CHAPTER XII.
PRESENTING ONE OF THE WORLD’S TRAGEDIES.
(The account contained in this chapter belongs to a letter written some months later, but it is introduced here in order that the current of the narrative may not be interrupted.)
However long I may live, Amelia, I am assured I shall never find weaken the remembrance of the period of three nights and two days which began with the departure of the European women from the Fort. All the events of my life before it seem pale and distant, and as for those that have occurred since—why, my dear, they are so little real in comparison that if I so much as close my eyes, without any design of recalling the awful past, I find myself in it again. After this, you need only to be told that I am sometimes thankful for even this frightful relief from the realising the cruel situation in which I am at present, to perceive your poor Sylvia’s sorrowful case. ’Tis in part for this reason that I am forcing myself to set down in writing the whole shocking history.
After the council of war held on the Friday evening, at which it was determined to send the European women at once on board ship, there was a continual diminishing of the garrison of the Fort. Outside the walls our people were still holding Mr Eyre’s house on the north, Mr Cruttenden’s and the church on the north-east, and the Company’s house on the south, but this last post was evacuated before eight o’clock, the defenders being too severely galled by the fire from the next house, which was occupied by the enemy. The south side of the Fort was thus left exposed to attack, for our guns (mounted on the roof of the godowns which rendered the two bastions on this side useless) failed altogether to do any damage to these pucca houses, which we could neither hold nor destroy. Since affairs began to look so black, such of the garrison as held their lives more precious than their reputation took advantage of the passing to and fro of the boats conveying the ladies to slip off to the ships themselves. A monstrous example was set by Mess. Manningham and Frankland, the third and fourth in rank in the Council, and Mr Drake’s constant allies in the work of governing, who, offering their services to attend the ladies and see them safely on board, chose to remain in the Doddalay, of which vessel they, with the President, were part owners, in spite of all the urgent messages sent to bring ’em back. There followed them, among other private persons, three lieutenants of the militia, and worse still, one belonging to the army. It was Mr Bentinck, Amelia. All this time the enemy were gathering their forces for an assault, and approached the walls about midnight, intending to escalade ’em. Inside the Fort a general alarm was beaten three times, but only such of the garrison as were on duty responded to the call, the rest having thrown themselves down in any corner, worn out with fatigue, or being disgusted with the behaviour of their leaders and the want of food,—for though there was plenty to be had, no one had chanced to keep an eye on the Portuguese cooks, and they were run off. This great beating of drums, however, alarmed the enemy so terribly that, fancying the whole garrison, rendered fierce by despair, was gathered in arms to oppose ’em, they withdrew from their attempt, contenting themselves with shooting a few fire-arrows into the Fort, and now and then sending off a cannon-shot.
While all this was passing, I sat watching beside the senseless form of my dear papa, who never moved nor opened his eyes while the effect of the salve with which the Indian had dressed his wounds lasted, which was the whole night. I was not left altogether solitary, for one gentleman after another was perpetually coming in to ask whether he might be permitted to do anything for me, and this proof of the esteem felt by all for Mr Freyne and their obliging kindness to myself affected me very sensibly. Soon after eleven o’clock in came Captain Colquhoun, whom I had not seen for some hours, and eyed me with great sternness.
“You have no business here, madam,” says he.
“Indeed, sir, I think I have,” said I.
“I would I had known ten minutes ago where you was, madam. I promise you I would have packed you off on board the Diligence, with Mrs Drake and Mrs Mapletoft and the two other ladies that were left. Mr le Beaume was there too, badly wounded, and you could have acted nurse-keeper to him, if you’re so fond of the part.”
“There’s no question of fondness, sir. I’m but doing my duty.”
“What can you do for your papa that any of us can’t do, madam? If he were in his senses, ’twould please him best to know that you was safe on board the shipping, not thrusting yourself into danger here,” and the good gentleman went away in a rage, to seek, I fancy, for some means of getting me out of the factory, but there was no more boats plied that night.
Mr Secretary Cooke was the next person that looked in, I think, to tell me that a second council of war was about to be held (this was after the enemy had desisted from their design of attacking us), and some time later Mr Dash came to tell me that the council was broke up.
“But what was the decision arrived at, sir?” I asked him.
