against all the efforts of the few +Europeans and natives who resisted them. But that rush was never made by +the assailants as a mass. Not once in the history of the Mutiny did the +sepoys adopt the “do or die” method that characterized the British +troops in nearly every action of the campaign.</p> + +<p>When the moon rose on the night of the 21st a sharp-eyed sentry saw a +man creeping across the broken <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>ground in front of the Bailey Guard. He +raised his rifle, but his orders were to challenge any one who +approached thus secretly, lest, perchance, a messenger from some +relieving force might be slain by error.</p> + +<p>“Who goes there?” he cried.</p> + +<p>“A friend,” was the answer, but the rest of the stranger’s words showed +that he was a native.</p> + +<p>The sentry was no linguist.</p> + +<p>“You <i>baito</i><a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> where you are,” he commanded, bidding a comrade summon +an officer, “or somebody who can talk the lingo.”</p> + +<p>Within a minute the newcomer was admitted. It was Ungud, who had run the +gauntlet of the enemy’s pickets and who now triumphantly produced +Havelock’s letter to “Larrence-sahib Bahadur.” Alas, Henry Lawrence was +dead, but Brigadier Inglis, who succeeded him in the command, now learnt +that Havelock had defeated Nana Sahib, occupied Cawnpore, and was +advancing to the relief of Lucknow.</p> + +<p>How the great news buzzed through the Residency! How men grasped each +other’s hands in glee and exultation and sought leave to take the joyful +tidings to the hospital and the women’s quarters!</p> + +<p>Mayne aroused Winifred to tell her.</p> + +<p>“Perhaps Malcolm was able to get through to Allahabad,” he said. “When +you come to think of the difficulties in the way of our troops—this man +says they have fought three if not four pitched battles <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>between +Fattehpore and Cawnpore—we have been unreasonable in looking for help +so soon.”</p> + +<p>“Mr. Malcolm would surely succeed if it were possible. He understands +the native character so well and is so proficient in their language, +that he was the best man who could be chosen for such a task.”</p> + +<p>And that was all that Winifred would say about “Mr. Malcolm,” who would +have been the most miserable and the most astonished person in India +that night had he known how bitter was the girl’s heart against him.</p> + +<p>Though Winifred was not to blame, for the necklace and the pass offered +strong evidence of double-dealing on her lover’s part, her unjust +suspicions were doomed to receive a severe shock.</p> + +<p>In the morning she heard that Captain Fulton wished to see her. She left +her quarters by a covered way and waited outside the Begum Kotee until a +soldier found Fulton.</p> + +<p>He came, bringing with him a native.</p> + +<p>“This is the man who arrived from Cawnpore last night, Miss Mayne,” he +said. “He has a letter for you, but he refuses to deliver it to any one +but yourself. I fancy,” added the gallant engineer officer with a smile, +“that the sender impressed on him the importance of its reaching the +right hands.”</p> + +<p>Winifred caught a glimpse of Frank’s handwriting. Her face grew scarlet. +For one delightful instant she forgot the harsh thoughts she had +harbored against him. Then the scourge of memory tortured her. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>Fulton’s +kindly assumption that Malcolm was her fiancé must be dispelled and she +bit her lower lip in vexation at the tell-tale rush of color that had +mantled her cheeks when Ungud discharged his trust and gave her the +letter.</p> + +<p>“It is from Captain Malcolm,” she said coldly. “I suppose he wishes his +personal belongings to be safeguarded. I am surprised he did not write +to my uncle rather than to me.”</p> + +<p>Fulton was surprised, but he laughed lightly.</p> + +<p>“Every one to his taste,” he said; “but from what little I have seen of +Malcolm I should wager that nine out of ten letters addressed to the +Mayne family would be intended for you, Miss Winifred. By the way, a +word in your ear. General Inglis hopes to persuade our friend here to +try his luck on a return journey to-night. Perhaps you may have a note +to send on your own account. No one else must know. This is a special +favor, conferred because Malcolm himself procured Ungud’s services, but +we cannot ask the man to act as general postman. Good-by.”</p> + +<p>He hurried away. Winifred, after the manner of woman, fingered the +unopened letter.</p> + +<p>“Kuch joab hai, miss-sahib?” asked Ungud.</p> + +<p>“There is no answer—yet. I will give you one later.”</p> + +<p>The girl’s Hindustani went far enough to enable her to frame the reply +intelligibly. Ungud salaamed and left her, probably contrasting in his +own mind the lady’s frigidity with the fervid instructions given him by +the officer-sahib.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p><p>Then Winifred went to her own room and opened her letter, and her +woman’s heart gleaned the truth from its candor. Of course she cried. +What girl wouldn’t? But she smiled through her tears and read the nice +bits over and over again. Not for twenty necklaces and a whole file of +hieroglyphic passes would she doubt Frank any more.</p> + +<p>The reference to Chumru puzzled her and that was a gratifying thing in +itself, for if Frank could be mistaken about her share in Chumru’s +departure from Lucknow, why should not she be wrong in her +interpretation of the mysterious presence of the necklace?</p> + +<p>When her uncle came she wept again, being hysterical with the sheer joy +of watching his face while he perused Frank’s note.</p> + +<p>A man’s bewilderment finds different expression to a woman’s. A man +trusts his brain, a woman her heart.</p> + +<p>“If there is one thing absolutely clear in this letter it is that Frank +knows nothing whatever about the pearls you produced from his turban,” +said Mr. Mayne, with the frown of a judge who is dealing with a knotty +point in equity.</p> + +<p>“There are—several things—quite clear in it—to me,” fluttered +Winifred.</p> + +<p>“Ah, hum, yes. But I mean that it is ridiculous to suppose he would +knowingly leave such a valuable article exposed to the chances and +changes of barrack-room life in a siege. Whatever motive he may have had +in concealing the necklace earlier he would surely <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>have said something +about it now, given some hint as to its value, asked you to take care of +his baggage, or something of the sort.”</p> + +<p>“In my heart of hearts I always felt that we were misjudging Frank,” +said she.</p> + +<p>Mayne’s eyebrows lifted a trifle, but he passed no comment.</p> + +<p>“By the way,” he said, “where is the necklace?”</p> + +<p>“Here,” she said, pulling a box out of a cupboard. The string of pearls +was coiled up in the midst of the roll of soiled muslin and the badge +was pinned to one of the folds.</p> + +<p>“That is a very unsafe place,” said Mayne. “If I were you I would wear +it beneath your bodice.”</p> + +<p>“Would you really?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. I can think of no other explanation of the mystery now than that +Frank meant to surprise you with it. You may be sure he obtained it +honorably, so you will only be meeting his wishes by wearing it. At any +rate it will be safer in your possession than in that cupboard.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps you are right,” said she. And while she clasped the +diamond-studded brooch in front of her white throat she glanced round +the room for a mirror.</p> + +<p>Her uncle smiled. He was glad that this little cloud had lifted off +Winifred’s sky. The sufferings and positive dangers of the siege were +bad enough already without being added to by a private grief.</p> + +<p>He stooped to pick up the turban and his eye fell on the regimental +device of the metal badge.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p><p>“This is not an officer’s head-dress,” he cried. “And Malcolm belongs to +the 3d Cavalry, whereas this badge was worn by a trooper in the 2d.”</p> + +<p>Winifred, who was turning her neck and shoulders this way and that to +get different angles of light, stopped admiring herself and ran to his +side.</p> + +<p>“That is the turban Frank wore during our ride from Cawnpore,” she +whispered breathlessly.</p> + +<p>“It may be. But don’t you remember that he was bareheaded when we met +him in Nana Sahib’s garden? I was knocked almost insensible during the +fight for the boat so I am not sure what happened during the next few +minutes. Nevertheless, I can recall that prior fact beyond cavil. If it +were not for the safe-conduct you found at the same time as the pearls, +I would incline strongly to the belief that Frank obtained this turban +by accident, and is wholly ignorant of its extraordinary contents.”</p> + +<p>“I must write at once and tell him how sorry I am that I misjudged him.”</p> + +<p>“You dear little goose,” cried her uncle amusedly, “Frank will begin to +wonder then what the judging was about. No. Wait until you meet. Write, +by all means, but leave problems for settlement during your first +tête-a-tête.”</p> + +<p>So Ungud carried in his turban a loving and sympathetic note, which +Winifred, with no small pride, addressed to “Major Frank Malcolm, +Headquarters Staff, British Field Force, Cawnpore,” and she said inside, +among other things, that she hoped this would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>prove to be the first +letter he received with the inscription of his new rank.</p> + +<p>Ungud also took confidential details from the Brigadier for Havelock’s +information, and in three days, being as supple as an eel and cautious +as a leopard, he was back again with a reply from the general to the +effect that the relieving force would arrive in less than a week.</p> + +<p>He brought another missive from Frank, cheery and optimistic in tone and +still blithely oblivious of the existence of such baubles as +hundred-thousand-dollar necklaces.</p> + +<p>And that was all the news that either the garrison or Winifred received +for more than a month, when the intrepid Ungud again entered the lines +to bring Havelock’s ominous advice: “Do not negotiate, but rather perish +sword in hand.”</p> + +<p>This time there was no letter from Frank, and the alarmed, +half-despairing girl could only learn that the major-sahib was not with +the column, which had been compelled to fall back on Cawnpore after some +heavy fighting in Oudh. Ungud did not think he was dead; but who could +tell? There were so many sahibs who fell, for out of his twelve hundred +Havelock had lost nearly half, and was now eating his heart out in a +weary wait for re-enforcements that were toiling up the thousand miles +of road and river from Calcutta.</p> + +<p>So the blackness of disappointed hope fell on the Residency and its +inmates. Those few natives who had hitherto proved faithful began to +desert in scores. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>About a third of the European soldiers were dead. +Smallpox and cholera added their ravages to the enemy’s unceasing fire +and occasional fierce assaults. Famine and tainted water, and lack of +hospital stores, and every evil device of malign fate that persecutes +people in such straits, were there to harass the unhappy defenders. +Officers and men swore that they would shoot their women-folk with their +own hands rather than permit them to fall into the rebels’ clutches, +and, at times, when the siege slackened a little in its continuous +cannonade, the devoted community gave way to lethargy and despondency.</p> + +<p>But let the enemy muster for an attack, these veteran soldiers faced +them with the dogged steadfastness that made them gods among the Asiatic +scum. The Brigadier, too, never allowed his splendid spirit to flag. +Though for three months he had not slept without being fully dressed, +though he worked harder than any other man in the garrison, he was the +life and soul of every outpost that he visited during the day or night.</p> + +<p>Captain Fulton was another human dynamo in their midst. Finding plenty +of miners among the Cornishmen of the 32d, he sunk a countermine for +each mine burrowed by the enemy. His favorite amusement was to sit alone +for hours in a shaft, wait patiently until the rebels bored a way up to +him, and then shoot the foremost workers.</p> + +<p>And in such fashion the siege went on, with houses collapsing, because +they were so riddled with cannon-balls <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>that the walls gave way, and +ever-nearing sapping of the fortifications, and intolerable breaks in +the monsoon, when the heat became so overpowering that even the natives +yielded to the strain—and the days passed, and the weeks, and the +months, until, on September 16, Ungud, tempted by a bribe of five +thousand rupees, crept away for the last time with despatches for +Havelock.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>WHY MALCOLM DID NOT WRITE</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">I</span>t was the saddest hour in Havelock’s life when he decided that his +Invincibles must retreat. Yet, after another week’s fighting, that +course was forced on him.</p> + +<p>On July 25 he plunged fearlessly into Oudh, leaving a wide and rapid +river in his rear, with other rivers, canals, and fortified towns and +villages in front, on three sides swarms of determined enemies gathered +under the standards of Nana Sahib and the Oudh Taluqdars, and everywhere +a hostile if not actually mutinous peasantry.</p> + +<p>With his usual daring, trusting to the unsurpassed élan of his troops, +he fought battles at Onao and Busseerutgunge. Then when the thunder of +the fighting was faintly heard by listeners in the Residency, Havelock +took thought and regretted that he had ventured to leave Cawnpore.</p> + +<p>His force numbered about half the men who marched out of Allahabad on +the 7th. Cholera had broken out; stores were scanty; there was not a +single litter for another wounded man; and, worst of all, ammunition was +failing. To advance farther meant the total destruction of his little +army, the sure and instant fall <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>of the Residency, and the disappearance +of the British flag from an enormous territory.</p> + +<p>Yet he hesitated before he gave the final order. He fell back a couple +of marches and wrote to Neill on the 31st that he could “do nothing for +the relief of Lucknow,” until he received a re-enforcement of a thousand +men and a new battery.</p> + +<p>Neill, who was holding Cawnpore with three hundred rifles, returned the +most amazing reply that ever a subordinate officer addressed to his +chief.</p> + +<p>“The natives don’t believe you have won any real victories,” he wrote, +in effect. “Your retreat has destroyed the prestige of England. While +you are waiting for re-enforcements that cannot arrive Lucknow will be +lost. You must advance again and not halt until you have rescued the +garrison. Then return here sharp, as there is much to be done between +this and Agra and Delhi.”</p> + +<p>Neill’s zeal outran his discretion. Havelock told him in plain language +his opinion of this curious epistle.</p> + +<p>“Your letter is the most extraordinary I have ever perused,” he said.... +“Consideration of the obstruction which would arise in the public +service alone prevents me from placing you under immediate arrest. You +now stand warned. Attempt no further dictation.”</p> + +<p>Yet Neill’s advice rankled and there were men on Havelock’s staff who +agreed with the outspoken Irishman. Neill, however, coolly bottled his +wrath and sent on a company of the 84th and three guns.</p> + +<p>They brought despatches from Sir Patrick Grant, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>Commander-in-Chief at +Calcutta, telling Havelock that the troops sent from the capital had +been turned aside to deal with mutineers in Behar.</p> + +<p>The gallant Crimean veteran therefore hardened his heart, set out once +more for Lucknow and fought another most successful battle at +Busseerutgunge. There could be no questioning either the victory or its +cost. Another such success and his column would not number a half +battalion.</p> + +<p>That night he watched the weary soldiers digging graves for their fallen +comrades, and, while his brain was torn with conflicting problems, a spy +brought news that the powerful Gwalior Contingent was marching to seize +Cawnpore. He hesitated no longer. As a general he had no right to be +swayed by emotion. He must protect Cawnpore as a base and trust to the +fortune of war that Lucknow might keep the flag flying.</p> + +<p>Malcolm was with him when he formed this resolution. Outwardly cold, Sir +Henry seemed to his youthful observer, who now knew him better, to +resemble a volcano coated with ice.</p> + +<p>“Major,” he said, “the column will retreat at daybreak. But I will get +my other aides to make arrangements. Are you quite recovered from your +wound? Are you capable of undergoing somewhat severe exertion, I mean?”</p> + +<p>Frank answered modestly that he thought he had never been better in +health or strength, though he wondered inwardly what sort of exertion +could be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>more “severe” than his experiences of the preceding three +weeks.</p> + +<p>But Havelock knew what he was talking about, as shall be seen.</p> + +<p>“I want you to make the best of your way to Delhi,” he said in his +unbending way. “I leave details to you, except that I would like you to +start to-night if possible. Of course any kind of escort that is +available would be fatal to your success, but, if I remember his record +rightly, that servant of yours may be useful. I do not propose to give +you any despatches. If you get through tell the Commander-in-Chief in +the Punjab exactly how we are situated here. Tell him Lucknow will not +be relieved for nearly two months, but that I will hold Cawnpore till +the last man falls. I hope and trust you may be spared to make the +journey in safety. If you succeed you will receive a gratuity and a step +in rank. Good-by!”</p> + +<p>He held out his hand, and his calm eyes kindled for a moment. Then Frank +found himself walking to his tent and reviewing all that this meant to +Winifred and himself. He was none the less a brave man if his lips +trembled somewhat and there came a tightening of the throat that +suspiciously resembled a sob.</p> + +<p>Two months! Could a delicate girl live so long in another such Inferno +at Lucknow as he had seen in Wheeler’s abandoned entrenchment at +Cawnpore?</p> + +<p>“God help us both!” he murmured bitterly, passing a hand involuntarily +over his misty eyes. With the action he brushed away doubt and fears. He +was a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>soldier again, one to whom hearing and obedience were identical.</p> + +<p>“Chumru,” he said, when he found his domestic scratching mud off a coat +with his nails for lack of a clothes-brush, “we set out for Delhi +to-night, you and I.”</p> + +<p>“All right, sahib,” was the unexpected parry to this astounding thrust, +and Chumru kept on with his task.</p> + +<p>“It is a true thing,” said Malcolm, who knew full well that the +Mohammedan understood the extraordinary difficulty of such a mission. +“It is the General-sahib’s order, and he wishes you to go with me. Will +you come?”</p> + +<p>“Huzoor, have you ever gone anywhere without me since you came to my hut +that night when I was stricken with smallpox—”</p> + +<p>“Only once, you rascal, and then you came after me to my great good +fortune. Very well, then; that is settled. Stop raising dust and listen. +We ride to-night. Let us discuss the manner of our traveling, for ’tis a +long road and full of mischief.”</p> + +<p>Chumru laid aside the garment and tickled his wiry hair underneath his +turban.</p> + +<p>“By the Kaaba,” he growled, “such roads lead to Jehannum more easily +than to Delhi. Do you go to the Princess Roshinara, sahib?”</p> + +<p>Malcolm’s overwrought feelings found vent in a hearty laugh.</p> + +<p>“What fiend tempted thee to think of her, owl?” he cried.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p><p>“Nay, sahib, no fiend other than a woman. What else would bring your +honor to Delhi? Is there not occupation here in plenty?”</p> + +<p>“I tell thee, image, that the General-sahib hath ordered it. And I am +making for the British camp on the Ridge, not for the city.”</p> + +<p>Chumru dismissed the point. He was a fatalist and he probably reserved +his opinion. Malcolm had beguiled the long night after they left Rai +Bareilly with the story of his strange meetings with the King’s +daughter. To the Eastern mind there was Kismet in such happenings.</p> + +<p>“I would you had not lost Bahadur Shah’s pass, huzoor,” he said. “That +would be worth a bagful of gold mohurs on the north road now. But, as +matters stand, we must fall back on walnut juice. You have blue eyes and +fair hair, alack, yet must we—”</p> + +<p>“What! Wouldst thou make me a brother of thine?” demanded Malcolm, +understanding that the walnut juice was intended to darken his skin.</p> + +<p>“There is no other way, huzoor. This is no ride of a night. We shall be +seven days, let us go at the best, and meeting budmashes at every mile. +If you did not talk Urdu like one of us, sahib, I should bid you die +here in peace rather than fall in the first village. Still, we may have +luck, and you can bandage your hair and forehead and swear that those +cursed Feringhis nearly cut your scalp off. But you must be rubbed all +over, sahib, until you are the color of brown leather, for we can have +no patches of white <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>skin showing where, perchance, your garments are +rent.”</p> + +<p>Malcolm saw the wisdom of the suggestion and fell in with it. While +Chumru went to compound walnut juice in the nearest bazaar, he, in +pursuance of the plan they had concocted together, got a native writer +to compile a letter which purported to emanate from Nana Sahib, and was +addressed to Bahadur Shah. It was a very convincing document. Malcolm +contributed a garbled history of recent events, and one of the Brahmin’s +seals, which came into Havelock’s possession when Cawnpore was occupied, +lent verisimilitude to the script.</p> + +<p>Then the Englishman covered himself with an oily compound that Chumru +assured him would darken his skin effectually before morning, though the +present effect was more obvious to the nose than to the eye. Chumru +donned his rissaldar Brahmin’s uniform and Malcolm secured a similar +outfit from a native officer on the staff. Well-armed and well-mounted +the pair crossed the Ganges north of Bithoor, gained the Grand Trunk +Road and were far from the British column when they drew rein for their +first halt of more than an hour’s duration.</p> + +<p>They had adventures galore on the road to Delhi, but Chumru’s repertory +of oaths anent the Nazarenes, and Malcolm’s dignified hauteur as a +messenger of the man who ranked higher in the native world than the +octogenarian king, carried them through without grave risk. True, they +had a close shave or two.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p><p>Once a suspicious sepoy who knew every native officer in the 7th +Cavalry, to which corps “Rissaldar Ali Khan” was supposed to belong, had +to be quietly choked to death within earshot of a score of his own +comrades who were marching to the Mogul capital. On another occasion, a +moulvie, or Mohammedan priest, was nearly the cause of their undoing. +Malcolm was not sufficiently expert in the ritual of the Rêka and this +shortcoming aroused the devotee’s ire, but he was calmed by Chumru’s +assurance that his excellent friend, Laiq Ahmed, was still suffering +from the wound inflicted by the condemned Giaours, and the storm blew +over.</p> + +<p>These incidents simply served to enliven a tedious journey. Its main +features were climatic discomfort and positive starvation. Rain storms, +hot winds, sweltering intervals of intolerable heat—these were vagaries +of nature and might be endured. But the absence of food was a more +serious matter. The passage to and fro of rebel detachments had +converted the Grand Trunk Road into a wilderness. The sepoys paid for +nothing and looted Mohammedans and Hindus alike. After two months of +constant pilfering the unhappy ryots had little left. For the most part +they deserted their hovels, gathered such few valuables as had escaped +the human locusts who devoured their substance, and either retreated to +remote villages or boldly sought a living in some other province. +Indeed, it may be said in all candor that the Mutiny caused far more +misery to the great mass of the people <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>than to the foreign rulers +against whom it was supposed to be directed. The sufferings of the +English residents in India were terrible and the treatment meted out to +them was unspeakably vile, but for one English life sacrificed during +the country’s red year there were five hundred natives killed by the +very men who professed to defend their interests.</p> + +<p>Malcolm and Chumru were given proof in plenty of this fact as they rode +along. Generations of local feuds had taught the villagers to construct +their rude shanties in such wise that any place of fairly large +population formed a strong fort. Where the ryots were collected in +sufficient numbers to render such a proceeding possible, they armed +themselves not only against the British but against all the world.</p> + +<p>Many times the travelers were fired at by men who took them for sepoys, +and they often found active hostilities in progress between a party of +desperate rebels who wanted food and a horde of sturdy villagers who +refused to treat with men in any sort of uniform.</p> + +<p>Still, they managed to live. In the fields they found ripening grain and +an abundance of that small millet or pulse-pea known as gram, which is +the staple food of horses in India. Occasionally Malcolm shot a peacock, +but shooting birds with a revolver is a difficult sport and wasteful of +ammunition. Where hares were plentiful Chumru seldom failed to snare one +during the night. These were feast days. At other times they chewed +millet and were thankful for small mercies.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p><p>The journey occupied nearly twice the time of their original estimate. +Nejdi, good horse as he was, wanted a rest; Chumru’s steed was liable to +break down any hour; and it was a sheer impossibility to obtain a +remount in that wasted tract.</p> + +<p>All things considered it was a wonderful achievement when, on the +evening of the eleventh day, they began their last march.</p> + +<p>They planned matters so that the Jumna lay between them and their goal. +When they left the tope of trees in which they had slept away the hot +hours their ostensible aim was the bridge of boats which carried the +Meerut road across the river into the imperial city.</p> + +<p>That was their story if they fell in with company. In reality they meant +to leave the dangerous locality with the best speed their horses were +capable of. There could be no doubt that Delhi was the stronghold of the +mutineers. Even discounting by ninety per cent the grandiloquent stories +they heard, it was evident that the British still held the ridge, but +were rather besieged than besiegers. For the rest, the natives were +assured that the foreign rule had passed forever. Their version of the +position was that “great fighting took place daily and the Nazarenes +were being slaughtered in hundreds.”</p> + +<p>The one statement nullified the other. Malcolm reasoned, correctly as it +happened, that the British force was able to hold its own, but not +strong enough to take the city; that the Punjab was quiet and that the +general in command on the ridge was biding his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>time until +re-enforcements arrived. Therefore if Chumru and he could strike the +left bank of the Jumna, a few miles above Delhi, there should be no +difficulty in crossing the stream and reaching the British camp.</p> + +<p>For once, a well-laid scheme did not reveal unforeseen pitfalls. He had +the good fortune to fall in with a corps of irregular horse scouting for +a half-expected flank attack by the rebels, in the gray dawn of the +morning of August 11. Chumru and he were nearly shot by mistake, but +that is ever the risk of those who wear an enemy’s uniform, and by this +time, John Company’s livery was quite discredited in the land which he, +in his corporate capacity, had opened up to Europeans.</p> + +<p>Moreover, between dirt and walnut-stain Malcolm was like an animated +bronze statue, and it was good to see the incredulous expression on a +brother officer’s face when he rode up with the cheery cry:</p> + +<p>“By Jove, old fellow, I am glad to see you. I am Malcolm of the 3d +Cavalry, and I have brought news from General Havelock.”</p> + +<p>The leader of the scouting party, a stalwart subaltern of dragoons, +thought that it was a piece of impudence on the part of this “dark” +stranger to address him so familiarly.</p> + +<p>“I happen to be acquainted with Mr. Malcolm—” he began.</p> + +<p>“Not so well as I know him, Saumarez,” said Frank, laughing. He had not +counted on his disguise being so complete. But the laugh proved his +identity, for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>there is more distinctive character in a man’s mirth than +in any other inflection of the voice.</p> + +<p>Saumarez testified to an amazed recognition in the approved manner of a +dragoon.</p> + +<p>“Either you are Malcolm or I am bewitched,” he cried. Then he looked at +Chumru.</p> + +<p>“This gentleman, no doubt, is at least a brigadier,” he went on. “But, +joking apart, have you really ridden from Allahabad?”</p> + +<p>The question showed the lack of information of events farther south that +obtained in the Punjab. By this time the sepoys had torn down the +telegraph posts and cut the wires in all directions. Even between +Cawnpore and Calcutta, whenever they crossed the Grand Trunk Road they +destroyed the telegraph. As one of them said, looking up at a damaged +pole which was about to serve as his gallows:</p> + +<p>“Ah, you are able to hang me now because that cursed wire strangled all +of us in our sleep.”</p> + +<p>His metaphor was correct enough. There is no telling what might have +been the course of history in India if the sepoys had stopped +telegraphic communication from the North to Calcutta early in May.</p> + +<p>Malcolm gave Saumarez a summary of affairs in the Northwest Provinces as +they rode on ahead of the troop.</p> + +<p>“And now,” he said, “how do matters stand here?”</p> + +<p>“You have used the right word,” said the other. “Stand! That is just +what we are doing. We’ve had three commander-in-chiefs and each one is +more <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>timid than his predecessor. Thank goodness Nicholson arrived four +days ago. Things will begin to move now.”</p> + +<p>“Is that the Peshawar Nicholson?” asked Frank, remembering that Hodson +had spoken of a man of that name, a man who would “horse-whip into the +saddle” a general who feared to assume responsibility.</p> + +<p>“Yes. Haven’t you seen him? By gad, he’s a wonder. A giant of a fellow +with an eye like a hawk and a big black beard that seems, somehow, to +suggest a blacksmith. He turned up at our mess on the first evening he +was in camp. Everybody was laughing and joking as usual and he never +said a word. I didn’t understand it at the time, but I noticed that +Nicholson just glowered at each man who told a funny story, and, by +degrees, we were all sitting like mutes at a funeral. Then he said, in a +deep voice that made us jump: ‘When some of you gentlemen can spare me a +moment I shall be glad to hear what you have been doing here during the +last ten weeks.’ There was no sneer in his words. We have had fighting +enough, Heaven knows, but we felt that by ‘doing’ he meant ‘attacking,’ +not ‘defending.’ Sure as death, he will create a stir. Indeed, the +leaven is working already. He sent me out here this morning, as he has +gone to meet the movable column from Lahore, and there was a rumor of a +sortie from Delhi to cut it off.”</p> + +<p>Malcolm fresh from association with Havelock realized that a grave and +serious-minded soldier could <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>ill brook the jests and idle talk that +dominated the average military mess of the period.</p> + +<p>“Nicholson sounds like the right man in the right place,” he commented.</p> + +<p>The dragoon vouched for it emphatically.</p> + +<p>“He has put an end to pony-racing and quoits,” said he, “and there is to +be no more fighting in our shirt sleeves. Bear in mind, we have had a +deuce of a time. I’ve been in twenty-one fights myself, and that is not +all. The sepoys usually swarm out hell-for-leather and we rush to meet +them. There is a scrimmage for an hour or so, we shove ’em back, Hodson +gets in a bit of saber-work, we pick up the wounded, tell off a burial +party, and start a cricket match or a gymkhana. Of course the fighting +is stiff while it lasts and my regiment has lost its two best bowlers, a +really sound bat and a crack rider in the pony heats. Still if we don’t +lose any ground we gain none, and I can’t help agreeing with Nicholson +that war isn’t a picnic.”</p> + +<p>Frank managed not to smile at the naïveté of his companion. Though +Saumarez was nearly his own age he felt that their difference in rank +was not nearly so great as the divergence in their conception of the +magnitude of the task before Britain in India. Nevertheless Saumarez saw +that Nicholson was a force, and that was something.</p> + +<p>“Is the Hodson you mention the same man who rode from Kurnaul to Meerut +before the affair of Ghazi-ud-din-Nuggur?” he asked.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p><p>“Yes, same chap. A regular firebrand and no mistake. He has gathered a +crowd of dare-devils known as Hodson’s Horse, and they go into action +with a dash that I thought was only to be found in regular cavalry. But +here we are at our ghât. That is a weedy-looking Arab you are +riding—plenty of bone, though. Will he go aboard a budgerow without any +fuss?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes. He will do most things,” was the quiet reply.</p> + +<p>Malcolm dismounted and fondled Nejdi’s black muzzle. How little the +light-hearted dragoon guessed what those two had endured together! Nejdi +as a weed was a new rôle. For an instant Frank thought of making a match +with his friend’s best charger after Nejdi had had a week’s rest.</p> + +<p>It was altogether a changed audience that Havelock’s messenger secured +that evening when Nicholson rode to the ridge with the troops sent from +the north by Sir John Lawrence, Edwardes, and Montgomery, while the +generosity of Bartle Frere in sending from Scinde regiments he could ill +spare should be mentioned in the same breath.</p> + +<p>Saumarez’s “giant of a fellow” was there, and Archdale Wilson, the +commander-in-chief, and Neville Chamberlain, and Baird-Smith, and Hervey +Greathed. Inspired by the presence of such men Malcolm entered upon a +full account of occurrences at Lucknow, Cawnpore and elsewhere during +the preceding month. His hearers were aware of Henry Lawrence’s death +and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>beginning of the siege of Lucknow. They had heard of Massacre +Ghât, the Well, and Havelock’s advance, but they were dependent on +native rumor and an occasional spy for their information, and Frank’s +epic narrative was the first complete and true history that had been +given them.</p> + +<p>He was seldom interrupted. Occasionally when he was tempted to slur over +some of the dangers he had overcome personally, a question from one or +other of the five would force him to be more explicit.</p> + +<p>Naturally, he spoke freely of the magnificent exploits of Havelock’s +column and he saw Nicholson ticking off each engagement, each tremendous +march, each fine display of strategic genius on the part of the general, +with an approving nod and shake of his great beard.</p> + +<p>“You have done well, young man,” said General Wilson when Frank’s long +recital came to an end. “What rank did you hold on General Havelock’s +staff?”</p> + +<p>“That of major, sir.”</p> + +<p>“You are confirmed in the same rank here. I have no doubt your services +will be further recognized at the close of the campaign.”</p> + +<p>“If Havelock had the second thousand men he asked for he would now be +marching here,” growled Nicholson.</p> + +<p>No one spoke for a little while. The under meaning of the giant’s words +was plain. Havelock had moved while they stood still. The criticism was +a trifle unjust, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>perhaps, but men with Napoleonic ideas are impatient +of the limitations that afflict their less powerful brethren. If India +were governed exclusively by Nicholsons, Lawrences, Havelocks, Hodsons, +and Neills, there would never have been a mutiny. It was Britain’s rare +good fortune that they existed at all and came to the front when the +fiery breath of war had scorched and shriveled the nonentities who held +power and place at the outbreak of hostilities.</p> + +<p>Then some one passed a remark on Frank’s appearance. He was bareheaded. +The fair hair and blue eyes that had perplexed Chumru looked strangely +out of keeping with his brown skin.</p> + +<p>“How in the world did you manage to escape detection during your ride +north?” he was asked.</p> + +<p>He explained Chumru’s device, and they laughed. Like Havelock, +Baird-Smith thought the Mohammedan would make a good soldier.</p> + +<p>“With all his pluck, sir, he is absolutely afraid of using a pistol,” +said Frank. “He was offered the highest rank as a native officer, but he +refused it.”</p> + +<p>“Then, by gad, we must make him a zemindar. Tell him I said so and that +we all agree on that point.”</p> + +<p>When Frank gave the message to Chumru it was received with a demoniac +grin.</p> + +<p>“By the Holy Kaaba,” came the gleeful cry, “I told the Moulvie of +Fyzabad that I was in the way of earning a jaghir, and behold, it is +promised to me!”</p> + +<p>Next day Malcolm, somewhat lighter in tint after a hot bath, made +himself acquainted with the camp. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>Seldom has war brought together such +a motley assemblage of races as gathered on the Ridge during the siege +of Delhi. The far-off isles of the sea were represented by men from +every shire, and Britain’s mixed heritage in the East sent a bewildering +variety of types. Small, compactly built Ghoorkahs hobnobbed with +stalwart Highlanders; lively Irishmen made friends of gaunt, saturnine +Pathans; bearded Sikhs extended grave courtesies to pert-nosed Cockneys; +“gallant little Wales” might be seen tending the needs of wounded +Mohammedans from the Punjab. The language bar proved no obstacle to the +men of the rank and file. A British private would sit and smoke in +solemn and friendly silence with a hook-nosed Afghan, and the two would +rise cheerfully after an hour passed in that fashion with nothing in +common between them save the memory of some deadly thrust averted when +they fought one day in the hollow below Hindu Rao’s house, or a draught +of water tendered when one or other lay gasping and almost done to death +in a struggle for the village of Subsee Mundee.</p> + +<p>The British soldier, who has fought and bled in so many lands, showed +his remarkable adaptability to circumstances by the way in which he made +himself at home on the reverse slope of the Ridge. A compact town had +sprung up there with its orderly lines of huts and tents, its long rows +of picketed horses, commissariat bullocks and elephants, its churches, +hospitals, playgrounds, race-course and cemetery.</p> + +<p>Malcolm took in the general scheme of things while <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>he walked along the +Ridge towards the most advanced picket at Hindu Rao’s House. On the left +front lay Delhi, beautiful as a dream in the brilliant sunshine. The +intervening valley was scarred and riven with water-courses, strewn with +rocks, covered with ruined mosques, temples, tombs, and houses, and +smothered in an overgrowth of trees, shrubs, and long grasses. Roads +were few, but tortuous paths ran everywhere, and it was easy to see how +the rebels could steal out unobserved during the night and creep close +up to the pickets before they revealed their whereabouts by a burst of +musketry. Happily they never learnt to reserve their fire. Every man +would blaze away at the first alarm, and then, of course, in those days +of muzzle-loaders, the more resolute British troops could get to close +quarters without serious loss. Still the men who held the Ridge had many +casualties, and until Nicholson came the rebel artillery was infinitely +more powerful than the British. Behind his movable column, however, +marched a strong siege train. When that arrived the gunners could make +their presence felt. Thus far not one of the enemy’s guns had been +dismounted.</p> + +<p>Frank had ocular proof of their strength in this arm before he reached +Hindu Rao’s house. The Guides, picturesque in their loose, gray-colored +shirts and big turbans, sent one of their cavalry squadrons over the +Ridge on some errand. They moved at a sharp canter, but the Delhi +gunners had got the range and were ready, and half a dozen +eighteen-pound balls crashed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>into the trees and rocks almost in the +exact line of advance. A couple of guns on the British right took up the +challenge, and the duel went on long after the Guides were swallowed up +in the green depths of the valley.</p> + +<p>At last Malcolm stood in the shelter-trench of the picket and gazed at +the city which was the hub of the Mutiny. Beyond the high, red-brick +walls he saw the graceful dome and minarets of the Jumma Musjid, while +to the left towered the frowning battlements of the King’s palace. To +the left again, and nearer, was the small dome of St. James’s Church +with its lead roof riddled then, as it remains to this day, with the +bullets fired by the rebels in the effort to dislodge the ball and cross +which surmounted it. For the rest his eyes wandered over a noble array +of mosques and temples, flat-roofed houses of nobles of the court and +residences of the wealthy merchants who dwelt in the imperial city.</p> + +<p>The far-flung panorama behind the walls had a curiously peaceful aspect. +Even the puffs of white smoke from the guns, curling upwards like tiny +clouds in the lazy air, had no tremors until a heavy shot hurtled +overhead or struck a resounding blow at the already ruined walls of the +big house near the post.</p> + +<p>The 61st were on picket that day and one of the men, speaking with a +strong Gloucestershire accent, said to Malcolm:</p> + +<p>“Well, zur, they zay we’ll be a-lootin’ there zoon.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p><p>“I hope so,” was the reply, but the phrase set him a-thinking.</p> + +<p>Within that shining palace most probably was a woman to whom he owed his +life. In another palace, many a hundred miles away, was another woman +for whom he would willingly risk that life if only he could save her +from the fate that the private of the 61st was gloating over in +anticipation.</p> + +<p>What a mad jumble of opposites was this useless and horrible war! At any +rate why could not women be kept out of it and let men adjust their +quarrel with the stern arbitrament of sword and gun!</p> + +<p>Then he recalled Chumru’s words anent the Princess Roshinara, and the +fancy seized him that if he were destined to enter Delhi with the +besiegers he would surely strive to repay the service she had rendered +Winifred and Mayne and himself at Bithoor.</p> + +<p>That is the way man proposes and that is why the gods smile when they +dispose of man’s affairs.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>AT THE KING’S COURT</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">W</span>ithout guns to breach the walls, even the heroic Nicholson was +powerless against a strongly fortified city.</p> + +<p>The siege train was toiling slowly across the Punjab, but the setting in +of the monsoon rendered the transit of heavy cannon a laborious task.</p> + +<p>On the 24th of August an officer rode in from the town of Baghput, +twenty-five miles to the north, to report that the train was parked +there for the night.</p> + +<p>“What sort of escort accompanies it?” asked Nicholson, when the news +reached him.</p> + +<p>“Almost exclusively natives and few in numbers at that,” he was told.</p> + +<p>An hour later a native spy from Delhi came to the camp.</p> + +<p>“The mutineers are mustering for a big march,” he said. “They are +providing guns, litters, and commissariat camels, and the story goes +that they mean to fight the Feringhis at Bahadurgarh.”</p> + +<p>The place named was a large village, ten miles northwest of the ridge, +and Nicholson guessed instantly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>that the sepoys had planned the daring +coup of cutting off the siege train. With him, to hear was to act. He +formed a column of two thousand men and a battery of field artillery and +left the camp at dawn on the 25th. If a forced march could accomplish +it, he meant not only to frustrate the enemy’s design but inflict a +serious defeat on them.</p> + +<p>Malcolm went with him and never had he taken part in a harder day’s +work. The road was a bullock track, a swamp of mud amid the larger swamp +of the ploughed land and jungle. Horses and men floundered through it as +best they might. The guns often sank almost to the trunnions; many a +time the infantry had to help elephants and bullocks to haul them out.</p> + +<p>In seven hours the column only marched nine miles, and then came the +disheartening news that the spy’s information was wrong. The rebels had, +indeed, sent out a strong force, but they were at Nujufgarh, miles away +to the right.</p> + +<p>Officers and men ate a slight meal, growled a bit, and swung off in the +new direction. At four o’clock in the afternoon they found the sepoy +army drawn up behind a canal, with its right protected by another canal, +and the center and left posted in fortified villages. Evidently, too, a +stout serai, or inn, a square building surrounding a quadrangle set +apart for the lodgment of camels and merchandise was regarded as a +stronghold. Here were placed six guns and the walls were loopholed for +musketry.</p> + +<p>In a word, had the mutineers been equal in courage <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>and <i>morale</i> to the +British troops, the resultant attack must have ended in disastrous +failure.</p> + +<p>But Nicholson was a leader who took the measure of his adversaries. +Above all, he did not shirk a battle because it was risky.</p> + +<p>The 61st made a flank march, forded the branch canal under fire and were +ordered to lie down. Nicholson rode up to them, a commanding figure on a +seventeen-hands English hunter.</p> + +<p>“Now, 61st,” he said, “I want you to take that serai and the guns. You +all know what Sir Colin Campbell told you at Chillianwallah, and you +have heard that he said the same thing at the battle of the Alma. ‘Hold +your fire until you see the whites of their eyes,’ he said, ‘and then, +my boys, we will make short work of it.’ Come on! Let us follow his +advice here!”</p> + +<p>Swinging his horse around, he rode straight at serai and battery. +Grape-shot and bullets sang the death-song of many a brave fellow, but +Nicholson was untouched. The 61st leaped to their feet with a yell, +rushed after him, and did not fire a shot until they were within twenty +yards of the enemy. A volley and the bayonet did the rest. They captured +the guns, carried the serai, and pelted the flying rebels with their own +artillery. The 1st Punjabis had a stiff fight before they killed every +man in the village of Nujufgarh on the left, but the battle was won, +practically in defiance of every tenet of military tactics, when the +61st forced their way into the serai.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p><p>Utterly exhausted, the soldiers slept on the soddened ground. That +night, smoking a cigar with his staff, Nicholson commented on the skill +shown in the enemy’s disposition.</p> + +<p>“I asked a wounded havildar who it was that led the column, and he told +me the commander was a new arrival, a subadar of the 8th Irregular +Cavalry, named Akhab Khan,” he said.</p> + +<p>Malcolm started. Akhab Khan was the young sowar whose life he had spared +at Cawnpore when Winifred and her uncle and himself were escaping from +Bithoor.</p> + +<p>“I knew him well, sir,” he could not help saying. “He was not a subadar, +but a lance-corporal. He was one of a small escort that accompanied me +from Agra to the south, but he is a smart soldier, and not at all of the +cut-throat type.”</p> + +<p>Nicholson looked at him fixedly. He seemed to be considering some point +suggested by Malcolm’s words.</p> + +<p>“If men like him are obtaining commands in Delhi they will prove +awkward,” was his brief comment, and Frank did not realize what his +chief was revolving in his mind until, three days later, the Brigadier +asked him to don his disguise again, ride to the southward, and endeavor +to fall in with a batch of mutineers on the way to Delhi. Then he could +enter the city, note the dispositions for the defense, and escape by +joining an attacking party during one of the many raids on the ridge.</p> + +<p>“You will be rendering a national service by your deed,” said Nicholson, +gazing into Frank’s troubled <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>eyes with that magnetic power that bent +all men to his will. “I know it is a distasteful business, but you are +able to carry it through, and five hours of your observation will be +worth five weeks of native reports. Will you do it?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir,” said Malcolm, choking back the protest on his lips. He could +not trust himself to say more. He refused even to allow his thoughts to +dwell on such a repellent subject. A spy! What soldier likes the office? +It stifles ambition. It robs war of its glamour. It may call for a +display of the utmost bravery—that calm courage of facing an ignoble +death alone, unheeded, forgotten, which is the finest test of chivalry, +but it can never commend itself to a high-spirited youth.</p> + +<p>Frank had already won distinction in the field; it was hard to be chosen +now for such a doubtful enterprise.</p> + +<p>His worst hour came when he sought Chumru’s aid in the matter of +walnut-juice.</p> + +<p>“What is toward, sahib?” asked the Mohammedan. “Have we not seen enough +of India that we must set forth once more?”</p> + +<p>“This time I go alone,” said Frank, sadly. “Perchance I shall not be +long absent. You will remain here in charge of my baggage and of certain +letters which I shall give you.”</p> + +<p>“Why am I cast aside, sahib?”</p> + +<p>“Nay. Say not so. ’Tis a matter that I must deal with myself, and not of +my own wish, Chumru. I obey the general-sahib’s order.”</p> + +<p>“Jan Nikkelsen-sahib Bahadur?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p><p>“Yes. I would refuse any other. But haste thee, for time presses.”</p> + +<p>Chumru went off. He returned in half an hour, to find his master sealing +a letter addressed to “Miss Winifred Mayne, to be forwarded, if +possible, with the Lucknow Relief Force.”</p> + +<p>There were others to relatives in England, and Frank tied them in a +small packet.</p> + +<p>“If I do not come back within a week—” he began.</p> + +<p>“Nay, sahib, give not instructions to me in the matter. I go with you.”</p> + +<p>“It is impossible.”</p> + +<p>“Huzoor, it is the order of Jan Nikkelsen-sahib Bahadur. He says I will +be useful, and he hath promised me another jaghir.”</p> + +<p>The Mohammedan’s statement was true enough. He had waylaid Nicholson and +obtained permission to accompany his master. Like a faithful dog he was +not to be shaken off, and, in his heart of hearts, Malcolm was glad of +it.</p> + +<p>Their preparations were made with the utmost secrecy. The same men who +sold Bahadur Shah’s cause to the British were also the professed spies +of the rebels. They were utterly unreliable, yet their tale-bearing in +Delhi might bring instant disaster to Malcolm and his native comrade.</p> + +<p>Nejdi was in good condition again after the tremendous exertions +undergone since he carried his master from Lucknow. Malcolm was in two +minds whether to take him or not, but the chance that his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>life might +depend on a reliable horse, and, perhaps, a touch of the gambler’s +belief in luck, swayed his judgment, and Nejdi was saddled. Chumru rode +a spare charger which Malcolm had purchased at the sale of a dead +officer’s effects. Fully equipped in their character as rebel +non-commissioned officers, the two rode forth, crossed the Jumna, +reached the Meerut road unchallenged and turned their horses’ heads +toward the bridge of boats that debouched beneath the walls of the +King’s palace.</p> + +<p>Provided they met some stragglers on the road they meant to enter the +city with the dawn. By skilful expenditure of money on Malcolm’s part +and the exercise of Chumru’s peculiar inventiveness in maintaining a +flow of lurid language, they counted on keeping their new-found comrades +in tow while they made the tour of the city. The curiosity of strangers +would be quite natural, and Malcolm hoped they might be able to slip out +again with some expedition planned for the night or the next morning.</p> + +<p>Of course, having undertaken an unpleasant duty he intended to carry it +through. If he did not learn the nature and extent of the enemy’s +batteries, the general dispositions for the defense and the state of +feeling among the different sections that composed the rebel garrison, +he must perforce remain longer. But that was in the lap of fate. At +present he could only plan and contrive to the best of his ability.</p> + +<p>Fortune favored the adventurers at first. They encountered a score of +ruffians who had cut themselves <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>adrift from the Gwalior contingent. +Among these strangers Chumru was quickly a hero. He beguiled the way +with tales of derring-do in Oudh and the Doab, and discussed the future +of all unbelievers with an amazing gusto. Malcolm, whose head was +shrouded in a gigantic and blood-stained turban, listened with interest +to his servant’s account of the actions outside Cawnpore and on the road +to Lucknow. It was excellent fooling to hear Chumru detailing the +wholesale slaughter of the Nazarenes, while the victors, always the +sepoys, found it advisable to fall back on a strategic position many +miles in the rear after each desperate encounter.</p> + +<p>In this hail-fellow-well-met manner the party crossed the bridge, were +interrogated by a guard at the Water Gate and admitted to the fortress. +It chanced that a first-rate feud was in progress, and the officer, +whose duty it was to question new arrivals, was taking part in it.</p> + +<p>Money was short in the royal treasury. Many thousands of sepoys had +neither been paid nor fed; there was a quarrel between Mohammedans and +Hindoos, because the former insisted on slaughtering cattle; and the +more respectable citizens were clamoring for protection from the +rapacity, insolence and lust of the swaggering soldiers.</p> + +<p>That very day matters had reached a climax. Malcolm found a brawling mob +in front of the Lahore gate of the palace. He caught Chumru’s eye and +the latter appealed to a sepoy for information as to the cause of the +racket.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p><p>“The King of Kings hath a quarrel with his son, Mirza Moghul, who is not +over pleased with the recent division of the command,” was the answer.</p> + +<p>“What, then? Is there more than one chief?”</p> + +<p>“To be sure. Is there not the Council of the Barah Topi? (Twelve Hats.) +Are not Bakht Khan and Akhab Khan in charge of brigades? Where hast thou +been, brother, that these things are not known to thee?”</p> + +<p>“Be patient with me, I pray thee, friend. I and twenty more, whom thou +seest here, have ridden in within the hour. We come to join the Jehad, +and we are grieved to find a dispute toward when we expected to be led +against the infidels.”</p> + +<p>The sepoy laughed scornfully.</p> + +<p>“You will see as many fights here as outside the walls,” he muttered, +and moved off, for men were beginning to guard their tongues in Imperial +Delhi.</p> + +<p>A rowdy gang of full five hundred armed mutineers marched up and hustled +the mob right and left as they forced a way to the gate. Their words and +attitude betokened trouble. The opportunity was too good to be lost. +Malcolm dismounted, gave the reins to Chumru, and told him to wait his +return under some trees, somewhat removed from the road, for Akhab Khan +had sharp eyes, and the Mohammedan’s grotesque face was well known to +him. Chumru made a fearsome grimace, but Malcolm’s order was peremptory. +Summoning a fruit-seller, the bearer led the Gwalior men to the +rendezvous named and distributed mangoes amongst them.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p><p>Frank joined the ruck of the demonstrators and passed through the +portals of the magnificent gate. A long, high-roofed arcade, spacious as +the nave of a cathedral, with raised marble platforms for merchants on +each side, gave access to a quadrangle. In the center stood a fountain, +and round about were grassy lawns and beds of flowers.</p> + +<p>The sepoys tramped on, heedless of the destruction they caused in the +garden. They passed through the noble Nakar Khana, or music-room, and +entered another and larger square, at the further end of which stood the +Diwan-i-Am, or Hall of Public Audience.</p> + +<p>Not even in Agra, and certainly not in gaudy Lucknow, had Malcolm seen +any structure of such striking architectural effect. The elegant roof +was supported on three rows of red sandstone pillars, adorned with +chaste gilding and stucco-work. Open on three sides, the audience +chamber was backed by a wall of white marble, from which a staircase led +to a throne raised about ten feet from the ground and covered with a +rarely beautiful marble canopy borne on four small pillars.</p> + +<p>The throne was empty, but an attendant appeared through the door at the +foot of the stairs, and announced that the Light of the World would +receive his faithful soldiers in a few minutes.</p> + +<p>The impatient warriors snorted their disapproval. They did not like to +be kept waiting, but carried their resentment no further, and Malcolm, +with alert eyes and ears, moved about among them, as by that means he +hoped to avoid attracting attention.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span></p><p>Even in that moment of deadly peril he could not help admiring the +exquisite skill with which the great marble wall was decorated with +mosaics and paintings of the fauna and flora of India. The mosaics were +wholly composed of precious stones, and the paintings were executed in +rich tints that told of a master hand. There was nothing bizarre or +crude in their conception. They might have adorned some Athenian temple +in the heyday of Greece, and were wholly free from the stiff drawing and +flamboyant coloring usually seen in the East. He did not then know that +a renegade Venetian artist, Austin de Bordeaux, had carried out this +work for Shah Jehan, that great patron of the arts, and in any event, +his appreciation of their excellence was spasmodic, for the broken words +he heard from the excited soldiery warned him that a crisis was imminent +in the fortunes of Delhi.</p> + +<p>“Who is he, then, this havildar of gunners from Bareilly?” said one.</p> + +<p>“And the other, Akhab Khan. They say he fought for the Nazarenes at +Meerut. Mohammed Latif swears he defended the treasury there,” chimed in +another.</p> + +<p>“As for me, I care not who leads. I want my pay.”</p> + +<p>“I, too. I have not eaten since sunrise yesterday.”</p> + +<p>“We shall get neither food nor money till some one clears those accursed +Feringhis off the hill,” growled a deep voice close behind Malcolm.</p> + +<p>There was something familiar in the tone. Frank edged away and glanced +at the speaker, whom he recognized instantly as a subadar in his own old +regiment.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p><p>But now a craning of necks and a sudden hush of the animated talk showed +that some development was toward. Servants entered with cushions, which +they disposed round the foot of the throne and at the base of its +canopy. A few nobles and court functionaries lounged in, two gorgeously +appareled guards came through the doorway, and behind them tottered a +feeble old man, robed in white, and wearing on his head an aigrette of +Bird of Paradise plumes, fastened with a gold clasp in which sparkled an +immense emerald.</p> + +<p>Malcolm had seen Bahadur Shah only once before. He remembered how +decorous and dignified was the Mogul court when Britain paid honor to an +ancient dynasty. And now, what a change! The aged emperor had to lift a +trembling hand to obtain a hearing, while, ever and anon, even during +his short address, belated officers and troopers clattered in on +horseback, and did not dismount within the precincts of the sacred Hall +of Audience itself.</p> + +<p>He began by explaining timorously that while affairs remained in their +present unsettled condition he could not arrange matters as he would +have wished. He knew that there were arrears of pay and that the food +supply was irregular.</p> + +<p>“But you do not help me,” he said, with some display of spirit. +“Respectable citizens tell me that you plunder their houses and debauch +their wives and daughters. I have issued repeated injunctions +prohibiting robbery and oppression in the city, but to no avail.”</p> + +<p>He was interrupted with loud murmurs.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p><p>“What matters it about the bazaar-folk, O King,” yelled a sepoy. “We +want food, not a sermon.”</p> + +<p>The Emperor seemed to fire up with indignation at the taunt, but he sank +into the chair on the throne. He raised a hand twice to quiet the mob, +and at last they allowed him to continue.</p> + +<p>“I am weary and helpless,” he said faintly. “I have resolved to make a +vow to pass the remainder of my life in service acceptable to Allah. I +will relinquish my title and take the garb of a moullah. I am going to +the shrine of Khwaja Sahib, and thence to Mecca, where I hope to end my +sorrowful days.”</p> + +<p>This was not the sort of consolation that the mob expected or wanted. A +howl of execration burst forth, but it was stayed by the entrance of two +people from the private portion of the palace.</p> + +<p>There was no need that Malcolm should ask who the pale, haughty, +beautiful woman was who came and stood by her father’s side. Roshinara +Begum did not share the Emperor’s dejection. She faced the rebels now +with the air of one who knew them for the <i>canaille</i> they were. But that +was only for an instant. A consummate actress, she had a part to play, +and she bent and whispered something to Bahadur Shah with a great show +of pleased vivacity.</p> + +<p>A man who accompanied her stepped to the front of the throne, and his +words soon revealed to Malcolm that he was listening to the Shahzada, +the heir apparent, Mirza Moghul.</p> + +<p>“Why do you come hither to disturb the King’s <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>pious meditations?” he +cried angrily. “You were better employed at the batteries, where your +loyal comrades are now firing a salute of twenty-one guns to celebrate +the capture of Agra by the Neemuch Brigade.”</p> + +<p>He paused. His statement was news to all present, as, indeed, it well +might be, seeing that it was a lie. But his half petulant, half boastful +tone was convincing, and several voices were raised in a cry of +“Shabash! Good hearing!”</p> + +<p>“This is no time to create mischief and disunion,” he went on loudly. +“Help is coming from all quarters. Gwalior, Jhansi, Neemuch and Lucknow +are sending troops to aid us. In three or four days, if Allah be +willing, the Ridge will be taken, and every one of the base unbelievers +humbled and ruined and sent to the fifth circle of hell.”</p> + +<p>The man had the actor’s trick of making his points. Waiting until an +exultant roar of applause had died away, he delivered his most effective +hit.</p> + +<p>“At the very time you dared to burst in on the Emperor’s privacy he was +arranging a loan with certain local bankers that will enable all arrears +of pay to be made up. To-day there will be a free issue of cattle, grain +and rice. Go, then! Tell these things to all men, and trust to the King +of Kings and his faithful advisers, of whom I am at once the nearest and +the most obedient, to lead you to victory against the Nazarenes.”</p> + +<p>For the hour these brave words sufficed. The sepoys trooped out and +Malcolm went with them. A backward <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>glance revealed the princess and her +brother engaged in a conversation with Bahadur Shah and a courtier or +two. Their gestures and manner of argument did not bear out the joyful +tidings brought to the conclave by the Shahzada. Indeed, Frank guessed +that they were soundly rating the miserable monarch for having allowed +himself to speak so plainly to his beloved subjects.</p> + +<p>Malcolm knew there was not a word of truth in Mirza Moghul’s brief +speech. The Gwalior contingent had gone to Cawnpore. All the men +Bareilly had to send had already arrived with Bakht Khan, the “havildar +of artillery,” who was now the King’s right hand man. Jhansi, Neemuch +and Lucknow had enough troubles of their own without helping Delhi, and, +as for the bankers’ aid, it was easy to guess the nature of the “loan” +that the Emperor hoped to extract from them.</p> + +<p>Indeed, while Malcolm and Chumru and their new associates were wandering +through the streets and making the circuit of the western wall, there +was another incipient riot in the fort. Delay in issuing the promised +rations enraged the hungry troops. A number hurried again to the +Diwan-i-Am, clamored for the king’s presence, and told him roundly that +he ought to imprison his sons, who, they said, had stolen their pay.</p> + +<p>“If the Treasury does not find the money,” was the threat, “we will kill +you and all your family, for we are masters.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p><p>This later incident came to Malcolm’s ears while Chumru was persuading a +grain-dealer to admit that he had some corn hidden away. The sight of +money unlocked the man’s lips.</p> + +<p>“Would there were more like you in the King’s service,” he whined. “I +have not taken a rupee in the way of trade since the huzoors were driven +forth.”</p> + +<p>It was easy enough to interpret the unhappy tradesman’s real wishes. He +was pining for the restoration of the British Raj. Every man in Delhi, +who had anything to lose, mourned the day that saw the downfall of the +Sirkar.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p>“Affairs go badly, then,” Malcolm put in. “Speak freely, friend. We are +strangers, and are minded to go back whence we came, for there is naught +but misrule in the city so far as we can see.”</p> + +<p>“What can you expect from an old man who writes verses when he should be +punishing malefactors?” said the grain-dealer, bitterly anxious to vent +his wrongs. “If you would act wisely, sirdar, leave this bewitched +place. It is given over to devils. I am a Hindu, as you know, but I am +worse treated by the Brahmins than by men of your faith.”</p> + +<p>“Mayhap you have quarreled with some of the sepoys and have a sore +feeling against them?”</p> + +<p>“Think not so, sirdar. Who am I to make enemies of these lords? Every +merchant in the bazaar is of my mind, and I have suffered less than +many, for I am a poor man and have no family.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p><p>In response to Chumru’s request the grain-dealer allowed the men to cook +their food in an inner courtyard. While Malcolm extracted additional +details as to the chaos that reigned in the city the newcomers from +Gwalior consulted among themselves. They had seen enough to be convinced +that there were parts of India much preferable to Delhi for residential +purposes.</p> + +<p>“Behold, sirdar!” said one of them after they had eaten, “you led us in, +and now we pray you lead us out again. There are plenty here to fight +the Feringhis, and we may be more useful at Lucknow.”</p> + +<p>Malcolm could have laughed at the strangeness of his position, but he +saw in this request the nucleus of a new method of winning his way +beyond the walls.</p> + +<p>“Bide here,” he said gruffly, “until Ali Khan and I return, which we +will surely do ere night. Then we shall consider what steps to take. At +present, I am of the same mind as you.”</p> + +<p>He wanted to visit the Cashmere Gate and examine its defenses. Then, he +believed, he would have obtained all the information that Nicholson +required. He was certain that Delhi would fall if once the British +secured a footing inside the fortifications. The city was seething with +discontent. Even if left to its own devices it would speedily become +disrupted by the warring elements within its bounds.</p> + +<p>Chumru and he rode first to the Mori Gate. Thence, by a side road, they +followed the wall to the Cashmere Gate. Traveling as rapidly as the +crowded state of the thoroughfare permitted and thus wearing the +semblance <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>of being engaged on some urgent duty, they counted the guns +in each battery and noted their positions.</p> + +<p>Arrived at the Cashmere Gate they loitered there a few minutes. This was +the key of Delhi. Once it was won, a broad road led straight to the +heart of the city, with the palace on one hand and the Chandni Chowk on +the other.</p> + +<p>Malcolm saw with a feeling of unutterable loathing that the mutineers +had converted St. James’s Church into a stable. Not so had the founder, +Colonel James Skinner, treated the religions of the people among whom he +lived. The legend goes that the gallant soldier, a veteran of the +Mahratta wars, had married three wives, an Englishwoman, a Mohammedan, +and a Hindu. His own religious views were of the nebulous order, but, so +says the story, being hard pressed once in a fight, he vowed to build a +church to his wife’s memory if he escaped. His assailants were driven +off and the vow remained. When he came to give effect to it he was +puzzled to know which wife he should honor, so he built a church, a +mosque and a temple, each at a corner of the triangular space just +within the Cashmere Gate.</p> + +<p>Whether the origin of the structures is correctly stated or not, they +stand to this day where Skinner’s workmen placed them, and it was a +dastardly act on the part of men who worshiped in mosque and temple to +profane the hallowed shrine of another and far superior faith.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p><p>Malcolm was sitting motionless on Nejdi, looking at a squad of rebels +erecting fascines in front of a new battery on the river side of the +gate, when Chumru, whose twisted vision seemed to command all points of +the compass, saw that the commander of a cavalry guard stationed there +was regarding them curiously.</p> + +<p>“Turn to the right, huzoor,” he muttered.</p> + +<p>Malcolm obeyed instantly. The warning note in Chumru’s voice was not to +be denied. It would be folly to wait and question him.</p> + +<p>“Now let us canter,” said the other, as soon as the horses were fairly +in the main road.</p> + +<p>“You did well, sahib, to move quickly. There was one in the guard yonder +whose eyes grew bigger each second that he looked at you.”</p> + +<p>They heard some shouting at the gate. A bend in the road near the ruined +offices of the <i>Delhi Gazette</i> gave them a chance of increasing the pace +to a gallop. There was a long, straight stretch in front, leading past +the Telegraph Office, the dismantled magazine, and a small cemetery. +Then the road turned again, and by a sharp rise gained the elevated +plateau on which stood the fort.</p> + +<p>Glancing over his shoulder at this point, Malcolm caught sight of a +dozen sowars riding furiously after them. To dissipate any hope that +they might not be in pursuit, he saw the leader point in his direction +and seemingly urge on his comrades. It was impossible to know for +certain what had roused this nest of hornets, though the presence of a +man of the 3d Cavalry in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>the palace that morning was a sinister fact +that led to only one conclusion. No matter what the motive, he felt that +Chumru and he were trapped. There was no avenue of escape. Whether they +went ahead or made a dash for the city, their pursuers could keep them +well in sight, as their tired horses were incapable of a sustained +effort at top speed after having been on the move nearly twenty hours.</p> + +<p>He had to decide quickly, and his decision must be governed not by +personal considerations but by the needs of his country. If he had been +recognized, the enemy would follow him. Therefore, Chumru might outwit +them were he given a chance.</p> + +<p>“Listen, good friend,” he shouted as they clattered up the hill. “Thou +seest the tope of trees in front.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sahib.”</p> + +<p>“This, then, is my last order, and it must be obeyed. When we reach +those trees we will bear off towards the palace. Pull up there and +dismount. Give me the reins of your horse, and hide yourself quickly +among the trees. I shall ride on, and you may be able to dodge into some +ditch or nullah till it is dark. Rejoin those men from Gwalior if +possible, and try to get away from the city. Tell the General-sahib what +you have seen and that I sent you. Do you understand?”</p> + +<p>“Huzoor!—”</p> + +<p>“Silence! Wouldst thou have me fail in my duty? It is my parting wish, +Chumru. There is no time for words. Do as I say, or we both die +uselessly.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span></p><p>There was no answer. The Mohammedan’s eyes blazed with the frenzy of a +too complete comprehension of his master’s intent. But now they were +behind the trees, and Malcolm was already checking Nejdi. Chumru flung +himself from the saddle and ran. Cowering amid some shrubs of dense +foliage, he watched Malcolm dashing along the road to the Lahore Gate of +the palace. A minute later the rebels thundered past, and they did not +seem to notice that one of the two horses disappearing in the curved +cutting that led to the drawbridge and side entrance of the gate was +riderless.</p> + +<p>Chumru ought to have taken immediate measures to secure his own safety. +But he did nothing of the kind. He lay there, watching the hard-riding +horsemen, and striving most desperately to do them all the harm that the +worst sort of malign imprecations could effect. They, in turn, vanished +in the sunken approach to the fortress, and the unhappy bearer was +imagining the horrible fate that had befallen the master, whom he loved +more than kith or kin, when he saw the same men suddenly reappear and +gallop towards the Delhi Gate, which was situated at a considerable +distance.</p> + +<p>Something had happened to disappoint and annoy them—that much he could +gather from their gestures and impassioned speech. Whatever it was, +Malcolm-sahib apparently was not dead yet, and while there is life there +is hope.</p> + +<p>Chumru proceeded to disrobe. He kicked off his boots, untied his +putties, threw aside the frock-coat <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>and breeches of a cavalry +rissaldar, and stood up in the ordinary white clothing of a native +servant.</p> + +<p>“Shabash!” muttered he, as he unfastened the military badge in his +turban. “There is nothing like a change of clothing to alter a man. Now +I can follow my sahib and none be the wiser.”