The huge column moved slowly and silently onwards, aided by the light of
a brilliant moon. The Sultaun, at its head, sometimes on foot, at others
on horseback, or in bad places upon his elephant, cheered on his men and
officers with words he knew would best arouse their zeal and spirit.
There was hardly need, however, for the army proceeded as fast as the
nature of the ground would permit. All night they marched, but slowly
enough, through the narrow and rugged road, and sometimes through the
thick jungles; and often the Sultaun would turn to Kasim, and question
him about the path, evidently thinking that he had lost it, and that the
expedition would be in vain. But the young Jemadar was sure of the way;
the guides he had taken with him when he explored the path in the first
instance were also confident; and as morning broke, the dull grey light
disclosed the precipitous rock which was their object, close before
them.
‘Art thou sure this is the place, Kasim Ali?’ said the Sultaun, as he
rode backwards and forwards, vainly endeavouring to find the path which
led to the summit. ‘Art thou sure? By the Prophet, it will be worse for
thee if thou hast led us wrong!’
‘May I be your sacrifice,’ said Kasim, ‘this is the place. Let the army
halt here for a short time; your slave will take a few of the pioneers
and see if it be clear of the enemy; but it is not probable they would
defend it, so far from the gate, and in this wild jungle.’
‘I will accompany thee,’ replied the Sultaun; and despite the entreaties
of the numerous officers by whom he was surrounded, he rode after Kasim.
A strong body of infantry supported them in case of danger.
There was however none: the path, which was concealed from view by a
large tree, and ran up between two high rocks, was undefended. A few men
might have disputed it against a host, but the Sultaun’s threatening
disposition of troops in front of the gate, which was many miles
distant, had drawn all the defenders to that spot; and where the wall
terminated against the rock there was no one left to guard it.
Accompanied by a few of the household slaves, sword in hand, Kasim
advanced slowly and cautiously up the path. There was perfect silence,
except when a jungle fowl, scared from its roost by the unusual sound of
men’s feet, flew with a loud whirr into the dense thickets beyond the
pass; or when the ravens, aroused from the trees below, flew before them
from bush to bush, croaking their dismal welcome to the feast they
seemed to anticipate.
They gained the top without interruption; and Kasim, sending word to the
Sultaun (who had not ventured with the leading party up the pass) that
all was safe, went on to the edge of the precipice, and looked over the
scene before him.
The night mists still lay quietly in the hollows, looking like unruffled
lakes in the dim light; and here and there a huge rock, like the one on
which he stood, was surrounded by them, and appeared like an island.
Immediately below him all was clear, and the long columns and crowds of
persons—the elephants moving majestically about, and horsemen here and
there appearing where the jungle was thin or open—was a sight at which
the young soldier’s blood danced briskly through his veins; for all were
now pressing forward towards the pass, and he hoped that the leading
divisions would soon be at the summit. Away to the left, the line of
wall, with its bastions and towers, which so long had been their object
of desire, stretched over the undulating ground; but it was deserted,
except at a distant point, where two or three faintly twinkling lights
showed that a watch was kept.
‘By the Prophet, thy road is a rare one, Kasim Ali!’ said the Sultaun,
who had come up to him unobserved, and touched his shoulder; ‘the army
will soon be up, though it is somewhat narrow. Dost thou see any one
stirring on the wall?’
‘No one, my lord; they have all been deceived by the troops before the
gate, and imagine the attack is to be made there.’
‘Yes,’ said the Sultaun, ‘we are unrivalled in such stratagems; it was
ourself who planned the ambuscade which ended in the discomfiture of
Baillie and his kafirs; and we have ever exercised the talent which Alla
hath confided to us, among many others, of military skill, in which we
surpass the English and French—may their races be defiled!’
How long the Sultaun might have continued the theme of his own praises,
which was always a most pleasant one to him, it is impossible to say,
but his harangue was rather rudely interrupted by two shots, discharged
in quick succession from a distant part of the wall before them, one of
which whistled over their heads (for they were standing upon the crest
of the rock)—the other struck the ground a little below them.
