CHAPTER XI.
SHOWING HOW THE FLOOD CAME.
June ye 8th.
Oh, my dear, Cossimbuzar is fallen without striking a blow, and if all be true that we hear, Surajah Dowlah is already marching on Calcutta! Mr Dash came in just after I had finished writing to you this morning, and related the dreadful history to my papa, as he had heard it from being in the vicinity of the council-chamber when the letters arrived. On the 1st of this month, the very day that our rulers despatched their humiliating arasdass from Calcutta, the Nabob sent three Jemindars and Radjbullobdass, the father of Kissendasseat, to hold a parley with Mr Watts, who told them, in spite of the objections of his own officers, that he would trust himself with them if the Nabob would send him a beetle. This is with the Indians a sign of ceremony and friendship, for they wrap this beetle, which is called pawn,[01] in some sort of leaves, and chew it. I don’t doubt but my Amelia, on hearing of this disgusting custom, will unite with me in thinking that to polite minds it would be more agreeable to dispense with both the sign and the friendship. However, the beetle was sent on a silver plate, and Mr Watts, following the meek example of our Council here, humbled himself so far as to enter the Soubah’s presence with his hands across and tied round with a puckery,[02] which is the strip of stuff that the Moors twist into their turbants. That Surajah Dowlah was not to be disarmed by this show of humility the poor gentleman quickly discovered, for he was at once threatened with death for his offering such a hardy resistance, and was only saved by the mediation of the son of the duan Huckembeg, who told the Nabob that Mr Watts was a good sort of a man, that was come at great peril to embrace his footsteps. Whether ’twas the threats or the mediation I don’t know, but Mr Watts was so strangely affected that he forthwith signed a mulchilca,[03] which is an instrument enforced by a penalty, by which he not only surrendered his own factory of Cossimbuzar, but also pledged the Council here to demolish their fortifications, as well the old as the new, within a fortnight, to give up those of the Nabob’s subjects they were protecting against him, and to resign the privileges anciently granted to the Company with respect to dussticks by making good the losses the Soubah had sustained through them. Seeing their chief in the enemy’s power, the garrison of Cossimbuzar felt constrained to fulfil his covenant, and admitted the Moorish army, who treated the unhappy gentlemen with such detestable cruelty that Ensign Elliott, who commanded the military, shot himself in a frenzy of shame. May Heaven pardon the poor man this rash act! Alas, there may be others that will need the same pardon before very long.
Momentous though this news be, ’twas not all that Mr Dash had to tell. Lowering his voice, he asked Mr Freyne with an air of becoming reserve whether it was true that a gentleman of this place had been detected in supplying information to the Nabob. To this my papa replied that he had often heard hints to the effect that some such treachery must be at work, but he had received no word of its having been brought home to any one in particular; and the young gentleman went away disappointed. Shortly after his departure we heard a great beating of drums from the direction of the Fort, which threw me into a prodigious fright lest the Soubah’s army should be already approaching the town. But Mr Freyne sending out one of the servants to ask what might be the cause of the noise, we learned that the President, who, it appears, has at length mustered courage to offer a resistance to the demands of the Nabob, was summoning all the inhabitants to the Esplanade[04] before the Fort, in order to concert measures for defence. Upon this Mr Freyne ordered his chaise, and while arming himself with sword and pistols, was so good as to offer to carry me with him to see the muster, if I chose. My Amelia will guess that I flew to change my gown at once, for I felt an extraordinary anxiety to see how the Council would bear themselves in this alarming situation; but fastened to my pincushion I discovered something that diverted the course of my thoughts altogether. It was a billet like that I had found on my table before, but folded smaller, and superscribed “Lewis to Clarissa” in French. Inside it was wrote, also in French:—
“It is with the most poignant anguish that the unhappy lover quits the vicinity of the coldest and most charming of women, to whom he has ventured to offer the incense of his unavailing adoration. When a more propitious fate shall place him next at the feet of his goddess, it may be that apprehension for her own safety may serve better to melt Clarissa’s icy heart than pity for her slave has succeeded in doing, and that she’ll see fit to grant him those tokens of her favour which his humble passion has never ceased to entreat.”