</p> + +<p>With that he walked coolly into the roadway and stepped out leisurely +towards the Lahore Gate. But he found the massive door closed and the +drawbridge raised, and a gruff voice bade him begone, as the gate would +not be opened until the King’s orders were received.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>IN THE VORTEX</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">M</span>alcolm was not one to throw his life away without an effort to save it. +Once, during a visit to Delhi, Captain Douglas, the ill-fated commandant +of the Palace Guards, had taken him to his quarters for tiffin. As it +happened, the two entered by the Delhi Gate and walked through the +gardens and corridors to Douglas’s rooms, which were situated over the +Lahore Gate. Thus he possessed a vague knowledge of the topography of +the citadel, and his visit that morning had refreshed his memory to a +slight extent. On that slender reed he based some hope of escape. In any +event he prayed that his ruse might better Chumru’s chances, and he +promised himself a soldier’s death if brought to bay inside the palace.</p> + +<p>Crossing the drawbridge at a fast gallop, he saw a number of guards +looking at him wonderingly. It occurred to him that the exciting events +of the early hours might have led to orders being given on the question +of admitting sepoys in large numbers. If that were so, he might gain +time by a bit of sheer audacity. At any rate, there was no harm in +trying. As he clattered through the gateway he shouted excitedly:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p><p>“Close and bar the door! None must be admitted without the King’s +special order!”</p> + +<p>The spectacle of a well-mounted sepoy officer, blood-stained and +travel-worn, who arrived in such desperate haste and was evidently +pursued by a body of horse, so startled the attendants that they banged +and bolted the great door without further ado.</p> + +<p>Already the story was going the rounds that the precious life of Bahadur +Shah had actually been threatened by the overbearing sepoys—what more +likely than that this hard-riding officer was coming to apprise his +majesty of a genuine plot, while the flying squadron in the rear was +striving to cut him down before the fateful message was delivered?</p> + +<p>Not to create too great a stir, Malcolm pulled up both horses at the +entrance to the arcade.</p> + +<p>He called a chaprassi and bade him hold Chumru’s steed. Then, learning +from the uproar at the gate that the guards were obeying his +instructions literally, he went on at an easier pace.</p> + +<p>The palace was humming with excitement. Its numerous buildings housed a +multitude of court nobles and other hangers-on to the court, and each of +these had his special coterie of attendants who helped to advance their +own fortunes by clinging to their master’s skirts. The jealousies and +intrigues that surround a throne were never more in evidence than at +Delhi during the last hours of the Great Mogul. Already men were +preparing for the final catastrophe. While the ignorant mob was firm in +its belief that the rule of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>the sahib had passed forever, those few +clearer-headed persons who possessed any claim to the title of statesmen +were convinced that the Mutiny had failed.</p> + +<p>Nearly four months were sped since that fatal Sunday when the rebellion +broke out at Meerut. And what had been achieved? Delhi, the pivot of +Mohammedan hopes, was crowded with a licentious soldiery, who obeyed +only those leaders that pandered to them, who fought only when some +perfervid moullah aroused their worst passions by his eloquence, and who +were terrible only to peaceful citizens. All public credit was +destroyed. The rule of the King, nominal within the walls of his own +palace, was laughed at in the city and ignored beyond its walls. The +provincial satraps and feudatory princes who should be striving to help +their sovereign were wholly devoted to the more congenial task of +carving out kingdoms for themselves.</p> + +<p>Nana Sahib, rehabilitated in Oudh, was opposing Havelock’s advance; Khan +Bahadur Khan, an ex-pensioner of the Company, had set up a barbarous +despotism at Bareilly; the Moulvie of Fyzabad, intent on the destruction +of the Residency, meant to establish himself there as “King of +Hindustan” if only that stubborn entrenchment could be carried; Mahudi +Husain, Gaffur Beg, Kunwer Singh, the Ranee of Jhansi, and a host of +other prominent rebels scattered throughout Oudh, Bengal, the Northwest +Provinces and Central India, cared less for Delhi than for their own +private affairs, and were consequently permitting the British <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>to gather +forces by which they could be destroyed piecemeal.</p> + +<p>From Nepaul, the great border state, lying behind the pestilential +jungle of the Terai, came an army of nine thousand Ghoorkahs to help the +British. At Hyderabad, the most powerful Mohammedan principality in +India, the Nizam and his famous minister, Sir Salar Jung, crushed a +Jehad with cannon and grape-shot. In a word, the orgy had ended, and the +day of reckoning was near.</p> + +<p>Malcolm, therefore, was confronted with two separate and hostile sets of +conditions. On the one hand, he was threading his way through a maze of +conflicting interests, and this was a circumstance most favorable to his +chances of escape; on the other, every man regarded his neighbor with +distrust and a stranger with positive suspicion, while Malcolm’s +distinguished appearance could not fail to draw many inquiring eyes.</p> + +<p>He crossed the large garden beyond the arcade and was making for an arch +that gave access to the long covered passage leading to the Delhi Gate, +when he saw Akhab Khan standing there.</p> + +<p>The rebel leader was deep in converse with a richly-attired personage +whom Frank discovered afterwards to be the Vizier. Near Akhab Khan an +escort of sowars stood by their horses, and Malcolm felt that the +instant the former lance-corporal set eyes on either Nejdi or himself +recognition would follow as surely as a vulture knows its prey.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p><p>He could neither dawdle nor hesitate. Wheeling Nejdi towards the nearest +arch on the left, he found himself in an open space between the walls of +the fortress and the outer line of buildings. Underneath the broad +terrace, from which troops could defend the battlements, stood a row of +storerooms and go-downs. At a little distance he could distinguish a +line of stables, and the mere sight sent the blood dancing through his +veins.</p> + +<p>If only he could evade capture until nightfall he would no longer feel +that each moment might find him making a last fight against impossible +odds. Dismounting, he led Nejdi to an unoccupied stall. As there was +nothing to be gained by half measures he removed saddle and bridle, hung +them on a peg, put a halter on the Arab, adjusted the heel-ropes, and +hunted the adjoining stalls for forage.</p> + +<p>He came upon some gram in a sack and a quantity of hay. All provender +was alike to Nejdi so long as it was toothsome. He was soon busily +engaged, and Malcolm resolved to avoid observation by grooming him when +any one passed whose gaze might be too inquisitive.</p> + +<p>He took care that sword and revolvers were handy. It was hard to tell +what hue and cry might be raised by the troopers against whom the guards +had closed the Lahore Gate. Perhaps they were searching for two men and +the finding of one horse in charge of a chaprassi might suggest that the +rider of the other and his companion had dodged through the Delhi <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>Gate. +Again, his pursuers might have galloped straight to the other exit and +thus made certain that he was still in the palace. If that were so and +they ferreted him out, as well die here as elsewhere. Meanwhile, he +chewed philosophically at a few grains of the gram, and awaited the +outcome of events that were now beyond his control.</p> + +<p>A wild swirl of wind and rain seemed to favor him. There was not much +traffic past his retreat, and that little ceased when a deluge lashed +the dry earth and clouds of vapor rose as though the water were beating +on an oven. Now and again a syce hurried past, with head and shoulders +enveloped in a sack. Once a party of sepoys trudged through the mud, +towards the water bastion of the palace, and the men whom they had +relieved came back the same way a few minutes later.</p> + +<p>Nejdi had seldom been groomed so vigorously as during the passing of +these detachments, but no one gave the slightest heed to the cavalry +officer who was engaged on such an unusual task. If they noticed him at +all it was to wonder that he could be such a fool as to work when there +were hundreds of loafers in the city who could be kicked to the job.</p> + +<p>The rain storm changed into a steady drizzle and the increasing gloom +promised complete darkness within half an hour. Malcolm was beginning to +plan his movements when he became aware of a man wrapped in a heavy +cloak who approached from the direction of the arcade and peered into +every nook and cranny.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p><p>“Now,” thought Frank, “comes my first real difficulty. That man is +searching for some one. Whether or not he seeks me he is sure to speak, +and if my presence has been reported he will recognize both Nejdi and me +instantly. If so, I must strangle him with as little ceremony as +possible.”</p> + +<p>The newcomer came on. In the half light it was easy to see that he was +not a soldier but a court official. Indeed, before the searcher’s glance +rested on the gray Arab, munching contentedly in his stall, or the tall +sowar who stood in obscurity near his head, Frank felt almost sure that +he was face to face with the trusted confidant who had carried out +Roshinara Begum’s behests in the garden at Bithoor.</p> + +<p>That fact saved the native’s life. The Englishman would have killed him +without compunction were it not for the belief that the man was actually +looking for him and for none other, and with friendly intent, too, else +he would have brought a bodyguard.</p> + +<p>Sure enough, the stranger’s first words were of good import. He could +not see clearly into the dark stable and it was necessary to measure +one’s utterances in Delhi just then.</p> + +<p>“If you are one who rode into Delhi this morning I would have speech +with you,” he muttered softly.</p> + +<p>“Say on,” said Malcolm, gripping his sword.</p> + +<p>“Nay, one does not give the Princess Roshinara’s instructions without +knowing that they reach the ears they are meant for.”</p> + +<p>The Englishman came out from the obscurity. He <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>approached so quickly +that the native started back, being far from prepared for Frank’s very +convincing resemblance to a rissaldar of cavalry.</p> + +<p>“I look for one—” he began, but Frank had no mind to lose time.</p> + +<p>“For Malcolm-sahib?” he demanded.</p> + +<p>“It might be some such name,” was the hesitating answer.</p> + +<p>“I am he. I saw thee last at Bithoor, when I escaped with Mayne-sahib +and the missy-baba.”<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p> + +<p>“By Mohammed! I would not have known you, sahib, though now I remember +your face. Come with me, and quickly. Each moment here means danger.”</p> + +<p>“Ay, for thee. I am not one to be tricked so easily.”</p> + +<p>“Huzoor, have I not sought you without arms or escort? I and another +have searched the palace these two hours. Leave your horse. I will have +him tended. Come, sahib, I pray you. The Begum awaits you, but there are +so many who know of your presence that I shall not be able to save you +if you fall into their hands.”</p> + +<p>These were fair-seeming words with the ring of truth about them. At any +rate Malcolm’s whereabouts were no longer a secret, and it would not be +war but murder to offer violence to one who came with good intent on his +lips if not in his heart.</p> + +<p>“Lead on,” said Frank, sternly, “and remember that I shall not hesitate +to strike at the first sign of treachery.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p><p>“I shall not betray you, sahib, but you must converse with me as we walk +and not draw too many eyes by holding a naked sword.”</p> + +<p>This was so manifestly reasonable that Malcolm felt rather ashamed of +his doubts. Yet, he thought it best not to appear to relax his +precautions.</p> + +<p>“I would not pass through the palace with a sword in my hand,” he said +with a quiet laugh, “but I have a pistol in my belt, and that will +suffice for six men.”</p> + +<p>His guide set off at a rapid pace. When they were near the great arch +leading into the garden they halted in front of a small door in a +dimly-lighted building, and the native rapped twice with his knuckles on +three separate panels. Some bolts were drawn and the two were admitted, +the door being instantly barred behind them by an attendant. The +darkness in the passage was impenetrable. Frank held himself tensely, +but his companion’s voice reached him from a little distance in front, +while he heard other bolts being drawn.</p> + +<p>“You will see your way more clearly now,” was the reassuring message, +and when the second door was opened the rays of a lamp lit the stone +walls and floor. They went on, through lofty corridors, across +sequestered gardens and by way of many a stately chamber until another +narrow passage terminated in a barred door, guarded by an armed native. +The man’s shrill voice betokened his calling, and Frank knew that he was +standing at the entrance to the zenana.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p><p>“There is one other within,” said the guard, leering at them.</p> + +<p>“Who is it, slave?” asked Frank’s guide scornfully, for he was annoyed +by the eunuch’s familiar tone.</p> + +<p>“Nay, I obey orders,” was the tart response. “Enter, then, and may Allah +prosper you.”</p> + +<p>There was a hint of danger in the otherwise excellent wish, but the man +unlocked the door, and they passed within.</p> + +<p>Frank’s wondering eyes rested on a scene of fairy-like beauty, so +exquisite in its colorings and so unexpected withal, that not even his +desperate predicament could repress for an instant the feeling of +astonishment that overwhelmed him. He was standing in a white marble +chamber, pillared and roofed in the Byzantine style, while every shaft +and arch was chiseled into graceful lines and adorned with traceries or +carved festoons of fruit and flowers. The walls were brightened with +mosaics wrought in precious stones. Texts from the Koran in the flowing +Persi-Arabic script, ran above the arches. In the floor, composed of +colored tiles, was set a <i>pachisi</i><a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> board, as the wide entrance hall +to a European house might have a chess-board incorporated with the +design of the tiled floor.</p> + +<p>Not a garish tint or inharmonious line interfered with the chaste +elegance of the white marble, and the whole apartment, which seemed to +be the ante-room of the ladies’ quarters, was lighted with Moorish +lamps.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p><p>Malcolm took in some of these details in one amazed glance, but his +thoughts were recalled sternly to the affairs of the moment by hearing +the ring of spurred heels on the sharp-sounding pavement from behind a +curtained arch. There was no time to retreat nor cross towards an alcove +that promised some slight screen from the soft and penetrating light +that filled the room. He saw that his guide was perturbed, but he asked +no question. With the quick military tread came the frou-frou of silk +and the footfall of slippered feet. Then the curtain was drawn aside and +Akhab Khan entered, followed by the Princess Roshinara.</p> + +<p>Malcolm had the advantage of a few seconds’ warning. Even as Akhab Khan +placed his hand on the curtain the Englishman sprang forward, and the +astounded sowar, now a brigadier in the rebel forces, found himself +looking into the muzzle of a revolver.</p> + +<p>“Do not move till I bid you, Akhab Khan,” said Malcolm, in his +self-contained way. “I am summoned hither, so I come, but it may be +necessary to secure a hostage for my safe conduct outside the walls +again.”</p> + +<p>“You! Malcolm-sahib!” was Akhab Khan’s involuntary outburst.</p> + +<p>“Yes, even I. Have you not heard, then, that I rode into the palace +to-day?”</p> + +<p>“There was a report that some Feringhis—some sahibs—were in the city +as spies—”</p> + +<p>“Malcolm-sahib is here because I sent for him,” broke in Roshinara.</p> + +<p>“You—<i>sent</i> for him!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span></p><p>Akhab Khan’s swarthy features paled, and his eyes sparkled wrathfully. +Heedless of Malcolm’s implied threat, or perhaps ignoring it, he wheeled +round on the Princess, and his right hand crossed to his sword-hilt.</p> + +<p>“If you so much as turn your head again or lift a hand without my order, +I blow your brains out,” said Malcolm in the same unemotional tone.</p> + +<p>“Nay, let him attack a woman if it pleaseth him,” cried Roshinara, who +had not drawn back one inch from the place where she was standing when +Malcolm confronted Akhab Khan and herself. “That is what our troops, +officers and men alike, are best fitted for. They love to swagger in the +bazaar, but their valor flies when they see the Ridge.”</p> + +<p>Again quite indifferent to the fact that Malcolm’s finger was on the +trigger, the rebel leader threw out his hands towards the Begum in a +gesture of agonized protest.</p> + +<p>“Do you not trust me, my heart?” he murmured. “If you knew of this +Nazarene’s presence why was I not told?”</p> + +<p>“Because I wished to save you in spite of yourself. Because I would +mourn you if you fell in battle as befits a warrior and the man whom I +love, but I would not have you die on the scaffold, as most of the +others will die ere another month be sped. What hope have we of success? +If forty thousand sepoys cannot overcome the three thousand English on +the Ridge, how shall they prevail against the force that is now +preparing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> to storm Delhi? I sent for Malcolm-sahib that I might obtain +terms for my father and for thee, Akhab Khan. This man is now in our +power. Let us bargain with him. If he goes free to-day, let him promise +that we shall be spared when the gallows is busy in front of our +palace.”</p> + +<p>Each word of this impassioned speech was a revelation to Malcolm. Here +was the fiery beauty of the Mogul court pleading for the lives of her +father and lover, pleading to him, a solitary Briton in the midst of +thousands of mutineers, a prisoner in their stronghold, a spy whose life +was forfeit by the laws of war. Hardly less bewildering than this turn +of fortune’s wheel was the whirligig that promoted a poor trooper of the +Company to the position of accepted suitor for the hand of a royal +maiden. Never could there be a more complete unveiling of the Eastern +mind, with all its fatalism, its strange weaknesses, its uncontrollable +passions.</p> + +<p>Akhab Khan stretched out his arms again.</p> + +<p>“Forgive me, my soul, if I did doubt thee,” he almost sobbed.</p> + +<p>The girl was the first to recover her self-control.</p> + +<p>“Put away your pistol,” she said, fixing her fine eyes on Malcolm, with +a softness in their limpid depths that he had never seen there before. +“If we can contrive, my plighted husband and I, you will not need it +to-night. I was rejoiced to hear that you were within our gates. We are +beaten. I know it. We have lost a kingdom, because wretches like Nana +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>Dundhu Punt of Bithoor, have forgotten their oaths and preferred +drunken revels to empire. Were they of my mind, were they as loyal and +honorable as the man I hope to marry, we would have driven you and yours +into the sea, Malcolm-sahib. But Allah willed otherwise and we can only +bow to his decree. It is Kismet. I am content. Say, then, if you are +sent in safety to your camp, do you in return guarantee the two lives I +ask of you?”</p> + +<p>Malcolm could not help looking at Akhab Khan before he answered. The +handsome young soldier had folded his arms, and his eyes dwelt on +Roshinara’s animated face with a sad fixity that bespoke at once his +love and his despair.</p> + +<p>Then the Englishman placed the revolver in his belt and bowed low before +the woman who reposed such confidence in him.</p> + +<p>“If the issue rested with me, Princess,” he said, “you need have no fear +for the future. I am only a poor officer and I have small influence. Yet +I promise that such power as I possess shall be exerted in your behalf, +and I would remind you that we English neither make war on woman nor +treat honorable enemies as felons.”</p> + +<p>“My father is a feeble old man,” she cried vehemently. “It was not by +his command that your people were slain. And Akhab Khan has never drawn +his sword save in fair fight.”</p> + +<p>“I can vouch for Akhab Khan’s treatment of those who were at his mercy,” +said Malcolm, generously.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span></p><p>“Nay, sahib, you repaid me that night,” said the other, not to be +outdone in this exchange of compliments. “But if I have the happiness to +find such favor with my lady that she plots to save me against my will I +cannot forget that I lead some thousands of sepoys who have faith in me. +You have been examining our defenses all day. Sooner would I fall on my +sword here and now than that I should connive at the giving of +information to an enemy which should lead to the destruction of my men.”</p> + +<p>Malcolm had foreseen this pitfall in the smooth road that was seemingly +opening before him.</p> + +<p>“I would prefer to become the bearer of terms than of information,” he +said.</p> + +<p>“Terms? What terms? How many hands in this city are free of innocent +blood? Were I or any other to propose a surrender we should be torn limb +from limb.”</p> + +<p>“Then I must tell you that I cannot accept your help at the price of +silence. When I undertook this mission I knew its penalties. I am still +prepared to abide by them. Let me remind you that it is I, not you, who +can impose conditions within these four walls.”</p> + +<p>Akhab Khan paled again. His was the temperament that shows anger by the +token which reveals cowardice in some men; it is well to beware of him +who enters a fight with bloodless cheeks and gray lips. But Roshinara +sprang between them with an eager cry:</p> + +<p>“What folly is this that exhausts itself on a point of honor? Does not +every spy who brings us details of each gun and picket on the Ridge tell +the sahib-log all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>that they wish to know of our strength and our +dissensions? Will not the man who warned us of the presence of an +officer-sahib in our midst to-day go back and sell the news of a sepoy +regiment’s threat to murder the King? Have done with these idle +words—let us to acts! Nawab-ji!”</p> + +<p>“Heaven-born!” Malcolm’s guide advanced with a deep salaam.</p> + +<p>“See to it that my orders are carried out. Mayhap thine own head may +rest easier on its shoulders if there is no mischance.”</p> + +<p>The nawab-ji bowed again, and assured the Presence that there would be +no lapse on his part. Akhab Khan had turned away. His attitude betokened +utter dejection, but the Princess, not the first of her sex to barter +ambition for love, was radiant with hope.</p> + +<p>“Go, Malcolm-sahib,” she whispered, “and may Allah guard you on the +way!”</p> + +<p>“I have one favor to ask,” he said. “My devoted servant, a man named +Chumru—”</p> + +<p>She smiled with the air of a woman who breathes freely once more after +passing through some grave peril.</p> + +<p>“How, then, do you think I found out the identity of the English officer +who had dared to enter Delhi?” she asked. “Your man came to me, not +without difficulty, and told me you were here. It was he who inspired me +with the thought that your presence might be turned to good account. But +go, and quickly. He is safe.”</p> + +<p>Frank hardly knew how to bid her farewell until he remembered that, if +of royal birth, Princess Roshinara <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>was also a beautiful woman. He took +her hand and raised it to his lips, a most unusual proceeding in the +East, but the tribute of respect seemed to please her.</p> + +<p>Following the nawab he traversed many corridors and chambers and +ultimately reached an apartment in which Chumru was seated. That +excellent bearer was smoking a hookah, with a couple of palace servants, +and doubtless exchanging spicy gossip with the freedom of Eastern +manners and conversation.</p> + +<p>“Shabash!” he cried when his crooked gaze fell on Malcolm. “By the tomb +of Nizam-ud-din, there are times when women are useful.”</p> + +<p>They were let down from a window on the river face of the palace and +taken by a boat to the bank of the Jumna above Ludlow Castle, while the +nawab undertook to deliver their horses next day at the camp. He carried +out his promise to the letter, nor did he forget to put forth a plea in +his own behalf against the hour when British bayonets would be probing +the recesses of the fort and its occupants.</p> + +<p>When Nicholson came out of the mess after supper he found Malcolm +waiting for an audience. Chumru, still wearing the servant’s livery in +which the famous brigadier had last seen him, was squatting on the +ground near his master. The general was not apt to waste time in talk, +and he had a singular knack of reading men’s thoughts by a look.</p> + +<p>“Glad to see you back again, Major Malcolm,” he cried. “I hope you were +successful?”</p> + +<p>“It is for you to decide, sir, when you have heard <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>my story,” and +without further preamble Frank gave a clear narrative of his adventures +since dawn. Not a word did he say about the very things he had been sent +to report on, and Nicholson understood that a direct order alone would +unlock his lips. When Frank ended the general frowned and was silent. In +those days men did not hold honor lightly, and Nicholson was a fine type +of soldier and gentleman.</p> + +<p>“Confound it!” he growled, “this is awkward, very awkward,” and Malcolm +felt bitterly that the extraordinary turn taken by events in the palace +was in a fair way towards depriving his superiors of the facts they were +so anxious to learn. Suddenly the big man’s deep eyes fell on Chumru.</p> + +<p>“Here, you,” he growled, “was aught said to thee whereby thou hast a +scruple to tell me how many guns defend the Cashmere Gate?”</p> + +<p>“Huzoor,” said Chumru, “there are but two things that concern me, my +master’s safety and the size of that jaghir your honor promised me.”</p> + +<p>Nicholson laughed with an almost boyish mirth.</p> + +<p>“By gad,” he cried, “you are fortunate in your friends, Malcolm.” Then +he turned to Chumru again. “The jaghir is of no mean size,” he said, +“but I shall see to it that a field is added for every useful fact you +make known.”</p> + +<p>Frank listened to his servant’s enumeration of the guns and troops at +the Lahore, Mori, and Cashmere Gates, and he was surprised at the +accuracy of Chumru’s mental note-taking.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span></p><p>“I need not have gone at all, sir,” he could not help commenting when +the bearer had answered Nicholson’s final question. “I seem to have a +Napoleon for a valet.”</p> + +<p>The brigadier laid a kindly hand on Frank’s shoulder.</p> + +<p>“You forget that you have brought me the most important news of all,” he +said. “The enemy is defeated before the first ladder is planted against +their walls. They know it, and, thanks to you, now we know it. My only +remaining difficulty is not to take Delhi, but to screw up our Chief to +make the effort.”</p> + +<p>Then his voice sank to a deep growl.</p> + +<p>“But I’ll bring him to reason, I will, by Heaven, even if I risk being +cashiered for insubordination!”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>THE EXPIATION</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>wo hours after midnight—that is a time of rest and peace in most +lands. Men have either ceased or not yet begun their toil. Even +warfare, the deadliest task of all, slackens its energy, and the ghostly +reaper leans on his scythe while wearied soldiers sleep. Wellington +knew this when he said that the bravest man was he who possessed +“two-o’clock-in-the-morning” courage, for shadows then become real, +and dangers anticipated but unseen are magnified tenfold.</p> + +<p>Yet, soon after two o’clock in the morning of September 14, 1857, four +thousand five hundred soldiers assembled behind the Ridge for the +greatest achievement that the Mutiny had demanded during the four months +of its wonderful history. They were divided into five columns, one being +a reserve, and the task before them was to carry by assault a strongly +fortified city, surrounded by seven miles of wall and ditch, held by +forty thousand trained soldiers and equipped with ample store of guns +and ammunition. Success meant the certain loss of one man among +four—failure would carry with it a rout and massacre unexampled in +modern war.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p><p>Men had fallen in greater numbers in the Crimea, it is true—a British +army had been swallowed alive in the wild Khyber Pass—but these were +only incidents in prolonged campaigns, whereas the collapse of the +assailants of Delhi would set free a torrent of murder, rapine and +pillage, such as the utmost triumph of the rebels had not yet produced.</p> + +<p>The Punjab, the whole of the Northwest, Central India and Rajputana, all +northern Bengal and Bombay, must have been submerged in the flood if the +gates of Delhi were unbarred. It is not to be marveled at, therefore, +that General Wilson, the Commander-in-Chief, “looked nervous and +anxious” as he rode slowly along the front of the gathering columns, nor +that many of the British officers and men received the Holy Communion at +the hands of their chaplains, ere they mustered for what might prove to +be their last parade.</p> + +<p>In some tents, of their own accord, the soldiers read the Old Testament +lesson of the day. With that extraordinary aptness which the chronicles +of the prophets often display in their relation to current events, the +chapter foretold the doom of Nineveh: “Woe to the bloody city! It is +full of lies and robbery ... draw the waters for the siege, fortify thy +strongholds ... then shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut +thee off; it shall eat thee up like the canker-worm.”</p> + +<p>How thrilling, how intensely personal and human, these words must have +sounded in their ears, for it should ever be borne in mind that the +Britons who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>recovered India in ’57 were not only determined to avenge +the barbarities inflicted on unoffending women and children, but were +inspired by a religious enthusiasm that showed itself in almost every +diary kept and letter sent home during the war.</p> + +<p>And now, while the brilliant stars were dimmed by bursting shells and +rockets hissing in glowing curves across the sky, the columns moved +forward.</p> + +<p>English, Scotch, Irish and Welsh—swarthy Pathans, bearded Sikhs, dapper +little Ghoorkahs—marched side by side, from the first column on the +left, commanded by Nicholson, to the fourth, on the extreme right, led +by Reid.</p> + +<p>The plan of attack was daring and soldier-like. John Nicholson, ever +claiming the post of utmost danger, elected to hurl his men across the +breach made by the big guns in the Cashmere Bastion, the strongest of +the many strong positions held by the enemy. The second column, under +Brigadier Jones, was to storm the second breach in the walls at the +Water Bastion. The third, headed by Colonel Campbell, was to pass +through the Cashmere Gate when the gallant six who had promised to blow +open the gate itself had accomplished their task, while the fourth +column, under Major Reid, undertook to clear the suburbs of Kishengunge +and Pahadunpore and force its way into the city by way of the Lahore +Gate.</p> + +<p>Brigadier Longfield, commanding the reserve, had to follow and support +Nicholson. Generally speaking, if each separate attack made good its +objective, the different <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>columns were to line up along the walls, form +posts, and combine for the bombardment and escalade of the +fortress-palace. Nicholson, who directed the assault, had not forgotten +the half-implied bargain made between Malcolm and the Princess +Roshinara. Strict orders were given that the King and members of the +royal family were to be taken prisoners if possible. As for Akhab Khan +and other leaders of rebel brigades, it was impossible to distinguish +them among so many. Not even Nicholson could ask his men to be generous +in giving quarter, when nine out of every ten mutineers they encountered +were less soldiers than slayers of women and children.</p> + +<p>At last, in the darkness, the columns reached their allotted stations +and halted. The engineers, carrying ladders, crept to the front.</p> + +<p>Nicholson placed a hand on Jones’s shoulder.</p> + +<p>“Are you ready?” he asked, with the quiet confidence in the success of +his self-imposed mission that caused all men to trust in him implicitly.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” answered Jones.</p> + +<p>Nicholson turned to Malcolm and two others of his aides.</p> + +<p>“Tell the gunners to cease fire,” he said.</p> + +<p>Left and right they hurried, stumbling over the broken ground to reach +the batteries, which were thundering at short range against the fast +crumbling walls. In No. 2, which Malcolm entered, he found a young +lieutenant of artillery, Frederick Sleigh Roberts, working a heavy gun +almost single-handed, so terribly had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>the Royal Regiment suffered in +the contest waged with the rebel gunners during seven days and nights.</p> + +<p>Almost simultaneously the three batteries became silent. With a +heart-stirring cheer the Rifles dashed forward and fired a volley to +cover the advance of the ladder-men, and the first step was taken in the +actual capture of Delhi.</p> + +<p>The loud yell of the Rifles served as a signal to the other columns. The +second, gallantly led by Jones, rushed up to the Water Bastion and +entered it, but not until twenty-nine out of thirty-nine men carrying +ladders were killed or wounded. On Jones’s right, Nicholson, ever in the +van, seemed to lift his column by sheer strength of will through an +avalanche of musketry, heavy stones, grape-shot and bayonet thrusts, +while the rebels, swarming like wasps to the breach, inspired each other +by hurling threats and curses at the Nazarenes. But to stop Nicholson +and his host they must kill every man, and be killed themselves in the +killing, and, not having the stomach for that sort of fight, they ran.</p> + +<p>Thus far a magnificent success had been achieved. It was carried +further, almost perfected, by the splendid self-sacrifice displayed +by the six who had promised to blow open the Cashmere Gate. To +this day their names are blazoned on a tablet between its two +arches—“Lieutenants Home and Salkeld of the Engineers, Bugler Hawthorne +of the 52d and Sergeants Carmichael, Smith and Burgess of the Bengal +Sappers.” Smith and Hawthorne lived to wear the Victoria <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>Crosses +awarded for their feat. The others, while death glazed their eyes and +dimmed their ears, may have known by the rush of men past where they lay +that their sacrifice had not been in vain. The stout timbers and iron +bands were rent by the powder-bags, and the third column fought a +passage through the double gateway into the tiny square in front of St. +James’s Church.</p> + +<p>Then, as if the story of Delhi were to serve as a microcosm of fortune’s +smiles and frowns in human affairs, the victorious career of the British +columns received a serious, almost a mortal check. The mutineers were in +full retreat, terror-stricken and dismayed. Thousands were already +crossing the bridge of boats when the word went round that the Feringhis +were beaten.</p> + +<p>They were not, but the over-caution against which Nicholson had railed +for months again betrayed itself in the failure of the second column to +capture the Lahore Gate when that vital position lay at its mercy. +Audacity, ever excellent in war, is sound as a proposition of Euclid in +operations against Asiatics.</p> + +<p>Brigadier and men had done what they were asked to do—they ought to +have done more. Having penetrated beyond the Mori Bastion they fell back +and fortified themselves against counter assault, thus displaying +unimpeachable tactics, but bad generalship in view of the enemy’s +demoralization. Instantly Akhab Khan, who commanded in that quarter of +the city, claimed a victory. The mutineers flocked back to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>their +deserted posts. While one section pressed Jones hard, another fell on +Reid’s Ghoorkahs and the cavalry brigade. They actually pushed the +counter attack as far as Hindu Rao’s house on the Ridge, until Hope +Grant’s cavalry and Tomb’s magnificent horse artillery tackled them. A +terrific <i>mêlée</i> ensued. Twenty-five out of fifty gunners were killed or +wounded, the 9th Lancers suffered with equal severity, but the rebels +were held, punished, and defeated, after two hours of desperate +conflict.</p> + +<p>The mischance at the Lahore Gate cost England a life she could ill +spare. When he heard what had happened, Nicholson ran to the Mori +Bastion, gathered men from both columns and tried to storm the Lahore +Bastion at all hazards. It was asking too much, but those gallant hearts +did not falter. They followed their beloved leader into a narrow lane, +the only way from the one point to the other. They fell in scores, but +Nicholson’s giant figure still towered in front. With sword raised he +shouted to the survivors to come on. Then a bullet struck him in the +chest and he fell.</p> + +<p>With him, for a time, drooped the flag of Britain. The utter confusion +which followed is shown by Lord Robert’s statement in his Memoirs that +he found Nicholson lying in a dhooly near the Cashmere Gate, the native +carriers having fled. Although Baird Smith, a skilled engineer and +artillerist, had secured against a <i>coup de main</i> that small portion of +the city occupied by the besiegers, General Wilson was minded to +withdraw <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>the troops. Even now he considered the task of subduing Delhi +to be beyond their powers. Baird Smith insisted that he should hold on. +Nicholson sent a typical message from his deathbed on the Ridge that he +still had strength enough left to struggle to his feet and pistol the +first man who counseled retreat, and the harassed commander-in-chief +consented to the continuance of the fighting.</p> + +<p>Although his judgment was mistaken he had good reasons for it. Akhab +Khan, on whom the real leadership devolved when it became known that the +King and his sons had fled from the palace, tried a ruse that might well +have proved fatal to his adversaries. Counting on the exhaustion of the +British and the privations they had endured during the long months on +the Ridge, he caused the deserted streets, between the Cashmere and Mori +Gates, to be strewed with bottles of wine, beer and spirits. To men +enfeebled by heat and want of food the liquor was more deadly than lead +or steel. Were it not that Akhab Khan himself was shot through the +forehead while trying to repel the advance of Taylor’s engineers along +the main road to the palace from the Cashmere Gate, it was well within +the bounds of possibility that the afternoon of the 14th might have +witnessed a British <i>debacle</i>.</p> + +<p>In one respect the sepoy commander’s death was as serious to his cause +as the loss of Nicholson to the English. The rebels, fighting fiercely +enough in small detachments, but no longer controlled by a man who knew +how to use their vastly superior numbers, allowed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>themselves to be +dealt with in detail. Soon the British attack was properly organized, +and a six days’ orgy of destruction began.</p> + +<p>Although no Briton was seen to injure a woman or child in the streets or +houses of Delhi, the avenging army spared no man. Unhappily thousands of +harmless citizens were slaughtered side by side with the mutineers. The +British had received a great provocation and they exacted a terrible +payment. On the 20th the gates of the palace were battered in and the +British flag was hoisted from its topmost turret. Then, and not till +then, did Delhi fall. The last of the Moguls was driven from the halls +which had witnessed the grandeur and pomp of his imperial predecessors, +and the great city passed into the hands of the new race that had come +to leaven the decaying East. It was a dearly-bought triumph. On +September 14 the conquering army lost sixty-six officers and eleven +hundred and four men. Between May 30 and September 20 the total British +casualties were nearly four thousand.</p> + +<p>Malcolm soon learnt that the Princess Roshinara had fled with her father +and brothers. Probably the death of Akhab Khan had unnerved her, and she +dared not trust to the mercy of the victors. Frank was among the first +to enter the palace. After a few fanatical ghazees were made an end of, +he hurried towards the zenana. It was empty. He searched its glittering +apartments with feverish anxiety, but he met no human being until some +men of the 75th entered <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>and began to prise open boxes and cupboards in +the search for loot.</p> + +<p>After that his duties took him to the Ridge, and it was not until all +was over that he heard how Hodson had captured the King and shot the +royal princes with his own hand. This tragedy took place on the road +from Humayun’s Tomb, whither the wretched monarch retreated when it was +seen that Delhi must yield. Hodson claimed to be an executioner, not a +murderer. He held that he acted under the pressure of a mob, intent on +rescuing Mirza Moghul, the heir apparent, and his brother and son. That +all three were cowardly ruffians and merciless in their treatment of the +English captured in Delhi on May 11, cannot be denied, but Hodson’s +action was condemned by many, and it was perhaps as well that he found a +soldier’s grave during Colin Campbell’s advance on Lucknow.</p> + +<p>It was there that the fortune of war next brought Malcolm. Delhi had +scarce quieted down after the storm and fury of the week’s street +fighting when Havelock, re-enforced by Outram, drove the relief force +through the insurgent ring around the Residency like some stout ship +forcing her way to port through a raging sea.</p> + +<p>No sooner had he entered the entrenchment on the 25th of September than +the rebel waves surged together again in his rear, and on the 27th the +Residency was again invested almost as closely as ever. But the new +column infused vigor and hope in the hearts of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span>a garrison that had +ceased even to despair. Apathy, a quiet waiting for death, was the +prevalent attitude in Lucknow until the Highland bonnets were seen +tossing above the last line of mutineers that tried to bar their passage +through the streets. At once the besieged took up the offensive. The +lines were greatly extended, the enemy’s advanced posts were carried +with the bayonet, troublesome guns were seized and spiked and the rebel +mining operations summarily stopped.</p> + +<p>Two days before Havelock’s little army cut its way into Lucknow, Ungud, +the pensioner, crept in to the retrenchment and announced the coming +relief. He was not believed. Twice already had he brought that cheering +message and events had falsified his news.</p> + +<p>Winifred, a worn and pallid Winifred by this time, sought him and asked +for tidings of Malcolm. He had none. There was a rumor that Delhi had +fallen, and an officer had told him that there was a Major Malcolm on +Nicholson’s staff. That was all. Not a letter, not a sign, came to +reassure the heart-broken girl, so the joy of Havelock’s arrival was +dimmed for her by the uncertainty that obtained in regard to her lover’s +fate.</p> + +<p>Then the dreadful waiting began again. After having endured a plague of +heat in the hot weather, the remnant of the original garrison was +subjected to the torment of cold in the months that followed. In Upper +India the change of temperature is so remarkably sudden that it is +incomprehensible to those who live in more favored climes. Early in +October <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>the thermometer falls by many degrees each day. The reason is, +of course, that the diminishing power of the sun permits the earth to +throw off by night the heat, always intense, stored during the day. +Something in the nature of an atmospheric vacuum is thus created, and +the resultant cold continues until the opposite effect brings about the +lasting heat of the summer months, which begin about March 15 in that +part of India.</p> + +<p>But scientific explanations of unpleasant phenomena are poor substitutes +for scanty clothing. In some respects the last position of the +beleaguered garrison was worse than the first, and the days wore on in +seemingly endless misery, until absolutely authentic intelligence +arrived on November 9, that Sir Colin Campbell was at Bunnee and would +march forthwith to relieve the Residency.</p> + +<p>Then Outram, who had succeeded to the chief command as soon as Havelock +joined hands with Inglis, called for a volunteer who would act as Sir +Colin’s guide through the network of canals, roads, and scattered +suburbs that added to the dangers of Lucknow’s narrow streets, and a man +named Kavanagh, an uncovenanted civilian, offered his services.</p> + +<p>It is not hard to picture Kavanagh’s lot if he were captured by the +mutineers. His own views were definite on the point. Beneath his native +disguise he carried a pistol, not for use against an enemy, but to take +his own life if he failed to creep through the investing lines. But he +succeeded, and lived to be the only civilian hero ever awarded the +Victoria Cross.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p><p>Another incident of the march should be noted. Malcolm saw preparations +being made to hang a Mohammedan who was suspected of having ill-treated +Europeans. The man protested his innocence, but he was not listened to. +Then Frank, thinking he remembered his face, questioned him and found he +was the zemindar who helped Winifred, her uncle and himself during the +flight from Cawnpore.</p> + +<p>Such testimony from an officer more than sufficed to outweigh the slight +evidence against the prisoner, who was set at liberty forthwith. During +the remainder of his life he had ample leisure to reflect on the good +fortune that led him to help the people who sought his assistance on +that June night. Were it not for Malcolm’s interference he would have +been hanged without mercy, and possibly not without good cause.</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of November 11, Sir Colin Campbell reviewed his little +army. It was drawn up in parade order, on a plain a few miles south of +the Dilkusha. Three thousand four hundred men faced him, and the +smallness of the number is eloquent of the magnitude of their task. +Indeed, that is one of the salient features of each main episode of the +Mutiny. Nicholson at Delhi, Havelock at Cawnpore and on the way to +Lucknow, Colin Campbell in the pending action, and Sir Hugh Rose in many +a hard fought battle in Central India, one and all were called on to +attack and defeat ten times the number of sepoys.</p> + +<p>But what fine troops they were who met the commander-in-chief’s <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>gaze as +they stood marshaled there, on that dusty Indian <i>maidan</i>. Peel’s +sailors, with eight heavy guns, artillerymen standing by the cannon that +had sounded the knell of Delhi from below the Ridge, the 9th Lancers, +who held the right flank when the capture of Hindu Rao’s house would +have meant the collapse of the assault, the 8th and 75th Foot, the 2d +and 4th Punjabis—all these had followed the Lion of the Punjab when he +stormed the Cashmere Bastion. Sikh Cavalry, too, and Hodson’s wild +horsemen, and many another gallant soldier, fresh from the immortal +siege, returned the General’s quiet scrutiny, as he rode past, and +doubtless wondered how he would compare as a leader with the man whom +they had left in the little cemetery at the foot of the Ridge.</p> + +<p>It is on record that from the end of the line came a yell of welcome and +recognition. The 93d Highlanders remembered what Campbell had done in +the Crimea, and their joyful slogan brought a flush to the bronzed face +of the old war dog when he learnt the significance of their greeting.</p> + +<p>Next morning began a three day’s battle. Perhaps there was never an +action so spectacular, so thrilling, so amazingly in earnest, as the +continuous fight which brought about the Second Relief of Lucknow. At +the Alumbagh, at the Dilkusha and La Martinière school, at the Secunder +Bagh and the Shah Nujeef, were fought fiercely-contested combats that in +other campaigns would have figured as independent battles, each highly +important in the history of the time.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span></p><p>The taking of the Shah Nujeef alone was worthy of Homeric praise. It was +a mosque that stood in a garden, bounded by a high and stout wall and +protected by jungle and mud hovels. Its peculiar position, joined to the +number of guns mounted on its walls and the thousands of sepoys who held +it, made it impossible for a devoted artillery to create an effective +breach. Yet, if the relieving force failed here, they failed altogether. +So Sir Colin asked his men for a supreme effort. Riding forward himself, +accompanied by his staff and Sir Adrian Hope, Colonel of the 93d, he +cheered on his loved Highlanders. Cannot one hear the skirl of the pipes +amid that din of cannon and musketry? Cannot one see the shot-torn +colors fluttering in the breeze, the plaids of the gallant Highland +gentlemen who led the 93d, vanishing in the smoke and dust? Middleton’s +battery of the Royal Artillery came dashing up, “the drivers waving +their whips, the gunners their caps,” unlimbered within forty yards of +the wall, and opened fire with grape. Men and horses fell in scores, but +somehow, anyhow, an entrance was gained and the Shah Nujeef was taken. +Feeble must be the pulse that does not beat faster, dim the eye that +does not kindle, as one hears how those Britons fought and died, but did +not die in vain.</p> + +<p>Next day Captain Garnet Wolseley led a storming party against the Motee +Mahal, and the self-sacrificing heroism of the Shah Nujeef was displayed +again here and with the same result.</p> + +<p>And so the wild fight went on, till Outram and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>Havelock, Napier, Eyre, +Havelock’s son and four other officers ran from the Residency through a +tempest of lead showered on them from the Kaiser Bagh, and Hope Grant, +dashing forward from the van of Colin Campbell’s force, shook hands with +the hero of the First Relief.</p> + +<p>Half an hour later Malcolm entered the Residency. At first sight it was +an abode of sorrow. Death and ruin seemed to have combined there to +wreak their spite on mankind and his belongings. Even the men and women +whom he met were tear-laden, and it was not till he heard their happy +voices that he knew they were weeping because of the overwhelming joy in +their souls.</p> + +<p>He hurried on, scanning each excited group for one face that he thought +he would recognize were it fifty years instead of five months since +their last meeting. He, of course, was even a finer-looking and better +set-up soldier now than when he galloped along the flame-lit roads of +Meerut on that never-to-be-forgotten Sunday night in May, and it is not +to be wondered at if he failed to allow for the effect on Winifred of +the ordeal she had gone through.</p> + +<p>Perhaps his keen eyes were covered with a mist, perhaps the growing fear +in his heart forbade his tongue to ask a question, because he dreaded +the answer. Perhaps sheer agitation may have rendered him incapable of +distinguishing one among so many. Howsoever that may be, he knew +nothing, saw no one, until a wan, slim-figured woman, a woman clothed in +tattered rags, down whose pallid cheeks streamed the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>divine tears of +happiness, touched his arm and sobbed:</p> + +<p>“Are you looking for me—dear?”</p> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<p>The Mutiny was by no means ended with the fall of Delhi and the Second +Relief of Lucknow. North and south and east and west the rebels were +hunted with untiring zeal. Sometimes in scattered bands, less often in +formidable armies, they were pursued, encountered and annihilated. +Quickly degenerating into mere robber hordes, they became a pest to the +unhappy villagers in the remoter parts of the different provinces, and +it was long ere the last embers of the fire that had raged so fiercely +were stamped out. Nana Sahib perished miserably under the claws of a +tiger in the Nepaul jungle, the Moulvie of Fyzabad and the Ranei of +Jhansi fell in action, while Tantia Topi was hanged. But the end came, +and on November 1, 1858, amid salvoes of artillery and to the +accompaniment of festivities innumerable, Queen Victoria proclaimed the +abolition of the East India Company, and assumed the sovereignty of the +country. Her Majesty took no territory, confirmed all treaties, promised +religious toleration and civil equality to all her Indian subjects, and +gave full and complete pardon to every rebel who was not a murderer.</p> + +<p>The Queen’s gracious and peace-bringing words supplied a fitting close +to India’s Red Year. Europeans and natives alike tried to forget both +the crime and its punishment. And that was a good thing in itself.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span></p><p>The great land of Hindustan has doubled its teeming population and +increased its prosperity out of all comparable reckoning during the +fifty years that have passed since the Mutiny. Many of the descendants +of men who fought against the British Raj are now its trusted servants, +and there is not in India to-day a native gentleman of any importance +who would not assist the Government with his life and fortune to save +his country from the lawless horrors of any similar outbreak.</p> + +<p>But these are matters for the politician and the statesman. It is more +fitting that this story of the lives and fortunes of a few of the actors +in a great human drama should conclude with such particulars of their +subsequent history as have filtered through time’s close-woven meshes of +half a century.</p> + +<p>One day in February, not so long ago, a young officer of the Guides, who +had come to Lucknow for “Cup” week, was standing in the porch of the +Mohamed Bagh Club when he heard a young lady bewailing fate in the shape +of a tikka-gharry which had brought her there. Her “people” were at the +Chutter Munzil Club, miles away, for Lucknow is a big place, and she was +already late for tea.</p> + +<p>Being a nice young man, the said officer of the Guides could not bear to +see a nice young woman in distress.</p> + +<p>“My dog-cart is just coming up,” he said, “and I am going to the Chutter +Munzil. Won’t you let me drive you there?”</p> + +<p>She blushed and hesitated and of course agreed.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span></p><p>On the way, to maintain a polite conversation, he pointed out several +historic buildings.</p> + +<p>“You are stationed here, I suppose?” she said.</p> + +<p>“No, indeed. My regiment is at Quetta, but I was reared on the records +of Lucknow. My grandmother went through the whole of the siege, and my +grandfather was with the Second Relief. It must have agreed with their +health, for they were both out here two years since, and I went over the +Mutiny ground with them.”</p> + +<p>“How interesting! Was that how they met?”</p> + +<p>“No. They were engaged just before the Residency was invested. It is an +awfully interesting yarn, and I should like some day to have a chance of +telling it to you. There is a native princess in it, and a pearl +necklace, which is worth quite a lot of money, and is believed to have +been stolen by a sepoy before my grandfather obtained it, quite by +accident. And the old chap—he was quite a young chap then, you +know—had a remarkable native servant who did so well at the Mutiny that +he became a nawab or something of the sort. Really, the whole thing is +more like a book than a chapter of real life.”</p> + +<p>“I had a grandmother in the Mutiny,” said the girl, “but she had such a +sad experience that she seldom mentioned it. Her maiden name was Keene, +and her father was killed at Fattehpore—”</p> + +<p>“Keene! Did she ever speak of a man named Malcolm, who saved her and her +sister?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes! You don’t mean to say—”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span></p><p>“Yes, really, I’m his grandson. Now, isn’t that the queerest thing? Just +imagine the odds against my meeting you here under such conditions? +Please tell me your name, and you’ll let me call, won’t you?”</p> + +<p>The girl was somewhat breathless. Young Malcolm was looking at her as +though he felt that a special dispensation of Providence had brought +them together.</p> + +<p>“I am sure my mother will be glad to meet you and hear all about those +old days at Lucknow,” she said shyly.</p> + +<p>So it may be that the gray ruins of the Residency, over which the flag +flies ever that was kept there so resolutely by the men and women in +’57, saw the beginning of another love idyll, destined to end as happily +as that which had its being amidst the terrors and fury of the Mutiny.</p> + +<h3>THE END</h3> + +<hr class="large" /> + +<div class="centerbox2 bbox2"> + +<p class="double"> </p> + +<h3>BOOKS ON NATURE STUDY BY</h3> +<h2>CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS</h2> + +<h4>Handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents per volume, postpaid.</h4> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<p class="hangingindent"><b>THE KINDRED OF THE WILD. A Book of Animal Life. With +illustrations by Charles Livingston Bull.</b></p> + +<p>Appeals alike to the young and to the merely youthful-hearted. Close +observation. Graphic description. We get a sense of the great wild and +its denizens. Out of the common. Vigorous and full of character. The +book is one to be enjoyed, all the more because it smacks of the forest +instead of the museum. John Burroughs says: “The volume is in many ways +the most brilliant collection of Animal Stories that has appeared. It +reaches a high order of literary merit.”</p> + +<p><b>THE HEART OF THE ANCIENT WOOD. Illustrated.</b></p> + +<p>This book strikes a new note in literature. It is a realistic romance of +the folk of the forest—a romance of the alliance of peace between a +pioneer’s daughter in the depths of the ancient wood and the wild beasts +who felt her spell and became her friends. It is not fanciful, with +talking beasts, nor is it merely an exquisite idyl of the beasts +themselves. It is an actual romance, in which the animal characters play +their parts as naturally as do the human. The atmosphere of the book is +enchanting. The reader feels the undulating, whimpering music of the +forest, the power of the shady silences, the dignity of the beasts who +live closest to the heart of the wood.</p> + +<p class="hangingindent"><b>THE WATCHERS OF THE TRAILS. A companion volume to the “Kindred +of the Wild.” With 48 full page plates and decorations from +drawings by Charles Livingston Bull.</b></p> + +<p>These stories are exquisite in their refinement, and yet robust in their +appreciation of some of the rougher phases of woodcraft. “This is a book +full of delight. An additional charm lies in Mr. Bull’s faithful and +graphic illustrations, which in fashion all their own tell the story of +the wild life, illuminating and supplementing the pen pictures of the +authors.”—<i>Literary Digest.</i></p> + +<p class="hangingindent"><b>RED FOX. The Story of His Adventurous Career in the Ringwaak +Wilds, and His Triumphs over the Enemies of His Kind. With 50 +illustrations, including frontispiece in color and cover design +by Charles Livingston Bull.</b></p> + +<p>A brilliant chapter in natural history. Infinitely more wholesome +reading than the average tale of sport, since it gives a glimpse of the +hunt from the point of view of the hunted. “True in substance but +fascinating as fiction. It will interest old and young, city-bound and +free-footed, those who know animals and those who do not.”—<i>Chicago +Record Herald.</i></p> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="80%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" summary="AdsPage1"> + +<tr><td align="left">GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers,</td> +<td align="center"><span style="margin-right: 1.6em;">· ·</span></td> +<td align="right">New York</td></tr></table></div> + +<p class="double"> </p></div> + +<hr class="large" /> + +<div class="centerbox2 bbox2"> + +<p class="double"> </p> + +<h2>FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS</h2> +<h3>IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS</h3> + +<p>Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time, library size, +printed on excellent paper—most of them finely illustrated. Full and +handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents a volume, postpaid.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<p class="hangingindent"><b>NEDRA, by George Barr McCutcheon, with color frontispiece, and +other illustrations by Harrison Fisher.</b></p> + +<p>The story of an elopement of a young couple from Chicago, who decide to +go to London, travelling as brother and sister. Their difficulties +commence in New York and become greatly exaggerated when they are +shipwrecked in mid-ocean. The hero finds himself stranded on the island +of Nedra with another girl, whom he has rescued by mistake. The story +gives an account of their finding some of the other passengers, and the +circumstances which resulted from the strange mix-up.</p> + +<p><b>POWER LOT, by Sarah P. McLean Greene. Illustrated.</b></p> + +<p>The story of the reformation of a man and his restoration to +self-respect through the power of honest labor, the exercise of honest +independence, and the aid of clean, healthy, out of door life and +surroundings. The characters take hold of the heart and win sympathy. +The dear old story has never been more lovingly and artistically told.</p> + +<p class="hangingindent"><b>MY MAMIE ROSE. The History of My Regeneration, by Owen Kildare. +Illustrated.</b></p> + +<p>This <i>autobiography</i> is a powerful book of love and sociology. Reads +like the strangest fiction. Is the strongest truth and deals with the +story of a man’s redemption through a woman’s love and devotion.</p> + +<p><b>JOHN BURT, by Frederick Upham Adams, with illustrations.</b></p> + +<p>John Burt, a New England lad, goes West to seek his fortune and finds it +in gold mining. He becomes one of the financial factors and pitilessly +crushes his enemies. The story of the Stock Exchange manipulations was +never more vividly and engrossingly told. A love story runs through the +book, and is handled with infinite skill.</p> + +<p class="hangingindent"><b>THE HEART LINE, by Gelett Burgess, with halftone illustrations +by Lester Ralph, and inlay cover in colors.</b></p> + +<p>A great dramatic story of the city that was. A story of Bohemian life in +San Francisco, before the disaster, presented with mirror-like accuracy. +Compressed into it are all the sparkle, all the gayety, all the wild, +whirling life of the glad, mad, bad, and most delightful city of the +Golden Gate.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="80%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" summary="AdsPage2"> + +<tr><td align="left">GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers,</td> +<td align="center"><span style="margin-right: 1.6em;">· ·</span></td> +<td align="right">New York</td></tr></table></div> + +<p class="double"> </p></div> + +<hr class="large" /> +<h3><span class="smcap">Footnotes:</span></h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The Anglo-Indian phrase for summoning a servant, meaning: +“Is there any one there?”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> It should be explained that a sepoy (properly “sipahi”) is +an infantry soldier, and a sowar a mounted one. The English equivalents +are “private” and “trooper.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> This statement is made on the authority of Holmes’s +“History of the Indian Mutiny,” Cave-Browne’s “The Punjab & Delhi,” and +“The Punjab Mutiny Report,” though it is claimed that William Brendish, +who is still living, was on duty at the Delhi Telegraph Office +throughout the night of May 10th.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> In India the word “station” denotes any European settlement +outside the three Presidency towns. In 1857 there were few railways in +the country.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> A personal servant, often valet and waiter combined.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> A generic term for Europeans.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Junior Officers.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> A native boat.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> In this instance, steps leading down to the river: also, a +mountain range.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> “Bravo! Well done, your honor!”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Bunniah, grain dealer; zemindar, land-owner.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Non-military readers may need to be reminded that the +“last post” is a bugle-call which signifies the close of the day. It is +usually succeeded by “Lights out.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> At that time, $100,000.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> “Religious war.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> An estate.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> A contemptuous use of the word “dog.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Short for mem-sahibs; ladies.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Master.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> A hill station near Lucknow.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Literally: “Never no general!”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> “Stop.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> The Government.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> The familiar native title for a European young lady.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> A game of the draughts order, much played by native +ladies.</p></div> + +<hr class="large" /> +<h3><span class="smcap">Transcriber’s Note:</span></h3> + +<p>Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters’ errors; otherwise, +every effort has been made to remain true to the author’s words and +intent.