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Phice Threepence. 
 
 CHRISTMAS, 1869. 
 
 OF THE INDIAN MUTINY. 
 
 22 3 A CHRISTMAS EXTRA DOUBLE NUMBER OF 
 
 F” S 1d0- 
 
 CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL. 
 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I ’ve waited all these years, expecting some one or 
 another would give a full and true account of it all ; 
 but little thinking it would ever come to be my task. 
 
 For it ’s not in my way ; but seeing how much has 
 been said about other parts and other people’s suffer- 
 ings, while ours never so much as came in for a line 
 of newspaper, I can’t think it ’s fair ; and as fairness 
 
 is what I always did like, I set to, very much against 
 my will; while, on account of my empty sleeve, the 
 paper keeps slipping and sliding about, so that I can 
 only hold it quiet by putting the lead inkstand on 
 one corner, and my tobacco-jar on the other. You see, 
 I’m not much at home at this sort of thing; and 
 though, if you put a pipe and a glass of something 
 
 BEGUMBAGH. 
 
 
 
F ■ J 3t 
 
 2 CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL — CHRISTMAS HUMBER. [De( , 2W f 
 
 before me, I could tell you all about it, taking my 
 time, like, it seems that won’t do. I said : ‘ Why 
 don’t you write it down as I tell it, so as other people 
 could read all about it ?’ But ‘ No,’ he says ; ‘ I could 
 do it in my fashion, but I want it to be in ypur simple 
 unadorned style ; so set to and do it.’ 
 
 I daresay a good many of you know me — seen me 
 often in Bond Street, at Facet’s door — Facet’s, you 
 know, the great jeweller, where I stand and open 
 carriages, or take messages, or small parcels with no 
 end of valuables in them, for I ’m trusted. Smith, my 
 name is, Isaac Smith ; and I ’m that tallish, grisly 
 fellow with the seam down one side of my face, my 
 left sleeve looped up to my button, and not a speck 
 to be seen on that ‘ commissionnaire’s ’ uniform, upon 
 whose breast I ’ve got three medals. 
 
 I was standing one day, waiting patiently for some- 
 thing to do, when a tallish gentleman came up, nodded 
 as if he knew me well, and I saluted. 
 
 ‘ Lose that limb in the Crimea, my man ?’ he said. 
 
 ‘ No, sir. Mutiny,’ I said, standing as stiff as use 
 had made nature with me. 
 
 And then he asked me a lot more questions, and I 
 answered him ; and the end of it was that one evening 
 I went to his house, and he had me in, and did what 
 was wanted to set me off. I ’d had a little bit of an 
 itching to try something of the kind, I must own, 
 for long enough, but his words started me ; and in 
 consequence I got a quire of the best foolscap paper, 
 and a pen’orth of pens, and here ’s my story. 
 
 2 . 
 
 Dub-dub-dub-dub-dub-dub. Just one light beat 
 given by the boys in front — the light sharp tap upon 
 their drums, to give the time for the march ; and in 
 heavy order there we were, her Majesty’s 156th Regi- 
 ment of Light Infantry, making our way over the 
 dusty roads with the hot morning sun beating down 
 upon our heads. We were marching very loosely, 
 though, for the men were tired, and we were longing 
 for the halt to be called, so that we might rest during 
 the heat of the day, and then go on again. Tents, 
 baggage-wagons, women, children, elephants, all were 
 there ; and we were getting over the ground at the 
 rate of about twenty miles a day, on our way up to 
 the station, where we were to relieve a regiment going 
 home. 
 
 I don’t know what we should have done if it hadn’t 
 been tor Harry Lant, the weather being very trying, 
 almost as trying as our hot red eoats and heavy knap- * 
 sacks, and flower-pot busbies, with a round white 
 ball like a child’s plaything on the top ; but no 
 matter how tired he was, Harry Lant had always 
 something to say or do, and even if the colonel was 
 close by, he ’d say or do it. Now, there happened to 
 be an elephant walking along by our side, with the 
 captain of our company, one of the lieutenants, and a 
 couple of women in the howdah ; while a black nigger 
 fellow, in clean white calico clothes, and not much of 
 ’em, and a muslin turban, and a good deal of it, was 
 striddling on the creature’s neck, rolling his eyes , 
 about, and flourishing an iron toasting-fork sort of 
 thing, with which he drove the great flap-eared patient 
 beast. The men were beginning to grumble gently, 
 and shifting their guns from side to side, and sneezing, 
 and coughing, and choking in the kicked-up dust, like 
 a flock of sheep, when Captain Dyer scrambles down 
 off the elephant, and takes his place alongside us, 
 
 crying out cheerily : ‘ Only another mile, my lads, and 
 then breakfast.’ 
 
 We gave him a cheer, and another half-mile was got 
 over, when once more the boys began to flag terribly, 
 and even Harry Lant was silent, which, seeing what 
 Harry Lant was, means a wonderful deal more respect- 
 ing the weather than any number of degrees on a 
 thermometer, I can tell you; but I looked round at 
 him, and he knew what it meant, and, slipping out, 
 he goes up to the elephant. ‘ Carry your trunk, sir,’ 
 he says ; and taking gently hold of the great beast’s 
 soft nose, he laid it upon his shoulder, and marched 
 on like that, with the men roaring with laughter. 
 
 Bulla- wulla. Ma-pa-na,’ shouted the nigger who- 
 was driving, or something that sounded like it, for of 
 all the rum lingoes ever spoke, theirs is about the 
 rummest, and always put me in mind of the fal-lal-la 
 or tol-de-rol chorus of a song. 
 
 ‘ All right. I ’ll take care ! ’ sings out Harry ; and 
 pn he marched, with the great soft-footed beast lifting 
 its round pats and putting them down gently so as 
 not to hurt Harry ; and, trifling as that act was, it 
 meant a -great deal, as you ’ll see if you read on, while 
 just then it got our poor fellows over the last half-mile 
 without one falling out ; and then the halt was called ; 
 men wheeled into line ; we were dismissed ; and soon 
 after we were lounging about, under such shade as 
 we could manage to get in the thin topes of trees. 
 
 II. 
 
