_THE COMING OF SABAT JUNG_
If ever I felt afraid in my life it was when I fled out of the Indian
temple with the whole swarm of devil-worshippers in full pursuit. I
never thought I should have escaped alive, yet by the aid of
Providence I did so, leaping down the steps by great bounds, finding
my horse and unloosing him in the nick of time, and galloping off out
of their reach. They kept up the pursuit for at least a mile, running
with extraordinary swiftness, and tracking me like wolves;
nevertheless in the end I got clean away.
This adventure served as a wholesome lesson to me to beware of
meddling with the ways of strange peoples in a strange land. By dint
of following Meer Jaffier's wise and prudent directions I got over the
rest of my journey without hindrance, and as day was breaking at the
end of the following night I rode down on to the shore of the
Hooghley.
There the first thing that met my eyes was the pennant of my old
commander, Admiral Watson, flying from the main truck of his
Majesty's ship _Kent_, where she lay in the river, surrounded by a
fleet, comprising the _Tyger_, _Salisbury_, _Bridgewater_, and a
number of merchantmen. I gloated over this welcome sight almost with
tears, as I realised that I was restored to my countrymen once more,
after all my perils and wanderings. It did not take me long to reach
the English camp on the edge of the river, where the spectacle of a
turbaned Moor riding in on a white horse excited no small commotion.
I inquired for Colonel Clive, and was quickly brought to the door of
his tent, where my kind friend Mr. Scrafton came out to speak to me. I
was on the point of offering him my hand, but observing that he had no
suspicions as to who it was I merely told him in Indostanee that I
came from Moorshedabad, with a message from the Meer Jaffier, and
suffered him to bring me in to Mr. Clive.
The famous Sabat Jung sat writing at a small table, from which he
looked up as we entered, and cast a sharp glance over me. Mr. Scrafton
spoke in English.
"Colonel, here is a Moor from the Nabob's capital, with a message from
his general to you."
Mr. Clive laid down his pen.
"Tell him to deliver it," he said.
Before Mr. Scrafton could interpret this command, which he was about
to do, I interposed, addressing Mr. Clive in English.
"The Meer Jaffier bade me salute you privately, sir. Is it your
pleasure that Mr. Scrafton should be present?"
The Colonel and his secretary stared at each other, as they well
might.
"Who are you, man?" demanded Mr. Clive. "And how do you know this
gentleman's name?"
"I know his name very well, sir," said I, "and I think he knows mine,
unless by this time he has forgot his former pupil, Athelstane Ford."
"By the Lord, if it isn't my little purser!" exclaimed Colonel Clive.
And this great man was pleased to rise from his chair and shake me
very warmly by the hand, declaring himself pleased to see me safe and
sound again. Mr. Scrafton did the same, after which they made me sit
down and tell the history of my adventures. They questioned me very
closely about the character of Surajah Dowlah and the strength of his
government, and after I had expressed my opinions, Mr. Clive told me
that he believed he understood the Nabob's character, and had written
him a letter such as would send his heart into his boots.
"And that the whole of Indostan may know what I think of the young
monster, I mean to send the letter open to his lieutenant, Monichund,"
he said. "These barbarous nations shall be made to learn the English
are their masters, and that every outrage upon an Englishman shall
cost them dear."
So at last there had come a man able to deal with the bloodthirsty
savage Moors and their prince as they deserved; and a new page was
turned over in the history of Bengal. And but for the anxiety that
continually harassed my mind as to the fate of those two whom I had
left in Moorshedabad, I mean Marian and my cousin, who, in spite of
many crimes, had at last done something to atone for his past
misconduct; but for this, the time which followed would have been full
of satisfaction. For I was now to witness the closing acts of that
great historic drama of which I have already chronicled the
commencement. I was to assist at the execution of justice on a great
malefactor, and to see his victims repaid a hundredfold for the
injuries they had suffered at his hands.
I had arrived in the English camp just in time to take part in the
first of those celebrated operations by which the disgraceful
surrender of Fort William was to be redeemed, and the English name was
to be so signally advanced throughout the East Indies. Colonel Clive
had despatched the letter he spoke of, to demand redress from the
Nabob, but its language was so high and peremptory that Monichund, the
Nabob's governor in Fort William, returned it, saying that he dared
not transmit it to his master. Thereupon Mr. Clive, not sorry to have
an excuse for hostilities, ordered an immediate advance on Calcutta.
