THE DURBAR.
"Coincidence," saith Ouida, "is a god that greatly influences human
affairs;" and the sequel to our story will prove the truth of this
trite aphorism, when we now change the scene from Cabul to our
cantonment, in the territory between the Sutledge and the Jumna--to
the Court Sanatorium of Bengal--the country mansion of the
Governor-General at Simla, a beautiful little town of some five
hundred houses, built on the slope of the mighty Himalayas, where,
amid a veritable forest of oak, evergreens, and rhododendron, and the
loveliest flora a temperate zone can produce, surrounded by that
wondrous assemblage of snow-covered peaks that rise in every
imaginable shape (a portion of those bulwarks of the world, that
slope from the left bank of the Indus away to the steppes of Tartary
and the marshes of Siberia), the representative of the Queen retires
periodically to refresh exhausted nature, and mature the plans of
government in those cool and pleasant recesses, where the punkah is
no longer requisite; where one may sleep without dread of mosquitos
and green bugs, nor welcome cold tea at noon as preferable to iced
champagne.
By the time that Audley Trevelyan had reached this occasional seat of
government--the Balmoral of India--Lord Auckland, whose vacillation
and mismanagement of the Cabul campaign gave great umbrage, had
returned to Britain, and another Governor-General had arrived--one
who boldly stigmatised the Afghan project of his predecessor (now
created an earl) "as a folly, and that it yet remained to be seen
whether it might not prove a crime;" and so Audley presented, of
necessity, the reports and Jellalabad despatches of Sir Robert Sale
to this new Viceroy, whose firmness of character and past promise as
a statesman gave a guerdon that we should yet retrieve all that we
had lost of prestige beyond the Indus; to which end he took the
executive power from the weak hands of those secretaries to whom it
had been previously committed, and resolved to wield it himself,
though he found in India a treasury well-nigh empty, an army
exasperated, and the hearts of men depressed by fears for the future.
But tidings of the storming of Ghuznee by General Nott, of the
advance upon Cabul, the recapture of it after our victory at Tizeen,
and the rescue of the hostages, followed so quickly upon each other
to Simla, that soon after the arrival of Audley, he was informed that
as there would be no necessity for his return to Jellalabad, he was
to remain provisionally attached to the staff, either till he could
rejoin his regiment, or our troops re-entered the Punjaub--a little
slice of India, having a population equal to all that of England. So
by this arrangement he found himself a mere idler, a dangler attached
to the Viceregal court, where now the glorious war that Napier was to
inaugurate against the treacherous Ameers of Scinde was schemed out,
and where a series of reviews, dinners, balls, and a durbar, or
assembly of the native princes, was proposed to welcome Pollock's
troops when they came down country, and were once again, as the
Viceroy expressed it, in "our native territories;" and the programme
of all those gayeties was to be fully arranged when his lady and
other ladies of the mimic court arrived, after the rainy season,
which continues there from June till the middle of September, was
nearly over.
On the first day of October, when her ladyship and the suite were to
arrive, the durbar of native princes was to be held, and the final
proclamation of the Governor-General concerning the affairs of
Afghanistan was to be read aloud and issued. As this was but an
instance of Anglo-Indian pageantry, though Audley Trevelyan rode amid
the brilliant staff of his Excellency, and it all led to something of
more interest, we shall only notice it briefly.
The durbar was, indeed, a magnificent spectacle! On a great plateau
of brilliant green, smooth as English turf, that lies near the ridge
which is crowned by the white plastered mansions of Simla, dotted
here and there and finally bordered by dark clumps of heavily
foliaged oaks, towering rhododendrons, and over all by mighty,
spire-like Himalayan pines; it took place under a clear and lovely
sky, and the locality was indeed picturesque and impressive; for in
the distance, as a background, towered that wonderful sea of
snow-clad peaks, covered with eternal whiteness--peaks between which
lie the deep paths and passes that lead to Chinese Tartary, the
wilderness of Lop, and the deserts of Gobi. Here and there amid the
green clumps and gardens full of rare trees and lovely flowers, a
white marble dome, or a tall and needle-like minaret, each stone
thereof a miracle of carving, broke the line of the clear blue
cloudless sky.
On this auspicious occasion all the Rajahs, Maharajahs, chiefs,
Maliks, Sirdirs, and other men of rank, from the protected Sikh
territory that lies between the Sutledge and the Jumna, and even from
beyond it, were present with their trains of followers, in all the
gorgeous richness of oriental costume, bright with plumage, silks,
and satins, brilliant with arms and the jewels of a land where
sapphires and diamonds, rubies and opals, seem to be plentiful as
pebbles are by the wayside in Europe.
At the extreme end of the plateau stood the lofty, parti-coloured
tent of the Viceroy, with its cords of silk and cotton; within it was
placed a dais that was spread with cloth of gold, and covered by a
crimson canopy. On each side of his throne, ranged in the form of an
ellipse, were divans or seats for six hundred Indians of the highest
rank, while all the officers of the garrison, the guards, and the
staff, in their full uniform, with all their medals and orders, added
to the splendour of the spectacle, when chief after chief was
introduced, duly presented, and marshalled to his seat in succession,
amid the sound of many trumpets.