 That ’s a pretty busy time, that first half-hour after 
 a halt : what with setting loosely up a few tents, and 
 getting a fire lighted, and fetching water; blit in 
 spite of our being tired, we soon had things right. 
 There was the colonel’s tent, Colonel Maine’s— a little 
 stout man, that we all used to laugh at, because he 
 was such a little, round, good-tempered chap, who 
 never troubled about anything, for we hadn’t learned 
 then what was lying asleep in his brave little body, 
 waiting to be brought out. Then there was the mess 
 tent for the officers, and the hospital tent for those 
 on the sick-list, beside our bell tents, that we 
 shouldn’t have set Tip at all, only to act as sun- 
 shades. But, of -course, the principal tent was the 
 colonel’s. 
 
 Well, there they were, the colonel and his lady, 
 Mrs Maine — a nice, kindly-spoken, youngish woman : 
 twenty years younger than he, khe was ; but, for all 
 that, a happier couple never breathed ; and they two 
 used to seem as if the regiment, and India, and all 
 the natives were made on purpose to fall down and 
 worship the two little golden idols they ’d set up — a 
 little girl and a ' little boy, you know. Cock Robin 
 and Jenny Wren, we chaps used to call them, though 
 Jenny Wren was about a year and a half the oldest. 
 And I believe it was from living in France a bit, 
 that, the colonel’s wife had got the notion of dressing 
 them so ; but it would have done your heart good to 
 see those two children — the boy with his little red 
 tunic and his sword, and the girl with her red jacket 
 and belt, and a little canteen of wine and water, 
 and a tiny tin mug ; and them little things driving 
 the old black ayah half- wild with the way they used 
 to dodge away from her to get amongst the men, who 
 took no end of delight in bamboozling the fat old 
 woman when she was hunting for them; sending 
 them here, and there, and everywhere, till she ’d turn 
 round and make signs with her hands, and spit on 
 
- ]_JJ 
 
 BEGUMBAGH. 
 
 the ground, which was her way of cursing us. For I 
 must say that we English were very, very careless 
 about what we did or said to the natives. Officers 
 and men, all alike, seemed to look upon them as some- 
 thing very little better than beasts, and talked to 
 them as if they had no feelings at all, little thinking 
 what fierce masters the trampled slaves could turn 
 out, if ever they had their day — the day that the old 
 proverb says is sure to come for every dog j and there 
 was not a soul among us then that had the least bit 
 of suspicion that the dog — by which, you know, I mean 
 the Indian generally — was going mad, and sharpening 
 those teeth of his ready to bite. 
 
 Well, as a matter of course, there were other people 
 in our regiment that I ought to mention : Captain 
 Dyer I did name ; but there was a lieutenant, a very 
 good-looking young fellow, who was a great favourite 
 with Mrs Colonel Maine ; and he dined a deal with 
 them at all times, besides being a great chum of 
 Captain Dyer’s — they two shooting together, and being 
 like brothers, though there was a something in Lieu- 
 tenant Leigh that I never seemed to take to. Then 
 there was the doctor — a Welshman he was, and he 
 used to make it his boast that our regiment was about 
 the healthiest anywhere ; and I tell you what it is, if 
 you were ill once, and in hospital, as we call it — 
 though, you know, with a marching regiment that 
 only means anywhere till you get well — I say, if you 
 were ill once, and under his hands, you ’d think twice 
 before you made up your mind to be ill again, and be 
 very bad too before you went to him. Pestle, we 
 used to call him, though his name was Hughes ; and 
 how we men did hate him, mortally, till we found out 
 his real character, when we were lying cut to pieces 
 almost, and him ready to cry over us at times as he 
 tried to bring us roufid. ‘Hold up, my lads,’ he’d 
 say, ‘ only another hour, and you ’ll be round the 
 corner ! ’ when what there was left of us did him 
 justice. Then, of course, there were other officers, and 
 some away with the major and another battalion of 
 our regiment at Wallahbad; but they’ve nothing to 
 do with my story. 
 
 I do not think I can do better than introduce you 
 to our mess on the very morning of this halt, when, 
 after cooling myself with a pipe, just the same as I 
 should have warmed myself with a pipe if it had been 
 in Canady or Nova Scotia, I walked up to find all 
 ready for breakfast, and Mrs Bantem making the 
 tea. 
 
 Some of the men didn’t fail to laugh at us who took 
 our tea for breakfast ; but all the same I liked it, for 
 it always took me home, tea did — and to the days 
 when my poor old mother used to say that there 
 never was such a boy for bread and butter as I was ; 
 not as there was ever so much butter that she 
 need have grumbled, whatever I cost for bread ; and 
 though Mrs Bantem wasn’t a bit like my mother, she 
 brought up the homely thoughts. Mrs Bantem was, I 
 should say, about the biggest and ugliest woman I ever 
 saw in my life. She stood five feet eleven and a half in 
 her stockings, for Joe Bantem got Sergeant Buller to 
 take her under the standard one day. She ’d got a 
 face nearly as dark as a black’s ; she ’d got a mous- 
 tache, and a good one too ; and a great coarse look 
 about her altogether. Measles — I ’ll tell you who he 
 was directly — Measles used to say she was a horse god- 
 mother ; land they didn’t seem to like one another ; but 
 Joe Bantem was as proud of that woman as she was 
 of him ; and if any one hinted about her looks, he used 
 
 !fir ••• = 
 
 to laugh, and say that was only the outside rind, and 
 talk about the juice. But all the same, though, no 
 one couldn’t be long with that woman without know- 
 ing her flavour. It was a sight to see her and Joe 
 together, for he was just a nice middle size — five feet 
 seven and a half — and as pretty a pink and white, 
 brown -whiskered, open-faced man as ever you saw. 
 
 We all got tanned and coppered over and over again, 
 but Joe kept as nice and fresh and fair as on the day 
 we embarked from Gosport years before; and the 
 standing joke was that Mrs Bantem had a preparation 
 for keeping his complexion all square. 
 
 Joe Bantem knew what he was about, though, for 
 one day when a nasty remark had been made by the 
 men of another regiment, he got talking to me in con- 
 fidence over our pipes, and he swore that there wasn’t 
 a better woman living ; and he was right, for I ’m 
 ready now at this present moment to take the Book 
 in my hand, and swear the same thing before all the 
 judges in Old England. For you see we ’re such 
 duffers, we men : shew us a pretty bit of pink and 
 white, and we run mad after it ; while all the time 
 we’re running away from no end of what ’s solid and 
 good, and true, and such as ’ll wear well, and shew 
 fast colours, long after your pink and white’s got 
 faded and grimy. Not as I ’ve much room to talk. 
 