“None at all, madam. A cannon-shot passed through the consultation-room, and no one waited for another.”
“But, sure, sir, something must have been resolved upon?”
“Indeed, madam, there never was so good-natured an assembly, for it left every member to believe that his own proposals would be followed.”
“But were there many different plans proposed, sir?”
“As many as there were members, madam, and that was any one that cared to take part. Mr Holwell was all for an orderly retirement after holding the place for one day more, in order that the Company’s papers and treasure might be put safely on board the shipping, but Mr Baillie opposed him. Others were for evacuating the Fort at once, and Captain Colquhoun was for holding it as long as the walls stood, in the expectation that the rains, which are now some days overdue, must compel the Nabob to raise the siege before long.”
“That’s the Captain, indeed! And was he well seconded, sir?”
“But poorly, madam, since Captain Witherington, who has succeeded in counting up his munitions now that there’s so little to count, declares that our powder is only sufficient for two days more, or three if it’s well husbanded. But as I said, what with every one talking at once, and the absence of any sort of control, no one knows what plan was decided upon or what rejected.”
I heard nothing more certain than this until the morning, when Mr Hurstwood, who had returned punctually from the Doddalay the night before, with his Charlotte’s full consent and approbation, came in and told me that all the Portuguese women and children were to be embarked at once, but whether this portended a general retirement or not, he could not say. The duty of seeing these unfortunate persons put into boats and despatched to the ships fell to Mr Baillie, who set to work very early, with all the disinterested kindness and generous activity imaginable. Our short season of peace was now over, for with the light the firing upon us began more fiercely than ever. So wickedly ingenious were the enemy that they had employed the hours of darkness not only in filling up the ditches which we had dug across the Park and other open grounds (and which had served them for ready-made breastworks behind which to fire at us the day before), and bringing their artillery over ’em, but in turning against us the abandoned guns of our own Eastern Battery, which did us more damage than all their own weapons. Not content with this, they had mounted cannons at the gates of Mr Bellamy’s compound and the Play-house compound, which commanded the church, as well as three at the corner of the Park, two in the Loll Buzar beyond the Gaol, and two at a spot near the Horse-stables, from all of which they rained their missiles upon us, while shamsingees[01] and wall-pieces were fixed at every corner, and bercundauzes[02] or matchlockmen were in readiness to shoot at any person that appeared on our walls. Finding that the enemy had not seized upon the Company’s house, which he had been forced to abandon the night before, Ensign Piccard led out a party to occupy it again, in the hope of at least diverting a portion of the firing from the Fort; and the President, adventuring his person boldly enough, made the tour of the ramparts, and finding it almost impossible to hold them in their ruinous state, which every moment became worse, ordered them to be strengthened with bags of cotton, affording a very sufficient protection against bullets. Seeing his honour and Mr Holwell, with Mr Hurstwood and Padra Mapletoft, busy in front of the chamber where I sat in cutting open the bales and filling the cotton into bags to carry it to the ramparts, I made bold to offer them such help as I could in closing the bags, and we all worked hard for some minutes, until a messenger came to call away Mr Drake, to whom, just as he was departing, Mr Hurstwood cried out that he would go on board the Doddalay again for five minutes to see his lady, and return at once. Mr Holwell also going off, there was only the Rev. Mr Mapletoft left, who came and looked in upon my papa, and said in a dolorous voice that he had understood a retirement was decided upon, and he wished some gentleman would be so wise as to begin it, which on Captain Colquhoun hearing, who came up at the moment, he rebuked the Padra very sharply for his dejected air, and bade him take pattern by the excellent Mr Bellamy. I don’t know how the poor divine covered his confusion, for on entering the chamber I found to my delight that my papa’s eyes were open, though he was not looking at me, but at Captain Colquhoun.
“Captain,” he said, very feebly, “we en’t going to leave the place to those Moorish swine, as the parson said, are we?”
“Not while we have a charge of powder left with which to fight ’em, sir.”
“I’m with you, Captain. But what’s my girl doing here? Where’s the other women?”
“On board the shipping, sir, where Miss ought to be.”
“So she ought. Get her on board, sir, pray.”
“The first chance I have, sir; trust me.”
“Sir,” I said, following the Captain out of the chamber, “I would not withstand you in my papa’s presence, for fear of disturbing him, but I won’t go.”
