WHEREIN A MOHAMMEDAN FRATERNIZES WITH A BRAHMIN
"We seem to be attracting a fair share of attention," said Malcolm, as
they crossed a bridge over the canal that bounded Lucknow on the south
and east.
"We look rather odd, don't we?" asked Winifred, cheerfully. "Three
mounted men leading four horses, and a disheveled lady in a ramshackle
vehicle like this, would draw the eyes of a mob anywhere. Thank
goodness, though, the people appear to be quite peaceably inclined."
"Y-yes."
"Why do you agree so grudgingly?"
"Well, I have not been here before--are the streets usually so crowded
at this hour?"
"Lucknow, like every other Indian city, is early astir. Perhaps they
have heard of the fall of Cawnpore. It is one of the marvels of India
how quickly news spreads. Isn't that so, uncle?"
"No man knows how rumor travels here," said Mr. Mayne. "It beats the
telegraph at times. But the probability is that Lucknow has surprises in
store for us. While we were bottled up in Bithoor things have been
happening elsewhere."
His guess was only too accurate. Not only had Nana Sahib long been in
treaty with the disaffected Oudh taluqdars, but Lucknow itself was
writhing in the first stages of rebellion. Although by popular reckoning
the mutiny broke out at Meerut on May 10, there was trouble in Lucknow
in April with the 48th Infantry, and again on May 3, when Lawrence's
firm measures alone prevented the 7th Oudh Irregulars from murdering
their officers. There was little reason to hope that this, the third
city in India, should not yield readily to sedition-mongers. The
dethroned King of Oudh, with his courtiers and ministers, still
maintained a sort of royal state in his residence at Calcutta, and his
emissaries were active in the greased cartridge propaganda, telling
Hindus that the paper wrappers were dipped in the fat of cows, while,
for the benefit of Mohammedans, a variant of the story was supplied by
the substitution of pig's lard.
It is believed too, that the passing of a chupatty, or flat cake, from
village to village in the Northwest Provinces early in January was
set on foot by one of these agitators as a token that the Government
was plotting to overthrow the religions of the people. The exact
significance of that mysterious symbol has never been ascertained. Like
the "snowball" petition of the West, once started, it soon lost its
first meaning. Many natives regarded it merely as the fulfilment of a
devotee's vow, but in the majority of instances it had an unsettling
effect on the simple folk who received it, and this was precisely what
its originator desired.
Lucknow was not only the natural pivot of a rich agricultural district,
but it hummed with prosperous trade. Every type of Indian humanity
gathered in its narrow streets and lofty houses, and excitement rose to
fever heat when the local trouble with the sepoys was given force to by
the isolation of the Meerut white garrison, the seizure of Delhi and the
sacking of many European stations in the Northwest. On May 30, the 71st
Native Infantry had the impudence to fire on the 32d Foot, and were
severely mauled for their pains. They ran off, but not until they had
murdered Brigadier-General Handscombe and Lieutenant Grant, one of their
own officers. The standard of the Prophet was raised in the bazaar and a
fanatical mob rallied round it. They killed a Mr. Menpes, who lived in
the city, and were then dispersed by the police.
Unfortunately the 7th Cavalry deserted when Lawrence marched to the
race-course next day to punish the mutinous sepoys who had gathered
there. But despite the lack of a mounted force, a number of prisoners
were taken and hanged in batches on a gallows erected on the Muchee
Bhowun, a fortress palace situated near the Residency.
Thus Lawrence had scotched the snake, but like Wheeler at Cawnpore and
many another in India at that time, he refused to kill it by disarming
the native regiments under his command. Nevertheless they feared him.
They dared not show their fangs in Lucknow. They stole away in companies
and squadrons, glutting their predatory instincts by slaughter and
pillage elsewhere before they headed for Delhi or joined one of the
numerous pretenders who sprang into being in emulation of Nana Sahib. It
was one of these rebel detachments that passed the four fugitives from
Cawnpore on the outskirts of Bunnee. Scattered throughout the province
they proved as merciless and terrible to wealthy natives as to the
Europeans whom they met in flight along the main roads.