 But present company, you know, and setra. What, 
 though, as a rule, does your pretty pink and white 
 know about buttons, or darning, or cooking ? Why, 
 we had the very best of cooking ; not boiled 
 tag and rag, but nice stews and roasts and hashes, 
 when other men were growling over a dog’s-meat 
 dinner. We had the sweetest of clean sheets, and 
 never a button off ; our stockings were darned ; and 
 only let one of us — Measles, for instance — take a drop 
 more than he ought, just see how she ’d drop on to 
 him, that’s all. If his head didn’t ache before, it 
 would ache then ; and I can see as plain now as if it 
 was only this minute, irfetead of years ago, her boxing 
 Measles’ ears, and threatening to turn him out to 
 another mess if he didn’t keep sober. And she would 
 have turned him over too, only, as she said to Joe, 
 and Joe told me, it might have been the poor fellow’s 
 ruin, seeing how weak he was, and easily led away. 
 
 The long and short of it is, Mrs Bantem was a good 
 motherly woman of forty ; and those who had anything 
 to say against her, said it out of jealousy, and all I 
 have to say now is what I’ve said before : she only 
 had one fault, and that is, she never had any little 
 Bantems to make wives for honest soldiers to come ; 
 and wherever she is, my wish is that she may live 
 happy and venerable to a hundred. 
 
 That brings me to Measles. Bigley his name was ; 
 but he ’d had the small-pox very bad when a child, 
 through not- being vaccinated ; and his face was all 
 picked out in holes, so round and smooth that you 
 might have stood peas in them all over his cheeks and 
 forehead, and they wouldn’t have fallen off; so we 
 called him Measles. If any of you say ‘Why?’ I 
 don’t know no more than I have said. 
 
 He was a sour-tempered sort of fellow was Measles, 
 who listed because his sweetheart laughed at him ; 
 not that he cared for her, but he didn’t like to be 
 laughed at, sq he listed out of spite, as he said, and 
 that made him spiteful. He was always grumbling 
 about not getting his promotion, and sneering at 
 everything and everybody, and quarrelling with Harry 
 Lant, him, you know, as carried' the elephant’s trunk ; 
 while Harry was nfever happy without he was teasing 
 
 — =ip 
 
CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL— CHRISTMAS NUMBER. 
 
 
 - u. 
 
 him, so that sometimes there was a deal of hot water 
 spilled in our mess. 
 
 And now I think I ’ve only got to name three of 
 the drum-boys, that Mrs Bantem ruled like a rod of 
 iron, though all for their good, and then I Ve done. 
 
 Well, we had our breakfast, and thoroughly enjoyed 
 it, sitting out there in the shade. Measles grumbled 
 about the water, just because it happened to be better 
 than usual ; for sometimes we soldiers out there in 
 India used to drink water that was terrible lively 
 before it had been cooked in the kettle ; for though 
 water insects out there can stand a deal of heat, 
 they couldn’t stand a fire. Mrs Bantem was wash- 
 ing up the things afterwards, and talking about 
 dinner; Harry Lant was picking up all the odds 
 and ends, to carry off to the great elephant, standing 
 just then in the best bit of shade he could find, 
 flapping his great ears about, blinking his little pig’s 
 eyes, and turning his trunk and his tail into two 
 pendulums, swinging them backwards and forwards 
 as regular as clockwork, and all the time watching 
 Harry, when Measles says all at once : ‘ Here come 
 some lunatics ! ’ 
 
 III. 
 
 Now, after what I’ve told you about Measles’ 
 listing for spite, you will easily understand that the 
 fact of his calling any one a lunatic did not prove a 
 want of common reason in the person spoken about ; 
 but what he meant was, that the people coming up 
 were half-mad for travelling when the sun was so 
 high, and had got so much power. 
 
 I looked up and saw, about a mile off, coming over 
 the long straight level plain, what seemed to be an 
 elephant, and a man or two on horseback ; and before 
 I had been looking above a minute, I saw Captain 
 Dyer cross over to the colonel’s tent, and then point 
 in the direction of the coming elephant. The next 
 minute, he crossed over to where we were. ‘Seen 
 Lieutenant Leigh?’ he says in his quick way. 
 
 ‘ No, sir ; not since breakfast.’ 
 
 ‘ Send him after me, if he comes in sight. Tell him 
 Miss Ross and party are yonder, and I ’ve ridden on 
 to meet them.’ 
 
 The next minute he had gone, taken a horse from 
 a sycee, and in spite of the heat, cantered off to meet 
 the party with the elephant, the air being that clear 
 that I could see him go right up, turn his horse round, 
 and ride gently back by the elephant’s side. 
 
 I did not see anything of the lieutenant, and, to tell 
 the truth, I forgot all about him, for I was thinking 
 about the party coming, for I had somehow heard a 
 little about Mrs Maine’s sister coming out from the 
 old country to stay with her. If I recollect right, the 
 black nurse told Mrs Bantem, and she mentioned it. 
 This party, then, I supposed contained the lady herself ; 
 and it was as I thought. We had had to leave Patna 
 unexpectedly to relieve the regiment ordered home ; 
 and the lady, according to orders, had followed us, 
 for this was only our second day’s march. 
 
 I suppose it was my pipe made me settle down to 
 watch the coming party, and wonder what sort of a 
 body Miss Ross would be, and whether anything like 
 her sister. Then I wondered who would marry her, 
 for, as you know, ladies are not very long out in India 
 without picking up a husband. ‘ Perhaps,’ I said to 
 myself, ‘ it will be the lieutenant ; ’ but ten minutes 
 after, as the elephant shambled up, I altered my 
 mind, for Captain Dyer was ambling along beside the 
 
 ■ 
 
 great beast, and his was the hand that helped the 
 lady down — a tall, handsome, self-possessed girl, who 
 seemed quite to take the lead, and kiss and soothe 
 the sister, when she ran out of the tent to throw her 
 arms round the new-comer’s neck. 
 
 ‘ At last, then, Elsie,’ Mrs Colonel said out aloud. 
 ‘You’ve had a long dreary ride.’ 
 
 ‘ Not during the last ten minutes,’ Miss Ross said, 
 laughing in a bright, merry, free-hearted way. ‘ Lieu- 
 tenant Leigh has been welcoming me most cordially.’ 
 
 ‘Who?’ exclaimed Mrs Colonel, staring from one 
 to the other. 
 
 ‘ Lieutenant Leigh,’ said Miss Ross. 
 
