The victory was a complete and decisive one. A thousand of the best
troops of Murari Reo had fallen, besides some hundreds of their
irregular allies, whose loss was incurred almost wholly at the gorge
in the retreat. The rajah was in the highest state of delight at the
splendid result, obtained by the European training of his troops; and
these, proud of their victory over such formidable opponents, were
full of enthusiasm for their young English leader. The rejoicings in
Ambur that night were great, and all felt confident that the danger
was at an end.
"What think you," the rajah said to Charlie, as, the long feast at an
end, they sat together in the divan, smoking their narghileys, "will
be the result, when the news of the defeat of Murari Reo reaches
Hyderabad?"
"It is difficult to say," Charlie replied. "It is possible, of course,
that it may be considered that it is better to leave you in peace;
but, upon the other hand, it may be that they will consider that you
are so formidable a power, that it is absolutely necessary to crush
you at once, rather than to give you the chance of joining against
them, in the war which must sooner or later take place between them
and the English. In that case, it will be a very different affair from
that which we have had today.
"Still, I should send off a messenger tomorrow, to acquaint the nizam
with the defeat you inflicted upon the Mahrattas who have invaded you,
to assure him again of your loyalty, and to beg him to lay his
authority upon Murari Reo, not to renew the attack."
Ten days later a messenger arrived from the nizam, ordering the rajah
to repair, at once, to Hyderabad, to explain his conduct. The latter
sent back a message of humble excuses, saying that his health was so
injured, by the excitement of recent events, that he was unable to
travel; but that, when he recovered, he would journey to Hyderabad to
lay his respects at the feet of the nizam.
Two or three days later a messenger arrived from Mr. Saunders, with a
letter to Charlie. In this he expressed his great satisfaction at the
defeat Murari Reo had received; a defeat which would, for some time,
keep him quiet, and so relieve the strain upon the English. Affairs
had, he said, since the departure of Clive for England, been going
badly. Dupleix had received large reinforcements, and the English had
suffered several reverses. Mr. Saunders begged him to assure the rajah
of the respect and friendship of England, and to give him the promise
that, if he should be driven from his capital, he would be received
with all honor at Madras, and should be reinstated in his dominions,
with much added territory, when the English were again in a position
to take the field in force, and to settle their long feud with the
French.
Ten days later, they heard that the army of the nizam, of fifteen
thousand troops, with eight hundred French under Bussy, were marching
against them; and that the horsemen of Murari Reo were devastating the
villages near the frontier. A council of war was held. Charlie would
fain have fought in the open again, believing that his trained troops,
flushed with their recent victory, would be a match even for the army
of the nizam. But the rajah and the rest of the council, alarmed at
the presence of the French troops, who had hitherto proved invincible
against vastly superior forces of natives, shrank from such a course;
and it was decided that they should content themselves with the
defence of the town and castle.
Orders were accordingly issued that the old men, the women, and
children should at once leave the town; and, under guard of one
battalion of troops, take refuge in an almost impregnable hill fort
some miles away. One battalion was placed in garrison in the castle.
The other three, with the irregulars, took post in the town, whence
they could, if necessary, retreat into the castle.
The day following the removal of the noncombatants the enemy appeared,
coming down the valley, having marched over the hills; while the
Mahratta cavalry again poured up from below.
Charlie had taken the command of the town, as it was against this that
the efforts of the enemy would be first directed. It was an imposing
sight, as the army of the nizam wound down the valley; the great
masses of men with their gay flags, the elephants with the gold
embroidery of their trappings glistening in the sun, the bands of
horsemen careering here and there, the lines of artillery drawn by
bullocks; and, less picturesque but far more menacing, the dark body
of French infantry, who formed the nucleus and heart of the whole. The
camp was pitched just out of range of the guns of the fort, and soon
line after line of tents, gay with the flags that floated above them,
rose across the valley.
Charlie had mounted to the castle, the better to observe the movements
of the enemy, and he presently saw a small body of horsemen ride out
of the camp, and mount the hillside across the valley. A glass showed
that some of these were native officers, while others were in the dark
uniform of the French.
"I have no doubt," Charlie said to the rajah, "that is the nizam
himself, with Bussy, gone up to reconnoitre the position. I wonder how
he likes the look of it. I wish we could have turfed the battery
above, and the newly stripped land. We might, in that case, have given
them a pleasant surprise. As it is, they are hardly likely to begin by
an attack along the slopes in the rear of the town, and you will see
that they will commence the attack at the farther face of the town.
The battery above cannot aid us in our defence there; and although the
castle may help, it will only be by a direct fire. If they try to
carry the place by a coup de main, I think we can beat them off, but
they must succeed by regular approaches.
