MORE FUGITIVES IN GUMILCUND
They could not spend more than a day and a night in Gambier Singh's
hospitable camp. Moreover, the gallant little Ghoorka army had work to
do. It had been reinforced by English officers and troops, and it was
bound on an expedition south to cut off the retreat of a body of rebels
who, having escaped the swords and guns of Havelock's Highlanders, were
rushing up to hide themselves in the mountains. But Gambier Singh, with
the full consent of his fellow officers, both British and Nepaulese,
would not let his friends depart unattended. An escort, sufficiently
strong to make them respected both by insurgent villagers and fugitive
sepoys, was told off to protect them on their further journey, and he
added to their travelling stores such comforts as he could command.
Both parties, the English rajah, with his Nepaulese escort, and the
Ghoorka army, started with light hearts, for there could be no doubt
now that the tide of affairs in the peninsula had changed for the
better. Delhi was taken by assault; the news was in every mouth. The
King of Delhi was a captive; his army was scattered and destroyed; and
although, while Oude was in insurrection, and Lucknow was in the hands
of the rebels, and a vast army reinforced by the mutinous contingent
from Gwalior still held the field, the mutiny could not be said to be
crushed, there was good hope now of a successful issue to the efforts
which had been made to extinguish it.
With the intelligence from Delhi, which was brought by swift runners to
the Ghoorka camp, Tom had the satisfaction of receiving a good account
of his Gumilcund levies. They were specially mentioned as having
distinguished themselves in the assault. What he did not know then,
but what he heard later, was that these men of Gumilcund had earned
the praise even of the heroic Nicholson. On the day after the assault,
when the gallant English soldiers, who had fought like lions and shed
their blood like heroes, fell prone to the temptation thrown in their
way by their enemies, and lay about, stupid as sheep, in the streets
and courts of the city they had so brilliantly won, it was a band of
Gumilcund men, who, by their steadfastness and intrepidity, prevented
the day of dishonour from being, to many of them, a day of disaster.
This the rajah heard at Gumilcund, whither, as there is nothing in his
further journey to deserve a special record, we must now return.
The English ladies in the palace had settled down, as we shall
remember, into a peaceful and well-cared-for, if somewhat monotonous,
life. They never went out into the streets of the city. This was by
the advice of Chunder Singh and Lutfullah, who feared that the people,
looking upon them as, in some sort, responsible for the loss of their
rajah, might show signs of hostility if they appeared amongst them. As
for those grave personages themselves, they had overcome their first
feelings of doubt and suspicion.
By the time of which I am speaking the rajah's message from the village
in the Doab, where he halted to rescue the English prisoners, and
received the intelligence which sent him to Azimgurh and Nepaul, had
arrived. It had been immediately obeyed. Before Grace and Kit were
found Mrs. Lyster shared the hospitality of the English rajah's palace,
and the two young officers, who had so narrowly escaped an ignominious
death, were resting and recruiting their strength in the Resident's
comfortable house.
This message had brought hope back to the city. Their rajah had not
completely deserted them. He sent word that he would return, that
wherever he went he was mindful chiefly of their interests, that he
would die rather than betray them; and they believed him. Over the
common people, in fact, to whom the contents of this letter was made
known, his influence was rather strengthened than weakened by what had
taken place. His mysterious departure, his extraordinary escape out
of the hands of Dost Ali Khan the deadly enemy of Gumilcund, with the
destruction of the fort, from which the city and State had so often
been threatened, confirmed their belief that the gods were in league
with their rajah, and that, while he continued to rule over them, peace
and prosperity were assured to the State.
And in fact this small principality was, at the time of which I am
writing, like one of those islands in the Southern Seas which awful
coral reefs guard from the onslaught of stormy waves. To her very
doors the tempest raged. From east and west, from north and south, the
posts, which had again begun to run, brought news of mutinous armies
in possession of the country, of burning villages and sacked cities,
of robber-tribes pursuing unchecked their career of violence, and of
peasants fleeing from their unreaped fields. She remained untouched--a
fortress and a refuge.