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Red Year, by Louis Tracy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RED YEAR *** + +***** This file should be named 36478-h.htm or 36478-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/4/7/36478/ + +Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Red Year + A Story of the Indian Mutiny + +Author: Louis Tracy + +Release Date: June 20, 2011 [EBook #36478] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RED YEAR *** + + + + +Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + THE RED YEAR + + A STORY + OF THE INDIAN MUTINY + + BY + LOUIS TRACY + + AUTHOR OF + "THE WINGS OF THE MORNING," "THE PILLAR OF + LIGHT," "THE CAPTAIN OF THE KANSAS," + ETC., ETC. + + NEW YORK + GROSSET & DUNLAP + PUBLISHERS + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1907 + BY EDWARD J. CLODE + + _Entered at Stationers' Hall_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I PAGE + THE MESHES OF THE NET 1 + + CHAPTER II + A NIGHT IN MAY 19 + + CHAPTER III + HOW BAHADUR SHAH PROCLAIMED HIS EMPIRE 39 + + CHAPTER IV + ON THE WAY TO CAWNPORE 54 + + CHAPTER V + A WOMAN INTERVENES 72 + + CHAPTER VI + THE WELL 91 + + CHAPTER VII + TO LUCKNOW 110 + + CHAPTER VIII + WHEREIN A MOHAMMEDAN FRATERNIZES WITH A BRAHMIN 131 + + CHAPTER IX + A LONG CHASE 151 + + CHAPTER X + WHEREIN FATE PLAYS TRICKS WITH MALCOLM 169 + + CHAPTER XI + A DAY'S ADVENTURES 190 + + CHAPTER XII + THE SWING OF THE PENDULUM 210 + + CHAPTER XIII + THE MEN WHO WORE SKIRTS 227 + + CHAPTER XIV + WHY MALCOLM DID NOT WRITE 247 + + CHAPTER XV + AT THE KING'S COURT 268 + + CHAPTER XVI + IN THE VORTEX 290 + + CHAPTER XVII + THE EXPIATION 309 + + + + +_The Red Year_ + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE MESHES OF THE NET + + +On a day in January, 1857, a sepoy was sitting by a well in the +cantonment of Dum-Dum, near Calcutta. Though he wore the uniform of John +Company, and his rank was the lowest in the native army, he carried on +his forehead the caste-marks of the Brahmin. In a word, he was more than +noble, being of sacred birth, and the Hindu officers of his regiment, if +they were not heaven-born Brahmins, would grovel before him in secret, +though he must obey their slightest order on parade or in the field. + +To him approached a Lascar. + +"Brother," said the newcomer, "lend me your brass pot, so that I may +drink, for I have walked far in the sun." + +The sepoy started as though a snake had stung him. Lascars, the +sailor-men of India, were notoriously free-and-easy in their manners. +Yet how came it that even a low-caste mongrel of a Lascar should offer +such an overt insult to a Brahmin! + +"Do you not know, swine-begotten, that your hog's lips would contaminate +my lotah?" asked he, putting the scorn of centuries into the words. + +"Contaminate!" grinned the Lascar, neither frightened nor angered. "By +holy Ganga, it is your lips that are contaminated, not mine. Are not the +Government greasing your cartridges with cow's fat? And can you load +your rifle without biting the forbidden thing? Learn more about your own +caste, brother, before you talk so proudly to others." + +Not a great matter, this squabble between a sepoy and a Lascar, yet it +lit such a flame in India that rivers of blood must be shed ere it was +quenched. The Brahmin's mind reeled under the shock of the retort. It +was true, then, what the agents of the dethroned King of Oudh were +saying in the bazaar. The Government were bent on the destruction of +Brahminical supremacy. He and his caste-fellows would lose all that made +life worth living. But they would exact a bitter price for their fall +from high estate. + +"Kill!" he murmured in his frenzy, as he rushed away to tell his +comrades the lie that made the Indian Mutiny possible. "Slay and spare +not! Let us avenge our wrongs so fully that no accursed Feringhi shall +dare again to come hither across the Black Water!" + +The lie and the message flew through India with the inconceivable speed +with which such ill tidings always travels in that country. Ever north +went the news that the British Raj was doomed. Hindu fakirs, aglow with +religious zeal, Mussalman zealots, as eager for dominance in this world +as for a houri-tenanted Paradise in the next, carried the fiery torch of +rebellion far and wide. And so the flame spread, and was fanned to red +fury, though the eyes of few Englishmen could see it, while native +intelligence was aghast at the supineness of their over-lords. + + * * * * * + +One evening in the month of April, a slim, straight-backed girl stood in +the veranda of a bungalow at Meerut. Her slender figure, garbed in white +muslin, was framed in a creeper-covered arch. The fierce ardor of an +Indian spring had already kissed into life a profusion of red flowers +amid the mass of greenery, and, if Winifred Mayne had sought an +effective setting for her own fair picture, she could not have found one +better fitted to its purpose. + +But she was young enough and pretty enough to pay little heed to pose or +background. In fact, so much of her smooth brow as could be seen under a +broad-brimmed straw hat was wrinkled in a decided frown. Happily, her +bright brown eyes had a glint of humor in them, for Winifred's wrath was +an evanescent thing, a pallid sprite, rarely seen, and ever ready to be +banished by a smile. + +"There!" she said, tugging at a refractory glove. "Did you hear it? It +actually shrieked as it split. And this is the second pair. I shall +never again believe a word Behari Lal says. Wait till I see him. I'll +give him such a talking to." + +"Then I have it in my heart to envy Behari Lal," said her companion, +glancing up at her from the carriage-way that ran by the side of the few +steps leading down from the veranda. + +"Indeed! May I ask why?" she demanded. + +"Because you yield him a privilege you deny to me." + +"I was not aware you meant to call to-day. As it is, I am paying a +strictly ceremonial visit. I wish I could speak Hindustani. Now, what +would you say to Behari Lal in such a case?" + +"I hardly know. When I buy gloves, I buy them of sufficient size. Of +course, you have small hands--" + +"Thank you. Please don't trouble to explain. And now, as you have been +rude to me, I shall not take you to see Mrs. Meredith." + +"But that is a kindness." + +"Then you shall come, and be miserable." + +"For your sake, Miss Mayne, I would face Medusa, let alone the excellent +wife of our Commissary-General, but fate, in the shape of an uncommonly +headstrong Arab, forbids. I have just secured a new charger, and he and +I have to decide this evening whether I go where he wants to go, or he +goes where I want to go. I wheedled him into your compound by sheer +trickery. The really definite issue will be settled forthwith on the +Grand Trunk Road." + +"I hope you are not running any undue risk," said the girl, with a +sudden note of anxiety in her voice that was sweetest music to Frank +Malcolm's ears. For an instant he had a mad impulse to ask if she cared, +but he crushed it ruthlessly, and his bantering reply gave no hint of +the tumult in his breast. Yet he feared to meet her eyes, and was glad +of a saluting sepoy who swaggered jauntily past the open gate. + +"I don't expect to be deposited in the dust, if that is what you mean," +he said. "But there is a fair chance that instead of carrying me back to +Meerut my friend Nejdi will take me to Aligarh. You see, he is an Arab +of mettle. If I am too rough with him, it will break his spirit; if too +gentle, he will break my neck. He needs the _main de fer sous le gant de +velours_. Please forgive me! I really didn't intend to mention gloves +again." + +"Oh, go away, you and your Arab. You are both horrid. You dine here +to-morrow night, my uncle said?" + +"Yes, if I don't send you a telegram from Aligarh. I may be brought +there, you know, against my will." + +Lifting his hat, he walked towards a huge pipal tree in the compound. +Beneath its far-flung branches a syce was sitting in front of a +finely-proportioned and unusually big Arab horse. Both animal and man +seemed to be dozing, but they woke into activity when the sahib +approached. The Arab pricked his ears, swished his long and arched tail +viciously, and showed the whites of his eyes. A Bedouin of the desert, a +true scion of the incomparable breed of Nejd, he was suspicious of +civilization, and his new owner was a stranger, as yet. + +"Ready for the fray, I see," murmured Malcolm with a smile. He wasted no +time over preliminaries. Bidding the syce place his thumbs in the steel +rings of the bridle, the young Englishman gathered the reins and a wisp +of gray mane in his left hand. Seizing a favorable moment, when the +struggling animal flinched from the touch of a low-lying branch on the +off side, he vaulted into the saddle. Chunga, the syce, held on until +his master's feet had found the stirrups. Then he was told to let go, +and Miss Winifred Mayne, niece of a Commissioner of Oudh, quite the most +eligible young lady the Meerut district could produce that year, +witnessed a display of cool, resourceful horsemanship as the enraged +Arab plunged and curvetted through the main gate. + +It left her rather flushed and breathless. + +"I like Mr. Malcolm," she confided to herself with a little laugh, "but +his manner with women is distinctly brusque! I wonder why!" + +The Grand Trunk Road ran to left and right. To the left it led to the +bazaar, the cantonment, and the civil lines; to the right, after passing +a few houses tenanted by Europeans, it entered the open country on a +long stretch of over a thousand miles to Calcutta and the south. In 1857 +no thoroughfare in the world equaled the Grand Trunk Road. Beginning at +Peshawur, in the extreme north of India, it traversed the Punjab for six +hundred miles as far as Aligarh. Here it broke into the Calcutta and +Bombay branches, each nearly a thousand miles in length. Wide and +straight, well made and tree-lined throughout, it supplied the two great +arteries of Indian life. Malcolm had selected it as a training-ground +that evening, because he meant to weary and subdue his too highly +spirited charger. Whether the pace was fast or slow, Nejdi would be +compelled to meet many varieties of traffic, from artillery elephants +and snarling camels down to the humble bullock-cart of the ryot. +Possibly, he would not shy at such monstrosities after twenty miles of a +lathering ride. + +The mad pace set by the Arab when he heard the clatter of his feet on +the hard road chimed in with the turbulent mood of his rider. Frank +Malcolm was a soldier by choice and instinct. When he joined the Indian +army, and became a subaltern in a native cavalry regiment, he determined +to devote himself to his profession. He gave his whole thought to it and +to nothing else. His interests lay in his work. He regarded every +undertaking from the point of view of its influence on his military +education, so it may be conceded instantly that the arrival in Meerut of +an Oudh Commissioner's pretty niece should not have affected the peace +of mind of this budding Napoleon. + +But a nice young woman can find joints in the armor of the +sternest-souled young man. Her attack is all the more deadly if +it be unpremeditated, and Frank Malcolm had already reached the +self-depreciatory stage wherein a comparatively impecunious subaltern +asks himself the sad question whether it be possible for such a one to +woo and wed a maid of high degree, or her Anglo-Indian equivalent, an +heiress of much prospective wealth and present social importance. + +But money and rank are artificial, the mere varnish of life, and the hot +breath of reality can soon scorch them out of existence. Events were +then shaping themselves in India that were destined to sweep aside +convention for many a day. Had the young Englishman but known it, five +miles from Meerut his Arab's hoofs threw pebbles over a swarthy moullah, +lank and travel-stained, who was hastening towards the Punjab on a +dreadful errand. The man turned and cursed him as he passed, and vowed +with bitter venom that when the time of reckoning came there would not +be a Feringhi left in all the land. Malcolm, however, would have laughed +had he heard. Affairs of state did not concern him. His only trouble was +that Winifred Mayne stood on a pinnacle far removed from the beaten path +of a cavalry subaltern. So, being in a rare fret and fume, he let the +gray Arab gallop himself white, and, when the high-mettled Nejdi thought +of easing the pace somewhat, he was urged onward with the slight but +utterly unprecedented prick of a spur. + +That was a degradation not to be borne. The Calcutta Brahmin did not +resent the Lascar's taunt more keenly. With a swerve that almost +unseated Malcolm, the Arab dashed in front of a bullock-cart, swept +between the trees on the west side of the road, leaped a broad ditch, +and crashed into a field of millet. Another ditch, another field, breast +high with tall castor-oil plants, a frantic race through a grove of +mangoes--when Malcolm had to lie flat on Nejdi's neck to avoid being +swept off by the low branches--and horse and man dived headlong into +deep water. + +The splash, far more than the ducking, frightened the horse. Malcolm, +in that instant of prior warning which the possessor of steady nerves +learns to use so well, disengaged his feet from the stirrups. He was +thrown clear, and, when he came to the surface, he saw that the Arab +and himself were floundering in a moat. Not the pleasantest of +bathing-places anywhere, in India such a sheet of almost stagnant water +has excessive peculiarities. Among other items, it breeds fever and +harbors snakes, so Malcolm floundered rather than swam to the bank, +where he had the negative satisfaction of catching Nejdi's bridle when +that disconcerted steed scrambled out after him. + +The two were coated with green slime. Being obviously unhurt, they +probably had a forlornly comic aspect. At any rate, a woman's musical +laugh came from the lofty wall which bounded the moat on the further +side, and a woman's clear voice said: + +"A bold leap, sahib! Did you mean to scale the fort on horseback? And +why not have chosen a spot where the water was cleaner?" + +Before he could see the speaker, so smothered was he in dripping +moss and weeds, Malcolm knew that some lady of rank had watched his +adventure. She used the pure Persian of the court, and her diction +was refined. Luckily, he had studied Persian as well as its Indian +off-shoot, Hindustani, and he understood the words. He pressed back his +dank hair, squeezed the water and slime off his face, and looked up. + +To his exceeding wonder, his eyes met those of a young Mohammedan woman, +a woman richly garbed, and of remarkable appearance. She was unveiled, +an amazing fact in itself, and her creamy skin, arched eyebrows, regular +features, and raven-black hair proclaimed her aristocratic lineage. She +was leaning forward in an embrasure of the battlemented wall. Behind +her, two attendants, oval-faced, brown-skinned women of the people, +peered shyly at the Englishman. When he glanced their way, they +hurriedly adjusted their silk saris, or shawls, so as to hide their +faces. Their mistress used no such bashful subterfuge. She leaned +somewhat farther through the narrow embrasure, revealing by the action +her bejeweled and exquisitely molded arms. + +"Perhaps you do not speak my language," she said in Urdu, the tongue +most frequently heard in Upper India. "If you will go round to the +gate--that way--" and she waved a graceful hand to the left left--"my +servants will render you some assistance." + +By that time, Malcolm had regained his wits. A verse of a poem by Hafiz +occurred to him. + +"Princess," he said, "the radiance of your presence is as the full moon +suddenly illumining the path of a weary traveler, who finds himself on +the edge of a morass." + +A flash of surprise and pleasure lit the fine eyes of the haughty beauty +perched up there on the palace wall. + +"'Tis well said," she vowed, smiling with all the rare effect of full +red lips and white even teeth. "Nevertheless, this is no time for +compliments. You need our help, and it shall be given willingly. Make +for the gate, I pray you." + +She turned, and gave an order to one of the attendants. With another +encouraging smile to Malcolm, she disappeared. + +Leading the Arab, who, with the fatalism of his race, was quiet as +a sheep now that he had found a master, the young officer took the +direction pointed out by the lady. Rounding an angle of the wall, he +came to a causeway spanned by a small bridge, which was guarded by the +machicolated towers of a strong gate. A ponderous door, studded with +great bosses of iron fashioned to represent elephants' heads, swung +open--half reluctantly it seemed--and he was admitted to a spacious +inner courtyard. + +The number of armed retainers gathered there was unexpectedly large. He +was well acquainted with the Meerut district, yet he had no notion that +such a fortress existed within an hour's fast ride of the station. The +King of Delhi had a hunting-lodge somewhere in the locality, but he had +never seen the place. If this were it, why should it be crammed with +soldiers? Above all, why should they eye him with such ill-concealed +displeasure? Duty had brought him once to Delhi--it was barely forty +miles from Meerut--and the relations between the feeble old King, +Bahadur Shah, and the British authorities were then most friendly, while +the hangers-on at the Court mixed freely with the Europeans. His quick +intelligence caught at the belief that these men resented his presence +because he was brought among them by the command of the lady. He knew +now that he must have seen and spoken to one of the royal princesses. +None other would dare to show herself unveiled to a stranger, and a +white man at that. The manifest annoyance of her household was thus +easily accounted for, but he marveled at the strength of her bodyguard. + +He was given little time for observation. A distinguished-looking man, +evidently vested with authority, bustled forward and addressed him, +civilly enough. Servants came with water and towels, and cleaned his +garments sufficiently to make him presentable, while other men groomed +his horse. He was wet through, of course, but that was not a serious +matter with the thermometer at seventy degrees in the shade, and, +despite the ordinance of the Prophet, a glass of excellent red wine +was handed to him. + +But he saw no more of the Princess. He thought she would hardly dare to +receive him openly, and her deputy gave no sign of admitting him to the +interior of the palace, which loomed around the square of the courtyard +like some great prison. + +A chaprassi recovered his hat, which he had left floating in the moat. +Nejdi allowed him to mount quietly; the stout door had closed on him, +and he was picking his way across the fields towards the Meerut road, +before he quite realized how curious were the circumstances which had +befallen him since he parted from Winifred Mayne in the porch of her +uncle's bungalow. + +Then he bent forward in the saddle to stroke Nejdi's curved neck, and +laughed cheerfully. + +"You are wiser than I, good horse," said he. "When the game is up, you +take things placidly. Here am I, your supposed superior in intellect, in +danger of being bewitched by a woman's eyes. Whether brown or black, +they play the deuce with a man if they shine in a woman's head. So ho, +then, boy, let us home and eat, and forget these fairies in muslin and +clinging silk." + +Yet a month passed, and Frank Malcolm did not succeed in forgetting. +Like any moth hovering round a lamp, the more he was singed the closer +he fluttered, though the memory of the Indian princess's brilliant black +eyes was soon lost in the sparkle of Winifred's brown ones. + +As it happened, the young soldier was a prime favorite with the +Commissioner, and it is possible that the course of true love might have +run most smoothly if the red torch of war had not flashed over the land +like the glare of some mighty volcano. + +On Sunday evening, May 10th, Malcolm rode away from his own small +bungalow, and took the Aligarh road. As in all up-country stations, the +European residences in Meerut were scattered over an immense area. The +cantonment was split into two sections by an irregular ravine, or +nullah, running east and west. North of this ditch were many officers' +bungalows, and the barracks of the European troops, tenanted by a +regiment of dragoons, the 60th Rifles, and a strong force of artillery, +both horse and foot. Between the infantry and cavalry barracks stood +the soldiers' church. Fully two miles away, on the south side of the +ravine, were the sepoy lines, and another group of isolated bungalows. +The native town was in this quarter, while the space intervening between +the British and Indian troops was partly covered with rambling bazaars. + +Malcolm had been detained nearly half an hour by some difficulty which a +subadar had experienced in arranging the details of the night's guard. +Several men were absent without leave, and he attributed this unusual +occurrence to the severe measures the colonel had taken when certain +troopers refused to use the cartridges supplied for the new Enfield +rifle. But, like every other officer in Meerut, he was confident that +the nearness of the strongest European force in the North-West Provinces +would certainly keep the malcontents quiet. Above all else, he was ready +to stake his life on the loyalty of the great majority of the men of his +own regiment, the 3d Native Cavalry. + +In pushing Nejdi along at a fast canter, therefore, he had no weightier +matter on his mind than the fear that he might have kept Winifred +waiting. When he dashed into the compound, and saw that there was no +dog-cart standing in the porch, he imagined that the girl had gone +without him, or, horrible suspicion, with some other cavalier. + +It was not so. Winifred herself appeared on the veranda as he +dismounted. + +"You are a laggard," she said severely. + +"I could not help it. I was busy in the orderly-room. But why lose more +time? If that fat pony of yours is rattled along we shall not be very +much behindhand." + +"You must not speak disrespectfully of my pony. If he is fat, it is due +to content, not laziness. And you are evidently not aware that Evensong +is half an hour later to-day, owing to the heat. Of course, I expected +you earlier, and, if necessary, I would have gone alone, but--" + +She hesitated, and looked over her shoulder into the immense +drawing-room that occupied the center of the bungalow from front to +rear. + +"I don't mind admitting," she went on, laughing nervously, "that I am a +wee bit afraid these days--there is so much talk of a native rising. +Uncle gets so cross with me when I say anything of that kind that I keep +my opinions to myself." + +"The country is unsettled," said Frank, "and it would be folly to deny +the fact. But, at any rate, you are safe enough in Meerut." + +"Are you sure? Only yesterday morning eighty-five men of your own +regiment were sent to prison, were they not?" + +"Yes, but they alone were disaffected. Every soldier knows he must obey, +and these fellows refused point-blank to use their cartridges, though +the Colonel said they might tear them instead of biting them. He could +go no further--I wonder he met their stupid whims even thus far." + +"Well, perhaps you are right. Come in, for a minute or two. My uncle is +in a rare temper. You must help to talk him out of it. By the way, where +are all the servants? The dog-cart ought to be here. _Koi hai!_"[1] + +[Footnote 1: The Anglo-Indian phrase for summoning a servant, meaning: +"Is there any one there?"] + +No one came in response to her call. Thinking that a syce or chaprassi +would appear in a moment, Frank hung Nejdi's bridle on a lamp-hook in +the porch, and entered the bungalow. + +He soon discovered that Mr. Mayne's wrath was due to a statement in a +Calcutta newspaper that a certain Colonel Wheler had been preaching to +his sepoys. + +"What between a psalm-singing Viceroy and commanding officers who +hold conventicles, we are in for a nice hot weather," growled the +Commissioner, shoving a box of cheroots towards Malcolm when the latter +found him stretched in a long cane chair on the back veranda. "Here +is Lady Canning trying to convert native women, and a number of +missionaries publishing manifestoes about the influence of railways and +steamships in bringing about the spiritual union of the world! I tell +you, Malcolm, India won't stand it. We can do as we like with Hindu and +Mussalman so long as we leave their respective religions untouched. The +moment those are threatened we enter the danger zone. Confound it, why +can't we let the people worship God in their own way? If anything, they +are far more religiously inclined than we ourselves. Where is the +Englishman who will flop down in the middle of the road to say his +prayers at sunset, or measure his length along two thousand miles of a +river bank merely as a penance? Give me authority to pack a shipload of +busy-bodies home to England, and I'll soon have the country quiet +enough--" + +An ominous sound interrupted the Commissioner's outburst. Both men heard +the crackle of distant musketry. At first, neither was willing to admit +its significance. + +"Where is Winifred?" demanded Mr. Mayne, suddenly. + +"She is looking for a servant, I fancy. There was none in the front of +the house, and I wanted a man to hold my horse." + +A far-off volley rumbled over the plain, and a few birds stirred +uneasily among the trees. + +"No servants to be seen--at this hour!" + +They looked at each other in silence. + +"We must find Winifred," said the older man, rising from his chair. + +"And I must hurry back to my regiment," said Frank. + +"You think, then, that there is trouble with the native troops?" + +"With the sepoys, yes. I have been told that the 11th and 20th are not +wholly to be trusted. And those volleys are fired by infantry." + +A rapid step and the rustle of a dress warned them that the girl was +approaching. She came, like a startled fawn. + +"The servants' quarters are deserted," she cried. "Great columns of +smoke are rising over the trees, and you hear the shooting! Oh, what +does it mean?" + +"It means, my dear, that the Dragoons and the 60th will have to teach +these impudent rebels a much-needed lesson," said her uncle. "There is +no cause for alarm. Must you really go, Malcolm?" + +"Go!" broke in Winifred with the shrill accents of terror. "Where are +you going?" + +"To my regiment, of course," said Frank, smiling at her fears. "Probably +we shall be able to put down this outbreak before the white troops +arrive. Good-by. I shall either return, or send a trustworthy messenger, +within an hour." + +And so, confident and eager, he was gone, and the first moments of the +hour sped when, perhaps, a strong man in control at Meerut might have +saved India. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A NIGHT IN MAY + + +Winifred, quite unconsciously, had stated the actual incident that led +to the outbreak of the Mutiny. The hot weather was so trying for the +white troops in Meerut, many of whom, under ordinary conditions, would +then have been in the hills, that the General had ordered a Church +Parade in the evening, and at an unusual hour. + +All day long the troopers of the 3d Cavalry nursed their wrath at +the fate of their comrades who had refused to handle the suspected +cartridges. They had seen men whom they regarded as martyrs stripped +of their uniforms and riveted in chains in front of the whole garrison +on the morning of the 9th. Though fear of the British force in the +cantonment kept them quiet, Hindu vied with Mussalman in muttered +execrations of the dominant race. The fact that the day following the +punishment parade was a Sunday brought about a certain relaxation from +discipline. The men loafed in the bazaars, were taunted by courtesans +with lack of courage, and either drowned their troubles in strong drink +or drew together in knots to talk treason. + +Suddenly a sepoy raced up to the cavalry lines with thrilling news. + +"The Rifles and Artillery are coming to disarm all the native +regiments!" he shouted. + +He had watched the 60th falling in for the Church Parade, and, in view +of the action taken at Barrackpore and Lucknow--sepoy battalions having +been disbanded in both stations for mutinous conduct--he instantly +jumped to the conclusion that the military authorities at Meerut meant +to steal a march on the disaffected troops. His warning cry was as a +torch laid to a gunpowder train. + +The 3d Cavalry, Malcolm's own corps, swarmed out of bazaar and quarters +like angry wasps. Nearly half the regiment ran to secure their picketed +horses, armed themselves in hot haste, and galloped to the gaol. +Smashing open the door, they freed the imprisoned troopers, struck off +their fetters, and took no measures to prevent the escape of the general +horde of convicts. Yet, even in that moment of frenzy, some of the men +remained true to their colors. Captain Craigie and Lieutenant Melville +Clarke, hearing the uproar, mounted their chargers, rode to the lines, +and actually brought their troop to the parade ground in perfect +discipline. Meanwhile, the alarm had spread to the sepoys. No one knew +exactly what caused all the commotion. Wild rumors spread, but no man +could speak definitely. The British officers of the 11th and 20th +regiments were getting their men into something like order when a +sowar[2] clattered up, and yelled to the infantry that the European +troops were marching to disarm them. + +[Footnote 2: It should be explained that a sepoy (properly "sipahi") is +an infantry soldier, and a sowar a mounted one. The English equivalents +are "private" and "trooper."] + +At once, the 20th broke in confusion, seized their muskets, and procured +ammunition. The 11th wavered, and were listening to the appeal of their +beloved commanding officer, Colonel Finnis, when some of the 20th came +back and fired at him. He fell, pierced with many bullets, the first +victim of India's Red Year. His men hesitated no longer. Afire with +religious fanaticism, they, too, armed themselves, and dispersed in +search of loot and human prey. They acted on no preconcerted plan. The +trained troops simply formed the nucleus of an armed mob, its numbers +ever swelling as the convicts from the gaol, the bad characters from the +city, and even the native police, joined in the work of murder and +destruction. They had no leader. Each man emulated his neighbor in +ferocity. Like a pack of wolves on the trail, they followed the scent of +blood. + +The rapid spread of the revolt was not a whit less marvelous than its +lack of method or cohesion. Many writers have put forward the theory +that, by accident, the mutiny broke out half an hour too soon, and that +the rebels meant to surprise the unarmed white garrison while in church. + +In reality, nothing was further from their thoughts. If, in a nebulous +way, a date was fixed for a combined rising of the native army, it was +Sunday, May 31, three weeks later than the day of the outbreak. The +soldiers, helped by the scum of the bazaar, after indulging in an orgy +of bloodshed and plunder, dispersed and ran for their lives, fearing +that the avenging British were hot on their heels. And that was all. +There was no plan, no settled purpose. Hate and greed nerved men's +hands, but head there was none. + +Malcolm's ride towards the center of the station gave proof in plenty +that the mutineers were a disorganized rabble, inspired only by +unreasoning rancor against all Europeans, and, like every mob, eager for +pillage. At first, he met but few native soldiers. The rioters were +budmashes, the predatory class which any city in the world can produce +in the twinkling of an eye when the strong arm of the law is paralyzed. +Armed with swords and clubs, gangs of men rushed from house to house, +murdering the helpless inmates, mostly women and children, seizing such +valuables as they could find, and setting the buildings on fire. These +ghouls practised the most unheard-of atrocities. They spared no one. +Finding a woman lying ill in bed, they poured oil over the bed clothes, +and thus started, with a human holocaust, the fire that destroyed the +bungalow. + +They were rank cowards, too. Another Englishwoman, also an invalid, was +fortunate in possessing a devoted ayah. This faithful creature saved her +mistress by her quick-witted shriek that the mem-sahib must be avoided +at all costs, as she was suffering from smallpox! The destroyers fled in +terror, not waiting even to fire the house. + +It was not until later days that Malcolm knew the real nature of the +scene through which he rode. He saw the flames, he heard the Mohammedan +yell of "Ali! Ali!" and the Hindu shriek of "Jai! Jai!" but the quick +fall of night, its growing dusk deepened by the spreading clouds of +smoke, and his own desperate haste to reach the cavalry lines, prevented +him from appreciating the full extent of the horrors surrounding his +path. + +Arrived at the parade ground, he met Craigie and Melville Clarke, with +the one troop that remained of the regiment of which he was so proud. +There were no other officers to be seen, so these three held a +consultation. They were sure that the white troops would soon put an end +to the prevalent disorder, and they decided to do what they could, +within a limited area, to save life and property. Riding towards his own +bungalow to obtain a sword and a couple of revolvers, Malcolm came upon +a howling mob in the act of swarming into the compound of Craigie's +house. Some score of troopers heard his fierce cry for help, and fell +upon the would-be murderers, for Mrs. Craigie and her children were +alone in the bungalow. The riff-raff were soon driven off, and Malcolm, +not yet realizing the gravity of the _emeute_, told the men to safeguard +the mem-sahib until they received further orders, while he went to +rejoin his senior officer. + +Incredible as it may seem, the tiny detachment obeyed him to the letter. +They held the compound against repeated assaults, and lost several men +in hand-to-hand fighting. + +The history of that terrible hour is brightened by many such instances +of native fealty. The Treasury Guard, composed of men of the 8th +Irregular Cavalry, not only refused to join the rebels but defended +their charge boldly. A week later, of their own free will, they escorted +the treasure and records from Meerut to Agra, the transfer being made +for greater safety, and beat off several attacks by insurgents on the +way. They were well rewarded for their fidelity, yet, such was the power +of fanaticism, within less than two months they deserted to a man! + +The acting Commissioner of Meerut, Mr. Greathed, whose residence was in +the center of the sacked area, took his wife to the flat roof of his +house when he found that escape was impossible. A gang of ruffians +ransacked every room, and, piling the furniture, set it alight, but a +trustworthy servant, named Golab Khan, told them that he would reveal +the hiding-place of the sahib and mem-sahib if they followed quickly. He +thus decoyed them away, and the fortunate couple were enabled to reach +the British lines under cover of the darkness. + +And, while the sky flamed red over a thousand fires, and the blood of +unhappy Europeans, either civilian families or the wives and children of +military officers, was being spilt like water, where were the two +regiments of white troops who, by prompt action, could have saved Meerut +and prevented the siege of Delhi? + +That obvious question must receive a strange answer. They were +bivouacked on their parade-ground, doing nothing. The General in command +of the station was a feeble old man, suffering from senile decay. His +Brigadier, Archdale Wilson, issued orders that were foolish. He sent the +Dragoons to guard the empty gaol! After a long delay in issuing +ammunition to the Rifles, he marched them and the gunners to the +deserted parade-ground of the native infantry. They found a few belated +sowars of the 3d Cavalry, who took refuge in a wood, and the artillery +opened fire at the trees! News came that the rebels were plundering the +British quarters, and the infantry went there in hot haste. And then +they halted, though the mutineers were crying, "Quick, brother, quick! +The white men are coming!" and the scared suggestion went round: "To +Delhi! That is our only chance!" + +The moon rose on a terrified mob trudging or riding the forty miles of +road between Meerut and the Mogul capital. All night long they expected +to hear the roar of the pursuing guns, to find the sabers of the +Dragoons flashing over their heads. But they were quite safe. Archdale +Wilson had ordered his men to bivouac, and they obeyed, though it is +within the bounds of probability that had the rank and file known what +the morrow's sun would reveal, there might have been another Mutiny in +Meerut that night, a Mutiny of Revenge and Reprisal. + +It was not that wise and courageous counsel was lacking. Captain Rosser +offered to cut off the flight of the rebels to Delhi if one squadron of +his dragoons and a few guns were given to him. Lieutenant Moeller, of the +11th Native Infantry, appealed to General Hewitt for permission to ride +alone to Delhi, and warn the authorities there of the outbreak. +Sanction was refused in both cases. The bivouac was evidently deemed a +masterpiece of strategy. + +That Moeller would have saved Delhi cannot be doubted. Next day, finding +that the wife of a brother officer had been killed, he sought and +obtained evidence of the identity of the poor lady's murderer, traced +the man, followed him, arrested him single-handed, and brought him +before a drumhead court martial, by whose order he was hanged forthwith. + +Craigie, Rosser, Moeller, and a few other brave spirits showed what could +have been done. But negligence and apathy were stronger that night than +courage or self-reliance. For good or ill, the torrent of rebellion was +suffered to break loose, and it soon engulfed a continent. + +Malcolm failed to find Craigie, who had taken his troop in the direction +of some heavy firing. Passing a bungalow that was blazing furiously, he +saw in the compound the corpses of two women. A little farther on, he +discovered the bodies of a man and four children in the center of the +road, and he recognized, in the man, a well-known Scotch trader whose +shop was the largest and best in Meerut. + +Then, for the first time, he understood what this appalling thing meant. +He thought of Winifred, and his blood went cold. She and her uncle were +alone in that remote house, far away on the Aligarh Road, and completely +cut off from the comparatively safe northerly side of the station. + +Giving heed to nought save this new horror of his imagination, he +wheeled Nejdi, and rode at top speed towards Mr. Mayne's bungalow. As he +neared it, his worst fears were confirmed. One wing was on fire, but the +flames had almost burnt themselves out. Charred beams and blackened +walls showed stark and gaunt in the glow of a smoldering mass of +wreckage. Twice he rode round the ruined house, calling he knew not what +in his agony, and looking with the eyes of one on the verge of lunacy +for some dread token of the fate that had overtaken the inmates. + +He came across several bodies. They were all natives. One or two were +servants, he fancied, but the rest were marauders from the city. Calming +himself, with the coolness of utter despair, he dismounted, and examined +the slain. Their injuries had been inflicted with some sharp, heavy +instrument. None of them bore gunshot wounds. That was strange. If there +was a fight, and Mayne, perhaps even Winifred, had taken part in the +defense, they must have used the sporting rifles in the house. And that +suggested an examination of the dark interior. He dreaded the task, but +it must not be shirked. + +The porch was intact, and he hung Nejdi's bridle on the hook where he +had placed it little more than an hour ago. The spacious drawing-room +had been gutted. The doors (Indian bungalows have hardly any windows, +each door being half glass) were open front and back. The room was +empty, thank Heaven! He was about to enter and search the remaining +apartments which had escaped the fire when a curiously cracked voice +hailed him from the foot of the garden. + +"Hallt! Who go dare?" it cried, in the queer jargon of the native +regiments. + +Malcolm saw a man hurrying toward him. He recognized him as a pensioner +named Syed Mir Khan, an Afghan. The old man, a born fire-eater, insisted +on speaking English to the _sahib-log_, unless, by rare chance, he +encountered some person acquainted with Pushtu, his native language. + +"I come quick, sahib," he shouted. "I know all things. I save sahib and +miss-sahib. Yes, by dam, I slewed the cut-heads." + +As he came nearer, he brandished a huge tulwar, and the split skulls +and severed vertebrae of certain gentry lying in the garden became +explicable. Delighted in having a sahib to listen, he went on: + +"The mob appearing, I attacked them with great ferocity--yes, like +terrible lion, by George. My fighting was immense. I had many actions +with the pigs." + +At last, he quieted down sufficiently to tell Malcolm what had happened. +He, with others, thinking the miss-sahib had gone to church, was smoking +the hookah of gossip in a neighboring compound. It was an instance of +the amazing rapidity with which the rioters spread over the station that +a number of them reached the Maynes' bungalow five minutes after the +first alarm was given. It should be explained here that Mr. Mayne, being +a Commissioner of Oudh, was only visiting Meerut in order to learn the +details of a system of revenue collection which it was proposed to adopt +on the sequestered estates of the Oudh taluqdars. He had rented one of +the best houses in the place, the owner being in Simla, and Syed Mir +Khan held a position akin to that of caretaker in a British household. +The looters knew how valuable were the contents of such an important +residence, and the earliest contingent thought they would have matters +entirely their own way. + +As soon as Malcolm left, however, Mr. Mayne loaded all his guns, while +Winifred made more successful search for some of the servants. The +Afghan was true to his salt, and their own retainers, who had come with +them from Lucknow, remained steadfast at this crisis. Hence, the mob +received a warm reception, but the fighting had taken place outside the +bungalow, the defenders lining a wall at the edge of the compound. +Indeed, a score of bodies lying there had not been seen by Malcolm +during his first frenzied examination of the house. + +Then an official of the Salt Department, driving past with his wife and +child, shouted to Mr. Mayne that he must not lose an instant if he would +save his niece and himself. + +"The sepoys have risen," was the horrifying message he brought. "They +have surprised and killed all the white troops. They are sacking the +whole station. You see the fires there? That is their work. This road is +clear, but the Delhi road is blocked." + +Some distant yelling caused the man to flog his horse into a fast trot +again; and he and his weeping companions vanished into the gloom. + +Mayne could not choose but believe. Indeed, many days elapsed before a +large part of India would credit the fact that the British regiments in +Meerut had not been massacred. A carriage and pair were harnessed. +Several servants were mounted on all the available horses and ponies, +and Mr. Mayne and Winifred had gone down the Grand Trunk Road towards +Bulandshahr and Aligarh. + +"Going half an hour," said Syed Mir Khan, volubly. "I stand fast, +slaying budmashes. They make rush in thousands, and I retreat with great +glory. Then they put blazes in bungalow." + +Now, Malcolm also might have accepted the sensational story of the Salt +Department inspector, if, at that instant, the boom of a heavy gun had +not come from the direction of the sepoy parade-ground. Another +followed, and another, in the steady sequence of a trained battery. As +he had just ridden from that very spot, which was then almost deserted, +he was sure that the British troops had come from their cantonment. The +discovery that Winifred was yet living, and in comparative safety, +cleared his brain as though he had partaken of some magic elixir. He +knew that Meerut itself was now the safest refuge within a hundred +miles. Probably the bulk of the mutineers would strive to reach Delhi, +and, of course, the dragoons and artillery would cut them off during the +night. But he had seen many squads of rebels, mounted and on foot, +hastening along the Grand Trunk Road, and it was no secret that +detachments of the 9th Native Infantry at Bulandshahr and Aligarh were +seething with Brahminical hatred of the abhorred cartridges. + +Each second he became more convinced that Winifred and her uncle were +being carried into a peril far greater than that which they had escaped. +Decision and action were the same thing where he was concerned. Bidding +the Afghan endeavor to find Captain Craigie, who might be trusted to +send a portion of his troop to scour the road for some miles, and +assuring the man of a big reward for his services, Frank mounted and +galloped south. He counted on overtaking the fugitives in an hour, and +persuading them to return with him. He rode with drawn sword, lest he +might be attacked on the way, but it was a remarkable tribute to +Moeller's wisdom in offering to ride to Delhi that no man molested him, +and such sepoys as he passed skulked off into the fields where they saw +the glint of his saber and recognized him as a British officer. They had +no difficulty in that respect. A glorious full moon was flooding the +peaceful plain with light. The trunks of the tall trees lining the road +barred its white riband with black shadows, but Nejdi, good horse that +he was, felt that this was no time for skittishness, and repressed the +inclination to jump these impalpable obstacles. + +And he made excellent progress. Eight miles from Meerut, in a tiny +village of mud hovels which horse and rider had every reason to +remember, they suddenly dashed into a large company of mounted men and +a motley collection of vehicles. There were voices raised, too, in +heated dispute, and a small crowd was gathered near a lumbering +carriage, whose tawdry trappings and display of gold work betokened the +state equipage of some native dignitary. + +Drawn up by its side was a European traveling barouche, empty, but +Malcolm's keen eyes soon picked out the figures of Winifred and her +uncle, standing in the midst of an excited crowd of natives. So great +was the hubbub that he was not noticed until he pulled up. + +"I have come to bring you back to Meerut, Mr. Mayne," he cried. "The +mutiny has been quelled. Our troops are in command of the station and of +all the main roads. You can return without the slightest risk, I assure +you." + +He spoke clearly and slowly, well knowing that some among the natives +would understand him. His appearance, no less than his words, created a +rare stir. The clamor of tongues was stilled. Men looked at him as +though he had fallen from the sky. He could not be certain, but he +guessed, that he had arrived at a critical moment. Indeed, the lives of +his friends were actually in deadliest jeopardy, and there was no +knowing what turn the events of the next minute might have taken. But a +glance at Winifred's distraught face told him a good deal. He must be +bold, with the careless boldness of the man who has the means of making +his will respected. + +"Stand aside, there!" he said in Hindustani. "And you had better clear +the roadway. A troop of cavalry is riding fast behind." + +He dismounted, drew Nejdi's bridle over his left arm, and went towards +Winifred. The girl looked at him with a wistfulness that was pitiful. +Hope was struggling in her soul against the fear of grim death. + +"Oh, Frank!" she sighed, holding out both her hands. "Oh, Frank, I am so +frightened. We had a dreadful time at the bungalow, and these men look +so fierce and cruel! Have you really brought help?" + +"Yes," he said confidently. "You need have no further anxiety. Please +get into your carriage." + +Mr. Mayne said something, but Malcolm never knew what it was, for +Winifred fainted, and would have fallen had he not caught her. + +"This Feringhi has a loud voice," a man near him growled. "He talks of +cavalry. Where are they?" + +"The Meerut road is empty," commented another. + +"We have the Begum's order," said the first speaker, more loudly. "Let +us obey, or it may be an evil thing for us." + +"One of the daughters of Bahadur Shah is here," murmured Mayne rapidly. +"She says we are to be taken to Delhi, and slain if we resist. Where are +your men? My poor niece! To think that I should have brought her from +England for this!" + +Malcolm, still holding Winifred's unconscious form clasped to his +breast, laughed loudly. + +"Mayne-sahib tells me that you have all gone mad," he shouted in the +vernacular. "Have you no ears? Did you not hear the British artillery +firing on the rebels a little time since? Ere day breaks the road to +Delhi will be held by the white troops. What foolish talk is this of +taking Mayne-sahib thither as a prisoner?" + +The door of the bedizened traveling-coach was flung open, and the +Mohammedan lady who had befriended Frank when he fell into the moat +appeared. She alighted, and her aggressive servants drew away somewhat. + +"It is my order," she said imperiously. "Who are you that you should +dispute it?" + +"I regret the heat of my words, Princess," he replied, grasping the +frail chance that presented itself of wriggling out of a desperate +situation. "Nevertheless, it is true that the native regiments at Meerut +have been dispersed, and you yourself may have heard the guns as they +advanced along the Delhi road. Why should I be here otherwise? I came to +escort my friends back to Meerut." + +The Princess came nearer. In the brilliant moonlight she had an +unearthly beauty--at once weird and Sybilline--but her animated features +were chilled with disdain, and she pointed to the girl whose pallid face +lay against Frank's shoulder. + +"You are lying," she said. "You are not the first man who has lied for a +woman's sake. That is why you are here." + +"Princess, I have spoken nothing but the truth," he answered. "If you +still doubt my word, let some of your men ride back with us. They will +soon convince you. Perchance, the information may not be without its +value to you also." + +The thrust was daring, but she parried it adroitly. + +"No matter what has happened in Meerut, the destined end is the same," +she retorted. Then she fired into subdued passion. "The British +Raj is doomed," she muttered, lowering her voice, and bringing her +magnificent eyes close to his. "It is gone, like an evil dream. Listen, +Malcolm-sahib. You are a young man, and ambitious. They say you are a +good soldier. Come with me. I want some one I can trust. Though I am a +king's daughter, there are difficulties in my path that call for a sword +in the hands of a man not afraid to use it. Come! Let that weakling girl +go where she lists--I care not. I offer you life, and wealth, and a +career. She will lead you to death. What say you? Choose quickly. I am +now going to Delhi, and to-morrow's sun shall see my father a king in +reality as well as in name." + +Malcolm's first impression was that the Princess had lost her senses. He +had yet to learn how completely the supporters of the Mogul dynasty were +convinced of the approaching downfall of British supremacy in India. +But his active brain fastened on to two considerations of exceeding +importance. By temporizing, by misleading this arrogant woman, if +necessary, he might not only secure freedom for Winifred and Mayne, +but gather most valuable information as to the immediate plans of the +rebels. + +"Your words are tempting to a soldier of fortune, Princess," he said. + +"Malcolm--" broke in Mayne, who, of course, understood all that passed. + +"For Heaven's sake do not interfere," said Frank in English. "Suffer my +friends to depart, Princess," he went on in Persian. "It is better so. +Then I shall await your instructions." + +"Ah, you agree, then? That is good hearing. Yes, your white doll can go, +and the gray-beard, too. Ere many days have passed there will be no +place for them in all India." + +A commotion among the ring of soldiers and servants interrupted her. The +stout, important-looking man whom Malcolm had seen in the hunting lodge +on the occasion of his ducking, came towards them with hurried strides. +The Princess seemed to be disconcerted by his arrival. Her expressive +face betrayed her. Sullen anger, not unmixed with fear, robbed her of +her good looks. Her whole aspect changed. She had the cowed appearance +of one of her own serving-women. + +"Remember!" she murmured. "You must obey me, none else. Come when I send +for you!" + +The man, who now carried on his forehead the insignia of a Brahmin, had +no sooner reached the small space between the carriages than Mr. Mayne +cried delightedly to Malcolm: + +"Why, if this is not Nana Sahib! Here is a piece of good luck! I know +him well. If he has any control over this mob, we are perfectly safe." + +Nana Sahib acknowledged the Commissioner's greeting with smiling +politeness. But first he held a whispered colloquy with the Princess, +whom he entreated, or persuaded, to re-enter her gorgeous vehicle. She +drove away without another glance at Malcolm. Perhaps she did not dare +to show her favor in the newcomer's presence. + +Then Nana Sahib turned to the Europeans. + +"Let the miss-sahib be placed in her carriage," he said suavely. "She +will soon revive in the air, and we march at once for Aligarh. Will you +accept my escort thus far, Mayne-sahib, or farther south, if you wish +it? I think you will be safer with me than in taking the Meerut road +to-night." + +Mayne agreed gladly. The commanding influence of this highly-placed +native nobleman, who, despite an adverse decision of the Government, was +regarded by every Mahratta as Peishwa, the ruler of a vast territory in +Western India, seemed to offer more stable support that night than the +broken reed of British authority in Meerut. Moreover, the Commissioner +wished to reach Lucknow without delay. If the country were in for a +period of disturbance, his duty lay there, and he was planning already +to send Winifred to Calcutta from Cawnpore, and thence to England until +the time of political trouble had passed. + +"I am sure I am doing right," he said in answer to Frank's +remonstrances. "Don't you understand, a native in Nana Sahib's position +must be well informed as to the exact position of affairs. By helping +me he is safeguarding himself. I am only too thankful he was able to +subdue that fiery harpy, the Begum. She threatened me in the most +outrageous manner before you came. Of course, Winifred and I will be +ever-lastingly grateful to you for coming to our assistance. You are +alone, I suppose?" + +"Yes, though some of our troopers may turn up any minute." + +"I fear not," said the older man gravely. "This is a bad business, +Malcolm. The Begum said too much. There are worse times in store for +us. Do you really believe you can reach Meerut safely?" + +"I rode here without hindrance." + +"Let me advise you, then, to slip away before we start. That woman meant +mischief, or she would never have dared to suggest that a British +officer should throw in his lot with hers. Waste no time, and don't +spare that good horse of yours. Be sure I shall tell Winifred all you +have done for us. She is pulling round, I think, and it will be better +that she should not see you again. Besides, the Nana's escort are +preparing to march." + +Frank's latest memory of the girl he loved was a sad one. Her white face +looked ethereal in the moonlight, and her bloodless lips were quivering +with returning life. It was hard to leave her in such a plight, but it +would only unnerve her again if he waited until she was conscious to bid +her farewell. + +So he rode back to Meerut, a solitary European on the eight miles of +road, and no man challenged him till he reached the famous bivouac of +the white garrison, the bivouac that made the Mutiny an accomplished +fact. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +HOW BAHADUR SHAH PROCLAIMED HIS EMPIRE + + +On the morning of the 11th, the sun that laid bare the horrors of Meerut +shone brightly on the placid splendor of Delhi. This great city, the +Rome of Asia, was also the Metz of Upper India, its old-fashioned though +strong defenses having been modernized by the genius of a Napier. +Resting on the Jumna, it might best be described as of half-moon shape, +with the straight edge running north and south along the right bank of +the river. + +In the center of the river line stood the imposing red sandstone palace +of Bahadur Shah, last of the Moguls. North of this citadel were the +magazine, the Church, some European houses, and the cutcherry, or group +of minor law courts, while the main thoroughfare leading in that +direction passed through the Kashmir Gate. Southward from the fort +stretched the European residential suburb known as Darya Gunj (or, as it +would be called in England, the "Riverside District") out of which the +Delhi Gate gave access to the open country and the road to Humayun's +Tomb. Another gate, the Raj Ghat, opened toward the river between the +palace and Darya Gunj. Thus, the walls of city and palace ran almost +straight for two miles from the Kashmir Gate on the north to the Delhi +Gate on the south, while the main road connecting the two passed the +fort on the landward side. + +The Lahore Gate of the palace, a magnificent structure, commanded the +bazaar and its chief street, the superb Chandni Chowk, which extended +due west for nearly two miles to the Lahore Gate of the city itself. +Near the palace, in a very large garden, stood the spacious premises of +the Delhi Bank. A little farther on, but on the opposite side of the +Chowk, was the Kotwallee, or police station, and still farther, +practically in the center of the dense bazaar, two stone elephants +marked the entrance to the beautiful park now known as the Queen's +Gardens. + +The remainder of the space within the walls was packed with the houses +and shops of well-to-do traders, and the lofty tenements or mud hovels +in which dwelt a population of artisans noted not only for their +artistic skill but for a spirit of lawlessness, a turbulent fanaticism, +that had led to many scenes of violence in the city's earlier history. + +The whole of Delhi, as well as the palace--which had its own separate +fortifications--was surrounded by a wall seven miles long, twenty-four +feet in height, well supplied with bastions, and containing ten huge +gates, each a small fort in itself. The wall was protected by a dry +fosse, or ditch, twenty-five feet wide and about twenty feet deep; this, +in turn, was guarded by a counterscarp and glacis. + +On the northwest side of Delhi, and about a mile distant from the river, +an irregular, rock-strewn spine of land, called the Ridge, rose above +the general level of the plain, and afforded a panoramic view of the +city and palace. The rising ground began about half a mile from the Mori +Gate--which was situated on what may be termed the landward side of the +Kashmir Gate. It followed a course parallel with the river for two +miles, and at its northerly extremity were situated the principal +European bungalows and the military cantonment. + +Delhi was the center of Mohammedan hopes; its palace held the lineal +descendant of Aurangzebe, with his children and grandchildren; it +was stored to repletion with munitions of war; yet, such was the +inconceivable folly of the rulers of India at that time, the nearest +British regiments were stationed in Meerut, while the place swarmed +with native troops, horse, foot and artillery! + +A May morning in the Punjab must not be confused with its prototype +in Britain. Undimmed by cloud, unchecked by cooling breeze, the sun +scorches the earth from the moment his glowing rays first peep over the +horizon. Thus men who value their health and have work to be done rise +at an hour when London's streets are emptiest. Merchants were busy in +the bazaar, soldiers were on parade, judges were sitting in the courts +of the cutcherry, and the European housewives of the station were making +their morning purchases of food for breakfast and dinner, when some of +the loungers on the river-side wall saw groups of horsemen raising the +dust on the Meerut road beyond the bridge of boats which spanned the +Jumna. + +The word went round that something unusual had happened. Already the +idlers had noted the arrival of a dust-laden royal carriage, which +crossed the pontoons at breakneck speed and entered by the Calcutta +Gate. That incident, trivial in itself, became important when those +hard-riding horsemen came in sight. The political air was charged with +electricity. None knew whether it would end in summer lightning or in a +tornado, so there was much running to and fro, and gesticulations, and +excited whisperings among those watchers on the walls. + +Vague murmurs of doubt and surprise reached the ears of two of the +British magistrates. They hurriedly adjourned the cases they were trying +and sent for their horses. One rode hard to the cantonment and told +Brigadier Graves what he had seen and heard; the other, knowing the +immense importance of the chief magazine, went there to warn Lieutenant +Willoughby, the officer in charge. + +Here, then, in Delhi, were men of prompt decision, but the troops on +whom they could have depended were forty miles away in Meerut, in that +never-to-be-forgotten bivouac. Meanwhile, the vanguard of the Meerut +rebels had arrived. Mostly troopers of Malcolm's regiment, with some few +sepoys who had stolen ponies on the way, they crossed the Jumna, some +going straight to the palace by way of the bridge of boats, while others +forded the river to the south and made for the gaol, where, as usual, +they released the prisoners. This trick of emptying the penitentiaries +was more adroit than it seems at first sight. Not only were the +mutineers sure of obtaining hearty assistance in their campaign of +robbery and murder, but every gaol-bird headed direct for his native +town as soon as he was gorged with plunder. There was no better means of +disseminating the belief that the British power had crumbled to atoms. +The convicts boasted that they had been set free by the rebels; they +paraded their ill-gotten gains and incited ignorant villagers to emulate +the example of the towns. Thus a skilful and damaging blow was struck at +British prestige. Neither Mohammedan moullah nor Hindu fakir carried +such conviction to ill-informed minds as the appearance of some known +malefactor decked out in the jewels and trinkets of murdered +Englishwomen. + +The foremost of the mutineers reined in their weary horses beneath a +balcony on which Bahadur Shah, a decrepit old man of eighty, awaited +them. + +By his side stood his youngest daughter, the Roshinara Begum. Her eyes +were blazing with triumph, yet her lips curved with contempt at the +attitude of her trembling father. + +"You see!" she cried. "Have I not spoken truly? These are the men who +sacked Meerut. Scarce a Feringhi lives there save those whom I have +saved to good purpose. Admit your troops! Proclaim yourself their ruler. +A moment's firmness will win back your empire." + +The aged monarch, now that the hour was at hand that astrologers had +predicted and his courtiers had promised for many a year, faltered his +dread lest they were not all committing a great mistake. + +"This is no woman's work," he protested. "Where are my sons? Where is +the Shahzada, Mirza Mogul?" + +She knew. The heir apparent and his brothers were cowering in fear, +afraid to strike, yet hoping that others would strike for them. She +almost dragged her father to the front of the balcony. The troopers +recognized him with a fierce shout. A hundred sabers were waved +frantically. + +"Help us, O King!" they cried. "We pray your help in our fight for the +faith!" + +Captain Douglas, commandant of the palace guards, hearing the uproar ran +to the King. He did not notice the girl Roshinara, who stood there like +a caged tigress. + +"How dare you intrude on the King's privacy?" he cried, striving to +overawe the rebels by his cool demeanor. "You must lay down your arms if +you wish His Majesty's clemency. He is here in person and that is his +command." + +A yell of defiance greeted his bold words. The Begum made a signal with +her hand which was promptly understood. Away clattered the troopers +towards the Raj Ghat Gate. There they were admitted without parley. The +city hell hounds sprang to meet them and the slaughter of inoffensive +Europeans began in Darya Gunj. + +It was soon in full swing. The vile deeds of the night at Meerut were +re-enacted in the vivid sunlight at Delhi. Leaving their willing allies +to carry sword and torch through the small community in that quarter the +sowars rode to the Lahore Gate of the palace. It was thrown open by the +King's guards and dependents. Captain Douglas, and the Commissioner, +Mr. Fraser, made vain appeals to men whose knees would have trembled +at their frown a few minutes earlier. Thinking to escape and summon +assistance from the cantonment, Douglas mounted the wall and leaped into +the moat. He broke one, if not both, of his legs. Some scared coolies +lifted him and carried him back to the interior of the palace. Fraser +tried to protect him while he was being taken to his apartments over the +Lahore Gate, but a jeweler from the bazaar stabbed the Commissioner and +he was killed by the guards. Then the mob rushed up-stairs and massacred +the collector, the chaplain, the chaplain's daughter, a lady who was +their guest, and the injured Douglas. + +Another dreadful scene was enacted in the Delhi Bank. The manager and +his brave wife, assisted by a few friends who happened to be in the +building at the moment, made a stubborn resistance, but they were all +cut down. The masters in the Government colleges were surprised and +murdered in their class-rooms. The missionaries, whether European or +native, were slaughtered in their houses and schools. The editorial +staff and compositors of the _Delhi Gazette_, having just produced a +special edition of the paper announcing the crisis, were all stabbed or +bludgeoned to death. In the telegraph office a young signaler was +sending a thrilling message to Umballa, Lahore and the north. + +"The sepoys have come in from Meerut," he announced with the slow tick +of the earliest form of apparatus. "They are burning everything. Mr. +Todd is dead, and, we hear, several Europeans. We must shut up." + +That was his requiem. The startled operators at Umballa could obtain no +further intelligence and the boy was slain at his post.[3] + +[Footnote 3: This statement is made on the authority of Holmes's +"History of the Indian Mutiny," Cave-Browne's "The Punjab & Delhi," and +"The Punjab Mutiny Report," though it is claimed that William Brendish, +who is still living, was on duty at the Delhi Telegraph Office +throughout the night of May 10th.] + +The magistrate who galloped to the cantonment found no laggards there. +Brigadier Graves sent Colonel Ripley with part of the 54th Native +Infantry to occupy the Kashmir Gate. The remainder of the 54th escorted +two guns under Captain de Teissier. + +Ripley reached the main guard, just within the gate, when some troopers +of the 3d rode up. The Colonel ordered his men to fire at them. The +sepoys refused to obey, and the sowars, drawing their pistols, shot dead +or severely wounded six British officers. Then the 54th bayoneted their +Colonel, but, hearing the rumble of de Teissier's guns, fled into the +city. The guard of the gate, composed of men of the 38th, went with +them, but their officer, Captain Wallace, had ridden, fortunately for +himself, to hurry the guns. He was sent on to the cantonment to ask for +re-enforcements. Not a man of the 38th would follow him, but the 74th +commanded by Major Abbott, proclaimed their loyalty and asked to be led +against the mutineers. + +Perforce their commander trusted them. He brought them to the Kashmir +Gate with two more guns, while the Brigadier and his staff, wondering +why they heard nothing of the pursuing British from Meerut, thought it +advisable to gather the women and children and other helpless persons, +both European and native, in the Flagstaff Tower, a small building +situated on the northern extremity of the Ridge. + +There for some hours a great company of frightened people endured all +the discomforts of terrific heat, hunger, and thirst, while wives and +mothers, striving to soothe their wailing little ones, were themselves +consumed with anxiety as to the fate of husbands and sons. + +At the main guard there was a deadlock. Major Abbott and his brother +officers, trying to keep their men loyal, stood fast and listened to the +distant turmoil in the city. Like the soldiers in Meerut, they never +guessed a tithe of the horrors enacted there. They were sure that the +white troops in Meerut would soon arrive and put an end to the prevalent +anarchy. Yet the day sped and help came not. + +Suddenly the sound of a tremendous explosion rent the air and a dense +cloud of white smoke, succeeded by a pall of dust, rose between the +gate and the palace. Willoughby had blown up the magazine! Why? Two +artillery subalterns who had fought their way through a mob stricken +with panic for the moment, soon arrived. Their story fills one of the +great pages of history. + +Lieutenant Willoughby, a boyish-looking subaltern of artillery, whose +shy, refined manners hid a heroic soul, lost no time in making his +dispositions for the defense of the magazine when he knew that a mutiny +was imminent. He had with him eight Englishmen, Lieutenants Forrest and +Raynor, Conductors Buckley, Shaw and Scully, Sub-Conductor Crow, and +Sergeants Edwards and Stewart. The nine barricaded the outer gates and +placed in the best positions guns loaded with grape. They laid a train +from the powder store to a tree in the yard. Scully stood there. He +promised to fire the powder when his young commander gave the signal. + +Then they waited. A stormy episode was taking place inside the fort. +Bahadur Shah held out against the vehement urging of his daughter aided +now by the counsel of her brothers. Ever and anon he went to the river +balcony which afforded a view of the Meerut road. At last he sent +mounted men across the river. When these scouts returned and he was +quite certain that none but rebel sepoys were streaming towards Delhi +from Meerut, he yielded. + +The surrender of the magazine was demanded in his name. His adherents +tried to rush the gate and walls, and were shot down in scores. The +attack grew more furious and sustained. The white men served their +smoking cannon with a wild energy that, for a time, made the gallant +nine equal to a thousand. Of course such a struggle could have only one +end. Willoughby, in his turn, ran to the river bastion. Like the king, +he looked towards Meerut. Like the king, he saw none but mutineers. +Then, when the enemy were clambering over the walls and rushing into +the little fort from all directions, he raised his sword and looked at +Conductor Buckley. Buckley lifted his hat, the agreed signal, and Scully +fired the train. Hundreds of rebels were blown to pieces, as they +were already inside the magazine. Scully was killed where he stood. +Willoughby leaped from the walls, crossed the river, and met his +death while striving to reach Meerut. Lieutenants Forrest and Raynor, +Conductors Buckley and Shaw, and Sergeant Stewart escaped, and were +given the Victoria Cross. + +Yet, so curiously constituted is the native mind, the blowing-up of the +magazine was the final tocsin of revolt. It seemed to place beyond doubt +that which all men were saying. The king was fighting the English. Islam +was in the field against the Nazarene. The Mogul Empire was born again +and the iron grip of British rule was relaxed. At once the sepoys at the +Kashmir Gate fired a volley at the nearest officers, of whom three fell +dead. + +Two survivors rushed up the bastion and jumped into the ditch. Others, +hearing the shrieks of some women in the guard room, poor creatures who +had escaped from the city, ran through a hail of bullets and got them +out. Fastening belts and handkerchiefs together, the men lowered the +women into the fosse and, with extraordinary exertions, lifted them up +the opposite side. + +At the Flagstaff Tower the 74th and the remainder of the 38th suddenly +told their officers that they would obey them no longer. When this last +shred of hope was gone, the Brigadier reluctantly gave the order to +retreat. The women and children were placed in carriages and a mournful +procession began to straggle through the deserted cantonment along the +Alipur Road. + +Soon the fugitives saw their bungalows on fire. "Then," says that +accurate and impartial historian of the Mutiny, Mr. T. R. E. Holmes, +"began that piteous flight, the first of many such incidents which +hardened the hearts of the British to inflict a terrible revenge.... +Driven to hide in jungles or morasses from despicable vagrants--robbed, +and scourged, and mocked by villagers who had entrapped them with +promises of help--scorched by the blazing sun, blistered by burning +winds, half-drowned in rivers which they had to ford or swim across, +naked, weary and starving, they wandered on; while some fell dead by the +wayside, and others, unable to move farther, were abandoned by their +sorrowing friends to die on the road." + +In such wise did the British leave Imperial Delhi. They came back, +later, but many things had to happen meanwhile. + +The volcanic outburst in the Delhi district might have been paralleled +farther north were not the Punjab fortunate in its rulers. Sir John +Lawrence was Chief Commissioner at Lahore. When that fateful telegram +from Delhi was received in the capital of the Punjab he was on his way +to Murree, a charming and secluded hill station, for the benefit of his +health. But, like most great men, Lawrence had the faculty of +surrounding himself with able lieutenants. + +His deputy, Robert Montgomery, whose singularly benevolent aspect +concealed an iron will, saw at once that if the Punjab followed the lead +of Meerut and Delhi, India would be lost. Lahore had a mixed population +of a hundred thousand Sikhs and Mohammedans, born soldiers every man, +and ready to take any side that promised to settle disputes by cold +steel rather than legal codes. If these hot heads, with their millions +of co-religionists in the land of the Five Rivers, were allowed to gain +the upper hand, they would sweep through the country from the mountains +to the sea. + +The troops, British and native, were stationed in the cantonment of +Mian-mir, some five miles from Lahore. There were one native cavalry +regiment and three native infantry battalions whose loyalty might +be measured by minutes as soon as they learnt that the standard of +Bahadur Shah was floating over the palace at Delhi. To quell them the +authorities had the 81st Foot and two batteries of horse artillery, or, +proportionately, far less a force than that at Meerut, the Britons being +outnumbered eight times by the natives. + +Montgomery coolly drove to Mian-mir on the morning of the 12th, took +counsel with the Brigadier, Stuart Corbett, and made his plans. A ball +was fixed for that night. All society attended it, and men who knew that +the morrow's sun might set on a scene of bloodshed and desolation danced +gaily with the ladies of Lahore. Surely those few who were in the secret +of the scheme arranged by Montgomery and Corbett must have thought of a +more famous ball at Brussels on a June night in 1815. + +Next morning the garrison fell in for a general parade of all arms. The +artillery and 81st were on the right of the line, the native infantry in +the center, and the sowars on the left. A proclamation by Government +announcing the disbandment of the 34th at Barrackpore was read, and may +have given some inkling of coming events to the more thoughtful among +the sepoys. But they had no time for secret murmurings. Maneuvers began +instantly. In a few minutes the native troops found themselves +confronted by the 81st and the two batteries of artillery. + +Riding between the opposing lines, the Brigadier told the would-be +mutineers that he meant to save them from temptation by disarming them. + +"Pile arms!" came the resolute command. + +They hesitated. The intervening space was small. By sheer weight of +numbers they could have borne down the British. + +"Eighty-first--load!" rang out the ominous order. + +As the ears of the startled men caught the ring of the ramrods in the +Enfield rifles, their eyes saw the lighted port fires of the gunners. +They were trapped, and they knew it. They threw down their weapons with +sullen obedience and the first great step towards the re-conquest of +India was taken. + +Inspired by Montgomery the district officers at Umritsar, Mooltan, +Phillour, and many another European center in the midst of warlike and +impetuous races, followed his example and precept. Brigadier Innes at +Ferozpore hesitated. He tried half measures. He separated his two native +regiments and thought to disarm them on the morrow. That night one of +them endeavored to storm the magazine, burnt and plundered the station, +and marched off towards Delhi. But Innes then made amends. He pursued +and dispersed them. Only scattered remnants of the corps reached the +Mogul capital. + +Thus Robert Montgomery, the even-tempered, suave, smooth-spoken Deputy +Commissioner of Lahore! In the far north, at Peshawur, four other men +of action gathered in conclave. The gay, imaginative, earnest-minded +Herbert Edwardes, the hard-headed veteran, Sydney Cotton, the dashing +soldier, Neville Chamberlain, and the lustrous-eyed, black-bearded, +impetuous giant, John Nicholson--that genius who at thirty-five had +already been deified by a brotherhood of Indian fakirs and placed by +Mohammedans among the legendary heroes of their faith--these four sat +in council and asked, "How best shall we serve England?" + +They answered that question with their swords. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +ON THE WAY TO CAWNPORE + + +In Meerut reigned that blessed thing, Pax Britannica, otherwise known as +the British bulldog. But the bulldog was kept on the chain and peace +obtained only within his kennel. Malcolm, deprived of his regiment, +gathered under his command a few young civilians who were eager to act +as volunteer cavalry, and was given a grudging permission to ride out to +the isolated bungalows of some indigo planters, on the chance that the +occupants might have defended themselves successfully against the +rioters. + +In each case the tiny detachment discovered blackened walls and unburied +corpses. The Meerut district abounded with Goojers, the hereditary +thieves of India, and these untamed savages had lost none of their +wild-beast ferocity under fifty years of British rule. They killed and +robbed with an impartiality that was worthy of a better cause. When +Europeans, native travelers and mails were swept out of existence they +fought each other. Village boundaries which had been determined under +Wellesley's strong government at the beginning of the century were +re-arranged now with match-lock, spear and tulwar. Old feuds were +settled in the old way and six inches of steel were more potent than +the longest Order in Council. Yet these ghouls fled at the sight of the +smallest white force, and Malcolm and his irregulars rode unopposed +through a blood-stained and deserted land. + +On the 21st of May, eleven days after the outbreak of the Mutiny, though +never a dragoon or horse gunner had left Meerut cantonment since they +marched back to their quarters from the ever-memorable bivouac, Malcolm +led his light horsemen north, along the Grand Trunk Road in the +direction of Mazuffernugger. + +A native brought news that a collector and his wife were hiding in a +swamp near the road. Happily, in this instance, the two were rescued, +more dead than alive. The man, ruler of a territory as big as the North +Riding of Yorkshire, his wife, a young and well-born Englishwoman, were +in the last stage of misery. The unhappy lady, half demented, was +nursing a dead baby. When the child was taken from her she fell +unconscious and had to be carried to Meerut on a rough litter. + +The little cavalcade was returning slowly to the station[4] when one of +the troopers caught the hoof beats of a galloping horse behind them. +Malcolm reined up, and soon a British officer appeared round a bend in +the road. Mounted on a hardy country-bred, and wearing the semi-native +uniform of the Company's regiments, the aspect of the stranger was +sufficiently remarkable to attract attention apart from the fact that he +came absolutely alone from a quarter where it was courting death to +travel without an escort. He was tall and spare of build, with reddish +brown hair and beard, blue eyes that gleamed with the cold fire of +steel, close-set lips, firm chin, and the slightly-hooked nose with thin +nostrils that seems to be one of nature's tokens of the man born to +command his fellows when the strong arm and clear brain are needed in +the battle-field. + +[Footnote 4: In India the word "station" denotes any European settlement +outside the three Presidency towns. In 1857 there were few railways in +the country.] + +He rode easily, with a loose rein, and he waved his disengaged hand the +instant he caught sight of the white faces. + +"Are you from Meerut?" he asked, his voice and manner conveying a +curious blend of brusqueness and gentility, as his tired horse willingly +pulled up alongside Nejdi. + +"Yes. And you?" said Malcolm, trying to conceal his amazement at this +apparition. + +"I am Lieutenant Hodson of the 1st Bengal Fusiliers. I have ridden from +Kurnaul, where the Commander-in-Chief is waiting until communication is +opened with Meerut. Where is General Hewitt?" + +"I will take you to him! From Kurnaul, did you say? When did you start?" + +"About this hour yesterday." + +Malcolm knew then that this curt-spoken cavalier had ridden nearly a +hundred miles through an enemy's country in twenty-four hours. + +"Is your horse equal to another hour's canter?" he inquired. + +"He ought to be. I took him from a bunniah when my own fell dead in a +village about ten miles in the rear." + +Bidding a young bank manager take charge of the detachment, Frank led +the newcomer rapidly to headquarters. Hodson asked a few questions and +made his companion's blood boil by the unveiled contempt he displayed on +hearing of the inaction at Meerut. + +"You want Nicholson here," said he, laughing with grim mirth. "By all +the gods, he would horse-whip your general into the saddle." + +"Hewitt is an old man, and cautious, therefore," explained Frank, in +loyal defense of his chief. "Perhaps he deems it right to await the +orders you are now bringing." + +"An old man! You mean an old woman, perhaps? I come from one. I had to +go on my knees almost before I could persuade Anson to let me start." + +"Well, you must admit that you have made a daring and lucky ride?" + +"Nonsense! Why is one a soldier! I would cross the infernal regions if +the need arose. If I had been in Meerut on that Sunday evening, no +general that ever lived could have kept me out of Delhi before daybreak. +The way to stop this mutiny was to capture that doddering old king and +hold him as a hostage, and twenty determined men could have done it +easily in the confusion." + +That was William Hodson's way. Men who met him began by disliking his +hectoring, supercilious bearing. They soon learnt to forget his +gruffness and think only of his gallantry and good-comradeship. + +At any rate his stirring advice and the dispatches he brought roused the +military authorities at Meerut into activity. Carrying with him a letter +to the Commander-in-Chief he quitted Meerut again that night, and +dismounted outside Anson's tent at Kurnaul at dawn on the second day! + +On the 27th, Archdale Wilson led the garrison towards the rendezvous +fixed on by the force hurriedly collected in the Punjab for the relief +of Delhi. On the afternoon of the 30th, cavalry vedettes reported the +presence of a strong body of mutineers on the right bank of the river +Hindun, near the village of Ghazi-ud-din Nuggur and at a place where a +high ridge commanded an iron suspension bridge. It was found afterwards +that the rebels meant to fight the two British forces in detail before +they could effect a junction. The generalship of the idea was good, but +the sepoys did not count on the pent-up wrath of the British soldiers, +who were burning to avenge their murdered countrymen and dishonored +countrywomen, for it was now becoming known that many a fair English +lady had met a fate worse than death ere sword or bullet stilled her +anguish. + +A company of the 60th Rifles dashed forward to seize the bridge, +Lieutenant Light and his men took up the enemy's challenge with their +heavy eighteen-pounders, and Colonel Mackenzie and Major Tombs, at the +head of two batteries of horse artillery, crossed the river and turned +the left flank of the sepoy force. Then the Rifles extended and charged, +the mutineers yielded, and Colonel Custance with his dragoons sabered +them mercilessly for some miles. + +Next morning, Whit-Sunday, while the chaplains were conducting the +burial service over those who had fallen, the mutineers came out of +Delhi again. A severe action began instantly. Tombs had two horses shot +under him, and thirteen out of fifty men in his battery were killed or +wounded. But the issue was never in doubt. After three hours' hard +fighting the rebels broke and fled. So those men in Meerut could give a +good account of themselves when permitted! Actually, they won the two +first battles of the campaign. + +Exhausted by two days' strenuous warfare in the burning sun, they could +not take up the pursuit. The men were resting on the field when a +battalion of Ghoorkahs, the little fighting men of Nepaul, arrived under +the command of Colonel Reid. They had marched by way of Bulandshahr, and +Malcolm heard to his dismay that the native infantry detachment +stationed there, aided by the whole population of the district, had +committed the wildest excesses. + +Yet Winifred and her uncle had passed through that town on the road to +Cawnpore. Aligarh, too, was in flames, said Reid, and there was no +communication open with Agra, the seat of Government for the North-West +Provinces. There was a bare possibility that the Maynes might have +reached Agra, or that Nana Sahib had protected them for his own sake. +Such slender hopes brought no comfort. Black despair sat in Malcolm's +heart until the Brigadier sent for him and ordered him to take charge of +the guard that would escort the records and treasure from Meerut to +Agra. He hailed this dangerous mission with gloomy joy. Love had no +place in a soldier's life, he told himself. Henceforth he must remember +Winifred only when his sword was at the throat of some wretched mutineer +appealing for mercy. + +He went to his tent to supervise the packing of his few belongings. His +bearer,[5] a Punjabi Mohammedan, who cursed the sepoys fluently for +disturbing the country during the hot weather, handed him a note which +had been brought by a camp follower. + +[Footnote 5: A personal servant, often valet and waiter combined.] + +It was written in Persi-Arabic script, a sort of Arabic shorthand that +demands the exercise of time and patience ere it can be deciphered by +one not thoroughly acquainted with it. Thinking it was a request for +employment which he could not offer, Malcolm stuffed it carelessly into +a pocket. He rode to Meerut, placed himself at the head of the 8th +Irregular Cavalry, a detachment whose extraordinary fidelity has already +been narrated, and set forth next morning with his train of bullock +carts and their escort. + +He called the first halt in the village where he had parted from +Winifred. The headman professed himself unable to give any information, +but the application of a stirrup leather to his bare back while his +wrists were tied to a cart wheel soon loosened his tongue. + +The king's hunting lodge was empty, he whined; and the Roshinara Begum +had gone to Delhi. Nana Sahib's cavalcade went south soon after the +Begum's departure, and a moullah had told him, the headman, that the +Nana had hastened through Aligarh on his way to Cawnpore, not turning +aside to visit Agra, which was fifty miles down the Bombay branch of the +Grand Trunk Road. + +Malcolm drew a negative comfort from the moullah's tale. That night he +encamped near a fair-sized village which was ominously denuded of men. +Approaching a native hut to ask for a piece of charcoal wherewith to +light a cigar, he happened to look inside. To his very great surprise he +saw, standing in a corner, a complete suit of European armor, made of +tin, it is true, but a sufficiently bewildering "find" in a Goojer +hovel. + +A woman came running from a neighbor's house. While giving him the +charcoal she hastily closed the rude door. She pretended not to +understand him when he sought an explanation of the armor, whereupon he +seized her, and led her, shrieking, among his own men. The commotion +brought other villagers on the scene, as he guessed it would. A few +fierce threats, backed by a liberal display of naked steel, quickly +evoked the curious fact that nearly all the able-bodied inhabitants "had +gone to see the sahib-log[6] dance." + +[Footnote 6: A generic term for Europeans.] + +Even Malcolm's native troops were puzzled by this story, but a further +string of terrifying words and more saber flourishing led to a direct +statement that the white people who were to "dance" had been captured +near the village quite a week earlier and imprisoned in a ruined tomb +about a mile from the road. It was risky work to leave the valuable +convoy for an instant, but Malcolm felt that he must probe this mystery. +Taking half a dozen men with him, and compelling the woman to act as +guide, he went to the tomb in the dark. + +The building, a mosque-like structure of considerable size, was situated +in the midst of a grove of mango trees. A clear space in front of the +tomb was lighted with oil lamps and bonfires. It was packed with +uproarious natives, and Malcolm's astonished gaze rested on three +European acrobats doing some feat of balancing. A clown was cracking +jokes in French, some nuns were singing dolefully, and a trio of girls, +wearing the conventional gauze and spangles of circus riders, were +standing near a couple of piebald ponies. + +He and his men dashed in among the audience and the Goojers ran for dear +life when they caught sight of a sahib at the head of an armed party. +The performers and the nuns nearly died of fright, believing that their +last hour had surely come. But they soon recovered from their fear only +to collapse more completely from joy. A French circus, it appeared, had +camped near a party of nuns in the village on the main road, and were +captured there when the news came that the English were swept out of +existence. Most fortunately for themselves the nuns were regarded as +part of the show, and the villagers, after robbing all of them, penned +them in the mosque and made them give a nightly performance. There were +five men and three women in the circus troupe, and among the four nuns +was the grave reverend mother of a convent. + +Malcolm brought them to the village and caused it to be made known that +unless every article of value and every rupee in money stolen from these +unfortunate people, together with a heavy fine, were brought to him by +daybreak, he would not only fire each hut and destroy the standing +crops, but he would also hang every adult male belonging to the place he +could lay hands on. + +These hereditary thieves could appreciate a man who spoke like that. +They met him fairly and paid in full. When the convoy moved off, even +that amazing suit of armor, which was used for the state entry of the +circus into a town, was strapped on to the back of a trick pony. + +The nuns, he ascertained, were coming from Fategarh to Umballa and they +had met the great retinue of Nana Sahib below Aligarh. With him were two +Europeans, a young lady and an elderly gentleman, but they were +traveling so rapidly that it was impossible to learn who they were or +whither they were going. + +Here, then, was really good news. Like every other Englishman in India +Malcolm believed that the Mutiny was confined to a very small area, of +which his own station was the center. He thought that if Winifred and +her uncle reached Cawnpore they would be quite safe. + +He brightened up so thoroughly that he quite enjoyed a sharp fight next +day when the budmashes of Bulandshahr regarded the straggling convoy as +an easy prey. + +There were three or four such affairs ere they reached Agra, and his +Frenchmen proved themselves to be soldiers as well as acrobats. On the +evening of the 2d of June he marched his cavalcade into the splendid +fortress immortalized by its marble memorials of the great days of the +Mogul empire. + +The fact that a young subaltern had brought a convoy from Meerut was +seized on by the weak and amiable John Colvin, Lieutenant Governor of +the North-West Provinces, as a convincing proof of his theory that the +bulk of the native army might be trusted, and that order would soon be +restored. Each day he was sending serenely confident telegrams to +Calcutta and receiving equally reassuring ones from a fatuous Viceroy. +It was with the utmost difficulty that his wiser subordinates got him to +disarm the sepoy regiments in Agra itself. He vehemently assured the +Viceroy that the worst days of the outbreak were over and issued a +proclamation offering forgiveness to all mutineers who gave up their +arms, "except those who had instigated others to revolt, or taken part +in the murder of Europeans." + +Such a man was sure to regard Malcolm's bold journey from the wrong +point of view. So delighted was he that he gave the sowars two months' +pay, lauded Malcolm in the _Gazette_, and forthwith despatched him on a +special mission to General Sir Hugh Wheeler at Cawnpore, to whom he +recommended Frank for promotion and appointment as aide-de-camp. + +This curious sequence of events led to Malcolm's following Winifred +Mayne along the road she had taken exactly three weeks earlier. The +route to Cawnpore lay through Etawah, a place where revolt had already +broken out, but which had been evacuated by the mutineers, who, like +those at Aligarh, Bulandshahr, Mainpuri, Meerut, and a score of other +towns, ran off to Delhi after butchering all the Europeans within range. + +With a small escort of six troopers, his servant, and two pack-horses, +he traveled fast. As night was falling on June 4th, he re-entered the +Grand Trunk Road some three miles north of Bithoor, where, all unknown +to him, Nana Sahib's splendid palace stood on the banks of the Ganges. + +It was his prudent habit to halt in small villages only. Towns might be +traversed quickly without much risk, as even the tiniest display of +force insured safety, but it was wise not to permit the size of his +escort to be noted at leisure, when a surprise attack might be made in +the darkness. + +Therefore, expecting to arrive at Cawnpore early next day, he elected +not to push on to Bithoor, and proposed to pass the night under the +branches of a great pipal tree. Chumru, his Mohammedan bearer, was a +good cook, in addition to his many other acquirements. Having +purchased, or made his master pay for, which is not always the same +thing in India, a small kid (by which please understand a young goat) in +the village, he lit a fire, slew the kid, to the accompaniment of an +appropriate verse from the Koran, and compounded an excellent stew. + +A native woman brought some chupatties and milk, and Malcolm, being +sharp set with hunger, ate as a man can only eat when he is young, and +in splendid health, and has ridden hard all day. + +He had a cigar left, too, and he was searching his pockets for a piece +of paper to light it when he brought forth that Persi-Arabic letter +which reached him at the close of the second battle of Ghazi-ud-din +Nuggur. + +He was on the point of rolling it into a spill, but some subtle +influence stopped him. He rose, walked to Chumru's fire, and lit the +cigar with a burning stick. Then summoning a smart young jemadar with +whom he had talked a good deal during the journey, he asked him to read +the chit. The woman who supplied the chupatties fetched a tiny lamp. She +held it while the trooper bent over the strange scrawl, and ran his eyes +along it to learn the context. + +And this is what he read: + + "To all whom it may concern--Be it known that Malcolm-sahib, + late of the Company's 3d Regiment of Horse, is a friend of the + heaven-born princess Roshinara Begum, and, provided he comes to + the palace at Delhi within three days from the date hereof, he + is to be given safe conduct by all who owe allegiance to the + Light of the World, the renowned King of Kings and lord of all + India, Bahadur Shah, Fuzl-Ilahi, Panah-i-din." + +The trooper scowled. Those concluding words--"By the grace of God, +Defender of the Faith"--perhaps touched a sore place, for he, too, was a +true believer. + +"You are a long way from Delhi, sahib, and the chit is a week old. I +suppose you did not pay the expected visit to her Highness the Begum?" +he said. + +"If you are talking of the Begum Roshinara, daughter of the King of +Delhi," put in the woman, who was ready enough to indulge in a gossip +with these good-looking soldiers, "she passed through this place +to-day." + +"Surely you are telling some idle tale of the bazaar," said Malcolm. + +"No, sahib. My brother is a grass-cutter in the Nana's stables. While I +was at the well this morning a carriage came down the road. It was a +rajah's carriage, and there were men riding before and behind. I asked +my brother if he had seen it, and he said that it brought the Begum to +Bithoor, where she is to wed the Nana." + +"What! A Mohammedan princess marry a Brahmin!" + +"It may be so, sahib. They say these great people do not consider such +things when there is aught to be gained." + +"But what good purpose can this marriage serve?" + +The woman looked up at Malcolm under her long eyelashes. + +"Where have you been, sahib, that you have not heard that the sepoys +have proclaimed the Nana as King?" she asked timidly. + +"King! Is he going to fight the Begum's father?" + +"I know not, sahib, but Delhi is far off, and Cawnpore is near. +Perchance they may both be kings." + +A man's voice called from the darkness, and the woman hurried away. +Malcolm, of course, was in a position to appraise the accuracy of her +story. He knew that the Nana, a native dignitary with a grievance +against the Government, was a guest of Bahadur Shah a month before the +Mutiny broke out, and was at the Meerut hunting lodge on the very night +of its inception. Judging by Princess Roshinara's words, her relations +with the Brahmin leader were far from lover-like. What, then, did this +sudden journey to Cawnpore portend? Was Sir Hugh Wheeler aware of the +proposed marriage, with all the terrible consequences that it heralded? +At any rate, his line of action was clear. + +"Get the men together, Akhab Khan," he said to the jemadar. "We march at +once." + +Within five minutes they were on the road. There was no moon, and the +trees bordering both sides of the way made the darkness intense. The +still atmosphere, too, was almost overpowering. The dry earth, sun-baked +to a depth of many feet, was giving off its store of heat accumulated +during the day. The air seemed to be quivering as though it were laden +with the fumes of a furnace. It was a night when men might die or go mad +under the mere strain of existence. Its very languor was intoxicating. +Nature seemed to brood over some wild revel. A fearsome thunderstorm or +howling tornado of dust might reveal her fickleness of mood at any +moment. + +It was man, not the elements, that was destined to war that night. The +small party of horsemen were riding through the scattered houses of +Bithoor, and had passed a brilliantly lighted palace which Malcolm took +to be the residence of Nana Sahib, when they were suddenly ordered to +halt. Some native soldiers, not wearing the Company's uniform, formed a +line across the road. Malcolm, drawing his sword, advanced towards them. + +"Whose troops are you?" he shouted. + +There was no direct answer, but a score of men, armed with muskets and +bayonets, and carrying a number of lanterns, came nearer. It must be +remembered that Malcolm, a subaltern of the 3d Cavalry, wore a turban +and sash. He spoke Urdu exceedingly well, and it was difficult in the +gloom to recognize him as a European. + +"We have orders to stop and examine all wayfarers--" began some man in +authority; but a lifted lantern revealed Frank's white face; instantly +several guns were pointed at him. + +"Follow me!" he cried to his escort. + +A touch of the spurs sent Nejdi with a mighty bound into the midst of +the rabble who held the road. Malcolm bent low in the saddle and a +scattered volley revealed the tree-shrouded houses in a series of bright +flashes. Fortunately, under such conditions, there is more room to miss +than to hit. None of the bullets harmed horse or man, and the sowars +were not quite near enough to be in the line of fire. After a quick +sweep or two with his sword, Malcolm saw that his men were laying about +them heartily. A pack-horse, however, had stumbled, bringing down the +animal ridden by Chumru, the bearer. To save his faithful servant Frank +wheeled Nejdi, and cut down a native who was lunging at Chumru with a +bayonet. + +More shots were fired and a sowar was wounded. He fell, shouting to his +comrades for help. A general melee ensued. The troopers slashed at the +men on foot and the sepoys fired indiscriminately at any one on +horseback. The uproar was so great and the fighting so strenuous that +Malcolm did not hear the approach of a body of cavalry until a loud +voice bawled: + +"Why should brothers slay brothers? Cease your quarreling, in the name +of the faith! Are there not plenty of accursed Feringhis on whom to try +your blades?" + +Then the young officer saw, too late, that he was surrounded by a ring +of steel. Yet he strove to rally his escort, got four of the men to obey +his command, and, placing himself in front, led them at the vague forms +that blocked the road to Cawnpore. In the confusion, he might have cut +his way through had not Nejdi unfortunately jumped over a wounded man at +the instant Frank was aiming a blow at a sowar. His sword swished +harmlessly in the air, and his adversary, hitting out wildly, struck +the Englishman's head with the forte of his saber. The violent shock +dazed Malcolm for a second, but all might yet have been well were it not +for an unavoidable accident. A sepoy's bayonet became entangled in the +reins. In the effort to free his weapon the man gave such a tug to the +bit on the near side that the Arab crossed his fore-legs and fell, +throwing his rider violently. Frank landed fairly on his head. His +turban saved his neck, but could not prevent a momentary concussion. For +a while he lay as one dead. + +When he came to his senses he found that his arms were tied behind his +back, that he had been carried under a big tree, and that a tall native, +in the uniform of a subadar of the 2d Bengal Cavalry, was holding a +lantern close to his face. + +"I am an officer of the 3d Cavalry," he said, trying to rise. "Why do +you, a man in my own service, suffer me to be bound?" + +"You are no officer of mine, Feringhi," was the scornful reply. "You are +safely trussed because we thought it better sport to dangle you from a +bough than to stab you where you dropped. Quick, there, with that +heel-rope, Abdul Huq. We have occupation. Let us hang this crow here to +show other Nazarenes what they may expect. And we have no time to lose. +The Nana may appear at any moment." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A WOMAN INTERVENES + + +That ominous order filled Malcolm's soul with a fierce rage. He was not +afraid of death. The wine of life ran too strongly in his veins that +craven fear should so suddenly quell the excitement of the combat that +had ended thus disastrously. But his complete helplessness--the fact +that he was to be hanged like some wretched felon by men wearing the +uniform of which he had been so proud--these things stirred him to the +verge of frenzy. + +Oddly enough, in that moment of anguish he thought of Hodson, the man +who rode alone from Kurnaul to Meerut. Why had Hodson succeeded? Would +Hodson, knowing the exceeding importance of his mission, have turned to +rescue a servant or raise a fallen horse? Would he not rather have +dashed on like a thunderbolt, trusting to the superior speed of his +charger to carry him clear of his assailants? And Nejdi! What had become +of that trusted friend? Never before, Arab though he was, had he been +guilty of a stumble. Perhaps he was shot, and sobbing out his gallant +life on the road, almost at the foot of the tree which would be his +master's gallows. + +A doomed man indulges in strange reveries. Malcolm was almost as greatly +concerned with Nejdi's imagined fate as with his own desperate plight +when the trooper who answered to the name of Abdul Huq brought the +heel-rope that was to serve as a halter. + +The man was a Pathan, swarthy, lean, and sinewy, with the nose and eyes +of a bird of prey. Though a hawk would show mercy to a fledgling sparrow +sooner than this cut-throat to a captive, the robber instinct in him +made him pause before he tied the fatal noose. + +"Have you gone through the Nazarene's pockets, sirdar?" he asked. + +"No," was the impatient answer. "Of what avail is it? These +chota-sahibs[7] have no money. And Cawnpore awaits us." + +[Footnote 7: Junior Officers.] + +"Nevertheless, every rupee counts. And he may be carrying letters of +value to the Maharajah. Once he is swinging up there he will be out of +reach, and our caste does not permit us to defile our hands by touching +a dead body." + +While the callous ruffian was delivering himself of this curious blend +of cynicism and dogma, his skilled fingers were rifling Malcolm's +pockets. First he drew forth a sealed packet addressed to Sir Hugh +Wheeler. He recognized the government envelope and, though neither of +the pair could read English, Abdul Huq handed it to his leader with an +"I-told-you-so" air. + +It was in Frank's mind to revile the men, but, most happily, he composed +himself sufficiently to resolve that he would die like an officer and a +gentleman, while the last words on his lips would be a prayer. + +The next document produced was the Persi-Arabic scrawl which purported +to be a "safe-conduct" issued by Bahadur Shah, whom the rebels acclaimed +as their ruler. Until that instant, the Englishman had given no thought +to it. But when he saw the look of consternation that flitted across the +face of the subadar when his eyes took in the meaning of the writing, +despair yielded to hope, and he managed to say thickly: + +"Perhaps you will understand now that you ought to have asked my +business ere you proposed to hang me off hand." + +His active brain devised a dozen expedients to account for his presence +in Bithoor, but the native officer was far too shrewd to be beguiled +into setting his prisoner at liberty. After re-reading the pass, to make +sure of its significance, the rebel leader curtly told Abdul Huq and +another sowar to bring the Feringhi into the presence of the Maharajah, +by which title he evidently indicated Nana Sahib. + +The order was, at least, a reprieve, and Malcolm breathed more easily. +He even asked confidently about his horse and the members of his escort. +He was given no reply save a muttered curse, a command to hold his +tongue, and an angry tug at his tied arms. + +It is hard to picture the degradation of such treatment of a British +officer by a native trooper. The Calcutta Brahmin who was taunted by a +Lascar--a warrior-priest insulted by a social leper--scarce flinched +more keenly under the jibe than did Malcolm when he heard the tone of +his captors. Truly the flag of Britain was trailing in the mire, or +these men would not have dared to address him in that fashion. In that +bitter moment he felt for the first time that the Mutiny was a real +thing. Hitherto, in spite of the murders and incendiarism of Meerut, the +risings in other stations, the proclamation of Bahadur Shah as Emperor, +and the actual conflicts with the Mogul's armed retainers on the +battle-field of Ghazi-ud-din Nuggur, Malcolm was inclined to treat the +outburst as a mere blaze of local fanaticism, a blaze that would soon be +stamped under heel by the combined efforts of the East India Company's +troops and the Queen's Forces. Now, at last, he saw the depth of hate +with which British dominion was regarded in India. He heard Mohammedans +alluding to a Brahmin as a leader--so might a wolf and a snake make +common alliance against a watch dog. From that hour dated a new and +sterner conception of the task that lay before him and every other +Briton in the country. The Mutiny was no longer a welcome variant to the +tedium of the hot weather. It was a life-and-death struggle between West +and East, between civilization and barbarism, between the laws of +Christianity and the lawlessness of Mahomet, supported by the cruel, +inhuman, and nebulous doctrines of Hinduism. + +Not that these thoughts took shape and coherence in Malcolm's brain as +he was being hurried to the house of Nana Sahib. A man may note the +deadly malice of a cobra's eye, but it is not when the poison fangs are +ready to strike that he stops to consider the philosophy underlying the +creature's malign hatred of mankind. + +Events were in a rare fret and fume in the neighborhood of Cawnpore that +night. As a matter of historical fact, while Malcolm was hearing from +the villager that Roshinara Begum had come to Bithoor, the 1st Native +Infantry and 2d Cavalry had risen at Cawnpore. + +Nana Sahib was deep in intrigue with all the sepoy regiments stationed +there, and his adherents ultimately managed to persuade these two corps +to throw off their allegiance to the British Raj. Following the +recognized routine they burst open the gaol, burnt the public offices, +robbed the Treasury, and secured possession of the Magazine. Then, while +the ever-swelling mob of criminals and loafers made pandemonium in the +bazaar, the saner spirits among the mutineers hurried to Bithoor to +ascertain the will of the man who, by common consent, was regarded as +their leader. + +He was expecting them, eagerly perhaps, but with a certain quaking that +demanded the assistance of the "Raja's peg," a blend of champagne and +brandy that is calculated to fire heart and brain to madness more +speedily than any other intoxicant. He was conversing with his nephew, +Rao Sahib, and his chief lieutenants, Tantia Topi and a Mohammedan named +Azim-Ullah, when the native officers of the rebel regiments clattered +into his presence. + +"Maharajah," said their chief, "a kingdom is yours if you join us, but +it is death if you side with the Nazarenes." + +He laughed, with the fine air of one who sees approaching the fruition +of long-cherished plans. He advanced a pace, confidently. + +"What have I to do with the British?" he asked. "Are they not my +enemies, too? I am altogether with you." + +"Will you lead us to Delhi, Maharajah?" + +"Why not? That is the natural rallying ground of all who wish the +downfall of the present Government." + +"Then behold, O honored one, we offer you our fealty." + +They pressed near him, tendering the hilts of their swords. He touched +each weapon, and placed his hands on the head of its owner, vowing that +he would keep his word and be faithful to the trust they reposed in him. + +"Our brothers of the 53d and 56th have not joined us yet," said one. + +"Then let us ride forth and win them to our side," said the Nana +grandiloquently. He went into the courtyard, mounted a gaily-caparisoned +horse, and, surrounded by the rebel cohort, cantered off towards +Cawnpore. + +Thus it befell that the mob of horsemen pressed past Malcolm and his +guards as they entered the palace. The subadar tried in vain to attract +the Nana's attention. Fearing lest he might be forgotten if he were not +in the forefront of the conspiracy, this man bade his subordinates take +their prisoner before the Begum, and ran off to secure his horse and +race after the others. He counted on the despatches gaining him a +hearing. + +Abdul Huq, more crafty than his chief, smiled. + +"Better serve a king's daughter than these Shia dogs who are so ready to +fawn on a Brahmin," said he to his comrade, another Pathan, and a Sunni +like himself, for Islam, united against Christendom, is divided into +seventy-two warring sects. Hence the wavering loyalty of two sepoy +battalions in Cawnpore carried Malcolm out of the Nana's path, and led +him straight to the presence of Princess Roshinara. + +The lapse of three weeks had paled that lady's glowing cheeks and +deepened the luster of her eyes. Not only was she worn by anxiety, in +addition to the physical fatigue of the long journey from Delhi, but the +day's happenings had not helped to lighten the load of care. Yet she was +genuinely amazed at seeing Malcolm. + +"How come you to be here?" she cried instantly, addressing him before +Abdul Huq could open his mouth in explanation. + +"As your Highness can see for yourself, I am brought hither forcibly by +these slaves," said Frank, thinking that now or never must he display a +bold front. + +"How did you learn that I had left Delhi?" + +"The journeyings of the Princess Roshinara are known to many." + +"But you came not when I summoned you." + +"Your Highness's letter did not reach me until after the affair on the +Hindun river." + +"What is all this idle talk?" broke in Abdul Huq roughly. "This Feringhi +was carrying despatches--" + +"Peace, dog!" cried the Begum. "Unfasten the Sahib's arms, and be gone. +What! Dost thou hesitate!" + +She clapped her hands, and some members of her bodyguard ran forward. + +"Throw these troopers into the courtyard," she commanded. "If they +resist--" + +But the Pathans were too wise to refuse obedience. Not yet had the +rebels felt their true power. They sullenly untied Malcolm's bonds, and +disappeared. Using eyes and ears each moment to better advantage, Frank +was alive to the confusion that reigned in Nana Sahib's abode. Men ran +hither and thither in aimless disorder. The Brahmin's retainers were +like jackals who knew that the lion had killed and the feast was spread. +The only servants who preserved the least semblance of discipline were +those of the Princess Roshinara. It was an hour when the cool brain +might contrive its own ends. + +"I am, indeed, much beholden to you, Princess," said Frank. "I pray you +extend your clemency to my men. I have an escort of six sowars, and a +servant. Some of them are wounded. My horse, too, which I value +highly--" + +He paused. He saw quite clearly that she paid no heed to a word that he +was saying. Her black eyes were fixed intently on his face, but she was +thinking, weighing in her mind some suddenly-formed project. He was a +pawn in the game on the political chess-board, and some drastic move was +imminent. + +Some part of his speech had reached her intelligence. She caught him by +the wrist and hurried him along a corridor into a garden, muttering as +she went: + +"Allah hath sent thee, Malcolm-sahib. What matters thy men and a horse? +Yet will I see to their safety, if that be possible. Yes, yes, I must do +that. You will need them. And remember, I am trusting thee. Wilt thou +obey my behests?" + +"I would be capable of little gratitude if I refused, Princess," said +he, wondering what new outlet the whirligig of events would provide. + +Leading him past an astonished guardian of the zenana, who dared not +protest when this imperial lady thought fit to profane the sacred portal +by admitting an infidel, she brought Malcolm through a door into a +larger garden surrounded by a high wall. She pointed to a pavilion at +its farthest extremity. + +"Wait there," she said. "When those come to you whom you will have faith +in, do that which he who brings them shall tell you. Fail not. Your own +life and the lives of your friends will hang on a thread, yet trust me +that it shall not be severed while you obey my commands." + +With that cryptic message she ran back to the door, which was +immediately slammed behind her. Having just been snatched from the very +gate of eternity by the Begum's good offices, Malcolm determined to +fall in with her whims so long as they did not interfere with his duty. +Although Cawnpore was in the hands of the mutineers and he had lost his +despatches, he determined, at all costs, to reach Sir Hugh Wheeler if +that fine old commander were still living. Meanwhile, he hastened to the +baraduri, an elegant structure which was approached by a flight of steps +and stood in the angle of two high battlemented walls. + +The place was empty and singularly peaceful after the uproar of the +village and of that portion of the palace which faced the Grand Trunk +Road. + +Overhead the sky was clear and starlit, but beyond the walls stretched a +low, half luminous bank of mist, and he was peering that way fully a +minute before he ascertained that the garden stood on the right bank of +the Ganges. Almost at his feet, the great river was murmuring on its +quiet course to the sea, and the mist was due to the evaporation of its +waters, which were mainly composed of melted snow from the ice-capped +Himalayas. + +When his eyes grew accustomed to his surroundings he made out the shape +of a native boat moored beneath the wall. It had evidently brought a +cargo of forage to Bithoor. So still was the air that the scent of the +hay lingered yet in the locality. + +Between Bithoor and Cawnpore the Ganges takes a wide bend. At first +Malcolm scarce knew in which quarter to look for the city, but distant +reports and the glare of burning dwellings soon told him more than its +mere direction. So Cawnpore, in its turn, had yielded to the canker +that was gnawing the vitals of India! He wondered if Allahabad had +fallen. And Benares? And the populous towns of Bengal--perhaps even the +capital city itself? The Punjab was safe. Hodson told him that. But +would it remain safe? He had heard queer tales of the men who dwelt in +the bazaars of Lahore, Umritsar, Rawalpindi, and the rest. Nicholson and +John Lawrence were there; could they hold those warrior-tribes in +subjection, or, better still, in leash? He might not hazard an opinion. +His sky had fallen. This land of his adoption was his no longer. He was +an outlaw, hunted and despised, depending for his life on the caprice of +a fickle-minded woman. Then he thought of the way his comrades of the +60th, of the Dragoons and the Artillery, had chased the sepoys from the +Hindun, and his soul grew strong again. Led by British officers, the +native troops were excellent, but, deprived of the only leaders they +really respected, they became an armed mob, terrible to women and +children, but of slight account against British-born men. + +His musings were disturbed by the sound of horses advancing quietly +across a paddy field which skirted that side of the wall running at a +right angle with the river. It was impossible to see far owing to the +mist that clung close to the ground, but he could not be mistaken as to +the presence of a small body of mounted men within a few yards. They had +halted, too, but his alert ears caught the occasional clink of +accouterments, and the pawing of a horse in the soft earth. He racked +his brain to try to discover some connection between this cavalry post +and the parting admonition given by the Begum Roshinara, and he might +have guessed the riddle in part had he not heard hurried footsteps in +the garden. They came, not from the door by which he was admitted, but +from the Palace itself. Whoever the newcomers were they made straight +for the pavilion, and, as he was unarmed, he did not hesitate to show +himself against the sky line. For ill or well, he wanted to know his +fate, and he determined to spring over the battlements in the hope of +reaching the river if he received the slightest warning of hostile +intent by those who sought him. + +"Is that you, Malcolm?" said a low voice, and his heart leaped when he +recognized Mr. Mayne's accents. + +"Yes. Can it be possible that you are here?" + +He ran down the stone steps. On the level of the garden he could see +three figures, one a white-robed native, one a man in European garments, +and the third a woman wrapped in a dark cloak. A suppressed sob uttered +by the woman sent a gush of hot blood to his face. He sprang forward. +In another instant Winifred was in his arms. And that was their +unspoken declaration of love--in the garden of Nana Sahib's house at +Bithoor--while within hail were thousands who would gladly have torn +them limb from limb, and the southern horizon was aflame with the +light of their brethren's dwelling-places. + +"Oh, Frank, dear," whispered the girl brokenly, "what evil fortune has +led you within these walls? Yet, I thank God for it. Promise you will +kill me ere they drag me from your side again." + +"Hush, Winifred. For the sake of all of us calm yourself," said her +uncle. "This man says he has brought us here to help us to escape. +Surely you can find in Malcolm's presence some earnest of his good +faith." + +The native now intervened. Speaking with a certain dignity and using the +language of the court, he said that they had not a moment to lose. They +must descend the wall by means of a rope, and in the field beyond they +would find three of the officer-sahib's men, with his horse and a couple +of spare animals. Keeping close to the river until they came to a +tree-lined nullah--a small ravine cut by a minor tributary of the +Ganges--they should follow this latter till they approached the +Grand Trunk Road, taking care not to be seen as they crossed that +thoroughfare. Then, making a detour, they must avoid the village, and +endeavor to strike the road again about two miles to the north of +Bithoor, thereafter traveling at top speed towards Meerut, but letting +it be known in the hamlets on the way that they came from Cawnpore. + +This unlooked-for ally impressed the concluding stipulation strongly on +Malcolm, but, when asked for a reason, he said simply: + +"It is the Princess's order. Come! There is no time for further speech. +Here is the rope." + +He uncoiled a long cord from beneath his cummerbund, and, running up +the steps, adjusted it to a pillar of the baraduri with an ease and +quickness that showed familiarity with such means of exit from a +closely-guarded residence. + +"Now, you first, sahib," said he to Malcolm. "Then we will lower the +miss-sahib, and the burra-sahib can follow." + +There was nothing to be gained by questioning him, especially as Mayne +murmured that he could explain a good deal of the mystery underlying the +Begum's wish that they should go north. The exterior field was reached +without any difficulty. Within twenty yards they encountered a little +group of mounted men, and Malcolm found, to his great delight, that +Chumru, his bearer, was holding Nejdi's bridle, while his companions +were Akhab Khan and two troopers who had ridden from Agra. To make the +miracle more complete, Malcolm's sword was tied to the Arab's saddle and +his revolvers were still in the holsters. + +Winifred, making the best of a man's saddle until they could improvise +a crutch at their first halt, would admit of no difficulty in that +respect. The fact that her lover was present had lightened her heart +of the terror which had possessed her during many days. + +They were on the move, with the two sharp-eyed sowars leading, when the +noise made by a number of horsemen, coming toward them on the landward +side and in front, brought them to an abrupt halt. + +"Spread out to the right until you reach the river," cried a rough +voice, which Malcolm was sure he identified as belonging to Abdul Huq. +"Then we cannot miss them. And remember, brothers, if we secure the +girl unharmed, we shall earn a rich reward from the Maharajah." + +Winifred, shivering with fear again, knew not what the man said, but +she drew near to Malcolm and whispered: + +"Not into their hands, Frank, for God's sake!" + +The movement of her horse's feet had not passed unnoticed. + +"Be sharp, there!" snarled the Pathan again. "They are not far off, and +only six of them. Shout, you on the right when you are on the bank." + +"None can pass between me and the stream," replied a more distant voice. + +"Forward, then! Keep line! Not too fast, you near the wall." + +Frank loosened his sword from its fastenings and took a revolver in his +left hand, in which he also held the reins. He judged Abdul Huq to be +some fifty yards distant, and he was well aware that the fog became +thinner with each yard as he turned his back on the river. + +"Take Winifred back to the angle of the wall," he whispered to Mayne. +"You will find a budgerow[8] there. Get your horses on board, if +possible, and I shall join you in a minute or less. If I manage to +scatter these devils, we shall outwit them yet." + +[Footnote 8: A native boat.] + +It was hopeless, he knew, to attempt to ride through the enemy's +cordon. There would be a running fight against superior numbers, and +Winifred's presence made that a last resource. The most fortunate +accident of the deserted craft being moored beneath the palace wall +offered a far more probable means of escape. What blunder or treachery +had led to this attack he could not imagine. Nor was he greatly troubled +with speculation on that point. Winifred must be saved, he had a sword +in his hand, and he was mounted on the best horse in India. What better +hap could a cavalry subaltern desire than such a fight under such +conditions? + +In order not only to drown the girl's protest when her uncle turned her +horse's head, but also to deceive opponents, Frank thundered forth an +order that was familiar to their ears. + +"The troop will advance! Draw swords! Walk--trot--charge!" + +Chumru, though no fighting-man, realized that he was expected to make a +row and uttered a bloodcurdling yell. Inspired by their officer's +example the two sowars dashed after him with splendid courage. They were +on their startled pursuers so soon, the line having narrowed more +quickly than they expected, that they hurtled right through the opposing +force without a blow being struck or a shot fired. As it chanced, no +better maneuver could have been effected. When they wheeled and Frank +managed to shoot two men at close range, it seemed to the amazed rebels +that they were being attacked from the very quarter from which they had +advanced. + +Under such conditions even the steadiest of troops will break, and at +least endeavor to reach a place where their adversaries are not shrouded +in a dense mist. And that was exactly what occurred in this instance. +Nearly all the mutineers swung round and galloped headlong for the +landward boundary of the paddy field. Shouting to his two plucky +assistants to come back, Frank called out to Chumru and bade him join +them. He was hurrying towards the corner of the palace grounds when a +shriek from Winifred set his teeth on edge. + +"I am coming," he cried. "What has happened? Where are you, Mayne?" + +"Here, close to the boat. Look out there! Two sowars are carrying off my +niece. For Heaven's sake, save her! I am wounded, but never mind me." + +Malcolm had the hunter's lore, a species of Red Indian cunning in the +stalker's art. Instead of rushing blindly forward he halted his men +promptly and listened. Sure enough, he heard stumbling footsteps by the +water's edge. Leaping from Nejdi's back, he sprang down the crumbling +bank and came almost on top of Abdul Huq and his brother Pathan. Their +progress was hindered by Winifred's frantic struggles and their own +brutal efforts to stop her from screaming, and they were taken unaware +by Frank's unexpected leap. + +A thrust that went home caused a vacancy in a border clan, but, before +the avenger could withdraw his weapon, Abdul Huq was swinging his +tulwar. He was no novice in the art, and Malcolm must have gone down +under the blow had not Winifred seen its murderous purpose and seized +the man's arm. That gave her lover the second he needed. He recovered +his sword, but was too near to stab or cut, so he met the case by +dealing the swarthy one a blow with the hilt between the eyes that would +have felled an ox. Never before had the Englishman hit any man with such +vigorous good will. This rascal was owed a debt for the indignity he had +offered the sahib in the village, and now he was paid in full. + +He fell insensible, with part of his body resting in the water. It was a +queer moment for noting a trivial thing, yet Frank saw that the man's +turban did not fall off. He had lost his own turban during the melee on +the Grand Trunk Road, and, as it would soon be daylight, he stooped to +secure Abdul Huq's headgear. Oddly enough, it was fastened by a piece of +cord under the Pathan's chin--an almost unheard-of device this, to be +adopted by a native. With a sharp pull Frank broke the cord and jammed +the turban on his head. He was determined to have it, if only because no +greater insult can be inflicted on a Mohammedan than to bare his head. + +The incident did not demand more than a few seconds for its transaction +and Winifred hardly noticed it, so unstrung was she. Without more ado +Malcolm took her in his arms and carried her up the bank. He told the +troopers and his servant to follow with the horses as quietly as +possible and led the way towards the budgerow. + +Arrived at the boat, they found Mayne standing in the water and leaning +helplessly against the side of the craft. He had been struck down by one +of the precious pair who thought to carry off Winifred, but, luckily, it +was a glancing blow and not serious in its after effects. + +With a rapidity that was almost magical the horses were put on board, +the boat shoved off, and the huge mat sail hoisted to get the benefit of +any breeze that might be found in mid-stream. The current carried them +away at a fair rate, and, as they passed the place where Abdul Huq had +fallen in the river Malcolm fancied he heard a splash and a gurgle, as +though a crocodile had found something of interest. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE WELL + + +Not until many months later did Malcolm learn the true cause of +Roshinara Begum's anxiety that he and his friends should hasten to +Meerut, and let it be known on the way that they came from Cawnpore. Yet +there were those in Bithoor that night who fully appreciated the +tremendous influence on the course of political events that the +direction of Winifred's flight might exercise. The girl herself little +dreamed she was such an important personage. But that is often the case +with those who are destined to make history. In this instance, the +balking of a Brahmin prince's passions was destined to change the whole +trend of affairs in northern India. + +Nana Sahib escorted Mayne from Meerut to Cawnpore because the +safeguarding of the Judicial Commissioner of Oudh was a strong card to +play in that parlous game of empire. As he traveled south reports +reached him on every hand that nothing could now stop the spread of the +Mutiny, and, with greater certainty in his plans came a project that he +would not have dared to harbor even a week earlier. + +Winifred, naturally a high-spirited and lively girl, soon recovered +from the fright of that fateful Sunday evening. She had seen little of +the tragedy enacted in Meerut; she knew less of its real horrors. +Notwithstanding the intense heat the open-air life of the march was +healthy, and, in many respects, agreeable. The Nana was a courteous and +considerate host. He took good care that his secret intelligence of +occurrences at Delhi and other stations should remain hidden from Mayne, +and, while his ambitions mounted each hour, he cast many a veiled glance +at the graceful beauty of the fair English girl who moved like a sylph +among the brown-skinned satyrs surrounding her. + +Once the party had reached Bithoor the Nana's tone changed. Instead of +sending his European guests into Cawnpore, whence safe transit to +Calcutta was still practicable, he kept them in his palace, on the +pretext that the roads were disturbed. He contrived, at first, to +hoodwink Mr. Mayne by giving him genuine news of the wholesale outbreak +in the North-West, and by adding wholly false tidings of massacres at +Allahabad, Benares, and towns in Upper Bengal. At last, when Mayne +insisted on going into Cawnpore, the native threw aside pretense, said +he could not "allow" him to depart, and virtually made uncle and niece +prisoners. + +But he treated them well. A clear-headed Brahmin, to whom intrigue was +the breath of life, was not likely to make the mistake of being too +precipitate in his actions. The wave of religious fanaticism sweeping +over the land might recede as rapidly as it had risen. Muslim and Hindu, +Pathan and Brahmin, hereditary foes who fraternized to-day, might be at +each other's throats to-morrow. So the Nana was a courteous jailer. +Beyond the loss of their liberty the captives had nothing to complain +of, and he met Mayne's vehement reproaches with unmoved good humor, +protesting all the while that he was acting for the best. + +Winifred took fright, however. Her woman's intuition looked beneath the +mask. For her uncle's sake she kept her suspicions to herself, but she +suffered much in secret, and her distress might well have moved a man of +finer character to sympathy. Each time she met the Nana he treated her +with more apparent friendliness. She recoiled from his advances as she +might shrink from a venomous snake. + +Fortunately there were others in Bithoor who understood the Brahmin's +motives, and saw therein the germ of failure for their own plans. Nana +Sahib was an exceedingly important factor in the success of the scheme +that meditated the re-establishment of the Mogul dynasty. Recognized by +the Mahrattas, the great warlike race of western India, as their leader, +looked on as the pivot of Hindu support to the Mohammedan monarchy, it +was absolutely essential that he should captain the rebel garrison of +Cawnpore in a triumphant march to Delhi. For that reason a marriage +distasteful to both had already been arranged between him and the +Roshinara Begum. For that reason he had traveled to many centers of +disaffection during the months of March and April, winning doubtful +Hindu princes to the side of Bahadur Shah, by his tact and ready +diplomacy. For that reason too, the native officers of the first +regiments in revolt at Cawnpore made him swear, even at the twelfth +hour, that he would lead them to Delhi. + +His unforeseen infatuation for an Englishwoman might upset the +carefully-laid plot. Under other conditions a dose of poison would have +removed poor Winifred from the scene, but that simple expedient was not +to be thought of, as the Nana's vengeful disposition was sufficiently +well known to his associates to make them fear the outcome. Therefore +they left nothing to chance, and actually brought the Princess Roshinara +post haste from the north, believing that her presence would insure the +inconstant wooer's return with her at the right moment. + +While the majority pulled in one way there was an active minority that +wished the Nana to set up an independent kingdom. His nephew and his +Mohammedan friend, Azim-ullah, were convinced that their faction would +lose all influence as soon as their chief was swallowed up in the +maelstrom of the imperial court. If Winifred supplied the spell that +kept the Nana at Bithoor, they were quite content that it should be +allowed to exercise its power. + +Hence, Malcolm's arrival gave the Begum a chance that her quick wit +seized upon. Why not, she argued, connive at the Englishwoman's escape, +and let it become known that she had fled back to Meerut? When the Nana +returned from Cawnpore, flushed with wine and conquest, this should be +the first news that greeted him, and his amorous rage would go hand in +hand with the other considerations that urged his immediate departure +for the Mogul capital. That was not the device of a woman who loved--it +savored rather of the cool state-craft of a Lucrezia Borgia. + +No more curious mixture of plot and counterplot than this minor chapter +of the Bithoor romance came to light during that disastrous upheaval in +India. Never did events of the utmost magnitude hinge on incidents so +trivial to the community at large. A truculent thief like Abdul Huq was +able to defeat the intent of a king's daughter, and a couple of alert +troopers, riding to a bluff overlooking the river, could report that +they saw the budgerow on which the sahib-log escaped drifting down +stream towards Cawnpore! Thus the intrigue miscarried twice. Winifred +was free; the clear inference to be drawn from the boat's course was +that her uncle and Malcolm would bring her straight to the protection of +their friends in the cantonment. + +There was a scene of violence, nearly culminating in murder, when Nana +Sahib came to Bithoor at dawn. He met the scorn of Roshinara with a +furious insolence that stopped short of bloodshed only on account of the +prudence still governing most of his actions. Not yet was he drunk with +power. That madness was soon to obsess him. But he lent a willing ear to +the counsels of Rao Sahib and Azim-ullah. Soon after daybreak he +galloped to Kulianpur, on the road to Delhi, whither some thousands of +sepoys had already gone, and harangued them eloquently on the glory, +not to speak of the loot, they would acquire by attacking the accursed +English at Cawnpore. + +They were easily swayed. Acclaiming the Nana as a prince worthy of +obedience they marched after him, and thus sealed the doom of many +hundreds of unhappy beings who thought until that moment they would be +spared the dreadful fate that had befallen other stations. + +Oddly enough, the high-born Brahmin who now saw his hopes of regal power +in a fair way towards realization placed one act of soldierly courtesy +to his credit before he made his name a synonym for all that is base and +despicable in the conduct of warfare. He wrote a letter to Sir Hugh +Wheeler warning the gallant old general that he might expect to be +attacked forthwith. Perhaps it is straining a point to credit him with +any sense of fair play. The letter may have been a last flicker of +respect for the power of Britain, and inspired by a haunting fear of the +consequences if the Mutiny failed. It is probable he wished to provide +written proof of a plea that he was an unwilling agent in the clutch of +a mutinous army. However that may be, he wrote, and never did letter +carry more bitter disappointment to a Christian community. + +Sir Hugh Wheeler having decided, most unfortunately as it happened, +against occupying the strongly-built magazine on the river bank as a +refuge, had constructed a flimsy entrenchment on a level plain close to +the native lines. He was sure the sepoys would revolt, but he believed +they would hurry off to Delhi, and he refused to give them an excuse for +rebellion by seizing the magazine. Towards the end of May he wrote to +Henry Lawrence at Lucknow for help, and Lawrence generously sent him +fifty men of the 32d and half a battery of guns, though even this small +force could ill be spared from the capital of Oudh. Sir Hugh made the +further mistake of crediting Nana Sahib's professions of loyalty. He +actually entrusted the Treasury to the protection of the Nana's +retainers, in spite of Lawrence's plainly-worded warning that the +Brahmin's recent movements placed him under grave suspicion. + +Nevertheless, Wheeler acted with method. His judgment was clear, if +occasionally mistaken, and he had every reason to believe that the only +attacks he would be called on to repel would be made by the bazaar mob. + +On the night of June 4th, the thousand men, women and children who had +gathered behind the four-foot mud wall that formed the entrenchment were +left unmolested by the mutineers. During the 5th they watched the +destruction of their bungalows, and knew that the rebels were plundering +the city, robbing rich native merchants quite as readily as they killed +any Europeans who were not under Wheeler's charge. Late that day came +Nana Sahib's letter. It was a bitter disappointment, but "the valiant +never taste death but once," and the Britons in Cawnpore resolved to +teach the mutineers that the men who had conquered them many times in +the field could repeat the lesson again and again. + +About ten o'clock on the morning of the 6th, flames rising from houses +near at hand gave evidence of the approach of the rebels. Irregular +spurts of musketry heralded the appearance of confused masses of armed +men. A cannon-ball crashed through the mud wall and bounded across the +enclosure. A bugle sounded shrilly and the defenders ran to their posts. +The wailing of women and the cries of frightened children, helpless +creatures only half protected by two barracks situated in the southern +corner of the entrenchment, mingled with the din of the answering guns, +and in that fatal hour the siege of Cawnpore began. + +In the tear-stained story of humanity there has never been aught to +surpass the thrilling record of Cawnpore. It contains every element of +heroism and tragedy. Four hundred English soldiers, seventy of whom were +invalids, with a few dozens of civilians and faithful sepoys--standing +behind a breast-high fortification that would not stop a bullet--exposed +to the fierce rays of an Indian sun--ill-fed, almost waterless, and +driven to numb despair by the sufferings of their loved ones--these men, +enduring all and daring all, held at bay four thousand well-armed, +well-housed, and well-fed troops for twenty-one days. + +Not for a moment was the strain relaxed. Day and night the rebels poured +into the entrenchment a ceaseless hail of iron and lead. Cannon-balls, +solid and red-hot, shells with carefully arranged time fuses, and +bullets from those self-same cartridges that the superfine feelings of +Brahmin soldiers forbade them to touch, were hurled at the hapless +garrison from all quarters. In the first week every gunner in the place +was killed or wounded. Women and children were shot as though they were +in the front line of the defense. No corner was safe from the enemy's +fire. Every human being behind that absurdly inadequate wall was exposed +to constant and equal danger. + +Here is an extract from Holmes's history: + + "A private was walking with his wife when a single bullet + killed him, broke both her arms, and wounded an infant she was + carrying. An officer was talking with a comrade at the main + guard when a musket-ball struck him; and, as he was limping + painfully to the barracks to have his wound dressed, Lieutenant + Mowbray-Thomson of the 56th, who was supporting him, was struck + also, and both fell helplessly to the ground. Presently as + Thomson lay wofully sick of his wound, another officer came to + condole with him, and he too received a wound from which he + died before the end of the siege. Young Godfrey Wheeler, a son + of the General, was lying wounded in one of the barracks when + a round shot crashed through the walls of the room and carried + off his head in the sight of his mother and sisters. Little + children, straggling outside the wall, were deliberately shot + down." + +On the night of June the 11th a red-hot cannon-ball set fire to one of +the barracks which was used as a hospital. The flames inspired the +enemy's gunners to fresh efforts and provided them with an excellent +target, yet the garrison dared all perils of gun-fire and falling +rafters and masonry, while they rescued the inmates. It is on record +that the gallant men of the 32d, when the flames had subsided, though a +heavy fusillade was still kept up by the rebels, were seen raking the +ashes in order to find their lost medals, the medals they had won in the +deadly fighting that preceded the fall of Sevastopol. + +On the next day the sepoy army, though so boastful and vainglorious, +dared to make their first attempt to carry the entrenchment by assault. +By one bold charge they must have crushed the defenders, if by sheer +weight of numbers alone. They advanced, with fiendish yells and much +seeming confidence. But they could not face those stern warriors who +lined the shattered wall. After a short but fierce struggle they fled, +leaving the plain littered with corpses. + +So the safer bombardment was renewed, its fury envenomed by the +conscious disparity of the besiegers when they tried to press home the +attack. Each day the garrison dwindled; each day the rebels received +fresh accessions of strength. Of the few guns mounted in the British +position, one had lost its muzzle, another was thrown from its carriage +and two were so battered by the enemy's artillery that they could not be +used. The hospital fire had destroyed all the surgical instruments and +medical stores, so the wounded had to lie waiting for death, while those +who still bore arms eked out existence on a daily dole of a handful of +flour and a few ounces of split peas. + +Yet the men of Cawnpore fought on, while their wives and sisters and +daughters helped uncomplainingly, making up packets of ammunition, +loading rifles for the men to fire, and even giving their stockings to +the gunners to provide cases for grape-shot. + +There was only one well inside the entrenchment. Knowing its paramount +importance, the rebels mounted guns in such wise that a constant fire +could be kept up throughout the night on that special point. Yet there +never was lacking a volunteer, either man or woman, to go to that well +and obtain the precious water. It remains to this day a mournful relic +of the siege, with its broken gear and shattered circular wall, while +the indentations made by such of the cannon-balls as failed to dislodge +the masonry are plain to be seen. + +The sepoys spared none. Tiny children, tottering to the well in broad +daylight, were pelted with musketry. Conceivably that might be war. When +beleaguered people will not yield humanity must stand aside and weep. +There was a deed to come that was not war, but the black horror of +abomination, worthy of the excesses of a man-eating tiger, though shorn +of the tiger's excuse that he kills in order that he may live. The well +in the entrenchment was the Well of Life. There was another well in +Cawnpore destined to be the Well of Death. + +If proof were needed of the extraordinary condition of India during the +early period of the Mutiny, it was given by an incident that occurred +soon after the first assault was beaten off. In broad daylight, while +the garrison were maintaining the unceasing duel of cannon and small +arms, they were astounded by the spectacle of a British officer +galloping across the plain. He was fired at by the sepoys, of course, +but horse and man escaped untouched and the low barrier was leaped +without effort. The newcomer was Lieutenant Bolton of the 7th Cavalry. +Sent out from Lucknow on district duty he was suddenly deserted by his +men, and he rode alone towards Cawnpore, the nearest British station. +Unhappily the story of that adventurous ride is lost for ever. Poor +Bolton supplied Cawnpore's last re-enforcement. + +Sir Hugh Wheeler, ably seconded in the defense by Captain Moore of the +32d, sent out emissaries, Eurasians and natives, to seek aid from +Lucknow and Allahabad, the one about thirty-five, the other a hundred +miles distant. Lawrence wrote "with a breaking heart" that he could +spare no troops from Lucknow. The messengers never even reached +Allahabad. + +On June 23 the Nana's hosts again nerved themselves for a desperate +attack, and again were they flung off from that tumble-down wall. Then, +all their valor fled, they fell back on a foul device. A white woman, +Mrs. Henry Jacobi, who had been taken prisoner early in the month, +crossed the plain holding a white flag. Wheeler and Moore and other +senior officers went to meet her. She carried a letter from Nana Sahib, +offering safe conduct to Allahabad for all the garrison "except those +who were connected with the acts of Lord Dalhousie." + +Now Dalhousie resigned the vice-royalty in February, 1856. It was he who +had refused to continue to Nana Sahib the Peishwa's pension; assuredly +there was none in Cawnpore responsible for the acts of a former viceroy. +At any rate, whatsoever that curious reservation meant, the majority of +the staff were opposed to surrender. Unfortunately Captain Moore, whose +bravery was in the mouths of all, who, though wounded and ill, had been +"the life and soul of the defense," persuaded Sir Hugh Wheeler and the +others that an honorable capitulation was their sole resource. Succor +could not arrive, he argued, and they were in duty bound to save the +surviving civilians and the women and children. + +So an armistice was agreed to on June 26, and representatives of both +sides met to discuss terms. It was arranged that the garrison should +evacuate their position, surrender their guns and treasure, retain their +rifles and a quantity of ammunition, and be provided with river +transport to Allahabad. + +The Nana asked that the defenders should march out that night. Wheeler +refused. + +"I shall renew the bombardment, and put every one of you to death in a +few days," threatened the Brahmin. + +"Try it," said the Englishman. "I still have enough powder left to blow +both armies into the air." + +But the Nana meant to have no more fighting on equal terms. He signed +the treaty, the guns were given up, and, on the night of June 26th, +peace reigned within the ruined entrenchment. + +Next morning that glorious garrison quitted the shot-torn plain they had +hallowed by their deeds. And even the rebels pitied them. "As the wan +and ragged column filed along the road, the women and children in +bullock-carriages or on elephants, the wounded in palanquins, the +fighting men on foot, sepoys came clustering round the officers they had +betrayed, and talked in wonder and admiration of the surpassing heroism +of the defense." + +Those men of the rank and file at least were soldiers. They knew nothing +of the awful project concocted by the Nana and his chief associates, Rao +Sahib, Tantia Topi, and Azim-ullah. + +The procession made its way slowly towards the river, three quarters of +a mile to the east. No doubt there were joyful hearts even in that +sorrow-laden band. Men and women must have thought of far-off homes in +England, and hoped that God would spare them to see their beloved +country once more. Even the children, wide-eyed innocents, could not +fail to be thankful that the noise of the guns had ceased, while the +wounded were cheered by the belief that food and stores in plenty would +soon be available. + +At the foot of a tree-clad ravine leading to the Ganges were stationed a +number of heavy native boats, with thatched roofs to shield the +occupants from the sun. They were partly drawn up on the mud at the +water's edge to render easy the work of embarkation. Without hurry or +confusion, the wounded, and the women and children, were placed on +board. + +Then some one noticed that the thatch on one of the boats was smoking, +and it was found that glowing charcoal had been thrust into the straw. +About the same time it was discovered that the boats had neither oars, +nor rudders, nor supplies of food. Before the dread significance of +these things became clear, a bugle-call rang out. At once, both banks of +the river became alive with armed sepoys, and a murderous rifle-fire was +opened on the crowded boats. Guns, hidden among the trees, belched +red-hot shot and grape at them, and the smoldering straw of the thatched +roofs burst into flames. + +Awakened to the unspeakable treachery of their foe, officers and men +rushed into the water and strove with might and main to shove the boats +into deep water. They failed, for the unwieldy craft had been hauled +purposely too high. + +Here Ashe and Moore, and Bolton, hero of that lonely ride through the +enemy's country, fell. Here, too, men shot their own wives and children +rather than permit them to fall into the hands of the fiends who had +planned the massacre. Savage troopers urged their horses into the water +and slashed cowering women with their sabers. Infants were torn from +their mothers' arms, and tossed by sepoys from bayonet to bayonet. The +sick and wounded, lying helpless in the burning craft, died in the agony +of fire, and the few bold spirits who even in that ghastly hour tried to +beat off their cowardly assailants were surrounded and shot down by +overwhelming numbers. + +One heavily-laden boat was dragged into the stream, and a few officers +and men clambered on board. The voyage they made would supply material +for an epic. They were followed along the banks and pursued by armed +craft on the river. They fought all day and throughout the night, and, +when the ungoverned boat ran ashore during a wild squall of wind and +rain at daybreak, the surviving soldiers, a sergeant and eleven men, +headed by Mowbray-Thomson of the 56th, and Delafosse of the 53d, sprang +out and charged some hundreds of sepoys and hostile villagers who had +gathered on the bank. + +The craven-hearted gang yielded before the Englishmen's fierce +onslaught. The tiny band turned to fight their way back, and found that +the boat had drifted off again! Then they seized a Hindu temple on the +bank and held it until the sepoys piled burning timber against the rear +walls and threw bags of powder on the fire! + +Fixing bayonets and leaving the sergeant dead in the doorway, they +charged again into the mass of the enemy. Six fell. The remainder +reached the river, threw aside their guns, and plunged boldly in. Two +were shot while swimming, and one man, unable to swim any distance, +coolly made his way ashore again and faced his murderers until he sank +beneath their blows. + +Mowbray-Thomson, Delafosse, and Privates Murphy and Sullivan, swam six +miles with the stream, and were finally rescued and helped by a friendly +native. + +Those four were all who came alive out of the Inferno of Cawnpore. The +boat, after clearing the shoal, was captured by the mutineers. Major +Vibart of the 2d Cavalry, who was so severely wounded that he could not +join in the earlier fighting, and some eighty helpless souls under his +command, were brought back to the city of death. There, by orders of the +Nana, the men were slain forthwith and the women and children were taken +to a building in which they found one hundred and twenty-five others, +who had been spared for the Brahmin's own terrible purposes from the +butchery at Massacre Ghat on the 27th. + +Returning to Bithoor the Nana was proclaimed Peishwa amid the booming of +cannon and the plaudits of his retainers. He passed a week in drunken +revels and debauchery, and when, in ignorance of its fate, a small +company of European fugitives from Fategarh sought refuge at Cawnpore, +he amused himself by having all the men but three killed in his +presence. These three and the women and children who accompanied them, +were sent to a small house known as the Bibigarh, in which the whole of +the captives, now numbering two hundred and eleven, were imprisoned. + +Many died, and they were happiest. The survivors were subjected to every +indignity, given the coarsest food, and forced to grind corn for their +conqueror, who, early in July, took up his abode in a large building at +Cawnpore overlooking the house in which the unhappy people were penned. + +But the period of their earthly sufferings was drawing to a close. An +avenging army was moving swiftly up the Grand Trunk Road from Allahabad. +The Nana's nephew and two of his lieutenants, leading a large force +against the British, were badly defeated. On the 15th of July came the +alarming tidings that the Feringhis were only a day's march from the +city. + +The Furies must have chosen that date. The Nana, the man who thought +himself fit to be a king, decided that Havelock would turn back if there +were no more English left in Cawnpore! So as a preliminary to the +greater tragedy, five men who had escaped death thus far--no one knows +whence two of them came--were brought forth and slaughtered at the feet +of the renowned Peishwa. Then a squad of sepoys were told to "shoot all +the women and children in the Bibigarh through the windows of the +house." + +Poor wretches--they were afraid to refuse, yet their gorge rose at the +deed, and they fired at the ceiling! + +Such weakness was annoying to the puissant Brahmin. He selected two +Mohammedan butchers, an Afghan, and two out-caste Hindus, to do his +bidding. Armed with long knives these five fiends entered the shambles. +Alas, how can the scene that followed be described! + +Yet, not even then was the sacrifice complete. Some who were wounded but +not killed, a few children who crept under the garments of their dead +mothers, lived until the morning. Not all the native soldiers were so +lost to human sympathies that they did not shudder at the groans and +muffled cries that came all night from the house of sorrow. Some of them +have left records of sights and sounds too horrible to translate from +their Eastern tongue. + +But the rumble of distant guns told the destroyer that his short-lived +hour of triumph was nearly sped. In a paroxysm of rage and fear, he gave +the final order, and the Well of Cawnpore thereby attained its ghastly +immortality. By his command all that piteous company of women and +children, the living and the dead together, were thrown into a deep well +that stood in the garden of Bibigarh--the House of the Woman. + +It was thus that Nana Sahib strove to cloak his crime. Yet never did +foul murderer flaunt deed more glaringly in the face of Heaven. Fifty +years have passed, myriads of human beings have lived and died since the +well swallowed the Nana's victims, but the memory of those gracious +women, of those golden-haired children, of those dear little infants +born while the guns thundered around the entrenchment, shall endure +forever. The Nana sought oblivion and forgetfulness for his sin. He +earned the anger of the gods and the malediction of the world, then and +for all time. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +TO LUCKNOW + + +The tragedy of Massacre Ghat, intensified by the crowning infamy of the +Well, brought a new element into the struggle. Hitherto not one European +in a hundred in India regarded the Mutiny as other than a local, though +serious, attempt to revive a fallen dynasty. The excesses at Meerut, +Delhi, and other towns were looked upon as the work of unbridled mobs. +Sepoys who revolted and shot their officers came under a different +category to the slayers of tender women and children. But the planned +and ordered treachery of Cawnpore changed all that. Thenceforth every +British-born man in the country not only realized that the government +had been forced into a Titanic contest, but he was also swayed by a +personal and absorbing lust for vengeance. Officers and men, regulars +and volunteers alike, took the field with the fixed intent of exacting +an expiatory life for each hair on the head of those unhappy victims. +And they kept the vow they made. To this day, though half a century has +passed, the fertile plain of the Doab--that great tract between the +Ganges and the Jumna--is dotted with the ruins of gutted towns and +depopulated villages. But that was not yet. India was fated to be +almost lost before it was won again. + +On the night of June 4th, when the roomy budgerow carrying Winifred +Mayne and her escort drifted away from the walls of the Nana's palace at +Bithoor, there was not a breath of wind on the river. The mat sail was +useless, but a four-mile-an-hour current carried the unwieldy craft +slowly down stream, and there was not the slightest doubt in the minds +of either of the Englishmen on board as to their course of action. + +Mr. Mayne was acquainted with Cawnpore and Sir Hugh Wheeler was an old +friend of his. + +"Wheeler has no great force at his disposal," said he to Malcolm. "It is +evident that the native regiments have just broken out here, but, by +this time, our people in the cantonment must have heard of events +elsewhere, and they have surely seized the Magazine, which is well +fortified and stands on the river. If I can believe a word that the Nana +said, the sepoys will rush off to Delhi to-night, just as they did at +Meerut, Aligarh, and Etawah. I am convinced that our best plan is to hug +the right bank and disembark near the Magazine." + +"Is it far?" asked Malcolm. + +"About eight miles." + +"I wonder why the Begum was so insistent that we should go back along +the Grand Trunk Road?" + +Mayne hesitated. He knew that Winifred was listening. + +"It is hard to account for the vagaries of a woman's mind, or, shall I +say, of the mind of such a woman," he answered lightly. "You will +remember that when you came to our assistance outside Meerut she was +determined to take us, willy-nilly, to Delhi." + +Malcolm, who had heard Roshinara's impassioned speech and looked into +her blazing eyes, thought that her motives were stronger than mere +caprice. He never dreamed of the true reason, but he feared that she +knew Cawnpore had fallen and her curiously friendly regard for himself +might have inspired her advice. Here, again, Winifred's presence tied +his tongue. + +"Well," he said, with a cheerless laugh, "I, at any rate, must endeavor +to reach Wheeler. I am supposed to be bearing despatches, but they were +taken from me when I was knocked off my horse in the village--" + +"Were you attacked?" asked Winifred, and the quiet solicitude in her +voice was sweetest music in her lover's ears. + +His brief recital of the night's adventures was followed by the story of +the others' journey and detention at Bithoor. It may be thought that Mr. +Mayne, with his long experience of India, should have read more clearly +the sinister lesson to be derived from the treatment meted out that +night to a British Officer by the detachment of sowars, amplified, as it +was, by their open references to the Nana as a Maharajah. But he was not +yet disillusioned. And, if his judgment were at fault, he erred in good +company, for Sir Henry Lawrence, Chief Commissioner at Lucknow, was +even then resisting the appeals, the almost insubordinate urging, of the +headstrong Martin Gubbins that the sepoys in the capital of Oudh should +be disarmed. + +Meanwhile the boat lurched onward. Soon a red glow in the sky proclaimed +that they were nearing Cawnpore. Though well aware that the European +houses were on fire, they were confident that the Magazine would be +held. They helped Akhab Khan, Chumru, and the two troopers to rig a pair +of long sweeps, and prepared to guide the budgerow to the landing-place. + +Winifred was stationed at the rudder. As it chanced the three sowars +took one oar and Chumru helped the sahibs with the other, and the two +sets of rowers were partly screened from each other by the horses. +Malcolm was saying something to Winifred when the native bent near him +and whispered: + +"Talk on, sahib, but listen! Your men intend to jump ashore and leave +you. They have been bitten by the wolf. Don't try to stop them. Name of +Allah, let them go!" + +Frank's heart throbbed under this dramatic development. He had no +reason to doubt his servant's statement. The faithful fellow had +nursed him through a fever with the devotion of a brother, and +Malcolm hadreciprocated this fidelity by refusing to part with him +when he, in turn, was stricken down by smallpox. In fact, Frank +was the only European in Meerut who would employ the man, whose +extraordinary appearance went against him. Cross-eyed, wide-mouthed, +and broken-nosed, with a straggling black beard that ill concealed the +tokens on his face of the dread disease from which he had suffered, +Chumru looked a cut-throat of the worst type, "a hungry, lean-fac'd +villain, a mere anatomy." Aware of his own ill repute, he made the most +of it. He tied his turban with an aggressive twist, and was wont to +scowl so vindictively at the mess khamsamah that his master, quite +unconsciously, always secured the wing of a chicken or the best cut of +the joint. + +Yet this gnome-like creature was true to his salt at a time when he must +have felt that his sahib, together with every other sahib in India, was +doomed; his eyes now shot fiery, if oblique, shafts of indignation as he +muttered his thrilling news. + +Malcolm did not attempt to question him. He glanced at the sowars, and +saw that their carbines were slung across their shoulders. Chumru +interpreted the look correctly. + +"Akhab Khan prevented those Shia dogs from shooting you and +Mayne-sahib," went on the low murmur. "They said, huzoor, that the Nana +wanted the miss-sahib, and that they were fools to help you in taking +her away, but Akhab Khan swore he would fight on your honor's side if +they unslung their guns. They do not know I heard them as I was sitting +behind the mast, and I took care to creep off when their heads were +turned toward the shore." + +"Here we are," cried Mayne, who little guessed what Chumru's mumbling +portended. "There is the ghat.[9] If it were not for the mist we could +see the Magazine just below, on the left." + +[Footnote 9: In this instance, steps leading down to the river: also, a +mountain range.] + +Assuredly, Frank Malcolm's human clay was being tested in the furnace +that night. He had to decide instantly what line to follow. In a minute +or less the boat would bump against the lowermost steps, and, if Akhab +Khan and his companions were, indeed, traitors, the others on board +were completely at their mercy. Mayne was unarmed, Chumru's fighting +equipment lay wholly in his aspect, while Malcolm's revolvers were in +the holsters, and his sword was tied to Nejdi's saddle, its scabbard +and belt having been thrown aside while Abdul Huq was robbing him. + +The broad-beamed budgerow presented a strangely accurate microcosm of +India at that moment. The English people on her deck were numerically +inferior to the natives, and deprived by accident of the arms that might +have equalized matters. Their little army was breathing mutiny, but was +itself divided, if Chumru were not mistaken, seeing that all were for +revolt, but one held out that the Feringhis' lives should be spared. +And, even there, the cruel dilemma that offered itself to the ruler of +every European community in the country was not to be avoided, for, if +Malcolm tried to obtain his weapons his action might be the signal for a +murderous attack, while, if he made no move, he left it entirely at the +troopers' discretion whether or not he and Mayne should be shot down +without the power to strike a blow in self-defense. + +Luckily he had the gift of prompt decision that is nine tenths of +generalship. Saying not a word to alarm Mayne, who was still weak from +the wound received an hour earlier, he crossed the deck, halting on the +way to rub Nejdi's black muzzle. + +The sowars were watching him. With steady thrust of the port sweep they +were heading the budgerow toward the ghat. + +He went nearer and caught the end of the heavy oar. + +"Pull hard, now," he said encouragingly, "and we will be out of the +current." + +He was facing the three men, and his order was a quite natural one under +the circumstances. Obviously, he meant to help. Stretching their arms +for a long and strong stroke, they laid on with a will. Instantly, he +pressed the oar downwards, thus forcing the blade out of the water, and +threw all his strength into its unexpected yielding. Before they could +so much as utter a yell, Akhab Khan and another were swept headlong into +the river, while the third man lay on his back on the deck with Frank on +top of him. The simplicity of the maneuver insured its success. Neither +Mayne nor Winifred understood what had happened until Malcolm had +disarmed the trooper, taken his cartridge pouch, and thrown him +overboard to sink or swim as fate might direct. He regretted the loss of +Akhab Khan, but he recalled the queer expression on the man's face when +he read Bahadur Shah's sonorous titles. + +"Light of the World, Renowned King of Kings, Lord of all India, +Fuzl-Ilahi, Panah-i-din!" + +That appeal to the faith was too powerful to be withstood. Yet Malcolm +was glad the man had been chivalrous in his fall, for he had taken a +liking to him. + +Chumru, of course, after the first gasp of surprise, appreciated the +sahib's strategy. + +"Shabash!" he cried, "Wao, wao, huzoor![10] May I never see the White +Pond of the Prophet if that was not well planned." + +[Footnote 10: "Bravo! Well done, your honor!"] + +"Oh, what is it?" came Winifred's startled exclamation. It was so dark, +and the horses, no less than the sail, so obscured her view of the fore +part of the boat, that she could only dimly make out Malcolm's figure, +though the sounds of the scuffle and splashing were unmistakable. + +"We are disbanding our native forces--that is all," said Frank. "Press +the tiller more to the left, please. Yes, that is right. Now, keep it +there until we touch the steps." + +The shimmering surface of the river near the boat was broken up into +ripples surrounding a black object. Malcolm heard the quick panting of +one in whose lungs water had mixed with air, and he hated to think of +even a rebel drowning before his eyes. Moved by pity, he swung the big +oar on its wooden rest until the blade touched the exhausted man, whose +hands shot out in the hope of succor. After some spluttering a broken +voice supplicated: + +"Mercy, sahib! I saved you when you were in my power. Show pity now to +me." + +"It is true, then, that you meant to desert, Akhab Khan?" said Frank +sternly. + +"Yes, sahib. One cannot fight against one's brothers, but I swear by +the Prophet--" + +"Nay, your oaths are not needed. You, at least, did not wish to commit +murder. Cling to that oar. The ghat is close at hand." + +"Then, sahib, I can still show my gratitude. If you would save the +miss-sahib, do not land here. The Magazine has been taken. The cavalry +have looted the Treasury. All the sahib-log have fallen." + +"Is this a true thing that thou sayest?" + +"May I sink back into the pit if it be not the tale we heard at +Bithoor!" + +By this time Mayne was at Frank's side. + +"I fear we have dropped into a hornets' nest," said he. "There is +certainly an unusual turmoil in the bazaar, and houses are on fire in +all directions." + +Even while they were listening to the fitful bellowing of a distant mob +bent on mad revel a crackle of musketry rang out, but died away as +quickly. The budgerow grounded lightly when her prow ran against the +stonework of the ghat. Again did Malcolm make up his mind on the spur +of the moment. + +"I will spare your life on one condition, Akhab Khan," he said. "Go +ashore and learn what has taken place at the Magazine. Return here, +alone, within five minutes. Mark you, I say 'alone.' If I see more +than one who comes I shall shoot." + +"Huzoor, I shall not betray you." + +"Go, then." + +He drew the man through the water until his feet touched the steps. +Climbing up unsteadily, Akhab Khan disappeared in the gloom. Then they +waited in silence. The heavy breath of the bazaar was pungent in their +nostrils, and, for a few seconds, they listened to the trooper's +retreating footsteps. Frank leaped ashore and pushed the boat off, while +Mayne held her by jamming the leeward oar into the mud. It was best to +make sure. + +They did not speak. Their ears were strained as their tumultuous +thoughts. At last, some one came, a man, and his firm tread of boot-shod +feet betokened a soldier. It was the rebel who had become their scout. + +"Sahib," said he, "it is even as I told you. Cawnpore is lost to you." + +"And you, Akhab Khan, do you go or stay?" + +There was another moment of tense silence. + +"Would you have me draw sword against the men of my own faith?" was the +despairing answer. + +"It would not be for the first time," said Malcolm coldly. "But I could +never trust thee again. Yet hast thou chosen wrongly, Akhab Khan. When +thy day of reckoning comes, may it be remembered in thy favor that thou +didst turn most unwillingly against thy masters!" + +Akhab Khan raised his right hand in a military salute. Suddenly, his +erect form became indistinct, and faded out of sight. The boat was +traveling down stream once more. Around her the river lapped lazily, +and the solemn quietude of the mist-covered waters was accentuated +by the far-off turmoil in the city. + +The huge sail thrust its yard high above the fog bank, and watchers on +the river side saw it. Some one hailed in the vernacular, and Chumru +replied that they came from Bithoor with hay. Prompted by Malcolm he +went on: + +"How goes the good work, brother?" + +"Rarely," came the voice. "I have already requited two bunniahs to whom +I owed money. Gold is to be had for the taking. Leave thy budgerow at +the bridge, friend, and join us." + +The raucous, half-drunken accents substantiated Akhab Khan's story. The +unseen speaker was evidently himself a boatman. He was rejoicing in the +upheaval that permitted debts to be paid with a bludgeon and money to be +made without toil. + +Mayne caught Frank by the arm. + +"We are drifting towards the bridge of boats that carries the road to +Lucknow across the river," he said, in the hurried tone of a man who +sees a new and paralyzing danger. "There is a drawbridge for river +traffic, but how shall we find it, and, in any event, we must be seen." + +"Are there many houses on the opposite bank?" asked Malcolm. + +"Not many. They are mostly mud hovels. What is in your mind?" + +"We might endeavor to cross the river before we reach the bridge. By +riding boldly along the Lucknow Road we shall place many miles between +ourselves and Cawnpore before day breaks." + +"That certainly seems to offer our best chance. We have plenty of horses +and we ought to be in Lucknow soon after dawn." + +"What if matters are as bad there?" + +"Impossible! Lawrence has a whole regiment with him, the 32d, and plenty +of guns. Poor Wheeler, at Cawnpore, commanded a depot, mostly officials +on the staff, and invalids. At any rate, Malcolm, we must have some +objective. Lucknow spells hope. Neither Meerut nor Allahabad is +attainable. And what will become of Winifred if we fail to reach some +station that still holds out?" + +The girl herself now came to them. + +"I refuse to remain alone any longer," she said. "I don't know a quarter +of what is going on. I have tied the tiller with a rope. Please tell me +what is happening and why a man shouted to Chumru from the bank." + +She spoke calmly, with the pleasantly modulated voice of a well-bred +Englishwoman. If aught were wanted to enhance the contrast between the +peace of the river and the devildom of Cawnpore it was given in full +measure by her presence there. How little did she realize the long +drawn-out agony that was even then beginning for her sisters in that +ill-fated entrenchment! It was the idle whim of fortune that she was not +with them. And not one was destined to live--not one among hundreds! + +But it was a time for action, not for speech. Malcolm asked her gently +to go back to the helm and keep it jammed hard-a-starboard until they +arrived at the left bank. Then he took an oar and Mayne and Chumru +tackled the other. The three men pulled manfully athwart the stream. +They could not tell what progress they were making, and the Ganges ran +swiftly in mid-channel, being five times as wide as the Thames at London +Bridge. Yet they toiled on with desperate energy. They had crossed the +swirl of deep water when a low, straight-edged barrier appeared on the +starboard side, and, before they could attempt to avert the calamity, +the budgerow crashed against a pontoon and drove its bows under the +superstructure. It was locked there so firmly that a score of men had to +labor for hours next day ere it could be cleared. + +Nevertheless, that which they regarded as a misfortune was a blessing. +The shock of the collision alarmed the horses, and one of them climbed +like a cat on to the bridge. Frank sprang after him and caught the reins +before the startled creature could break away. And that which one horse +could do might be done by seven. Bidding Chumru arrange some planks to +give the others better foothold, he told Winifred and Mayne to join him +and help in holding the animals as they gained the roadway. A couple of +natives who ran up from the Lucknow side were peremptorily ordered to +stand. Indeed, they were harmless coolies and soon they offered to +assist, for the deadly work in Cawnpore that night was scarcely known to +them as yet. In a couple of minutes the fugitives were mounted, each of +the men leading a spare horse and advancing at a steady trot; though the +bridge swayed and creaked a good deal under this forbidden pace, they +soon found by the upward grade that they were crossing the sloping mud +bank leading to the actual highway. + +Thirty-five miles of excellent road now separated them from Lucknow. The +hour was not late, about half past ten, so they had fully six hours of +starlit obscurity in which to travel, because, though the month was +June, India is not favored with the prolonged twilight of dawn and eve +familiar to other latitudes. + +They clattered through the outlying bazaar without disturbing a soul. +Probably every man, woman and child able to walk was adding to the din +in the great city beyond the river. Pariah dogs yelped at them, some +heavy carts drawn across the road caused a momentary halt, and a herd of +untended buffaloes lying patiently near their byre told the story of the +excitement that had drawn their keeper across the bridge. + +Soon they were in the open, and a fast canter became permissible. They +passed by many a temple devoted to Kali or elephant-headed Buddha, by +many a sacred mosque or tomb of Mohammedan saint, by many a holy tree +decorated with ribbons in honor of its tutelary deity. Now they were +flying between lanes of sugarcane or tall castor-oil plants, now +traversing arid spaces where _reh_, the efflorescent salt of the earth, +had killed all vegetation and reduced a once fertile land to a desert. + +Five miles from Cawnpore they swept through the hamlet of Mungulwar. +They saw no one, and no one seemed to see them, though it is hard to say +in India what eyes may not be peering through wattle screen or heavy +barred door. In the larger village of Onao they met a group of +chowkidars, or watchmen, in the main street. These men salaamed to the +sahib-log, probably on account of the stir created by the horses. +Without drawing rein, they pushed on to Busseerutgunge, crossed the +river Sai and neared the village of Bunnee. + +If only men could read the future, how Malcolm's soldier spirit would +have kindled as Mayne told him the names of those squalid communities! +Each yard of that road was destined to be sprinkled with British blood, +while its ditches would be choked with the bodies of mutineers. But +these things were behind the veil, and the one dominant thought +possessing Malcolm now was that unless Winifred and her uncle obtained +food of some sort they must fall from their saddles with sheer +exhaustion. He and his servant had made a substantial meal early in the +evening, but the others had eaten nothing owing to the alarm and +confusion that reigned at Bithoor. + +Winifred, indeed, in response to a question, said faintly that she +thought she could keep going if she had a drink of milk. Such an +admission, coming from her brave lips, warned Frank that he must call a +halt regardless of loss of time. Assuredly, this was an occasion when +the sacrifice of a few minutes might avoid the grave risk of a breakdown +after daybreak. So when they entered Bunnee they pulled up, and +discussed ways and means of getting something to eat. + +It was then that Malcolm gave evidence that his devotion to the +soldier's art had not been practised in vain. Mr. Mayne thought they +should rouse the household at the first reputable looking dwelling they +found. + +"No," said Frank. "Mounted, and in motion, we have some chance of escape +unless we fall in with hostile cavalry. On foot, we are at the mercy of +any prowling rascals who may be on the warpath. Let us rather look out +for a place somewhat removed from the main road. There we do not court +observation, and we are sufficiently well armed to protect ourselves +from any hostile move on the part of those we summon." + +The older man agreed. Rank and wealth count for little in the great +crises of life. Here was a Judicial Commissioner of Oudh a fugitive in +his own province, and ready to obey a subaltern's slightest wish! + +Chumru quickly picked out the house of a zemindar, or land-owner, which +stood in its own walled enclosure behind a clump of trees. A rough track +led to the gate, and Frank knocked loudly on an iron-studded door. + +He used the butt end of a revolver, so his rat-tat was imperative +enough, but the garden might have been a graveyard for all the notice +that was taken by the inhabitants. He knocked again, with equal +vehemence and with the same result. But he knew his zemindar, and after +waiting a reasonable interval he said clearly: + +"Unless the door is opened at once it will be forced. I am an officer of +the Company, and I demand an entry." + +"Coming, sahib," said an anxious voice. "We knew not who knocked, and +there are many budmashes about these nights." + +The door yielded to the withdrawal of bolts, but it was still held on a +chain. A man peeped out, satisfied himself that there really were +sahib-log waiting at his gate, and then unfastened the chain, with +apologies for his forgetfulness. Three men servants, armed with lathis, +long sticks with heavy iron ferrules at both ends, stood behind him, and +they all appeared to be exceedingly relieved when they heard that their +midnight visitors only asked for water, milk, eggs, and chupatties, on +the score that they were belated and had no food. + +The zemindar civilly invited them to enter, but Frank as civilly +declined, fearing that the smallness of their number, the absence of a +retinue, and the cavalry accouterments of the horses, might arouse +comment, if not suspicion. + +Happily the owner of the house recognized Mr. Mayne, and then he +bestirred himself. All they sought for, and more, was brought. Chairs +were provided--rare luxuries in native dwellings at that date--and, this +being a Mohammedan family, some excellent cooked meat was added to the +feast. Before long Winifred was able to smile and say that she had not +been so disgracefully hungry since she left school. + +The zemindar courteously insisted that they should taste some mangoes on +which he prided himself, and he also staged a quantity of _lichis_, a +delicious fruit, closely resembling a plover's egg in appearance, +peculiar to India. Nor were the horses forgotten. They were watered and +fed, and if by this time the nature of the cavalcade had been +recognized, there was no change in the man's hospitable demeanor. + +Not for an instant did Frank's watchful attitude relax. While Mr. Mayne +and the zemindar discoursed on the disturbed state of the country he +snatched the opportunity to exchange a few tender words with Winifred. +But his eyes and ears were alert, and he was the first to hear the +advent of a large body of horses along the main road. + +He stood up instantly, blew out a lantern which was placed on the ground +for the benefit of himself and the others, and said quietly: + +"A regiment of cavalry is approaching. We do not wish to be seen by +them. Let no man stir or show a light until they have gone." + +He had the military trick of putting an emphatic order in the fewest and +simplest words. A threat was out of the question, after the manner in +which the party had been received, but it is likely that each native +present felt that his life would not be of great value if he attempted +to draw the attention of the passers-by to the presence of Europeans at +the door of that secluded zemindari. + +The tramp of horses' feet and the jingle of arms and trappings could now +be distinguished plainly. At first Winifred feared that they were troops +sent in pursuit of them by the Nana, and she whispered the question: + +"Are they from Cawnpore, Frank?" + +"No," he answered, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I cannot +see them, but their horses are walking, so they cannot have come our +way. They are cavalry advancing from the direction of Lucknow." + +"Perhaps they are marching to the relief of Cawnpore?" + +"Let us hope so. But we must not risk being seen." + +"Your words are despondent, dear. Do you think the whole native army is +against us?" + +"I scarcely know what to think, sweetheart. Things look black in so many +directions. Once we are in Lucknow, and able to hear what has really +happened elsewhere, we shall be better able to judge." + +The ghostly squadrons clanked past, unseen and unseeing. When the road +was quiet again Winifred and her small bodyguard remounted. The zemindar +was not a man who would accept payment, so Mr. Mayne gave his servants +some money. It may be that this Mohammedan gentleman wondered if he had +acted rightly when the emissaries of the Nana scoured the country next +day for news of the miss-sahib and two sahibs who rode towards Lucknow +in the small hours of the morning. Being a wise man he held his peace. +He had cast his bread upon the waters, and did not regret it, though he +little reckoned on the return it would make after many days. + +Reinvigorated by the excellent meal, the travelers found that their +horses had benefited as greatly as they themselves by the food and brief +rest. + +They had no more adventures on the way. Winifred did not object to +riding astride while it was dark, but she did not like the experience in +broad daylight, and when they met a Eurasian in a tikka-gharry, or hired +conveyance, in the environs of Lucknow, she was almost as delighted to +secure the vehicle as to learn that the city, though disturbed, was +"quite safe from mutiny." + +That was the man's phrase, and it was eloquent of faith in the genius of +Henry Lawrence. + +"Quite safe!" he assured them, though they had only escaped capture by a +detachment of rebel cavalry by the merest fluke three hours earlier. + +They were standing opposite the gate of a great walled enclosure known +as the Alumbagh, a summer retreat built by an old nawab for a favorite +wife. And that was in June! In six short months Havelock would be lying +there in his grave, and men would be talking from pole to pole of the +wondrous things done at Lucknow, both by those who held it and those +who twice relieved it. + +"Quite safe!" + +It was high time men ceased to use that phrase in India. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +WHEREIN A MOHAMMEDAN FRATERNIZES WITH A BRAHMIN + + +"We seem to be attracting a fair share of attention," said Malcolm, as +they crossed a bridge over the canal that bounded Lucknow on the south +and east. + +"We look rather odd, don't we?" asked Winifred, cheerfully. "Three +mounted men leading four horses, and a disheveled lady in a ramshackle +vehicle like this, would draw the eyes of a mob anywhere. Thank +goodness, though, the people appear to be quite peaceably inclined." + +"Y-yes." + +"Why do you agree so grudgingly?" + +"Well, I have not been here before--are the streets usually so crowded +at this hour?" + +"Lucknow, like every other Indian city, is early astir. Perhaps they +have heard of the fall of Cawnpore. It is one of the marvels of India +how quickly news spreads. Isn't that so, uncle?" + +"No man knows how rumor travels here," said Mr. Mayne. "It beats the +telegraph at times. But the probability is that Lucknow has surprises in +store for us. While we were bottled up in Bithoor things have been +happening elsewhere." + +His guess was only too accurate. Not only had Nana Sahib long been in +treaty with the disaffected Oudh taluqdars, but Lucknow itself was +writhing in the first stages of rebellion. Although by popular reckoning +the mutiny broke out at Meerut on May 10, there was trouble in Lucknow +in April with the 48th Infantry, and again on May 3, when Lawrence's +firm measures alone prevented the 7th Oudh Irregulars from murdering +their officers. There was little reason to hope that this, the third +city in India, should not yield readily to sedition-mongers. The +dethroned King of Oudh, with his courtiers and ministers, still +maintained a sort of royal state in his residence at Calcutta, and his +emissaries were active in the greased cartridge propaganda, telling +Hindus that the paper wrappers were dipped in the fat of cows, while, +for the benefit of Mohammedans, a variant of the story was supplied by +the substitution of pig's lard. + +It is believed too, that the passing of a chupatty, or flat cake, from +village to village in the Northwest Provinces early in January was +set on foot by one of these agitators as a token that the Government +was plotting to overthrow the religions of the people. The exact +significance of that mysterious symbol has never been ascertained. Like +the "snowball" petition of the West, once started, it soon lost its +first meaning. Many natives regarded it merely as the fulfilment of a +devotee's vow, but in the majority of instances it had an unsettling +effect on the simple folk who received it, and this was precisely what +its originator desired. + +Lucknow was not only the natural pivot of a rich agricultural district, +but it hummed with prosperous trade. Every type of Indian humanity +gathered in its narrow streets and lofty houses, and excitement rose to +fever heat when the local trouble with the sepoys was given force to by +the isolation of the Meerut white garrison, the seizure of Delhi and the +sacking of many European stations in the Northwest. On May 30, the 71st +Native Infantry had the impudence to fire on the 32d Foot, and were +severely mauled for their pains. They ran off, but not until they had +murdered Brigadier-General Handscombe and Lieutenant Grant, one of their +own officers. The standard of the Prophet was raised in the bazaar and a +fanatical mob rallied round it. They killed a Mr. Menpes, who lived in +the city, and were then dispersed by the police. + +Unfortunately the 7th Cavalry deserted when Lawrence marched to the +race-course next day to punish the mutinous sepoys who had gathered +there. But despite the lack of a mounted force, a number of prisoners +were taken and hanged in batches on a gallows erected on the Muchee +Bhowun, a fortress palace situated near the Residency. + +Thus Lawrence had scotched the snake, but like Wheeler at Cawnpore and +many another in India at that time, he refused to kill it by disarming +the native regiments under his command. Nevertheless they feared him. +They dared not show their fangs in Lucknow. They stole away in companies +and squadrons, glutting their predatory instincts by slaughter and +pillage elsewhere before they headed for Delhi or joined one of the +numerous pretenders who sprang into being in emulation of Nana Sahib. It +was one of these rebel detachments that passed the four fugitives from +Cawnpore on the outskirts of Bunnee. Scattered throughout the province +they proved as merciless and terrible to wealthy natives as to the +Europeans whom they met in flight along the main roads. + +The chaos into which the whole country fell with such extraordinary +swiftness is demonstrated by the varying treatment meted out to +different people. Winifred and her uncle, under Malcolm's bold +leadership, reached Lucknow with comparative ease. Poor little Sophy +Christian, aged three, having lost her mother in the massacre of +Sitapore, was taken off into the jungle by Sir Mountstuart Jackson, his +sister Madeline, a young officer named Burnes, and Surgeon-Major Morton. +They fell in with Captain and Mrs. Philip Orr and their child, refugees +from Aurungabad, and the whole party experienced almost incredible +sufferings _during nine months_. Mrs. Orr, her little girl and Miss +Jackson did not escape from their final prison at Lucknow until the end +of March, 1858. Sophy Christian, who was always asking pathetically "why +mummie didn't come," died of the hardships she had to endure, while the +men were shot in cold blood by the sepoys on November 16. + +Yet in many instances the rebels either told their officers to go away +or escorted them to the nearest European station, while the villagers, +though usually hostile, sometimes treated the luckless sahib-log with +genuine kindness and sympathy. + +Mr. Mayne of course had his own house in the cantonment, which was +situated north of the city, across the river Goomtee. Malcolm wished to +see uncle and niece safely established in their bungalow before he +reported himself at the Residency, but the older man thought they should +all go straight to the Chief Commissioner and tell him what had happened +at Cawnpore. + +Threading the packed bazaar towards the Bailey Guard--that gate of the +Residency which was destined to become for ever famous--they encountered +Captain Gould Weston, the local Superintendent of Police, and his first +words undeceived them as to the true position of affairs. + +"You left Cawnpore last night!" he cried. "Then you were amazingly +lucky. Wheeler has just telegraphed that he expects to be invested by +the rebels to-day. Not that you will be much better off here in some +respects, as we are all living in the Residency. I suppose you know your +house has gone, Mayne?" + +"Gone! Do you mean that it is destroyed?" + +"Burnt to the ground. There is hardly a building left in the +cantonment." + +"But what were the troops doing? At any rate, you are not besieged here +yet." + +"We are on the verge of it. Unfortunately the Chief won't bring himself +to disarm the sepoys, and the city is drifting into a worse condition +daily. Half of the native corps have bolted, and the rest are ripe +for trouble at the first opportunity. The fires are the work of +incendiaries. We have caught and hanged a few, but they are swarming +everywhere." + +"You say Wheeler has been in communication with you this morning," said +the perplexed civilian. "Are you sure? It is true we escaped in the +first instance from Bithoor, but Cawnpore was in flames last night and +the Magazine in possession of the mutineers." + +"Oh, yes. We know that. The one thing these black rascals don't +understand is the importance of cutting the telegraph wires. Wheeler has +thrown up an entrenchment in the middle of a _maidan_. I am afraid he is +in a tight place, as he is asking for help which we cannot send. Well, +good-by! Hope to see you at tiffin. Miss Mayne must make herself as +comfortable as she can in the women's quarters, and pray, like the rest +of us, that this storm may soon blow over." + +He rode off, followed by an escort of mounted police. Malcolm, who had +taken no part in the conversation, listened to Weston's words with a +sinking heart. He had failed doubly, then, in the mission entrusted to +him by Colvin. Not only were his despatches lost, but he was mistaken +in believing that the Cawnpore garrison was overpowered. He had turned +back at a moment when he should have strained every nerve to reach +his destination. That was intolerable. The memory of the hawk-nosed, +steel-eyed officer who rode from Kurnaul to Meerut in twenty-four hours +smote him like a whip. Would Hodson--the man who was prepared to cross +the infernal regions if duty called--would _he_ have quitted Cawnpore +without making sure that Sir Hugh Wheeler was dead or a prisoner? + +The answer to that unspoken question brought such a look of pain to +Frank's face that Winifred, watching him from the carriage window, +wondered what was wrong. She, too, had heard the policeman's statement +and was greatly relieved by it. Why should her lover be so perturbed, +she wondered? Was it not good news that the English in Cawnpore were at +least endeavoring to hold Nana Sahib at bay? It was on the tip of her +tongue to ask what sudden cloud had fallen on him when the carriage +swung through a gateway and she found herself inside the Residency. The +breathless greetings exchanged between herself and many of her friends +among the ladies of the garrison drove from her mind the misery she had +seen in Frank's stern-set features. But the thought recurred later and +she spoke of it. + +Now Malcolm had already visited Sir Henry Lawrence and told him the +exact circumstances. The Chief Commissioner exonerated him from any +blame and, as a temporary matter, appointed him an extra A.D.C. on his +staff. But the sore rankled and it was destined in due time to affect +the young officer's fortunes in the most unexpected way. + +Above all else he did not want Winifred to know that solicitude in her +behalf had drawn him from the path of duty. So he fenced with her +sympathetic inquiries, and she, womanlike, began to search for some +shortcoming on her own part to account for her lover's gloom. Thus, not +a rift, but an absence of full and complete understanding, existed +between them, and each was conscious of it, though Malcolm alone knew +its cause. + +But that little cloud only darkened their own small world. Around them +was the clash of arms and the din of preparation for the "fortnight's +siege" which Lawrence thought the Residency might withstand if held +resolutely! In truth, there never was a fortification, with the +exception of that four-foot mud wall at Cawnpore, less calculated to +repel the assault of a determined foe than the ill-planned defenses +which provided the last English refuge in Oudh. + +Winifred soon proved that she was of good metal. The alarms and +excursions of the past three weeks were naturally trying to a girl born +and bred in a quiet Devon village. But heredity, mostly blamed for the +transmission of bad qualities, supplies good ones, too, whether in man +or maid. Descended on her father's side from a race of soldiers and +diplomats, her mother was a Yorkshire Trenholme, and it is said on +Hambledon Moor that there were Trenholmes in Yorkshire before there was +a king in England. In spite of the terrific heat and the discomfort +of her new surroundings she made light of difficulties, found solace +herself by cheering others, and quickly attained a prominent place in +that small band of devoted women whose names will live until the story +of Lucknow is forgotten. + +She met Frank only occasionally and by chance, their days being full of +work and striving. A smile, a few tender words, perhaps nothing more +than a hurried wave of the hand in passing, constituted their love +idyll, for Lawrence fell ill and his aides were kept busy, day and +night, in passing to and fro between the bedside of the stricken leader +and the many posts where his counsel was sought or the hasty provision +of defense lagged for his orders. + +The Chief was so worn out with anxiety and sleepless labor that on +June 9 he delegated his authority to a provisional council. Then the +impetuous and chivalric Martin Gubbins, Financial Commissioner of Oudh, +saw a means of attaining by compromise that which he had vainly urged on +Lawrence--he persuaded the commanding officers of the native regiments +in Lucknow to tell their men to go home on furlough until November. + +This was actually done, but Lawrence was so indignant when he heard of +it that he dissolved the council on June 12 and sent Malcolm and other +officers to recall the sepoys. Five hundred came back, vowing that they +would stand by "Lar-rence-sahib Bahadur" till the last. They kept their +word; they shared the danger and glory of the siege with the 32d and the +British Artillery. + +Gubbins, a born firebrand, then pressed his superior to attack a rebel +force that had gathered at the village of Chinhut, ten miles northeast +of Lucknow. Unfortunately Lawrence yielded, marched out with seven +hundred men, half of whom were Europeans, and was badly defeated, owing +to the desertion of some native gunners at a critical moment. + +A disastrous rout followed. Colonel Case of the 32d, trying vainly with +his men to stop the native runaways, was shot dead. For three miles the +enemy's horse artillery pelted the helpless troops with grape, and the +massacre of every man in the small column was prevented only by the +bravery of a tiny squadron of volunteer cavalry, which held a bridge +until the harassed infantry were able to cross. + +Lawrence, when the day was lost, rode back to prepare the hapless +Europeans in the city for the hazard that now threatened. The investment +of the Residency could not be prevented. It was a question whether the +mutineers would not surge over it in triumph within the hour. + +From the windows of the lofty building which gave its name to the +cluster of houses within the walls, the despairing women saw their +exhausted fellow-countrymen fighting a dogged rear-guard action against +twenty times as many rebels. Some poor creatures, straining their eyes +to find in the ranks of the survivors the husband they would never see +again, clasped their children to their breasts and shrieked in agony. +Others, like Lady Inglis, knelt and read the Litany. A few, and among +them was Winifred, ran out with vessels full of water and tended the +wants of the almost choking soldiers who were staggering to the shelter +of the veranda. + +She had seen Lawrence gallop to his quarters, and his drawn, haggard +face told her the worst. He was accompanied by two staff officers, but +Malcolm was not with him. The pandemonium that reigned everywhere for +many minutes made it impossible that she should obtain any news of her +lover's fate. While the soldiers were flocking through the narrow +streets that flanked or enfiladed the walls, the native servants and +coolies engaged on the defenses deserted _en masse_. The rebel artillery +was beginning to batter the more exposed buildings; the British guns +already in position took up the challenge; sepoys seized the adjoining +houses and commenced a deadly musketry fire that was far more effective +than the terrifying cannonade; and the men of the garrison who had not +taken part in that fatal sortie rushed to their posts, determined to +stem at all costs the imminent assault of the victorious mutineers. + +An officer seeing Winifred carrying water to some men who were lying in +a position that would soon be swept by two guns mounted near a bridge +across the Goomtee, known as the Iron Bridge, ordered the soldiers to +seek a safer refuge. + +"And you, Miss Mayne, you must not remain here," he went on. "You will +only lose your life, and we want brave women like you to live." + +Winifred recognized him though his face was blackened with powder and +grime. Her own wild imaginings made death seem preferable to the +anguish of her belief that Frank had fallen. + +"Oh, Captain Fulton," she said, "can you tell me what has become of--of +Mr. Malcolm?" + +"Yes," he said, summoning a gallant smile as an earnest of good news. "I +heard the Chief tell him to make the best of his way to Allahabad. That +is the only quarter from which help can be expected, and to-day's +disaster renders help imperative. Now, my dear child, don't take it to +heart in that way. Malcolm will win through, never fear! He is just the +man for such a task, and each mile he covers means--" he paused; a round +shot crashed against a gable and brought down a chimney with a loud +rattle of falling bricks--"means so many minutes less of this sort of +thing." + +But Winifred neither saw nor heard. Her eyes were blinded with tears, +her brain dazed by the knowledge that her lover had undertaken alone a +journey declared impossible from the more favorably situated station of +Cawnpore many days earlier. + +She managed somehow to find her uncle. Perhaps Fulton spared a moment to +take her to him. She never knew. When next her ordered mind appreciated +her environment that last day of June, 1857, was drawing to its close +and the glare of rebel watch fires, heightened by the constant flashes +of an unceasing bombardment, told her that the siege of Lucknow had +begun. + +Then she remembered that Mr. Mayne had taken her to one of the cellars +in the Residency in which the women and children were secure from the +leaden hail that was beating on the walls. She had a vague notion that +he carried a gun and a cartridge belt, and a new panic seized her lest +the Moloch of war had devoured her only relative, for her father had +been killed at the battle of Alma, and her mother's death, three years +later, had led to her sailing for India to take charge of her uncle's +household. + +The women near at hand were too sorrow-laden to give any real +information. They only knew that every man within the Residency walls, +even the one-armed, one-legged, decrepit pensioners who had lost limbs +or health in the service of the Company, were mustered behind the frail +defenses. + +To a girl of her temperament inaction was the least endurable of evils. +Now that the shock of Malcolm's departure had passed she longed to seek +oblivion in work, while existence in that stifling underground +atmosphere, with its dense crowd of heart-broken women and complaining +children, was almost intolerable. + +In defiance of orders--of which, however, she was then ignorant--she +went to the ground floor. Passing out into the darkness she crossed an +open space to the hospital, and it chanced that the first person she +encountered was Chumru, Malcolm's bearer. + +The man's grim features changed their habitual scowl to a demoniac grin +when he saw her. + +"Ohe, miss-sahib," he cried, "this meeting is my good fortune, for +surely you can tell me where my sahib is?" + +Winifred was not yet well versed in Hindustani, but she caught some of +the words, and the contortions of Chumru's expressive countenance were +familiar to her, as she had laughed many a time at Malcolm's recitals of +his ill-favored servant's undeserved repute as a villain of parts. + +"Your sahib is gone to Allahabad," she managed to say before the thought +came tardily that perhaps it was not wise to make known the Chief +Commissioner's behests in this manner. + +"To Illah-habad! Shade of Mahomet, how can he go that far without me?" +exclaimed Chumru. "Who will cook his food and brush his clothes? Who +will see to it that he is not robbed on the road by every thief that +ever reared a chicken or milked a cow? I feared that some evil thing had +befallen him, but this is worse than aught that entered my head." + +All this was lost on Winifred. She imagined that the native was +bewailing his master's certain death in striving to carry out a +desperate mission, whereas he was really thinking that the most +disturbing element about the sahib's journey was his own absence. + +Seeing the distress in her face, Chumru was sure that she sympathized +with his views. + +"Never mind, miss-sahib," said he confidentially, "I will slip away now, +steal a horse and follow him." + +Without another word he hastened out of the building and left her +wondering what he meant. She repeated the brief phrases, as well as she +could recall them, to a Eurasian whom she found acting as a +water-carrier. + +This man translated Chumru's parting statement quite accurately, and +when Mr. Mayne came at last from the Bailey Guard where he had been +stationed until relieved after nightfall, he horrified her by telling +her the truth--that it was a hundred chances to one against the +unfortunate bearer's escape if he did really endeavor to break through +the investing lines. + +And indeed few men could have escaped from the entrenchment that night. +Any one who climbed to the third story of the Residency--itself the +highest building within the walls and standing on the most elevated +site--would soon be dispossessed of the fantastic notion that any corner +was left unguarded by the rebels. A few houses had been demolished by +Lawrence's orders, it is true, but his deep respect for native ideals +had left untouched the swarm of mosques and temples that stood between +the Residency and the river. + +"Spare their holy places!" he said, yet Mohammedan and Hindu did not +scruple now to mask guns in the sacred enclosures and loop-hole the +hallowed walls for musketry. On the city side, narrow lanes, lofty +houses and strongly-built palaces offered secure protection to the +besiegers. The British position was girt with the thousand gleams of a +lightning more harmful than that devised by nature, for each spurt of +flame meant that field-piece or rifle was sending some messenger of +death into the tiny area over which floated the flag of England. Within +this outer circle of fire was a lesser one; the garrison made up for +lack of numbers by a fixed resolve to hold each post until every man +fell. To modern ideas, the distance between these opposing rings was +absurdly small. As the siege progressed besiegers and besieged actually +came to know each other by sight. Even from the first they were seldom +separated by more than the width of an ordinary street, and conversation +was always maintained, the threats of the mutineers being countered by +the scornful defiance of the defenders. + +Nevertheless Chumru prevailed on Captain Weston to allow him to drop to +the ground outside the Bailey Guard. The Police Superintendent, a +commander who was now fighting his own corps, accepted the bearer's +promise that if he were not killed or captured he would make the best of +his way to Allahabad, and even if he did not find his master, tell the +British officer in charge there of the plight of Lucknow. + +Chumru, who had no knowledge of warfare beyond his recent experiences, +was acquainted with the golden rule that the shorter the time spent as +an involuntary target the less chance is there of being hit. As soon as +he reached the earth from the top of the wall he took to his heels and +ran like a hare in the direction of some houses that stood near the +Clock Tower. + +He was fired at, of course, but missed, and the sepoys soon ceased their +efforts to put a bullet through him because they fancied he was a +deserter. + +As soon as they saw his face they had no doubts whatever on that score. +Indeed, were it his unhappy lot to fall in with the British patrols +already beginning to feel their way north from Bengal along the Grand +Trunk Road he would assuredly have been hanged at sight on his mere +appearance. + +Chumru's answers to the questions showered on him were magnificently +untrue. According to him the Residency was already a ruin and its +precincts a shambles. The accursed Feringhis might hold out till the +morning, but he doubted it. Allah smite them!--that was why he chanced +being shot by his brethren rather than be slain by mistake next day when +the men of Oudh took vengeance on their oppressors. He could not get +away earlier because he was a prisoner, locked up by the huzoors, +forsooth, for a trifling matter of a few rupees left behind by one of +the white dogs who fell that day at Chinhut. + +In brief, Chumru abused the English with such an air that he was +regarded by the rebels as quite an acquisition. They had not learned, as +yet, that it was better to shoot a dozen belated friends than permit one +spy to win his way through their lines. + +Watching his opportunity, he slipped off into the bazaar. Now he was +quite safe, being one among two hundred thousand. But time was passing; +he wanted a horse, and might expect to find the canal bridge closely +guarded. + +Having a true Eastern sense of humor behind that saturnine visage of +his, he hit on a plan of surmounting both difficulties with ease. + +Singling out the first well-mounted and half-intoxicated native officer +he met--though, to his credit be it said, he chose a Brahmin subadar of +cavalry--he hailed him boldly. + +"Brother," said he, "I would have speech with thee." + +Now, Chumru took his life in his hands in this matter. For one wearing +the livery of servitude to address a high-caste Brahmin thus was +incurring the risk of being sabered then and there. In fact the subadar +was so amazed that he glared stupidly at the Mohammedan who greeted him +as "brother," and it may be that those fierce eyes looking at him from +different angles had a mesmeric effect. + +"Thou?" he spluttered, reining in his horse, a hardy country-bred, good +for fifty miles without bait. + +"Even I," said Chumru. "I have occupation, but I want help. One will +suffice, though there is gold enough for many." + +"Gold, sayest thou?" + +"Ay, gold in plenty. The dog of a Feringhi whom I served has had it +hidden these two months in the thatch of his house near the Alumbagh. +To-day he is safely bottled up there--" he jerked a thumb towards the +sullen thunder of the bombardment. "I am a poor man, and I may be +stopped if I try to leave the city. Take me up behind thee, brother, and +give me safe passage to the bungalow, and behold, we will share treasure +of a lakh or more!" + +The Brahmin's brain was bemused with drink, but it took in two obvious +elements of the tale at once. Here was a fortune to be gained by merely +cutting a throat at the right moment. + +"That is good talking," said he. "Mount, friend, and leave me to answer +questions." + +Chumru saw that he had gaged his man rightly, and the evil glint in the +subadar's eyes told him the unspoken thought. He climbed up behind the +high-peaked saddle and, after the horse had showed his resentment of a +double burthen, was taken through the bazaar as rapidly as its thronged +streets permitted. Sure enough, the canal bridge was watched. + +"Whither go ye?" demanded the officer in charge. + +"To bring in a Feringhi who is in hiding," said the Brahmin. + +"Shall I send a few men with you?" + +"Nay, we two are plenty--" this with a laugh. + +"Quite plenty," put in Chumru. The officer glanced at him and was +convinced. Being a Mohammedan, he took Chumru's word without question, +which showed the exceeding wisdom of Chumru in selecting a Brahmin for +the sacrifice; thus was he prepared to deal with either party in an +unholy alliance. + +They jogged in silence past the Alumbagh. The Brahmin, on reflection, +decided that he would stab Chumru before the hoard was disturbed and he +could then devise another hiding-place at his leisure. Chumru had long +ago decided to send the Brahmin to the place where all unbelievers go, +at the first suitable opportunity. Hence the advantage lay with him, +because he held a strategic position and could choose his own time. + +Beyond the Alumbagh there were few houses, and these of mean +description, and each moment the subadar's mind was growing clearer +under the prospect of great wealth to be won so easily. + +"Where is this bungalow, friend?" said he at last, seeing nothing but a +straight road in front. + +"Patience, brother. 'Tis now quite near. It lies behind that tope of +trees yonder." + +The other half turned to ascertain in which direction his guide was +pointing. + +"It is not on the main road, then?" + +"No. A man who has gold worth the keeping loves not to dwell where all +men pass." + +A little farther, and Chumru announced: + +"We turn off here." + +It was dark. He thought he had hit upon a by-way, but no sooner did the +horse quit the shadow of the trees by the roadside than he saw that he +had been misled by the wheel-tracks of a ryot's cart. The Brahmin +sniffed suspiciously. + +"Is there no better way than this?" he cried, when his charger nearly +stumbled into a deep ditch. + +"One only, but you may deem it too far," was the quiet answer, and +Chumru, placing his left hand on the Brahmin's mouth, plunged a long, +thin knife up to the hilt between his ribs. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A LONG CHASE + + +It was not Lawrence's order but Malcolm's own suggestion that led to the +desperate task entrusted to the young aide by the Chief. While those few +heroic volunteer horsemen drove back the enemy's cavalry and held the +bridge over the Kokrail until the beaten army made good its retreat, Sir +Henry halted by the roadside and watched the passing of his exhausted +men. He had the aspect of one who hoped that some stray bullet would end +the torment of life. In that grief-stricken hour his indomitable spirit +seemed to falter. Ere night he was the Lawrence of old, but the +magnitude of the calamity that had befallen him was crushing and he +winced beneath it. + +Out of three hundred and fifty white soldiers in the column he had lost +one hundred and nineteen. Every gun served by natives was captured by +the enemy. Worst of all, the moral effect of such a defeat outweighed a +dozen victories. It not only brought about the instant beginnings of the +siege, but its proportions were grossly exaggerated in the public eye. +For the first time in many a year the white soldiers had fled before a +strictly Indian force. They were outnumbered, which was nothing new in +the history of the country, but it must be confessed they were +out-generaled, too. Lawrence, never a believer in Gubbins's forward +policy, showed unwonted hesitancy even during the march to Chinhut: he +halted, advanced and counter-marched the troops in a way that was +foreign to a man of his decisive character. Where he was unaccountably +timid the enemy were unusually bold, and the outcome was disaster. + +Yet in this moment of bitterest adversity he displayed that sympathy for +the sufferings of others that won him the esteem of all who came in +contact with him. + +By some extraordinary blunder of the commissariat the 32d had set forth +that morning without breaking their fast. Now, after a weary march and a +protracted fight in the burning sun, some of the men deliberately lay +down to die. + +"We can go no farther," they said. "We may as well meet death here as a +few yards away. And, when the sepoys overtake us, we shall at least have +breath enough left to die fighting." + +Lawrence, when finally he turned his horse's head toward Lucknow, came +upon such a group. He shook his feet free of the stirrups. + +"Now, my lads," he said quietly, "you have no cause to despair. Catch +hold of the leathers, two of you, and the horse will help you along. Mr. +Malcolm, you can assist in the same way. Another mile will bring us to +the city." + +One of the men, finding it in his heart to pity his haggard-faced +general, thought to console him by saying: + +"We'll try, if it's on'y to please you, your honor, but it's all up with +us, I'm afraid. If the end doesn't come to-day it will surely be with us +to-morrow." + +"Why do you think that?" asked Lawrence. "We must hold the Residency +until the last man falls. What else can we do?" + +"I know that, your honor, but we haven't got the ghost of a chance. +They're a hundred to one, and as well armed as we are. It 'ud be a +different thing if help could come, but it can't. If what people are +saying is true, sir, the nearest red-coats are at Allahabad, an' p'raps +they're hard pressed, too." + +"That is not the way to look at a difficulty. In war it is the +unexpected that happens. Keep your spirits up and you may live to tell +your grandchildren how you fought the rebels at Lucknow. I want you and +every man in the ranks to know that my motto is 'No Surrender.' You have +heard what happened at Cawnpore. Here, in Lucknow, despite to-day's +disaster, we shall fight to a finish." + +An English battery came thundering down the road to take up a fresh +position and assist in covering the retreat. The guns unlimbered near a +well. + +"There!" said Lawrence, "you see how my words have come true. A minute +ago you were ready to fall before the first sowar who lifted his saber +over your head. Go now and help by drawing water for the gunners and +yourselves. Then you can ride back on the carriages when they limber +up." + +Malcolm, to whom the soldier's words brought inspiration, spurred Nejdi +alongside his Chief. + +"Will you permit me to ride to Allahabad, sir, and tell General Neill +how matters stand here?" he said. + +Lawrence looked at him as though the request were so fantastic that he +had not fully grasped its meaning. + +"To Allahabad?" he repeated, turning in the saddle to watch the effect +of the first shot fired by the battery. + +"Yes, sir," cried Malcolm, eagerly. "I know the odds are against me, but +Hodson rode as far through the enemy's country only six weeks ago, and I +did something of the kind, though not so successfully, when I went from +Meerut to Agra and from Agra to Cawnpore." + +"You had an escort, and I can spare not a man." + +"I will go alone, sir." + +"I would gladly avail myself of your offer, but the Residency will be +invested in less than an hour." + +"Let me go now, sir. I am well mounted. In the confusion I may be able +to reach the open country without being noticed." + +"Go, then, in God's name, and may your errand prosper, for you have many +precious lives in your keeping." + +Lawrence held out his hand, and Malcolm clasped it. + +"Tell Neill," said the Chief Commissioner in a low tone of intense +significance, "that we can hold out a fortnight, a month perhaps, or +even a few days longer if buoyed up with hope. That is all. If you +succeed, I shall not forget your services. The Viceroy has given me +plenary powers, and I shall place your name in orders to-night, Captain +Malcolm." + +He kept his promise. When Lucknow was evacuated after the Second Relief, +the official gazettes recorded that Lieutenant Frank Malcolm of the 3d +Cavalry had been promoted to a captaincy, supernumerary on the staff, +for gallantry on the field on June 30, while a special minute provided +that he should attain the rank of major if he reached Allahabad on or +before July 4. + +From the point on the road to Chinhut where Malcolm bade his Chief +farewell, he could see the tower of the Residency, gray among the white +domes and minarets that lined the south bank of the Goomtee. He had no +illusions now as to the course the mutineers would follow. Native rumors +had brought the news of the massacre at Cawnpore, though the ghastly +tragedy of the Well was yet to come. He knew that this elegant city, +resplendent and glorious in the sheen of the setting sun, would soon be +a living hell. A fearsome struggle would surge around that tower where +the British flag was flying. A few hundreds of Europeans would strive to +keep at bay tens of thousands of eager rebels. Would they succeed? Pray +Heaven for that while Winifred lived! + +And in all human probability their fate rested with him. If he were able +to stir the British authorities in the south to almost superhuman +efforts, a relieving force might arrive before the end of July. It was +a great undertaking he had set himself. Yet he would have attempted it +for Winifred's sake alone, and the thought of her anguish, when she +should hear that he was gone, gave him a pang that was not solaced by +the dearest honor a soldier can attain--promotion on the field. + +It was out of the question that he should return to the Residency before +he began his self-imposed mission. Already the enemy's cavalry were +swooping along both flanks of the routed troops. In a few minutes the +only available road, which crossed the Goomtee by a bridge of boats and +led through the suburbs by way of the Dilkusha, would be closed. As it +was he had to press Nejdi into a fast gallop before he could clear the +left wing of the advancing army. Then, easing the pace a little, he +swung off into a by-way, and ere long was cantering down the quiet road +that led to Rai Bareilly and thence to Allahabad. + +At seven o'clock he was ten miles from Lucknow, at eight, nearly twenty. +The quick-falling shadows warned him that if he would procure food for +Nejdi and himself he must seize the next opportunity that presented +itself, while a rest of some sort was absolutely necessary if he meant +to spare his gallant Arab for the trial of endurance that still lay +ahead. + +Though he had never before traveled that road he was acquainted with its +main features. Thirty miles from his present position was the small town +of Rai Bareilly. Fifty miles to the southeast was Partabgarh. Fifty +miles due south of Partabgarh lay Allahabad. The scheme roughly outlined +in his mind was, in the first place, to buy, borrow, or steal a native +pony which would carry him to the outskirts of Rai Bareilly before dawn. +Then remounting Nejdi he would either ride rapidly through the town, or +make a detour, whichever method seemed preferable after inquiry from +such peaceful natives as he met on the road. Four hours beyond Rai +Bareilly he would leave the main road, strike due south for the Ganges, +and follow the left bank of the river until he was opposite Allahabad. +He refused to ask himself what he would do if Allahabad were in the +hands of the rebels. + +"I shall tackle that difficulty about this hour to-morrow," he communed, +with a laugh at his own expense. "Just now, when a hundred miles of +unknown territory face me, I have enough to contend with. So, steady is +the word! good horse! _Caesarem invehis et fortunas ejus!_" + +Thus far the wayfarers encountered during his journey had treated him +civilly. The ryots, peasant proprietors of the soil, drew their rough +carts aside and salaamed as he passed. These men knew little or nothing, +as yet, of the great events that were taking place on the south and west +of the Ganges. A few educated bunniahs and zemindars,[11] who doubtless +had heard of wild doings in the cities, glanced at him curiously, and +would have asked for news if he had not invariably ridden by at a rapid +pace. + +[Footnote 11: Bunniah, grain dealer; zemindar, land-owner.] + +As it happened, the route he followed was far removed from the track +of murder and rapine that marked the early progress of the Mutiny, and +the mere sight of a British Officer, moving on with such speed and +confidence, must have set these worthy folk a-wondering. Between Rai +Bareilly and the Grand Trunk Road stood the wide barrier of the +sacred river, while the town itself must not be confused with +Bareilly--situated nearly a hundred miles north of Lucknow--which +became notorious as the headquarters of Khan Bahadur Khan, a pensioner +of the British Government, and a ruffian second only to Nana Sahib in +merciless cruelty. + +All unknown to Malcolm, and indeed little recognized as yet in India +save by a few district officials, there was a man in Rai Bareilly that +night who was destined to test the chivalry of Britain on many a +hard-fought field. Ahmed Ullah, famous in history as the Moulvie of +Fyzabad, had crossed the young officer's path once already. When Malcolm +took his untrained charger for the first wild gallop out of Meerut--the +ride that ended ignominiously in the moat of the Kings' of Delhi hunting +lodge--he nearly rode over a Mohammedan priest, as he tore along the +Grand Trunk Road some five miles south of the station. + +It would have been well for India if Nejdi's hoofs had then and there +struck the breath out of that ascetic frame. Of all the firebrands +raised by the Mutiny, the Moulvie of Fyzabad was the fiercest and most +dangerous. Early in the year he was imprisoned for preaching sedition. +Unhappily he was liberated too soon, and, his fanaticism only inflamed +the more by punishment, he went to the Punjab and sowed disaffection far +and wide by his burning zeal for the spread of Islam. By chance he +returned to Fyzabad before the outbreak at Meerut. The feeble loyalty +of the native regiments at Lucknow sufficed to keep all the borderland +of Nepaul quiet for nearly two months. But the reports brought by his +disciples warned the moulvie that the true believer's day of triumph was +approaching. Moreover, the Begum of Oudh, one of three women who were +worth as many army corps to the mutineers, was waiting for him at Rai +Bareilly, a placid eddy in the backwash of the torrents sweeping through +Upper India, and Ahmed Ullah had left Fyzabad on the evening of the 29th +to keep his tryst. + +It was, therefore, a lively brood of scorpions that Malcolm proposed to +disturb when he dismounted from a wretched tat he had purchased at his +first halt, and fed and watered Nejdi again, just as a glimmer of dawn +appeared in the east. According to his calculations he was about a mile +from Rai Bareilly. The hour was the quietest and coolest of the hot +Indian night. Some pattering drops of rain and the appearance of heavy +clouds in the southwest gave premonitions of a fresh outburst of the +monsoon. He was glad of it. Rain would freshen himself and his horse. It +made the ground soft and would retard his speed once he quitted the high +road, but these drawbacks were more than balanced by the absence of the +terrific heat of the previous day. He unstrapped his cloak and flung it +loosely over his shoulders. Then he waited, until the growing light +brought forth the untiring tillers of the fields, and he was able to +glean some sort of information as to the position of affairs in the +town. If the place were occupied by a prowling gang of rebels he might +secure a guide by payment and avoid its narrow streets altogether. At +any rate, it would be a foolish thing to dash through blindly and trust +to luck. The issues at stake were too important for that sort of +imprudent valor. His object was to reach Allahabad that night--not to +hew his way through opposing hordes and risk being cut down in the +process. + +The lowing of cattle and the soft stumbling tread of many unshod feet +told him that some one was approaching. A herd of buffaloes loomed out +of the half light. Their driver, an old man, was quite willing to talk. + +"There are no sahib-log in the town," he said, for Malcolm deemed it +advisable to begin by a question on that score. "The collector-sahib had +a camp here three weeks ago, but he went away, and that was a +misfortune, because the budmashes from Fyzabad came, and honest people +were sore pressed." + +"From Fyzabad, say'st thou? They must be cleared out. Where are they?" + +"You are too late, huzoor. They went to Cawnpore, I have heard. Men talk +of much dacoity in that district. Is that true, sahib?" + +"Yes, but fear not; it will be suppressed. I am going to Allahabad. Is +this the best road?" + +"I have never been so far, sahib, but it lies that way." + +"Is the bazaar quiet now?" + +"I have seen none save our own people these two days, yet it was said in +the bazaar last night that a Begum tarried at the rest-house." + +"A Begum. What Begum?" + +"I know not her name, huzoor, but she is one of the daughters of the +King of Oudh." + +Malcolm was relieved to hear this. The wild notion had seized him that +the Princess Roshinara, a stormy petrel of political affairs just then, +might have drifted to Rai Bareilly by some evil chance. + +"You see this pony?" he said. "Take him. He is yours. I have no further +use for him. Are you sure that there are none to dispute my passage +through the town?" + +The old peasant was so taken aback by the gift that he could scarce +speak intelligibly, but he assured the Presence that at such an hour +none would interfere with him. + +Malcolm decided to risk it. He mounted and rode forward at a sharp trot. +Of course he had not been able to adopt any kind of disguise. While +doing duty at the Residency he had thrown aside the turban reft from +Abdul Huq and he now wore the peaked shako, with white puggaree, +affected by junior staff officers at that period. His long military +cloak, steel scabbard, sabertache and Wellington boots, proclaimed his +profession, while his blue riding-coat and cross-belts were visible in +front, as he meant to have his arms free in case the necessity arose to +use sword or pistol. + +And he rode thus into Rai Bareilly, watchful, determined, ready for any +emergency. So boldly did he advance that he darted past half a dozen men +whose special duty it was to stop and question all travelers. They were +stationed on the flat roofs of two houses, one on each side of the way, +and a rope was stretched across the road in readiness to drop and hinder +the progress of any one who did not halt when summoned. It was a simple +device. It had not been seen by the man who drove the buffaloes, and by +reason of Malcolm's choice of the turf by the side of the road as the +best place for Nejdi, it chanced to dangle high enough to permit their +passing beneath. + +The sentries, though caught napping, tried to make amends for their +carelessness. In the growing light one of them saw Malcolm's +accouterments and he yelled loudly: + +"Ohe, bhai, look out for the Feringhi!" + +Frank, unfortunately, had not noticed the rope. But he heard the cry and +understood that the "brother" to whom it was addressed would probably be +discovered at the end of the short street. He shook Nejdi into a canter, +drew his sword, and looked keenly ahead for the first sign of those who +would bar his path. + +Dawn was peeping grayly over the horizon, and Ahmed Ullah, moulvie and +interpreter of the Koran, standing in an open courtyard, was engaged in +the third of the day's prayers, of which the first was intoned soon +after sunset the previous evening. He was going through the Reka with +military precision, and as luck would have it, the Kibleh, or direction +of Mecca, brought his fierce gaze to the road along which Malcolm was +galloping. Never did priest become warrior more speedily than Ahmed +Ullah when that warning shout rang out, and he discovered that a British +officer was riding at top speed through the quiet bazaar. Assuming that +this unexpected apparition betokened the arrival of a punitive +detachment, he uttered a loud cry, leaped to the gates of the courtyard +and closed them. + +Malcolm, of course, saw him and regarded his action as that of a +frightened man, who would be only too glad when he could resume his +devotions in peace. Ahmed Ullah, soon to become a claimant of sovereign +power as "King of Hindustan," was not a likely person to let a prize +slip through his fingers thus easily. Keeping up an ululating clamor of +commands, he ran to the roof of the dwelling, snatched up a musket and +took steady aim. By this time Malcolm was beyond the gate and thought +himself safe. Then he saw a rope drawn breast-high across the narrow +street, and gesticulating natives, variously armed, leaning over the +parapets on either hand. He had to decide in the twinkling of an eye +whether to go on or turn back. Probably his retreat would be cut off by +some similar device, so the bolder expedient of an advance offered the +better chance. An incomparable horseman, mounted on an absolutely +trustworthy horse, he lay well forward on Nejdi's neck, resolving to try +and pick up the slack of the rope on his sword and lift it out of the +way. To endeavor to cut through such an obstacle would undoubtedly have +brought about a disaster. It would yield, and the keenest blade might +fail to sever it completely, while any slackening of pace would enable +the hostile guard to shoot him at point-blank range. + +These considerations passed through his mind while Nejdi was covering +some fifty yards. To disconcert the enemy, who were not sepoys and +whose guns were mostly antiquated weapons of the match-lock type, he +pulled out a revolver and fired twice. Then he leaned forward, with +right arm thrown well in front and the point of his sword three feet +beyond Nejdi's head. At that instant, when Frank was unconsciously +offering a bad target, the moulvie fired. The bullet plowed through the +Englishman's right forearm, struck the hilt of the sword and knocked the +weapon out of his hand. Exactly what happened next he never knew. From +the nature of his own bruises afterwards and the manner in which he was +jerked backwards from the saddle, he believed that the rope missed Nejdi +altogether, but caught him by the left shoulder. The height of a horse +extended at the gallop is surprisingly low as compared with the height +of the same animal standing or walking. There was even a remote +possibility that the rope would strike the Arab's forehead and bound +clear of his rider. But that was not to be. Here was Frank hurled to the +roadway, and striving madly to resist the treble shock of his wound, of +the blow dealt by the rope, and of the fall, while Nejdi was tearing +away through Rai Bareilly as though all the djinns of his native desert +were pursuing him. + +Though Malcolm's torn arm was bleeding copiously, and he was stunned by +being thrown so violently flat on his back, no bones were broken. His +rage at the trick fate had played him, the overwhelming bitterness of +another and most lamentable failure, enabled him to struggle to his feet +and empty at his assailants the remaining chambers of the revolver which +was still tightly clutched in his left hand. He missed, luckily, or they +would have butchered him forthwith. In another minute he was standing +before Moulvie Ahmed Ullah, and that earnest advocate of militant Islam +was plying him with mocking questions. + +"Whither so fast, Feringhi? Dost thou run from death, or ride to seek +it? Mayhap thou comest from Lucknow. If so, what news? And where are the +papers thou art carrying?" + +Frank's strength was failing him. To the weakness resulting from loss +of blood was added the knowledge that this time he was trapped without +hope of escape. The magnificent display of self-command entailed by the +effort to rise and face his foes in a last defiance could not endure +much longer. He knew it was near the end when he had difficulty in +finding the necessary words in Urdu. But he spoke, slowly and firmly, +compelling his unwilling brain to form the sentences. + +"I have no papers, and if I had, who are you that demand them?" he said. +"I am an officer of the Company, and I call on all honest and loyal men +to help me in my duty. I promise--to those who assist me to reach +Allahabad--that they will be--pardoned for any past offenses--and well +rewarded...." + +The room swam around him and the grim-visaged moullah became a grotesque +being, with dragon's eyes and a turban like a cloud. Yet he kept on, +hoping against imminent death itself that his words would reach some +willing ear. + +"Any man--who tells General Neill-sahib--at Allahabad--that +help is wanted--at Lucknow--will be made rich.... Help--at +Lucknow--immediately.... I, Malcolm-sahib--of the 3d Cavalry--say...." + +He collapsed in the grasp of the men who were holding him. + +"Thou has said enough, dog of a Nazarene. Take him without and hang +him," growled Ahmed Ullah. + +"Nay," cried a woman's voice from behind a straw portiere that closed +the arched veranda of the house. "Thou art too ready with thy sentences, +moulvie. Rather let us bind his wounds and give him food and drink. Then +he will recover, and tell us what we want to know." + +"He hath told us already, Princess," said the other, his harsh accents +sounding more like the snarl of a wolf than a human voice. "He comes +from Lucknow and he seeks succor from Allahabad. That means--" + +"It means that he can be hanged as easily at eventide as at daybreak, +and we shall surely learn the truth, as such men do not breathe lies." + +"He will not speak, Princess." + +"Leave that to me. If I fail, I hand him over to thee forthwith. Let him +be brought within and tended, and let some ride after his horse, as +there may be letters in the wallets. I have spoken, Ahmed Ullah. See +that I am obeyed." + +The moulvie said no word. He went back to his praying mat and bent again +toward the west, where the Holy Kaaba enshrines the ruby sent down from +heaven. But though his lips muttered the rubric of the Koran, his heart +whispered other things, and chief among them was the vow that ere many +days be passed he would so contrive affairs that no woman's whim should +thwart his judgment. + +So the clouded day broke sullenly, with gusts of warm rain and red +gleams of a sun striving to disperse the mists. And the earth soaked and +steamed and threw off fever-laden vapors as she nursed the grain to life +and bade the arid plain clothe itself in summer greenery. It was a bad +day to lie wounded and ill and a prisoner, and despite the cooling +showers, it was a hot day to ride far and fast. + +Hence it was long past noon when a servant announced to the Begum that +the sahib--for thus the man described Malcolm until sharply admonished +to learn the new order of speech--the Nazarene, then, was somewhat +recovered from his faintness. And about the same hour, when a subadar of +the 7th Cavalry clattered into Rai Bareilly and was told that a certain +Feringhi whom he sought was safely laid by the heels there, so sultry +was the atmosphere that he seemed to be quite glad of the news. + +"Shabash!" he cried, as he dismounted. "May I never drink at the White +Pond of the Prophet if that be not good hearing! So you have caught him, +brethren! Wao, wao! you have done a great thing. He is not killed?