The chaos into which the whole country fell with such extraordinary
swiftness is demonstrated by the varying treatment meted out to
different people. Winifred and her uncle, under Malcolm's bold
leadership, reached Lucknow with comparative ease. Poor little Sophy
Christian, aged three, having lost her mother in the massacre of
Sitapore, was taken off into the jungle by Sir Mountstuart Jackson, his
sister Madeline, a young officer named Burnes, and Surgeon-Major Morton.
They fell in with Captain and Mrs. Philip Orr and their child, refugees
from Aurungabad, and the whole party experienced almost incredible
sufferings _during nine months_. Mrs. Orr, her little girl and Miss
Jackson did not escape from their final prison at Lucknow until the end
of March, 1858. Sophy Christian, who was always asking pathetically "why
mummie didn't come," died of the hardships she had to endure, while the
men were shot in cold blood by the sepoys on November 16.
Yet in many instances the rebels either told their officers to go away
or escorted them to the nearest European station, while the villagers,
though usually hostile, sometimes treated the luckless sahib-log with
genuine kindness and sympathy.
Mr. Mayne of course had his own house in the cantonment, which was
situated north of the city, across the river Goomtee. Malcolm wished to
see uncle and niece safely established in their bungalow before he
reported himself at the Residency, but the older man thought they should
all go straight to the Chief Commissioner and tell him what had happened
at Cawnpore.
Threading the packed bazaar towards the Bailey Guard--that gate of the
Residency which was destined to become for ever famous--they encountered
Captain Gould Weston, the local Superintendent of Police, and his first
words undeceived them as to the true position of affairs.
"You left Cawnpore last night!" he cried. "Then you were amazingly
lucky. Wheeler has just telegraphed that he expects to be invested by
the rebels to-day. Not that you will be much better off here in some
respects, as we are all living in the Residency. I suppose you know your
house has gone, Mayne?"
"Gone! Do you mean that it is destroyed?"
"Burnt to the ground. There is hardly a building left in the
cantonment."
"But what were the troops doing? At any rate, you are not besieged here
yet."
"We are on the verge of it. Unfortunately the Chief won't bring himself
to disarm the sepoys, and the city is drifting into a worse condition
daily. Half of the native corps have bolted, and the rest are ripe
for trouble at the first opportunity. The fires are the work of
incendiaries. We have caught and hanged a few, but they are swarming
everywhere."
"You say Wheeler has been in communication with you this morning," said
the perplexed civilian. "Are you sure? It is true we escaped in the
first instance from Bithoor, but Cawnpore was in flames last night and
the Magazine in possession of the mutineers."
"Oh, yes. We know that. The one thing these black rascals don't
understand is the importance of cutting the telegraph wires. Wheeler has
thrown up an entrenchment in the middle of a _maidan_. I am afraid he is
in a tight place, as he is asking for help which we cannot send. Well,
good-by! Hope to see you at tiffin. Miss Mayne must make herself as
comfortable as she can in the women's quarters, and pray, like the rest
of us, that this storm may soon blow over."
He rode off, followed by an escort of mounted police. Malcolm, who had
taken no part in the conversation, listened to Weston's words with a
sinking heart. He had failed doubly, then, in the mission entrusted to
him by Colvin. Not only were his despatches lost, but he was mistaken
in believing that the Cawnpore garrison was overpowered. He had turned
back at a moment when he should have strained every nerve to reach
his destination. That was intolerable. The memory of the hawk-nosed,
steel-eyed officer who rode from Kurnaul to Meerut in twenty-four hours
smote him like a whip. Would Hodson--the man who was prepared to cross
the infernal regions if duty called--would _he_ have quitted Cawnpore
without making sure that Sir Hugh Wheeler was dead or a prisoner?
The answer to that unspoken question brought such a look of pain to
Frank's face that Winifred, watching him from the carriage window,
wondered what was wrong. She, too, had heard the policeman's statement
and was greatly relieved by it. Why should her lover be so perturbed,
she wondered? Was it not good news that the English in Cawnpore were at
least endeavoring to hold Nana Sahib at bay? It was on the tip of her
tongue to ask what sudden cloud had fallen on him when the carriage
swung through a gateway and she found herself inside the Residency. The
breathless greetings exchanged between herself and many of her friends
among the ladies of the garrison drove from her mind the misery she had
seen in Frank's stern-set features. But the thought recurred later and
she spoke of it.