‘Ha! so the rogues are awake,’ cried Kasim; ‘I beseech you, my lord, to
turn back, and not to expose yourself to danger. Your slave will lead
the way, and send these infidels to perdition.’
‘Inshalla!’ cried the Sultaun, yielding to the solicitations of all
around him, and retiring a few paces, ‘Inshalla! many will see the angel
of death ere night. On with ye! victory is before—cry Alla Yar! and set
on them. Think that ye fight for the faith, and that your Sultaun is
beholding your deeds of prowess.’
‘Alla Yar! Deen! Deen!’ was now shouted by the hoarse voices of the
crowd which occupied the top of the rock, and the cry flew from division
to division down the pass and into the plain; thousands shouted ‘Alla
Yar! Alla Yar!’ the Sultaun’s war-cry, and strained every nerve to press
onwards.
The shout of the army was answered by several single shots from the same
spot as before; and an officer of the regular infantry, who had been
standing on the very brink of the precipitous rock, was seen to toss his
arms wildly into the air, and, ere he could be caught by several who
rushed to his assistance, had fallen headlong into the thicket below.
‘Follow Kasim Ali Patél!’ cried the daring young man—for he was the
foremost, and the path was not at first apparent to the rest. Drawing
his sword and putting his arm through the loops of his shield, he dashed
down it, followed by a hundred of those who waited the signal of attack.
They scrambled down the side of the declivity on to the wall—there was
nothing that could be called a path for soldiers—and it was still so
dusk that objects could but ill be discerned. Once on the wall, however,
all was fair before them: the parapet was broad enough for three or four
men to pass abreast; but Kasim and the rest were obliged to wait a while
ere they were joined by a sufficient number to press on.
‘We shall have hot work ere long,’ said the officer who had accompanied
Kasim, ‘and this is no place for infantry to fight in—a narrow wall,
with a deep ditch on the one hand, and a thick jungle, with only a
narrow path through it on the other. By Alla, I like it not.’
‘Art thou a coward?’ said Kasim, turning on him with some contempt in
his voice; ‘thou hadst better in that case go to the rear. Fie on thee
to speak thus! do we not eat the Sultaun’s salt? Come on, in the name of
the Prophet! there are enough of us—more are coming every moment, and
the top of the rock is already crowded.’
‘Thou shalt see I am no coward,’ cried the officer, darting forward; but
he was stopped by another deadly shot, and fell on his face without
uttering a word or cry.
His fate did not, however, check the assault. ‘Alla Yar! Alla Yar!’ was
still the shout, and the whole body hurried on, impelled forward by the
pressure from the rear. There was no retreating; on the one hand was the
impassable ditch, on the other the jungle—here and there open, and with
paths through it running parallel to the wall, by which many rapidly
advanced. They saw nothing of the defenders, though from time to time a
fatal shot struck the dense mass, and one of their number fell headlong
from the narrow path, or sinking down wounded, was thrown over by his
comrades. The thick jungle hid the defenders of the wall, who retreated
as the others advanced; for they were as yet too few to offer any
resistance. But gradually the noise of the shouting and firing was heard
along the line of wall, and its defenders hurried along to the right to
meet their enemies, judging that their flank had been turned, and that
there was little hope of retaining their post if the Sultaun’s army
should succeed in advancing. In this manner parties joined together and
gradually succeeded in arresting the rapid approach of their enemies,
who had now to fight for every foot of ground. Tower after tower was
desperately disputed; the day was advancing, many of the men were
already exhausted by their long night march, and to stop or retreat was
impossible.
‘At this rate we shall never reach the gate,’ cried the Sultaun, who had
entered a tower which had just been taken, and where Kasim and many
others were taking breath for an instant ere they recommenced their
advance. ‘We shall never gain the gate—it must now be nearly three coss
from us;’ and he looked from one to the other of those assembled.
‘And the men are very weary,’ said Kasim, for he spoke boldly.
‘Ya, Alla kureem!’ exclaimed the Sultaun, ‘dost _thou_ despair, Kasim
Ali?’
‘Alla forbid!’ was his reply; ‘by the favour of the Prophet we shall
prevail; but my lord sees that it is tedious work, for the kafirs have
heard the firing and are collecting more and more in every tower; and
though they pay dearly for their temerity in resisting the power of the
Lion of the Faith, as these unblessed bodies testify, yet the taking of
every succeeding tower is a work of more labour, and many of the
faithful have tasted of death.’
