I.
THE OUTBREAK.
In jotting down the reminiscences and sketches contained in the
following pages, my aim is to record simply and truthfully certain
episodes of a stirring period of Indian military history.
Englishmen can never cease to be interested in the story of the great
Sepoy Mutiny; and I trust that even so modest a contribution as mine to
the narrative of some of its details may not be considered superfluous.
Often have I been urged to give the semi-permanence of printer's ink to
some story told over the walnuts and the wine; and at last I am tempted
to take advantage of the enforced leisure which has been imposed on
me by the recent regulations limiting tenure of regimental command,
and placing me, with many other better men, unwillingly _en retraite_,
while still in the prime of life and energy.
If I am compelled, in the course of these pages, to speak of myself and
my own doings, I trust that I may be absolved from the imputation of
being prompted by vainglorious motives; and that my excuse may be found
in the evident impossibility of keeping the first personal pronoun out
of a personal narrative. My having been mixed up in the events which
I propose to describe is clearly an accident for which, though I may
apologise, I am not responsible; and perhaps if I had not been engaged
in them I should have known a good deal less about them. Whether that
is an advantage, or the reverse, to a _raconteur_, is, of course, a
matter of opinion. Certainly, a witness is much less hampered in his
statements if he is not limited and bound down by the fact of his
having been actually present at the scenes described in his evidence.
His imaginative faculties are thereby quickened and enriched.
Hitherto, though often sorely tempted, I have refrained from publishing
any account of those details of events during the Mutiny at which
I was myself present; for, as will be seen, these details involve
certain corrections in narratives which have been, for want of fuller
information, accepted as complete. While perfectly true, in most
points, so far as they have gone, they yet suffer from omissions which
I am able to supply. The accuracy of my rectifications is, fortunately,
capable of ample proof, since several very distinguished officers
still survive who can vouch for it; and in most instances I am also in
possession of conclusive contemporary documentary evidence.
It is not my intention to inflict on the reader my own views as to the
origin of the Mutiny. Whether the _fons et origo mali_ was deep-seated
and of slow growth--whether it was due to political discontent at
the overthrow of the great Mogal Empire, the annexation of Oudh, and
the reduction of the King of Delhi to the position of a puppet of
John Company Bahadur--or whether it arose simply from the excessive
and pampered growth of the sepoy army, which, like the ass Jeshuron,
waxed fat and kicked, is a question which has been often dealt with
by abler pens than mine. It is, however, a significant fact that many
clear-sighted men had, from time to time, issued notes of warning as to
the likelihood of such a catastrophe.
When at length the threatened storm burst, my regiment, the late
3rd Bengal Light Cavalry, was one of those which broke into revolt
at Meerut. In its ranks were ninety men armed with muzzle-loading
carbines; and it was these carabineers who first set authority at
defiance by refusing to use the cartridges supplied to them, on the
ground that they suspected the grease used in lubricating them to
have been composed of hog's lard. This pretext was, on the face of
it, absurd; since, as a matter of fact, the cartridges had been made
regimentally; and all the men perfectly well knew that so innocent
a compound as bees' wax and clarified butter had been applied as a
lubricant. The word had, however, been passed throughout the Bengal
native army to make the cartridge question the test as to which was
stronger--the native soldier or the Government. Every one remembers the
mysterious "chuppatties" or flat wheaten cakes which, shortly before
the Mutiny, were circulated from regiment to regiment. The message
conveyed by them has never been fathomed by Englishmen; but there can
be no doubt that they were in some way a signal, understood by the
sepoys, of warning to be in readiness for coming events.
Colonel Carmichael Smith, Commanding the 3rd Light Cavalry, with a view
to test the willingness or otherwise of the carabineers of his regiment
to use the cartridges, held a special parade for the purpose on the
24th of April 1857; and, after an explanatory speech, pointing out to
the men the groundlessness of their fears, ordered them to use the
cartridges. Eighty-five of them refused to do so. A court of inquiry
was subsequently held on their conduct, followed by the inevitable
court-martial. Only one finding was possible; and the sentence
pronounced on all the culprits was one of ten years' imprisonment.