“By Heaven, madam, but you shall, if I have to carry you down to the Gott. There’s no women’s work before us here.”
And he hurried away, but could not immediately carry out his intention, for there happened all at once a whole quantity of disasters. Ensign Piccard’s party in the Company’s house, having been attacked by the Moguls in overwhelming numbers, were forced to retreat back to the Fort, every man of them being wounded, and their leader very seriously so. As though this were not enough, almost at the same moment the piquets that held the church and Mr Eyre’s and Mr Cruttenden’s houses, whether on receipt of an order or on their own motion I don’t know, also left their posts and came in, so that we were now reduced to the Fort itself and the Gott which it commanded, and which was defended on either side by a weak wall with a gate of pallisadoes. The enemy, scattering themselves along the bank of the river, began now to shoot fire-arrows into the shipping, and this so terrified those on board the vessels that they were seen to be weighing their anchors in preparation for dropping down the river. At this dreadful sight the terror and confusion in the Fort became extreme. Many of the boatmen detained at the wharf had made their escape in the night with their craft, and Mr Baillie was met with the utmost turmoil and difficulty in his humane task of embarking the Portuguese Christians, a good number of whom were drowned in their haste and terror, but the consternation was now spread to the Europeans. The President was going hither and thither in an odd hurried sort of style, giving orders for the defence of the wall that connected the south-west bastion with the line of guns over the wharf, but no one offered to obey him, for there was no one at hand to manage the two field-pieces that were there. Presently a person came to acquaint him that all the gunpowder left was so damp and spoiled as to be useless, a piece of news that appeared to give him great concern, as well it might, although it was afterwards proved not to be true. Mr Drake went away to consult with his officers, and for some time we heard nothing but the firing, until Captain Colquhoun came running, and seizing my wrist, cried out to me to follow him at once.
“I won’t leave my papa here, sir,” I cried.
“If he’s moved he’ll die, madam.”
“Then I’ll stay and die with him, sir.”
“No, you won’t, miss,” cried my papa, in a voice of extraordinary strength. “See,” and he plucked at his bandages, “if you don’t go I’ll loosen these and bleed to death, and you’ll have the recollection that you’re your father’s murderer.”
“If my papa will drive away his girl by such a cruel means—” I cried, but Captain Colquhoun dragged me from the place, choking with sobs, and hurried me towards the back gate of the Fort. The Gott and the steps were crowded with people, all crying out that the enemy were forcing the pallisadoes from the side of the Company’s house, but there was only two boats in sight. One was already putting off, with Captain Minchin and Mr Mackett in it, t’other was still at the steps, and Mr Drake was in the act of stepping on board, Captain Grant and one of the engineer officers following him. By the time we were arrived at the head of the steps, this boat also had put off, the President’s black footman, who had stood with his sword drawn guarding it in readiness for his master’s escape, clambering in from the shore. Captain Colquhoun pulled me down the steps.
“Gentlemen,” he cried, rushing into the water up to his knees, “wait a moment! Put back and take the lady on board. Mr President! Captain Grant! do you call yourselves men, sirs, and leave a woman to perish? Think of your own wives and daughters, and of the fate to which you are condemning Miss Freyne! May Heaven’s curse light upon you,” and he went on to call down the most fearful imprecations, such as it made me shudder to hear, for the rowers were rowing with all their might, and none of the persons in the boat had made so much as a motion to put back, nor even appeared to listen.
“We can do better than curse, Captain,” said one of the gentlemen standing on the steps, who had his piece in his hand, and he levelled it and fired. Several others followed his example, and the bullets went skipping into the water round the boat, but none of ’em took place, and these last and worst of our deserters arrived safely on board of the Doddalay, which had by now dropped down as far as Surmans. Many others, so we learned, were escaped before them, and among these were Padra Mapletoft and Mr Dash. Mr Hurstwood, who had not returned from the Doddalay, was carried off along with it, against the good gentleman’s will, I can’t doubt.
Captain Colquhoun led the way back into the Fort, walking with hanging head and his eyes cast down, and when all were inside, locked the west gate, to prevent any further desertions. Another council of war was hastily summoned, at which Mr Pearkes, the senior member of Council remaining in the factory, yielded his right in favour of Mr Holwell, who was welcomed without a dissenting voice as governor of the Fort and commander-in-chief. This having been determined, Captain Colquhoun remembered that he had been holding me fast by the wrist the entire time, and led me back to my papa without a word.