‘A thought strikes me,’ said the Sultaun; ‘what if the wall were thrown
down? we should then possess a breach, by which we could enter or go out
at pleasure.’
‘A wise thought! Excellent advice! What great wisdom!’ was repeated by
the whole circle, while the Sultaun stood by silent, apparently in
further consideration upon the subject.
‘Yes,’ he continued, after holding his forefinger between his teeth in
an attitude of deliberation for some time,—‘yes, it is a good thought;
and we charge you, Syud,’ he added, to his relative, ‘with its
execution; collect the pioneers, heave over the battlements into the
ditch, fill it up level with the plain. Inshalla! there will be a broad
road soon. Be quick about it; and now, sirs, let us lose no more time,
but press on; our swords are hardly red with the blood of the infidels,
and they appear to be collecting yonder in some force.’
‘But,’ said the Syud, ‘this is a pioneer’s work: in the name of the
Prophet, leave me not with them.’
‘I have spoken,’ replied the Sultaun, frowning. ‘Enough! see my command
obeyed, and be quick about it.’
‘We may need the road too soon,’ said a voice: but, although they tried
hard, they could not discover whose it was.
Once more then they resolutely set forward, and the Sultaun was on foot
among his men, who were full of animation as he often spoke to them, and
reminded them that those who fell were martyrs, who would be translated
to Paradise, and those who survived would win honour and renown. But it
was easy to see that, tired and exhausted as they were, the men had not
their first spirit; and some hours of constant fighting, with no water
to refresh them, had been more than they could support; the opposition
every moment became more and more certain and effective, and each step
was disputed.
Meanwhile the road over the ditch progressed but slowly. The Syud had
thought himself offended by being left behind to see it done, and looked
sulkily on without attempting to hasten the operation. The pioneers were
too few to effect anything rapidly; indeed it would have been impossible
to have done what the Sultaun had ordered, even had the whole force
joined in the work; for the ditch was wide and deep, full of thorns,
briars, matted creepers, and bamboos, which had been planted on purpose
to offer a hindrance to an enemy. A few stones only had been displaced,
though the work had gone on nearly an hour, when it was suddenly and
rudely interrupted.
The advancing party had proceeded hardly half-a-mile, with much labour,
when on a turn of the wall they perceived a square building filled with
the enemy, who in considerable numbers had taken post there, and were
evidently determined to dispute it hotly.
‘Ah! had we now some of my good guns,’ cried the Sultaun, as he beheld
their preparations for defence, ‘we would soon dislodge those unblessed
kafirs. By Alla, they have a gun too! there must be some one yonder who
understands fighting better than those we have yet seen.’
‘May their mothers be defiled!’ cried a gasconading commander of a
battalion of infantry, who was well known for his boasting. ‘Who are
they that dare oppose us? my men are fresh’ (for they had just come up
from the rear), ‘and if I am ordered I will go and bring the fellow’s
head who is pointing the gun yonder.’
‘Ameen!’ said the Sultaun, quietly; ‘be it so—thou hast volunteered—go!
Stir not thou, Kasim Ali, but remain here; we may require thee.’
The officer addressed his men for a few moments, formed them as
compactly as he could on the narrow wall, and placing himself at their
head, with loud cries of ‘Alla Yar!’ they dashed on, followed by many
who had collected during the pause. Those in the enclosure reserved
their fire till they were near.
‘They have no ammunition,’ cried the Sultaun; ‘Ya Fukr-oo-deen! Ya
Nathur Wullee! I vow a covering for both your tombs if they take the
place.’ But as he made the invocation, they saw (for all were looking
from the tower where they had stayed in intense eagerness) one of the
men inside the enclosure lift a match to the gun, and apply it;—it would
not ignite.
‘Ya Futteh-O!’ cried Kasim, snatching a matchlock from a fellow who
stood near, and aiming; ‘it is a long shot, but, Bismilla!’ and he
fired.
The man was raising his hand again when the shot struck him; he fell
back into the arms of those behind him.