This, in the case of some of the younger soldiers, was reduced to five
years by the confirming officer, General Hewett, Commanding the Meerut
Division. On the morning of the 9th of May the whole garrison of Meerut
paraded to hear the sentences read out; after which each convict was
fitted with a pair of leg-irons, fitted there and then, on to his
ankles by blacksmiths.
In sullen silence the two native infantry corps, the 11th and 20th,
and my own regiment, which was dismounted on that occasion, witnessed
the degrading punishment. It would have been madness for them then to
have attempted a rescue; for they would have been swept off the face of
the earth by the guns of the artillery and the rifles of Her Majesty's
60th Foot, not to speak of the swords of the 6th Dragoon Guards, the
Carabineers, all of whom were provided with service ammunition, and
were so placed as to have the native regiments at their mercy.
For more than an hour the troops stood motionless, their nerves at the
highest tension, while the felon shackles were being methodically and
of necessity slowly hammered on the ankles of the wretched criminals,
each in turn loudly calling on his comrades for help, and abusing, in
fierce language, now their Colonel, now the officers who composed the
court-martial, now the Government. No response came from the ranks. The
impressive ceremony was duly finished. The prisoners were taken charge
of by the authorities of the jail and a guard of native infantry; and
the troops marched back to quarters. For a few hours all was quiet.
The snake of insubordination was, to all appearance, scotched, if not
killed. Every one hoped that the stern lesson had been effectual; but
a rough disillusion was in store for us.
On the evening of the next day, the memorable Sunday, 10th of May
1857, at the hour when better folk were on their way to church, I was
quietly reading a book in my own bungalow when my bearer Sheodeen
suddenly rushed into the room, exclaiming that a _hulla-goolla_ (in
our vernacular, a riot) was going on in the lines, that the sepoys
had risen, and were murdering the _Sahib logue_. Not for an instant
did I believe the latter part of his story, even though the rapid and
frequent reports of fire-arms, which now broke the quiet of the Sabbath
evening, made only too clear the truth of the first. The thought that
flashed through my mind was that our men of the cavalry were attacking
the native infantry in revenge for the sneers with which we all knew
these others had freely, since the punishment parade, lashed their
submissive apathy in witnessing, without an attempt at rescue, the
degradation of their comrades. Sooth to say--so strong is the tie of
_camaraderie_--my sympathies were all in the wrong direction; and I
would secretly have rejoiced to have seen the insult avenged. Hurriedly
putting on my uniform and sword, I jumped on a horse, and galloped
towards the regimental lines; but I had scarcely got out of the gate
of my compound when I met the English Quartermaster-Sergeant of my
regiment flying for his life on foot from his house in the lines.
"Oh God! Sir," he exclaimed, "the troopers are coming to cut us
up." "Let us then stick together," I answered; "two are better than
one." For a moment he hesitated. Then, looking back, the sight of a
small cloud of dust rapidly approaching from the distance overcame
his resolution, and he rushed through the gate into the grounds of
my bungalow, and scaled the wall between them and those of the next
house. Instantly a small mob of _budmashes_,[1] prominent among whom
I recognised my own night watchman, attacked him. The chowkidar thrust
at him with his spear as he was crossing the wall, and cut open his
lips. To my joy he fired one barrel of a gun which he carried with him,
and shot the brute dead. He then dropped on to the ground on the other
side, and disappeared from view. Later on will be found his subsequent
adventures: for I rejoice to say he escaped with his life.