The menacing style of this message filled me with alarm, but remembering that the writer announced his departure, and that ’twas possible he might never return, I took courage after a moment. Otherwise, I could not but feel apprehensive in the extreme to discover that the person whom Mrs Freyne had revealed as the apostate Sinzaun should still be seeking to enter into communications with me. This Sinzaun, I must inform my dear girl, is a most notorious renegade Frenchman, who is not only a trusted leader of the Nabob’s army, having the management of his train of artillery, but also the vilest of his boon companions in time of peace. His skill had not been needed in the Cossimbuzar matter, but now he was questionless returned to lead his master’s forces against Calcutta. I carried the wretch’s billet to my papa, who read it with great anger; and I ventured to put a question that had troubled me more than once since the day before.
“Had you been sensible, dear sir, who the bold enquirer was that demanded your daughter, and known that he had, as he claimed, the power to save the factory from the Soubah’s vengeance, would you have chose to oblige him?”
“I’m afraid,” says my dear papa, “that my Sylvia Freyne believes me either a coward or a fool. Even had I been base enough to deliver up my daughter to the ruffian’s demands, what security have I that the rogue would keep his word, and not take the girl first and the place afterwards?”
This view of the matter had not occurred to me, and I’ll own that it relieved me from the apprehension I had felt that it might be my duty to sacrifice myself for the safety of Calcutta. Not, my dear, that I had clearly faced the possible necessity of such a shocking act, for I would not have you think me more heroical than I am, but that the dreadful notion had crossed my mind and reduced me almost to despair. Well, my papa and I rode to the Fort, and heard what Mr President had to say of the unexampled ingratitude and perfidy of the Nabob, and of the certainty that he and his army would be speedily crushed by the valour and readiness of the inhabitants of Calcutta. The five captains of the troops had given it as their opinion in writing that there was in the place an abundance both of arms, ammunition, and provisions, and a plan had been drawn out for constructing such additional defences as might reasonably be completed in a few days. But it was necessary that there should be men behind the defences, and therefore his honour trusted that every inhabitant of the place that was fit to bear arms would enrol himself immediately in the militia, and give unremitting attention to his drill until he was called upon to practise in war what he had been taught. This discourse of the President’s was very well received, though with less of excitement, I fancy, than he had anticipated; and all of the male sex present, gentlemen and common persons and Armenians and To-passes alike, made haste to give their names to those who were about to enrol ’em. It was now too late to do any more that evening, and after appointing a meeting of the new-raised militia for this morning, on the green to the south of the Fort, that they might begin to be instructed in their weapons, every one returned home.
The ordinary business of the place being quite at a standstill, Mr Freyne betook himself to-day after the early meal to the Park instead of his dufterconna, and brought home with him to breakfast Captain Colquhoun and Mr Holwell, who were deputed to ride to Perrins Gardens and see what might be done to restore the redoubt there, which was so foolishly dismantled in the panic of last week. Mrs Freyne pleading indisposition as an excuse for her absence, I was set in her place at the head of the table, and found that the gentlemen were not in the highest of spirits.
“I could scarce believe my ears, Captain,” says my papa, “when I heard that you had signed the assurance given by your comrades of our sufficiency of munitions.”
“You can’t blame me more than I blame myself, sir,” said the Captain. “’Twas an unpardonable piece of confidence in me to take Captain Minchin’s word for the amount of the stores, without regarding their quality and condition.”
“Then you are satisfied as to the quantities mentioned, Captain?”
“By no means, sir. When my suspicions were first roused after signing the assurance, and I asked of Captain Minchin how he had prevailed upon Captain Witherington to make his returns so promptly, he told me with the greatest coolness in the world that Witherington had failed to send in any accounts at all, so that he himself had done his best to estimate what we ought to have in hand, and had assured us of possessing it.”
“Witherington ought to be hanged!” says Mr Freyne.
“Indeed, sir,” says Mr Holwell, “the poor gentleman is a most laborious, active creature. It en’t his fault that his intellects are confused by all these sudden events. With a commander that would keep an eye on him, and see that he did his duty, we should have in him an excellent good officer.”