Opposite this ellipse were ranged their followers, on foot or
horseback; and immediately in the centre of all, were drawn up in
line more than fifty elephants, stolid, and well-nigh motionless,
trapped in velvet and gold from the saddle to their huge, unwieldy
feet, bearing lofty and gilded howdahs, some like castles of silver,
wherein were the wives and families of some of the princes present.
All around glittered spears and arms; scores of dancing-girls were
there too, richly dressed, singing the soft monotonous airs of the
land in Persic or Hindoo-Persic; and a mighty throng of
copper-coloured natives, turbaned and scantily clad in a cummerbund
or the dhottie at most, made up minor accessories of the general
picture.
Over all this, Audley, on foot and leaning on his sword, was looking,
glass in eye, with somewhat of the listlessness of the _blasé_
Englishman; for he had been amid scenes so stirring of late, that
mere pageantry failed alike to impress or interest him. Neither
cared he, assuredly, for the address of the Governor-General, who was
announcing in the Oordoo language that, the disasters in Afghanistan
having been fully avenged, the army of the Queen would be withdrawn
for ever to the eastern bank of the Sutledge; then his glances began
to wander over the bright group of English ladies, so brilliantly
dressed, so exquisitely fair, to the eye accustomed so long to Indian
dusk, and who now attended the recently arrived wife of the
representative of British royalty.
Among them was one whose face and figure woke a strong interest in
his heart. Her dress was very plain, even to simplicity--too much so
for such a place; her ornaments were very few, all of jet, and rather
meagre. All this his practised eye could take in at a glance; but
there was something about her that fascinated and riveted his
attention.
Not much over nineteen, apparently, and rather petite in stature, she
looked consequently younger--more girlish than her years; but her
figure was graceful, her air indescribably high-bred, and having in
it a hauteur that, being quite unconscious, was becoming. Her eyes
were dark, her lashes long and black, her complexion colourless and
pure, and her thick hair was in waves and masses, dressed Audley
scarcely knew in what fashion, but in a somewhat negligent mode that
was sorely bewitching.
Her face was always half turned away from where he stood; for she,
utterly oblivious of the Oordoo harangue of his Excellency, was
toying with her fan or the white silk tassels of her gloves, while
chatting gaily, confidently, and with a downcast smile to a young
officer of the Anglo-Indian Staff, and clad in the gorgeous uniform
of the Bengal Irregular Cavalry.
That she was a beautiful girl, a little proud, perhaps, of the
_sang-azure_ in her veins, was pretty evident; that she might be
impulsive, too, and quick to ire, was also evident, from the little
impatient glances she gave about her, by a quivering of the white
eyelid, and an occasional short respiration; that she might be a
little passionate too, if thwarted, was suggested by the curve of her
lips and chin. For the critical eye of Master Audley Trevelyan saw
all this; but his spirit was seriously perplexed: he had certainly
seen this attractive little fair one before--but where?
He was about to turn and ask some one near concerning her, when a
hand was laid on his shoulder, and a young officer, whose new scarlet
coat, untarnished epaulettes, and fair ruddy face announced him fresh
from Europe, said smilingly,
"Ah, Trevelyan, how d'ye do?--remember me, don't you?"
"I think so: surely we met at Maidstone, when I first joined."
"Maidstone! why, you griff, I should think so. Don't you remember
leaving us at Allahabad, after Jack Delamere died?"
"By Jove, Stapylton--Stapylton, of the 14th! How are you, old
fellow?"
"The same;" and they shook hands, as he now recognised a brother
subaltern of his old Hussar corps.
"And you are here on the staff?" said Stapylton.
"Like yourself; but _pro tem._ till sent off to headquarters. You
came up country with her ladyship?"
"Ah--yes."
"Who is that lovely girl near her?"
"Which?"
"She in the white silk, and lace trimmed with black--a kind of second
mourning I take it to be."
"Oh, you needn't ask with any interested views. A proud, reserved
minx is that little party; but she has been going the pace with that
fellow of the Irregular Horse, to whom she is talking and smiling
now, and did so all the way out overland. It was an awful case of
spoon in the Red Sea, just where Pharaoh was swallowed up; and the
Viceroy's wife is very anxious to make a match of it, as a plea for
an extra ball."
"But who is she?"
"Oh, some interesting orphan."
"But her name?"
"A Miss Devereaux--Sybil Devereaux. I made an acrostic on it off the
Point de Galle," added the ex-Hussar, as the object of their mutual
interest turned at that moment casually towards them, and for the
first time looked fully in their direction; and then Audley, while he
almost held his breath, recognised the dark eyes, the minute little
face, the firm lips, and even now could hear the once-familiar voice
of Sybil; but she was talking smilingly to another; and as the words
of the heedless Stapylton began to rankle in his heart, something of
anger, jealousy and pique mingled with his astonishment.
Another was now playing with Sybil the very part that he had done at
Cabul with Rose, to the exasperation of poor Denzil, whom, for months
before he really died, Sybil had schooled herself to number as among
the slain in Afghanistan; hence her little jet ornaments and black
trimmings, the only tribute she could pay his memory now.