_A MISSION OF DANGER_
I got up and called to some sailors who were falling into the rear of
the now departing column.
"Here, my men, here's a comrade wounded and unable to walk. Will you
leave him to be butchered by the Indians?"
They stopped, and cast hesitating looks at the old boatswain, where he
lay groaning.
"There's a-many of 'em about," observed one man. "We can't save them
all, sir."
"But this is an old friend of mine, who has saved my life before now,"
I pleaded. And seeing them undecided, I went on, "What do you say; I
will give you a hundred rupees--two hundred--apiece if you carry him
safe into Calcutta?"
They brisked up when they heard this offer. A small tree with dark
green leaves stood close by, from which they tore some branches, and
quickly made out a rude litter. On to this they lifted my poor old
friend, and so carried him off, renewing his groans at every step.
I marched alongside till we caught up with the rear of the column.
Luckily we were not molested, for which I blessed the fog, though it
was now showing signs of lifting away. Our progress was here extremely
slow, the ground being broken up into a number of small rice-fields,
separated by mud walls or mounds of earth, over which the field-pieces
had to be lifted with infinite trouble, and in fact two of them were
abandoned altogether, the sailors being too exhausted to draw them
further. During this time I forbore to rejoin Colonel Clive, but used
my freedom as a volunteer to remain with the sailors bearing old
Muzzy, where I found my presence and encouragement very necessary to
induce them to persevere in their task. As it was I was obliged to
raise my offer to three hundred rupees before we had got to the high
road.
The fog gradually clearing, we beheld parties of the enemy's horse
from time to time, threatening us, but they were easily dispersed by a
few discharges of musketry, and gave us far less annoyance than the
impediments of the ground. At the end of another hour of this toilsome
work we at length arrived at the road, where we found a considerable
body of horse and foot posted in front of the bridge across the
Morattoe ditch into the Company's territories, to prevent our passing.
At the same time the fog finally broke, and disclosed another
numerous squadron coming down against our rear. The sailors at once
faced about to defend the artillery, and I took my place among them,
bidding the men with the litter press on towards the centre of the
column. The Moors rode up with great determination, notwithstanding
our fire, and one of them got near enough to me to aim a cut at my
helmet, which I only avoided by bending my head to one side. At the
same time I thrust my bayonet into his groin, and had the satisfaction
of seeing him reel and fall from his horse as it turned and galloped
off.
This charge being repulsed, we turned about again and rejoined our
comrades, who had quickly dislodged the force opposed to them in
front. The whole column then crossed the ditch, in broad daylight, and
marched without further mishap into the town, where we arrived about
midday, having been on the march for more than six hours, through the
midst of a great army.
Such was this extraordinary exploit, to which, as I am assured, a
parallel is scarcely to be found in the history of any age or nation.
Nevertheless, at the moment its effect was to cast a gloom over the
spirits of the troops. The officers, who could never forgive Colonel
Clive for not having been, like themselves, regularly bred to the
military profession, grumbled at and criticised his action, which they
described as that of a mere braggadocio, who knew nothing of war. The
fact was that the rules of war contained no prescription for the
conquest of an army of forty thousand men by one of barely two
thousand; and though the hero who led us was ever ready to attempt
impossibilities, he could not always perform them.
As soon as I had seen old Muzzy safely bestowed in the hospital, where
the surgeons declared that it would be necessary to amputate his leg,
I hastened to report myself to my commander. He received me with
kindness and no little surprise, having fully believed that I was
killed. Indeed he told me that a soldier of Adlercron's regiment had
assured him he had seen me fall. However, he fully approved of what I
had done in rescuing my old comrade, only regretting it had not been
in his power to save the rest of the wounded.
I found him much dispirited with the result of the morning's work.
"I have done nothing, Ford," he declared, "nothing. I have marched
into the Nabob's camp, and marched out again, like the King of France
in the nursery rhyme. And here are these gentlemen of the committee
clamouring for peace, that they may get their revenues back again, and
their dustucks, and I know not what else, with the Nabob and his army
at their gates. You see what it is to be a commander--would to God I
were back in England, enjoying my rest!"
The next day put a different complexion on our affairs. Secret
messages arrived from Omichund to say that the Nabob had been
terrified out of his wits, that he no longer considered himself safe
even in the midst of his troops, and that we might depend on a peace
being speedily concluded. Shortly afterwards a letter arrived, written
by Surajah Dowlah's instructions to Colonel Clive, in which he
referred to the treaty on foot between them, and complained bitterly
of the attack upon his camp.