“We were too late, sir,” he said, in a broken voice, when we entered the chamber, and my poor father uttered a heart-rending groan.
“Unhappy girl!” he cried, looking sternly at me; “it had been better you had died with your mother than lived to see this day.”
I could only sob, and my distress melted the Captain.
“Come, sir,” he said; “we’ll hope things en’t so bad. From all quarters of the Fort they are hanging out signals to the ships to come back to their stations and take us off, and ’tis unpossible that those on board should be so flinty-hearted as to disregard us. Please Heaven, we shall all be took off orderly to-night, as Mr Holwell proposed at the council.”
“And if the Moors break in first,” says my papa, “why, you must do the last kindness to my girl if my hand fail me. See that my pistols are charged, and lay them here beside me, old friend. The dogs will give warning enough of their approach when it’s time to use ’em. Stop crying, miss, and come near and give me a kiss. You meant well, and it en’t your fault that you’re a fool, staying here to make your father’s end a miserable instead of a happy one.”
I entreated the dear gentleman’s forgiveness with tears, as I knelt on the floor beside him, and my grief so wrought upon his tenderness that he was moved to take a more cheerful view of our situation, encouraging me with hopes that the ships would return with the flood-tide, and take off the whole garrison. Presently there came in the Gentoo, Omy Chund’s servant, whom we now knew to be the person that had raised the alarm of the enemy’s breaking through the south-west pallisado, which was proved to be false, though not before it had frightened away Mr Drake and his friends; but asking the fellow why he spread such a report, he answered that he had believed it to be true. He brought with him a second small quantity of the salve, which he said was all he had, and, having promised that by his master’s order all his interest should be exerted in favour of our safety and honourable treatment should the Moors break into the Fort, departed again. About this time there fell on us the most cruel disappointment of all. The sloop Prince George, which had been ordered down from Perrins the night before, and was still lying opposite our south-west bastion, was signalled to approach closer, in the hope that she might be able to take us off. Mess. Pearkes and Lewis, going off to her in one of her boats that she sent on shore, carried instructions to her commander to bring his ship as near the Fort as possible, and this gentleman had sufficient courage and humanity to obey. But as the vessel approached us, and all watched her with tears in their eyes, thinking that safety was at last within reach, what was the general consternation when, owing either to the timid incompetency, or, as some said, the treachery, of her pilot, she run aground on one of those sand-banks that are everywhere lying in wait for unwary wretches in the course of the deceitful Hoogly! This destroyed our last hope of escape by water, for she could not be got off (those on board of the other ships making not the slightest offer of assistance), and her crew saved themselves at last in their boats, which durst not approach the shore.
But what shall I say of the conduct of the President and those with him on board the shipping, who took no step to save the wretches they had so basely abandoned? Either on Saturday or on Sunday they might have stood up the river with the flood, and with the aid of their crews and of the stores of munitions aboard of them, have turned the entire course of affairs, or at least have taken off the garrison and the Company’s papers and treasure without the loss of a single man; but in spite of all the urgent and affecting signals made to them, they did nothing. Nay, had they dropped down the river out of sight, for safety’s sake, one might forgive them better, but they lay off Surmans, in full view of us, for over four-and-twenty hours, as though to feast their eyes upon our dying agonies, and stood away only when they perceived that the worst had happened (though how fearful that worst was to be they could not have guessed).
