_A NIGHT ADVENTURE_
As soon as I had heard that name from Rupert's lips, all my hesitation
was at once overcome, as he no doubt foresaw would be the case.
"Come," I said, springing upon my feet with an energy I had not felt
for some time, "let us be going, then."
My fellow prisoners looked not a little astonished at this sudden
change in my resolution. However, they offered me their good wishes
for the journey, and Mr. Holwell in particular entrusted me with some
messages to Mr. Drake, in case I should succeed in penetrating to him.
We had no certain information at this time as to the whereabouts of
the English ships, but supposed them to be lying somewhere about the
mouth of the Hooghley. It was judged best that I should carry no
writing.
We two then crept softly out of the hut, my cousin going first, and I
following. There was no moon abroad, but a sufficiency of light was
afforded us by the extraordinary brilliancy of the stars, which
appear much bigger, as well as thicker in the sky, in these latitudes
than in England. At a short distance from the door of the shed I could
perceive the sentinel, seated with his back towards us, his hands
resting on his matchlock.
"This way," whispered Rupert in my ear. And turning in the opposite
direction from the sentry, he stooped down and ran along under the
shadow of a high wall which bordered a winding road.
The wall was about eight feet high, and enclosed a garden. Here and
there it was overhung by branches of trees, whose foliage I failed to
distinguish in the darkness, but I once or twice thought I smelt the
fragrance of lemons. Within the garden behind the wall we could hear
the tinkle of a fountain and a noise like the singing of some bird.
"What is this place?" I asked in a whisper, as I ran along by Rupert's
side.
"Hush!" he answered crossly. "We shall be overheard. This is the
Nabob's garden, where are the pavilions of his women."
We ran on in silence for some little time longer, when we arrived at
the end of the garden, and plunged into a narrow and dark lane that
led out of the town. This passage we followed till we came out upon a
deserted nook immediately under the walls of Moorshedabad, which were
here much damaged, and matted with ivy and other weeds.
"Now," said Rupert, as he flung himself panting on the ground, in a
little grassy place, "we can talk over our plans without fear of being
disturbed."
I sat down beside him, inly marvelling at that great transformation
which had so quickly converted us from deadly enemies seeking each
other's lives, into allies, if not friends. After all our hostilities
against each other in Great Yarmouth, at Gheriah, and in Calcutta, we
were now in Moorshedabad, bound together by a common purpose, and that
purpose concerned with her who had originally been the cause of our
enmity.
I have often thought since that the change which took place in my
cousin's behaviour about this time was due, not so much to any tardy
pricks of conscience, as to a sort of dizziness of mind, brought about
by the spectacle of the prodigious crimes of Surajah Dowlah. His own
spirit, however bold and wicked, was daunted in the presence of this
being who, though so much younger in years, was so greatly superior in
evil; so that he shrank back, like one brought suddenly to the edge of
a precipice. Perhaps he had a secret apprehension of his coming fate;
at all events, it is certain that for a short time he manifested a
hearty longing to return to the society of honest men.
As soon as we were seated his first act was to pluck off the turban he
wore on his head, and cast it to the ground.
"Faugh!" he exclaimed. "What an intolerable thing to wear! If it were
not for their turbans and their abstinence, I declare Mahometanism
would suit me well enough."
I gazed at him in horror.
"Do you mean, Rupert, that you have really embraced that idolatrous
sect?" I demanded.
"You need not look so scandalised, cousin," he retorted. "In the first
place you are quite wrong to call it idolatrous, images of every kind
being strictly forbidden by the Alcoran. In the second place it is a
very decent, respectable religion, as religions go, and extremely
convenient for seafaring men who sometimes need an excuse for
overhauling a Christian cargo."
"Rupert Gurney," I replied sternly, "you have within the hour brought
me away out of prison, and for that I thank you. But I will neither
listen to your blasphemous talk, nor suffer it, and rather than
consent to do so I will go back to the place from which you took me
but now."
"Fair and softly, young Athelstane," he answered grinning. "I see you
are as fierce a Puritan as ever, and as I have lost the wish to
quarrel with you I will endeavour to refrain from saying anything
offensive to your delicacy. But do you, on your part, abstain from
flying into a passion at every word that does not happen to sound to
your liking; for patience is a virtue recommended, as I believe, by
your religion as well as mine, and it seems to me that your stock of
it is rather scant."
I cannot say how deeply mortified I was by this rebuke, which, coming
from one whose evil life I held in just detestation, wrought more
conviction in me than all the sermons I had heard from good Mr. Peter
Walpole of Norwich, when I was a boy. I discovered, as though by a
flash of light, how unchristian was the temper I had too often shown
in my dealings, not only with my cousin, but with other persons, and
from that moment I set an earnest watch on myself in this respect.