‘Another, for the sake of the Prophet, or it will be too late!’ cried
Kasim, not heeding the cries of ‘Shabash! Shabash!’ which all poured
forth.
It was indeed too late: the success of the first shot had gained the
advancing party a moment, but ere he could be sure of his aim a second
time, the fatal match was applied, and with the explosion half of the
leading division fell as one man.
‘May perdition light on them!’ cried the Sultaun, in agony; ‘may hell be
their portion! My men waver too. Ya Kubeer! Ya Alla kureem! Support
them—Ya Mahomed!—against the infidels!’
But his wild invocations were of no use; the commander of the party had
fallen; and the men, having fired a volley at random, turned and fled as
hastily as they could on that narrow, crowded way.
‘Cowards!’ exclaimed Kasim. ‘Ah, had I here fifty of the youth of my
country, and their good swords—Inshalla! we would see whether we were to
eat this abomination.’
The Sultaun was speechless with rage for some moments. ‘Order on the
next corps!’ he shouted at last; ‘that unworthy one shall be disgraced.
Before my very eyes to behave thus! Do not stay to fire,’ he cried to
its commander who came up; ‘upon them with the steel! were ye English,
ye would carry the place—ye are of the true faith, will ye not fight
better? Ya Karwa Owlea! Ya Baba Boodun! grant me your prayers.’
‘Let me head this attack,’ cried Kasim, for others appeared to hang
back; ‘on my head and eyes be it—I will carry the place or die in the
effort!’
‘Remain here!’ exclaimed the Sultaun fiercely; ‘art thou, too,
rebellious? remain and shoot if thou wilt, we may need thee. Let them go
whose duty it is.’
‘Jo Hookum!’ exclaimed the officer who had been addressed; ‘I will
either carry it or die.’
Again the advance was made, while those in the tower kept up an
incessant fire, the Sultaun himself aiming frequently; but they had now
to face men emboldened by success. The division was allowed to advance
nearly to the same place as the former had done; and again the fatal
cannon, loaded almost to the muzzle with grape, was fired. A loud shout
from the enemy followed. The execution was terrible; the survivors
hesitated for a moment, then turned and fled, leaving a heap of mangled
and writhing forms between them and the enemy. At this moment too, a
body of men from an eminence on the flank, who had hitherto been
concealed, poured in a destructive volley, which added to the terror.
The retreating body met another which was hurrying on to their
assistance, and the confusion became irretrievable. Blows and
bayonet-thrusts were even exchanged on the narrow wall, and many a man
fell wounded or maimed by the hands of his fellow-soldiers, while only
the powerful could keep possession of the passage. On a sudden arose a
cry of ‘The road! the road!’ and as if the means of escape were thus
open, the whole, for a great distance down the wall, turned and fled.
The Sultaun saw the action; it was in vain that he tore his hair, threw
his turban on the ground, raved, swore, implored the assistance of the
Prophet and all the saints in one breath, and in the next wildly invoked
the vengeance of Heaven upon his coward army. It was in vain that he
threw himself, accompanied by Kasim and his personal attendants, into
the crowd, and upon the narrow path strove to withstand the torrent
which poured backwards. It was in vain that he shouted—screamed till he
was hoarse: his voice was lost in the mighty hubbub, in the cries of
thousands, the oaths, the groans, and rattle of musketry from behind. It
was in vain that, drawing his sword in despair, he cut fiercely at, and
desperately wounded, many of the fugitives, and implored those around
him to do the same. He was at last overpowered, and accompanied by Kasim
and a few of the strongest of his slaves, he was borne on with the
crowd. No one heeded him; in the _mêlée_ he had lost his turban, by
which he was usually known, and he became undistinguishable to his
soldiery from one of themselves.