 ‘ I ’m afraid I am to blame for not announcing 
 myself,’ said Captain Dyer, lifting his muslin- covered 
 cap. ‘ Your sister, Miss Ross, asked me to ride to 
 meet you, in Lieutenant Leigh’s absence.’ 
 
 ‘ You, then’ 
 
 ‘ I am only Lawrence Dyer, his friend,’ said the 
 captain smiling. 
 
 It ’s a singular thing that just then, as I saw the 
 young lady blush deeply, and Mrs Colonel look 
 annoyed, I muttered to myself, ‘ Something will come 
 of this,’ because, if there ’s anything I hate, it ’s for a 
 man to set himself up for a prophet. But it looked 
 to me as if the captain had been taking Lieutenant 
 Leigh’s place, and that Miss Ross, as was really the 
 case, though she had never seen him, had heard him 
 so much talked of by her sister, that she had wel- 
 comed him, as she thought, quite as an old friend, 
 when all the time she had been talking to Captain 
 Dyer. 
 
 And I was not the only one who thought about it ; 
 else why did Mrs Colonel look annoyed, and the 
 colonel, who came paddling out, exclaim loudly : 
 ‘ Why, Leigh, look alive, man ! here ’s Dyer been steal- 
 ing a march upon you. Why, where have you been ? ’ 
 
 I did not hear what the lieutenant said, for my 
 attention was just then taken up by something else, 
 but I saw him go up to Miss Ross, holding out his 
 hand, while the meeting was very formal ; but, as I 
 told you, my attention was taken up by something 
 else, and that something was a little dark, bright, 
 eager, earnest face, with a pair of sharp eyes, and a 
 little mocking-looking mouth ; and as Captain Dyer 
 had helped Miss Ross down with the steps from the 
 howdah, so did I help down Lizzy Green, her maid; 
 to get, by way of thanks, a half-saucy look, a nod of 
 the head, and the sight of a pretty -little tripping 
 pair of ankles going over the hot sandy dust towards 
 the tent. 
 
 But the next minute she was back, to ask about 
 some luggage — a bullock-trunk or two — and she was 
 coming up to me, as I eagerly stepped forward to 
 meet her, when she seemed, as it were, to take it into 
 her head to shy at me, going instead to Harry Lant, 
 who had just come up, and who, on hearing what she 
 wanted, placed his hands, with a grave swoop, upon 
 his head, and made her a regular eastern salaam, 
 ending by telling her that her slave would obey her 
 commands. All of which seemed to grit upon me 
 terribly ; I didn’t know why, then, but I found out 
 afterwards, though not for many days to come. 
 
 We had the route given us for Begumbagh, a town 
 that, in the old days, had been rather famous for its 
 grandeur ; but, from what I had heard, it was likely 
 to turn out a very hot, dry, dusty, miserable spot ; 
 and I used to get reckoning up how long we should 
 be frizzling out there in India before we got the 
 
F- 
 
 BEGUMBAGH. 
 
 orders for home ; and put it at the lowest calculation, 
 I could not make less of it than five years. At all 
 events, we who were soldiers had made our own beds, 
 and had to lie upon them, whether it was at home or 
 abroad ; and, as Mrs Bantem used to say to us, 
 ‘ Where was the use of grumbling ? ’ There were 
 troubles in every life, even if ft was a civilian’s — as 
 we soldiers always called those who didn’t wear the 
 Queen’s uniform— and it was very doubtful whether 
 we should have been a bit happier, if we had been in 
 any other line. But all the same, government might 
 have made things a little better for us in the way of 
 suitable clothes, and things proper for the climate. 
 
 And so on we went : marching mornings and 
 nights ; camping all through the hot day ; and it 
 was not long before we found that, in Miss Boss, we 
 men had got something else beside the children to 
 worship. 
 
 But I may as well say now, and have it off my 
 mind, that it has always struck me, that during those 
 peaceful days, when our greatest worry was a hot 
 march, we didn’t know when we were well off, and 
 that it wanted the troubles to come before we could 
 see what good qualities there were in other people. 
 Little trifling things used to make us sore — things 
 such as we didn’t notice afterwards, when great 
 sorrows came. I know I was queer, and spiteful, 
 and jealous, and no great winder that, for I always 
 was a man with a nastyish temper, and soon put out ; 
 but even Mrs Bantem used to shew that she wasn’t 
 quite perfect, for she quite upset me, one day, when 
 Measles got talking at dinner about Lizzy Green, 
 Miss Boss’s maid, and, what was a wonderful thing 
 for him, not finding fault. He got saying that she 
 was a nice girl, and would make a soldier as wanted 
 one a good wife ; when Mrs Bantem fires up as spite- 
 ful as could be — I think, mind you, there ’d been 
 something wrong with the cooking that day, which 
 had turned her a little — and she says that Lizzy was 
 very well, but looks weren’t everything, and that she 
 was raw as raw, and would want no end of dressing 
 before she would be good for anything ; while, as to 
 making a soldier’s wife, soldiers had no business to 
 have wives till they could buy themselves off, and 
 turn civilians. Then, again, she seemed to have 
 taken a sudden spite against Mrs Maine, saying that 
 she was a poor, little, stuck-up, fine lady, and she 
 could never have forgiven her if it had not been for 
 those two beautiful children; though what Mrs 
 Bantem had got to forgive the colonel’s wife, I don’t 
 believe she even knew herself. 
 
 The old black ayah, too, got very much put out 
 about this time, and all on account of the two pew- 
 comers ; for when Miss Boss hadn’t got the children 
 with her, they were along with Lizzy, who, like her 
 mistress, was new to the climate, and hadn’t got into 
 that dull listless way that comes to people who have 
 been some time up the country. They were all life, 
 and fun, and energy, and the children were never 
 happy when they were away; and of a morning, 
 more to please Lizzy, I used to think, than the chil- 
 dren, Harry Lant used to pick out a shady place, and 
 then drive Chunder Chow, who was the mahout of 
 Nabob , the principal elephant, half wild, by calling 
 out his beast, and playing with him all sorts of antics. 
 