As for those who were thus deserted, in spite of their natural resentment and despondency, they prepared to fight to the last under the new commanderie, and die as becomes Britons. Bales of broadcloth were got up from the warehouses, and built up into traverses along the eastern wall and its two bastions, which were swept by the enemy’s fire from the church, and with these, and the bags of cotton placed along the other ramparts, some shelter was obtained for our wearied garrison. Towards noon the enemy, being questionless disappointed that we had not offered to surrender the Fort to them in the panic at the President’s departure, drew off a little, and made no more attempts at storming our defences either that day or night, contenting themselves with keeping up their constant fire of cannon and musquetry, to which we were by now well accustomed. Will it surprise you, Amelia, to learn that your Sylvia passed that afternoon in sleep? I’ll assure you that I can hardly believe it of myself, and yet I had not slept all the night before, and even our dangerous situation, and the cruel anxiety I was in, could not keep me from drowsiness. Mr Bellamy coming in, fresh from the walls (where, good gentleman, he had fought as well as any lay person of them all), to see my papa, found me fallen asleep with my head on the sufferer’s pillow, and bade me go into the next room and rest, while he watched beside the dear gentleman. I was very reluctant to go, for my papa’s least movement made his wounds begin to burst out bleeding afresh; but on the Padra promising to call me the moment that there was any change, I obeyed him, and slept until it was dark, when I waked up to find the enemy still cannonading us, and fire-signals burning instead of flags to summon the ships. That night passed much as the last had done, the gentlemen coming in every now and then with the most agreeable punctuality to exhort me to keep up heart, for if we could only maintain ourselves until the following night, Mr Holwell was devising a scheme with Captain Colquhoun for cutting our way through the enemy, and retiring to Surmans, where we might get on board the ships. The enemy had fired all the European houses in the town, except those which gave them a footing from which to annoy us, and the dreadful glare and heat was most distressing, although the Moors remained tolerable quiet.
The morning of Sunday the 20th of June found our garrison divided between resolution and a desire to capitulate. The gentlemen of the Service and the officers, both those of the army and the ships, were resolved to preserve their honour by dying where they stood rather than yield, but there was a discontented spirit abroad in the lower ranks, which were full of Dutchmen, To-passes, and Armenians, few English being left. Among these men Mr Holwell divided three chests of treasure in the hope of pacifying them, and even went so far in yielding to their demands as to send to Omy Chund in his prison, requesting him to accept of his release and go to treat with the Nabob for us. This the vindictive Gentoo refused to do, but consented to write a letter from his cell to Raja Monickchund, the Phousdar of Hoogly, entreating him to intercede with the Soubah on our behalf, and this letter Mr Holwell threw over the wall when the enemy had opened their attack upon us again with the daylight, but the humiliating expedient had no effect, for there was a very determined attack made at noon on the north side of the Fort, which the enemy sought to escalade under cover of a prodigious fire from the ruins of Mr Cruttenden’s house. They were again beat off, but not without a dreadful struggle, in which five-and-twenty of our bravest remaining defenders were killed, and over seventy received wounds. So stubborn was the fighting that it seemed to me more than once that all must be lost, and I was like to cry out with joy when the news of the enemy’s repulse was brought me by that sergeant of Captain Colquhoun’s of whom I have told you before. This worthy fellow, who is named Jones, came to me running with all his might, and with one hand clapped to his face.
“So please you, madam, the Moors is drove off again,” says he, and would have hasted away at once, but thinking he must have received some wound, I asked him why he ran in so odd a style.
“Why, madam,” says he, “you’ve heard as how I’ve promised the Captain to touch no spirits until he gives me leave, and I’ve kept it, too. But when the other men broke into the arrack storehouse just now, where they’re making themselves as drunk as fiddlers, I knew as how the devil was setting a trap for me, and I says to myself as I’d not linger a moment before getting back to the Captain, nor give myself the chance of so much as smelling the stuff.”
And away he went, holding his nose as before. It pleased me that he should be so anxious to keep his promise to his Captain, and I told my papa of it, but to my grief the tale threw him into a great melancholy, for he began to lament that in all his life he had never done so much kindness to any fellow-creature as to help him to withstand his temptations. I sought to comfort him with the recollection that at least he had never led any astray, but he refused to listen to me.
“All my life,” he said, “I have been satisfied to be of the breed of Democritus, smiling at what was evil, and admiring what was good—and staying there. My natural easiness of temper has made me believe that I was right so long as I did no wrong, nor interfered with others’ doing it if they pleased. I thought that if I did no good, at least I did no harm, and now I am reaping the fruits of my foolishness. My wife has taken advantage of my slackness—nay, let me rather say that I in my slackness have suffered her to bring disgrace on herself and destruction on the factory. My daughter is here exposed to the worst of perils instead of finding herself safe under the protection of a husband, and my business here—how shall I answer for it to the Company, to the women that are left homeless, or to the brave men that are foredoomed to perish within these walls? ’Twas in my power to have spoke and voted in the Council for wise and prudent measures, perhaps to have restrained the extravagancies of the President and his two friends, but I did it not, I loved my ease too well. And this is the end of it all. Truly I have left undone those things which I ought to have done.”