At this moment an infantry sepoy, armed with a sword, made a sudden
swoop with it at my head. I had not drawn my sword, and had only time
to dig a spur into my horse's flank and force him almost on to my
enemy. This spoilt his stroke, and his tulwar fortunately missed its
aim, and only cut my right shoulder cord. By this time I had pulled
my weapon out of its scabbard, but the sepoy declined any further
sword-play, and promptly climbed over a wall out of my reach. As I
turned from him and looked down the road to the lines, I saw that it
was full of cavalry troopers galloping towards me. Even then it did not
occur to me that they could have any hostile intent towards myself. I
shouted to them to halt. This they did, and surrounded me; and, before
I knew what was happening, I found myself warding off, as well as I
could, a fierce onslaught from many blades. A few moments would have
sealed my fate, when, providentially, the late Lieutenant Craigie
emerged from his gate a little further down the road and came straight
to my help. This diversion saved me. The troopers scattered past us and
made off towards the European lines. It was only too clear now that a
mutiny, and that of the most serious kind, was in full swing. Our duty
was plain, though very hard to perform, for at this moment Lieutenant
Craigie's Wife and my Sister were on their way together in his carriage
to the church, situated in the European lines, and our first natural
impulse was to gallop after them. But they had started some little
time previously, and we hoped that they had already reached their
destination, and were in safety among the British troops. Military
discipline sometimes tries a soldier to the utmost; and now we felt
that Wife and Sister must be left in the hands of God, and that our
place was among the mutineers on the parade-ground. Thither we went
as fast as our horses could carry us, and found ourselves in a scene
of the utmost uproar. Most of the men were already mounted, and were
careering wildly about, shouting and brandishing their swords, firing
carbines and pistols into the air, or forming themselves into excited
groups. Others were hurriedly saddling their horses and joining their
comrades in hot haste.
Nearly every British officer of the Regiment came to the ground, and
used every effort of entreaty, and even menace, to restore order, but
utterly without effect. To their credit be it said the men did not
attack us, but warned us to be off, shouting that the Company's Raj
was over for ever! Some even seemed to hesitate about joining the
noisiest mutineers; and Craigie, observing this, was led to hope that
they might be won over to our side. He was an excellent linguist and
had great influence among them, and he eventually managed to get some
forty or fifty troopers to listen to him and keep apart in a group.
Suddenly a rumour reached us that the jail was being attacked and the
prisoners released. Calling to the late Lieutenant Melville Clarke
and myself to come with him, Craigie persuaded the group which he had
assembled to follow him, and away we went towards the jail. The roads
were full of excited natives who actually roared approbation as we rode
through them, for they evidently did not distinguish in the dusk the
British officers, and took the whole party for a band of mutineers. We
three officers led, and as we neared the jail our pace increased, till
from a smart trot we broke into a gallop. Already the sepoys and the
mob had begun their destructive work. Clouds of smoke on all sides
marked where houses had been set on fire. The telegraph lines were cut,
and a slack wire, which I did not see as it swung across the road,
caught me full on the chest, and bowled me over into the dust. Over my
prostrate body poured the whole column of our followers, and I well
remember my feelings as I looked up at the shining hoofs. Fortunately
I was not hurt, and regaining my horse I remounted, and soon nearly
overtook Craigie and Clarke, when I was horror-struck to see a
palanquin gharry--a sort of box-shaped venetian-sided carriage--being
dragged slowly onwards by its driverless horse, while beside it rode a
trooper of the 3rd Cavalry, plunging his sword repeatedly through the
open window into the body of its already dead occupant--an unfortunate
European woman. But Nemesis was upon the murderer. In a moment Craigie
had dealt him a swinging cut across the back of the neck, and Clarke
had run him through the body. The wretch fell dead--the first sepoy
victim at Meerut to the sword of the avenger of blood. All this passed
in a second, and it was out of the power of our men to prevent it; but
the fate of their comrade evidently greatly excited and angered them.
Shouts of "_maro! maro!_" ("kill! kill!") began to be heard among them,
and we all thought the end was approaching. However, none of the men
attacked us, and in a few minutes we reached the jail, only to find
that we were too late. The prisoners were already swarming out of it;
their shackles were being knocked off by blacksmiths before our eyes;
and the jail-guard of native infantry on our riding up to it answered
our questions by firing at us, fortunately without hitting any of us.
There was nothing to be done but to ride back to the cantonment.