The total number of troops employed on this memorable expedition was
a little more than two thousand, of whom the most part were Telingies,
or Sepoys, the English troops being between six and seven hundred.
Most of these were Company's soldiers, though we had about one hundred
men of Adlercron's regiment from Madras. We had also two field-pieces;
the rest had been lost through the unfortunate grounding of the
_Cumberland_ outside the river. To this force was afterwards added a
body of three hundred seamen from the ships, as I shall presently
relate. This little army under Colonel Clive marched slowly up the
bank of the Hooghley, while Admiral Watson followed and escorted us
with his fleet.
On the second afternoon we lay at a place called Mayapore, between
which and Calcutta, on the river's edge, stood the strong place of
Budge-Budge, or Buz-Buzia as it is written by the learned. The Admiral
had announced his intention of sailing up to attack this fort on the
next day with the guns of the ships, and in order to prevent the
garrison escaping Mr. Clive decided to march round during the night,
and lay an ambush in the rear of the fort.
Accordingly we marched out of Mayapore about sunset, and were
conducted by some Indian guides inland through a part of the country
much broken up by swamps and watercourses, which made our progress so
excessively tedious that it was not till the following sunrise that we
arrived at the place appointed for the ambush. This was a hollow in
the plain, where there was a deserted village, the hollow being
surrounded by banks covered with thickets which, it was supposed,
would conceal our presence from the enemy. The troops by this time
being quite worn out, Colonel Clive gave them leave to lay down their
arms and repose themselves, and so eagerly was the permission availed
of that not a single sentinel was posted to give notice of the enemy's
approach.
I was with Mr. Clive himself, who had allowed me to accompany him as a
sort of military secretary, Mr. Scrafton not being a soldier. We lay
down side by side, and I for one had no sooner closed my eyes than I
fell asleep. But the very next moment, as it seemed to me, I awoke
with a start, to the sound of a battle going on around me.
I sprang to my feet and took in the whole scene. A whole Indian army
appeared to have surrounded the sleeping camp. The banks of the hollow
were lined with swarthy troops, armed with matchlocks, from which they
poured a steady fire upon our bewildered men, just roused from
slumber, and groping in confusion after their arms. On an eminence a
short way behind I espied an officer, whom I took to be Monichund
himself, seated on an elephant, issuing orders to his troops. Our two
field-pieces stood deserted in the way of the enemy, who advanced to
take them, while the terrified artillerymen ran for shelter among the
troops of the line. Our position looked desperate, and I turned
anxiously to Colonel Clive to see what he would do.
Mr. Clive had sprung to his feet at the same moment with myself. For a
moment he stood in an attitude of stern attention, his hands clenched,
his lips compressed, and his eyes darting from point to point over the
field. The next instant his voice rang out like the sound of a
trumpet.
"Steady! Form in line! Face this way! Captain Campbell, form your men
on the right. Captain Coote, take yours to the left. Where is
Kilpatrick?"
He sprang forward among the disordered troops, rattling out commands
and words of encouragement, and infusing a new spirit into them by his
very presence and the air of cool resolution with which he moved and
spoke. Like magic the little force disposed itself under his orders,
and began to return the enemy's fire. Astonished by this sudden
transformation, the Moors halted in their attack, and seemed contented
to hold the rest of the ridge. Colonel Clive instantly detected their
hesitation, drew up two small detachments opposite the points where
the enemy seemed to be in the greatest numbers and ordered them to
charge. They dashed forward with a ringing cheer, gained the bank, and
drove the enemy back into the village.
Taking advantage of this success, Mr. Clive turned his attention to
the two field-pieces, which had been surrounded by a party of
Monichund's force.
"Go," he said to me, "order up the volunteers, and rescue those guns."
Elated by this commission I darted towards a little squad composed of
some fifty of the Company's civil servants who had volunteered before
we left Fulta.
"Come on," I shouted, "and take the guns!"
They responded with an answering shout, we charged on the Indians at
the double and drove them off. The artillerymen came up, turned the
guns on the village, and began to shell out the enemy. A minute
afterwards a loud cheer announced a general advance of our whole
force, and Monichund, turning his elephant, fled, followed by all his
men.
While this was taking place the thunder of guns from the direction of
the river told us that the fleet had come up, and was already at work
silencing the artillery of the fort. Colonel Clive called back his men
from the pursuit, and then, finding them utterly exhausted, he
deferred the assault on the fort till the next day, and we again
betook ourselves to repose.