I was beyond measure affected to hear such words from my papa’s lips, and seeing Mr Bellamy crossing the court, all blackened with powder and stained with blood, I ran out in the sun to him, and prayed him to come to the dear sufferer. Such was the kindness of this good man that he robbed himself of the rest which he so much needed, and gave up the time for it to Mr Freyne, sitting beside him and reading passages from the Scriptures, bidding him also look away from the life of which he was now ashamed to that of Christ who had died for him, and not add to the sins which he deplored that of unbelief and of the rejection of God’s mercy. Nay, he was even so thoughtful as to comfort him concerning the poor girl that he was leaving, as he feared, to the most extreme peril, saying that when man’s power was utterly at an end, then was the time for the manifestation of the power of God. And how often the good Padra’s words have served to comfort me since that day, I could not tell you, Amelia.
About two o’clock, the attack being renewed, Mr Bellamy was compelled to leave us to take his place on the walls, and my papa fell into a kind of slumber, with his hand clasped in mine. After a while Lieutenant Bellamy came to tell me that the enemy had desisted from their efforts and betaken themselves to places of shelter out of the reach of our fire, where, said he, ’twas to be hoped they would stay, for nearly all our common soldiers were so drunk with the arrack they had stole as to be lost to all sense of duty. After this all was quiet until a little after four, when the Gentoo, Omy Chund’s servant, came running, and with a naked scymitar in his hand took up his post before our doorway. On my asking him what was the matter (for I had learnt to speak Moors well enough to understand the servants and they me, though but in a broken manner), he told me that the enemy having shown a flag of truce, Mr Holwell had replied with another, throwing over the wall also a letter addressed to Raja Doolubram, the Nabob’s duan, asking for terms. While our people’s attention was engaged by this parley, the enemy all flocked out of their hiding-places, and made fierce attacks both on the eastern gate of the Fort and the pallisadoes on the south-west, wounding Mr Baillie with a musquet-ball as he stood by Mr Holwell’s side. On Mr Holwell running down to the parade to summon our common men, he found the few that were not drunk asleep, and those that were drunk, hearing of the danger, broke open the western gate, headed by a Dutchman of the Train, seeking to escape along the slime of the river, and so admitted the enemy. Hurrying to the south-east bastion Mr Holwell met with Captain Colquhoun, and the two gentlemen agreed that no further resistance was possible, since the Moors had also, by using bamboos for scaling-ladders, succeeded in great numbers in escalading the south wall, by means of the roofs of the godowns built against it, and were pouring into the Fort. The Gentoo added that he had seen the two gentlemen give up their swords to a Jemmautdar of the Nabob’s, and that he had hastened hither to defend us with his life, as his master’s orders were.
Resolved to second to the best of my power the efforts of this human pagan, I catched up Mr Freyne’s pistols, and stood with one of them in each hand, while the shouts and cries of the victorious Moguls approached nearer, although none had as yet penetrated to our neighbourhood. I thought I had passed through the bitterness of death, Amelia, and ’twas like a new life when I saw Captain Colquhoun and his sergeant come hurrying across the courtyard, in company with one of the Moorish Jemmautdars and ten or twelve of his men, while the poor Gentoo that guarded us was so confused by their sudden appearance that he fetched a great blow at the Captain with his scymitar, but the sergeant warded it off, and no harm was done, though I cried out aloud in my fright.
“Madam,” says the Captain, brushing the Gentoo aside, and coming into the chamber, “this Jemmautdar here en’t so vile as the most of them, and has promised, in return for receiving all our valuables, to save us from the ill-treatment of his fellows. Pray give him any jewellery you may happen to have about you, and he’ll conduct us to our friends, the rest of the prisoners.”
My dear girl will guess that I did not delay to give the Captain my brooch and rings, my silver-framed tablets, and even the coral pins that fastened my handkerchief, to present to the Moor, observing that the poor gentleman himself had been robbed not only of his watch and shoe-buckles, but of the very buttons from his coat. My papa’s pistols,