In the palace things were not so dull as they had been. Chunder Singh
and Lutfullah paid daily visits to the ladies, to assure themselves
that they wanted for nothing. The message from the rajah and the
arrival of Mrs. Lyster raised their drooping spirits. Mrs. Durant began
to hope that she might one day see her darling Kit again, and Lucy was
better able to excuse herself for what she still looked upon as her own
cowardly desertion of her cousin and friend.
As for Mrs. Lyster, I am afraid it would take more space than I have at
my command to do anything like justice to her feelings. When, after her
long and toilsome journey, she was carried within the precincts of the
palace, and her litter being set down in the cool marble court of the
quarter allotted to the European ladies, she found herself surrounded
with gentle and sympathetic faces, she was as one in a dream. Long
after, as she has told me since, it abode in her mind like a picture in
a vision. There were little Lucy, with her pure white skin and golden
hair and pathetic eyes, from which the dream of horror had not yet
passed away; and the pale-faced mother eager--so eager--for news, yet
not venturing to ask a question until the haggard, wild-eyed visitor
had been refreshed and comforted; and Aglaia, like a child-angel
with love and wonder in her face, and close to her the dusky-faced
Sumbaten, pouring out broken words of welcome and offers of assistance;
and little Dick, rosy and sweet, at sight of whom the poor fugitive
covered her face with her hands and wept. Her baby had been shot--her
soft innocent little darling--shot, in the arms of its father, who had
torn it from the ayah to protect it with his own body. And then he had
fallen too, and when, cold and still as lifeless stone, she leant over
them to staunch their life-blood, he whispered to her hoarsely, 'For
the sake of our children in England, escape!'
She had escaped--oh, God! she had escaped! But was not life far
bitterer than death?
They knew how it was with her. Everyone of them had gone through her
hour of worse than martyrdom, so they waited silently till she looked
up again and made a pathetic effort to smile and thank them; and then
Aglaia, who, having been the first comer, continued to do the honours
of the palace, took her by the hand, and Aglaia's ayah followed, and
she was given clear water and fresh garments, and when she was ready
she was brought out again to the rajah's summer-house, where an English
tea, with tinned meats and wheaten bread, and luscious Eastern fruits,
was spread out.
It was then, as she has told me, that her perplexity began. She was
asked a number of questions which she could not answer. Aglaia stood up
before her, and besought earnestly to be told where Daddy Tom was, and
why he did not come back, and when, thinking naturally the poor child
was asking for one of the dead, she said that she had not seen him,
Lucy interposed quickly: 'Oh! she means the rajah; don't you know? He
sent you here.'
'The rajah! Daddy Tom!' echoed Mrs. Lyster.
'Of course you know he is an Englishman,' said Lucy.
'It was no Englishman saved us,' said Mrs. Lyster, shaking her head.
'Ask the others!'
'Oh! but it was; it was Tom. I think his second English name is
Gregory. It's a funny story. Grace told me part of it,' said Lucy, 'and
I heard the rest here. Surely he told you about Grace----'
'And about Kit, my sweet Kit, my little hero!' said Mrs. Durant,
weeping.
'Grace! Kit! I don't understand. I think indeed we must be playing at
cross-purposes. God knows it would give me the truest happiness to
relieve your anxieties: you who have received me so kindly. But what
can I tell you but the truth? We were saved by an Indian prince, a
young man. He came to see us in the headman's hut, late at night, after
he had killed twenty of our captors with his own hand. He told us he
was the rajah of this place, and he would send us here with soldiers
of his own. But, Tom--Thomas Gregory! what do you mean?' cried Mrs.
Lyster, in great agitation. 'I knew an Englishman of that name once.'
'But you don't, you _can't_, mean to say that you know nothing more!'
said Lucy. 'Think, for heaven's sake! Try your hardest to remember.'