Forcing myself to acknowledge my error at once, though much against
the grain, I said--
"I ask your pardon, Rupert, if I spoke harshly. But let us leave these
questions, and come to the business in hand. What of Marian, and how
do you propose that we should effect her escape?"
He looked at me surprised.
"Why, Athelstane, my boy, give me your hand!" he exclaimed, in a more
cordial tone than I had ever heard him use before. "Curse me if I
don't heartily wish we had never quarrelled!" I gave him my hand with
some reluctance, and he proceeded. "You saw that garden which we
passed on our way to this spot? The girl is detained a prisoner in one
of the Nabob's summer-houses which stand within it. I have found means
to corrupt one of the eunuchs who is a friend of mine, and anxious to
stand well with the English. For I must tell you, Athelstane, that all
is not working smoothly in the government here. Surajah Dowlah, by his
arrogance and violence, has made many enemies, among whom are his own
uncle, Meer Jaffier, and Roy Dullub, the most important of the
Gentoos. These men have a just apprehension of the vengeance which the
English may take for the late invasion of their settlements, and
moreover they stand in dread of the young Nabob's reckless temper,
sometimes bordering on insanity. So that we have more friends than we
know of in the Court. This eunuch, then, as I was going to say, has
agreed to introduce me into the garden to-night, in about an hour's
time through a small postern in the wall of which he has the key. He
is going to conduct me to the summer-house where Marian is. There it
may be necessary to use force to overpower the eunuchs in charge of
the place, but if we succeed in doing that, as I think there is little
doubt we shall, we have nothing to do but to carry her off and retire
by the way we came. I have provided a safe retreat afterwards to the
coast."
I fell in heartily with this scheme, which seemed to present a
tolerable chance of success. Rupert went on to explain to me the means
by which he hoped that we might afterwards be able to pass through the
country without being stopped. He proposed that we should give it out
that we were a party of Mahometan pilgrims bound for the mouth of the
river, to take ship for Mecca; and he told me he had three horses
already hired, with a driver, waiting for us in a certain place. In
order that this scheme might be carried through it was necessary that
I should be disguised to pass for a Moor, like himself. He now
produced from his bosom a brown pigment, such as he had already used
with good enough success on his own complexion, and carefully stained
the skin of my face, also my feet and hands.
"Remember, above all," he said, while he was thus engaged, "if you
would be taken for a Mahometan, never to wash your hands without
washing your feet at the same time, for this custom is inveterate with
them, and is, I think, the principal point of difference between the
two religions."
When he had finished, I asked--
"And now what shall I do for a suitable dress?"
For I was still clad in the garments of rough canvas which the Moors
had given to us on the morning after our release from the Black Hole.
"By the Lord Harry, I don't know what you can do!" cried Rupert. "I
had overlooked that part of it. Unless you were to cut down one of
these black rascals in the dark, and exchange suits with him?"
I declined to do what I thought would amount to committing a murder,
although it were to be done upon an Indian; whereupon my cousin
offered to kill the man, if I would wear the clothes. At last we
agreed to procure the dress by peaceful means, if that should be
possible, and set out on our return to the centre of the town.
Sure enough we had not gone a great way when we met a man of the city,
a Gentoo, wearing a loose woollen robe and white turban, which we
thought would pass, and which he agreed very easily to part with for
five rupees. I offered him my canvas suit into the bargain, but this
he rejected with disdain, on account of his religion, and walked off
from us stark naked, but for a loin-cloth.
It was now time that we should repair to the meeting appointed by the
eunuch. We found the postern without any difficulty, and as soon as my
cousin had knocked twice in a peculiar manner the eunuch came and
admitted us. This eunuch appeared to be a very civil, worthy person,
very different to most of his kind, whom I have found to be full of
spite and malice, and untrustworthy in all their dealings.
As soon as we were entered in the garden the eunuch conducted us
through an orchard and down a grove of persimmons, to where there was
a fountain, and close by it a square marble tank bordered by roses in
white marble boxes. Here he left us for a moment, while he went
forward to examine the summer-house, if there were any one stirring
within. While we were waiting I took an interest in gazing at the
clear water of the tank, and picturing the scene when the Nabob's
women came thither to bathe, as I heard was their daily custom.
Presently the eunuch returned, and beckoned to us.
"The Sahibs may go forward now," he said. "The cage is shut and the
birds are asleep."
We followed him, and he brought us out upon an open space, and in the
midst of it a small pavilion, like a temple, built in white stone or
marble, in two storeys, very elegantly, with small pillars before it
and a dome above, the whole covered over with fantastical designs of
trees and flowers, curiously wrought in the stone.
The door of the pavilion was closed. In the upper storey I saw several
lattices open, but no lights.
"What are we to do in the next place?" I asked of the eunuch.
He gave me an expressive look out of his black eyes, and silently
delivered to me a scymetar which he carried.
