CHAPTER I.

Life in Cantonments

CHAPTER II.

The Outbreak

CHAPTER III.

The Flight

CHAPTER IV.

Broken Down

CHAPTER V.

Back Under the Flag

CHAPTER VI.

A Dashing Expedition

CHAPTER VII.

Delhi

CHAPTER VIII.

A Desperate Defense

CHAPTER IX.

Saved by a Tiger

CHAPTER X.

Treachery

CHAPTER XI.

Retribution Begins

CHAPTER XII.

Dangerous Service

CHAPTER XIII

Lucknow

CHAPTER XIV.

The Besieged Residency

CHAPTER XV.

Spiking the Guns

CHAPTER XVI.

A Sortie and its Consequences

CHAPTER XVII.

Out of Lucknow

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Storming of Delhi

CHAPTER XIX.

A Riot at Cawnpore

CHAPTER XX.

The Relief of Lucknow

CHAPTER XXI.

A Sad Parting

CHAPTER XXII.

The Last Capture of Lucknow

CHAPTER XXIII.

A Desperate Defense

CHAPTER XXIV.

Rest after Labor

CHAPTER I.

LIFE IN CANTONMENTS.

Very bright and pretty, in the early springtime of the year 1857, were

the British cantonments of Sandynugghur. As in all other British

garrisons in India, they stood quite apart from the town, forming a

suburb of their own. They consisted of the barracks, and of a maidan,

or, as in England it would be called, "a common," on which the troops

drilled and exercised, and round which stood the bungalows of the

military and civil officers of the station, of the chaplain, and of the

one or two merchants who completed the white population of the place.

Very pretty were these bungalows, built entirely upon the ground floor,

in rustic fashion, wood entering largely into their composition. Some

were thatched; others covered with slabs of wood or stone. All had wide

verandas running around them, with tatties, or blinds, made of reeds or

strips of wood, to let down, and give shade and coolness to the rooms

therein. In some of them the visitor walked from the compound, or

garden, directly into the dining-room; large, airy, with neither

curtains, nor carpeting, nor matting, but with polished boards as

flooring. The furniture here was generally plain and almost scanty,

for, except at meal-times, the rooms were but little used.

Outside, in the veranda, is the real sitting-room of the bungalow. Here

are placed a number of easy-chairs of all shapes, constructed of cane

or bamboo--light, cool, and comfortable; these are moved, as the sun

advances, to the shady side of the veranda, and in them the ladies read

and work, the gentlemen smoke. In all bungalows built for the use of

English families, there is, as was the case at Sandynugghur, a

drawing-room as well as a dining-room, and this, being the ladies'

especial domain, is generally furnished in European style, with a

piano, light chintz chair-covers, and muslin curtains.

The bedroom opens out of the sitting-room; and almost every bedroom has

its bathroom--that all-important adjunct in the East--attached to it.

The windows all open down to the ground, and the servants generally

come in and out through the veranda. Each window has its Venetian

blind, which answers all purposes of a door, and yet permits the air to

pass freely.

The veranda, in addition to serving as the general sitting-room to the

family, acts as a servants' hall. Here at the side not used by the

employers, the servants, when not otherwise engaged, sit on their mats,

mend their clothes, talk and sleep; and it is wonderful how much sleep

a Hindoo can get through in the twenty-four hours. The veranda is his

bedroom as well as sitting-room; here, spreading a mat upon the ground,

and rolling themselves up in a thin rug or blanket from the very top of

their head to their feet, the servants sleep, looking like a number of

mummies ranged against the wall. Out by the stables they have their

quarters, where they cook and eat, and could, if they chose, sleep; but

they prefer the coolness and freshness of the veranda, where, too, they

are ready at hand whenever called. The gardens were all pretty, and

well kept, with broad, shady trees, and great shrubs covered by bright

masses of flower; for Sandynugghur had been a station for many years,

and with plenty of water and a hot sun, vegetation is very rapid.

In two of the large reclining chairs two lads, of fifteen and sixteen

respectively, were lolling idly; they had been reading, for books lay

open in their laps, and they were now engaged in eating bananas, and in

talking to two young ladies, some three years their senior, who were

sitting working beside them.