--No? +That is well, for he is sorely wanted at Lucknow. Tie him tightly, +though. He is a fox in guile, and might give me the slip again. May his +bones bleach in an infidel's grave!--I have hunted him fifty miles, yet +scarce a man I met had seen him!" + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WHEREIN FATE PLAYS TRICKS WITH MALCOLM + + +If it is difficult for the present generation to understand the manners +and ways of its immediate forbears, how much more difficult to ask it to +appreciate the extraordinary features of the siege of Lucknow! Let the +reader who knows London imagine some parish in the heart of the city +barricading itself behind a mud wall against its neighbors: let him +garrison this flimsy fortress with sixteen hundred and ninety-two +combatants, of whom a large number were men of an inferior race and of +doubtful loyalty to those for whom they were fighting, while scores of +the Europeans were infirm pensioners: let him cram the rest of the +available shelter with women and children: let him picture the network +of narrow streets, tall houses and a few open spaces--often separated +from the enemy only by the width of a lane--as being subjected to +interminable bombardment at point-blank range, and he will have a clear +notion of some, at least, of the conditions which obtained in Lucknow +when that gloomy July 1st carried on the murderous work begun on the +previous evening. + +The Residency itself was the only strong building in an enclosure seven +hundred yards long and four hundred yards wide, though by no means +so large in area as these figures suggest. The whole position was +surrounded by an adobe wall and ditch, strengthened at intervals by a +gate or a stouter embrasure for a gun. The other structures, such as +the Banqueting Hall, which was converted into a hospital, the Treasury, +the Brigade Mess, the Begum Kotee, the Barracks, and a few nondescript +houses and offices, were utterly unsuited for defense against musketry +alone. As to their capacity to resist artillery fire, that was a grim +jest with the inmates, who dreaded the fallen masonry as much as the +rebel shells. + +Even the Residency was forced to use its underground rooms for the +protection of the greater part of the women and children, while the +remaining buildings, except the Begum Kotee, which was comparatively +sheltered on all sides, were so exposed to the enemy's guns that when +some sort of clearance was made in October, four hundred and thirty-five +cannon-balls were taken out of the Brigade Mess alone. + +Before the siege commenced the British also occupied a strong palace +called the Muchee Bhowun, standing outside the entrenchment and +commanding the stone bridge across the river Goomtee. A few hours' +experience revealed the deadly peril to which its small garrison was +exposed, and Lawrence decided at all costs to abandon it. A rude +semaphore was erected on the roof of the Residency, and on the first +morning of the siege, three officers signaled to the commandant of the +outlying fort, Colonel Palmer, that he was to spike his guns, blow up +the building and bring his men into the main position. The three did +their signaling under a heavy fire, but they were understood. Happily, +the prospect of loot in the city drew off thousands of the rebels after +sunset, and Colonel Palmer marched out quietly at midnight. A few +minutes later an appalling explosion shook every house in Lucknow. The +Muchee Bhowun, with its immense stores, had been blown to the sky. + +That same day Lawrence received what the Celtic soldiers among the +garrison regarded as a warning of his approaching end. He was working in +his room with his secretary when a shell crashed through the wall and +burst at the feet of the two men. Neither was injured, but Captain +Wilson, one of his staff-officers, begged the Chief to remove his office +to a less exposed place. + +"Nothing of the kind," said Sir Henry, cheerfully. "The sepoys don't +possess an artilleryman good enough to throw a second shell into the +same spot." + +"It will please all of us if you give in on this point, sir," persisted +Wilson. + +"Oh, well, if you put it that way, I will turn out to-morrow," was the +smiling answer. + +Next morning at eight o'clock, after a round of inspection, the general, +worn out by anxiety and want of sleep, threw himself on a bed in a +corner of the room. + +Wilson came in. + +"Don't forget your promise, sir," he said. + +"I have not forgotten, but I am too tired to move now. Give me another +hour or two." + +Lawrence went on to explain some orders to his aide. While they were +talking another shell entered the small apartment, exploded, and filled +the air with dust and stifling fumes. Wilson's ears were stunned by the +noise, but he cried out twice: + +"Sir Henry, are you hurt?" + +Lawrence murmured something, and Wilson rushed to his side. The coverlet +of the bed was crimson with blood. Some men of the 32d ran in and +carried their beloved leader to another room. Then a surgeon came and +pronounced the wound to be mortal. On the morning of the 4th Lawrence +died. He was conscious to the last, and passed his final hours planning +and contriving and making arrangements for the continuance of the +defense. + +"Never surrender!" was his dying injunction. Shot and shell battered +unceasingly against the walls of Dr. Fayrer's house in which he lay +dying, but their terrors never shook that stout heart, and he died as he +lived, a splendid example of an officer and a gentleman, a type of all +that is best and noblest in the British character. + +And Death, who did not spare the Chief, sought lowlier victims. During +the first week of the siege the average number killed daily was twenty. +Even when the troops learnt to avoid the exposed places, and began to +practise the little tricks and artifices that tempt an enemy to reveal +his whereabouts to his own undoing, the daily death-roll was ten for +more than a month. + +There was no real safety anywhere. Even in the Begum Kotee, where +Winifred and the other ladies of the garrison were lodged, some of them +were hit. Twice ere the end of July Winifred awoke in the morning to +find bullets on the floor and the mortar of the wall broken within a few +inches of her head. That she slept soundly under such conditions is a +remarkable tribute to human nature's knack of adapting itself to +circumstances. After a few days of excessive nervousness the most +timorous among the women were heard to complain of the monotony of +existence! + +And two amazing facts stand out from the record of guard-mounting, +cartridge-making, cooking, cleaning, and the rest of the every-day +doings inseparable from life even in a siege. Although the rebels now +numbered at least twenty thousand men, including six thousand trained +soldiers, they were long in hardening their hearts to attempt that +escalade which, if undertaken on the last day of June, could scarcely +have failed to be successful. They were not cowards. They gave proof in +plenty of their courage and fighting stamina. Yet they cringed before +men whom they had learnt to regard as the dominant race. The other +equally surprising element in the situation was the readiness of the +garrison, doomed by all the laws of war to early extinction, to extract +humor out of its forlorn predicament. + +The most dangerous post in the entrenchment was the Cawnpore Battery. +It was commanded by a building known as Johannes' House, whence an +African negro, christened "Bob the Nailer" by the wits of the 32d, +picked off dozens of the defenders during the opening days of the siege. +What quarrel this stranger in a strange land had with the English no one +knows, but the defenders were well aware of his identity, and annoyed +him by exhibiting a most unflattering effigy. Needless to say, the +whites of his eyes and his woolly hair were reproduced with marked +effect, and "Bob the Nailer" gave added testimony of his skill with a +rifle by shooting out both eyes in the dummy figure. + +Winifred had heard of this man. Once she actually saw him while she was +peeping through a forbidden casement. Knowing the wholesale destruction +of her fellow-countrymen with which he was credited, she had it in her +heart to wish that she held a gun at that moment, and she would surely +have done her best to kill him. + +He disappeared and she turned away with a sigh, to meet her uncle +hastening towards her. + +"Ah, Winifred," he cried, "what were you doing there? Looking out, I am +certain. Have you forgotten the punishment inflicted on Lot's wife when +she would not obey orders?" + +"I have just had a glimpse of that dreadful negro in Johannes' House," +she said. + +Mr. Mayne threw down a bundle of clothes he was carrying. He unslung his +rifle. His face, tanned by exposure to sun and rain, lost some of its +brick-red color. + +"Are you sure?" he whispered, as if their voices might betray them. Like +every other man in the garrison he longed to check the career of "Bob +the Nailer." + +"It is too late," said the girl. "He was visible only for an instant. +Look! I saw him at that window." + +She partly opened the wooden shutter again and pointed to an upper story +of the opposite building. Almost instantly a bullet imbedded itself in +the solid planks. Some watcher had noted the opportunity and taken it. +Winifred coolly closed the casement and adjusted its cross-bar. + +"Perhaps it is just as well you missed the chance," she said. "You might +have been shot yourself while you were taking aim." + +"And what about you, my lady?" + +"I sha'n't offend again, uncle, dear. I really could not tell you why I +looked out just now. Things were quiet, I suppose. And I forgot that the +opening of a window would attract attention. But why in the world are +you bringing me portions of Mr. Malcolm's uniform? That is what you have +in the bundle, is it not?" + +"Yes. The three men who shared his room are dead, and the place is +wanted as an extra ward. I happened to hear of it, so I have rescued his +belongings." + +"Do you--do you think he will ever claim them, or that we shall live to +safeguard them?" + +"My dear one, that is as Providence directs. It is something to be +thankful for that we are alive and uninjured. And that reminds me. They +need a lot of bandages in the hospital. Will you tear Malcolm's linen +into strips? I will come for them after the last post."[12] + +[Footnote 12: Non-military readers may need to be reminded that the +"last post" is a bugle-call which signifies the close of the day. It is +usually succeeded by "Lights out."] + +He hurried away, leaving the odd collection of garments with her. The +clothes were her lover's parade uniform, which Malcolm had carried from +Meerut in a valise strapped behind the saddle. The other articles were +purchased in Lucknow and had never been worn. In comparison with the +smart full-dress kit of a cavalry officer and the spotless linen, a +soiled and mud-spattered turban looked singularly out of place. It was +as though some tatterdemalion had thrust himself into a gathering of +dandies. + +Being a woman, Winifred gave no heed to the fact that the metal badge on +the crossed folds was not that worn by an officer, nor did she observe +that it carried the crest of the 2d Cavalry, whereas Malcolm's regiment +was the 3d. But, being also a very thrifty and industrious little +person, she decided to untie the turban, wash it, and use its many yards +of fine muslin for the manufacture of lint. + +The folds of a turban are usually kept in position by pins, but when she +came to examine this one she discovered that it was tied with whip-cord. +Her knowledge of native headgear was not extensive, so this measure of +extra security did not surprise her. A pair of scissors soon overcame +the difficulty; she shook out the neat folds, and a pearl necklace and a +piece of paper fell to the floor. + +She was alone in her room at the moment. No one heard her cry of +surprise, almost of terror. One glance at the glistening pearls told her +that they were of exceeding value. They ranged from the size of a small +pea to that of a large marble; their white sheen and velvet purity +bespoke rareness and skilled selection. The setting alone would vouch +for their quality. Each pearl was secured to its neighbor by clasps and +links of gold, while a brooch-like fastening in front was studded with +fine diamonds. Winifred sank to her knees. She picked up this remarkable +ornament as gingerly as if she were handling a dead snake. In the vivid +light the pearls shimmered with wonderful and ever-changing tints. They +seemed to whisper of love, and hate--of all the passions that stir heart +and brain into frenzy--and through a mist of fear and awed questioning +came a doubt, a suspicion, a searching of her soul as she recalled +certain things which the thrilling events of her recent life had dulled +almost to extinction. + +Her uncle had told her of the Princess Roshinara's words to Malcolm on +that memorable night of May 10, when he rode out from Meerut to help +them. At the time, perhaps, a little pang of jealousy made its presence +felt, for no woman can bear to hear of another woman's overtures to her +lover. The meeting at Bithoor helped to dispel that half-formed +illusion, and she had not troubled since to ask herself why the Princess +Roshinara was so ready to help Malcolm to escape. She never dreamed that +she herself was a pawn in the game that was intended to bring Nana Sahib +to Delhi. But now, with this royal trinket glittering in her hands, she +could hardly fail to connect it with the only Indian princess of whom +she had any knowledge, and the torturing fact was seemingly undeniable +that Malcolm had this priceless necklace in his possession without +telling her of its existence. Certainly he had chosen a singular +hiding-place, and never did man treat such a treasure with such apparent +carelessness. But--there it was. The studied simplicity of its +concealment had been effective. She had heard, long since, how he parted +from Lawrence on the Chinhut road. Since that hour there was no possible +means of communicating with Lucknow, even though he had reached +Allahabad safely. + +And he had never told her a word about it. It was that that rankled. +Poor Winifred rose from her knees in a mood perilously akin to her +hatred of the negro who dealt death or disablement to her friends of the +garrison, but, this time, it was a woman, not a man, whom she regarded +as the enemy. + +Then, in a bitter temper, she stooped again to rescue the bit of +discolored paper that had fallen with the pearls. Her anger was not +lessened by finding that it was covered with Hindustani characters. +They, of course, offered her no clue to the solution of the mystery +that was wringing her heartstrings. If anything, the illegible scrawl +only added to her distress. The document was something unknown; +therefore, it lent itself to distrust. + +At any rate, the turban was destined not to be shredded into lint that +day. She busied herself with tearing up the rest of the linen. When +night came, and Mr. Mayne could leave his post, she showed him the paper +and asked him to translate it. + +He was a good Eastern scholar, but the dull rays of a small oil lamp +were not helpful in a task always difficult to English eyes. He bent his +brows over the script and began to decipher some of the words. + +"'Malcolm-sahib ... the Company's 3d Regiment of Horse ... heaven-born +Princess Roshinara Begum....' Where in the world did you get this, +Winifred, and how did it come into your possession?" he said. + +"It was in Mr. Malcolm's turban--the one you brought me to-day from his +quarters." + +"In his turban? Do you mean that it was hidden there?" + +"Yes, something of the kind." + +Mayne examined the paper again. + +"That is odd," he muttered after a pause. + +"But what does the writing mean? You say it mentions his name and that +of the Princess Roshinara? Surely it has some definite significance?" + +The Commissioner was so taken up with the effort to give each spidery +curve and series of distinguishing dots and vowel marks their proper +bearing in the text that he did not catch the note of disdain in his +niece's voice. + +"I have it now," he said, peering at the document while he held it close +to the lamp. "It is a sort of pass. It declares that Mr. Malcolm is a +friend of the Begum and gives him safe conduct if he visits Delhi within +three days of the date named here, but I cannot tell when that would be, +until I consult a native calendar. It is signed by Bahadur Shah and is +altogether a somewhat curious thing to be in Malcolm's possession. Is +that all you know of it--merely that it was stuck in a fold of his +turban?" + +"This accompanied it," said Winifred, with a restraint that might have +warned her hearer of the passion it strove to conceal. But Mayne was +deaf to Winifred's coldness. If he was startled before, he was +positively amazed when she produced the necklace. + +He took it, appraised its value silently, and scrutinized the +workmanship in the gold links. + +"Made in Delhi," he half whispered. "A wonderful thing, probably worth +two lakhs of rupees,[13] or even more. It is old, too. The craftsman who +fashioned this clasp is not to be found nowadays. Why, it may have been +worn by Nurmahal herself! Each of its fifty pearls could supply a +chapter of a romance. And you found it, together with this safe-conduct, +in Malcolm's turban?" + +[Footnote 13: At that time, $100,000.] + +"Yes, uncle. Do you think I would speak carelessly of such a precious +object? When one has discovered a treasure it is a trait of human nature +to note pretty closely the place where it came to light." + +Mayne was yet too much taken up with puzzling side-issues to pay heed to +Winifred's demeanor. He remembered the extraordinary proposal made by +Roshinara to Malcolm ere she drove away to Delhi from her father's +hunting lodge. Could it be possible that his young friend had met the +princess on other occasions than that which Malcolm laughingly described +as the lunging of Nejdi and the plunging of his master? It occurred to +him now, with a certain chilling misgiving, that he had himself broken +in with a bewildered exclamation when Frank seemed to regard the +Princess's offer of employment in her service as worthy of serious +thought. There were other aspects of the affair, aspects so sinister +that he almost refused to harbor them. Rather to gain time than with any +definite motive, he stooped over the pass again, meaning to read it word +for word. + +"Of course you have not forgotten, uncle, that Mr. Malcolm took us into +his confidence so far as to tell us of the curious letter that reached +him after the second battle outside Delhi?" said Winifred. "It saved him +at Bithoor when the men from Cawnpore meant to hang him, and, seeing +that he had the one article in his possession, it is passing strange +that he should have omitted to mention the other--to me." + +Then the man knew what it all meant to the girl. He placed his arm +around her neck and drew her towards him. + +"My poor Winifred!" he murmured, "you might at least have been spared +such a revelation at this moment." + +His sympathy broke down her pride. She sobbed as though her heart would +yield beneath the strain. For a little while there was no sound in the +room but Winifred's plaints, while ever and anon the walls shook with +the crash of the cannonade and the bursting of shells. + + * * * * * + +Ahmed Ullah, Moulvie of Fyzabad, had a quick ear for the arrival of the +native officer of cavalry from Lucknow. + +"Peace be with thee, brother!" said he, after a shrewd glance at the +travel-worn and blood-stained man and horse. "Thou has ridden far and +fast. What news hast thou of the Jehad,[14] and how fares it at +Lucknow?" + +[Footnote 14: "Religious war."] + +"With thee be peace!" was the reply. "We fought the Nazarenes yesterday +at a place called Chinhut, and sent hundreds of the infidel dogs to the +fifth circle of Jehannum. The few who escaped our swords are penned up +in the Residency, and its walls are now crumbling before our guns. By +the tomb of Nizam-ud-din, the unbelievers must have fallen ere the +present hour." + +The moulvie's wicked eyes sparkled. + +"Praise be to Allah and his Prophet forever!" he cried. "How came this +thing to pass?" + +"My regiment took the lead," said the rissaldar, proudly. "We had long +chafed under the commands of the huzoors. At last we rose and made short +work of our officers. You see here--" and he touched a rent in his right +side, "where one of them tried to stop the thrust that ended him. But I +clave him to the chin, the swine-eater, and when Larrence-sahib attacked +us at Chinhut we chased him over the Canal and through the streets." + +"Wao! wao! This is good hearing! Wast thou sent by some of the faithful +to summon me, brother?" + +"To summon thee and all true believers to the green standard. Yet had I +one other object in riding to Rai Bareilly. A certain Nazarene, Malcolm +by name, an officer of the 3d Cavalry, was bidden by Larrence to make +for Allahabad and seek help. The story runs that the Nazarenes are +mustering there for a last stand ere we drive them into the sea. This +Malcolm-sahib--" + +"Enough!" said the moulvie, fiercely, for his self-love was wounded at +learning that the rebel messenger classed him with the mob. "We have him +here. He is in safe keeping when he is in the hands of Ahmed Ullah!" + +"What!" exclaimed the newcomer with a mighty oath. "Are you the saintly +Moulvie of Fyzabad?" + +"Whom else, then, did you expect to find?" + +"You, indeed, O revered one. But not here. My orders were, once I had +secured the Nazarene, to send urgently to Fyzabad and bid you hurry to +Lucknow with all speed." + +"Ha! Say'st thou, friend. Who gave thee this message?" + +"One whom thou wilt surely listen to. Yet these things are not for every +man to hear. We must speak of them apart." + +The moulvie was appeased. Nay, more, his ambition was fired. + +"Come with me into the house. You are in need of food and rest. Come! We +can talk while you eat." + +He drew nearer, but a woman's voice was raised from behind a screen in +one of the rooms. + +"Tarry yet a minute, friend. I would learn more of events in Lucknow. +Tell us more fully what has taken place there." + +"The Begum of Oudh must be obeyed," said Ahmed Ullah with a warning +glance at the other. He was met with a villainous and intriguing look +that would have satisfied Machiavelli, but the officer bowed low before +the screen. + +"I am, indeed, honored to be the bearer of good tidings to royal ears," +said he. "Doubtless I should have been entrusted with letters for your +highness were not the city in some confusion owing to the fighting." + +"Who commands our troops?" came the sharp demand. + +"At present, your highness, the Nawab of Rampur represents the King of +Oudh." + +"The Nawab of Rampur! That cannot be tolerated. Ahmed Ullah!" + +"I am here," growled the moulvie, smiling sourly. + +"We must depart within the hour. Let my litter be prepared, and send men +on horseback to provide relays of carriers every ten miles. Delay not. +The matter presses." + +There could be no mistaking the agitation of the hidden speaker. That +an admitted rival of her father's dynasty should be even the nominal +leader of the revolt was not to be endured. The mere suggestion of +such a thing was gall and wormwood. None realized better than this +arch-priestess of cabal that a predominating influence gained at the +outset of a new regime might never be weakened by those who were shut +out by circumstances from a share in the control of events. Even the +fanatical moulvie gasped at this intelligence, though his shrewd wit +taught him that the rissaldar had not exchanged glances with him +without good reason. + +"Come, then," said he, "and eat. I have much occupation, and it will +free thy hands if I see to the hanging of the Feringhi forthwith." + +"Nay, that cannot be," was the cool reply, as the two entered the +building. "I would not have ridden so hard through the night for the +mere stringing up of one Nazarene. By the holy Kaaba, we gave dozens +of them a speedier death yesterday." + +"What other errand hast thou? The matter touches only the Nazarene's +attempt to reach Allahabad, I suppose?" + +"That is a small thing. Our brothers at Cawnpore may have secured +Allahabad and other towns in the Doab long ere to-day. This Frank comes +back with me to Lucknow. If I bring him alive I earn a jaghir,[15] if +dead, only a few gold mohurs." + +[Footnote 15: An estate.] + +"Thy words are strange, brother." + +"Not so strange as the need that this Feringhi should live till he +reaches Lucknow. He hath in his keeping certain papers that concern +the Roshinara Begum of Delhi, and he must be made to confess their +whereabouts. So far as that goes, what is the difference between a +tree in Rai Bareilly and a tree in Lucknow?" + +"True, if the affair presses. Nevertheless, to those who follow me, I +may have the bestowing of many jaghirs." + +"I will follow thee with all haste, O holy one," was the answer, "but +a field in a known village is larger than a township in an unknown +kingdom. Let me secure this jaghir first, O worthy of honor, and I shall +come quickly to thee for the others." + +"How came it that Nawab of Rampur assumed the leadership?" inquired +Ahmed Ullah, his mind reverting to the graver topic of the rebellion. + +The other scowled sarcastically. + +"He is of no account," he muttered. "Was I mistaken in thinking that +thou didst not want all my budget opened for a woman? He who gave me a +message for thee was the moullah who dwells near the Imambara. Dost thou +not know him? Ghazi-ud-din. _He_ sent me. 'Tell the Moulvie of Fyzabad +that he is wanted--he will understand,' said he. And now, when I have +eaten, lead me to the Feringhi. Leave him to me. Within two days I shall +have more news for thee." + +The name of Ghazi-ud-din, a firebrand of the front rank in Lucknow, +proved to Ahmed Ullah that his opportunity had come. He gave orders that +the wants of the cavalry officer and his horse were to be attended to, +while he himself bustled off to prepare for an immediate journey. + +When the Begum and the moulvie departed for Lucknow they were +accompanied by nearly the whole of their retinue. Two men were left +to assist the rissaldar in taking care of the prisoner, and these two +vowed by the Prophet that they had never met such a swashbuckler as the +stranger, for he used strange oaths that delighted them and told stories +of the sacking of Lucknow that made them tingle with envy. + +Oddly enough, he was very anxious that the Nazarene's horse should be +recovered, and was so pleased to hear that Nejdi was caught in a field +on the outskirts of the town and brought in during the afternoon that +he promised his assistants a handful of gold mohurs apiece--when they +reached Lucknow. + +Once, ere sunset, he visited the prisoner and cursed him with a fluency +that caused all listeners to own that the warriors of the 7th Cavalry +must, indeed, be fine fellows. + +At last, when Frank was led forth and helped into the saddle, his +guardian's flow of humorous invective reached heights that pleased the +villagers immensely. The Nazarene's hands were tied behind him, and the +gallant rissaldar, holding the Arab's reins, rode by his side. The +moulvie's men followed, and in this guise the quartette quitted Rai +Bareilly for the north. + +They were about a mile on their way and the sun was nearing the horizon, +when the native officer bade his escort halt. + +"Bones of Mahomet!" he cried, "what am I thinking of? My horse has done +fifty miles in twenty-four hours, and the Feringhi's probably more than +that. Hath not the moulvie friends in Rai Bareilly who will lend us a +spare pair?" + +Ahmed Ullah's retainers hazarded the opinion that their master's +presence might be necessary ere friendship stood such a strain. + +"Then why not make the Nazarene pay for his journey?" said the rissaldar +with grim humor. + +He showed skill as a cut-purse in going straight to an inner pocket +where Malcolm carried some small store of money. Taking ten gold mohurs, +he told the men to hasten back to the village and purchase a couple of +strong ponies. + +"Nay," said he, when they made to ride off. "You must go afoot, else I +may never again see you or the tats. I will abide here till you return. +See that you lose no time, but if darkness falls speedily I will await +you in the next village." + +Not daring to argue with this truculent-looking bravo, the men obeyed. +Already it was dusk and daylight would soon fail. No sooner had they +disappeared round the first bend in the road than the rissaldar, +unfastening Malcolm's bonds the while, said with a strange humility: + +"It was easier done than I expected, sahib, but I guessed that my story +about the Nawab of Rampur would send Moulvie and Begum packing. Now we +are free, and we have four horses. Whither shall we go? But, if it be +north, south, east, or west, let us leave the main road, for messengers +may meet the moulvie and that would make him suspicious." + +"Thy counsel is better than mine, good friend," was Frank's answer. "I +am yet dazed with thy success, and my only word is--to Allahabad." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A DAY'S ADVENTURES + + +Though his arm was stiff and painful, the rough bandaging it had +received and the coarse food given him in sufficient quantity at Rai +Bareilly, had partly restored Malcolm's strength. Nevertheless he +thought his mind was failing when, in the dim light of the inner room +in which he was confined, he saw Chumru standing before him. + +His servant's warlike attire was sufficiently bewildering, and the +sonorous objurgations with which he was greeted were not calculated to +dispel the cloud over his wits, but a whispered sentence gave hope, and +hope is a wonderful restorative. + +"Pretend not to know me, sahib, and all will be well," said his +unexpected ally, and, from that instant until they stood together on the +Lucknow road, Malcolm had guarded tongue and eye in the firm faith that +Chumru would save him. + +He was not mistaken. The adroit Mohammedan knew better than to trust his +sahib and himself too long on the highway. + +"They will surely make search for us, huzoor," he said as they headed +across country towards a distant ridge, thickly coated with trees. "The +Begum and Ahmed Ullah met here for a purpose, and their friends will not +fail to tell them of the trouble in Lucknow. I have been shaking in my +boots all day, for 'tis ill resting in the jungle when tigers are loose, +but I knew you could not ride in the sun, and I saw no other way of +getting rid of the moulvie's men than that of sending them back in the +dark." + +"It seems to me," said Malcolm, with a weak laugh, "that you would not +have scrupled to knock both of them on the head if necessary." + +"No, sahib, they are my kin. He who wore this uniform was a Brahmin, and +that makes all the difference. Brother does not slay brother unless +there be a woman in dispute." + +"When did you leave the Residency?" + +"About nine o'clock last night, sahib." + +"Did you see the miss-sahib before you came away?" + +"It was she who told me whither you had gone, sahib." + +"Ah, she knew, then? Did she say aught--send any message?" + +"Only that you would be certain to need my help, sahib." + +That puzzled Frank. Winifred, of course, had said nothing of the kind, +but Chumru assumed that she understood him, so his misrepresentation was +quite honest. + +A level path now enabled them to canter, and they reached the first belt +of trees ten minutes after the moulvie's men set out for Rai Bareilly. +Luck, which was befriending Chumru that day, must have made possible +that burst of speed at the right moment. They were discussing their +plans in the gloom of a grove of giant pipals when the clatter of horses +hard ridden came from the road they had just quitted. + +There could be no doubting the errand that brought a cavalcade thus +furiously from the direction of Lucknow. It was so near a thing that for +a little while they could not be certain they had escaped unseen. But +the riders whirled along towards Rai Bareilly, and in another quarter of +an hour the night would be their best guardian. + +"That settles it," said Malcolm, in whose veins the blood was now +coursing with its normal vitality, though, for the same reason, his +right forearm ached abominably. "It would be folly to attempt the road +again. Let us make for the river. We must find a boat there, and get men +to take us to Allahabad, either by hire or force." + +"How far is it to the river, sahib?" + +"About twenty-five miles." + +"Praise be to Allah! That is better than seventy, for my feet are weary +of that accursed Brahmin's boots." + +They stumbled on, leading the horses, until the first dark hour made +progress impossible. Then, when the evening mists melted and the stars +gave a faint light, they resumed the march, for every mile gained now +was worth five at dawn if perchance their hunters thought of making a +circular sweep of the country in the neighborhood of Rai Bareilly. + +It was a glorious night. The rain of the preceding day had freshened the +air, and towards midnight the moon sailed into the blue arc overhead, so +they were able to mount again and travel at a faster pace. Twice they +were warned by the barking of dogs of the proximity of small villages. +They gave these places a wide berth, since there was no knowing what hap +might bring a ryot who had seen them into communication with the +moulvie's followers. + +Each hamlet marked the center of a cultivated area. They could +distinguish the jungle from the arable land almost by the animals they +disturbed. A gray wolf, skulking through the sparsely wooded waste, +would be succeeded by a herd of timid deer. Then a sounder of pigs, +headed by a ten-inch tusker, would scamper out of the border crop, while +a pack of jackals, rending the calm night with their maniac yelping, +would start every dog within a mile into a frenzy of hoarse barking. +Sometimes a fox slunk across their path. Out of many a tuft they drove a +startled hare. In the dense undergrowth hummed and rustled a hidden life +of greater mystery. + +Where water lodged after the rain there were countless millions of +frogs, croaking in harsh chorus, and being ceaselessly hunted by the +snakes which the monsoon had driven from their nooks and crannies in the +rocks. On such a night all India seems to be dead as a land but +tremendously alive as a storehouse of insects, animals, and reptiles. +Even the air has its strange denizens in the guise of huge beetles and +vampire-winged flying foxes. And that is why men call it the unchanging +East. Civilization has made but few marks on its far-flung plains. Its +peoples are either nomads or dwell in huts of mud and straw and scratch +the earth to grow their crops as their forbears have done since the dawn +of history. + +When the amber and rose tints of dawn gave distance to the horizon the +fugitives estimated that they had traversed some fifteen miles. Malcolm +was ready to drop with fatigue. He was wounded; he had not slept during +two nights; he had fought in a lost battle and ridden sixty-five miles, +without counting his exertions before going to the field of Chinhut. +Nejdi and the horse which brought Chumru from Lucknow were nearly +exhausted. Even the hardy Mohammedan was haggard and spent, and his +oblique eyes glowed like the red embers of a dying fire. + +"Sahib," he said, when they came upon a villager and his wife scraping +opium from unripe poppy-heads in a field, "unless we rest and eat we +shall find no boat on Ganga to-day." + +This was so undeniable that Malcolm did not hesitate to ask the ryot for +milk and eggs. The man was civil. Indeed, he thought the Englishman was +some important official and took Chumru for his native deputy. He threw +down the scoop, handed to his wife an earthen vessel half full of the +milky sap gathered from the plants, and led the "huzoors" at once to his +shieling. Here he produced some ghee and chupatties, and half a dozen +raw eggs. The feast might not tempt an epicure, but its components were +excellent and Frank was well aware that the ghee was exceedingly +nutritious, though nauseating to European taste, being practically +rancid butter made from buffalo milk. + +There was plenty of fodder for the horses, too, and they showed their +good condition by eating freely. The ryot eyed Chumru doubtingly when +Malcolm gave him five rupees. Under ordinary conditions, the sahib's +native assistant would demand the return of the money at the first +convenient moment, and, indeed, Chumru himself was in the habit of +exacting a stiff commission on his master's disbursements. Frank smiled +at the man's embarrassed air. + +"The money is thine, friend," said he, quietly, "and there is more to be +earned if thou art so minded." + +"I am but a poor man--" began the ryot. + +"Just so. Not every day canst thou obtain good payment for a few hours' +work. Now, listen. How far is the Ganges from here?" + +"Less than three hours, sahib." + +"What, for horses?" + +"Not so, sahib. A horse can cover the distance in an hour--if he be not +weary." + +The peasant could use his eyes, it seemed, but Malcolm passed the phrase +without comment. + +"We have lost our way," he said. "We want to reach the river and take +boat speedily to Allahabad. If one like thyself were willing to ride +with us to the nearest village on the bank where boats can be obtained, +we would give him ten rupees, and, moreover, let him keep the horse that +carried him." + +The ryot was delighted with his good fortune. + +"Blessed be Kali!" he cried. "I saw five female ghosts with goats' heads +in a tree last night, and my wife said it betokened a journey and +wealth. Not only can I bring you by the shortest road, huzoor, but my +brother has a budgerow moored at the ghat, meaning to carry my +castor-oil seeds to Mirzapur. I am not ready for him yet for three weeks +or more, and he will ask no better occupation than to drop down stream +with you and your camp." + +"I have no camp," said Malcolm, "but I pay the same rates for the boat." + +"The sahib means that his camp marches by road," put in Chumru, +severely. "Didst not hear him say that we have mislaid the track?" + +The ryot apologized for his stupidity, and Frank recognized that his +retainer disapproved very strongly of such strict adherence to the +truth. On the plea that they must hasten if the midday heat were to be +avoided, they cut short the halt to less than an hour. When they came to +tighten the girths again they found that Chumru's horse had fallen lame. +As Nejdi, too, was showing signs of stiffness, Malcolm mounted one of +the spare animals and led the Arab. Chumru and the ryot bestrode the +third horse, and under the guidance of one who knew every path, they set +out for the Ganges. + +There are few features of the landscape so complex in their windings as +the foot-paths of India. Owing to the immense distances between +towns--the fertile and densely populated Doab offers no standard of +comparison for the remainder of a vast continent--roads were scarce and +far between in Mutiny days. The Grand Trunk Road and the rivers Ganges +and Jumna were the main arteries of traffic. For the rest, men marched +across country, and the narrow ribands of field tracks meandered through +plowed land and jungle, traversed nullah and hill and wood, and +intersected each other in a tangle that was wholly inextricable unless +one traveled by the compass or by well-known landmarks, where such were +visible. + +The ryot, of course, familiar with each yard of the route, practically +followed a straight line. After a steady jog of an hour and a half they +saw the silver thread of the Ganges from the crest of a small ridge that +ran north and south. The river was then about three miles distant, and +they were hurrying down the descent when they came upon an ekka, a +little native two-wheeled cart, without springs, and drawn by a +diminutive pony. Alone among wheeled conveyances, the ekka can leave the +main roads in fairly level country, and this one had evidently brought a +zemindar from a river-side village. + +The man himself, a portly, full-bearded Mohammedan, was examining a +growing crop, and his behavior, no less than the furtive looks cast at +the newcomers by his driver, warned Malcolm that here, for a certainty, +the Mutiny was a known thing. The zemindar's face assumed a +bronze-green tint when he saw the European officer, and the +sulky-looking native perched behind the shafts of the ekka growled +something in the local patois that caused the ryot sitting behind Chumru +to squirm uneasily. + +The other glanced hastily around, as though he hoped to find assistance +near, and Chumru muttered to his master: + +"Have a care, sahib, else we may hop on to a limed twig." + +The boldest course was the best one. Malcolm rode up to the zemindar, +who was separated some forty paces from the ekka. + +"I come from Lucknow," he said. "What news is there from Fattehpore and +Allahabad?" + +The man hesitated. He was so completely taken aback by the sight of an +armed officer riding towards him in broad daylight--for Malcolm having +lost his own sword had taken Chumru's--that he was hardly prepared to +meet the emergency. + +"There is little news," he said, at last, and it was not lost on his +questioner that the customary phrases of respect were omitted, though he +spoke civilly enough. + +"Nevertheless, what is it?" demanded Frank. "Has the Mutiny spread thus +far, or is it confined to Cawnpore?" + +"I know not what you mean," was the self-contained answer. "In this +district we are peaceable people. We look after our crops, even as I am +engaged at this moment, and have no concern with what goes on +elsewhere." + +"A most worthy and honorable sentiment, and I trust it will avail you +when we have hanged all these rebels and we come to inquire into the +conduct of your village. I want you to accompany me now and place my +orderly and myself on board a boat for Allahabad." + +"That is impossible--sahib--" and the words came reluctantly--"there are +no boats on the river these days." + +"Why not?" + +"They are all away, carrying grain and hay." + +"What then, are your crops so forward? This one will not be ready for +harvesting ere another month." + +"You will not find a budgerow on this side. Perchance they will ferry +you across at the village in a small boat, and you will have better +accommodation at Fattehpore." + +"Are we opposite Fattehpore?" + +"Yes--sahib." + +All the while the zemindar's eyes were looking furtively from Frank to +the lower ground. It was a puzzling situation. The man was not actively +hostile, yet his manner betrayed an undercurrent of fear and dislike +that could only be accounted for by the downfall of British power in the +locality. Thinking Chumru could deal better with his fellow-countryman, +Malcolm called him, breaking in on a lively conversation that was going +on between his servant and the ekka-wallah. + +Chumru, who had told the ryot to dismount, came at once. + +"Our friend here says that things are quiet on the river, but there are +no boats to be had," explained Malcolm. Chumru grinned, and the zemindar +regarded him with troubled eyes. + +"Excellent," he said. "We shall go to his house and wait while his +servants look for a boat." + +This suggestion seemed to please the other man. + +"I will go on in front in the ekka," he agreed, "and lead you to my +dwelling speedily." + +Chumru edged nearer his master while their new acquaintance walked +towards the ekka. + +"Jump down and tie both when I give the word, sahib," he whispered. +"There has been murder done here." + +Malcolm understood instantly that his native companion had found the +ekka-wallah more communicative. In fact, Chumru had fooled the man by +pretending a willingness to slay the Feringhi forthwith, and the +sheep-like ryot was now livid with terror at the prospect of witnessing +an immediate killing. + +When the zemindar was close to the ekka, Chumru whipped out one of the +Brahmin's cavalry pistols. + +"Now, sahib!" he cried. Malcolm drew his sword and sprang down. The +zemindar fell on his knees. + +"Spare my life, huzoor, and I will tell thee everything," he roared. + +Were he not so worn with fatigue, and were not the issues depending on +the man's revelations so important, Malcolm could have laughed at this +remarkable change of tone. The flabby, well-fed rascal squealed like a +pig when the point of the sword touched his skin, and the Englishman was +forced to scowl fiercely to hide a smile. + +"Speak, _sug_,"[16] he said. "What of Fattehpore and Allahabad, and be +sure thou has spent thy last hour if thou liest." + +[Footnote 16: A contemptuous use of the word "dog."] + +"Sahib, God knoweth that I can tell thee naught of Allahabad, but the +budmashes at Fattehpore have risen, and Tucker-sahib is dead. They +killed him, I have heard, after a fight on the roof of the cutcherry." + +Malcolm guessed rightly that Mr. Tucker was the judge at that station, +but he must not betray ignorance. + +"And the others--they who fled? What of them?" he said, knowing that the +scenes enacted elsewhere must have had their counterpart at Fattehpore. + +"Wow!" The kneeling man flinched as the sword pricked him again. "There +are two mems[17] in a house near the ghat. They alone remain of those +who crossed. And I saved them, sahib. I swear it, by the Kaaba, I saved +them." + +[Footnote 17: Short for mem-sahibs; ladies.] + +"They are young, doubtless, and good-looking?" + +A new fear shone in the Mohammedan's eyes, and he did not answer. +Frank's gorge rose with a deadly disgust, and it is hard to say that his +sword would not have gone home in another instant had not Chumru +interfered: + +"Kill him not yet, sahib. He may be useful. Bind him and the other slave +back to back. Then I shall help you to truss them properly." + +Chumru soon showed that he meant business. When he was free to replace +the pistol in the holster, which he did all the more readily since he +had never used a firearm in his life, he gagged master and man with +skill, tied them to a tree, and then unfolded the plan which the +ekka-driver's story had suggested. + +The fever of rebellion had spread along the whole of the left bank of +the Ganges as far as Allahabad. A party of fugitives from Fattehpore who +had taken to a boat were pursued, captured, and slain. Two girls who had +managed to cross the river unseen were now lodged in a go-down, or +warehouse, belonging to the very man whom chance had made Malcolm's +prisoner. He was keeping them to curry favor with a local rajah who +headed the outbreak at Fattehpore. It was true that there were no boats +left on this side of the river: they were all on the opposite bank, +being loaded with loot, and the two Englishwomen were merely awaiting +the return of the zemindar's budgerow to be sent to a fate worse than +death. + +Chumru, a Mohammedan himself, was not greatly concerned about the +misfortunes of a couple of women, but he saw plainly that Malcolm could +no more hope to escape under the present conditions than the poor +creatures whose whereabouts had just become known. This was precisely +the blend of intrigue and adventure that appealed to his alert +intelligence. In wriggling through a mesh of difficulties he was lithe +as a snake, and the proposal he now made was certainly bold enough to +commend itself to the most daring. + +He drew Malcolm and the trembling ryot apart. + +"Listen, friend," said he to the latter. "Thou art, indeed, lost if that +fat hog sees thee again. He will harry thee and thy wife and all thy +family to death for having helped us, and it will be in vain to protest +that thou hadst no mind in the matter, for behold, thou didst not lift a +finger when I threatened him with the pistol." + +"Protector of the poor, what was one to do?" whined the ryot. + +"I am not thy protector. 'Tis the sahib here to whom thou must look for +counsel. Attend, now, and I will show thee a road to safety and riches. +Art thou known to either of those men?" + +"I have not seen them before, for I come this way but seldom." + +"'Tis well. The sahib shall sit in the ekka, with the curtains drawn, +while I give it out that I go with my wife to take the miss-sahibs +across the river, for which purpose the worthy zemindar will presently +hand us a written order, as he hath ink, paper, and pen in the ekka. +Thou shalt be driver and come with us on the boat, and when we are in +mid-stream, and the sahib appears at my signal, see that thou hast a +cudgel handy if it be needed. Then, when we reach Allahabad, God +willing, the sahib will give thee many rupees and none will be the +wiser. What say'st thou?" + +"I am a poor man--" + +"Ay, keep to that. 'Tis ever a safe answer. Do you like my notion, +sahib? Otherwise, we must take our chance and wander in the jungle." + +The fact that Chumru's scheme included the rescue of the unhappy girls +imprisoned in the go-down caused Malcolm to approve it without reserve. +The zemindar's gag was removed and he was asked his name. + +"Hossein Beg," said he. + +"Be assured, then," said Malcolm, sternly, "that thy life depends on the +fulfilment of the instructions I now require of thee. See to it, +therefore, that they are written in such wise as to insure success, and +I, for my part, promise to send thee succor ere night falls. Write on +this tablet that the miss-sahibs are to be delivered to the charge of +Rissaldar Ali Khan and his wife, for conveyance to Fattehpore, and bid +thy servants help the rissaldar in every possible way. Believe me, if +aught miscarries in this matter, thou shalt rot to death in thy bonds." + +"Let my servant go with your honor, so that all things may be done +according to your honor's wishes." + +"What then? Wouldst thou juggle with the favor I have shown thee?" + +This time the sword impinged on the Adam's apple in Hossein Beg's +throat, and he shrank as far as his bonds would permit. + +"Say not so, Khudawand,"[18] he gurgled. "I swear by my father's bones I +meant no ill." + +[Footnote 18: Master.] + +"Mayhap. Nevertheless, I shall take care thy intent is honest, Hossein +Beg. Write now and pay heed to thy words, else jackals shall rend thee +ere to-morrow's dawn." + +By this time the man was reduced to a state of abject submission. +Possibly his offer of the ekka-wallah's services was made in good faith, +but Malcolm liked the looks of the man as little as he liked the looks +of his master, and he preferred to trust to Chumru's nimble wits rather +than the stupid contriving of a peasant, no matter how willing the +latter might be. + +The zemindar, having written, was gagged again, and the pair were left +to that torture of silence and doubt they had not scrupled to inflict on +those who had done them no wrong. They were tied to a tree-trunk in the +heart of a clump, and a hundred men might pass in that lonely place +without discovering them, whereas Hossein Beg and his subordinate could +see easily enough through the leafy screen that enveloped their open-air +prison. + +Half an hour later, Hossein Beg's ekka arrived on the open space that +adjoined the village ghat. At one end was a mosque--at the other a +temple. In the center, at a little distance from the bank, was a square +modern building, evidently the warehouse in which the English ladies +were pent. + +With the ekka came a rissaldar of cavalry, riding one horse and leading +two others. When he dismounted a scabbard clattered at his heels, for +Malcolm now had the pistols between his knees as he sat behind the +tightly drawn curtains of the vehicle. + +"Mohammed Rasul!" shouted the rissaldar, loudly. "Where is Mohammed +Rasul? I must discourse with him instantly." + +A man came running. + +"Ohe, sirdar," he cried. "Behold, I come!" + +A note was thrust into the runner's hands. + +"Read, and quickly," was the imperious order. "I have affairs at +Fattehpore and cannot wait here long. Is there a boat to be hired?" + +"A budgerow is even now approaching, leader of the faithful." + +"Good. There is some disposition to be made of two Feringhi women. Read +that which Hossein Beg hath written, and make haste, I pray thee, +brother." + +Perhaps Mohammed Rasul wondered why his employer wrote in such imploring +strain that he was to obey the worshipful "Ali Khan's" slightest word, +and bestow him and his belongings, together with the two prisoners, on +board a boat for Fattehpore with the utmost speed. However that may be, +he lost no time. The budgerow was warped close to the ghat, her +contents, mostly European furniture, as Malcolm could see through a fold +in the curtain, were promptly unloaded, and preparations made for the +return journey. First, the horses were led on board and secured. Then +two pallid girls, only half clothed, their eyes red with weeping and +their cheeks haggard with misery, were led from the go-down. + +"Ali Khan" was about to guide the ekka along the rough gangway when +Mohammed Rasul interfered. + +"My master says naught concerning the ekka and pony," said he. "He hath +detained Gopi, and this driver is unknown to me. Who will bring them +back when they have served your needs, sirdar?" + +"I will attend to that," replied Chumru, gruffly, and Hossein Beg's +factotum had perforce to be content with the undertaking. + +But fate, which had certainly favored Malcolm and his native comrade +thus far, played them what looked like a jade's trick at the very moment +when success was within their grasp. The ekka pony, frightened by the +lap of the swift-flowing water against the steps beneath, shied, backed, +and strove to reach the shore. Not all Chumru's wiry strength, aided by +the alarmed ryot, could prevent the brute from turning. A wheel slipped +off the staging, the narrow vehicle toppled over, and the amazed +spectators saw a booted and spurred British officer of cavalry sprawling +on the ghat instead of the veiled Mohammedan woman who ought to have +made her appearance in this undignified manner. + +Malcolm was on his feet in a second. + +"Come on, Chumru!" he cried, as he leaped on board the budgerow. He saw +one of the crew take an extra turn of a rope round a cat-head, and fired +at him. Hit or miss, the fellow tumbled overboard, and his mates +followed. Chumru, assisted by the ryot, who elected at this twelfth hour +to throw in his lot with that of the sahib, began to cast off the +cables. Even the two dazed girls helped, once they knew that an +Englishman was fighting in their behalf. + +To add to the excitement on shore Malcolm fired the second pistol at the +men nearest to the boat, which was already beginning to slip away with +the current. Then he rushed to the helm, unlashed it, and turned the +boat's head toward the channel, while Chumru and the ryot, helped by the +girls, hauled at the heavy mat sail. + +Having lashed the helm again in order to keep the budgerow on the +starboard tack, Malcolm was about to lend a hand, despite his wound, +when a spurt of firing from the bank took him by surprise, because he +had seen neither gun nor pistol in the hands of the loungers on the +ghat, and the coolies were certainly unarmed. + +Glancing back he saw a man whom he had last seen in the moulvie's +company at Rai Bareilly gesticulating fiercely as he directed the target +practise of a number of men. A group of lathered horses behind them +showed that they had ridden far and fast, so the accident, which nearly +led to his undoing, had really helped to save him and his companions, +else the fusillade to which they were now subjected must have taken +place while the boat was still tied to the wharf. + +"Lie flat on the deck," he shouted in English, and repeated the words in +Hindustani. He flung himself down by Chumru's side. + +"Haul away!" he gasped. "We will soon be out of range." + +Thus while the cumbrous sail creaked and groaned as it slowly climbed +the mast, and bullets cut through the matting or were imbedded in the +stout woodwork, the latest argosy of Malcolm's fortunes thrust herself +with ever-increasing speed into the ample breast of Mother Ganga. Soon +the firing ceased. Malcolm raised his head. The excited mob on the shore +was already a horde of Lilliputians, and the placid swish of the river +around the roomy craft told him that he was actually free, and on the +way to Allahabad once more. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE SWING OF THE PENDULUM + + +Malcolm's first measured thought was an unpleasant one. It was his +intent to land one of the budgerow's crew at the earliest opportunity +with a written message, which the bearer would probably be unable to +read, addressed to Mohammed Rasul, bidding him go to the assistance of +the unlucky Hossein Beg. That plan was now impracticable. The crew had +bolted. He could neither send the ryot ashore nor trust to the help of +any neighboring village, since men were already galloping along the left +bank with obviously hostile designs. + +As there was a favorable breeze and the current was swift and strong, he +wondered why these pursuers strove to keep the boat in sight. Then it +was borne in on him that they had a definite object. Could it be +possible that they knew of the presence of other craft, lower down the +river?--that he might be called on within the hour to make a last stand +against irresistible odds on the deck of the budgerow? Rather than meet +certain death in that way he would head boldly for the opposite shore, +and trust again to his tired horses for escape to the jungle and the +night. Yet, some plan must be devised to keep faith with that wretched +zemindar. The man would not die if left where he was for another +forty-eight hours, or even longer. But the word of a sahib was a sacred +thing. Whatever the difficulty of communicating with Mohammed Rasul, he +must overcome it somehow. + +In his perplexity, his eyes fell on the two girls. Being ladies from +Fyzabad, they might be able to help him with some knowledge of the +locality. Summoning Chumru to take the helm he went forward and spoke to +them. + +Now it is an enduring fact that a woman's regard for her personal +appearance will engross her mind when graver topics might well be to the +fore. No sooner did these sorrow-laden daughters of Eve realize that +they were in a position of comparative safety, and in the company of a +good-looking young man of their own race, than they attempted to effect +some change in their _toilette_. A handkerchief dipped in the river, a +few twists and coilings of refractory hair, a slight readjustment of +disordered bodices and crumpled skirts--above all, the gleam of the +magic lamp of hope that illumined an abyss of despair--and the amazing +result was that Malcolm found two pretty, shy, tremulous maidens +awaiting him, instead of the disheveled woe-begone women he had seen +pushed down the steps of the ghat. + +He introduced himself with the well-mannered courtesy of the period, and +in response the elder of the pair raised her blue eyes to his and told +him that since the 16th of June until the previous day they had been +hiding in the hut of a native woman, mother of their ayah. + +"My dear father was killed by Mr. Tucker's side," said she. "He was the +deputy commissioner of Fattehpore. Keene is our name--I am Harriet, this +is my sister Grace. We only came out from England last cold weather--" + +A sudden recollection brought a cry of surprise from Frank. + +"Why," he said, "you were fellow-passengers on the _Assaye_ with Miss +Winifred Mayne?" + +"Yes, do you know her? What has become of her? We were told that +everyone at Meerut was killed." + +"Thank Heaven, she was alive and well when I last saw her three days +ago." + +"And her uncle? Is he living? She was very much attached to him. How did +she escape from Meerut?" broke in Grace, eagerly. + +"I wish they had never left Meerut. The Mutiny at that station collapsed +in a couple of hours. Unfortunately they are now both penned up in the +Residency at Lucknow, which is surrounded by goodness only knows how +many thousands of rebels. But I must give you Winifred's recent +history at another time. I want you to tell me something about this +neighborhood. What is the nearest town on the river, and which bank +is it on?" + +"Unfortunately, our acquaintance with this part of India is very +slight," said Miss Harriet Keene, sadly. "We remained at Calcutta four +months with our mother, who died there, without having seen our dear +father after a separation of five years. We came up country in March, +and were going to Naini Tal[19] when the Mutiny broke out. We only saw +the Ganges three or four times before our ayah brought us across on that +terrible night when father was murdered." + +[Footnote 19: A hill station near Lucknow.] + +Malcolm had heard many such tensely dramatic stories from fugitives who +had reached Lucknow during July. Phrases of pity or consolation were +powerless in face of these tragedies. But he could not forbear asking +one question: + +"How did you come to fall into the hands of Hossein Beg?" + +"We were betrayed by some children," was the simple answer. "They saw +our ayah's mother baking chupatties, day by day, sufficient for four +people. My sister and I lived nearly three weeks in a cow-byre, never +daring, of course, to approach even the door. The children made some +talk about the lavish food supply in the old woman's hut, and the story +reached the ears of their father. He, like all the other natives here, +seems to hate Europeans as though they were his deadliest enemies. He +spied on us, discovered our whereabouts, and yesterday morning we were +dragged forth, while the poor creatures to whom we owed our lives were +beaten to death with sticks before our very eyes." + +The speaker was a fair English girl of twenty. Her sister was eighteen, +and their previous experience of the storm and fret of existence was +drawn from an uneventful childhood in India, four years in a Brighton +school, and a twelvemonth in a Brussels convent! + +Malcolm choked back the hard words that rose to his lips, and sought +such local information as the ryot could give him. It was little. The +tiller of the Indian fields lives and dies in his village and has no +interests beyond the horizon. This man visited the Ganges once a year on +a religious feast, and perhaps twice in the same period in connection +with the shipping of grain on his brother's boat. To that extent, but +no further, did his store of general knowledge pass beyond the narrower +limits of those who dwelt far from a river highway. + +Yet it was he who first espied a new and most active peril. + +"Look, huzoor," he cried suddenly. "They have made signs to the +Fattehpore ghat. Two boats are following us." + +And then Malcolm found that the real danger came from the opposite +shore. It was a case of falling on Scylla when trying to avoid +Charybdis. He learnt afterwards that the rebels had organized a code +of signals from bank to bank, owing to the number of the craft with +Europeans on board that sought safety in flight down the river. That +some device must have drawn pursuit from the right bank was obvious. A +couple of roomy budgerows with sails set were racing after him, and the +long sweeps on board each boat were being propelled by willing arms. + +It must be confessed that a feeling of bitter resentment against this +last stroke of ill-luck rose in Malcolm's breast for an instant. He +conquered it. He recalled Lawrence's bold advice, "Never Surrender," +and that inspiriting memory brought strength. + +At that point the Ganges was about a mile and a quarter in width. The +budgerow was some six hundred yards distant from the left bank. Three +miles ahead the river curved to the left round a steep promontory. The +farther shore was marsh-land, so it might be assumed that a hidden +barrier of rock flung off the deep current there, while the one chance +of escape that presented itself was to steer for that very spot and +effect a landing before the enemy could head off the budgerow and force +it under the fire of the horsemen. The Fattehpore boats were a mile in +the rear, but that advantage would be greatly lessened if Malcolm +crossed the stream, and perhaps altogether effaced by the powerful +sweeps at their command. + +However, to cross was the only way, and the only way is ever the best +way. Having once made up his mind Frank coolly reviewed the situation. +Food was the first essential. The boat itself, having been used for +carrying hay, contained sufficient sweepings to feed the horses, and he +set the ryot to work on gathering the odds and ends of forage. A brief +search brought to light a quantity of ghee, boiled rice and dried peas. +He divided the store into five portions, and set a good example to the +others by compelling himself to eat his share of the cooked food at +once, while the peas went into his pockets to be crushed or chewed at +leisure. + +Chumru kept the budgerow steadily on her course, and ere many minutes +elapsed it was plain to be seen that the rebels were alive to the +tactics of their quarry. Fresh gangs manned the sweeps and the riders on +the eastern bank eased their pace to a walk. The space between pursuers +and pursued began to decrease. At the outset Frank thought that this was +the natural outcome of his plan, and gave no heed to it beyond the +ever-growing anxiety of the time problem. But at the end of the first +mile he was seriously concerned at finding that the mutineers were +gaining on him in an incomprehensible manner. The boat was then +seemingly in mid-stream, while the enemy kept close to the shore, and +they were certainly traveling half as fast again, a difference in speed +that the use of the oars hardly accounted for. + +He kept on grimly, however, never deviating from his perspective, which +was the swampy ground on the outer curve of the bend. It was not until +nearly another mile was covered and the mutineers were almost abreast +in the true line of the river, that he knew why they were making such +heart-breaking progress as compared with his own craft. The Ganges, +after the vagrom fashion of all giant rivers, was cutting a new bed +through the sunken reefs towards the low-lying marsh. At the wide elbow +there were really two channels and he was now sailing along the +comparatively motionless water between them! + +Side by side with this terrifying discovery was the certain fact that +his awkwardly built craft would gain little by maneuvering. There was a +new danger, too. At any instant she might run ashore on the shoal that +was surely forming in the center of the river. At all costs that must be +avoided. + +With a smile and a few confident words to the girls, he went aft, took +the helm from Chumru and bade him help the ryot in putting out the port +sweep. The effect was quickly apparent. The budgerow ran into the second +channel, but she allowed her dangerous rivals to approach so close that +the natives opened fire with long range dropping shots. + +It was now a matter of minutes ere the rebel marksmen would render the +deck uninhabitable. To beach the boat, land the horses, and get the +young ladies ashore in safety, had become an absolute impossibility. +Then it occurred to Frank that the Fattehpore men could not know for +certain that there were Englishwomen on board. They could see Chumru, +the ryot, the horses, and of course, the steersman, but the girls were +seated in the well amidships, these river craft being only partly decked +fore and aft. + +A modification of his scheme flashed through his brain, and he decided +to adopt it forthwith. First asking Miss Keene and her sister not to +reveal their presence, no matter what happened, he told Chumru to stand +by the horses and help him to make them leap into the water when he gave +the order. With difficulty he induced the scared ryot to take the rudder +while he explained the new project. It had that element of daring in it +that is worthy of success, being nothing less than an attempt to draw +the rebels' attention entirely to himself and Chumru by making a dash +for the shore, while the ryot was to allow the boat to continue her +course down stream with, apparently, no other tenant than himself. + +Malcolm's theory was that, if he and Chumru made good their landing, +they would hug the river until the budgerow was sufficiently ahead of +pursuit to permit of her being run ashore. Though the plan savored of +deserting the helpless girls, yet was he strong-minded enough to adopt +it. It substituted a forlorn hope for imminent and unavoidable death or +capture, and it gave one last avenue of achievement to the mission on +which he had come from Lucknow. + +At the final moment he communicated it to the two sisters. They agreed +to abide by his decision, and the elder one said with a calm serenity +that lent to her words the symbolism of a prayer: + +"We are all in God's hands, Mr. Malcolm. Whether we live or die we are +assured that you have done and will do all that lies in the power of a +Christian gentleman to save us." + +"I don't like leaving you," he murmured, "but our only weapons are a +sword and a brace of empty pistols. If we run on another half mile we +shall be shot down where we stand without any means of defending +ourselves. On the other hand--" + +Then the budgerow struck a submerged rock with a violence that must have +pitched him overboard were he not holding Nejdi's headstall at the +moment. She careened so badly that the girls shrieked and Malcolm +himself thought she would turn turtle. But she swung clear, righted +herself, and lay broadside on to the current. Another crash, less +violent but even more disastrous, tore away the rudder and wrenched the +spar pulley out of the top of the mast. The heavy sail fell of course, +but by some miracle left the occupants of the boat uninjured. + +And now the maimed craft was carried along sluggishly, drifting back +towards the center of the river, while the men in the other boats set up +a fiendish yell of delight at the catastrophe that had overtaken the +doomed Feringhis. Their skilled boatmen evidently knew of this reef. +They stood away towards the shore, but the triumphant jeering that came +from the crowded decks showed that they meant to pass their dismantled +quarry and wait in safer waters until it lumbered down upon them. + +Malcolm suddenly became aware of his wounded arm. With a curious +fatalism he began to dissect his emotions. He arrived at the conclusion +that the drop from the nervous tension of hope to the relaxation of +sheer despair had dulled his brain and weakened his physical powers. +This, then, was the end. There could be no doubt about it. He quieted +the startled horses with a word or two and spoke to the girls again. + +"You may as well come on deck now," he said. "It is all up with us. If a +friendly bullet puts us out of our misery, so much the better. Otherwise +my advice to you both is to leap into the river rather than be +recaptured." + +Grace was sobbing hysterically, but Harriet, clasping her fondly in her +arms, looked up at him. + +"No," she said, "we must not do that. Our lives are not our own. The +Lord gave and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!" + +Frank winced in his anguish. To a puissant man there is nothing so +galling as helplessness; what a game of battledore and shuttlecock had +been played with him and those bound up with his fortunes since the +moulvie's man-trap brought him headlong to the earth in the main street +of Rai Bareilly! + +"Huzoor!" yelled Chumru, excitedly. "Look! There below! A smoke ship! +And see! Those sons of pigs are making for the bank!" + +Malcolm could scarce believe his eyes when they rested on a small +steamer with the British flag flying from the masthead, coming round the +bend. Yet there could be no mistake about it. British officers in white +uniforms were standing on her bridge, the muzzles of a couple of guns +showed black and business-like over her bows, while her forward deck was +packed with men in the uniform of the Madras Fusiliers. Her commander +seemed to take in the exact position of affairs at a glance, and, +indeed, the half-wrecked and almost empty boat in mid-stream, so eagerly +followed by two thickly crowded craft now close hauled and putting forth +desperate efforts to reach the bank, presented a riddle easy to read. + +That twinge of pain quitted Frank's arm as speedily as it had made its +presence felt. He helped the girls to the raised deck, so that the +people on the steamer could see them. It was not necessary. An officer +waved a hand to them as the sturdy little vessel dashed past, raising a +mighty spume of white froth with her paddles, and soon her guns were +busy. There was no question of quarter. Captain Spurgin had been with +Neill at Allahabad. He knew the story of Massacre Ghat, of Delhi, of +Sitapore, Moradabad, Bareilly, and a score of other stations in Oudh and +the Northwest. His gunners pelted the unwieldy budgerows with round shot +until they began to sink. Then he used grape and rifle fire, until five +minutes after the _Warren Hastings_ came on the scene, there was nought +left of the Fattehpore navy save some shattered wreckage and a few +wretches who strove to swim amidst a hail of lead and in a river +infested with crocodiles. + +When the steamer dropped down stream and picked up the fugitives, +Malcolm learnt that Spurgin was co-operating with Renaud. The one +cleared the river, the other was hanging men on nearly every tree that +lined the Grand Trunk Road. And Havelock, nobly aided by Neill, was +moving heaven and earth to equip a strong force at Allahabad to avenge +Cawnpore and raise the expected siege of Lucknow. + +As Malcolm himself brought the earliest news of the investment, he and +Chumru were put ashore with a small escort, in order that they might +join Major Renaud's column, and hurry to Havelock with his thrilling +tidings. Spurgin promised to visit the village on the east bank, release +Hossein Beg, and make him a hostage for the ryot's welfare. As for +Harriet and Grace Keene, they would be sent south as soon as a carriage +could be procured. + +The two girls bade Frank farewell with a gratitude which was +embarrassing, but Grace, more mercurial than Harriet, ventured to say: + +"I suppose you are longing to see Winifred again, Mr. Malcolm?" + +"Yes," he replied, well knowing the thought that lay behind the words. +"You are her friend, so there is no reason why I should not tell you +that she is my promised wife." + +"Then you are both to be congratulated," put in the elder sister, "for +she is quite the most charming girl we know, and our opinion of you is +not likely to be a poor one after to-day's experiences." + +"What? After an hour's acquaintance?" + +"An hour! There are some hours that are half a lifetime. Good-by, may +Heaven guard and watch over you!" + +Renaud despatched Lawrence's messenger to the south in a dak-gharry, or +post-carriage. Chumru would have taken the servant's usual perch beside +the driver, but Malcolm would not hear of it. His faithful attendant was +almost as worn with fatigue as he himself; master and man shared the +comfort of the roomy vehicle; and slept for many hours while it rumbled +along the road. + +At dawn on the 4th of July they entered Allahabad. But the driver had +his orders and did not stop in the city. They passed through a sullen +bazaar, and were gazed at by a mob that wore the aspect of a cageful of +tigers in which order has just been induced by the liberal use of +red-hot irons. The travelers were nodding asleep again when the sharp +summons of a British sentry gladdened Malcolm's ears. + +"Who goes there?" + +How alert it sounded! How reminiscent of the old days! How full of +promise of the days that were to come! + +He leaned out and smiled as he told a stolid private of the 64th that he +was "a friend." His uniform acted as a passport, the dak-gharry crossed +the drawbridge and crept through a narrow tunnel, and he found himself +standing in the great inner parade-ground of the fort. A young officer +approached. + +"Do you wish to see the General? Whom shall I report?" he asked, eyeing +the worn appearance and torn and blood-stained uniforms of Englishman +and native. + +"I am from Lucknow," said Frank. "Will you kindly tell General Havelock +that Captain Malcolm of the 3d Cavalry has brought him a message from +Sir Henry Lawrence?" + +It was the first time he had described himself by his new rank. It sent +a pleasant tingle through his veins and made that injured arm of his +ache again. Lawrence had given him to the 4th, and here he was in +Allahabad on the very date of his Chief's reckoning, after having gone +through adventures that would have satiated Ulysses. + +But the pardonable pride of a young and gallant soldier soon yielded an +inexplicable sensation of humility when he was brought before a small, +slender, erect man, gray-haired, eagle-nosed, with strangely bright and +piercing eyes, and a mouth habitually set in a thin, straight line. This +was Sir Henry Havelock, and Frank felt instantly that he was in the +presence of one who lived in a world apart from his fellows. And, in +truth, Havelock would have been better understood by Cromwell's +Ironsides than by his own generation. He was outside the ordinary run of +mankind. Though aware of a natural timidity, he fought with and +conquered it until his soldiers refused to believe that Havelock knew +what fear was. Conscious of his own military genius he had borne without +comment or complaint a constant supersession by inferiors, and in an age +when levity of thought and manners among officers was often looked upon +as the hall-mark of distinguished social position, he lost no +opportunity of giving his men religious instruction, while every act of +his life was governed by a stern sense of duty. + +Such was the man who listened to Malcolm's account of the proceedings +which led up to the disastrous battle of Chinhut. + +"You say you rode straight from the field on the evening of the 30th," +said he, when Frank had delivered his message of Lucknow's plight. "How +did you travel, and in what state did you find the country you +traversed?" + +Then Frank told him all that had taken place. More than once the young +officer would have cut short the recital, but this Havelock would not +permit. His son was present, that younger Havelock who lived for forty +years to keep ever in the public memory a glorious name, and often the +father would turn towards him and punctuate Malcolm's tale with a nod, +or a brief, "Do you hear that, Harry?" + +At last, the stirring chronicle was ended. + +"Do you wish to remain here and recuperate, or will you join my staff, +with the rank of Major?" asked Havelock. + +Malcolm was hardly able to stammer his acceptance of the appointment +thus offered, but the General had no time for useless talk. + +"About this servant of yours--he seems to have the making of a soldier +in him--will he care to retain the rank he has assumed so creditably?" +he went on. + +Frank rather lost his breath at this suggestion, but he had the presence +of mind to refer the decision to Chumru himself. + +"Kubbi nahin, general-sahib,"[20] was the Mohammedan's emphatic +disclaimer of the honor proposed to be conferred on him. "I am a good +bearer, huzoor, but I should prove a very bad rissaldar. I am not of a +fighting caste. I am a man of peace." + +[Footnote 20: Literally: "Never no general!"] + +"I think you are mistaken," said Havelock, quietly, "but by all means +continue to serve your master. I am sure he is worthy of your devotion. +And now, Major Malcolm, if you will report yourself to General Neill, he +will provide you with quarters and plenty of work." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE MEN WHO WORE SKIRTS + + +That was what the rebels called the 78th,--"the men who wore skirts." + +Now, Highland regiments had fought in India for many a year before the +Mutiny, and the kilt was no new thing in native eyes. The phrase, +therefore, is significant. It crystallizes the legend that went +round--that an army of savage English was marching from Allahabad, and +that its most ferocious corps was dressed in skirts, the men having +sworn never to assume male clothing until they had avenged their +murdered women-folk. + +There could be no better proof that the sepoys and their helpers were +well aware that they had outraged all the laws of war and humanity by +their excesses, and there was a further reason why the garb of old Gaul +was more dreaded throughout India than any other British uniform during +the autumn and cold weather of 1857. Not many Europeans knew it until +long afterwards, but the natives knew, and told the story with bated +breath, and one British officer knew, for he was with the Seaforth +Highlanders in Cawnpore when they took dire vengeance for the Well. + +It is a matter of history how Havelock marched his little army of twelve +hundred men along the Grand Trunk Road from Allahabad. He led a thousand +British soldiers, drawn from the 64th, 84th, and 78th Foot, and the 1st +Madras Fusiliers. Captain Brasyer brought 130 loyal Sikhs to the column: +there were six small guns, and eighteen volunteer cavalry. + +These details should be appreciated before it is possible to understand +the supra-miraculous campaign Havelock conducted. For five days the +expedition tramped north in the rain and heat, through a land given over +to dead men, vultures and carnivorous animals. Renaud and Spurgin had +made no prisoners. They did not slay wantonly, but the slightest shadow +of suspicion falling on any man meant the short shrift of a rope and the +nearest tree. + +At last, on the 12th of August, the main body overtook Renaud, whose +patrols were stopped by a large force of rebels entrenched in a village +four miles south of Fattehpore. The junction took place at one o'clock +in the morning. At daybreak, Havelock sent Colonel Tytler, with the +eighteen volunteer horse, to reconnoiter. The enemy's cavalry, thinking +they had only Renaud's tiny detachment to deal with, charged across the +plain, to find the whole twelve hundred drawn up to receive them. Struck +with a sudden fear, the white-coated troopers reined in their horses. +This was the first real check Nana Sahib had received. It was typical of +the new order. The flood-tide of mutiny had met its barrier rock. +Thenceforth, it ebbed, though it raged madly for a while in the effort +to sweep away the obstruction. + +Without giving the enemy's cavalry time to recover from their surprise, +Havelock threw forward his infantry, Captain Maude, of the Royal +Artillery, rushed his six guns to a point-blank range, there was a short +and sharp fight, and the rebels broke. They were chased through and out +of the town of Fattehpore. All their guns and some valuable stores were +captured, and, greatest marvel in a day of marvels, not one British +soldier had fallen! + +No wonder Havelock wrote to his wife: "One of the prayers oft repeated +since my school-days has been answered, and I have lived to command in a +successful action.... But away with vain glory! Thanks be to God who +gave me the victory." + +That evening Malcolm witnessed the plundering of Fattehpore, which was +permitted in retribution for its recent rebellion. The town lay on the +main road, which, at this point, was removed from the river by many +miles, else he would have ridden to the ghat and sent a message to +Hossein Beg in order to make sure of the safety of the friendly ryot. + +Owing to his knowledge of the vernacular, he managed to pick up a bit of +useful information while questioning a native on this matter. On the +battle-field he came across a state elephant which had been shot through +the body by one of Maude's nine-pounders. The manner of the beast's +death was remarkable--it is not often that an elephant is bowled over by +a cannon-ball like a rabbit by a bullet from a small caliber rifle--and +its trappings betokened that it had carried a person of importance. + +Now he learned that Tantia Topi was the rider, and it was thus he +discovered that Nana Sahib was directing the operations from Cawnpore, +as Tantia Topi was his favorite lieutenant, whereas it was believed +previously that the Brahmin usurper would lead his hosts to take part in +the siege of Lucknow. + +On the 15th a sharp fight gave the British possession of the village of +Aong. The position was dearly won, for the gallant Renaud fell there, +mortally wounded. The men were about to prepare their breakfast after +the battle when news came that the enemy, strongly reinforced from +Cawnpore, were preparing to blow up a bridge over the Pandoo Nuddee, an +unfordable tributary of the Ganges, six miles ahead. Havelock called for +a special effort, the troops responded without a murmur, and advanced +through dense groves of mango trees until they came under fire. For the +second time that day they hurled themselves on the rebels, drove them +headlong out of a well-chosen position, and saved the bridge. + +Cawnpore was now only twenty-three miles distant. With the fickleness of +the rainy season the sky had cleared, and the sun beat down on the +British force with a fury that had not been experienced before that +year, though the hot weather of 1857 was noted for its exceedingly high +temperatures. The elements seemed to have joined with man to try and +stop the advance, but neither Indian sun nor Indian sepoy could +restrain that terrible host. Dogged and uncomplaining, animated rather +by the feelings of the infuriated tigress seeking reprisals for her +slain cubs than by the sentiments of soldiers engaged in an ordinary +campaign, they pressed on, until sixteen miles of that sun-scorched road +were covered. + +Then Havelock commanded a halt in a grove of trees, and two level-headed +sepoys, deserters from Nana Sahib's army, came in and told the British +general that the Nana had brought five thousand men out of Cawnpore to +do battle for his tottering dynasty. It was in vain. Though he displayed +some tactical skill, placed his men well, and did not hesitate to come +under fire in person, he was out-generaled by a flank march and sent +flying to Bithoor, there to curse his fate, befuddle his wits with +brandy, and threaten to drown himself in the Ganges. + +But the battle was not won until one of those strange incidents happened +that distinguish the Mutiny from all other wars. It must never be +forgotten that the sepoys had received their training from British +officers. Their words of command, methods of fighting, even their +uniforms, were based on European models. + +They had regimental bands, too, and the tunes in their repertoire were +those in vogue in Britain, for native music does not lend itself to +military purposes. The musicians, of course, were profoundly ignorant of +the names or significance of the melodies they had been taught to play. + +Hence, when Nana Sahib rallied his men in a village, Havelock called on +the Highlanders and 64th to take it, and the two regiments entered into +a gallant race for the position, while the Highland pipers struck up an +inspiring pibroch. Not to be outdone, a sepoy band responded with "The +Campbells are Coming!" + +And this, of all airs, to the Mackenzies! It was chance, of course, but +it added gall to the venom of the 78th. + +This fourth and greatest victory was a costly one to the British, but it +left their ardor undiminished, their reckless courage intensified. On +the next day they flung themselves against the remnant of the Nana's +army that still tried to bar the way into the city. Vague rumors had +reached the men of the dreadful tragedy enacted on the 15th. They +refused to credit them. None but maniacs would murder helpless women and +children in the belief that the crime would hinder the advance of their +rescuers. So they crushed, tore, beat a path through the suburbs, until +the leading company of Highlanders reached the Bibigarh, the House of +the Woman. + +Malcolm was with them, and he saw a sergeant enter the blood-stained +dwelling, while the men lined up in front of the Well in an awed +silence. The sergeant returned. His brick-red face had paled to an ashen +tint. In his hand he carried the long, rich strands of a woman's hair, +strands that had been hacked off some unhappy Englishwoman's head by +Nana Sahib's butchers. + +He removed his bonnet with the solemnity of a man who is in the presence +of God and death. Passing down the ranks he gave a lock of the hair to +each soldier. + +"One life for every hair before the sun sets," he said quietly. And that +was all, but there are old men yet alive in Cawnpore who remember how +the Highlanders raged through the streets that evening like the wrath of +Heaven. + +General Neill, who came later and assumed the role of magistrate, showed +neither pity nor mercy. Every man who fell into his hands, and who was +connected in the slightest degree with the infamy of the Well, was +hanged on a gallows erected in the compound, but not until he had +cleaned with his tongue the allotted square of blood-stained cement that +formed the floor of the house. + +Cawnpore, on the 17th, was indeed a city of dreadful night. The fierce +exultation of successful warfare was gone. The streets were empty save +for prowling dogs, pigs, and venturesome wild beasts. No sound was heard +in the British encampment except the melancholy plaint of the pipes +mourning for the dead, during the interment of those who had fallen. +Even the unconquerable Havelock said to his son, as they and the +officers of the staff sat at dinner: + +"If the worst comes to the worst we can but die with our swords in our +hands." + +Next morning his splendid vitality reasserted itself. He advanced +towards Bithoor and took up a strong position in case Nana Sahib might +attempt to recover the city. But that arch-fiend had been deserted by +the majority of his followers, and he was babbling of suicide to his +fellow Brahmins. + +Meanwhile Neill brought a few more troops from Allahabad, and Havelock +threw the greater portion of his army across the Ganges. Owing to the +difficulty of obtaining boats and skilled boatmen, this was a slow and +dangerous undertaking. It took five days to ferry nine hundred men to +the Oudh side, but Lawrence had said that the Residency could only hold +out fourteen days, and come what might the effort must be made to +relieve him. + +On the 20th while Malcolm was occupied with some details of transport, +Chumru came to him. The bearer was no longer "Ali Khan," the +swashbuckler, but a white-robed domestic, though no change of attire +could rob him of the truculent aspect that was the gift of nature. + +Beside Chumru stood another Mohammedan, an elderly man, who straightened +himself under the sahib's eye and brought up his right hand in a smart +military salute. + +"Huzoor," said Chumru, "this is Ungud, Kumpani pinsin (a pensioner of +the Company), and he would have speech with the Presence." + +"Speak, then, and quickly, for I have occupation," said Malcolm. But he +listened carefully enough to Ungud's words, for the man coolly proposed +to work his way to Lucknow and carry any message to Lawrence that the +General-sahib entrusted to him. + +It was a desperate thing to suggest. The absence of native spies from +either Cawnpore or Lucknow proved that the rebels killed, and probably +tortured all who attempted to run the gauntlet of their investing lines. +Yet Ungud was firm in his offer, so Malcolm brought him to Havelock and +the general at once wrote and gave him a letter to Lawrence, the news of +the great Commissioner's death not having reached the relieving force. + +Frank seized the opportunity to write a few lines to Winifred. He was +charged with the care of Ungud as far as the nearest river ghat, and he +scribbled the following as he rode thither: + + BRITISH FIELD FORCE, + CAWNPORE, July 20th, 1857. + + MY DEAREST WINIFRED: + + If this note is safely delivered, you will know that Sir Henry + Havelock, at the head of a strong force, is on his way to + relieve Lucknow. I am with him, as major on the staff. + + I reached Allahabad on the 4th, thanks wholly to your loving + thought in sending Chumru after me, for I was a prisoner in the + hands of a fanatical moulvie when Chumru came to my assistance. + He saved my life there, and his quick-witted devotion was shown + in many other instances during a most exciting journey. My + thoughts are always with you, dear one, and I offer many a + prayer to the Most High that you may retain your health and + spirits amid the horrors that surround you. Be confident, dear + heart, and bid your uncle tell his comrades of the garrison + that we mean to cut our way to your rescue through all + opposition. + + The bearer will endeavor to return with a reply to the general. + Perhaps you may be able to send a line with him. In any event, + I trust he will see you, and that will bring joy to my soul + when I hear of it. + + Ever your devoted + FRANK. + +By Havelock's order, a light, swift boat was placed at Ungud's disposal, +and Malcolm supplied him with plenty of money for horses and bribes on +the road, while, in the event of success, he would be liberally rewarded +afterwards. + +Now it chanced that on the 20th, about the very hour Ungud set out on +his daring mission, the Moulvie of Fyzabad managed to goad his +co-religionists into a determined assault on the Residency. + +At ten o'clock in the morning the bombardment suddenly ceased. The +garrison sentries noted an unusual gathering of the enemy's forces in +the streets and open spaces that confronted the Bailey Guard and the +other main posts on the city side. + +They gave the alarm and every man rushed to the walls. Even the sick and +wounded left their beds. Men with the fire of fever in their eyes, men +with bandaged limbs and scarce able to crawl, asked for muskets and +lined up alongside their yet unscathed comrades. + +They waited in grim silence, those war-worn soldiers of the Queen. The +signal for a furious struggle was given in dramatic fashion. A mine +exploded, a large section of the defending wall crumbled into ruins, a +hundred guns belched forth a perfect hail of round shot, sharpshooters +stationed in the neighboring houses fired their muskets as rapidly as +they could lift them from piles of loaded weapons at their command, and, +under cover of this fusillade, some three thousand rebels advanced to +the attack. + +They came on with magnificent courage. They actually succeeded in +planting scaling-ladders across the breach, and their leader, a +fierce-looking cavalry rissaldar, leaped into the ditch and stood there, +right in front of the Cawnpore battery, waving a green standard to +encourage his followers. + +He was shot by a man of the 32d, and his body formed the lowermost +layer of a causeway of corpses that soon choked the ditch. But the +concentrated fire of the defenders checked this most audacious of the +many assaults delivered during four hours' fighting. At two o'clock +the attack slackened and died away. The rebels had lost some hundreds, +while the British had only four men killed and twelve wounded. + +There was much jubilation among the garrison at this outcome of the +long-expected and dreaded attack. It added to their spirit of +self-reliance, and it cast down the hopes of the mutineers to a +corresponding degree; because their moral inferiority was proved beyond +dispute. Like all Asiatics, they had not dared to press on in the face +of death. With one whole-hearted rush those three thousand fighters +could have swarmed into the Residency against all the efforts of the few +Europeans and natives who resisted them. But that rush was never made by +the assailants as a mass. Not once in the history of the Mutiny did the +sepoys adopt the "do or die" method that characterized the British +troops in nearly every action of the campaign. + +When the moon rose on the night of the 21st a sharp-eyed sentry saw a +man creeping across the broken ground in front of the Bailey Guard. +He raised his rifle, but his orders were to challenge any one who +approached thus secretly, lest, perchance, a messenger from some +relieving force might be slain by error. + +"Who goes there?" he cried. + +"A friend," was the answer, but the rest of the stranger's words showed +that he was a native. + +The sentry was no linguist. + +"You _baito_[21] where you are," he commanded, bidding a comrade summon +an officer, "or somebody who can talk the lingo." + +[Footnote 21: "Stop."] + +Within a minute the newcomer was admitted. It was Ungud, who had run +the gauntlet of the enemy's pickets and who now triumphantly produced +Havelock's letter to "Larrence-sahib Bahadur." Alas, Henry Lawrence was +dead, but Brigadier Inglis, who succeeded him in the command, now learnt +that Havelock had defeated Nana Sahib, occupied Cawnpore, and was +advancing to the relief of Lucknow. + +How the great news buzzed through the Residency! How men grasped each +other's hands in glee and exultation and sought leave to take the joyful +tidings to the hospital and the women's quarters! + +Mayne aroused Winifred to tell her. + +"Perhaps Malcolm was able to get through to Allahabad," he said. "When +you come to think of the difficulties in the way of our troops--this +man says they have fought three if not four pitched battles between +Fattehpore and Cawnpore--we have been unreasonable in looking for help +so soon." + +"Mr. Malcolm would surely succeed if it were possible. He understands +the native character so well and is so proficient in their language, +that he was the best man who could be chosen for such a task." + +And that was all that Winifred would say about "Mr. Malcolm," who would +have been the most miserable and the most astonished person in India +that night had he known how bitter was the girl's heart against him. + +Though Winifred was not to blame, for the necklace and the pass offered +strong evidence of double-dealing on her lover's part, her unjust +suspicions were doomed to receive a severe shock. + +In the morning she heard that Captain Fulton wished to see her. She left +her quarters by a covered way and waited outside the Begum Kotee until a +soldier found Fulton. + +He came, bringing with him a native. + +"This is the man who arrived from Cawnpore last night, Miss Mayne," he +said. "He has a letter for you, but he refuses to deliver it to any one +but yourself. I fancy," added the gallant engineer officer with a smile, +"that the sender impressed on him the importance of its reaching the +right hands." + +Winifred caught a glimpse of Frank's handwriting. Her face grew scarlet. +For one delightful instant she forgot the harsh thoughts she had +harbored against him. Then the scourge of memory tortured her. Fulton's +kindly assumption that Malcolm was her fiance must be dispelled and she +bit her lower lip in vexation at the tell-tale rush of color that had +mantled her cheeks when Ungud discharged his trust and gave her the +letter. + +"It is from Captain Malcolm," she said coldly. "I suppose he wishes his +personal belongings to be safeguarded. I am surprised he did not write +to my uncle rather than to me." + +Fulton was surprised, but he laughed lightly. + +"Every one to his taste," he said; "but from what little I have seen of +Malcolm I should wager that nine out of ten letters addressed to the +Mayne family would be intended for you, Miss Winifred. By the way, a +word in your ear. General Inglis hopes to persuade our friend here to +try his luck on a return journey to-night. Perhaps you may have a note +to send on your own account. No one else must know. This is a special +favor, conferred because Malcolm himself procured Ungud's services, but +we cannot ask the man to act as general postman. Good-by." + +He hurried away. Winifred, after the manner of woman, fingered the +unopened letter. + +"Kuch joab hai, miss-sahib?" asked Ungud. + +"There is no answer--yet. I will give you one later." + +The girl's Hindustani went far enough to enable her to frame the reply +intelligibly. Ungud salaamed and left her, probably contrasting in his +own mind the lady's frigidity with the fervid instructions given him by +the officer-sahib. + +Then Winifred went to her own room and opened her letter, and her +woman's heart gleaned the truth from its candor. Of course she cried. +What girl wouldn't? But she smiled through her tears and read the nice +bits over and over again. Not for twenty necklaces and a whole file of +hieroglyphic passes would she doubt Frank any more. + +The reference to Chumru puzzled her and that was a gratifying thing in +itself, for if Frank could be mistaken about her share in Chumru's +departure from Lucknow, why should not she be wrong in her +interpretation of the mysterious presence of the necklace? + +When her uncle came she wept again, being hysterical with the sheer joy +of watching his face while he perused Frank's note. + +A man's bewilderment finds different expression to a woman's. A man +trusts his brain, a woman her heart. + +"If there is one thing absolutely clear in this letter it is that Frank +knows nothing whatever about the pearls you produced from his turban," +said Mr. Mayne, with the frown of a judge who is dealing with a knotty +point in equity. + +"There are--several things--quite clear in it--to me," fluttered +Winifred. + +"Ah, hum, yes. But I mean that it is ridiculous to suppose he would +knowingly leave such a valuable article exposed to the chances and +changes of barrack-room life in a siege. Whatever motive he may have had +in concealing the necklace earlier he would surely have said something +about it now, given some hint as to its value, asked you to take care of +his baggage, or something of the sort." + +"In my heart of hearts I always felt that we were misjudging Frank," +said she. + +Mayne's eyebrows lifted a trifle, but he passed no comment. + +"By the way," he said, "where is the necklace?" + +"Here," she said, pulling a box out of a cupboard. The string of pearls +was coiled up in the midst of the roll of soiled muslin and the badge +was pinned to one of the folds. + +"That is a very unsafe place," said Mayne. "If I were you I would wear +it beneath your bodice." + +"Would you really?" + +"Yes. I can think of no other explanation of the mystery now than that +Frank meant to surprise you with it. You may be sure he obtained it +honorably, so you will only be meeting his wishes by wearing it. At any +rate it will be safer in your possession than in that cupboard." + +"Perhaps you are right," said she. And while she clasped the +diamond-studded brooch in front of her white throat she glanced round +the room for a mirror. + +Her uncle smiled. He was glad that this little cloud had lifted off +Winifred's sky. The sufferings and positive dangers of the siege were +bad enough already without being added to by a private grief. + +He stooped to pick up the turban and his eye fell on the regimental +device of the metal badge. + +"This is not an officer's head-dress," he cried. "And Malcolm belongs to +the 3d Cavalry, whereas this badge was worn by a trooper in the 2d." + +Winifred, who was turning her neck and shoulders this way and that to +get different angles of light, stopped admiring herself and ran to his +side. + +"That is the turban Frank wore during our ride from Cawnpore," she +whispered breathlessly. + +"It may be. But don't you remember that he was bareheaded when we met +him in Nana Sahib's garden? I was knocked almost insensible during the +fight for the boat so I am not sure what happened during the next few +minutes. Nevertheless, I can recall that prior fact beyond cavil. If it +were not for the safe-conduct you found at the same time as the pearls, +I would incline strongly to the belief that Frank obtained this turban +by accident, and is wholly ignorant of its extraordinary contents." + +"I must write at once and tell him how sorry I am that I misjudged him." + +"You dear little goose," cried her uncle amusedly, "Frank will begin to +wonder then what the judging was about. No. Wait until you meet. Write, +by all means, but leave problems for settlement during your first +tete-a-tete." + +So Ungud carried in his turban a loving and sympathetic note, which +Winifred, with no small pride, addressed to "Major Frank Malcolm, +Headquarters Staff, British Field Force, Cawnpore," and she said inside, +among other things, that she hoped this would prove to be the first +letter he received with the inscription of his new rank. + +Ungud also took confidential details from the Brigadier for Havelock's +information, and in three days, being as supple as an eel and cautious +as a leopard, he was back again with a reply from the general to the +effect that the relieving force would arrive in less than a week. + +He brought another missive from Frank, cheery and optimistic in tone and +still blithely oblivious of the existence of such baubles as +hundred-thousand-dollar necklaces. + +And that was all the news that either the garrison or Winifred received +for more than a month, when the intrepid Ungud again entered the lines +to bring Havelock's ominous advice: "Do not negotiate, but rather perish +sword in hand." + +This time there was no letter from Frank, and the alarmed, +half-despairing girl could only learn that the major-sahib was not with +the column, which had been compelled to fall back on Cawnpore after some +heavy fighting in Oudh. Ungud did not think he was dead; but who could +tell? There were so many sahibs who fell, for out of his twelve hundred +Havelock had lost nearly half, and was now eating his heart out in a +weary wait for re-enforcements that were toiling up the thousand miles +of road and river from Calcutta. + +So the blackness of disappointed hope fell on the Residency and its +inmates. Those few natives who had hitherto proved faithful began to +desert in scores. About a third of the European soldiers were dead. +Smallpox and cholera added their ravages to the enemy's unceasing fire +and occasional fierce assaults. Famine and tainted water, and lack of +hospital stores, and every evil device of malign fate that persecutes +people in such straits, were there to harass the unhappy defenders. +Officers and men swore that they would shoot their women-folk with their +own hands rather than permit them to fall into the rebels' clutches, +and, at times, when the siege slackened a little in its continuous +cannonade, the devoted community gave way to lethargy and despondency. + +But let the enemy muster for an attack, these veteran soldiers faced +them with the dogged steadfastness that made them gods among the Asiatic +scum. The Brigadier, too, never allowed his splendid spirit to flag. +Though for three months he had not slept without being fully dressed, +though he worked harder than any other man in the garrison, he was the +life and soul of every outpost that he visited during the day or night. + +Captain Fulton was another human dynamo in their midst. Finding plenty +of miners among the Cornishmen of the 32d, he sunk a countermine for +each mine burrowed by the enemy. His favorite amusement was to sit alone +for hours in a shaft, wait patiently until the rebels bored a way up to +him, and then shoot the foremost workers. + +And in such fashion the siege went on, with houses collapsing, because +they were so riddled with cannon-balls that the walls gave way, and +ever-nearing sapping of the fortifications, and intolerable breaks in +the monsoon, when the heat became so overpowering that even the natives +yielded to the strain--and the days passed, and the weeks, and the +months, until, on September 16, Ungud, tempted by a bribe of five +thousand rupees, crept away for the last time with despatches for +Havelock. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +WHY MALCOLM DID NOT WRITE + + +It was the saddest hour in Havelock's life when he decided that his +Invincibles must retreat. Yet, after another week's fighting, that +course was forced on him. + +On July 25 he plunged fearlessly into Oudh, leaving a wide and rapid +river in his rear, with other rivers, canals, and fortified towns and +villages in front, on three sides swarms of determined enemies gathered +under the standards of Nana Sahib and the Oudh Taluqdars, and everywhere +a hostile if not actually mutinous peasantry. + +With his usual daring, trusting to the unsurpassed elan of his troops, +he fought battles at Onao and Busseerutgunge. Then when the thunder of +the fighting was faintly heard by listeners in the Residency, Havelock +took thought and regretted that he had ventured to leave Cawnpore. + +His force numbered about half the men who marched out of Allahabad on +the 7th. Cholera had broken out; stores were scanty; there was not a +single litter for another wounded man; and, worst of all, ammunition was +failing. To advance farther meant the total destruction of his little +army, the sure and instant fall of the Residency, and the disappearance +of the British flag from an enormous territory. + +Yet he hesitated before he gave the final order. He fell back a couple +of marches and wrote to Neill on the 31st that he could "do nothing for +the relief of Lucknow," until he received a re-enforcement of a thousand +men and a new battery. + +Neill, who was holding Cawnpore with three hundred rifles, returned the +most amazing reply that ever a subordinate officer addressed to his +chief. + +"The natives don't believe you have won any real victories," he wrote, +in effect. "Your retreat has destroyed the prestige of England. While +you are waiting for re-enforcements that cannot arrive Lucknow will be +lost. You must advance again and not halt until you have rescued the +garrison. Then return here sharp, as there is much to be done between +this and Agra and Delhi." + +Neill's zeal outran his discretion. Havelock told him in plain language +his opinion of this curious epistle. + +"Your letter is the most extraordinary I have ever perused," he said.... +"Consideration of the obstruction which would arise in the public +service alone prevents me from placing you under immediate arrest. You +now stand warned. Attempt no further dictation." + +Yet Neill's advice rankled and there were men on Havelock's staff who +agreed with the outspoken Irishman. Neill, however, coolly bottled his +wrath and sent on a company of the 84th and three guns. + +They brought despatches from Sir Patrick Grant, Commander-in-Chief at +Calcutta, telling Havelock that the troops sent from the capital had +been turned aside to deal with mutineers in Behar. + +The gallant Crimean veteran therefore hardened his heart, set out once +more for Lucknow and fought another most successful battle at +Busseerutgunge. There could be no questioning either the victory or its +cost. Another such success and his column would not number a half +battalion. + +That night he watched the weary soldiers digging graves for their fallen +comrades, and, while his brain was torn with conflicting problems, a spy +brought news that the powerful Gwalior Contingent was marching to seize +Cawnpore. He hesitated no longer. As a general he had no right to be +swayed by emotion. He must protect Cawnpore as a base and trust to the +fortune of war that Lucknow might keep the flag flying. + +Malcolm was with him when he formed this resolution. Outwardly cold, Sir +Henry seemed to his youthful observer, who now knew him better, to +resemble a volcano coated with ice. + +"Major," he said, "the column will retreat at daybreak. But I will get +my other aides to make arrangements. Are you quite recovered from your +wound? Are you capable of undergoing somewhat severe exertion, I mean?" + +Frank answered modestly that he thought he had never been better in +health or strength, though he wondered inwardly what sort of exertion +could be more "severe" than his experiences of the preceding three +weeks. + +But Havelock knew what he was talking about, as shall be seen. + +"I want you to make the best of your way to Delhi," he said in his +unbending way. "I leave details to you, except that I would like you to +start to-night if possible. Of course any kind of escort that is +available would be fatal to your success, but, if I remember his record +rightly, that servant of yours may be useful. I do not propose to give +you any despatches. If you get through tell the Commander-in-Chief in +the Punjab exactly how we are situated here. Tell him Lucknow will not +be relieved for nearly two months, but that I will hold Cawnpore till +the last man falls. I hope and trust you may be spared to make the +journey in safety. If you succeed you will receive a gratuity and a step +in rank. Good-by!" + +He held out his hand, and his calm eyes kindled for a moment. Then Frank +found himself walking to his tent and reviewing all that this meant to +Winifred and himself. He was none the less a brave man if his lips +trembled somewhat and there came a tightening of the throat that +suspiciously resembled a sob. + +Two months! Could a delicate girl live so long in another such Inferno +at Lucknow as he had seen in Wheeler's abandoned entrenchment at +Cawnpore? + +"God help us both!" he murmured bitterly, passing a hand involuntarily +over his misty eyes. With the action he brushed away doubt and fears. He +was a soldier again, one to whom hearing and obedience were identical. + +"Chumru," he said, when he found his domestic scratching mud off a coat +with his nails for lack of a clothes-brush, "we set out for Delhi +to-night, you and I." + +"All right, sahib," was the unexpected parry to this astounding thrust, +and Chumru kept on with his task. + +"It is a true thing," said Malcolm, who knew full well that the +Mohammedan understood the extraordinary difficulty of such a mission. +"It is the General-sahib's order, and he wishes you to go with me. Will +you come?" + +"Huzoor, have you ever gone anywhere without me since you came to my hut +that night when I was stricken with smallpox--" + +"Only once, you rascal, and then you came after me to my great good +fortune. Very well, then; that is settled. Stop raising dust and listen. +We ride to-night. Let us discuss the manner of our traveling, for 'tis a +long road and full of mischief." + +Chumru laid aside the garment and tickled his wiry hair underneath his +turban. + +"By the Kaaba," he growled, "such roads lead to Jehannum more easily +than to Delhi. Do you go to the Princess Roshinara, sahib?" + +Malcolm's overwrought feelings found vent in a hearty laugh. + +"What fiend tempted thee to think of her, owl?" he cried. + +"Nay, sahib, no fiend other than a woman. What else would bring your +honor to Delhi? Is there not occupation here in plenty?" + +"I tell thee, image, that the General-sahib hath ordered it. And I am +making for the British camp on the Ridge, not for the city." + +Chumru dismissed the point. He was a fatalist and he probably reserved +his opinion. Malcolm had beguiled the long night after they left Rai +Bareilly with the story of his strange meetings with the King's +daughter. To the Eastern mind there was Kismet in such happenings. + +"I would you had not lost Bahadur Shah's pass, huzoor," he said. "That +would be worth a bagful of gold mohurs on the north road now. But, as +matters stand, we must fall back on walnut juice. You have blue eyes and +fair hair, alack, yet must we--" + +"What! Wouldst thou make me a brother of thine?" demanded Malcolm, +understanding that the walnut juice was intended to darken his skin. + +"There is no other way, huzoor. This is no ride of a night. We shall be +seven days, let us go at the best, and meeting budmashes at every mile. +If you did not talk Urdu like one of us, sahib, I should bid you die +here in peace rather than fall in the first village. Still, we may have +luck, and you can bandage your hair and forehead and swear that those +cursed Feringhis nearly cut your scalp off. But you must be rubbed all +over, sahib, until you are the color of brown leather, for we can have +no patches of white skin showing where, perchance, your garments are +rent." + +Malcolm saw the wisdom of the suggestion and fell in with it. While +Chumru went to compound walnut juice in the nearest bazaar, he, in +pursuance of the plan they had concocted together, got a native writer +to compile a letter which purported to emanate from Nana Sahib, and was +addressed to Bahadur Shah. It was a very convincing document. Malcolm +contributed a garbled history of recent events, and one of the Brahmin's +seals, which came into Havelock's possession when Cawnpore was occupied, +lent verisimilitude to the script. + +Then the Englishman covered himself with an oily compound that Chumru +assured him would darken his skin effectually before morning, though the +present effect was more obvious to the nose than to the eye. Chumru +donned his rissaldar Brahmin's uniform and Malcolm secured a similar +outfit from a native officer on the staff. Well-armed and well-mounted +the pair crossed the Ganges north of Bithoor, gained the Grand Trunk +Road and were far from the British column when they drew rein for their +first halt of more than an hour's duration. + +They had adventures galore on the road to Delhi, but Chumru's repertory +of oaths anent the Nazarenes, and Malcolm's dignified hauteur as a +messenger of the man who ranked higher in the native world than the +octogenarian king, carried them through without grave risk. True, they +had a close shave or two. + +Once a suspicious sepoy who knew every native officer in the 7th +Cavalry, to which corps "Rissaldar Ali Khan" was supposed to belong, had +to be quietly choked to death within earshot of a score of his own +comrades who were marching to the Mogul capital. On another occasion, a +moulvie, or Mohammedan priest, was nearly the cause of their undoing. +Malcolm was not sufficiently expert in the ritual of the Reka and this +shortcoming aroused the devotee's ire, but he was calmed by Chumru's +assurance that his excellent friend, Laiq Ahmed, was still suffering +from the wound inflicted by the condemned Giaours, and the storm blew +over. + +These incidents simply served to enliven a tedious journey. Its main +features were climatic discomfort and positive starvation. Rain storms, +hot winds, sweltering intervals of intolerable heat--these were vagaries +of nature and might be endured. But the absence of food was a more +serious matter. The passage to and fro of rebel detachments had +converted the Grand Trunk Road into a wilderness. The sepoys paid for +nothing and looted Mohammedans and Hindus alike. After two months of +constant pilfering the unhappy ryots had little left. For the most part +they deserted their hovels, gathered such few valuables as had escaped +the human locusts who devoured their substance, and either retreated to +remote villages or boldly sought a living in some other province. +Indeed, it may be said in all candor that the Mutiny caused far more +misery to the great mass of the people than to the foreign rulers +against whom it was supposed to be directed. The sufferings of the +English residents in India were terrible and the treatment meted out to +them was unspeakably vile, but for one English life sacrificed during +the country's red year there were five hundred natives killed by the +very men who professed to defend their interests. + +Malcolm and Chumru were given proof in plenty of this fact as they rode +along. Generations of local feuds had taught the villagers to construct +their rude shanties in such wise that any place of fairly large +population formed a strong fort. Where the ryots were collected in +sufficient numbers to render such a proceeding possible, they armed +themselves not only against the British but against all the world. + +Many times the travelers were fired at by men who took them for sepoys, +and they often found active hostilities in progress between a party of +desperate rebels who wanted food and a horde of sturdy villagers who +refused to treat with men in any sort of uniform. + +Still, they managed to live. In the fields they found ripening grain and +an abundance of that small millet or pulse-pea known as gram, which is +the staple food of horses in India. Occasionally Malcolm shot a peacock, +but shooting birds with a revolver is a difficult sport and wasteful of +ammunition. Where hares were plentiful Chumru seldom failed to snare one +during the night. These were feast days. At other times they chewed +millet and were thankful for small mercies. + +The journey occupied nearly twice the time of their original estimate. +Nejdi, good horse as he was, wanted a rest; Chumru's steed was liable to +break down any hour; and it was a sheer impossibility to obtain a +remount in that wasted tract. + +All things considered it was a wonderful achievement when, on the +evening of the eleventh day, they began their last march. + +They planned matters so that the Jumna lay between them and their goal. +When they left the tope of trees in which they had slept away the hot +hours their ostensible aim was the bridge of boats which carried the +Meerut road across the river into the imperial city. + +That was their story if they fell in with company. In reality they meant +to leave the dangerous locality with the best speed their horses were +capable of. There could be no doubt that Delhi was the stronghold of the +mutineers. Even discounting by ninety per cent the grandiloquent stories +they heard, it was evident that the British still held the ridge, but +were rather besieged than besiegers. For the rest, the natives were +assured that the foreign rule had passed forever. Their version of the +position was that "great fighting took place daily and the Nazarenes +were being slaughtered in hundreds." + +The one statement nullified the other. Malcolm reasoned, correctly +as it happened, that the British force was able to hold its own, but +not strong enough to take the city; that the Punjab was quiet and +that the general in command on the ridge was biding his time until +re-enforcements arrived. Therefore if Chumru and he could strike the +left bank of the Jumna, a few miles above Delhi, there should be no +difficulty in crossing the stream and reaching the British camp. + +For once, a well-laid scheme did not reveal unforeseen pitfalls. He had +the good fortune to fall in with a corps of irregular horse scouting for +a half-expected flank attack by the rebels, in the gray dawn of the +morning of August 11. Chumru and he were nearly shot by mistake, but +that is ever the risk of those who wear an enemy's uniform, and by this +time, John Company's livery was quite discredited in the land which he, +in his corporate capacity, had opened up to Europeans. + +Moreover, between dirt and walnut-stain Malcolm was like an animated +bronze statue, and it was good to see the incredulous expression on a +brother officer's face when he rode up with the cheery cry: + +"By Jove, old fellow, I am glad to see you. I am Malcolm of the 3d +Cavalry, and I have brought news from General Havelock." + +The leader of the scouting party, a stalwart subaltern of dragoons, +thought that it was a piece of impudence on the part of this "dark" +stranger to address him so familiarly. + +"I happen to be acquainted with Mr. Malcolm--" he began. + +"Not so well as I know him, Saumarez," said Frank, laughing. He had not +counted on his disguise being so complete. But the laugh proved his +identity, for there is more distinctive character in a man's mirth than +in any other inflection of the voice. + +Saumarez testified to an amazed recognition in the approved manner of a +dragoon. + +"Either you are Malcolm or I am bewitched," he cried. Then he looked at +Chumru. + +"This gentleman, no doubt, is at least a brigadier," he went on. "But, +joking apart, have you really ridden from Allahabad?" + +The question showed the lack of information of events farther south +that obtained in the Punjab. By this time the sepoys had torn down +the telegraph posts and cut the wires in all directions. Even between +Cawnpore and Calcutta, whenever they crossed the Grand Trunk Road they +destroyed the telegraph. As one of them said, looking up at a damaged +pole which was about to serve as his gallows: + +"Ah, you are able to hang me now because that cursed wire strangled all +of us in our sleep." + +His metaphor was correct enough. There is no telling what might have +been the course of history in India if the sepoys had stopped +telegraphic communication from the North to Calcutta early in May. + +Malcolm gave Saumarez a summary of affairs in the Northwest Provinces +as they rode on ahead of the troop. + +"And now," he said, "how do matters stand here?" + +"You have used the right word," said the other. "Stand! That is just +what we are doing. We've had three commander-in-chiefs and each one is +more timid than his predecessor. Thank goodness Nicholson arrived four +days ago. Things will begin to move now." + +"Is that the Peshawar Nicholson?" asked Frank, remembering that Hodson +had spoken of a man of that name, a man who would "horse-whip into the +saddle" a general who feared to assume responsibility. + +"Yes. Haven't you seen him? By gad, he's a wonder. A giant of a fellow +with an eye like a hawk and a big black beard that seems, somehow, to +suggest a blacksmith. He turned up at our mess on the first evening he +was in camp. Everybody was laughing and joking as usual and he never +said a word. I didn't understand it at the time, but I noticed that +Nicholson just glowered at each man who told a funny story, and, by +degrees, we were all sitting like mutes at a funeral. Then he said, in a +deep voice that made us jump: 'When some of you gentlemen can spare me a +moment I shall be glad to hear what you have been doing here during the +last ten weeks.' There was no sneer in his words. We have had fighting +enough, Heaven knows, but we felt that by 'doing' he meant 'attacking,' +not 'defending.' Sure as death, he will create a stir. Indeed, the +leaven is working already. He sent me out here this morning, as he has +gone to meet the movable column from Lahore, and there was a rumor of a +sortie from Delhi to cut it off." + +Malcolm fresh from association with Havelock realized that a grave and +serious-minded soldier could ill brook the jests and idle talk that +dominated the average military mess of the period. + +"Nicholson sounds like the right man in the right place," he commented. + +The dragoon vouched for it emphatically. + +"He has put an end to pony-racing and quoits," said he, "and there is to +be no more fighting in our shirt sleeves. Bear in mind, we have had a +deuce of a time. I've been in twenty-one fights myself, and that is not +all. The sepoys usually swarm out hell-for-leather and we rush to meet +them. There is a scrimmage for an hour or so, we shove 'em back, Hodson +gets in a bit of saber-work, we pick up the wounded, tell off a burial +party, and start a cricket match or a gymkhana. Of course the fighting +is stiff while it lasts and my regiment has lost its two best bowlers, a +really sound bat and a crack rider in the pony heats. Still if we don't +lose any ground we gain none, and I can't help agreeing with Nicholson +that war isn't a picnic." + +Frank managed not to smile at the naivete of his companion. Though +Saumarez was nearly his own age he felt that their difference in rank +was not nearly so great as the divergence in their conception of the +magnitude of the task before Britain in India. Nevertheless Saumarez saw +that Nicholson was a force, and that was something. + +"Is the Hodson you mention the same man who rode from Kurnaul to Meerut +before the affair of Ghazi-ud-din-Nuggur?" he asked. + +"Yes, same chap. A regular firebrand and no mistake. He has gathered a +crowd of dare-devils known as Hodson's Horse, and they go into action +with a dash that I thought was only to be found in regular cavalry. But +here we are at our ghat. That is a weedy-looking Arab you are +riding--plenty of bone, though. Will he go aboard a budgerow without any +fuss?" + +"Oh, yes. He will do most things," was the quiet reply. + +Malcolm dismounted and fondled Nejdi's black muzzle. How little the +light-hearted dragoon guessed what those two had endured together! Nejdi +as a weed was a new role. For an instant Frank thought of making a match +with his friend's best charger after Nejdi had had a week's rest. + +It was altogether a changed audience that Havelock's messenger secured +that evening when Nicholson rode to the ridge with the troops sent from +the north by Sir John Lawrence, Edwardes, and Montgomery, while the +generosity of Bartle Frere in sending from Scinde regiments he could ill +spare should be mentioned in the same breath. + +Saumarez's "giant of a fellow" was there, and Archdale Wilson, the +commander-in-chief, and Neville Chamberlain, and Baird-Smith, and Hervey +Greathed. Inspired by the presence of such men Malcolm entered upon a +full account of occurrences at Lucknow, Cawnpore and elsewhere during +the preceding month. His hearers were aware of Henry Lawrence's death +and the beginning of the siege of Lucknow. They had heard of Massacre +Ghat, the Well, and Havelock's advance, but they were dependent on +native rumor and an occasional spy for their information, and Frank's +epic narrative was the first complete and true history that had been +given them. + +He was seldom interrupted. Occasionally when he was tempted to slur over +some of the dangers he had overcome personally, a question from one or +other of the five would force him to be more explicit. + +Naturally, he spoke freely of the magnificent exploits of Havelock's +column and he saw Nicholson ticking off each engagement, each tremendous +march, each fine display of strategic genius on the part of the general, +with an approving nod and shake of his great beard. + +"You have done well, young man," said General Wilson when Frank's long +recital came to an end. "What rank did you hold on General Havelock's +staff?" + +"That of major, sir." + +"You are confirmed in the same rank here. I have no doubt your services +will be further recognized at the close of the campaign." + +"If Havelock had the second thousand men he asked for he would now be +marching here," growled Nicholson. + +No one spoke for a little while. The under meaning of the giant's words +was plain. Havelock had moved while they stood still. The criticism was +a trifle unjust, perhaps, but men with Napoleonic ideas are impatient +of the limitations that afflict their less powerful brethren. If India +were governed exclusively by Nicholsons, Lawrences, Havelocks, Hodsons, +and Neills, there would never have been a mutiny. It was Britain's rare +good fortune that they existed at all and came to the front when the +fiery breath of war had scorched and shriveled the nonentities who held +power and place at the outbreak of hostilities. + +Then some one passed a remark on Frank's appearance. He was bareheaded. +The fair hair and blue eyes that had perplexed Chumru looked strangely +out of keeping with his brown skin. + +"How in the world did you manage to escape detection during your ride +north?" he was asked. + +He explained Chumru's device, and they laughed. Like Havelock, +Baird-Smith thought the Mohammedan would make a good soldier. + +"With all his pluck, sir, he is absolutely afraid of using a pistol," +said Frank. "He was offered the highest rank as a native officer, but he +refused it." + +"Then, by gad, we must make him a zemindar. Tell him I said so and that +we all agree on that point." + +When Frank gave the message to Chumru it was received with a demoniac +grin. + +"By the Holy Kaaba," came the gleeful cry, "I told the Moulvie of +Fyzabad that I was in the way of earning a jaghir, and behold, it is +promised to me!" + +Next day Malcolm, somewhat lighter in tint after a hot bath, made +himself acquainted with the camp. Seldom has war brought together such +a motley assemblage of races as gathered on the Ridge during the siege +of Delhi. The far-off isles of the sea were represented by men from +every shire, and Britain's mixed heritage in the East sent a bewildering +variety of types. Small, compactly built Ghoorkahs hobnobbed with +stalwart Highlanders; lively Irishmen made friends of gaunt, saturnine +Pathans; bearded Sikhs extended grave courtesies to pert-nosed Cockneys; +"gallant little Wales" might be seen tending the needs of wounded +Mohammedans from the Punjab. The language bar proved no obstacle to the +men of the rank and file. A British private would sit and smoke in +solemn and friendly silence with a hook-nosed Afghan, and the two would +rise cheerfully after an hour passed in that fashion with nothing in +common between them save the memory of some deadly thrust averted when +they fought one day in the hollow below Hindu Rao's house, or a draught +of water tendered when one or other lay gasping and almost done to death +in a struggle for the village of Subsee Mundee. + +The British soldier, who has fought and bled in so many lands, showed +his remarkable adaptability to circumstances by the way in which he made +himself at home on the reverse slope of the Ridge. A compact town had +sprung up there with its orderly lines of huts and tents, its long rows +of picketed horses, commissariat bullocks and elephants, its churches, +hospitals, playgrounds, race-course and cemetery. + +Malcolm took in the general scheme of things while he walked along the +Ridge towards the most advanced picket at Hindu Rao's House. On the left +front lay Delhi, beautiful as a dream in the brilliant sunshine. The +intervening valley was scarred and riven with water-courses, strewn with +rocks, covered with ruined mosques, temples, tombs, and houses, and +smothered in an overgrowth of trees, shrubs, and long grasses. Roads +were few, but tortuous paths ran everywhere, and it was easy to see how +the rebels could steal out unobserved during the night and creep close +up to the pickets before they revealed their whereabouts by a burst of +musketry. Happily they never learnt to reserve their fire. Every man +would blaze away at the first alarm, and then, of course, in those days +of muzzle-loaders, the more resolute British troops could get to close +quarters without serious loss. Still the men who held the Ridge had many +casualties, and until Nicholson came the rebel artillery was infinitely +more powerful than the British. Behind his movable column, however, +marched a strong siege train. When that arrived the gunners could make +their presence felt. Thus far not one of the enemy's guns had been +dismounted. + +Frank had ocular proof of their strength in this arm before he +reached Hindu Rao's house. The Guides, picturesque in their loose, +gray-colored shirts and big turbans, sent one of their cavalry squadrons +over the Ridge on some errand. They moved at a sharp canter, but the +Delhi gunners had got the range and were ready, and half a dozen +eighteen-pound balls crashed into the trees and rocks almost in the +exact line of advance. A couple of guns on the British right took up the +challenge, and the duel went on long after the Guides were swallowed up +in the green depths of the valley. + +At last Malcolm stood in the shelter-trench of the picket and gazed at +the city which was the hub of the Mutiny. Beyond the high, red-brick +walls he saw the graceful dome and minarets of the Jumma Musjid, while +to the left towered the frowning battlements of the King's palace. To +the left again, and nearer, was the small dome of St. James's Church +with its lead roof riddled then, as it remains to this day, with the +bullets fired by the rebels in the effort to dislodge the ball and cross +which surmounted it. For the rest his eyes wandered over a noble array +of mosques and temples, flat-roofed houses of nobles of the court and +residences of the wealthy merchants who dwelt in the imperial city. + +The far-flung panorama behind the walls had a curiously peaceful aspect. +Even the puffs of white smoke from the guns, curling upwards like tiny +clouds in the lazy air, had no tremors until a heavy shot hurtled +overhead or struck a resounding blow at the already ruined walls of the +big house near the post. + +The 61st were on picket that day and one of the men, speaking with a +strong Gloucestershire accent, said to Malcolm: + +"Well, zur, they zay we'll be a-lootin' there zoon." + +"I hope so," was the reply, but the phrase set him a-thinking. + +Within that shining palace most probably was a woman to whom he owed his +life. In another palace, many a hundred miles away, was another woman +for whom he would willingly risk that life if only he could save her +from the fate that the private of the 61st was gloating over in +anticipation. + +What a mad jumble of opposites was this useless and horrible war! At any +rate why could not women be kept out of it and let men adjust their +quarrel with the stern arbitrament of sword and gun! + +Then he recalled Chumru's words anent the Princess Roshinara, and the +fancy seized him that if he were destined to enter Delhi with the +besiegers he would surely strive to repay the service she had rendered +Winifred and Mayne and himself at Bithoor. + +That is the way man proposes and that is why the gods smile when they +dispose of man's affairs. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +AT THE KING'S COURT + + +Without guns to breach the walls, even the heroic Nicholson was +powerless against a strongly fortified city. + +The siege train was toiling slowly across the Punjab, but the setting in +of the monsoon rendered the transit of heavy cannon a laborious task. + +On the 24th of August an officer rode in from the town of Baghput, +twenty-five miles to the north, to report that the train was parked +there for the night. + +"What sort of escort accompanies it?" asked Nicholson, when the news +reached him. + +"Almost exclusively natives and few in numbers at that," he was told. + +An hour later a native spy from Delhi came to the camp. + +"The mutineers are mustering for a big march," he said. "They are +providing guns, litters, and commissariat camels, and the story goes +that they mean to fight the Feringhis at Bahadurgarh." + +The place named was a large village, ten miles northwest of the ridge, +and Nicholson guessed instantly that the sepoys had planned the daring +coup of cutting off the siege train. With him, to hear was to act. He +formed a column of two thousand men and a battery of field artillery and +left the camp at dawn on the 25th. If a forced march could accomplish +it, he meant not only to frustrate the enemy's design but inflict a +serious defeat on them. + +Malcolm went with him and never had he taken part in a harder day's +work. The road was a bullock track, a swamp of mud amid the larger swamp +of the ploughed land and jungle. Horses and men floundered through it as +best they might. The guns often sank almost to the trunnions; many a +time the infantry had to help elephants and bullocks to haul them out. + +In seven hours the column only marched nine miles, and then came the +disheartening news that the spy's information was wrong. The rebels had, +indeed, sent out a strong force, but they were at Nujufgarh, miles away +to the right. + +Officers and men ate a slight meal, growled a bit, and swung off in the +new direction. At four o'clock in the afternoon they found the sepoy +army drawn up behind a canal, with its right protected by another canal, +and the center and left posted in fortified villages. Evidently, too, +a stout serai, or inn, a square building surrounding a quadrangle set +apart for the lodgment of camels and merchandise was regarded as a +stronghold. Here were placed six guns and the walls were loopholed for +musketry. + +In a word, had the mutineers been equal in courage and _morale_ to the +British troops, the resultant attack must have ended in disastrous +failure. + +But Nicholson was a leader who took the measure of his adversaries. +Above all, he did not shirk a battle because it was risky. + +The 61st made a flank march, forded the branch canal under fire and were +ordered to lie down. Nicholson rode up to them, a commanding figure on a +seventeen-hands English hunter. + +"Now, 61st," he said, "I want you to take that serai and the guns. You +all know what Sir Colin Campbell told you at Chillianwallah, and you +have heard that he said the same thing at the battle of the Alma. 'Hold +your fire until you see the whites of their eyes,' he said, 'and then, +my boys, we will make short work of it.' Come on! Let us follow his +advice here!" + +Swinging his horse around, he rode straight at serai and battery. +Grape-shot and bullets sang the death-song of many a brave fellow, but +Nicholson was untouched. The 61st leaped to their feet with a yell, +rushed after him, and did not fire a shot until they were within twenty +yards of the enemy. A volley and the bayonet did the rest. They captured +the guns, carried the serai, and pelted the flying rebels with their own +artillery. The 1st Punjabis had a stiff fight before they killed every +man in the village of Nujufgarh on the left, but the battle was won, +practically in defiance of every tenet of military tactics, when the +61st forced their way into the serai. + +Utterly exhausted, the soldiers slept on the soddened ground. That +night, smoking a cigar with his staff, Nicholson commented on the skill +shown in the enemy's disposition. + +"I asked a wounded havildar who it was that led the column, and he told +me the commander was a new arrival, a subadar of the 8th Irregular +Cavalry, named Akhab Khan," he said. + +Malcolm started. Akhab Khan was the young sowar whose life he had spared +at Cawnpore when Winifred and her uncle and himself were escaping from +Bithoor. + +"I knew him well, sir," he could not help saying. "He was not a subadar, +but a lance-corporal. He was one of a small escort that accompanied me +from Agra to the south, but he is a smart soldier, and not at all of the +cut-throat type." + +Nicholson looked at him fixedly. He seemed to be considering some point +suggested by Malcolm's words. + +"If men like him are obtaining commands in Delhi they will prove +awkward," was his brief comment, and Frank did not realize what his +chief was revolving in his mind until, three days later, the Brigadier +asked him to don his disguise again, ride to the southward, and endeavor +to fall in with a batch of mutineers on the way to Delhi. Then he could +enter the city, note the dispositions for the defense, and escape by +joining an attacking party during one of the many raids on the ridge. + +"You will be rendering a national service by your deed," said Nicholson, +gazing into Frank's troubled eyes with that magnetic power that bent +all men to his will. "I know it is a distasteful business, but you are +able to carry it through, and five hours of your observation will be +worth five weeks of native reports. Will you do it?" + +"Yes, sir," said Malcolm, choking back the protest on his lips. He could +not trust himself to say more. He refused even to allow his thoughts to +dwell on such a repellent subject. A spy! What soldier likes the office? +It stifles ambition. It robs war of its glamour. It may call for a +display of the utmost bravery--that calm courage of facing an ignoble +death alone, unheeded, forgotten, which is the finest test of chivalry, +but it can never commend itself to a high-spirited youth. + +Frank had already won distinction in the field; it was hard to be chosen +now for such a doubtful enterprise. + +His worst hour came when he sought Chumru's aid in the matter of +walnut-juice. + +"What is toward, sahib?" asked the Mohammedan. "Have we not seen enough +of India that we must set forth once more?" + +"This time I go alone," said Frank, sadly. "Perchance I shall not be +long absent. You will remain here in charge of my baggage and of certain +letters which I shall give you." + +"Why am I cast aside, sahib?" + +"Nay. Say not so. 