"Let the Sahib knock, and when they who keep the door put forth their
heads, let the Sahib strike them off," he said, seeing me hesitate.
It had been well for us, as it turned out, if I had done as he bid me,
for the squeamishness which we feel about shedding blood is not
understood amongst Indians, and they despise us for it. However,
before I could say anything further, my cousin stepped up to the door
and knocked boldly.
There was a commotion inside. I drew my scymetar, and Rupert did the
same. As soon as the door was unfastened from within, without waiting
to parley, we flung ourselves through the opening, striking out
blindly in the dark.
Instantly there went up a howl for mercy, and the eunuchs inside--for
there were two of them, both well-armed--cast themselves down writhing
on the floor, evidently in the expectation that they were immediately
to be put to death. Rupert aimed a deadly blow at one of them, but I,
like a fool, struck up his weapon.
"Stay," I said, using the Gentoo language purposely that they might
understand, "it may save us trouble to spare their lives, on condition
that they strictly obey our instructions."
The wretches hearing this, instantly broke into all sorts of
grovelling entreaties and oaths of fidelity. Quite disgusted by their
slavish cowardice, I said to them--
"Hold your tongues! You have in this house a prisoner, an
Englishwoman, whom we have come to carry away. Let one of you go at
once and bring her here."
The eunuch furthest in from the door immediately leaped to his feet
and made off down the passage. But Rupert, who knew more about these
sort of creatures than I did at this time, strode after him, calling
out--
"Stay! I will go with you!"
But the fellow, without turning his head, sprang up a narrow staircase
at the end, and darting into the first room he came to above, slammed
the door to, and had it fastened before Rupert could catch him up. In
another moment we heard him yelling and squalling out of the window
for assistance to come and take the murderers and ravishers that were
broken into the garden.
My cousin came jumping down the stairs three steps at a time.
"This comes of your cursed softness!" he growled out savagely. "As
though it were not a Christian act to cut the throats of as many of
these hell-hounds as possible!"
He fetched a slash at the man who lay whining at our feet that nearly
severed his head from his trunk.
"Now we must save ourselves if we can!" he muttered. And indeed it was
time. The screams of the eunuch overhead had brought the whole place
about our ears. As we stepped out of the pavilion again, we saw lights
glittering through the trees all round us, and heard shouting and the
running of feet. Our friendly eunuch had taken to flight, and we were
left to extricate ourselves as best we could.
"We must not stay here or we shall be surrounded," cried Rupert.
"Which way is the gate?"
I strove to recollect, and then, taking what I thought to be the
direction, we started off at a run.
Instantly that fiend who had betrayed us, leaning further out of the
window to discover which way we fled, redoubled his cries. Looking
back for a moment as we ran, I saw him pointing, and at the same time
there was a movement of one of the other lattices, and I caught a
glimpse of a white face and two hands thrust out with a despairing
gesture, and knew that Marian was aware of our enterprise and that we
had failed. Then the clamour on all sides grew louder, and men bearing
lanterns and armed with swords and matchlocks burst out from the trees
around the pavilion, and ran hither and thither, some towards the
building, others searching for our track.
We ran like deer, bending down so as not to be seen, and dodging in
among the trees and bushes. By this means we preserved ourselves from
immediate capture, but soon missed our way, and found ourselves
wandering about in the garden, stealing from one patch of cover to
another; while every now and then a party of our pursuers would go
past, so close that we could hear them speak, and see the sparks of
lantern-light drip off the naked blades of their weapons as they
thrust them into the bushes.
After several close escapes of this kind, when we at last stumbled on
the postern, more by luck than skill, we found it barred and locked,
and the key removed. Before we could decide what next to do, on a
sudden a party of four gigantic blacks burst out upon us, brandishing
their weapons at our heads and calling on us, by all manner of filthy
names, to surrender. I believe they expected us to prove an easy prey,
but I was now grown desperate, and rushed so fiercely on him that came
first and carried a lantern, that I fairly bore him to earth at the
first shock. And when I looked round for another I found all three in
full flight, one of them leaving his right hand behind, which Rupert
had managed to slice off at the wrist with the first blow. They ran
for their lives, shouting out that they had to do with two demons from
the pit. Rupert, seeing the man I had struck down move, stepped over
to him, quite cool, drew his blade across the poor wretch's throat,
and wiped it on his turban. After this we lost no time in shifting our
ground before the rest of the pursuers came up.
With the chase so hot after us, it had become plain that we must be
taken before long, unless we could hit upon some means of escaping
from the garden. In this strait I bethought myself of the trees whose
boughs I had noticed from outside overhanging the wall, when we passed
it earlier that night. I reminded Rupert of this, who exclaimed
joyfully--
"Well done, cousin, I declare you have saved us now! I believe I can
find that part of the garden easily enough, when it will be a simple
matter to climb the trees and drop down on the other side of the
wall."