"You boys will really make yourselves ill if you eat so many bananas."

"It is not that I care for them," said the eldest lad; "they are

tasteless things, and a good apple is worth a hundred of them; but one

must do something, and I am too lazy to go on with this Hindoo grammar;

besides, a fellow can't work when you girls come out here and talk to

him."

"That's very good, Ned; it is you that do all the talking; besides, you

know that you ought to shut yourselves up in the study, and not sit

here where you are sure to be interrupted."

"I have done three hours' steady work this morning with that wretched

Moonshi, Kate; and three hours in this climate is as much as my brain

will stand."

Kate Warrener and her brothers, Ned and Dick, were the children of the

major of the One Hundred and Fifty-first Bengal Native Infantry, the

regiment stationed at Sandynugghur. Rose Hertford, the other young

lady, was their cousin. The three former were born in India, but had

each gone to England at the age of nine for their education, and to

save them from the effects of the climate which English children are

seldom able to endure after that age. Their mother had sailed for

England with Dick, the youngest, but had died soon after she reached

home. Dick had a passion for the sea, and his father's relations having

good interest, had obtained for him a berth as a midshipman in the

royal navy, in which rank he had been serving for upward of a year. His

ship being now in Indian waters, a month's leave had been granted him

that he might go up the country to see his father. The other lad had

arrived from England three months before, with his sister and cousin.

Major Warrener had sent for his daughter, whose education was finished,

to take the head of his house, and, as a companion, had invited Rose

Hertford, who was the orphan child of his sister, to accompany her.

Ned, who had been at Westminster till he left England, was intended for

the Indian army. His father thought that it would be well for him to

come out to India with his sister, as he himself would work with him,

and complete his education, to enable him to pass the necessary

examination--then not a very severe one--while he could be at the same

time learning the native languages, which would be of immense benefit

to him after he had entered the army. Coming out as they had done in

the cold season, none of the four exhibited any of that pallor and

lassitude which, at any rate during the summer heats, are the rule

throughout the Anglo-Indian community.

As Ned finished his sentence the sound of the tread of two horses was

heard along the road.

"Captains Dunlop and Manners," Dick exclaimed; "a shilling to a penny!

Will either of you bet, girls?"

Neither his sister nor cousin replied to this offer; and the boys gave

a sly nod of intelligence to each other, as two horsemen rode up to the

veranda and dismounted; throwing their reins to the _syces_, who,

whatever the pace at which their masters ride, run just behind, in

readiness to take the horses, should they dismount.

"Good-morning, Miss Warrener; good-morning, Miss Hertford: we have

brought you some interesting news."

"Indeed!" said the girls, as they shook hands with the newcomers, who

were two as good specimens of tall, well-made, sunburnt Anglo-Saxons as

one would wish to see. "What is it?"

"We have just got the news that a family of wild boars have come down,

and are doing a lot of damage near Meanwerrie, four miles off. I

suppose they have been disturbed somewhere further away, as we have not

heard of any pig here for months; so to-morrow morning there is going

to be grand pig-sticking; of course you will come out and see the fun?"

"We shall be delighted," said Kate; but Rose put in: "Yes; but oh! how

unfortunate! it's Mrs. Briarley's garden party."

"That has been put off till next day. It is not often we get a chance

at pig, and we have always got gardens. The two need not have

interfered with each other, as we shall start at daylight for

Meanwerrie; but we may be out some hours, and so it was thought better

to put off the party to a day when there will be nothing else to do."

"Hurrah!" shouted Dick; "I am in luck! I wanted, above all things, to

see a wild boar hunt; do you think my father will let me have a spear?"

"Hardly, Dick, considering that last time you went out you tumbled off

three times at some jumps two feet wide, and that, were you to fall in

front of a pig, he would rip you up before you had time to think about

it; besides which, you would almost certainly stick somebody with your

spear."

Dick laughed.

"That was the first time I had ever been on a horse," he said; "will

you ride, Ned?"