“We don’t possess such a commander in Mr Drake,” said the Captain, “for Witherington finds all his complaints allowed, and en’t forced to do anything. Captain Minchin assured me that when he represented to the President the danger of leaving the whole charge of the Train in the care of such a man, all the answer he received was that Witherington was such a strange unaccountable creature that his honour could do nothing with him.”
“Yet the fellow makes more noise and bustle about doing nothing than the Council themselves,” said my papa. “So you have examined the stores, Captain?”
“I have, sir, if indeed they’re worthy to be called stores. There’s but three hundred and fifty barrels of powder, and the most of that bad, no bombs nor grenadoes, except a few spoiled shells that will do more damage to us than the enemy; the grape is all eaten up with worms, and there’s no cartridges ready.”
“And the guns,” says Mr Holwell, “are still without carriages, and the embrasures broken down, while any gunner that’s fool enough to try to work his piece on the Fort walls will go through the roof into the chambers below.”
“And our army of defence,” says the Captain, “with no disrespect to either of you, gentlemen, is a fit match for its weapons. With a garrison of less than two hundred, counting the officers, and of which not ten of the rank and file have seen any war service, we may be thankful if we can hold out for a single day.”
“Come,” says my papa, “think of Colonel Clive’s achievements with a force near as bad, and of your own experience in the Carnatic, sir.”
“Ah, sir, here we lack Colonel Clive. And I am not (though it shame me to say it) the man to take his place. If the President had broke Captain Minchin as he had designed doing, and placed Captains Clayton and Witherington in some such subordinate situation as befits their lack of military experience and judgment, maybe Captain Grant and your humble servant might have made shift to show a good front to the enemy, but with five persons in equal military authority, and his honour and the Council interfering perpetually in matters which are none of their province, the thing is hopeless.”
“But sure, sir,” said Mr Holwell, “you have Captain Grant as adjutant-general, and Captain Minchin made merely commandant of the Fort, where his lack of military qualities can’t do much harm.”
“Not if we were about to defend the town, sir, but when we are driven back upon the Fort, as we must very quickly be, he has all the chance for mischief that he needs. And were Captain Grant twenty adjutants-general in one, he would still have Mr President for his commander.”
“Aye,” says my papa, “the Quaker is quaking now in good earnest. But you seem at present to wish to defend the town, Captain, and I thought that you scouted the bare notion hitherto.”
“Why, sir, had I been in command, I would have called in the gentlemen from the other factories, and their garrisons with ’em, a month ago, and added them to our force here, whereas now they are refuging with the French and Dutch, or must be snapped up by the Nabob as he advances, since the summons to ’em only went out yesterday. In the former case, with the aid of the forced labour of the black inhabitants, we might have extended the Morattoe-ditch round the town with some hope of defending the space enclosed in it, but as things are, I confess indeed that the Fort is our only hope. The plan adopted by the Council on the advice of the engineer officers, which neither carries out Colonel Scott’s scheme of defending the whole space of the town nor contents itself with maintaining the Fort, as should be the case in our present untoward circumstances, is doomed, I am convinced, to failure.”
“Sure, sir,” said Mr Freyne, “you would not have took the responsibility of destroying the church and all the houses near the Fort, as you pressed upon the gentlemen at the council of war?”
“Aye, sir, that I would, instead of leaving ’em as so many fortresses for the enemy. But when every gentleman that has a brick or pucca house wants it included in the defences, and none must be destroyed lest the Company should refuse to pay compensation, how, I ask you, is this to be managed without frittering away in continual stands and retreats the best strength of our small garrison?”
“Ah, Captain,” says Mr Holwell, “you should have supported me in the matter of Tanners. Why, sir, I looked to you as my certain upholder, and yet there was none but Captain Grant and that gallant lad le Beaume besides myself to perceive the advantages we should gain in possessing an abundant store of provisions and a retreat both for the ships and ourselves, unless the Nabob should divide his forces to attack us.”
“And what of dividing our own forces, sir?” asked the Captain. “They are far too small as it is for the extent of our defences, and to send half of ’em five miles off on t’other side of the river would be madness. And as for the Nabob, why, Monickchund and the Hoogly garrison alone could deal with any force we could send to hold Tanners without our being able even to offer to relieve it.”
“But help may yet reach us, sir, from Madrass or Bombay.”