 Chunder tried all he could to stop it, but it was of 
 no use, for Harry had got such influence over that 
 animal that when one day he was coaxing him out to 
 lead him under some trees, and the mahout tried to 
 
 stop him, Nabob makes no more ado, but lifts his 
 great soft trunk, and rolls Mr Chunder Chow over 
 into the grass, where he lay screeching like a parrot, 
 and chattering like a monkey, rolling his opal eye- 
 balls, and shewing his white teeth with fear, for he 
 expected that Nabob was going to put his foot on 
 him, and crush him to death, as is the nature of those 
 great beasts. But not he : he only lays his trunk 
 gently on Harry’s shoulder, and follows him across 
 the open like a great flesh-mountain, winking his 
 little pig’s eyes, whisking his tiny tail, and flapping 
 his great ears ; while the children clapped their hands 
 as they stood in the shade with Miss Boss and Lizzy, 
 and Captain Dyer and Lieutenant Leigh close 
 behind. 
 
 ‘ There ’s no call to be afraid, miss,’ says Harry, 
 saluting as he saw Miss Boss shrink back ; and seeing 
 how, when he said a few words in Hindustani, the 
 great animal minded him, they stopped being afraid, 
 and gave Harry fruit and cakes to feed the great 
 beast wflth. 
 
 You see, out there in that great dull place, people 
 are very glad to have any little trifle to amuse them, 
 so you mustn’t be surprised to hear that there used 
 to be quite a crowd to see Harry Lant’s performances, 
 as he called them. But all the same, I didn’t like his 
 upsetting old Chunder Chow; and it seemed to me 
 even then, that we ’d managed to make another black 
 enemy — the black ayah being the first. 
 
 However, Harry used to go on making old Nabob 
 kneel down, or shake hands, or curl up his trunk, or 
 lift him up, finishing off by going up to his head, 
 lifting one great ear, saying they understood one 
 another, whispering a few words, and then shutting 
 the ear up again, so as the words shouldn’t be lost 
 before they got into the elephant’s brain, as Harry 
 explained, because they’d got a long way to go. Then 
 Harry would lie down, and let the great beast walk 
 backwards and forwards all over him, lifting his great 
 feet so carefully, and setting them down close to 
 Harry, but never touching him, except one day when, 
 just as the great beast was passing his foot over 
 Harry’s breast, a voice called out something in Hin- 
 dustani — and I knew who it was, though I didn’t see 
 — when Nabob puts his foot down on Harry’s chest, 
 and Lizzy gave a great scream, and we all thought 
 the poor chap would be crushed ; but not he : the 
 great beast was took by surprise, but only for an 
 instant, and, in his slow quiet way, he steps aside, 
 and then touches Harry all over with his trunk ; and 
 there was no more performance that day. 
 
 ‘ I ’ve got my knife into Master Chunder for that,’ 
 *says Harry to me, ‘ for I ’ll swear that was his voice.’ 
 And I started to find he had known it. 
 
 ‘ I wouldn’t quarrel with him,’ I says quietly, ‘ for 
 it strikes me he ’s got his knife into you.’ 
 
 ‘You’ve no idea,’ says Harry, ‘ what a nip it was. 
 I thought it was all over ; but all the same, the poor 
 brute didn’t mean it, I ’d swear.’ 
 
 IV. 
 
 Who could have thought just then that all that 
 nonsense of Harry Lant’s with the elephant was 
 shaping itself for our good ; but so it was, as you 
 shall by-and-by hear. The march continued, matters 
 seeming to go on very smoothly — but only seeming, 
 mind you, for let alone that we were all walking upon 
 a volcano, there was a good deal of unpleasantry 
 
 ■€r 
 
!=: 
 
 6 CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL— CHRISTMAS NUMBER. 
 
 brewing. Let alone my feeling tliat, somehow or 
 another, Harry Lant was not so good a mate to me 
 as he used to be, there was a good deal wrong 
 between Captain Dyer and Lieutenant Leigh, and it 
 soon seemed plain that there was much more peace 
 and comfort in our camp a week earlier than there 
 was at the time of which I am now writing. 
 
 I used to have my turns as sentry here and there ; 
 and it was when standing stock still with my piece, 
 that I used to see and hear so much — for in a camp it 
 seems to be a custom for people to look upon a sentry 
 as a something that can neither see nor hear any- 
 thing but what might come in the shape of an enemy. 
 They know he must not move from his post, which 
 is to say that he ’s tied hand and foot, and perhaps 
 from that they think that he ’s tied as to his senses. 
 At all events, I got to see that when Miss Ross was 
 seated in the colonel’s tent, and Captain Dyer was 
 near her, she seemed to grow gentle and quiet, and 
 her eyes would light up, and her rich red lips part, as 
 she listened to what he was saying; while, when it 
 came to Lieutenant Leigh’s turn, and he was beside 
 her talking, she would be merry and chatty, and 
 would laugh and talk as lively as could be. Harry 
 Lant said it was because they were making up 
 matters, and that some day she would be Mrs Leigh ; 
 but I didn’t look at it in that light, though I said 
 nothing. 
 
 I used to like to be sentry at the colonel’s tent, on 
 our halting for the night, when the canvas would be i 
 looped up, to let in the air, and they ’d got their great 
 globe-lamps lit, with the tops to them, to keep out the 
 flies, and the draughts made by the punkahs swinging 
 backwards and forwards. I used to think it quite a 
 pretty sight, with the ladies and the three or four 
 officers, perhaps chatting, perhaps having a little 
 music, for Miss Ross could sing like — like a nightin- 
 gale, I was going to say ; but no nightingale that I 
 ever heard could seem to lay hold of your heart and 
 almost bring tears into your eyes, as she did. Then 
 she used to sing duets with Captain Dyer, because 
 the colonel wished it, though it was plain to see Mrs 
 Maine didn’t like it, any more than did Lieutenant 
 Leigh, who, more than once, as I ’ve seen, walked out, 
 looking fierce and angry, to strike off right away 
 from the camp, perhaps not to come back for a couple 
 of hours. 
 
 It was one night when we ’d been about a fort- 
 night on the • way, for during the past week the 
 colonel had been letting us go on very easily, I was 
 sentry at the tent. There had been some singing, 
 and Lieutenant Leigh had gone off in the middle of a 
 duet. Then the doctor, the colonel, and a couple of 
 subs were busy over a game at whist, and the black 
 nurse Jiad beckoned Mrs Maine out, I suppose to see 
 somethiug about the two children ; when Captain 
 Dyer and Miss Ross walked together just outside the 
 tent, she holding by one of the cords, and he standing 
 close beside her. 
 