"No," said Ned; "I can ride fairly enough along a straight road, but it

wants a first-rate rider to go across country at a gallop, looking at

the boar instead of where you are going, and carrying a spear in one

hand."

"Do you think papa will ride?" Kate asked.

"I don't know, Miss Warrener; the major is a famous spear; but here he

is to speak for himself."

Major Warrener was in uniform, having just come up from the

orderly-room. He was a tall, soldierly figure, inclining to stoutness.

His general expression was that of cheeriness and good temper; but he

was looking, as he drove up, grave and serious. His brow cleared,

however, as his eye fell upon the group in the veranda.

"Ah! Dunlop, brought the news about the boar, eh?"

"You will take us with you?" the girls asked in a breath.

"Oh, yes, you shall go; I will drive you myself. I am getting too heavy

for pig-sticking, especially with such responsibilities as you about.

There, I will get out of this uniform; it's hot for the time of year.

What are you drinking? nothing? Boy, bring some soda and brandy!"

Then, producing his cigar-case, he took a cheroot.

"Ag-low!" he shouted, and a native servant ran up with a piece of

red-hot charcoal held in a little pair of tongs.

"There, sit down and make yourselves comfortable till I come back."

The lads, finding that their society was not particularly required,

strolled off to the stables, where Ned entered into a conversation with

the _syces_ as to the distance to Meanwerrie and the direction in which

that village lay. Like all Anglo-Indian children brought up in India,

the boys had, when they left India, spoken the language fluently. They

had almost entirely forgotten it during their stay in England, but it

speedily came back again, and Ned, at the end of three months' work,

found that he could get on very fairly. Dick had lost it altogether.

When they went back to the veranda they found that the girls had gone

indoors, and that their father was sitting and smoking with his brother

officers. When the lads came up the conversation ceased, and then the

major said:

"It is as well the boys should know what is going on."

"What is it, father?" Ned asked, struck with the grave tone in which

the major spoke, and at the serious expression in all their faces.

"Well, boys, for some months past there have been all sorts of curious

rumors running through the country. Chupatties have been sent round,

and that is always considered to portend something serious."

"Do you mean the chupatties we eat--flat cakes, father?"

"Yes, Ned. Nobody knows who sends them round, or the exact meaning of

the signal, but it seems to be an equivalent for to 'prepare,' 'make

ready.' Chupatties are quickly prepared; they are the bread eaten on a

journey, and hence probably their signification. At any rate, these

things have been circulated among the native troops all over the

country. Strangers are known to have come and gone, and there is a

general uneasy and unsettled feeling prevalent among the troops. A

ridiculous rumor has circulated among them that the new cartridges have

been greased with pig's fat, in order that the caste of all who put it

to their lips might be destroyed. To-day I have received news from

Calcutta that the Nineteenth native regiment at Berhampore has behaved

in a grossly mutinous manner, and that it is feared the regiments at

Barrackpore and Dumdum will follow their example. The affair has been

suppressed, but there is an uneasy feeling abroad, and all the troops

in Bengal proper appear tainted with paltry disaffection. We have no

reason for believing that the spirit has spread to the northwest, and

are convinced that as far as our own regiment is concerned they can be

relied on; but the affair, taken in connection with the previous

rumors, is very strange, and I fear that there are lots of trouble

ahead. I wish now that I had not had the girls out for another year;

but I could not foresee this, and, indeed, until this morning, although

there has been a good deal of talk, we all hoped it would have passed

off without anything coming of it. One hopes still that it will spread

no further; but should it do so, it is impossible to say what may

happen. All we have to do is to be watchful, and to avoid with care

anything that can offend the men's prejudices. We must explain to the

native officers the folly of the greased cartridge story, and tell them

to reassure the men. You don't see anything else to do, Dunlop?"

"No, major; I trust that the regiment is to be depended upon; it has

always been well treated and the men have seemed attached to us all. We

will do our best to reassure them; but if there is any insubordination,

I hope that the colonel will give the men a lesson which will put an

end to the nonsense in the bud."

"Of course you will stay to tiffin?" the major said, as the _kitmagar_,

or head servant, announced that tiffin was ready.