'Try to remember? Do you think I could forget? In the depths of our
despair, I and those two poor boys, who were dying under my eyes; not
knowing what fresh horrors each fresh day might have in store for us;
living on and praying to a God who, we still believed, was a God of
Mercy, to let us die swiftly, and our pains and troubles end; all at
once, in a moment, at dead of night, dragged out to what we thought
must be the swift and sudden death we had prayed for; and then to find
ourselves safe, our bonds loosened, our enemies gone, kind and gracious
friends about us, with words of hope which have been fully--fully
redeemed upon their lips! Forget! we should be monsters of ingratitude
if we forgot. If I could ever return it, ever show--but that would be
impossible,' cried Mrs. Lyster wildly.
'Yes, impossible,' said the ladies together. And Lucy added softly,
'Tom has been our good angel. But it was for Grace's sake. We must not
forget that. He sent for us because of her. Do you know, all of you,
she might have escaped alone, long before, and we, God only knows where
we should have been! He was searching for Grace when he rescued you,
Mrs. Lyster; he is searching for her still. Most likely she is dead,
and then he will die too!'
'Oh! Lucy! Lucy! Don't talk so wildly!' said Mrs. Durant. 'Look at
Aglaia and think of me! You are frightening Mrs. Lyster.'
'I am not frightened,' said the poor lady, 'only bewildered. My Thomas
Gregory was such an interesting boy. At least, we thought him so at
first. Then some one said he was more than half a native. There was
a curious story about him,' she went on gropingly. 'He was going
out, they said, to inherit the wealth of an Indian rajah. Dear! how
strangely things come round. If'--with a little laugh--'I had only
known he was Thomas Gregory----'
'Was he going on with his search?' said Lucy.
'Yes; and now I think of it, I must have given him a clue. His servant
questioned me!'
'Hoosanee, our good Hoosanee!' cried Lucy, clapping her hands.
'He struck me as being rather artful,' said Mrs. Lyster.
'So he is, but it is in his master's service,' said Lucy joyously.
'Hoosanee is a man of resource. I am sure they are safe now.'
'God grant it!' said poor Mrs. Durant, breaking into tears and sobs.
'If he were not such a darling--much too good for this world--I might
hope too! Oh! Kit, my poor Kit, my pretty Kit, I can see your brave
little face now as you went away! How I kept still I don't know. I was
paralysed.'
'If Grace had been paralysed, we should none of us have been here to
tell the tale,' said Lucy, with a sort of disdain, which was as much
for herself as for these others, on her pale face.
'How she found strength to do it I can't imagine,' said little Dick's
mother. 'But for baby----'
'Oh!' interposed Lucy, 'we all had our own reasons, of course. As a
fact, I believe we couldn't have done any differently!'
'It is all very mysterious,' said Dick's mother; 'but I don't see why
you should be so sardonic about it, Lucy. We ought to be thankful that
our lives are spared. I am sure I am, both for myself and dear little
baby.'
'Don't! Don't!' cried Lucy passionately. 'You hurt me! Thankful! How
can I be thankful? Till Grace and Kit are here beside me, I shall not
be thankful. I know I am wicked; but I can't help myself. It's in me.'
And then she turned away, and gripped Aglaia by the arm. 'Come!' she
said, '_you_ won't reason with me or try to make me good. Let us find
Sumbaten, and see what she is doing for Mrs. Lyster!'
They looked after her, as with a defiant step she went away along the
avenue, and Mrs. Durant sighed deeply, while Dick's mother shook her
head, and said that Lucy's temper did not improve. It was a pity they
could not see her more subdued and humbled. As for Mrs. Lyster, she
sat very silent. She was gazing out into the soft rose lilac of the
narrowing heavens, and thinking of the young fellow who had been her
companion on that delightful voyage, that seemed now so long ago--the
young fellow whom she had liked and admired until a certain strange
day, when he mystified her and others by putting on an Oriental robe,
and assuming, with such marvellous perfection, the speech and manners
of an Oriental grandee.