Now Malcolm had already visited Sir Henry Lawrence and told him the
exact circumstances. The Chief Commissioner exonerated him from any
blame and, as a temporary matter, appointed him an extra A.D.C. on his
staff. But the sore rankled and it was destined in due time to affect
the young officer's fortunes in the most unexpected way.
Above all else he did not want Winifred to know that solicitude in her
behalf had drawn him from the path of duty. So he fenced with her
sympathetic inquiries, and she, womanlike, began to search for some
shortcoming on her own part to account for her lover's gloom. Thus, not
a rift, but an absence of full and complete understanding, existed
between them, and each was conscious of it, though Malcolm alone knew
its cause.
But that little cloud only darkened their own small world. Around them
was the clash of arms and the din of preparation for the "fortnight's
siege" which Lawrence thought the Residency might withstand if held
resolutely! In truth, there never was a fortification, with the
exception of that four-foot mud wall at Cawnpore, less calculated to
repel the assault of a determined foe than the ill-planned defenses
which provided the last English refuge in Oudh.
Winifred soon proved that she was of good metal. The alarms and
excursions of the past three weeks were naturally trying to a girl born
and bred in a quiet Devon village. But heredity, mostly blamed for the
transmission of bad qualities, supplies good ones, too, whether in man
or maid. Descended on her father's side from a race of soldiers and
diplomats, her mother was a Yorkshire Trenholme, and it is said on
Hambledon Moor that there were Trenholmes in Yorkshire before there was
a king in England. In spite of the terrific heat and the discomfort
of her new surroundings she made light of difficulties, found solace
herself by cheering others, and quickly attained a prominent place in
that small band of devoted women whose names will live until the story
of Lucknow is forgotten.
She met Frank only occasionally and by chance, their days being full of
work and striving. A smile, a few tender words, perhaps nothing more
than a hurried wave of the hand in passing, constituted their love
idyll, for Lawrence fell ill and his aides were kept busy, day and
night, in passing to and fro between the bedside of the stricken leader
and the many posts where his counsel was sought or the hasty provision
of defense lagged for his orders.
The Chief was so worn out with anxiety and sleepless labor that on
June 9 he delegated his authority to a provisional council. Then the
impetuous and chivalric Martin Gubbins, Financial Commissioner of Oudh,
saw a means of attaining by compromise that which he had vainly urged on
Lawrence--he persuaded the commanding officers of the native regiments
in Lucknow to tell their men to go home on furlough until November.
This was actually done, but Lawrence was so indignant when he heard of
it that he dissolved the council on June 12 and sent Malcolm and other
officers to recall the sepoys. Five hundred came back, vowing that they
would stand by "Lar-rence-sahib Bahadur" till the last. They kept their
word; they shared the danger and glory of the siege with the 32d and the
British Artillery.
Gubbins, a born firebrand, then pressed his superior to attack a rebel
force that had gathered at the village of Chinhut, ten miles northeast
of Lucknow. Unfortunately Lawrence yielded, marched out with seven
hundred men, half of whom were Europeans, and was badly defeated, owing
to the desertion of some native gunners at a critical moment.
A disastrous rout followed. Colonel Case of the 32d, trying vainly with
his men to stop the native runaways, was shot dead. For three miles the
enemy's horse artillery pelted the helpless troops with grape, and the
massacre of every man in the small column was prevented only by the
bravery of a tiny squadron of volunteer cavalry, which held a bridge
until the harassed infantry were able to cross.
Lawrence, when the day was lost, rode back to prepare the hapless
Europeans in the city for the hazard that now threatened. The investment
of the Residency could not be prevented. It was a question whether the
mutineers would not surge over it in triumph within the hour.
From the windows of the lofty building which gave its name to the
cluster of houses within the walls, the despairing women saw their
exhausted fellow-countrymen fighting a dogged rear-guard action against
twenty times as many rebels. Some poor creatures, straining their eyes
to find in the ranks of the survivors the husband they would never see
again, clasped their children to their breasts and shrieked in agony.