The result of this affair was greatly to encourage us, while we
afterwards learned that it had as much disheartened the Moors. That
presumption which they had felt ever since the fall of Calcutta was
now exchanged for a different feeling, so much so that it may not be
too much to say that the fate of Bengal was decided by that morning's
work. The admiration which I felt for Mr. Clive's conduct on this
occasion emboldened me to offer him my congratulations on his victory,
but he rebuked me for doing do.
"I will tell you what it is, young gentleman," he said to me, "I
deserved to have been defeated for my carelessness in letting the
beggars surprise me. It is true we beat them off, but that is no
defence. A general should not allow himself to be caught napping in
that fashion, and you may depend on it I shall say as little as
possible about this day's work in my despatches to the Directors."
In this confidential way he was pleased to talk with me, a freedom
which it was his habit to indulge in with all those of his
subordinates whom he really liked. For this hero, as I must have
leave to call him, was not one of those little great men who find
it necessary to keep up their authority by a show of reserve and
pompousness, but feeling that confidence in himself which would
enable him to rely upon his actions as the proofs of his greatness,
he despised the arts of inferior minds.
And now there happened an event, not only singular in itself, but
interesting to me as bringing me back the company of an old friend
whom I had never looked to see again. In the evening of this same day,
while the soldiers were at supper, a party of sailors were landed from
the ships, being the force I have already mentioned, to be ready to
take part in the assault the next day. Thinking it possible that some
of my old comrades from the _Talisman_ might be among them, about
eight o'clock I strolled down to their quarters, where I found them
all drinking together, without much appearance of discipline.
I walked past several groups without recognising any face that I knew,
and was about to give up the quest, when I noticed a group of half a
dozen who were straying in the direction of the silent fort. This
seemed to me a very dangerous proceeding, and as I could see none of
their officers near, I determined to follow and remonstrate with them.
Accordingly I hastened after them as fast as I could go. By the way in
which they walked, or rather staggered along, I saw they had been
drinking pretty freely. Presently they set off at a run, paying no
heed to my shouts, and I was obliged to follow till they stopped on
the very edge of the ditch which went round the fort. Here I caught up
with them, greatly surprised that the garrison had shown no signs of
life. But before I could speak, or even distinctly see their faces,
the tallest of the party, a man of great frame, began rolling down
into the ditch, which was nearly dry.
I dared not call out for fear of drawing the attention of those in the
fort, and watched him breathlessly as he plunged through the mud at
the bottom of the ditch and scrambled up the opposite side.
"What is he doing?" I demanded in a whisper of the man who appeared
to be the most sober of the group.
"It's a bet," he answered; "we bet him a quart of rum he wouldn't get
to the top of the wall."
I stared at the fellow, hardly able to believe in such recklessness.
Then I turned my eyes to the huge seaman on the opposite side of the
ditch. He had just made good his footing on the top of the bank, and
now he began climbing up the masonry like a cat, till at last his
herculean figure stood out clear on the summit.
The next moment we saw him draw his cutlass and brandish it over his
head, and a loud shout came across to us in a voice I knew full well.
"Come on, you beggars, I've taken the ---- fort!"
It was old Muzzy, the boatswain of the _Fair Maid_.
Not for long did we hesitate, but rushing down into the ditch after
him we were speedily in the fort. There our shouts roused first a
company of Sepoys, and finally the whole force, who came trooping in,
to find the place deserted, and the garrison fled secretly under cover
of the darkness to Calcutta.
While this was going on I had approached my old friend, for so I
cannot but call him. Indeed, in spite of his evil character and
manifold breaches of the laws of God and man, the old fellow had shown
me much kindness, for which I was not ungrateful, and this perhaps
inclined me to look with an unduly lenient eye on his misdeeds. Going
up to him, I clapped him on the back, and cried out--
"How goes it, old Muzzy? and what of the _Fair Maid_ and the rest of
her crew?"
The boatswain gave a great start, and turned round to me with a look
of astonishment which quickly passed into one of delight.
"Why, drown me, if it ain't that young cockerel again!" he exclaimed.
And before I knew what he would be at, he cast his arms around me, and
gave me a most evil-smelling kiss, fragrant of rum and tobacco. Then,
still holding me firmly with his great hairy hands, as though he
feared I should vanish into air, he put me back far enough for him to
gaze at my face.