We set out at once, Rupert leading the way, and turning from side to
side as we heard the Moors shouting after us. They now felt pretty
sure of our whereabouts, and began discharging their pieces where we
went, so that the balls tore the leaves off the trees all round us,
but luckily without doing us any damage. We arrived at the wall, and
seeing a tree suitable for our purpose, made for it, but just as we
reached it one of those black rascals we had put to flight espied us.
He raised the cry, and instantly we found ourselves surrounded by the
whole band, at least twenty of them rushing at us out of the dark, and
all with the most murderous looks I have ever seen.
I now gave up all for lost, and planting myself with my back against
the tree prepared to sell my life dear. Not so Rupert, who was already
off the ground, climbing like a cat up the smooth trunk. He was out of
sight among the branches directly, and in another minute would have
been safely over the wall, when at a signal from their leader, about a
dozen of the Moors who had firearms discharged them all together into
the tree. I heard a groan and a sound of scrambling above, and
presently Rupert dropped, falling heavily straight on to the ground,
where he lay quite still.
When I saw what had happened, I abandoned all further thoughts of
resistance, and throwing away my weapon bade them do what they would
with me. Even then, so great was the awe we had struck into them, that
they advanced slowly, narrowing their circle all round, till at length
the foremost took courage to lay his hand on my shoulder. They then
led me away, jabbering the most horrid threats in my ear, while others
picked up my unfortunate cousin, and carried him after, groaning
miserably.
We were brought into a sort of guard-house, situated, as well as I
could judge, in the centre of the garden, and there kept till morning,
to await the Nabob's pleasure. Poor Rupert, who had broken his leg,
tossed and moaned till daybreak, but I was so much exhausted that I
could not keep awake, and fell into a sleep on the floor. In the
morning, to my astonishment, I was offered some food, after which my
captors dragged me pretty roughly into the palace. I said farewell to
my cousin, doubting greatly whether I should ever see him again.
Surajah Dowlah, contrary to his custom, had me brought into him in his
private apartments, there being present besides only some of the
minions and low buffoons he kept by him to amuse him. He rolled his
bloodshot eyes on me, as I was led in, looking as though he could have
bit me, and played with a sharp, crooked knife which he had in his
hand.
After overwhelming me with a torrent of imprecations which I should be
ashamed to write down, he ordered me to tell him how I had got into
his garden. Being well assured that nothing could make my position
worse than it already was, and having some experience of the Nabob's
character by this time, I resolved on defying him. I therefore
answered boldly--
"I got into the garden by means which I have, and which I shall not
disclose. Your Highness may rest assured that you cannot keep me out
of any place into which I choose to penetrate. Nevertheless I
intended no outrage on you. You hold prisoner a countrywoman of mine,
whom I intended to deliver out of your hands; and let me warn your
Highness that whatever you may order to be done with me, the English
will never leave you in peace till you have set that woman free."
I was scarce prepared for the effect which these words produced on the
intoxicated youth. He rose half way from his seat, raging like a
fiend, then fell back again white and crouching, as if I had been
about to deal him a blow, then passed into a fresh paroxysm of rage,
and so from one state of mind to another in a way at once alarming and
pitiful to behold.
"Do you know in whose presence you stand, infidel?" he shrieked. "Do
you know that I am lord and Subhadar of Bengal, of Behar, and Orissa;
and that I have a million men who would die at my bidding? I will have
you torn piecemeal, I will have your eyes picked out with knives and
your flesh torn by hot pincers! I will plunge this knife into you, I
will rip you up as I would a wild boar, I will strew your entrails on
the earth, I will give your heart to dogs to devour!"
He went on in this terrifying manner till he was out of breath. During
the whole time I stood regarding him with a cool, undismayed
expression which, I believe, disconcerted him more than any words I
could have used. Then I said--
"Surajah Dowlah, your words are the words of a boaster, who is bold
only when he sees his enemy before him disarmed. Beware of what you
do; you are walking in the dark! Do you believe the paltry handful of
English whom you drove out of Calcutta count for anything in the
strength of our nation? If so, let me tell you there are men about
you, men who have your trust, who could teach you otherwise. You are
being deceived if your spies have not already told you of the armament
which he whom you call Sabat Jung is already preparing to invade your
dominions, when every hair of an Englishman's head that you have
injured will have to be reckoned for. And it will be well for you if,
among all those who crouch before you, you find any to fight for you
in that day."
The servile crew that stood round the tyrant here began to cry out at
me, and drown my voice. But I was satisfied with the impression I had
made on the mind of their master. He listened, hanging his head, and
casting meaning glances at me, as if doubtful how far I had authority
for what I said. Finally he ordered me to be kept under a strong
guard, and I was conveyed back to the same prison I had escaped from
overnight.