“Scarcely, sir, unless they have been warned of our plight in a vision, for now that the sea is shut by the munsoon, our letters despatched yesterday by the country messengers can’t reach even Madrass in less than a month.”
“But the French and Dutch may yet determine to assist us, Captain.”
“They may, sir; and if they should, I’ll freely allow that the humble and imploring letters of the President and Council to ’em were justified. But I fancy they won’t.”
Here I saw Mr Dash come into the compound in haste, as though brimfull of news, but looking askance at Mr Holwell, against whom, as my Amelia will recollect, he cherishes some pique. Observing, however, that Mr Holwell did not remark his presence (for indeed, I doubt if the good gentleman know more of him than his name), Mr Dash joined himself to the company, and slipped quietly into a seat close to me.
“The rumour of which I asked Mr Freyne last night is true, madam,” he said.
“That concerning a treachery on the part of some European, sir?”
“Even so, madam. The thing is fairly proved, and Miss Freyne should be doubly rejoiced at the discovery, since the traitor is a person that has often, I believe, disobliged her. ’Tis Mr Menotti.”
“I protest, sir, I don’t see why I should rejoice to find that a person who had professed esteem for me is a traitor.”
“Why, madam, see how your cold treatment of the fellow is justified! And there’s another reason for you to triumph. I understand that the information on which Mr Menotti was captured came from a lady who was petted[05] by his neglect of her for a more youthful rival—yourself, madam.”
“Indeed, sir,” I said, flirting my fan and looking at him very complacently, “I don’t see what time the gentleman you mention had to spare for any other lady, for I should have said that he spent it all in forcing himself upon me.”
I knew that the young gentleman would set Sylvia Freyne down for a jealous coquette, but that was better for him than to spread about his first tale, for what would be said of my stepmother if it became known that she was the lady who accused him? “Pray, sir,” I went on, “tell me how the discovery was made.”
“The information was received, madam, on Sunday morning, and spies were set on Mr Menotti’s house in consequence. During the time of divine service (he alleging wounds received in an attack made upon him by footpads in the street the night before as an excuse for remaining at home), he was observed to steal out in the disguise of a deloll”[06] (this is an Indian broker, of a grade higher than a pycar, Amelia), “and was followed as far as Chitpore, where he passed the rivulet by the bridge, and entered the top[07] of trees on t’other side. The hircaras following him discovered a second person habited as a facquier, who presented certain papers to Mr Menotti, upon which the two were taken prisoners before they could separate, the stranger proving to be an emissary of Monickchund, the Phousdar of Hoogly. Mr Menotti was very earnest with his captors to believe that he had devised a plot to entrap the Nabob’s agents and deliver them up to the Council, and offered, in proof of his sincerity, to guide the party to the lodging of the abandoned renegade Sinzaun, who, he said, had lain for more than a month in the place. But the wretch must have received warning in some way, for the lodging was empty, though the inmate had not long quitted it. This attempt falling out so badly, the President was not inclined to leniency by the perusal of Monickchund’s letters, which included a pretty broad hint to the effect that Mr Drake was an object of the Nabob’s particular aversion, and had better be removed. Mr Menotti was ordered to prison, and the President was stirred up to make the affecting and patriotic speech in which he recanted yesterday from his faith in the Nabob.”
“And did the wretched Menotti offer no further defence, sir?”
“Why, madam, he declared himself the victim of a conspiracy to ruin him between the lady I mentioned and her spouse, and hinted also that old Omy Chund would be found to be concerned in plotting with the Nabob; but the President, while promising to keep Omy Chund under his eye, refused to arrest him on such suspicious testimony, and committed Mr Menotti to the prison in the Fort, where he might remain secure until the present alarm be past, and prepare to confound his persecutors when an enquiry is made afterwards.”
“You observe, gentlemen,” said Captain Colquhoun, catching Mr Dash’s last words as he rose from the table, “that even his honour don’t yet believe in the reality of the danger that threatens us. I doubt but the Council won’t perceive until the Fort is in the Nabob’s hands that they have been sporting on the edge of a volcano.”
June ye 15th.