Others, like Lady Inglis, knelt and read the Litany. A few, and among
them was Winifred, ran out with vessels full of water and tended the
wants of the almost choking soldiers who were staggering to the shelter
of the veranda.
She had seen Lawrence gallop to his quarters, and his drawn, haggard
face told her the worst. He was accompanied by two staff officers, but
Malcolm was not with him. The pandemonium that reigned everywhere for
many minutes made it impossible that she should obtain any news of her
lover's fate. While the soldiers were flocking through the narrow
streets that flanked or enfiladed the walls, the native servants and
coolies engaged on the defenses deserted _en masse_. The rebel artillery
was beginning to batter the more exposed buildings; the British guns
already in position took up the challenge; sepoys seized the adjoining
houses and commenced a deadly musketry fire that was far more effective
than the terrifying cannonade; and the men of the garrison who had not
taken part in that fatal sortie rushed to their posts, determined to
stem at all costs the imminent assault of the victorious mutineers.
An officer seeing Winifred carrying water to some men who were lying in
a position that would soon be swept by two guns mounted near a bridge
across the Goomtee, known as the Iron Bridge, ordered the soldiers to
seek a safer refuge.
"And you, Miss Mayne, you must not remain here," he went on. "You will
only lose your life, and we want brave women like you to live."
Winifred recognized him though his face was blackened with powder and
grime. Her own wild imaginings made death seem preferable to the
anguish of her belief that Frank had fallen.
"Oh, Captain Fulton," she said, "can you tell me what has become of--of
Mr. Malcolm?"
"Yes," he said, summoning a gallant smile as an earnest of good news. "I
heard the Chief tell him to make the best of his way to Allahabad. That
is the only quarter from which help can be expected, and to-day's
disaster renders help imperative. Now, my dear child, don't take it to
heart in that way. Malcolm will win through, never fear! He is just the
man for such a task, and each mile he covers means--" he paused; a round
shot crashed against a gable and brought down a chimney with a loud
rattle of falling bricks--"means so many minutes less of this sort of
thing."
But Winifred neither saw nor heard. Her eyes were blinded with tears,
her brain dazed by the knowledge that her lover had undertaken alone a
journey declared impossible from the more favorably situated station of
Cawnpore many days earlier.
She managed somehow to find her uncle. Perhaps Fulton spared a moment to
take her to him. She never knew. When next her ordered mind appreciated
her environment that last day of June, 1857, was drawing to its close
and the glare of rebel watch fires, heightened by the constant flashes
of an unceasing bombardment, told her that the siege of Lucknow had
begun.
Then she remembered that Mr. Mayne had taken her to one of the cellars
in the Residency in which the women and children were secure from the
leaden hail that was beating on the walls. She had a vague notion that
he carried a gun and a cartridge belt, and a new panic seized her lest
the Moloch of war had devoured her only relative, for her father had
been killed at the battle of Alma, and her mother's death, three years
later, had led to her sailing for India to take charge of her uncle's
household.
The women near at hand were too sorrow-laden to give any real
information. They only knew that every man within the Residency walls,
even the one-armed, one-legged, decrepit pensioners who had lost limbs
or health in the service of the Company, were mustered behind the frail
defenses.
To a girl of her temperament inaction was the least endurable of evils.
Now that the shock of Malcolm's departure had passed she longed to seek
oblivion in work, while existence in that stifling underground
atmosphere, with its dense crowd of heart-broken women and complaining
children, was almost intolerable.
In defiance of orders--of which, however, she was then ignorant--she
went to the ground floor. Passing out into the darkness she crossed an
open space to the hospital, and it chanced that the first person she
encountered was Chumru, Malcolm's bearer.
The man's grim features changed their habitual scowl to a demoniac grin
when he saw her.
"Ohe, miss-sahib," he cried, "this meeting is my good fortune, for
surely you can tell me where my sahib is?"
Winifred was not yet well versed in Hindustani, but she caught some of
the words, and the contortions of Chumru's expressive countenance were
familiar to her, as she had laughed many a time at Malcolm's recitals of
his ill-favored servant's undeserved repute as a villain of parts.