Thus it was that the throwing down of the wall was interrupted; the cry
from the panic-stricken multitude, re-echoed by the advancing troops,
rose almost instantaneously upon the air with a deafening sound. ‘The
road! the road!’ all shouted, and hurried to where they expected to have
seen it completed. The narrow stream met from two opposite directions,
pouring on, urged by the energy of despair from behind. The two extremes
met; there was no time for thought—not a second; those who were first
had hardly looked into the ditch, and seen there only a heap of stones
instead of a road, and those thirty feet below them, ere, with one wild
cry to Alla, they were pushed into it by those behind, whose turn was to
come next. A few there were—men of desperate strength—who clung to the
battlements with the tenacity of despair; a few who, drawing their
swords, turned and tried to cut their way through the mass. Vain effort!
force was met by force, for the danger was not perceived till the men
were on the brink and were pushed over; those in the rear thought they
had escaped, and no warning cry was heard, or, if heard, attended to or
understood.
The multitude poured on. Ten thousand men had to pass by that place.
Those who leaped, lay at the bottom, many maimed, others crushed and
entangled amidst the thorny briars and thick grasses. The mass at the
bottom of the ditch gradually increased; and a road arose, not of the
ruins of the wall, but a mass of human bodies: those uppermost
struggling in agony for life, those underneath already at rest in
death—a quiet foundation for the superincumbent structure.
The Sultaun and his companions were hurried on. Kasim had a dread of
what he should see—a sickening feeling, as the shrieks and imprecations
which arose from that horrible spot fell upon his ear as they
approached; they could do nothing however, for to turn was impossible;
to leap from the walls into the midst of the enemy would have been
death, for they pursued the flying army with exulting shouts, and
pressed close upon the flanks and rear with their long spears. By the
road there was a chance of life—a chance only—and that was clung to as a
reality at that moment.
They reached the brink. ‘Way for the Sultaun! aid the Sultaun! rescue
your King!’ shouted Kasim with his utmost energy, while he dealt blows
right and left, as did also the others with him, to stay the crowd even
for an instant. The Sultaun looked down on the horrible heap, which,
wildly agitated, was heaving with the convulsions of those beneath it;
he appeared to turn sick and stagger, and Kasim observed it.
‘For your life,’ cried he, ‘Lall Khan and some more of ye, keep
together, or he is lost! Now leap with me!’ and as the Sultaun still
hesitated, Kasim seized him by the arm and threw himself from the brink.
Now began a fresh struggle—one for life or death, in which only the
strongest prevailed. For an instant Kasim was stunned by the shock, but
he saw Lall Khan trying to help on the Sultaun, whose features wore the
hue of despair, and he made a mighty effort to aid him. The footing upon
the heaving mass was unsteady and insecure; in the wild despair of
death, the struggling beings below clung to the legs of those above
them, and thus the weak were drawn down to destruction. But Kasim Ali
and those who followed him were powerful men, and raising the almost
senseless body of the Sultaun in their arms, and spurning many a feeble
and exhausted wretch beneath their feet, they bore it with immense
exertions across the ditch.
There remained, however, the counterscarp to surmount. Here many a man
who had passed across the ditch failed to ascend, for it was of rock,
and so rugged and inclining inwards as to afford no footing. It was vain
attempting to raise the Sultaun to the top, without he made some
exertion, and Kasim shouted his danger in his ear, while he pointed to
the place. The Sultaun at last comprehended the peril, and being raised
by Kasim and the others on the shoulders of the tallest of his slaves,
he twice essayed to mount the bank, and twice fell back among the
writhing and crushed wretches at the foot, upon whom they were standing.
The second time he was raised he was evidently much hurt, and could not
stand; what was to be done? Motioning to the others—for to speak was
impossible—Kasim mounted by their aid to the top; and the Sultaun being
once more lifted, was received by the young man, who supported him a few
steps, and then laying him down, groaning heavily, he flew to the rescue
of those who had so nobly aided him.
One by one they had ascended by his and their mutual aid, and the
generous fellow had stretched his hand to several despairing wretches,
who were weak with their efforts and previous fatigue, and rescued them
from death; when, seeing the enemy now lining the wall and about to fire
upon the bank opposite to where he stood, he turned away in order to
remove the Sultaun, who still lay where he had placed him, out of
danger. He had gone but a few paces, when he heard a sharp discharge of
matchlocks, and felt a cold stinging pain in his shoulder and all down
his back; the next instant a deadly sickness, which precluded thought,
overpowered his faculties, and he sank to the ground in utter
insensibility.
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