Oh, my dear, sure Heaven must have devoted this unhappy place to destruction, for all that is said and done by way of defence is either wrong in itself or performed at the wrong time! True, the militia has been drilled morning and evening since I writ last, and makes a brave show, divided into two companies under Mr Holwell and Mr Mackett. Nor is this all, for Mr Manningham is their colonel, and Mr Frankland lieutenant-colonel, while the Rev. Mr Mapletoft and several gentlemen are captains. They were so obliging as to offer my papa a commission, but he refused it, saying that he counted it a greater piece of distinction to be a private man in this force than an officer, for it numbers only two hundred and fifty all told, and of these twenty-three of the Europeans are captains and mates of the shipping in the river, and must return to their vessels in the event of fighting, while a considerable number are Armenians, in whose valour so little confidence is reposed that they are detailed to guard the Fort itself, under command of Ensign Bellamy, who has just received his commission as Lieutenant. I’ll assure you, Amelia, the poor young gentleman’s disgust at his troops and his post is beyond words.
The defences also are well advanced, three principal batteries having been constructed, one to the north, close to the Saltpetre Godowns, on the cross-road that passes behind the Fort and leads by way of the strand to Chitpore; one across the avenue leading to the eastward which is called the Loll Buzar, in advance of the great gateway of the Fort, and having the Mayor’s Court on its left and the Park on its right; and one some three hundred yards to the south of the Fort, at the corner of the burying-ground, and commanding one of the principal roads. Behind this last is a second battery, situated close to the front gate of the Park, and the eastern battery has a slighter one some distance in advance of it, while the Fort gateway itself is to have the additional defence of a work called a ravelin, which is not yet completed. All the smaller lanes and by-ways are blocked with breastworks made with pallisadoes, and where the ground is open, as in the Park, it has been cut up into trenches, to prevent the approach of elephants or cannon. To defend all these works, our small garrison has been augmented to the number of fifteen hundred by the hiring of a thousand buxerries, which are mercenary Indians armed with matchlocks. On the other hand, our governors are disappointed of the help they hoped for from the Dutch and French, for while the first refuse either to make or meddle in our dispute with the Nabob, the French are good enough to offer our whole factory to refuge at Chandernagore, where (say they) there’s more hope of a successful defence. ’Tis some slight consolation to my papa and me that the Council have replied to this piece of gasconading only by a request to the French to assist us with a present of ammunition, that we may defend ourselves here.
Six days ago, as we hear, the Nabob quitted Cossimbuzar with his army, and began his march towards us, in spite of the intercessions of three of his own subjects, Roopchund and Mootabray, the sons of Jugget Seat, his own shroff and money-lender, and Coja Wazeed, a respectable merchant of Hoogly. That these disinterested persons failed in their benevolent designs is in great part due to the submissive and terrified letters sent by our Presidency to Mr Watts, which have continued to arrive long after Cossimbuzar was taken, and, falling into the hands of the Nabob, have confirmed him in his contempt and hostility for us, and he is marching forward with an incredible rapidity, so that many of his soldiers fall dead each day from the fierce rays of the sun. The news of the Soubah’s approach reached us on Saturday, and the next day was such a Sabbath as I should think Calcutta never saw before, nor is likely, should it escape the ruin that seems to be impending, to see again. For first of all, there was a letter intercepted from Rajaram Hircara, the chief of the Nabob’s spies and the person that sent his brother Narransing to demand that Kissendasseat should be given up, addressed to Omy Chund, advising him to escape from Calcutta to join with the Soubah while there was time. This coming so soon after Mr Menotti’s accusation against Omy Chund moved the President and Council to alarm, and they had the old man arrested at once and lodged in the Fort, setting a guard over his effects. Orders were also issued out to stop all the Moors’ boats passing up or down the river, and to seize two Moorish ships that were lying at anchor, which was done. Then, as though this were not turmoil enough for one day, some busy-body, finding the defences pretty well advanced and no feats of arms doing, revived Mr Holwell’s discarded notion of an attempt on the fort named Tanners, which the Moors call Mucka Tanna, situated some five miles down the river on the opposite bank. So confident were our rulers in the strength of our mighty army, that all Captain Colquhoun’s prudent representations were thrown to the winds, and all morning were preparations going forward for sailing against Tanners at noon, though the Captain warned them additionally that no success could be looked for in an enterprise that was commenced by profaning the Sabbath.