 They did not say much, but stood looking up at the 
 bright silver moon and the twinkling stars ; while he 
 said a word now and then about the beauty of the 
 scene, the white tents, the twinkling lights here and 
 there, and the soft peaceful aspect of all around ; and 
 then his voice seemed to grow lower and deeper as he 
 spoke from time to time, though I could hardly hear 
 a word, as I stood there like a statue watching her 
 beautiful face, with the great clusters of hair knotted 
 back from her broad white forehead, the moon shining 
 
 full on it, and seeming to make her eyes flash as they 
 were turned to him. 
 
 They must have stood there full half an hour, when 
 she turned as if to go back, but he laid his hand upon 
 hers as it held the tent cord, and said something very 
 earnestly, when she turned to him again to look him 
 full in the face, and I saw that her hand was not 
 moved. 
 
 Then they were silent for a few seconds before he 
 spoke again, loud enough for me to hear. 
 
 ‘I must ask you,’ he said huskily; ‘my peace 
 depends upon it. I know that it has always been 
 understood that you were to be introduced to Lieu- 
 tenant Leigh. I can see now plainly enough what 
 are your sister’s wishes ; but hearts are ungovern- 
 able, Miss Ross, and I tell you earnestly, as a simple, 
 truth-speaking man, that you have roused feelings 
 that until now slept quietly in my breast. If I am 
 presumptuous, forgive me — love is bold as well as 
 timid — but at least set me at rest : tell me, is 
 there any engagement between you and Lieutenant 
 Leigh?’ 
 
 She did not speak for a few moments, but met his 
 gaze — so it seemed to me — without shrinking, before 
 saying one word, so softly, that it was like one of the 
 whispers of the breeze crossing the plain — and that 
 word was ‘ Ro ! ’ 
 
 ‘ God bless you for that answer, Miss Ross — Elsie,’ 
 he said deeply ; and then his head was bent down for 
 an instant over the hand that rested on the cord, 
 before Miss Ross glided away from him into the tent, 
 and went and stood resting with her hand upon the 
 colonel’s shoulder, when he, evidently in high glee, 
 began to shew her his cards, laughing and pointing to 
 first one, and then another, for he seemed to be 
 having luck on his side. 
 
 But I had no more eyes then for the inside of the 
 tent, for Captain Dyer just seemed to awaken to the 
 fact that I was standing close by him as sentry, and 
 he gave quite a start as he looked at me for a few 
 moments without speaking. Then he took a step 
 forward. 
 
 ‘ Who is this ? Oh, thank goodness ! ’ (he said those 
 few words in an undertone, but I happened to hear 
 them). ‘ Smith,’ he said, ‘ I forgot there was a sentry 
 there. You saw me talking to that lady V 
 
 ‘Yes, sir,’ I said. 
 
 ‘ You saw everything ? ’ 
 
 ‘Yes, sir.’ 
 
 ‘And you heard all?’ 
 
 ‘ Ro, sir, not all ; only what you said last.’ 
 
 Then he was silent again for a few moments, but 
 only to lay his hand directly after on my chest. 
 
 ‘Smith,’ he said, ‘I would rather you had not 
 seen this ; and if it had been any other man in my 
 company, I should perhaps have offered him money, 
 to insure that there was no idle chattering at the 
 mess-tables ; but you I ask, as a man I can trust, to 
 give me your word of honour as a soldier to let what 
 you have seen and heard be sacred.’ 
 
 ‘Thank you, captain,’ I said, speaking thick, for 
 somehow his words seemed to touch me. ‘You 
 shan’t repent trusting me.’ 
 
 ‘ 1 have no fear, Smith,’ he said, speaking lightly, 
 and as if he felt joyful, and proud, and happy. — ‘ What 
 a glorious night for a cigar ; ’ and he took one out of 
 his case, when we both started, for, as if he had that 
 moment risen out of the ground, Lieutenant Leigh 
 stood there close to us ; and eyen to this day I can’t 
 
dET - "■ == J Bi 
 
 H Chambers's Journal, BEGUMBAGH. 7 
 
 Deo. 25, 1809.] 
 
 make out how he managed it, but all the same he 
 must have seen and heard as much as I had. 
 
 ‘ And pray, is my word of honour as a soldier to be 
 taken, Captain Dyer ? or is my silence to be bought 
 with money ? — Curse you ! come this way, will you ! ’ 
 he hissed ; for Captain Dyer had half turned, as if to 
 avoid him, but he stepped back directly, and I saw 
 them walk off together amongst the trees, till they 
 were quite out of sight ; and if ever I felt what it was 
 to be tied down to one spot, I felt it then, as I 
 walked sentry up and down by that tent watching 
 for those two to return. 
 
 v. 
 
 Now, after giving my word of honour to hold all 
 that sacred, some people may think I’m breaking 
 faith in telling what I saw ; but I made that right by 
 asking the colonel’s leave — he is a colonel now — and 
 he smiled, and said that I ought to change the names, 
 and then it would not matter. 
 
 I left off my last chapter saying how I felt being 
 tied down to one spot, as I kept guard there; and 
 perhaps everybody don’t know that a sentry’s duty 
 is to stay in the spot where he has been posted, and 
 that leaving it lightly might, in time of war, mean 
 death. 
 
 I should think I watched quite an hour, wondering 
 whether I ought to give any alarm ; but I was afraid 
 it might look foolish, for perhaps after all it might 
 ■only mean a bit of a quarrel, and I could not call to 
 mind any quarrel between officers ending in a duel. 
 
 I was glad, too, that I did not say anything, for at 
 last I saw them coming back in the clear moonlight — 
 '"■el'ear-like as day; and then in the distance they 
 stopped, and in a moment one figure seemed to strike 
 •the other a sharp blow, which sent him staggering 
 back, and I could not then see who it was that was 
 hit, till they came nearer, and I made out that it was 
 Captain Dyer; while, if I had any doubts at first, 
 I could have none as they came nearer and nearer, 
 with Lieutenant Leigh talking in a big insolent way 
 at Captain Dyer, who was very quiet, holding his 
 handkerchief to his cheek. 
 
 So as to be as near as possible to where they were 
 going to pass, I walked to the end of my tether, and, 
 as they came up, Lieutenant Leigh says, in a nasty 
 apiteful whisper : ‘ I should have thought you would 
 have come into the tent to display the wound received 
 in the lady’s cause.’ 
 