"Many thanks, major, but we promised to tiff with Bullen, and he would

be mad if we did not turn up. How are you thinking of going to-morrow?

I intend to drive over, and send my horse on; so I can give one of your

boys a lift in my buggy."

"Thank you," the major said, "that would suit us exactly. I shall drive

in my dog-cart, which will carry four of us; and if you will take Dick,

that will make it all right."

"What time do we start?"

"We are to be there by seven; we set it so late to give the ladies time

to breakfast comfortably before starting. I will call here at half-past

six for Dick; it will be all in my way. Good-morning."

Two minutes later the girls, Ned, and Dick came into the dining-room,

and the party sat down to luncheon--a meal always called tiffin in

India. It is a great mistake to suppose that people in India cannot eat

because of the heat; in the extreme heat of summer their appetites do,

no doubt, fall off; but at other times, they not only eat, but eat more

largely than is good for them; and a good deal of the liver complaint

which is the pest of India is in no small degree due to the fact that,

the appetite being unnaturally stimulated by hot and piquant food,

people eat more than in such a climate as this can be properly

digested. The meal consisted of curries, with which were handed round

chutney and Bombay ducks--a little fish about the size of a smelt, cut

open, dried, and smoked with assafoetida, giving it an intolerably

nasty taste to strangers, but one which Anglo-Indians become accustomed

to and like--no one knows why they are called Bombay ducks--cutlets,

plantains sliced and fried, pomegranates, and watermelons. They were

waited upon by two servants, both dressed entirely in white, but

wearing red turbans, very broad and shallow. These turbans denoted the

particular tribe and sect to which their wearers belonged. The castes

in India are almost innumerable, and each has a turban of a peculiar

color or shape, and by these they can be at once distinguished by a

resident. On their foreheads were lines and spots of a yellowish white

paint, indicating also their caste, and the peculiar divinity to whose

worship they were specially devoted. On their feet they wore slippers,

and were as noiseless as cats in all their movements. There are no

better or more pleasant waiters in the world than the natives of

Hindostan.

Early as the hour named for the start would appear in England, it was

by no means early for India, where every one is up and about soon after

daylight--the morning hours up to eight o'clock being the most pleasant

of the whole day.

Kate and Rose were up, and all had had "_chota hazaree_" (little

breakfast) by half-past six, and were ready when Captain Dunlop drew up

in his buggy--a conveyance which will only hold two. The dog-cart was

already at the door, and the whole party were soon in motion. On the

road they passed several of their friends, for every one was going out

to the hunt, and merry greetings were exchanged.

The scenery round Sandynugghur resembles that which is common to all

the great plains of India watered by the Ganges and Jumna. The country

is for the most part perfectly flat, and cut up into little fields,

divided by shallow ditches. Here and there nullahs, or deep

watercourses, with tortuous channels and perpendicular sides, wind

through the fields to the nearest stream. These nullahs constitute the

great danger of hunting in the country. In the fields men may be

noticed, in the scantiest of attire, working with hoes among their

springing crops; women, wrapped up in the dark blue calico cloth which

forms their ordinary costume, are working as hard as the men. Villages

are scattered about, generally close to groves of trees. The huts are

built of mud; most of them are flat-topped, but some are thatched with

rushes. Rising above the villages is the mosque, where the population

are Mohammedan, built of mud like the houses, but whitewashed and

bright. The Hindoo villages generally, but not always, have their

temples. The vegetation of the great plains of India is not tropical,

according to the ideas of tropical vegetation gathered from British

hothouses. There are a few palms and many bananas with their wide

leaves, but the groves are composed of sturdy trees, whose appearance

at a distance differs in no way from that of ordinary English forest

trees. Viewed closer, the banian with its many stems is indeed a

vegetable wonder; but, were it not for the villages and natives, a

traveler might journey for very many miles across the plains of India

without seeing anything which would specially remind him that he was

out of England.