"Stab my vitals if I didn't think as you was suffocated in that there
Black Hole!" He garnished his speech with many other expressions which
I am ashamed to remember, far less to write here. "So we all heard
aboard the ship. But you're alive, ain't ye now?" he added. "It's not
the rum as makes me think I sees you?"
"I am Athelstane Ford," I answered, trying to shake myself free from
his grasp, "and not a little glad to meet you again. But how did you
come to be on a King's ship? Is the _Fair Maid_----"
"Hist!" He interrupted me with a warning frown, and cast an
apprehensive glance behind him. "Not a word about her! It might be a
hanging matter if it was known I had been in the boat that escaped
from Gheriah. I'll tell you all about it by our two selves."
I took advantage of this offer to lead the way out of the fort. We
walked back to the British lines together, old Muzzy still clutching
me with one hand, and as soon as we had reached a quiet spot out of
earshot we sat down and he commenced his tale.
"You see, it's this way. Arter what happened when we was coming out of
the river, where we lost you overboard, I come to the conclusion that
that cousin o' yours warn't what I calls a honest man. Nobody can't
say as how I'm one of your squeamish sort, 'cause I ain't. As fur as a
bit o' smuggling goes, or a bit of privateering, or even a bit o'
piracy, in a general way, I don't say nothin', but when it comes to
taking and firing a culverin at your own ship, with your own mates
aboard of her, why, d'ye see, I don't call that honest. And when I
find out as a man ain't what I calls honest, I don't sail in his
company. Mind you, I'm not the man to deny that Captain Gurney has his
good points; he ain't no lawyer, that I'll admit, and he's as free
with his rum-cask as any man I ever wish to sail under. But arter that
business what I've mentioned, me and my mates swore we wouldn't have
nothing more to do with him.
"Well, when we got outside the river, we pointed her head for the
nor'ard, and by keeping pretty close along the shore, though we
hadn't a soul on board that could navigate, we managed to bring the
old _Fair Maid_ safe into port--that's Bombay. You may strike me blind
as I set here, when I tells you that no sooner did we bring up in the
harbour than who should we see carmly settin' on the quay a-waiting
for us but that eternal cousin of yourn! How on earth he got there's a
mystery, but there he was; and as soon as he sights the _Fair Maid_ he
comes off in a boat as cool as you please and takes the command
again."
"Why did you let him?" I asked, with a touch of my old resentment
against Rupert. "Why didn't you refuse to take him on board?"
Old Muzzy gave me a reproachful look and shook his head gravely.
"No, no, boy, we couldn't go for to do that. That would ha' been flat
mutiny; and remember his name was on the ship's books as first
officer, and he might have pistolled us every one and had the law on
his side. We didn't dare leave him neither, 'cause that would ha' been
desertion, d'ye see, and he might have got out a warrant and had us
brought on board again in irons."
"What did you do, then?" I demanded as he paused, and a smile of deep
cunning slowly overspread his face.
"I'll tell you what we did, Athelstane, my hearty. We got ourselves
pressed!"
"Pressed?"
"Took by the crimps, you understand, and pressed to serve King George.
Oh, but it was a rare spree to see them crimps a-laying in wait for
us, and enticing us into their dens, and filling us up with rum till
we nearly bust where we sat, so that they could go and bring the
pressgang down upon us. And us all the time asking nothing better, and
ready to serve of our own accord, only it might ha' looked suspicious,
d'ye see, it being agin natur for a honest seaman to want to go on
board a man-o'-war."
The boatswain began to quiver and roll to and fro with spasms of
inward laughter at the recollection of his strategy.
"And you should ha' seen your cousin's face when he stood all alone on
the deck of the _Fair Maid_, and saw a boatload of us being rowed past
him to the _Tyger_, every man jack of us in irons, and laughing in his
face as we went by! And so that's how it is as I'm in King George's
uniform, and right glad I am to find you in company again. For if ever
I took a fancy to a young feller, I took one to you from the moment I
first clapped eyes on you, and says I to myself, 'I'll make that lad a
tight sailor yet,' I says, and I'd ha' done it, my boy, but for that
scrub of a cousin of yours. And I've taken a blessed fort to-night for
King George; and I'll tell 'em you was with me, and in command of the
party, and they'll put your name in the despatches, and make you an
admiral yet, or my name ain't Muzzy!"