No sooner had we turned our horses' heads than the full horror of
what was taking place burst upon us. The whole cantonments seemed one
mass of flames. If before we rode fast, now we flew; for the most
urgent fears for the safety of those dear to us tortured us almost to
madness. As we tore along Craigie allowed me to leave him and go in
search of his Wife and my Sister, and to take any of the men who would
go with me. I lifted my sword and shouted for volunteers to come to
save my Sister, and some dozen of them galloped after me. As hard as
our horses could gallop we tore along. Every house we passed was in
flames, my own included, and my heart sank within me. Craigie's house
alone was not burning when we reached it--a large double-storeyed
building, in very extensive grounds, surrounded, as was then usual, by
a mud wall. Here I found Mrs. Craigie and my Sister. They had never
reached the church. Their coachman had turned back in terror of the
mob. As they passed the bazar a soldier of the 6th Dragoon Guards
rushed out of a bye-lane, pursued by a yelling crowd. The brave ladies,
at the imminent risk of their own lives, stopped the carriage, took
him in and drove off at full speed, followed for some distance by the
blood-thirsty wretches who, being on foot, were soon left behind, not,
however, till they had slashed with their tulwars in several places the
hood of the carriage, in vain efforts to reach the inmates.
It is impossible to realise what terrors these ladies must have
suffered till the moment of my arrival. Every minute they despaired
of surviving to the next. All round them flames of burning houses and
mobs of yelling demons! Not knowing whether the Husband and Brother
were alive or dead--deserted apparently by God and man--hopeless of
help,--they yet never despaired, nor lost their courage or presence
of mind. Their first thought had been to find Craigie's weapons and
place them where they would be ready to hand if he or I did ever come.
Nothing had they overlooked. Three double-barrelled guns stood against
the wall, with powder-flask and bullets and caps. They were not loaded,
for the ladies did not know how to load them; and the unfortunate
Carabineer was in a state of nervous collapse. Overjoyed, and thankful
to Providence as I was to find them still alive and unhurt, I could
not conceal from them that extreme danger was by no means over, and
that they would yet have need of all their courage. The greatest risk
I instinctively felt was from the uncertain temper of my men; and I
determined on a desperate stroke. I therefore brought the ladies down
to the door of the house, and calling to me the troopers commended
their lives to their charge. It is impossible to understand the swift
torrents of feeling that flood the hearts of Orientals in periods of
intense excitement. Like madmen they threw themselves off their horses
and prostrated themselves before the ladies, seizing their feet and
placing them on their heads, as they vowed with tears and sobs to
protect their lives with their own.
Greatly re-assured by this burst of evidently genuine emotion, I now
ordered the men to mount and patrol the grounds, while I took the
ladies upstairs, and then loaded all the guns with ball. One of them I
placed by itself against the wall. Long afterwards, in quiet England,
my Sister, who still survives, told me that both she and Mrs. Craigie
well understood the sacred use to which that gun was, in the last
resort, devoted, and that the knowledge comforted and strengthened them.
Through the windows flashed brilliant light from the flaming houses on
all sides. The hiss and crackle of the burning timbers--the yells of
the mob--the frequent sharp reports of fire-arms--all formed a confused
roar of sound, the horror of which might well have overpowered the
nerves of the ladies; but I learned during that awful night the quiet
heroism of which our gentle countrywomen are capable in the hour of
need. As I stepped out on to the upper verandah I was seen by some of
the mob who were wrecking the opposite house. "There is a feringi,"
they cried; "let us burn this big _kothi_" (house), and several of them
ran forward with lighted brands to the boundary wall; but on seeing my
gun levelled at them they thought better of it and recoiled. More than
once this happened. It seemed only a matter of time before our house
should be set on fire at one point or another. Fortunately I remembered
the existence in the grounds of a small Hindu shrine, strongly built of
masonry, on a high plinth, and with only one entrance, approached by a
flight of stone or brick steps. If I could only get my charges and the
guns and ammunition safely across the open space between us and that
building, I felt sure of being able to hold out till help should come:
for surely help would soon come! Were not the 6th Dragoon Guards, the
60th Rifles, and the Horse Artillery Batteries within a couple of miles?