"We must inflict as much loss as we can, and then fall back. However,
it will be sometime before that comes."
The next morning, Charlie found that the enemy had, during the night,
erected three batteries on the slopes facing the north wall of the
town, that farthest removed from the castle. They at once opened fire,
and the guns on the walls facing them replied, while those on the
castle hurled their shot over the town into the enemy's battery. For
three days, the artillery fire was kept up without intermission. The
guns on the wall were too weak to silence the batteries of the
besiegers, although these were much annoyed by the fire from the fort,
which dismounted four of their guns, and blew up one of their
magazines. Several times the town was set on fire by the shell from
the French mortars; but Charlie had organized the irregulars into
bands with buckets, and these succeeded in extinguishing the flames
before they spread.
Seeing that the mud wall of the town was crumbling rapidly before the
besiegers' fire, Charlie set his troops to work, and levelled every
house within fifty yards of it, and with the stones and beams formed
barricades across the end of the streets beyond. Many of the guns from
other portions of the walls were removed, and placed on these
barricades. The ends of the houses were loopholed, and all was
prepared for a desperate defence.
Charlie's experience at Arcot stood him in good stead, and he imitated
the measures taken by Clive at that place. When these defences were
completed, he raised a second line of barricades some distance further
back; and here, when the assault was expected, he placed one of his
battalions, with orders that, if the inner line of entrenchments was
carried, they should allow all the defenders of that post to pass
through, and then resist until the town was completely evacuated, when
they were to fall back upon the fort. He had, however, little fear
that his position would be taken at the first assault.
Upon the evening of the third day, the besiegers' fire had done its
work, and a gap in the wall some eighty yards wide was formed. The
garrison were ordered to hold themselves in readiness, and a strict
watch was set.
Towards morning, a distant hum in the nizam's camp proclaimed that the
troops were mustering for the assault. The besiegers' guns had
continued their fire all night, to prevent working parties from
placing obstacles in the breach. As the first shades of daylight
appeared the fire ceased, and a great column of men poured forward to
the assault.
The few remaining guns upon the end wall opened upon them, as did the
infantry who lined the parapet, while the guns in the castle at once
joined in. The mighty column, however, composed of the troops of the
nizam, pressed forward, poured over the fragments of the wall, and
entered the clear space behind it.
Then, from housetop and loophole, and from the walls on either side, a
concentrated fire of musketry was poured upon them, while twelve guns,
four on each barricade, swept them with grape. The head of the column
withered away under the fire, long lines were swept through the
crowded mass; and, after a minute or two's wild firing at their
concealed foes, the troops of the nizam, appalled and shattered by the
tremendous fire, broke and fled.
The instant they had cleared the breach, the guns of the besiegers
again opened furiously upon it, to check any sortie which the besieged
might attempt.
An hour later, the besiegers hoisted a white flag, and requested to be
allowed to bury their dead, and remove their wounded. This Charlie
agreed to, with the proviso that these should be carried by his own
men beyond the breach, as he did not wish that the enemy should have
an opportunity of examining the internal defences. The task occupied
some time, as more than five hundred dead and dying lay scattered in
the open space.
During the rest of the day, the enemy showed no signs of resuming the
assault. During the night they could be heard hard at work, and
although a brisk fire was kept up to hinder them, Charlie found that
they had pushed trenches, from the batteries, a considerable distance
round each corner of the town.
For four days the besiegers worked vigorously, harassed as they were
by the guns of the fort, and by those of the battery high up on the
hillside, which were now able to take in flank the works across the
upper angle of the town. At the end of that time, they had erected and
armed two batteries, which at daylight opened upon the walls which
formed the flanks of the clear space behind the breach. Although
suffering heavily from the fire of the besieged, and losing many men,
these batteries kept up their fire unceasingly, night and day, until
great gaps had been made in the walls, and Charlie was obliged to
withdraw his troops from them, behind the line of barricades.
During this time the fire of the batteries in front had been
unceasing, and had destroyed most of the houses which formed the
connecting line between the barricades. Each night, however, the
besieged worked to repair damages, and to fill up the gaps thus formed
with piles of stones and beams, so that, by the end of the fourth day
after the repulse of the first assault, a line of barricades stretched
across the line of defence.
The enemy, this time, prepared to attack by daylight, and early in the
morning the whole army of the nizam marched to the assault. Heedless
of the fire of the castle, they formed up in a long line of heavy
masses, along the slope. One huge column moved forward against the
main breach, two advanced obliquely towards the great gaps in the
walls on either side. The latter columns were each headed by bodies of
French troops.
In vain the guns of the fort, aided by those of the battery on the
hill, swept them. The columns advanced without a check until they
entered the breaches. Then a line of fire swept along the crest of the
barricade from end to end, and the cannon of the besieged roared out.