"Your sahib is gone to Allahabad," she managed to say before the thought
came tardily that perhaps it was not wise to make known the Chief
Commissioner's behests in this manner.
"To Illah-habad! Shade of Mahomet, how can he go that far without me?"
exclaimed Chumru. "Who will cook his food and brush his clothes? Who
will see to it that he is not robbed on the road by every thief that
ever reared a chicken or milked a cow? I feared that some evil thing had
befallen him, but this is worse than aught that entered my head."
All this was lost on Winifred. She imagined that the native was
bewailing his master's certain death in striving to carry out a
desperate mission, whereas he was really thinking that the most
disturbing element about the sahib's journey was his own absence.
Seeing the distress in her face, Chumru was sure that she sympathized
with his views.
"Never mind, miss-sahib," said he confidentially, "I will slip away now,
steal a horse and follow him."
Without another word he hastened out of the building and left her
wondering what he meant. She repeated the brief phrases, as well as she
could recall them, to a Eurasian whom she found acting as a
water-carrier.
This man translated Chumru's parting statement quite accurately, and
when Mr. Mayne came at last from the Bailey Guard where he had been
stationed until relieved after nightfall, he horrified her by telling
her the truth--that it was a hundred chances to one against the
unfortunate bearer's escape if he did really endeavor to break through
the investing lines.
And indeed few men could have escaped from the entrenchment that night.
Any one who climbed to the third story of the Residency--itself the
highest building within the walls and standing on the most elevated
site--would soon be dispossessed of the fantastic notion that any corner
was left unguarded by the rebels. A few houses had been demolished by
Lawrence's orders, it is true, but his deep respect for native ideals
had left untouched the swarm of mosques and temples that stood between
the Residency and the river.
"Spare their holy places!" he said, yet Mohammedan and Hindu did not
scruple now to mask guns in the sacred enclosures and loop-hole the
hallowed walls for musketry. On the city side, narrow lanes, lofty
houses and strongly-built palaces offered secure protection to the
besiegers. The British position was girt with the thousand gleams of a
lightning more harmful than that devised by nature, for each spurt of
flame meant that field-piece or rifle was sending some messenger of
death into the tiny area over which floated the flag of England. Within
this outer circle of fire was a lesser one; the garrison made up for
lack of numbers by a fixed resolve to hold each post until every man
fell. To modern ideas, the distance between these opposing rings was
absurdly small. As the siege progressed besiegers and besieged actually
came to know each other by sight. Even from the first they were seldom
separated by more than the width of an ordinary street, and conversation
was always maintained, the threats of the mutineers being countered by
the scornful defiance of the defenders.
Nevertheless Chumru prevailed on Captain Weston to allow him to drop to
the ground outside the Bailey Guard. The Police Superintendent, a
commander who was now fighting his own corps, accepted the bearer's
promise that if he were not killed or captured he would make the best of
his way to Allahabad, and even if he did not find his master, tell the
British officer in charge there of the plight of Lucknow.
Chumru, who had no knowledge of warfare beyond his recent experiences,
was acquainted with the golden rule that the shorter the time spent as
an involuntary target the less chance is there of being hit. As soon as
he reached the earth from the top of the wall he took to his heels and
ran like a hare in the direction of some houses that stood near the
Clock Tower.
He was fired at, of course, but missed, and the sepoys soon ceased their
efforts to put a bullet through him because they fancied he was a
deserter.
As soon as they saw his face they had no doubts whatever on that score.
Indeed, were it his unhappy lot to fall in with the British patrols
already beginning to feel their way north from Bengal along the Grand
Trunk Road he would assuredly have been hanged at sight on his mere
appearance.
Chumru's answers to the questions showered on him were magnificently
untrue. According to him the Residency was already a ruin and its
precincts a shambles. The accursed Feringhis might hold out till the
morning, but he doubted it. Allah smite them!--that was why he chanced
being shot by his brethren rather than be slain by mistake next day when
the men of Oudh took vengeance on their oppressors. He could not get
away earlier because he was a prisoner, locked up by the huzoors,
forsooth, for a trifling matter of a few rupees left behind by one of
the white dogs who fell that day at Chinhut.