It appeared for a time, however, as though these prophecies of evil were to be falsified, for on our troops approaching Tanners in the evening in two ships and two brigantines, and landing in company with the Europeans and Lascars from the vessels’ crews, the Moorish garrison fled, without scarcely any resistance at all, so that our people entered the place in triumph and disabled or threw into the river all the great guns of the fort. But this piece of bravado has proved the destruction of the enterprise, for yesterday morning came Monickchund, the Moorish Governor of Hoogly, with two field-pieces and two thousand men, who fired very smartly with their small arms, and to oppose whom our people had no cannon, and were drove out with little difficulty. Last evening and throughout to-day our vessels have been employed in vain trying to dislodge the enemy a second time, in a genteel sort of style without any fighting, and even a reinforcement of thirty men from our small garrison had no effect, so that the ships are dropped down with the ebb of the tide to lie quiet for the night.
Dreadful though this reverse is in a country where such extravagant value is placed upon the slightest piece of success, an event of far greater horror occurred yesterday in Calcutta itself. It was resolved by the Council, who feared further treachery, to arrest Omy Chund’s relations and his friend Kissendasseat as well as himself, and a parcel of peons was sent to their houses with this object. Resistance was offered at both places, and Kissendass, who had raised and armed a force of men in the evident intention of joining with the Nabob when he arrives, succeeded in driving off his assailants and taking some of them prisoners, whom he used in the most shameful manner imaginable, until his house was fairly taken by storm by Lieutenant Blagg and a force of thirty Europeans, who discovered an incredible quantity of arms, as well as much treasure, concealed in it. At Omy Chund’s house, and this is the horrid part of the affair, his brother-in-law Huzzaromull, who was the person most sought for, hid himself in the Ginanah among the women, while the place was defended by Omy Chund’s peons and armed domestics, to the number of three hundred. The fight going against them, the head Jemmautdar, Juggermunt Sing (the same man that Mr Menotti catched in my papa’s garden with Sinzaun’s letter), stabbed all his master’s women, to the number of thirteen, to preserve them, as he believed, from disgrace, and fastening up the doors, set light to the place. Huzzaromull, having no mind to be burnt alive, surrendered himself, having lost his hand in the fight, and there’s a rumour that the perpetrator of the fearful deed, Juggermunt Sing himself, was conveyed away by his fellows covered with wounds. But oh, my dear, think of all these poor Gentoo women and their children, murdered in this barbarous fashion! Pray heaven the guilt of their innocent blood may not come on us, who are indeed remotely, though not directly, responsible for its being shed.
FORT WILLIAM, JUNE YE 17TH.
We are besieged, Amelia. Yesterday morning, some time before noon, when the ships, which had come up with the flood-tide, were preparing to drop down to Tanners again, all thought of the continuance of that enterprise was forbidden by a brisk sound of firing from the direction of Chitpore. The vanguard of the Nabob’s army was arrived at Mr Kelsall’s garden, under the command of Meer Jaffier, his buckshy[08] or chief general officer, and firing on the Prince George sloop of eighteen guns that lay off Perrins Redoubt. As you will guess, my dear girl, we had all received our orders in the event of this crisis, and had our effects packed in readiness for transport, so that as soon as the firing was heard, and the military and militia were repaired to their posts, we European women quitted our houses, and ourselves in palanqueens, and with our trunks carried on bullock-waggons, took refuge in the Fort without much confusion. Everything, of course, must necessarily be abandoned, with the exception of our clothes and jewels and our bedding, which is always carried about with them by travellers in the East, and which we should need in the Fort. Here the state apartments belonging to the Company were prepared for the fugitives’ reception, and the gentlemen who lodge within the walls were also most obliging in leaving their rooms free, and huddling into the varandas themselves. Mrs Freyne, who is still indisposed, was disturbed to discover that the state apartments were already seized upon when we arrived by the ladies who live nearer at hand, or whose spouses are of higher rank in the service than my papa, but we were made welcome to have our choice of all the young gentlemen’s chambers, and found ourselves at last settled in