 ‘ Leigh,’ said Captain Dyer, taking down his white 
 handkerchief— and in the bright moonlight I could see 
 dhat his cheek was cut, and the handkerchief all 
 bloody — ‘ Leigh, that was an unmanly blow. You 
 called me a coward ; you struck me ; and now you 
 try to poison the wound with your bitter words. I 
 never lift hand against the man who has taken that 
 hand in his as my friend, but the day may come 
 when I can prove to you that you are a liar.’ 
 
 Lieutenant Leigh turned upon him fiercely, as 
 though he would have struck him again ; but Captain 
 Dyer paid no heed to him, only walked quietly off to 
 his quarters ; while, with a sneering, scornful sort of 
 laugh, the lieutenant went into the colonel’s tent ; 
 though, if he expected to see Miss Boss, he was dis- 
 appointed, for so long as I was on guard, she did not 
 shew any more that night. 
 
 Off again the next morning, and over a hotter and 
 dustier road than ever ; and I must say that I began 
 
 to wish we were settled down in barracks again, for 
 everything seemed to grow more and more crooked, 
 and people more and more unpleasant. Why, even 
 Mrs Bantem that morning before starting must shew 
 her teeth, and snub Bantem, and then begin going on 
 about the colonel’s wife, and the fine madam, her 
 sister, having all sorts of luxuries, while poor hard- 
 working soldiers’ wives had to bear all the burden 
 and heat of the day ; while, by way of winding up, 
 she goes up to Harry Lant and Measles, who were, as 
 usual, squabbling about something, and boxes both 
 their ears, as if they had been bad boys. I saw them 
 both colour up fierce; but the next minute Harry 
 Lant bursts out laughing, and Measles does the same, 
 and then they two did what I should think they 
 never did before — they shook hands ; but Mrs Ban- 
 tem had no sooner turned away with tears in her 
 eyes, because she felt so cross, than the two chaps 
 fell out again about some stupid thing or another, 
 and kept on snarling and snapping at each other all 
 along the march. 
 
 But there, bless you ! that wasn’t all : I saw Mrs 
 Maine talking to her sister in a quick earnest sort of 
 way, and they both seemed out of sorts ; and the 
 colonel swore at the tent-men, and bulbed the adju- 
 tant, and he came round and dropped on to us, finding 
 fault with the mem’s belts, and that upset the ser- 
 geants. Then some of the baggage didn’t start right, 
 and Lieutenant Leigh had to be taken to task by 
 Captain Dyer, as in duty bound ; while, when at last 
 we were starting, if there wasn’t a tremendous outcry, 
 and the young colonel — little Cock Robin, you know 
 — kicking, and screaming, and fighting the old black 
 nurse, because he mightn’t draw his little sword, and 
 march alongside of Harry Lant ! 
 
 Now, I’m very particular about putting all this 
 down, because I want you to see how we all were one 
 with the other, and how right through the battalion 
 little things made us out of sorts with one another, 
 and hardly friendly enough to speak, so that the 
 difference may strike you, and you may see in a 
 stronger light the alteration and the behaviour of 
 people when trouble came. 
 
 All the same, though, I don’t think it’s possible 
 for anybody to make a long march in India without 
 getting out of temper. It’s my belief that the grit 
 does it, for you do have that terribly ; and what with 
 the heat, the dust, the thirst, the government boots, 
 that always seem as if made not to fit anybody, and 
 the grit, I believe even a regiment all chaplains would 
 forget their trade. 
 
 Tramp, tramp, tramp, day after day, and nearly 
 always over wide, dreary, dusty plains. Now we ’d 
 pass a few muddy paddy-fields, or come upon a river, 
 but not often; and I many a time used to laugh 
 grimly to myself, as I thought what a very different 
 place hot, dusty, dreary India was, to the glorious 
 country I used to picture, all beautiful trees and 
 flowers, and birds with dazzling plumage. There are 
 bright places there, no doubt, but I never came across 
 one, and my recollections of India are none of the 
 most cheery. 
 
 But at last came the day when we were crossing 
 a great wide-spread plain, in the middle of which 
 seemed to be a few houses, with something bright here 
 and there shining in the Sun ; and as we marched on, 
 the cluster, of houses appeared to grow and grow, till 
 we halted at last in a market square of a good-sized 
 town ; and that night we were once more in barracks. 
 
8 
 
 CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL — CHRISTMAS NUMBER. 
 
 [Dec. 25, 1869. 
 
 But, for my part, I was more gritty than ever ; for 
 now we did not see the colonel’s lady or her sister, 
 though I may as well own that there was some one 
 with them that I wanted to see more than either. 
 
 They were all, of course, at the colonel’s quarters, 
 a fine old palace of a place, with a court-yard, and a 
 tank in the centre, and trees, and a flat roof, by the 
 side of the great square ; while on one side was 
 another great rambling place, separated by a narrow- 
 ish sort of alley, used for stores and hospital purposes ; 
 and on the other side, still going along by the side 
 of the great market square, was another building, the 
 very fellow to the colonel’s quarters, but separated 
 by a narrow footway, some ten feet wide, and this 
 place was occupied by the officers. 
 
 Our barracks took up another side of the square ; 
 and on the others were mosques and flat-roofed build- 
 ings, and a sort of bazaar ; while all round stretched 
 away, in narrow streets, the houses of what we men 
 used to call the niggers. Though, speaking for myself, 
 I used to find them, when well treated, a nice, clean, 
 gentle sort of people. I used to look upon them as a 
 big sort of children, in their white muslin and calico, 
 and their, simple ways of playing-like at living ; and 
 even now I haven’t altered my opinion of them in 
 general, for the great burst of frenzied passion that ran 
 through so many of them was just like a child’s 
 uncontrolled rage. 
 
 Things were not long in settling down to the 
 regular life : there was a little drill of a morning, and 
 then, the rest of the day, the heat to fight with, which 
 seemed to take all the moisture out of our bodies, and 
 make us long for night. 
 
 I did not get put on as sentry once at the colonel’s 
 quarters, but I heard a little now and then from Mrs 
 Bantem, who used to wash some of Mrs Maine’s fine 
 things, the black women doing everything else ; and 
 she ’d often have a good grumble about ‘ her fine 
 ladyship,’ as she called her, and she ’d pity her chil- 
 dren. She used to pick up a good deal of information, 
 though, and, taking a deal of interest as I did in Miss 
 Ross, I got to know that it seemed to be quite a 
 settled thing between her and Captain Dyer ; and 
 Bantem, who got took on now as Lieutenant Leigh’s 
 servant, used to tell his wife about how black those 
 two used to seem one towards the other. 
 