Pressed by the mass from behind, the columns advanced, torn and rent
by the fire, and at last gained the foot of the barricade.
Here, those in front strove desperately to climb up the great mound of
rubbish, while those behind covered them with a storm of bullets aimed
at its summit. More than once the troops of the rajah, rushing down
the embankment, drove back the struggling masses, but so heavily did
they suffer from the fire, when they thus exposed themselves, that
Charlie forbade them to repeat the attempt. He knew that there was
safety behind, and was unwilling that his brave fellows should throw
away their lives.
In the centre of the position the native troops, although they several
times climbed some distance up the barricade, were yet unable to make
way. But the French troops at the flanks were steadily forcing their
way up. Many had climbed up by the ruins of the wall, and from its top
were firing down on the defenders of the barricade. Inch by inch they
won their way up the barricade, already thickly covered with dead; and
then Charlie, seeing that his men were beginning to waver, gave the
signal.
The long blast of a trumpet was heard even above the tremendous din.
In an instant the barricades were deserted, and the defenders rushed
into the houses. The partition walls between these on the lower floors
had already been knocked down, and without suffering from the heavy
fire which the assailants opened, as soon as they gained the crest of
the barricade, the defenders retreated along these covered ways until
in rear of the second line of defence.
This was held by the battalion placed there, until the whole of the
defenders of the town had left it, by the gate leading up to the fort.
Then Charlie withdrew this battalion also, and the town remained in
the hands of the enemy; who had lost, Charlie reckoned, fully fifteen
hundred men in the assault.
During the fight Tim and the faithful Hossein, now fully recovered and
promoted to the rank of an officer, had remained close beside him; and
were, with him, the last to leave the town.
The instant the evacuation was complete, the guns of the hill battery
opened upon the town; and a tremendous fire of musketry was poured
upon it from every point of the castle which commanded it; while the
guns, which from their lofty elevation, could not be depressed
sufficiently to bear upon the town, directed their fire upon the
bodies of troops still beyond the walls. The enemy had captured the
town, indeed, but its possession aided them but little in their
assault upon the fort. The only advantage it gave them, would have
been that it would have enabled them to attack the lower gate of the
fort, protected by its outer wall from the fire of the hill battery.
Charlie had, however, perceived that this would be the case, and had
planted a number of mines under the wall at this point. These were
exploded when the defenders of the town entered the fort, and a
hundred yards of the wall were thus destroyed; leaving the space,
across which the enemy must advance to the attack of the gate, exposed
to the fire of the hill battery, as well as of the numerous guns of
the fort bearing upon it.
Two days passed without any further operations on the part of the
enemy; and then Bussy, seeing that nothing whatever could be done
towards assaulting the fortress, so long as the battery remained in
the hands of the besieged, determined to make a desperate effort to
carry it, ignorant of its immense strength. At night, therefore, he
ordered two bodies of men, each fifteen hundred strong, to mount the
hillside, far to the right and left of the town; to move along at the
foot of the wall of rock, and to carry the battery by storm at
daybreak.
Charlie, believing that such an attempt would be made, had upon the
day following the fall of the town taken his post there, and had
ordered a most vigilant watch to be kept up, each night; placing
sentries some hundred yards away, on either side, to give warning of
the approach of an enemy.
Towards daybreak on the third morning a shot upon the left, followed a
few seconds later by one on the right, told that the enemy were
approaching. A minute or two afterwards the sentries ran in, climbed
from the ditch by ladders which had been placed there for the purpose,
and, hauling these up after them, were soon in the battery, with the
news that large bodies of the enemy were approaching on either flank.
Scarcely were the garrison at their posts, when the French were seen
approaching. At once they broke into a run, and, gallantly led, dashed
across the space of cleared rock, in spite of the heavy fire of
musketry and grape.
When they came, however, to the edge of the deep gulf in the solid
rock, they paused. They had had no idea of meeting with such an
obstacle as this. It was easy enough to leap down, but impossible to
climb up the steep face, ten feet high, in front of them; and which,
in the dim light, could be plainly seen. It was, however, impossible
for those in front to pause. Pressed upon by those behind, who did not
know what was stopping them, large numbers were compelled to jump into
the trench, where they found themselves unable either to advance or
retreat.
By this time, every gun on the upper side of the castle had opened on
the assailing columns, taking them in flank, while the fire of the
battery was continued without a moment's intermission. Bussy himself,
who was commanding one of the columns, pushed his way through his
struggling soldiers to the edge of the trench; when, seeing the
impossibility of scaling the sides, unprovided as he was with scaling
ladders, he gave the orders to retreat; and the columns, harassed by
the flanking fire of the guns of the castle, and pursued by that of
the battery, retreated, having lost some hundreds of their number;
besides a hundred and fifty of their best men, prisoners in the deep
trench around the battery.