"Now, Ford," said the Colonel to me, when he had shown me this letter,
"I feel a different man to what I did yesterday. Sit down and write my
answer to this insolent Moor."
I took the pen, and he dictated the following letter, of which I have
the draft still in my possession:--
"_To his Highness Surajah Dowlah, Nabob of Bengal, Bahar, and
Orissa._
"SIR,--I have received your letter, and am unable to understand
what it is that you complain of. I merely marched with a few of
my troops through your camp to show you of what Englishmen are
capable, but I had no hostile intentions, and was careful to
refrain from hurting any of your soldiers, except such as
imprudently opposed me. I have been, and still am, perfectly
willing to make peace with you upon proper conditions.--I have
the honour to remain your Highness's obedient servant,
"ROBERT CLIVE."
This bitter jest completed the effect produced by the previous day's
work. That very evening we heard that the Nabob had broken up his
quarters, and withdrawn to a distance of several miles from the
Company's territories; and a few days later he signed a treaty
granting full restitution to the Company of all that they had lost by
the sack of Calcutta. This was just six weeks from the time we had
started from Fulta.
During the period that followed I spent much of my time in the
hospital, sitting by old Muzzy's bedside. He had borne the removal of
his leg with great courage, but now that he began to mend I found him
much depressed in his spirits.
"My day is over, boy," he would say, "I shall never sail salt water
more. Old Muzzy is a dismasted hulk, only fit to be hauled up on the
mud, and broken up for tinder. Drown me if I don't a'most wish the
dogs had put a ball through my hull while they were about it, so that
I could ha' gone down in deep water, with colours flying and all hands
on deck, and heard the broadsides roaring over me to the last! That's
the death for a British tar, my fine fellow, in action gallantly, and
not to lie on the mud and rot away by inches like I'm fair to do."
I tried to cheer him up as best I could, though indeed I felt sorry
enough myself to see that strong man laid helpless as a child. I
thought it my duty to try and rouse him to some interest in better
things, and brought a Bible to read to him.
In this I succeeded after a fashion. He listened very readily to the
history of the Israelites, and expressed a huge admiration for Joshua
and some of the Judges. But when I tried to pass on to the New
Testament I must confess I met with more difficulties.
"No, no, don't read me that; it's too good for an old rakehelly tar
like me," he persisted in saying. "Them apostles was fishermen, d'ye
see, and the fishermen and longshore folk always was more peaceable
and quieter-like than us deep-sea bilboes. You read me about that
there fellow as slaughtered the Camelites; I understands him better.
By Gosh, he gave 'em a warm time of it, on my swow, didn't he! Not
much use them Camelites showing their heads when Joshua was in the
offing! He swept their decks for 'em, clean, every time."
He meant the Amalekites. I could not quite approve of the spirit in
which he took the sacred history, but still I felt that to get him to
listen to the Scriptures at all was something, and the good seed might
come up later on.
I pleased myself with these efforts to reform my poor old friend, and
yet perhaps I should have been better employed in seeking to amend my
own life. For though I can truly say that I lived honestly and
soberly, yet all this time my heart was given up to thoughts of
ambition and revenge, and the desire of riches; and the good
impressions wrought upon me by my sufferings in the Black Hole had
almost faded clean out of my mind.
I was not present at the taking of Chander Nugger, which was the next
great event in the East Indies, and therefore forbear from describing
it. But this affair served to display yet further the duplicity and
shifting policy of Surajah Dowlah, whose conduct evidently changed
from day to day as the passion of hatred of the English, or fear of
Colonel Clive, obtained the mastery in his bosom. On one day he sent
permission for us to attack the French, on the next he wrote strictly
forbidding it. Colonel Clive would have gone against them without
waiting for the Nabob's leave, but Admiral Watson was more scrupulous,
considering that to do so would be a violation of our recent treaty.
Yet he did not shrink from upbraiding the Nabob in round terms, and
sent him one letter in which he threatened, with the bluntness of a
seaman, to kindle such a fire in his country as all the water in the
Ganges should not be able to extinguish.
Finally the Nabob gave way, induced partly by his fears of the Pitans,
a savage predatory tribe on the borders of Afghanistan, who from time
to time broke into the Great Mogul's dominions, and were now
threatening to march as far as Behar. Accordingly a joint expedition
was made, and Chander Nugger taken after a brilliant action, in which,
as Colonel Clive fully acknowledged, the Admiral signalised himself
by conspicuous courage and seamanship.