'Tis a matter that I must deal with myself, and not +of my own wish, Chumru. I obey the general-sahib's order." + +"Jan Nikkelsen-sahib Bahadur?" + +"Yes. I would refuse any other. But haste thee, for time presses." + +Chumru went off. He returned in half an hour, to find his master sealing +a letter addressed to "Miss Winifred Mayne, to be forwarded, if +possible, with the Lucknow Relief Force." + +There were others to relatives in England, and Frank tied them in a +small packet. + +"If I do not come back within a week--" he began. + +"Nay, sahib, give not instructions to me in the matter. I go with you." + +"It is impossible." + +"Huzoor, it is the order of Jan Nikkelsen-sahib Bahadur. He says I will +be useful, and he hath promised me another jaghir." + +The Mohammedan's statement was true enough. He had waylaid Nicholson and +obtained permission to accompany his master. Like a faithful dog he was +not to be shaken off, and, in his heart of hearts, Malcolm was glad of +it. + +Their preparations were made with the utmost secrecy. The same men who +sold Bahadur Shah's cause to the British were also the professed spies +of the rebels. They were utterly unreliable, yet their tale-bearing in +Delhi might bring instant disaster to Malcolm and his native comrade. + +Nejdi was in good condition again after the tremendous exertions +undergone since he carried his master from Lucknow. Malcolm was in two +minds whether to take him or not, but the chance that his life might +depend on a reliable horse, and, perhaps, a touch of the gambler's +belief in luck, swayed his judgment, and Nejdi was saddled. Chumru rode +a spare charger which Malcolm had purchased at the sale of a dead +officer's effects. Fully equipped in their character as rebel +non-commissioned officers, the two rode forth, crossed the Jumna, +reached the Meerut road unchallenged and turned their horses' heads +toward the bridge of boats that debouched beneath the walls of the +King's palace. + +Provided they met some stragglers on the road they meant to enter the +city with the dawn. By skilful expenditure of money on Malcolm's part +and the exercise of Chumru's peculiar inventiveness in maintaining a +flow of lurid language, they counted on keeping their new-found comrades +in tow while they made the tour of the city. The curiosity of strangers +would be quite natural, and Malcolm hoped they might be able to slip out +again with some expedition planned for the night or the next morning. + +Of course, having undertaken an unpleasant duty he intended to carry it +through. If he did not learn the nature and extent of the enemy's +batteries, the general dispositions for the defense and the state of +feeling among the different sections that composed the rebel garrison, +he must perforce remain longer. But that was in the lap of fate. At +present he could only plan and contrive to the best of his ability. + +Fortune favored the adventurers at first. They encountered a score of +ruffians who had cut themselves adrift from the Gwalior contingent. +Among these strangers Chumru was quickly a hero. He beguiled the way +with tales of derring-do in Oudh and the Doab, and discussed the future +of all unbelievers with an amazing gusto. Malcolm, whose head was +shrouded in a gigantic and blood-stained turban, listened with interest +to his servant's account of the actions outside Cawnpore and on the road +to Lucknow. It was excellent fooling to hear Chumru detailing the +wholesale slaughter of the Nazarenes, while the victors, always the +sepoys, found it advisable to fall back on a strategic position many +miles in the rear after each desperate encounter. + +In this hail-fellow-well-met manner the party crossed the bridge, were +interrogated by a guard at the Water Gate and admitted to the fortress. +It chanced that a first-rate feud was in progress, and the officer, +whose duty it was to question new arrivals, was taking part in it. + +Money was short in the royal treasury. Many thousands of sepoys had +neither been paid nor fed; there was a quarrel between Mohammedans and +Hindoos, because the former insisted on slaughtering cattle; and the +more respectable citizens were clamoring for protection from the +rapacity, insolence and lust of the swaggering soldiers. + +That very day matters had reached a climax. Malcolm found a brawling mob +in front of the Lahore gate of the palace. He caught Chumru's eye and +the latter appealed to a sepoy for information as to the cause of the +racket. + +"The King of Kings hath a quarrel with his son, Mirza Moghul, who is not +over pleased with the recent division of the command," was the answer. + +"What, then? Is there more than one chief?" + +"To be sure. Is there not the Council of the Barah Topi? (Twelve Hats.) +Are not Bakht Khan and Akhab Khan in charge of brigades? Where hast thou +been, brother, that these things are not known to thee?" + +"Be patient with me, I pray thee, friend. I and twenty more, whom thou +seest here, have ridden in within the hour. We come to join the Jehad, +and we are grieved to find a dispute toward when we expected to be led +against the infidels." + +The sepoy laughed scornfully. + +"You will see as many fights here as outside the walls," he muttered, +and moved off, for men were beginning to guard their tongues in Imperial +Delhi. + +A rowdy gang of full five hundred armed mutineers marched up and hustled +the mob right and left as they forced a way to the gate. Their words and +attitude betokened trouble. The opportunity was too good to be lost. +Malcolm dismounted, gave the reins to Chumru, and told him to wait his +return under some trees, somewhat removed from the road, for Akhab Khan +had sharp eyes, and the Mohammedan's grotesque face was well known to +him. Chumru made a fearsome grimace, but Malcolm's order was peremptory. +Summoning a fruit-seller, the bearer led the Gwalior men to the +rendezvous named and distributed mangoes amongst them. + +Frank joined the ruck of the demonstrators and passed through the +portals of the magnificent gate. A long, high-roofed arcade, spacious as +the nave of a cathedral, with raised marble platforms for merchants on +each side, gave access to a quadrangle. In the center stood a fountain, +and round about were grassy lawns and beds of flowers. + +The sepoys tramped on, heedless of the destruction they caused in the +garden. They passed through the noble Nakar Khana, or music-room, and +entered another and larger square, at the further end of which stood the +Diwan-i-Am, or Hall of Public Audience. + +Not even in Agra, and certainly not in gaudy Lucknow, had Malcolm seen +any structure of such striking architectural effect. The elegant roof +was supported on three rows of red sandstone pillars, adorned with +chaste gilding and stucco-work. Open on three sides, the audience +chamber was backed by a wall of white marble, from which a staircase led +to a throne raised about ten feet from the ground and covered with a +rarely beautiful marble canopy borne on four small pillars. + +The throne was empty, but an attendant appeared through the door at the +foot of the stairs, and announced that the Light of the World would +receive his faithful soldiers in a few minutes. + +The impatient warriors snorted their disapproval. They did not like to +be kept waiting, but carried their resentment no further, and Malcolm, +with alert eyes and ears, moved about among them, as by that means he +hoped to avoid attracting attention. + +Even in that moment of deadly peril he could not help admiring the +exquisite skill with which the great marble wall was decorated with +mosaics and paintings of the fauna and flora of India. The mosaics were +wholly composed of precious stones, and the paintings were executed in +rich tints that told of a master hand. There was nothing bizarre or +crude in their conception. They might have adorned some Athenian temple +in the heyday of Greece, and were wholly free from the stiff drawing and +flamboyant coloring usually seen in the East. He did not then know that +a renegade Venetian artist, Austin de Bordeaux, had carried out this +work for Shah Jehan, that great patron of the arts, and in any event, +his appreciation of their excellence was spasmodic, for the broken words +he heard from the excited soldiery warned him that a crisis was imminent +in the fortunes of Delhi. + +"Who is he, then, this havildar of gunners from Bareilly?" said one. + +"And the other, Akhab Khan. They say he fought for the Nazarenes at +Meerut. Mohammed Latif swears he defended the treasury there," chimed in +another. + +"As for me, I care not who leads. I want my pay." + +"I, too. I have not eaten since sunrise yesterday." + +"We shall get neither food nor money till some one clears those accursed +Feringhis off the hill," growled a deep voice close behind Malcolm. + +There was something familiar in the tone. Frank edged away and glanced +at the speaker, whom he recognized instantly as a subadar in his own old +regiment. + +But now a craning of necks and a sudden hush of the animated talk showed +that some development was toward. Servants entered with cushions, which +they disposed round the foot of the throne and at the base of its +canopy. A few nobles and court functionaries lounged in, two gorgeously +appareled guards came through the doorway, and behind them tottered a +feeble old man, robed in white, and wearing on his head an aigrette of +Bird of Paradise plumes, fastened with a gold clasp in which sparkled an +immense emerald. + +Malcolm had seen Bahadur Shah only once before. He remembered how +decorous and dignified was the Mogul court when Britain paid honor to an +ancient dynasty. And now, what a change! The aged emperor had to lift a +trembling hand to obtain a hearing, while, ever and anon, even during +his short address, belated officers and troopers clattered in on +horseback, and did not dismount within the precincts of the sacred Hall +of Audience itself. + +He began by explaining timorously that while affairs remained in their +present unsettled condition he could not arrange matters as he would +have wished. He knew that there were arrears of pay and that the food +supply was irregular. + +"But you do not help me," he said, with some display of spirit. +"Respectable citizens tell me that you plunder their houses and debauch +their wives and daughters. I have issued repeated injunctions +prohibiting robbery and oppression in the city, but to no avail." + +He was interrupted with loud murmurs. + +"What matters it about the bazaar-folk, O King," yelled a sepoy. "We +want food, not a sermon." + +The Emperor seemed to fire up with indignation at the taunt, but he sank +into the chair on the throne. He raised a hand twice to quiet the mob, +and at last they allowed him to continue. + +"I am weary and helpless," he said faintly. "I have resolved to make a +vow to pass the remainder of my life in service acceptable to Allah. I +will relinquish my title and take the garb of a moullah. I am going to +the shrine of Khwaja Sahib, and thence to Mecca, where I hope to end my +sorrowful days." + +This was not the sort of consolation that the mob expected or wanted. A +howl of execration burst forth, but it was stayed by the entrance of two +people from the private portion of the palace. + +There was no need that Malcolm should ask who the pale, haughty, +beautiful woman was who came and stood by her father's side. Roshinara +Begum did not share the Emperor's dejection. She faced the rebels now +with the air of one who knew them for the _canaille_ they were. But that +was only for an instant. A consummate actress, she had a part to play, +and she bent and whispered something to Bahadur Shah with a great show +of pleased vivacity. + +A man who accompanied her stepped to the front of the throne, and his +words soon revealed to Malcolm that he was listening to the Shahzada, +the heir apparent, Mirza Moghul. + +"Why do you come hither to disturb the King's pious meditations?" he +cried angrily. "You were better employed at the batteries, where your +loyal comrades are now firing a salute of twenty-one guns to celebrate +the capture of Agra by the Neemuch Brigade." + +He paused. His statement was news to all present, as, indeed, it well +might be, seeing that it was a lie. But his half petulant, half boastful +tone was convincing, and several voices were raised in a cry of +"Shabash! Good hearing!" + +"This is no time to create mischief and disunion," he went on loudly. +"Help is coming from all quarters. Gwalior, Jhansi, Neemuch and Lucknow +are sending troops to aid us. In three or four days, if Allah be +willing, the Ridge will be taken, and every one of the base unbelievers +humbled and ruined and sent to the fifth circle of hell." + +The man had the actor's trick of making his points. Waiting until an +exultant roar of applause had died away, he delivered his most effective +hit. + +"At the very time you dared to burst in on the Emperor's privacy he was +arranging a loan with certain local bankers that will enable all arrears +of pay to be made up. To-day there will be a free issue of cattle, grain +and rice. Go, then! Tell these things to all men, and trust to the King +of Kings and his faithful advisers, of whom I am at once the nearest and +the most obedient, to lead you to victory against the Nazarenes." + +For the hour these brave words sufficed. The sepoys trooped out and +Malcolm went with them. A backward glance revealed the princess and her +brother engaged in a conversation with Bahadur Shah and a courtier or +two. Their gestures and manner of argument did not bear out the joyful +tidings brought to the conclave by the Shahzada. Indeed, Frank guessed +that they were soundly rating the miserable monarch for having allowed +himself to speak so plainly to his beloved subjects. + +Malcolm knew there was not a word of truth in Mirza Moghul's brief +speech. The Gwalior contingent had gone to Cawnpore. All the men +Bareilly had to send had already arrived with Bakht Khan, the "havildar +of artillery," who was now the King's right hand man. Jhansi, Neemuch +and Lucknow had enough troubles of their own without helping Delhi, and, +as for the bankers' aid, it was easy to guess the nature of the "loan" +that the Emperor hoped to extract from them. + +Indeed, while Malcolm and Chumru and their new associates were wandering +through the streets and making the circuit of the western wall, there +was another incipient riot in the fort. Delay in issuing the promised +rations enraged the hungry troops. A number hurried again to the +Diwan-i-Am, clamored for the king's presence, and told him roundly that +he ought to imprison his sons, who, they said, had stolen their pay. + +"If the Treasury does not find the money," was the threat, "we will kill +you and all your family, for we are masters." + +This later incident came to Malcolm's ears while Chumru was persuading a +grain-dealer to admit that he had some corn hidden away. The sight of +money unlocked the man's lips. + +"Would there were more like you in the King's service," he whined. "I +have not taken a rupee in the way of trade since the huzoors were driven +forth." + +It was easy enough to interpret the unhappy tradesman's real wishes. He +was pining for the restoration of the British Raj. Every man in Delhi, +who had anything to lose, mourned the day that saw the downfall of the +Sirkar.[22] + +[Footnote 22: The Government.] + +"Affairs go badly, then," Malcolm put in. "Speak freely, friend. We are +strangers, and are minded to go back whence we came, for there is naught +but misrule in the city so far as we can see." + +"What can you expect from an old man who writes verses when he should be +punishing malefactors?" said the grain-dealer, bitterly anxious to vent +his wrongs. "If you would act wisely, sirdar, leave this bewitched +place. It is given over to devils. I am a Hindu, as you know, but I am +worse treated by the Brahmins than by men of your faith." + +"Mayhap you have quarreled with some of the sepoys and have a sore +feeling against them?" + +"Think not so, sirdar. Who am I to make enemies of these lords? Every +merchant in the bazaar is of my mind, and I have suffered less than +many, for I am a poor man and have no family." + +In response to Chumru's request the grain-dealer allowed the men to cook +their food in an inner courtyard. While Malcolm extracted additional +details as to the chaos that reigned in the city the newcomers from +Gwalior consulted among themselves. They had seen enough to be convinced +that there were parts of India much preferable to Delhi for residential +purposes. + +"Behold, sirdar!" said one of them after they had eaten, "you led us in, +and now we pray you lead us out again. There are plenty here to fight +the Feringhis, and we may be more useful at Lucknow." + +Malcolm could have laughed at the strangeness of his position, but he +saw in this request the nucleus of a new method of winning his way +beyond the walls. + +"Bide here," he said gruffly, "until Ali Khan and I return, which we +will surely do ere night. Then we shall consider what steps to take. At +present, I am of the same mind as you." + +He wanted to visit the Cashmere Gate and examine its defenses. Then, he +believed, he would have obtained all the information that Nicholson +required. He was certain that Delhi would fall if once the British +secured a footing inside the fortifications. The city was seething with +discontent. Even if left to its own devices it would speedily become +disrupted by the warring elements within its bounds. + +Chumru and he rode first to the Mori Gate. Thence, by a side road, they +followed the wall to the Cashmere Gate. Traveling as rapidly as the +crowded state of the thoroughfare permitted and thus wearing the +semblance of being engaged on some urgent duty, they counted the guns +in each battery and noted their positions. + +Arrived at the Cashmere Gate they loitered there a few minutes. This was +the key of Delhi. Once it was won, a broad road led straight to the +heart of the city, with the palace on one hand and the Chandni Chowk on +the other. + +Malcolm saw with a feeling of unutterable loathing that the mutineers +had converted St. James's Church into a stable. Not so had the founder, +Colonel James Skinner, treated the religions of the people among whom he +lived. The legend goes that the gallant soldier, a veteran of the +Mahratta wars, had married three wives, an Englishwoman, a Mohammedan, +and a Hindu. His own religious views were of the nebulous order, but, so +says the story, being hard pressed once in a fight, he vowed to build a +church to his wife's memory if he escaped. His assailants were driven +off and the vow remained. When he came to give effect to it he was +puzzled to know which wife he should honor, so he built a church, a +mosque and a temple, each at a corner of the triangular space just +within the Cashmere Gate. + +Whether the origin of the structures is correctly stated or not, they +stand to this day where Skinner's workmen placed them, and it was a +dastardly act on the part of men who worshiped in mosque and temple to +profane the hallowed shrine of another and far superior faith. + +Malcolm was sitting motionless on Nejdi, looking at a squad of rebels +erecting fascines in front of a new battery on the river side of the +gate, when Chumru, whose twisted vision seemed to command all points of +the compass, saw that the commander of a cavalry guard stationed there +was regarding them curiously. + +"Turn to the right, huzoor," he muttered. + +Malcolm obeyed instantly. The warning note in Chumru's voice was not to +be denied. It would be folly to wait and question him. + +"Now let us canter," said the other, as soon as the horses were fairly +in the main road. + +"You did well, sahib, to move quickly. There was one in the guard yonder +whose eyes grew bigger each second that he looked at you." + +They heard some shouting at the gate. A bend in the road near the ruined +offices of the _Delhi Gazette_ gave them a chance of increasing the pace +to a gallop. There was a long, straight stretch in front, leading past +the Telegraph Office, the dismantled magazine, and a small cemetery. +Then the road turned again, and by a sharp rise gained the elevated +plateau on which stood the fort. + +Glancing over his shoulder at this point, Malcolm caught sight of a +dozen sowars riding furiously after them. To dissipate any hope that +they might not be in pursuit, he saw the leader point in his direction +and seemingly urge on his comrades. It was impossible to know for +certain what had roused this nest of hornets, though the presence of a +man of the 3d Cavalry in the palace that morning was a sinister fact +that led to only one conclusion. No matter what the motive, he felt that +Chumru and he were trapped. There was no avenue of escape. Whether they +went ahead or made a dash for the city, their pursuers could keep them +well in sight, as their tired horses were incapable of a sustained +effort at top speed after having been on the move nearly twenty hours. + +He had to decide quickly, and his decision must be governed not by +personal considerations but by the needs of his country. If he had been +recognized, the enemy would follow him. Therefore, Chumru might outwit +them were he given a chance. + +"Listen, good friend," he shouted as they clattered up the hill. "Thou +seest the tope of trees in front." + +"Yes, sahib." + +"This, then, is my last order, and it must be obeyed. When we reach +those trees we will bear off towards the palace. Pull up there and +dismount. Give me the reins of your horse, and hide yourself quickly +among the trees. I shall ride on, and you may be able to dodge into some +ditch or nullah till it is dark. Rejoin those men from Gwalior if +possible, and try to get away from the city. Tell the General-sahib what +you have seen and that I sent you. Do you understand?" + +"Huzoor!--" + +"Silence! Wouldst thou have me fail in my duty? It is my parting wish, +Chumru. There is no time for words. Do as I say, or we both die +uselessly." + +There was no answer. The Mohammedan's eyes blazed with the frenzy of a +too complete comprehension of his master's intent. But now they were +behind the trees, and Malcolm was already checking Nejdi. Chumru flung +himself from the saddle and ran. Cowering amid some shrubs of dense +foliage, he watched Malcolm dashing along the road to the Lahore Gate of +the palace. A minute later the rebels thundered past, and they did not +seem to notice that one of the two horses disappearing in the curved +cutting that led to the drawbridge and side entrance of the gate was +riderless. + +Chumru ought to have taken immediate measures to secure his own safety. +But he did nothing of the kind. He lay there, watching the hard-riding +horsemen, and striving most desperately to do them all the harm that the +worst sort of malign imprecations could effect. They, in turn, vanished +in the sunken approach to the fortress, and the unhappy bearer was +imagining the horrible fate that had befallen the master, whom he loved +more than kith or kin, when he saw the same men suddenly reappear and +gallop towards the Delhi Gate, which was situated at a considerable +distance. + +Something had happened to disappoint and annoy them--that much he could +gather from their gestures and impassioned speech. Whatever it was, +Malcolm-sahib apparently was not dead yet, and while there is life there +is hope. + +Chumru proceeded to disrobe. He kicked off his boots, untied his +putties, threw aside the frock-coat and breeches of a cavalry +rissaldar, and stood up in the ordinary white clothing of a native +servant. + +"Shabash!" muttered he, as he unfastened the military badge in his +turban. "There is nothing like a change of clothing to alter a man. Now +I can follow my sahib and none be the wiser." + +With that he walked coolly into the roadway and stepped out leisurely +towards the Lahore Gate. But he found the massive door closed and the +drawbridge raised, and a gruff voice bade him begone, as the gate would +not be opened until the King's orders were received. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +IN THE VORTEX + + +Malcolm was not one to throw his life away without an effort to save it. +Once, during a visit to Delhi, Captain Douglas, the ill-fated commandant +of the Palace Guards, had taken him to his quarters for tiffin. As it +happened, the two entered by the Delhi Gate and walked through the +gardens and corridors to Douglas's rooms, which were situated over the +Lahore Gate. Thus he possessed a vague knowledge of the topography of +the citadel, and his visit that morning had refreshed his memory to a +slight extent. On that slender reed he based some hope of escape. In any +event he prayed that his ruse might better Chumru's chances, and he +promised himself a soldier's death if brought to bay inside the palace. + +Crossing the drawbridge at a fast gallop, he saw a number of guards +looking at him wonderingly. It occurred to him that the exciting events +of the early hours might have led to orders being given on the question +of admitting sepoys in large numbers. If that were so, he might gain +time by a bit of sheer audacity. At any rate, there was no harm in +trying. As he clattered through the gateway he shouted excitedly: + +"Close and bar the door! None must be admitted without the King's +special order!" + +The spectacle of a well-mounted sepoy officer, blood-stained and +travel-worn, who arrived in such desperate haste and was evidently +pursued by a body of horse, so startled the attendants that they banged +and bolted the great door without further ado. + +Already the story was going the rounds that the precious life of Bahadur +Shah had actually been threatened by the overbearing sepoys--what more +likely than that this hard-riding officer was coming to apprise his +majesty of a genuine plot, while the flying squadron in the rear was +striving to cut him down before the fateful message was delivered? + +Not to create too great a stir, Malcolm pulled up both horses at the +entrance to the arcade. + +He called a chaprassi and bade him hold Chumru's steed. Then, learning +from the uproar at the gate that the guards were obeying his +instructions literally, he went on at an easier pace. + +The palace was humming with excitement. Its numerous buildings housed a +multitude of court nobles and other hangers-on to the court, and each of +these had his special coterie of attendants who helped to advance their +own fortunes by clinging to their master's skirts. The jealousies and +intrigues that surround a throne were never more in evidence than at +Delhi during the last hours of the Great Mogul. Already men were +preparing for the final catastrophe. While the ignorant mob was firm in +its belief that the rule of the sahib had passed forever, those few +clearer-headed persons who possessed any claim to the title of statesmen +were convinced that the Mutiny had failed. + +Nearly four months were sped since that fatal Sunday when the rebellion +broke out at Meerut. And what had been achieved? Delhi, the pivot of +Mohammedan hopes, was crowded with a licentious soldiery, who obeyed +only those leaders that pandered to them, who fought only when some +perfervid moullah aroused their worst passions by his eloquence, and who +were terrible only to peaceful citizens. All public credit was +destroyed. The rule of the King, nominal within the walls of his own +palace, was laughed at in the city and ignored beyond its walls. The +provincial satraps and feudatory princes who should be striving to help +their sovereign were wholly devoted to the more congenial task of +carving out kingdoms for themselves. + +Nana Sahib, rehabilitated in Oudh, was opposing Havelock's advance; Khan +Bahadur Khan, an ex-pensioner of the Company, had set up a barbarous +despotism at Bareilly; the Moulvie of Fyzabad, intent on the destruction +of the Residency, meant to establish himself there as "King of +Hindustan" if only that stubborn entrenchment could be carried; Mahudi +Husain, Gaffur Beg, Kunwer Singh, the Ranee of Jhansi, and a host of +other prominent rebels scattered throughout Oudh, Bengal, the Northwest +Provinces and Central India, cared less for Delhi than for their own +private affairs, and were consequently permitting the British to gather +forces by which they could be destroyed piecemeal. + +From Nepaul, the great border state, lying behind the pestilential +jungle of the Terai, came an army of nine thousand Ghoorkahs to help the +British. At Hyderabad, the most powerful Mohammedan principality in +India, the Nizam and his famous minister, Sir Salar Jung, crushed a +Jehad with cannon and grape-shot. In a word, the orgy had ended, and the +day of reckoning was near. + +Malcolm, therefore, was confronted with two separate and hostile sets of +conditions. On the one hand, he was threading his way through a maze of +conflicting interests, and this was a circumstance most favorable to his +chances of escape; on the other, every man regarded his neighbor with +distrust and a stranger with positive suspicion, while Malcolm's +distinguished appearance could not fail to draw many inquiring eyes. + +He crossed the large garden beyond the arcade and was making for an arch +that gave access to the long covered passage leading to the Delhi Gate, +when he saw Akhab Khan standing there. + +The rebel leader was deep in converse with a richly-attired personage +whom Frank discovered afterwards to be the Vizier. Near Akhab Khan an +escort of sowars stood by their horses, and Malcolm felt that the +instant the former lance-corporal set eyes on either Nejdi or himself +recognition would follow as surely as a vulture knows its prey. + +He could neither dawdle nor hesitate. Wheeling Nejdi towards the nearest +arch on the left, he found himself in an open space between the walls of +the fortress and the outer line of buildings. Underneath the broad +terrace, from which troops could defend the battlements, stood a row of +storerooms and go-downs. At a little distance he could distinguish a +line of stables, and the mere sight sent the blood dancing through his +veins. + +If only he could evade capture until nightfall he would no longer feel +that each moment might find him making a last fight against impossible +odds. Dismounting, he led Nejdi to an unoccupied stall. As there was +nothing to be gained by half measures he removed saddle and bridle, hung +them on a peg, put a halter on the Arab, adjusted the heel-ropes, and +hunted the adjoining stalls for forage. + +He came upon some gram in a sack and a quantity of hay. All provender +was alike to Nejdi so long as it was toothsome. He was soon busily +engaged, and Malcolm resolved to avoid observation by grooming him when +any one passed whose gaze might be too inquisitive. + +He took care that sword and revolvers were handy. It was hard to tell +what hue and cry might be raised by the troopers against whom the guards +had closed the Lahore Gate. Perhaps they were searching for two men and +the finding of one horse in charge of a chaprassi might suggest that the +rider of the other and his companion had dodged through the Delhi Gate. +Again, his pursuers might have galloped straight to the other exit and +thus made certain that he was still in the palace. If that were so and +they ferreted him out, as well die here as elsewhere. Meanwhile, he +chewed philosophically at a few grains of the gram and awaited the +outcome of events that were now beyond his control. + +A wild swirl of wind and rain seemed to favor him. There was not much +traffic past his retreat, and that little ceased when a deluge lashed +the dry earth and clouds of vapor rose as though the water were beating +on an oven. Now and again a syce hurried past, with head and shoulders +enveloped in a sack. Once a party of sepoys trudged through the mud, +towards the water bastion of the palace, and the men whom they had +relieved came back the same way a few minutes later. + +Nejdi had seldom been groomed so vigorously as during the passing of +these detachments, but no one gave the slightest heed to the cavalry +officer who was engaged on such an unusual task. If they noticed him at +all it was to wonder that he could be such a fool as to work when there +were hundreds of loafers in the city who could be kicked to the job. + +The rain storm changed into a steady drizzle and the increasing gloom +promised complete darkness within half an hour. Malcolm was beginning to +plan his movements when he became aware of a man wrapped in a heavy +cloak who approached from the direction of the arcade and peered into +every nook and cranny. + +"Now," thought Frank, "comes my first real difficulty. That man is +searching for some one. Whether or not he seeks me he is sure to speak, +and if my presence has been reported he will recognize both Nejdi and me +instantly. If so, I must strangle him with as little ceremony as +possible." + +The newcomer came on. In the half light it was easy to see that he was +not a soldier but a court official. Indeed, before the searcher's glance +rested on the gray Arab, munching contentedly in his stall, or the tall +sowar who stood in obscurity near his head, Frank felt almost sure that +he was face to face with the trusted confidant who had carried out +Roshinara Begum's behests in the garden at Bithoor. + +That fact saved the native's life. The Englishman would have killed him +without compunction were it not for the belief that the man was actually +looking for him and for none other, and with friendly intent, too, else +he would have brought a bodyguard. + +Sure enough, the stranger's first words were of good import. He could +not see clearly into the dark stable and it was necessary to measure +one's utterances in Delhi just then. + +"If you are one who rode into Delhi this morning I would have speech +with you," he muttered softly. + +"Say on," said Malcolm, gripping his sword. + +"Nay, one does not give the Princess Roshinara's instructions without +knowing that they reach the ears they are meant for." + +The Englishman came out from the obscurity. He approached so quickly +that the native started back, being far from prepared for Frank's very +convincing resemblance to a rissaldar of cavalry. + +"I look for one--" he began, but Frank had no mind to lose time. + +"For Malcolm-sahib?" he demanded. + +"It might be some such name," was the hesitating answer. + +"I am he. I saw thee last at Bithoor, when I escaped with Mayne-sahib +and the missy-baba."[23] + +[Footnote 23: The familiar native title for a European young lady.] + +"By Mohammed! I would not have known you, sahib, though now I remember +your face. Come with me, and quickly. Each moment here means danger." + +"Ay, for thee. I am not one to be tricked so easily." + +"Huzoor, have I not sought you without arms or escort? I and another +have searched the palace these two hours. Leave your horse. I will have +him tended. Come, sahib, I pray you. The Begum awaits you, but there are +so many who know of your presence that I shall not be able to save you +if you fall into their hands." + +These were fair-seeming words with the ring of truth about them. At any +rate Malcolm's whereabouts were no longer a secret, and it would not be +war but murder to offer violence to one who came with good intent on his +lips if not in his heart. + +"Lead on," said Frank, sternly, "and remember that I shall not hesitate +to strike at the first sign of treachery." + +"I shall not betray you, sahib, but you must converse with me as we walk +and not draw too many eyes by holding a naked sword." + +This was so manifestly reasonable that Malcolm felt rather ashamed of +his doubts. Yet, he thought it best not to appear to relax his +precautions. + +"I would not pass through the palace with a sword in my hand," he said +with a quiet laugh, "but I have a pistol in my belt, and that will +suffice for six men." + +His guide set off at a rapid pace. When they were near the great arch +leading into the garden they halted in front of a small door in a +dimly-lighted building, and the native rapped twice with his knuckles on +three separate panels. Some bolts were drawn and the two were admitted, +the door being instantly barred behind them by an attendant. The +darkness in the passage was impenetrable. Frank held himself tensely, +but his companion's voice reached him from a little distance in front, +while he heard other bolts being drawn. + +"You will see your way more clearly now," was the reassuring message, +and when the second door was opened the rays of a lamp lit the stone +walls and floor. They went on, through lofty corridors, across +sequestered gardens and by way of many a stately chamber until another +narrow passage terminated in a barred door, guarded by an armed native. +The man's shrill voice betokened his calling, and Frank knew that he was +standing at the entrance to the zenana. + +"There is one other within," said the guard, leering at them. + +"Who is it, slave?" asked Frank's guide scornfully, for he was annoyed +by the eunuch's familiar tone. + +"Nay, I obey orders," was the tart response. "Enter, then, and may Allah +prosper you." + +There was a hint of danger in the otherwise excellent wish, but the man +unlocked the door, and they passed within. + +Frank's wondering eyes rested on a scene of fairy-like beauty, so +exquisite in its colorings and so unexpected withal, that not even his +desperate predicament could repress for an instant the feeling of +astonishment that overwhelmed him. He was standing in a white marble +chamber, pillared and roofed in the Byzantine style, while every shaft +and arch was chiseled into graceful lines and adorned with traceries or +carved festoons of fruit and flowers. The walls were brightened with +mosaics wrought in precious stones. Texts from the Koran in the flowing +Persi-Arabic script, ran above the arches. In the floor, composed of +colored tiles, was set a _pachisi_[24] board, as the wide entrance hall +to a European house might have a chess-board incorporated with the +design of the tiled floor. + +[Footnote 24: A game of the draughts order, much played by native +ladies.] + +Not a garish tint or inharmonious line interfered with the chaste +elegance of the white marble, and the whole apartment, which seemed to +be the ante-room of the ladies' quarters, was lighted with Moorish +lamps. + +Malcolm took in some of these details in one amazed glance, but his +thoughts were recalled sternly to the affairs of the moment by hearing +the ring of spurred heels on the sharp-sounding pavement from behind a +curtained arch. There was no time to retreat nor cross towards an alcove +that promised some slight screen from the soft and penetrating light +that filled the room. He saw that his guide was perturbed, but he asked +no question. With the quick military tread came the frou-frou of silk +and the footfall of slippered feet. Then the curtain was drawn aside and +Akhab Khan entered, followed by the Princess Roshinara. + +Malcolm had the advantage of a few seconds' warning. Even as Akhab Khan +placed his hand on the curtain the Englishman sprang forward, and the +astounded sowar, now a brigadier in the rebel forces, found himself +looking into the muzzle of a revolver. + +"Do not move till I bid you, Akhab Khan," said Malcolm, in his +self-contained way. "I am summoned hither, so I come, but it may be +necessary to secure a hostage for my safe conduct outside the walls +again." + +"You! Malcolm-sahib!" was Akhab Khan's involuntary outburst. + +"Yes, even I. Have you not heard, then, that I rode into the palace +to-day?" + +"There was a report that some Feringhis--some sahibs--were in the city +as spies--" + +"Malcolm-sahib is here because I sent for him," broke in Roshinara. + +"You--_sent_ for him!" + +Akhab Khan's swarthy features paled, and his eyes sparkled wrathfully. +Heedless of Malcolm's implied threat, or perhaps ignoring it, he wheeled +round on the Princess, and his right hand crossed to his sword-hilt. + +"If you so much as turn your head again or lift a hand without my order, +I blow your brains out," said Malcolm in the same unemotional tone. + +"Nay, let him attack a woman if it pleaseth him," cried Roshinara, who +had not drawn back one inch from the place where she was standing when +Malcolm confronted Akhab Khan and herself. "That is what our troops, +officers and men alike, are best fitted for. They love to swagger in the +bazaar, but their valor flies when they see the Ridge." + +Again quite indifferent to the fact that Malcolm's finger was on the +trigger, the rebel leader threw out his hands towards the Begum in a +gesture of agonized protest. + +"Do you not trust me, my heart?" he murmured. "If you knew of this +Nazarene's presence why was I not told?" + +"Because I wished to save you in spite of yourself. Because I would +mourn you if you fell in battle as befits a warrior and the man whom I +love, but I would not have you die on the scaffold, as most of the +others will die ere another month be sped. What hope have we of success? +If forty thousand sepoys cannot overcome the three thousand English on +the Ridge, how shall they prevail against the force that is now +preparing to storm Delhi? I sent for Malcolm-sahib that I might obtain +terms for my father and for thee, Akhab Khan. This man is now in our +power. Let us bargain with him. If he goes free to-day, let him promise +that we shall be spared when the gallows is busy in front of our +palace." + +Each word of this impassioned speech was a revelation to Malcolm. Here +was the fiery beauty of the Mogul court pleading for the lives of her +father and lover, pleading to him, a solitary Briton in the midst of +thousands of mutineers, a prisoner in their stronghold, a spy whose life +was forfeit by the laws of war. Hardly less bewildering than this turn +of fortune's wheel was the whirligig that promoted a poor trooper of the +Company to the position of accepted suitor for the hand of a royal +maiden. Never could there be a more complete unveiling of the Eastern +mind, with all its fatalism, its strange weaknesses, its uncontrollable +passions. + +Akhab Khan stretched out his arms again. + +"Forgive me, my soul, if I did doubt thee," he almost sobbed. + +The girl was the first to recover her self-control. + +"Put away your pistol," she said, fixing her fine eyes on Malcolm, with +a softness in their limpid depths that he had never seen there before. +"If we can contrive, my plighted husband and I, you will not need it +to-night. I was rejoiced to hear that you were within our gates. We are +beaten. I know it. We have lost a kingdom, because wretches like Nana +Dundhu Punt of Bithoor, have forgotten their oaths and preferred +drunken revels to empire. Were they of my mind, were they as loyal and +honorable as the man I hope to marry, we would have driven you and yours +into the sea, Malcolm-sahib. But Allah willed otherwise and we can only +bow to his decree. It is Kismet. I am content. Say, then, if you are +sent in safety to your camp, do you in return guarantee the two lives I +ask of you?" + +Malcolm could not help looking at Akhab Khan before he answered. The +handsome young soldier had folded his arms, and his eyes dwelt on +Roshinara's animated face with a sad fixity that bespoke at once his +love and his despair. + +Then the Englishman placed the revolver in his belt and bowed low before +the woman who reposed such confidence in him. + +"If the issue rested with me, Princess," he said, "you need have no fear +for the future. I am only a poor officer and I have small influence. Yet +I promise that such power as I possess shall be exerted in your behalf, +and I would remind you that we English neither make war on woman nor +treat honorable enemies as felons." + +"My father is a feeble old man," she cried vehemently. "It was not by +his command that your people were slain. And Akhab Khan has never drawn +his sword save in fair fight." + +"I can vouch for Akhab Khan's treatment of those who were at his mercy," +said Malcolm, generously. + +"Nay, sahib, you repaid me that night," said the other, not to be +outdone in this exchange of compliments. "But if I have the happiness to +find such favor with my lady that she plots to save me against my will I +cannot forget that I lead some thousands of sepoys who have faith in me. +You have been examining our defenses all day. Sooner would I fall on my +sword here and now than that I should connive at the giving of +information to an enemy which should lead to the destruction of my men." + +Malcolm had foreseen this pitfall in the smooth road that was seemingly +opening before him. + +"I would prefer to become the bearer of terms than of information," he +said. + +"Terms? What terms? How many hands in this city are free of innocent +blood? Were I or any other to propose a surrender we should be torn limb +from limb." + +"Then I must tell you that I cannot accept your help at the price of +silence. When I undertook this mission I knew its penalties. I am still +prepared to abide by them. Let me remind you that it is I, not you, who +can impose conditions within these four walls." + +Akhab Khan paled again. His was the temperament that shows anger by the +token which reveals cowardice in some men; it is well to beware of him +who enters a fight with bloodless cheeks and gray lips. But Roshinara +sprang between them with an eager cry: + +"What folly is this that exhausts itself on a point of honor? Does not +every spy who brings us details of each gun and picket on the Ridge tell +the sahib-log all that they wish to know of our strength and our +dissensions? Will not the man who warned us of the presence of an +officer-sahib in our midst to-day go back and sell the news of a sepoy +regiment's threat to murder the King? Have done with these idle +words--let us to acts! Nawab-ji!" + +"Heaven-born!" Malcolm's guide advanced with a deep salaam. + +"See to it that my orders are carried out. Mayhap thine own head may +rest easier on its shoulders if there is no mischance." + +The nawab-ji bowed again, and assured the Presence that there would be +no lapse on his part. Akhab Khan had turned away. His attitude betokened +utter dejection, but the Princess, not the first of her sex to barter +ambition for love, was radiant with hope. + +"Go, Malcolm-sahib," she whispered, "and may Allah guard you on the +way!" + +"I have one favor to ask," he said. "My devoted servant, a man named +Chumru--" + +She smiled with the air of a woman who breathes freely once more after +passing through some grave peril. + +"How, then, do you think I found out the identity of the English officer +who had dared to enter Delhi?" she asked. "Your man came to me, not +without difficulty, and told me you were here. It was he who inspired me +with the thought that your presence might be turned to good account. But +go, and quickly. He is safe." + +Frank hardly knew how to bid her farewell until he remembered that, if +of royal birth, Princess Roshinara was also a beautiful woman. He took +her hand and raised it to his lips, a most unusual proceeding in the +East, but the tribute of respect seemed to please her. + +Following the nawab he traversed many corridors and chambers and +ultimately reached an apartment in which Chumru was seated. That +excellent bearer was smoking a hookah, with a couple of palace servants, +and doubtless exchanging spicy gossip with the freedom of Eastern +manners and conversation. + +"Shabash!" he cried when his crooked gaze fell on Malcolm. "By the tomb +of Nizam-ud-din, there are times when women are useful." + +They were let down from a window on the river face of the palace and +taken by a boat to the bank of the Jumna above Ludlow Castle, while the +nawab undertook to deliver their horses next day at the camp. He carried +out his promise to the letter, nor did he forget to put forth a plea in +his own behalf against the hour when British bayonets would be probing +the recesses of the fort and its occupants. + +When Nicholson came out of the mess after supper he found Malcolm +waiting for an audience. Chumru, still wearing the servant's livery in +which the famous brigadier had last seen him, was squatting on the +ground near his master. The general was not apt to waste time in talk, +and he had a singular knack of reading men's thoughts by a look. + +"Glad to see you back again, Major Malcolm," he cried. "I hope you were +successful?" + +"It is for you to decide, sir, when you have heard my story," and +without further preamble Frank gave a clear narrative of his adventures +since dawn. Not a word did he say about the very things he had been sent +to report on, and Nicholson understood that a direct order alone would +unlock his lips. When Frank ended the general frowned and was silent. In +those days men did not hold honor lightly, and Nicholson was a fine type +of soldier and gentleman. + +"Confound it!" he growled, "this is awkward, very awkward," and Malcolm +felt bitterly that the extraordinary turn taken by events in the palace +was in a fair way towards depriving his superiors of the facts they were +so anxious to learn. Suddenly the big man's deep eyes fell on Chumru. + +"Here, you," he growled, "was aught said to thee whereby thou hast a +scruple to tell me how many guns defend the Cashmere Gate?" + +"Huzoor," said Chumru, "there are but two things that concern me, my +master's safety and the size of that jaghir your honor promised me." + +Nicholson laughed with an almost boyish mirth. + +"By gad," he cried, "you are fortunate in your friends, Malcolm." Then +he turned to Chumru again. "The jaghir is of no mean size," he said, +"but I shall see to it that a field is added for every useful fact you +make known." + +Frank listened to his servant's enumeration of the guns and troops at +the Lahore, Mori, and Cashmere Gates, and he was surprised at the +accuracy of Chumru's mental note-taking. + +"I need not have gone at all, sir," he could not help commenting when +the bearer had answered Nicholson's final question. "I seem to have a +Napoleon for a valet." + +The brigadier laid a kindly hand on Frank's shoulder. + +"You forget that you have brought me the most important news of all," he +said. "The enemy is defeated before the first ladder is planted against +their walls. They know it, and, thanks to you, now we know it. My only +remaining difficulty is not to take Delhi, but to screw up our Chief to +make the effort." + +Then his voice sank to a deep growl. + +"But I'll bring him to reason, I will, by Heaven, even if I risk being +cashiered for insubordination!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE EXPIATION + + +Two hours after midnight--that is a time of rest and peace in most +lands. Men have either ceased or not yet begun their toil. Even +warfare, the deadliest task of all, slackens its energy, and the ghostly +reaper leans on his scythe while wearied soldiers sleep. Wellington +knew this when he said that the bravest man was he who possessed +"two-o'clock-in-the-morning" courage, for shadows then become real, +and dangers anticipated but unseen are magnified tenfold. + +Yet, soon after two o'clock in the morning of September 14, 1857, four +thousand five hundred soldiers assembled behind the Ridge for the +greatest achievement that the Mutiny had demanded during the four months +of its wonderful history. They were divided into five columns, one being +a reserve, and the task before them was to carry by assault a strongly +fortified city, surrounded by seven miles of wall and ditch, held by +forty thousand trained soldiers and equipped with ample store of guns +and ammunition. Success meant the certain loss of one man among +four--failure would carry with it a rout and massacre unexampled in +modern war. + +Men had fallen in greater numbers in the Crimea, it is true--a British +army had been swallowed alive in the wild Khyber Pass--but these were +only incidents in prolonged campaigns, whereas the collapse of the +assailants of Delhi would set free a torrent of murder, rapine and +pillage, such as the utmost triumph of the rebels had not yet produced. + +The Punjab, the whole of the Northwest, Central India and Rajputana, all +northern Bengal and Bombay, must have been submerged in the flood if the +gates of Delhi were unbarred. It is not to be marveled at, therefore, +that General Wilson, the Commander-in-Chief, "looked nervous and +anxious" as he rode slowly along the front of the gathering columns, nor +that many of the British officers and men received the Holy Communion at +the hands of their chaplains, ere they mustered for what might prove to +be their last parade. + +In some tents, of their own accord, the soldiers read the Old Testament +lesson of the day. With that extraordinary aptness which the chronicles +of the prophets often display in their relation to current events, the +chapter foretold the doom of Nineveh: "Woe to the bloody city! It is +full of lies and robbery ... draw the waters for the siege, fortify thy +strongholds ... then shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut +thee off; it shall eat thee up like the canker-worm." + +How thrilling, how intensely personal and human, these words must have +sounded in their ears, for it should ever be borne in mind that the +Britons who recovered India in '57 were not only determined to avenge +the barbarities inflicted on unoffending women and children, but were +inspired by a religious enthusiasm that showed itself in almost every +diary kept and letter sent home during the war. + +And now, while the brilliant stars were dimmed by bursting shells and +rockets hissing in glowing curves across the sky, the columns moved +forward. + +English, Scotch, Irish and Welsh--swarthy Pathans, bearded Sikhs, dapper +little Ghoorkahs--marched side by side, from the first column on the +left, commanded by Nicholson, to the fourth, on the extreme right, led +by Reid. + +The plan of attack was daring and soldier-like. John Nicholson, ever +claiming the post of utmost danger, elected to hurl his men across the +breach made by the big guns in the Cashmere Bastion, the strongest of +the many strong positions held by the enemy. The second column, under +Brigadier Jones, was to storm the second breach in the walls at the +Water Bastion. The third, headed by Colonel Campbell, was to pass +through the Cashmere Gate when the gallant six who had promised to blow +open the gate itself had accomplished their task, while the fourth +column, under Major Reid, undertook to clear the suburbs of Kishengunge +and Pahadunpore and force its way into the city by way of the Lahore +Gate. + +Brigadier Longfield, commanding the reserve, had to follow and support +Nicholson. Generally speaking, if each separate attack made good its +objective, the different columns were to line up along the walls, +form posts, and combine for the bombardment and escalade of the +fortress-palace. Nicholson, who directed the assault, had not forgotten +the half-implied bargain made between Malcolm and the Princess +Roshinara. Strict orders were given that the King and members of the +royal family were to be taken prisoners if possible. As for Akhab Khan +and other leaders of rebel brigades, it was impossible to distinguish +them among so many. Not even Nicholson could ask his men to be generous +in giving quarter, when nine out of every ten mutineers they encountered +were less soldiers than slayers of women and children. + +At last, in the darkness, the columns reached their allotted stations +and halted. The engineers, carrying ladders, crept to the front. + +Nicholson placed a hand on Jones's shoulder. + +"Are you ready?" he asked, with the quiet confidence in the success of +his self-imposed mission that caused all men to trust in him implicitly. + +"Yes," answered Jones. + +Nicholson turned to Malcolm and two others of his aides. + +"Tell the gunners to cease fire," he said. + +Left and right they hurried, stumbling over the broken ground to reach +the batteries, which were thundering at short range against the fast +crumbling walls. In No. 2, which Malcolm entered, he found a young +lieutenant of artillery, Frederick Sleigh Roberts, working a heavy gun +almost single-handed, so terribly had the Royal Regiment suffered in +the contest waged with the rebel gunners during seven days and nights. + +Almost simultaneously the three batteries became silent. With a +heart-stirring cheer the Rifles dashed forward and fired a volley to +cover the advance of the ladder-men, and the first step was taken in the +actual capture of Delhi. + +The loud yell of the Rifles served as a signal to the other columns. +The second, gallantly led by Jones, rushed up to the Water Bastion and +entered it, but not until twenty-nine out of thirty-nine men carrying +ladders were killed or wounded. On Jones's right, Nicholson, ever in the +van, seemed to lift his column by sheer strength of will through an +avalanche of musketry, heavy stones, grape-shot and bayonet thrusts, +while the rebels, swarming like wasps to the breach, inspired each other +by hurling threats and curses at the Nazarenes. But to stop Nicholson +and his host they must kill every man, and be killed themselves in the +killing, and, not having the stomach for that sort of fight, they ran. + +Thus far a magnificent success had been achieved. It was carried +further, almost perfected, by the splendid self-sacrifice displayed +by the six who had promised to blow open the Cashmere Gate. To +this day their names are blazoned on a tablet between its two +arches--"Lieutenants Home and Salkeld of the Engineers, Bugler Hawthorne +of the 52d and Sergeants Carmichael, Smith and Burgess of the Bengal +Sappers." Smith and Hawthorne lived to wear the Victoria Crosses +awarded for their feat. The others, while death glazed their eyes and +dimmed their ears, may have known by the rush of men past where they lay +that their sacrifice had not been in vain. The stout timbers and iron +bands were rent by the powder-bags, and the third column fought a +passage through the double gateway into the tiny square in front of St. +James's Church. + +Then, as if the story of Delhi were to serve as a microcosm of fortune's +smiles and frowns in human affairs, the victorious career of the British +columns received a serious, almost a mortal check. The mutineers were +in full retreat, terror-stricken and dismayed. Thousands were already +crossing the bridge of boats when the word went round that the Feringhis +were beaten. + +They were not, but the over-caution against which Nicholson had railed +for months again betrayed itself in the failure of the second column +to capture the Lahore Gate when that vital position lay at its mercy. +Audacity, ever excellent in war, is sound as a proposition of Euclid in +operations against Asiatics. + +Brigadier and men had done what they were asked to do--they ought to +have done more. Having penetrated beyond the Mori Bastion they fell +back and fortified themselves against counter assault, thus displaying +unimpeachable tactics, but bad generalship in view of the enemy's +demoralization. Instantly Akhab Khan, who commanded in that quarter of +the city, claimed a victory. The mutineers flocked back to their +deserted posts. While one section pressed Jones hard, another fell on +Reid's Ghoorkahs and the cavalry brigade. They actually pushed the +counter attack as far as Hindu Rao's house on the Ridge, until Hope +Grant's cavalry and Tomb's magnificent horse artillery tackled them. A +terrific _melee_ ensued. Twenty-five out of fifty gunners were killed or +wounded, the 9th Lancers suffered with equal severity, but the rebels +were held, punished, and defeated, after two hours of desperate +conflict. + +The mischance at the Lahore Gate cost England a life she could ill +spare. When he heard what had happened, Nicholson ran to the Mori +Bastion, gathered men from both columns and tried to storm the Lahore +Bastion at all hazards. It was asking too much, but those gallant hearts +did not falter. They followed their beloved leader into a narrow lane, +the only way from the one point to the other. They fell in scores, but +Nicholson's giant figure still towered in front. With sword raised he +shouted to the survivors to come on. Then a bullet struck him in the +chest and he fell. + +With him, for a time, drooped the flag of Britain. The utter confusion +which followed is shown by Lord Robert's statement in his Memoirs that +he found Nicholson lying in a dhooly near the Cashmere Gate, the native +carriers having fled. Although Baird Smith, a skilled engineer and +artillerist, had secured against a _coup de main_ that small portion +of the city occupied by the besiegers, General Wilson was minded to +withdraw the troops. Even now he considered the task of subduing Delhi +to be beyond their powers. Baird Smith insisted that he should hold on. +Nicholson sent a typical message from his deathbed on the Ridge that he +still had strength enough left to struggle to his feet and pistol the +first man who counseled retreat, and the harassed commander-in-chief +consented to the continuance of the fighting. + +Although his judgment was mistaken he had good reasons for it. Akhab +Khan, on whom the real leadership devolved when it became known that the +King and his sons had fled from the palace, tried a ruse that might well +have proved fatal to his adversaries. Counting on the exhaustion of the +British and the privations they had endured during the long months on +the Ridge, he caused the deserted streets, between the Cashmere and Mori +Gates, to be strewed with bottles of wine, beer and spirits. To men +enfeebled by heat and want of food the liquor was more deadly than lead +or steel. Were it not that Akhab Khan himself was shot through the +forehead while trying to repel the advance of Taylor's engineers along +the main road to the palace from the Cashmere Gate, it was well within +the bounds of possibility that the afternoon of the 14th might have +witnessed a British _debacle_. + +In one respect the sepoy commander's death was as serious to his cause +as the loss of Nicholson to the English. The rebels, fighting fiercely +enough in small detachments, but no longer controlled by a man who knew +how to use their vastly superior numbers, allowed themselves to be +dealt with in detail. Soon the British attack was properly organized, +and a six days' orgy of destruction began. + +Although no Briton was seen to injure a woman or child in the streets or +houses of Delhi, the avenging army spared no man. Unhappily thousands of +harmless citizens were slaughtered side by side with the mutineers. The +British had received a great provocation and they exacted a terrible +payment. On the 20th the gates of the palace were battered in and the +British flag was hoisted from its topmost turret. Then, and not till +then, did Delhi fall. The last of the Moguls was driven from the halls +which had witnessed the grandeur and pomp of his imperial predecessors, +and the great city passed into the hands of the new race that had come +to leaven the decaying East. It was a dearly-bought triumph. On +September 14 the conquering army lost sixty-six officers and eleven +hundred and four men. Between May 30 and September 20 the total British +casualties were nearly four thousand. + +Malcolm soon learnt that the Princess Roshinara had fled with her father +and brothers. Probably the death of Akhab Khan had unnerved her, and she +dared not trust to the mercy of the victors. Frank was among the first +to enter the palace. After a few fanatical ghazees were made an end of, +he hurried towards the zenana. It was empty. He searched its glittering +apartments with feverish anxiety, but he met no human being until some +men of the 75th entered and began to prise open boxes and cupboards in +the search for loot. + +After that his duties took him to the Ridge, and it was not until all +was over that he heard how Hodson had captured the King and shot the +royal princes with his own hand. This tragedy took place on the road +from Humayun's Tomb, whither the wretched monarch retreated when it was +seen that Delhi must yield. Hodson claimed to be an executioner, not a +murderer. He held that he acted under the pressure of a mob, intent on +rescuing Mirza Moghul, the heir apparent, and his brother and son. That +all three were cowardly ruffians and merciless in their treatment of +the English captured in Delhi on May 11, cannot be denied, but Hodson's +action was condemned by many, and it was perhaps as well that he found a +soldier's grave during Colin Campbell's advance on Lucknow. + +It was there that the fortune of war next brought Malcolm. Delhi had +scarce quieted down after the storm and fury of the week's street +fighting when Havelock, re-enforced by Outram, drove the relief force +through the insurgent ring around the Residency like some stout ship +forcing her way to port through a raging sea. + +No sooner had he entered the entrenchment on the 25th of September than +the rebel waves surged together again in his rear, and on the 27th the +Residency was again invested almost as closely as ever. But the new +column infused vigor and hope in the hearts of a garrison that had +ceased even to despair. Apathy, a quiet waiting for death, was the +prevalent attitude in Lucknow until the Highland bonnets were seen +tossing above the last line of mutineers that tried to bar their passage +through the streets. At once the besieged took up the offensive. The +lines were greatly extended, the enemy's advanced posts were carried +with the bayonet, troublesome guns were seized and spiked and the rebel +mining operations summarily stopped. + +Two days before Havelock's little army cut its way into Lucknow, Ungud, +the pensioner, crept in to the retrenchment and announced the coming +relief. He was not believed. Twice already had he brought that cheering +message and events had falsified his news. + +Winifred, a worn and pallid Winifred by this time, sought him and asked +for tidings of Malcolm. He had none. There was a rumor that Delhi had +fallen, and an officer had told him that there was a Major Malcolm on +Nicholson's staff. That was all. Not a letter, not a sign, came to +reassure the heart-broken girl, so the joy of Havelock's arrival was +dimmed for her by the uncertainty that obtained in regard to her lover's +fate. + +Then the dreadful waiting began again. After having endured a plague +of heat in the hot weather, the remnant of the original garrison was +subjected to the torment of cold in the months that followed. In Upper +India the change of temperature is so remarkably sudden that it is +incomprehensible to those who live in more favored climes. Early in +October the thermometer falls by many degrees each day. The reason is, +of course, that the diminishing power of the sun permits the earth to +throw off by night the heat, always intense, stored during the day. +Something in the nature of an atmospheric vacuum is thus created, and +the resultant cold continues until the opposite effect brings about the +lasting heat of the summer months, which begin about March 15 in that +part of India. + +But scientific explanations of unpleasant phenomena are poor substitutes +for scanty clothing. In some respects the last position of the +beleaguered garrison was worse than the first, and the days wore on in +seemingly endless misery, until absolutely authentic intelligence +arrived on November 9, that Sir Colin Campbell was at Bunnee and would +march forthwith to relieve the Residency. + +Then Outram, who had succeeded to the chief command as soon as Havelock +joined hands with Inglis, called for a volunteer who would act as Sir +Colin's guide through the network of canals, roads, and scattered +suburbs that added to the dangers of Lucknow's narrow streets, and a +man named Kavanagh, an uncovenanted civilian, offered his services. + +It is not hard to picture Kavanagh's lot if he were captured by the +mutineers. His own views were definite on the point. Beneath his native +disguise he carried a pistol, not for use against an enemy, but to take +his own life if he failed to creep through the investing lines. But he +succeeded, and lived to be the only civilian hero ever awarded the +Victoria Cross. + +Another incident of the march should be noted. Malcolm saw preparations +being made to hang a Mohammedan who was suspected of having ill-treated +Europeans. The man protested his innocence, but he was not listened to. +Then Frank, thinking he remembered his face, questioned him and found he +was the zemindar who helped Winifred, her uncle and himself during the +flight from Cawnpore. + +Such testimony from an officer more than sufficed to outweigh the slight +evidence against the prisoner, who was set at liberty forthwith. During +the remainder of his life he had ample leisure to reflect on the good +fortune that led him to help the people who sought his assistance on +that June night. Were it not for Malcolm's interference he would have +been hanged without mercy, and possibly not without good cause. + +On the afternoon of November 11, Sir Colin Campbell reviewed his little +army. It was drawn up in parade order, on a plain a few miles south +of the Dilkusha. Three thousand four hundred men faced him, and the +smallness of the number is eloquent of the magnitude of their task. +Indeed, that is one of the salient features of each main episode of +the Mutiny. Nicholson at Delhi, Havelock at Cawnpore and on the way to +Lucknow, Colin Campbell in the pending action, and Sir Hugh Rose in many +a hard fought battle in Central India, one and all were called on to +attack and defeat ten times the number of sepoys. + +But what fine troops they were who met the commander-in-chief's gaze +as they stood marshaled there, on that dusty Indian _maidan_. Peel's +sailors, with eight heavy guns, artillerymen standing by the cannon that +had sounded the knell of Delhi from below the Ridge, the 9th Lancers, +who held the right flank when the capture of Hindu Rao's house would +have meant the collapse of the assault, the 8th and 75th Foot, the 2d +and 4th Punjabis--all these had followed the Lion of the Punjab when +he stormed the Cashmere Bastion. Sikh Cavalry, too, and Hodson's wild +horsemen, and many another gallant soldier, fresh from the immortal +siege, returned the General's quiet scrutiny, as he rode past, and +doubtless wondered how he would compare as a leader with the man whom +they had left in the little cemetery at the foot of the Ridge. + +It is on record that from the end of the line came a yell of welcome and +recognition. The 93d Highlanders remembered what Campbell had done in +the Crimea, and their joyful slogan brought a flush to the bronzed face +of the old war dog when he learnt the significance of their greeting. + +Next morning began a three day's battle. Perhaps there was never an +action so spectacular, so thrilling, so amazingly in earnest, as the +continuous fight which brought about the Second Relief of Lucknow. At +the Alumbagh, at the Dilkusha and La Martiniere school, at the Secunder +Bagh and the Shah Nujeef, were fought fiercely-contested combats that in +other campaigns would have figured as independent battles, each highly +important in the history of the time. + +The taking of the Shah Nujeef alone was worthy of Homeric praise. It was +a mosque that stood in a garden, bounded by a high and stout wall and +protected by jungle and mud hovels. Its peculiar position, joined to the +number of guns mounted on its walls and the thousands of sepoys who held +it, made it impossible for a devoted artillery to create an effective +breach. Yet, if the relieving force failed here, they failed altogether. +So Sir Colin asked his men for a supreme effort. Riding forward himself, +accompanied by his staff and Sir Adrian Hope, Colonel of the 93d, he +cheered on his loved Highlanders. Cannot one hear the skirl of the pipes +amid that din of cannon and musketry? Cannot one see the shot-torn +colors fluttering in the breeze, the plaids of the gallant Highland +gentlemen who led the 93d, vanishing in the smoke and dust? Middleton's +battery of the Royal Artillery came dashing up, "the drivers waving +their whips, the gunners their caps," unlimbered within forty yards of +the wall, and opened fire with grape. Men and horses fell in scores, but +somehow, anyhow, an entrance was gained and the Shah Nujeef was taken. +Feeble must be the pulse that does not beat faster, dim the eye that +does not kindle, as one hears how those Britons fought and died, but did +not die in vain. + +Next day Captain Garnet Wolseley led a storming party against the Motee +Mahal, and the self-sacrificing heroism of the Shah Nujeef was displayed +again here and with the same result. + +And so the wild fight went on, till Outram and Havelock, Napier, Eyre, +Havelock's son and four other officers ran from the Residency through a +tempest of lead showered on them from the Kaiser Bagh, and Hope Grant, +dashing forward from the van of Colin Campbell's force, shook hands with +the hero of the First Relief. + +Half an hour later Malcolm entered the Residency. At first sight it was +an abode of sorrow. Death and ruin seemed to have combined there to +wreak their spite on mankind and his belongings. Even the men and women +whom he met were tear-laden, and it was not till he heard their happy +voices that he knew they were weeping because of the overwhelming joy in +their souls. + +He hurried on, scanning each excited group for one face that he thought +he would recognize were it fifty years instead of five months since +their last meeting. He, of course, was even a finer-looking and better +set-up soldier now than when he galloped along the flame-lit roads of +Meerut on that never-to-be-forgotten Sunday night in May, and it is not +to be wondered at if he failed to allow for the effect on Winifred of +the ordeal she had gone through. + +Perhaps his keen eyes were covered with a mist, perhaps the growing fear +in his heart forbade his tongue to ask a question, because he dreaded +the answer. Perhaps sheer agitation may have rendered him incapable of +distinguishing one among so many. Howsoever that may be, he knew +nothing, saw no one, until a wan, slim-figured woman, a woman clothed in +tattered rags, down whose pallid cheeks streamed the divine tears of +happiness, touched his arm and sobbed: + +"Are you looking for me--dear?" + + * * * * * + +The Mutiny was by no means ended with the fall of Delhi and the Second +Relief of Lucknow. North and south and east and west the rebels were +hunted with untiring zeal. Sometimes in scattered bands, less often in +formidable armies, they were pursued, encountered and annihilated. +Quickly degenerating into mere robber hordes, they became a pest to the +unhappy villagers in the remoter parts of the different provinces, and +it was long ere the last embers of the fire that had raged so fiercely +were stamped out. Nana Sahib perished miserably under the claws of a +tiger in the Nepaul jungle, the Moulvie of Fyzabad and the Ranei of +Jhansi fell in action, while Tantia Topi was hanged. But the end came, +and on November 1, 1858, amid salvoes of artillery and to the +accompaniment of festivities innumerable, Queen Victoria proclaimed the +abolition of the East India Company, and assumed the sovereignty of the +country. Her Majesty took no territory, confirmed all treaties, promised +religious toleration and civil equality to all her Indian subjects, and +gave full and complete pardon to every rebel who was not a murderer. + +The Queen's gracious and peace-bringing words supplied a fitting close +to India's Red Year. Europeans and natives alike tried to forget both +the crime and its punishment. And that was a good thing in itself. + +The great land of Hindustan has doubled its teeming population and +increased its prosperity out of all comparable reckoning during the +fifty years that have passed since the Mutiny. Many of the descendants +of men who fought against the British Raj are now its trusted servants, +and there is not in India to-day a native gentleman of any importance +who would not assist the Government with his life and fortune to save +his country from the lawless horrors of any similar outbreak. + +But these are matters for the politician and the statesman. It is more +fitting that this story of the lives and fortunes of a few of the actors +in a great human drama should conclude with such particulars of their +subsequent history as have filtered through time's close-woven meshes of +half a century. + +One day in February, not so long ago, a young officer of the Guides, who +had come to Lucknow for "Cup" week, was standing in the porch of the +Mohamed Bagh Club when he heard a young lady bewailing fate in the shape +of a tikka-gharry which had brought her there. Her "people" were at the +Chutter Munzil Club, miles away, for Lucknow is a big place, and she was +already late for tea. + +Being a nice young man, the said officer of the Guides could not bear to +see a nice young woman in distress. + +"My dog-cart is just coming up," he said, "and I am going to the Chutter +Munzil. Won't you let me drive you there?" + +She blushed and hesitated and of course agreed. + +On the way, to maintain a polite conversation, he pointed out several +historic buildings. + +"You are stationed here, I suppose?" she said. + +"No, indeed. My regiment is at Quetta, but I was reared on the records +of Lucknow. My grandmother went through the whole of the siege, and my +grandfather was with the Second Relief. It must have agreed with their +health, for they were both out here two years since, and I went over the +Mutiny ground with them." + +"How interesting! Was that how they met?" + +"No. They were engaged just before the Residency was invested. It is an +awfully interesting yarn, and I should like some day to have a chance of +telling it to you. There is a native princess in it, and a pearl +necklace, which is worth quite a lot of money, and is believed to have +been stolen by a sepoy before my grandfather obtained it, quite by +accident. And the old chap--he was quite a young chap then, you +know--had a remarkable native servant who did so well at the Mutiny that +he became a nawab or something of the sort. Really, the whole thing is +more like a book than a chapter of real life." + +"I had a grandmother in the Mutiny," said the girl, "but she had such a +sad experience that she seldom mentioned it. Her maiden name was Keene, +and her father was killed at Fattehpore--" + +"Keene! Did she ever speak of a man named Malcolm, who saved her and her +sister?" + +"Oh, yes! You don't mean to say--" + +"Yes, really, I'm his grandson. Now, isn't that the queerest thing? Just +imagine the odds against my meeting you here under such conditions? +Please tell me your name, and you'll let me call, won't you?" + +The girl was somewhat breathless. Young Malcolm was looking at her as +though he felt that a special dispensation of Providence had brought +them together. + +"I am sure my mother will be glad to meet you and hear all about those +old days at Lucknow," she said shyly. + +So it may be that the gray ruins of the Residency, over which the flag +flies ever that was kept there so resolutely by the men and women in +'57, saw the beginning of another love idyll, destined to end as happily +as that which had its being amidst the terrors and fury of the Mutiny. + + THE END + + + + + BOOKS ON NATURE STUDY BY + CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS + + Handsomely bound in cloth. Price, 75 cents per volume, postpaid. + + + THE KINDRED OF THE WILD. A Book of Animal Life. 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It is an actual romance, in which the animal characters play +their parts as naturally as do the human. The atmosphere of the book is +enchanting. The reader feels the undulating, whimpering music of the +forest, the power of the shady silences, the dignity of the beasts who +live closest to the heart of the wood. + + + THE WATCHERS OF THE TRAILS. A companion volume to the "Kindred + of the Wild." With 48 full page plates and decorations from + drawings by Charles Livingston Bull. + +These stories are exquisite in their refinement, and yet robust in their +appreciation of some of the rougher phases of woodcraft. "This is a book +full of delight. An additional charm lies in Mr. Bull's faithful and +graphic illustrations, which in fashion all their own tell the story of +the wild life, illuminating and supplementing the pen pictures of the +authors."--_Literary Digest._ + + + RED FOX. The Story of His Adventurous Career in the Ringwaak + Wilds, and His Triumphs over the Enemies of His Kind. With 50 + illustrations, including frontispiece in color and cover design + by Charles Livingston Bull. + +A brilliant chapter in natural history. Infinitely more wholesome +reading than the average tale of sport, since it gives a glimpse of the +hunt from the point of view of the hunted. "True in substance but +fascinating as fiction. It will interest old and young, city-bound and +free-footed, those who know animals and those who do not."--_Chicago +Record Herald._ + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, . . New York + + + + + FAMOUS COPYRIGHT BOOKS + IN POPULAR PRICED EDITIONS + +Re-issues of the great literary successes of the time, library size, +printed on excellent paper--most of them finely illustrated. Full and +handsomely bound in cloth. 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The characters take hold of the heart and win sympathy. +The dear old story has never been more lovingly and artistically told. + + + MY MAMIE ROSE. The History of My Regeneration, by Owen Kildare. + Illustrated. + +This _autobiography_ is a powerful book of love and sociology. Reads +like the strangest fiction. Is the strongest truth and deals with the +story of a man's redemption through a woman's love and devotion. + + + JOHN BURT, by Frederick Upham Adams, with illustrations. + +John Burt, a New England lad, goes West to seek his fortune and finds it +in gold mining. He becomes one of the financial factors and pitilessly +crushes his enemies. The story of the Stock Exchange manipulations was +never more vividly and engrossingly told. A love story runs through the +book, and is handled with infinite skill. + + + THE HEART LINE, by Gelett Burgess, with halftone illustrations + by Lester Ralph, and inlay cover in colors. + +A great dramatic story of the city that was. A story of Bohemian life in +San Francisco, before the disaster, presented with mirror-like accuracy. +Compressed into it are all the sparkle, all the gayety, all the wild, +whirling life of the glad, mad, bad, and most delightful city of the +Golden Gate. + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, . . New York + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: + +Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors; otherwise, +every effort has been made to remain true to the author's words and +intent. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Red Year, by Louis Tracy + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RED YEAR *** + +***** This file should be named 36478.txt or 36478.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/4/7/36478/ + +Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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