These were summoned to surrender; and, resistance being impossible,
they at once laid down their arms. Ladders were lowered to them, and
they were marched as prisoners to the fort.
The next morning, when the defenders of the fortress looked over the
valley, the great camp was gone. The nizam and Bussy, despairing of
the possibility of carrying the position, at once so enormously strong
by nature, and so gallantly defended, had raised the siege; which had
cost them over two thousand of their best soldiers, including two
hundred French killed and prisoners, and retreated to the plateau of
the Deccan.
The exultation of the rajah and his troops was unbounded. They felt
that, now and henceforth, they were safe from another invasion; and
the rajah saw that, in the future, he should be able to gain greatly
increased territory, as the ally of the English. His gratitude to
Charlie was unbounded, and he literally loaded him with costly
presents.
Three weeks later, a letter was received by the latter from Mr.
Saunders, congratulating him upon the inestimable service which he had
rendered, and appointing him to the rank of captain in the Company's
service. Now that the rajah would be able to protect himself, should
any future assault be made upon him--an event most unlikely to happen,
as Bussy and the nizam would be unwilling to risk a repetition of a
defeat, which had already so greatly injured their prestige--he had
better return to Madras, where, as Mr. Saunders said, the services of
so capable an officer were greatly needed. He warned him, however, to
be careful in the extreme how he made his way back, as the country was
in a most disturbed state, the Mahratta bands being everywhere out
plundering and burning.
Subsequent information, that the Mahrattas were swarming in the plains
below, determined Charlie to accept an offer which the rajah made him;
that he should, under a strong escort, cross the mountains, and make
his way to a port on the west coast, in the state of a friendly rajah,
where he would be able to take ship and coast round to Madras. The
rajah promised to send Charlie's horses and other presents down to
Madras, when an opportunity should offer; and Charlie, accompanied by
the four Sepoys, all of whom had been promoted to the rank of
officers; by Tim Kelly and Hossein, who would not separate himself a
moment from his side, started from Ambur, with an escort of thirty
horsemen.
The rajah was quite affected at the parting; and the army, which he
had formed and organized, paraded before him for the last time, and
then shouted their farewell.
Charlie himself, although glad to return among his countrymen, from
whom he had been nearly two years separated, was yet sorry to leave
the many friends he had made. His position was now a very different
one from that which he held when he left Madras. Then he was a newly
made lieutenant, who had distinguished himself, indeed, under Clive,
but who was as yet unknown save to his commander, and who was as poor
as when he had landed, eighteen months before, in India. Now he had
gained a name for himself, and his successful defence of Ambur had
been of immense service to the Company. He was, too, a wealthy man;
for the presents in money, alone, of the rajah, had amounted to over
twenty-five thousand pounds; a sum which, in these days, may appear
extraordinary, but which was small to that frequently bestowed, by
wealthy native princes, upon British officers who had done them a good
service. Clive himself, after his short campaign, had returned to
England with a far larger sum.
For several days, the party rode through the hills without incident;
and on the fifth day they saw, stretched at their feet, a rich flat
country dotted with villages, beyond which extended the long blue line
of the sea. The distance was greater than Charlie imagined, and 'twas
only after two days' long ride that he reached Calicut, where he was
received with great honor by the rajah, to whom the leader of the
escort brought letters of introduction from the Rajah of Ambur.
For four days Charlie remained as his guest, and then took a passage
in a large native vessel, bound for Ceylon, whence he would have no
difficulty in obtaining passage to Madras.
These native ships are very high out of water, rising considerably
towards the stem and stern, and in form they somewhat resemble the
Chinese junk; but are without the superabundance of grotesque
painting, carving, and gilding which distinguish the latter. The rajah
accompanied Charlie to the shore, and a salute was fired, by his
followers, in honor of the departure of the guest.
The weather was lovely, and the clumsy craft, with all sail set, was
soon running down the coast. When they had sailed some hours from
Calicut, from behind a headland, four vessels suddenly made their
appearance. They were lower in the water, and much less clumsy in
appearance than the ordinary native craft, and were propelled not only
by their sails, but by a number of oars on each side.
No sooner did the captain and crew of the ship behold these vessels,
than they raised a cry of terror and despair. The captain, who was
part owner of the craft, ran up and down the deck like one possessed,
and the sailors seemed scarcely less terrified.
"What on earth is the matter?" Charlie exclaimed. "What vessels are
those, and why are you afraid of them?"
"Tulagi Angria! Tulagi Angria!" the captain cried, and the crew took
up the refrain.
The name that they uttered fully accounted for their terror.