There were a considerable number of traps assembled when Major Warrener

drew up, and some eight or ten gentlemen on horseback, each carrying a

boar-spear--a weapon not unlike the lance of an English cavalryman, but

shorter in the handle. The riders were mostly dressed in coats of the

Norfolk jacket type, and knee-breeches with thick gaiters. The material

of their clothes was a coarse but very strong cloth of native make,

gray or brown in color. Some wore round hats and forage caps with

puggarees twisted round them.

A chorus of greeting saluted the party as they drove up.

"Well, young ladies," the colonel said, "so you have come out to see

the death of the boar,

"'The boar, the boar, the mighty boar,'

as the song says? So you are not going to take a spear to-day, major?

Think it's time to leave it to the youngsters, eh?"

"Where are the wild boars, Mrs. Renwick?" Kate asked of the colonel's

wife.

"Pig, my dear; we always call them pig when we speak of them together,

though we talk of the father of the family as the boar. Do you see that

clump of long grass and jungle right across the plain? That's where

they are. They have been watched all night. They went out to feed

before daybreak and have just gone back again. Do you think we are in

the best place for seeing the sport, Major Warrener?"

"I think, Mrs. Renwick, that if you leave your trap and go up to the

top of that knoll, two hundred yards to the right, you will get a

really good view of the plain."

Mrs. Renwick alighted from the dog-cart in which the colonel had driven

her, and the whole party, following her example, walked in a laughing

group to the spot which Major Warrener had indicated, and which was

pronounced as just the place. The _syces_ stood at the heads of the

horses, and those who were going to take part in the sport cantered off

toward the spot where the pigs were lurking, making, however, a wide

_détour_ so as to approach it from the other side, as it was desired to

drive them across the plain. At some distance behind the clump were

stationed a number of natives, with a variety of mongrel village curs.

When they saw the horsemen approach they came up and prepared to enter

the jungle to drive out the pigs.

The horsemen took up their position on either side of the patch in

readiness to start as soon as the animals were fairly off. A number of

villagers, in whose fields of young rice the family had done much

damage during the few days that they had taken up their abode in their

present quarters, were assembled on such little rises of ground as were

likely to give a good view of the proceedings. There were about a dozen

horsemen with spears; of these, three or four were novices, and these

intended to try their skill for the first time upon the "squeakers," as

the young pigs are called, while the others prepared for a race after

the old ones.

Great nerve, considerable skill, and first-rate horsemanship are

required for the sport of pigsticking. The horse, too, must be fast,

steady, well-trained and quick, for without all these advantages the

sport is a dangerous one. The wild boar is, at the start, as fast as a

horse. He is very quick at turning, and when pressed always attacks his

pursuers, and as he rushes past will lay open the leg or flank of a

horse with a sweeping cut with his sharp tusk. If he can knock a horse

down the position of his rider would be serious indeed, were not help

to arrive in time to draw off the attention of the enraged animal from

his foe. Heavy falls, too, take place over watercourses and nullahs,

and in some parts of India the difficulties are greatly increased by

bowlders of all kinds being scattered over the ground, and by the

frequent occurrence of bushes and shrubs armed with most formidable

spines and thorns. Conspicuous among these is the bush known as the

"wait-a-bit thorn," which is furnished with two kinds of thorn--the one

long, stiff, and penetrating, the other short and curved, with a forked

point almost like a fishhook. When this once takes hold it is almost

necessary to cut the cloth to obtain a release.

Scarcely had the beaters, with much shouting and clamor, entered the

patch of bush in which the pigs were lying, than the porcine family,

consisting of a splendid boar and sow, and eight nearly full-grown

squeakers, darted out on the open, and in a moment the horsemen were

off in pursuit. The ground was deep and heavy, and the pigs at the

first burst gained fast upon their pursuers. There was no attempt on

the part of the pigs to keep together, and directly after starting they

began to diverge. The old boar and sow both kept across the plain--one

bearing toward the left, the other to the right. The squeakers ran in

all directions--some at right angles to the line that the old ones were

taking. The object of one and all was to gain cover of some kind.

With their hats pressed well down upon their heads, and their spears

advanced with the head some two or three feet from the ground, the

hunters started after them--some making after the boar, some after the

sow, according to the position which they occupied at the commencement

of the chase, while some of the young hands dashed off in pursuit of

the squeakers.