All this time I lay ill in Calcutta of a low fever, which I had
contracted in the hospital while attending on old Muzzy. It was now
his turn to nurse me, which he did most assiduously, being now
recovered, and able to get about well enough by means of a wooden leg.
As I lay there sick day after day I began once more to see things in a
truer light. I longed most painfully to be at home among the scenes
and friends of my youth, and I resolved, once I had risen from my sick
bed, to let no motives of ambition or interest detain me any further
in Indostan.
I communicated these sensible resolutions to old Muzzy, who thoroughly
approved of them.
"And I tell you what, Athelstane, lad, we'll make our passage home in
company," he said. "I've got a tidy bit o' prize-money left somewhere,
enough to take me back to England, and mayhap a bit over, to keep me
out of the workhouse when I gets there."
He put his hands into his hairy bosom and drew out a small canvas bag,
which he shook out upon the coverlid of the bed. The contents made a
small heap of gold and silver, amounting, as near as I could judge, to
about L100 or L150 in English money, though the coins were of all
countries--rupees, French crowns, moidores, and many others.
The old boatswain put his head on one side, casting looks of
affectionate pride on his treasure.
"There, my lad, that's my little fortin', enough to pay my freight
through to Davy Jones's locker, I daresay. And if there's any of it
left over, by Gosh! you shall have it, for I've neither parent nor
friend in the world, nor I don't so much as know the place where I was
born. And drown me if I don't love you, my young matey!"
I was so weak at the time that these hearty expressions of the old
fellow fairly melted me, though I could scarce refrain from smiling at
the thoughts of the legacy which I was like to inherit.
"You shall come with me and welcome," I told him. "We will start
together as soon as ever I can get off this bed; and when we get to
England I will bring you to my own home, and ask my parents to provide
you with a shelter for my sake."
"That's right enough," he answered, "and very kind of you. But, mind,
old Muzzy ain't looking for no charity. Where I goes, I takes my
little fortin', and them as takes care of me will get the benefit of
it, d'ye see."
He swept up the money into his bag again, and had just restored it to
his bosom when there came a sound outside the door, and who should
walk in but Colonel Clive!
I strove to raise myself in the bed as he entered, but this he at once
prevented.
"Lie still, youngster!" he exclaimed, walking up to the bedside,
followed by Mr. Scrafton. "Why, how's this; they never told me you
were ill till I was on the point of starting for Chander Nugger, when
I had no time to come and see you? But you are on the high road to
recovery by this time, surely?"
"Thank you, sir, I am much improved," I managed to stammer out,
overwhelmed by this condescension on the part of so great a man. "And
are the French beaten?" I asked anxiously, for I had not heard the
news.
The Colonel turned to Mr. Scrafton and laughed.
"There's my little purser all over!" he exclaimed, with evident
goodwill. "The French are beaten, and driven out of Bengal, I trust
for ever, and their factories are become ours. And since you were
unable to be present at the action, and to share in the spoil, I have
remembered my promise to you, and brought you a sword instead."
He took the weapon from the hands of Mr. Scrafton, who was carrying
it, and laid it on the bed beside me. At the same time Mr. Scrafton
handed me a paper, duly signed, containing my commission as an ensign
in the service of the East India Company.
I could only murmur out my gratitude for these marks of consideration;
while Mr. Clive went on to say--
"And now you must make haste and get about again, for as soon as you
are able to travel I have an important mission for you to discharge."
"And what is that, sir?" I asked, not very heartily.
The Colonel noticed my diffidence, and gave me a searching look.
"I ought to have said it is a very dangerous mission," he observed.
I felt my cheeks turn red.
"Then sir, I think I am well enough to undertake it," I replied, with
some little temper. And I sat up in the bed.
Colonel Clive burst out laughing, and seizing me by the shoulders
thrust me down again.
"There, that is right; there is not so much hurry about it as to drag
you out of bed just yet. But as soon as you are well enough I mean you
to go to Moorshedabad."
I uttered a cry of surprise.
"I have some messages to send to Mr. Watts, who is acting there on our
behalf," Mr. Clive explained. "The affair is too risky for me to trust
the ordinary service, and besides, from all I hear, you have made a
great impression on the Nabob, and may serve a useful purpose by
remaining in Moorshedabad for awhile. But I will tell you no more till
you are better able to hear it."