In brief, Chumru abused the English with such an air that he was
regarded by the rebels as quite an acquisition. They had not learned, as
yet, that it was better to shoot a dozen belated friends than permit one
spy to win his way through their lines.
Watching his opportunity, he slipped off into the bazaar. Now he was
quite safe, being one among two hundred thousand. But time was passing;
he wanted a horse, and might expect to find the canal bridge closely
guarded.
Having a true Eastern sense of humor behind that saturnine visage of
his, he hit on a plan of surmounting both difficulties with ease.
Singling out the first well-mounted and half-intoxicated native officer
he met--though, to his credit be it said, he chose a Brahmin subadar of
cavalry--he hailed him boldly.
"Brother," said he, "I would have speech with thee."
Now, Chumru took his life in his hands in this matter. For one wearing
the livery of servitude to address a high-caste Brahmin thus was
incurring the risk of being sabered then and there. In fact the subadar
was so amazed that he glared stupidly at the Mohammedan who greeted him
as "brother," and it may be that those fierce eyes looking at him from
different angles had a mesmeric effect.
"Thou?" he spluttered, reining in his horse, a hardy country-bred, good
for fifty miles without bait.
"Even I," said Chumru. "I have occupation, but I want help. One will
suffice, though there is gold enough for many."
"Gold, sayest thou?"
"Ay, gold in plenty. The dog of a Feringhi whom I served has had it
hidden these two months in the thatch of his house near the Alumbagh.
To-day he is safely bottled up there--" he jerked a thumb towards the
sullen thunder of the bombardment. "I am a poor man, and I may be
stopped if I try to leave the city. Take me up behind thee, brother, and
give me safe passage to the bungalow, and behold, we will share treasure
of a lakh or more!"
The Brahmin's brain was bemused with drink, but it took in two obvious
elements of the tale at once. Here was a fortune to be gained by merely
cutting a throat at the right moment.
"That is good talking," said he. "Mount, friend, and leave me to answer
questions."
Chumru saw that he had gaged his man rightly, and the evil glint in the
subadar's eyes told him the unspoken thought. He climbed up behind the
high-peaked saddle and, after the horse had showed his resentment of a
double burthen, was taken through the bazaar as rapidly as its thronged
streets permitted. Sure enough, the canal bridge was watched.
"Whither go ye?" demanded the officer in charge.
"To bring in a Feringhi who is in hiding," said the Brahmin.
"Shall I send a few men with you?"
"Nay, we two are plenty--" this with a laugh.
"Quite plenty," put in Chumru. The officer glanced at him and was
convinced. Being a Mohammedan, he took Chumru's word without question,
which showed the exceeding wisdom of Chumru in selecting a Brahmin for
the sacrifice; thus was he prepared to deal with either party in an
unholy alliance.
They jogged in silence past the Alumbagh. The Brahmin, on reflection,
decided that he would stab Chumru before the hoard was disturbed and he
could then devise another hiding-place at his leisure. Chumru had long
ago decided to send the Brahmin to the place where all unbelievers go,
at the first suitable opportunity. Hence the advantage lay with him,
because he held a strategic position and could choose his own time.
Beyond the Alumbagh there were few houses, and these of mean
description, and each moment the subadar's mind was growing clearer
under the prospect of great wealth to be won so easily.
"Where is this bungalow, friend?" said he at last, seeing nothing but a
straight road in front.
"Patience, brother. 'Tis now quite near. It lies behind that tope of
trees yonder."
The other half turned to ascertain in which direction his guide was
pointing.
"It is not on the main road, then?"
"No. A man who has gold worth the keeping loves not to dwell where all
men pass."
A little farther, and Chumru announced:
"We turn off here."
It was dark. He thought he had hit upon a by-way, but no sooner did the
horse quit the shadow of the trees by the roadside than he saw that he
had been misled by the wheel-tracks of a ryot's cart. The Brahmin
sniffed suspiciously.
"Is there no better way than this?" he cried, when his charger nearly
stumbled into a deep ditch.
"One only, but you may deem it too far," was the quiet answer, and
Chumru, placing his left hand on the Brahmin's mouth, plunged a long,
thin knife up to the hilt between his ribs.