There were five, however, after the boar; Captain Dunlop, a young

ensign named Skinner, the Scotch doctor of the regiment, and two

civilians. For a short time they kept together, and then Captain Dunlop

and Skinner began to draw ahead of the others.

The boar was a stanch one, and a mile had been passed before his speed

began sensibly to diminish. The young ensign, who was mounted on a very

fast Arab, began to draw up to him three or four lengths ahead of

Captain Dunlop, bearing his horse so as to get upon the left side of

the boar, in order to permit him to use his spear to advantage.

He was nearly up to him when Captain Dunlop, who saw the boar glancing

back savagely, cried:

"Look out, Skinner! he will be round in a moment; keep your horse well

in hand!"

A moment later the boar was round. The horse, young and unbroken at the

work, started violently, swerved, and, before his rider could get him

round, the boar was upon him. In an instant the horse was upon the

ground, with a long gash upon his flank, and Skinner, flying through

the air, fell almost directly in the boar's way.

Fortunately for the young ensign, Captain Dunlop, as he shouted his

warning, had turned his horse to the left, so as to cut off the boar

when he turned, and he was now so close that the boar, in passing, had

only time to give a vicious blow at the fallen man, which laid his arm

open from his shoulder to his elbow.

At that instant Captain Dunlop arrived, and his spear pierced the

animal's flank. His aim was, however, disconcerted by his horse, at the

moment he struck, leaping over the fallen ensign; the wound, therefore,

was but a glancing one, and in a moment the boar was round upon his new

assailant. Fortunately the horse was a well-trained one, and needed not

the sharp touch of his master's rein to wheel sharp round on his hind

legs, and dart off at full speed. The boar swerved off again, and

continued his original line of flight, his object being to gain a thick

patch of jungle, now little over a quarter of a mile distant; the

detention, however, was fatal to him, for the doctor, who was close on

Captain Dunlop's heels, now brought up his horse with a rush and, with

a well-aimed thrust, ran the animal through, completely pinning him to

the earth. The honor of his death was therefore divided between the

doctor and Captain Dunlop, for the latter had drawn first blood, or, as

it is termed, had taken first spear, while the former had scored the

kill.

The sow had been more fortunate than her lord. She had taken a line

across a part of the plain which was intersected by several nullahs.

She, too, had been wounded, but one of the nullahs had thrown out

several of her pursuers: one rider had been sent over his horse's head

and stunned; and the sow, turning sharp down a deep and precipitous

gully, had made her escape. Three of the squeakers fell to the spears

of the Griffs--young hands--and the rest had escaped. The boar had been

killed only a short distance from the rise upon which the spectators

from Sandynugghur were assembled, and the beaters soon tied its four

legs together, and, putting a pole through them, six of them carried

the beast up to the colonel's wife for inspection.

"What a savage-looking brute it is!" said Kate; "not a bit like a pig,

with all those long bristles, and that sharp high back, and those

tremendous tusks."

"Will you accept the skin, Miss Warrener?" Captain Dunlop said to her

afterward; "I have arranged with the doctor. He is to have the hams,

and I am to have the hide. If you will, I will have it dressed and

mounted."

"Thank you, Captain Dunlop, I should like it very much;" but, as it

turned out, Kate Warrener never got the skin.

The boar killed, the doctor's first care was to attend to the wounded,

and Skinner's arm was soon bound up, and he was sent home in a buggy;

the man who was stunned came to in a short time. The unsuccessful ones

were much laughed at by the colonel and major, for allowing half the

game started to get away.

"You ought not to grumble, colonel," Captain Manners said. "If we had

killed them all, we might not have had another run for months; as it

is, we will have some more sport next week."

There was some consultation as to the chance of getting the sow even

now, but it was generally agreed that she would follow the nullah down,

cross the stream, and get into a large canebrake beyond, from which it

would take hours to dislodge her; so a general move was made to the

carriages, and in a short time the whole party were on their way back

to Sandynugghur.