And with this, and many kind expressions about my health, he withdrew.
It did not take long for me to shake off the remains of my fever
under these circumstances, and the moment I was able to go out of the
house where I lay, I went to wait on my patron.
Colonel Clive received me in his private room in the fort, and
dismissing everybody else, opened to me the nature of the mission
entrusted to me. The late proceedings of his enemies against him in
Parliament have made this business so notorious to the world that I
shall be excused for expressing it very shortly in this place.
To be brief, the Colonel informed me that the moment for our
long-delayed vengeance upon the wicked and bloodthirsty Surajah Dowlah
was at length arrived. Tired with his cruelties, his own subjects had
cast about for a means of getting rid of him, and overtures had been
received from the principal men of the Nabob's Court inviting Colonel
Clive to take part in a concerted scheme for his overthrow. A treaty
had been drawn up between the parties, whereby it was provided that
Colonel Clive should march against the Nabob's army with his whole
force, now increased by the arrival of other ships from the Coromandel
coast, and should be joined on the battle-field by Meer Jaffier, who
undertook to desert from his nephew and bring over the part of the
army under his command to the English side. In return for these
services, supposing the victory should be obtained, the Company was to
receive a crore of rupees in compensation for the injuries inflicted
by the Nabob, while many millions were to be divided among Colonel
Clive, the gentlemen of the Council and the officers and men of both
services. Surajah Dowlah was to be deposed from the musnud, and his
uncle, Meer Jaffier, elevated in his stead, the Meer binding himself
to pay these sums out of the Nabob's treasure, and the payment being
further guaranteed by Jugget Seet, the great banker of Moorshedabad,
whose connexions extended over all parts of Indostan.
This treaty having been signed and executed by Colonel Clive and the
other gentlemen of the Company, he now required me to carry it to
Moorshedabad, were it was to be sworn to by Jugget Seet, the Meer
Jaffier, and the other high officers of the Court who were parties to
the design. At the same time he enjoined on me to observe the utmost
secrecy.
"Remember," he said, "that if once Surajah Dowlah or his minion Lal
Moon should get an inkling of this plot, his rage would break loose
against every one concerned in it. As it is Mr. Watts has had great
difficulty in lulling his suspicions, and has several times been in
great peril. But I suppose you are not the man to shrink back on that
account."
"Give me the treaty, sir," I replied, "and I undertake to carry it to
Moorshedabad. Am I to deliver it into Mr. Watts's hands?"
"Why, yes; that is, if you find him still there when you arrive. But
you must use the greatest caution in communicating with him. Above
all, beware of the Gentoo Omichund, who has already once threatened to
betray us. We have been obliged to provide a duplicate treaty to
satisfy him, in which is included a stipulation for three millions of
rupees to be paid to him on our success. But you will explain to Meer
Jaffier that this is merely a trick to which we have been obliged by
Omichund's knavery. He shall not have a farthing."
Mr. Clive spoke these words very sternly. At the same time he handed
me the two treaties, one drawn up upon white paper and the other on
red.
"The red treaty is the one to be shown to Omichund," he explained.
"Both must be executed by the parties to the conspiracy in
Moorshedabad, but only the white one is to be sworn to. Do you
understand?"
"Perfectly, sir."
I rolled up the two papers and put them into my pocket. I did not then
feel, nor have I since been able to understand, all the indignation
which has been poured on Lord Clive's head for this artifice, by which
a treacherous, overreaching scoundrel was robbed of the blackmail he
had tried to extort. As to the charge which has been made against that
great man of having caused Admiral Watson's name to be forged to the
second treaty, I can only say that it was the general opinion at the
time that the gallant Admiral was fully aware of what was being done,
and, since he took no steps to restrain the use of his name, it
appears to be all the same as though he had affixed it with his own
hand.
However, it is not my intention to dwell upon these disputes, to which
I am only induced to refer by a spirit of loyalty to my old commander
and friend, for such he permitted me to call him.
"Remember," the Colonel said to me at parting, "above all, to show no
fear of Surajah Dowlah. Mr. Watts is too modest in his behaviour, and
for that reason the young tyrant despises and ill-uses him. But I
think that is not a fault you are likely to fall into; indeed, I have
heard that during your former residence there you fairly awed the
Nabob; so I have good hope that you will do the same again. The moment
you have secured the execution of the treaties it will be time to fly,
and as soon as I hear you are safe I shall put my troops on the march
to Plassy."