At this juncture we were cheered by the arrival of Lieutenant Craigie,
who, after I left him, had gone back to the parade-ground where the
uproar was still at its height, the heroic efforts of the British
officers to bring the men to reason being quite futile. At length,
seeing the hopelessness of further endeavour, and finding the men
getting more and more uncontrollable, they were compelled to retire
and make for the European lines, carrying away with them the now
for-ever disgraced standards of the regiment. One of them, the late
Major Fairlie, also carried with him a bullet which was lodged in his
saddle-tree. Craigie then made his way back to us at great risk of
his life, accompanied by a few men who had never left him. He warmly
approved of my plan; and, having explained it to the ladies, they
quickly gathered together a few necessary articles of apparel, &c.;
and each carrying her bundle, and concealed as far as possible under
a covering of dark blanket, while Craigie and the Carabineer and I
carried the guns and ammunition, we seized a favourable moment and ran
rapidly across to our new stronghold.
Once there, we were safe from being burnt out, and indeed from
successful attack of any kind by the cowardly crew with which we had
to deal. The interior space was very small, probably about ten feet
square. In front was the narrow doorway; and in the massive walls were
slits like loopholes through which we could observe if any attempts
were made to approach the place. Every now and then our troopers
brought us news of what was going on. The night had not long closed in
when they told us that apparently the whole body of mutineers, horse
and foot, had marched away to Delhi. Their attack on the European
lines, if they had made one, had clearly failed; and the only marauders
remaining in Meerut were the butchers and other scum of the city and
bazars. Presently one of our men went over to the opposite house, which
by this time was burnt nearly to the ground. He returned with awful
news. He had found the dead body of its occupant, a lady, whose husband
at the outbreak of the mutiny was absent in the European quarter.
She had been most cruelly and brutally murdered, her unborn infant
sharing her pitiable fate. He showed us, in confirmation of his story,
a portion of her dress reeking with blood. Not far from us, another
lady, while attempting to escape, disguised as an ayah, was recognised
as a European, and murdered. Two veterinary-surgeons, attached to
the regiment, had been killed--one of them with his wife--under
circumstances of ghastly horror. They were both sick in bed with
small-pox when the uproar of the mob startled them; and they came, in
their night clothes, into the verandah, he carrying a gun loaded with
shot, which he discharged at the crowd, only further enraging it. He
was instantly shot dead. His wife met with a worse fate. The cowardly
demons, afraid to touch her because of the danger of infection,
threw lighted brands at her. Her dress caught fire; and she perished
thus miserably. My own house-comrade, a fine young officer, had been
mobbed on his way to church, and so hacked to pieces that but for his
length--he was very tall--and the rags of his uniform which still
clung to him, his remains would have been unrecognisable when they were
subsequently recovered. A poor little girl, daughter of one of the
British Non-Commissioned Officers of the regiment, had been slaughtered
by a blow of a sword which cut her skull in two. Scenes like the above
had been enacted all over Meerut; but I will spare the reader further
details. If he is sickened by what I have already written, I can only
say that mere generalities, however graphic, are insufficient to place
before him a true picture of what English men, women, and children
suffered at the hands of the mutineers, not only in Meerut, but almost
everywhere through the North-West of India.
In these days of agitation for the repeal of the Arms Act, it is well
to remind home-staying Englishmen of what once occurred, and what may
again occur if a wave of political discontent or religious fanaticism
should unhappily once more sweep over the "land of regrets."
Anxiously did we now listen for the rattle of horses' hoofs, the
rumble of guns, or the tramp of feet coming to our help--but none
came! Hour after hour passed--and still the mob were left undisturbed
in their work of destruction and murder. We heard afterwards that
a strong mounted party had been sent to clear the cantonments and
rescue any survivors of the massacre; but--incredible to relate--it
had been misled by the Staff Officer who was detailed to guide it,
and never reached its intended destination. Among the troopers with
us were one or two traitors, whose sole object in remaining was to
undermine the loyalty of the rest. A young recruit who had, not long
previously, passed through riding school in the same squad with myself,
presently came to me as I was standing among a group of the men outside
our stronghold (for Craigie and I now took it in turns to try and
re-assure them by mixing with them), and warned me to be beware of the
Havildar-Major, who had, he said, at that moment, been urging the
others to kill me. It may be well imagined that I took very good care
afterwards to keep a watchful eye on that Non-Commissioned Officer, and
to let him see by a touch of my hand on the hilt of my sword that I was
quite ready for any suspicious movement on his part. Soon afterwards he
and a few others rode out of the gate, and we saw them no more. They
had not long gone when a servant of Craigie's, a Hindu bearer, came up
to us in great excitement with the news that a crowd of _budmashes_
was coming in at the gate. He implored us to give him one of the guns,
and let him go and fire at them. Whether wisely or not, we did so; and
almost immediately afterwards we heard a report, followed by yells and
groans. In a few moments the bearer returned, and gave us back the gun,
saying that he had fired into "the brown" of the advancing mob, and
brought one of them down, and the rest had fled.
It was now about midnight. The uproar was quieting down; and we
determined on making our escape, if possible. So, with our own
hands--the _syces_ (grooms) having bolted--we harnessed Craigie's
horses to his carriage; placed the ladies and the Carabineer inside
with the three guns; made a native boy who usually rode postillion,
and who fortunately had not gone off with the syces, mount one of the
horses and set off, Craigie and I riding with drawn swords beside the
carriage. This was a critical moment. A knot of the troopers, evidently
wavering in their intentions, occupied the avenue before us, loudly
talking and gesticulating. The postillion hesitated; but, on our
threatening to run him through the body if he did not at once gallop
on, he took heart of grace, lashed his horses, and in a moment we had
charged through and scattered the impeding group, and were racing along
the avenue at full speed over the body of the man who had been killed
by the faithful bearer, and who was afterwards identified as a Musalman
butcher, a class of men who were among the most blood-thirsty actors
on that night. Turning out of the gate to our left we made along the
road to the regimental parade-ground, from which a nearly unbroken
plain stretched to the European lines. We found the plain deserted;
and rapidly made our way till we reached a short length of straight
road which ran to the stables of the Carabineers. At the far end of
it we saw a light, which we rightly took to be a portfire. Making the
postillion slacken speed, Craigie and I galloped forward, shouting
"Friend! Friend!" at the utmost stretch of our lungs; and well was it
we did so; for we found at a point where a bridge crossed a nullah a
piquet with a gun trailed up the road; and the subaltern in command
told us he was on the point of firing at our rapidly approaching group
when our voices reached him. At last--with deep gratitude--we felt that
our dear ones were once more safe among our own countrymen. The wife of
a Sergeant of the Carabineers very kindly gave the ladies shelter for
the rest of the night; and Craigie and I shifted for ourselves, _al
fresco_.
To revert to the adventures of the regimental Quartermaster-Sergeant
after he left me. Covered with blood from the wound in his lip and
carrying his gun in one hand and his sword in the other, he presented
a sufficiently startling spectacle as he burst into a room of a
neighbouring bungalow occupied by two young officers, and warned
them--still unconscious--of what was taking place. Not a moment did
they lose in buckling on their swords and rushing to the stables. As
they did so they saw one of their own syces running away with a saddle
on his head. They could only find two other saddles; but fortunately
bridles for three horses were hanging on their usual pegs. Rapidly
slipping them on, they mounted, giving the Sergeant a bare-backed
animal, and they made for a gate. It was blocked by mutineers. They
turned to the other: that also was blocked. Their lives seemed lost,
when one of their servants, a sweeper, the lowest and most despised
caste of Indian domestics, heedless of the certainty that his own life
would be sacrificed to the fury of the mob disappointed of its prey,
implored them to follow him. Running before them he led them to the
back of the out-houses, and showed them a gap in the "compound"[2] wall
which the servants had made for their own convenience. Through this gap
they filed, and galloped off, escaping the hurried shots which were
fired after them, and eventually reaching in safety the barracks of the
60th Rifles. The sweeper fell a victim to the rage of the pursuers. He
was hacked to pieces. No more beautiful deed ever brightened the dark
days of the "'57" than the self-sacrifice of this obscure and nameless
hero.