 And so the time went on in a quiet sleepy way, 
 the men getting lazier every day. There was nothing 
 to stir us, only now and then we ’d have a good laugh 
 at Measles, who ’d get one of his nasty fits on, and 
 swear at all the officers round, saying he was as good 
 as any of them, and that if he had his rights he would 
 have been made an officer before then. Harry Lant, 
 too, used to do his bit to make time pass away a little 
 less dull, singing, telling stories, or getting up to 
 some of his pranks with old Nabob , the elephant, 
 making Chunder, the mahout, more mad than ever, 
 for, no matter what he did or said, only let Harry 
 make a sort of queer noise of his, and, just like a 
 great flesh-mountain, that elephant would come. It 
 didn’t matter who was in the way : regiment at drill, 
 officer, rajah, anybody, old Nabob would come straight 
 away to Harry, holding out his trunk for fruit, or 
 putting it in Harry’s breast, where he ’d find some 
 bread or biscuit ; and then the great brute would 
 smooth him all over with his trunk, in a way that 
 used to make Mrs Bantem say, that perhaps, after all, 
 the natives weren’t such fools as they looked, and 
 that what they said about dead people going into 
 
 animal’s bodies might be true after all, for, if that 
 great overgrown beast hadn’t a soul of its own, and 
 couldn’t think, she didn’t know nothing, so now then ! 
 
 VI. 
 
 But it was always the same ; and though time was 
 when I could have laughed as merrily as did that 
 little Jenny Wren of the colonel’s at Harry’s antics, 
 I couldn’t laugh now, because it always seemed as if 
 they were made an excuse to get Miss Ross and her 
 maid out with the children. 
 
 A party of jugglers, or dancing-girls, or a man or 
 two with pipes and snakes, were all very well ; but 
 I’ve known clever parties come round, and those I’ve 
 named would hardly come out to look ; and my heart, 
 I suppose it was, if it wasn’t my mind, got very sore 
 about that time, and I used to get looking as evil at 
 Harry Lant as Lieutenant Leigh did at the captain. 
 
 But it was a dreary time that, after all, one from 
 which we were awakened in a sudden way, that 
 startled us to a man. 
 
 First of all, there came a sort of shadowy rumour 
 that something was wrong with the men of a native 
 regiment, something to do with their caste ; and 
 before we had well realised that it was likely to be 
 anything serious, sharp and swift came one bit of 
 news after another, that the British officers in one 
 native regiment had been shot down — here, there, in 
 all directions ; and then we understood that what we 
 had taken for the flash of a solitary fire, was the firing 
 of a big train, and that there w r as a great mutiny in 
 the land. And not, mind, the mutiny or riot of a 
 mob of roughs, but of men drilled and disciplined by 
 British officers, with leaders of their own caste, all 
 well armed and provided with ammunition ; and the 
 talk round our mess when we heard all this was, How 
 will it end ? 
 
 I don’t think there were many who did not realise 
 the fact that something awful w^as coming to pass. 
 Measles grinned, he did, and said that there was 
 going to be an end of British tyranny in India, and 
 that the natives were only going to seize their own 
 again ; but the next minute, although it was quite 
 clean, he takes his piece out of the rack, cleans it 
 thoroughly all over again, fixes the bayonet, feels the 
 point, and then stands at the ‘ present ! ’ 
 
 ‘ I think we can let ’em know what ’s what, though, 
 my lads, if they come here,’ he says, with a grim 
 smile ; when Mrs Bantem, whose breath seemed quite 
 taken away before by the way he talked, jumped up 
 quite happy-like, laid her great hand upon his left 
 side, and then, turning to us, she says : ‘ It ’s beating 
 strong.’ 
 
 ‘ What is ? ’ says Bantem, looking puzzled. 
 
 ‘ Measles’ heart,’ says Mrs Bantem ; ‘ and I always 
 knew it was in the right place.’ 
 
 The next minute she gave Measles a slap on the 
 back as echoed through the place, sending him 
 staggering forward; but he only laughed and said: 
 ‘ Praise the saints, I ain’t Bantem.’ 
 
 There was a fine deal of excitement, though, now. 
 The colonel seemed to wake up, and with him every 
 officer, for we expected not only news but orders 
 every moment. Discipline, if I may say so, was 
 buckled up tight with the tongue in the last hole; 
 provisions and water were got in ; sentries doubled, 
 and a strange feeling of distrust and fear came upon 
 all, for we soon saw that the people of the place hung 
 
BEGUMBAGH. 
 
 9 
 
 Chamber’s Journal, 
 
 Dec. 25, I860.] 
 
 away from us, and though, from such an inoffensive- 
 looking lot as we had about us, there didn’t seem 
 much to fear, yet there was no knowing what 
 treachery we might have to encounter, and as he had 
 to think and act for others beside himself, Colonel 
 Maine— God bless him — took every possible precaution 
 against danger, then hidden, but which was likely to 
 •spring into sight at any moment. 
 
 There were not many English residents at Begum- 
 bagh, but what there were came into quarters directly ; 
 and the very next morning we learned plainly enough 
 that there was danger threatening our place by the 
 behaviour of the natives, who packed up their few 
 things and filed out of the town as fast as they could, 
 so that at noonday the market-place was deserted, 
 and, save the few we had in quarters, there was not 
 a black face to be seen. 
 
 The next morning came without news ; and I was 
 orderly, and standing waiting in the outer court close 
 behind the colonel, who was holding a sort of council 
 of war with the officers, when a sentry up in the 
 broiling sun, on the roof, calls out that a horseman 
 was coming ; and beforfi very long, covered with sweat 
 and dust, an orderly dragoon' dashes up, his horse all 
 panting and blown ; and then coming jingling and 
 clanking in with those spurs and that sabre of his, 
 he hands despatches to the colonel. 
 
 I hope I may be forgiven for what I thought then, 
 but, as I watched his ruddy face, while he read 
 those despatches, and saw it turn all of a sickly, 
 greeny white, I gave him the credit of being a coward ; 
 and I was not the only-one who did so. We all knew 
 that, like us, he had never seen a shot fired in anger ; 
 and something like an angry feeling of vexation came 
 over me, I know, as I thought of what a fellow he 
 would be to handle and risk the lives of the four 
 hundred men under his charge there at Begumbagh. 
 
 ‘ D’yer think I ’d look like that ?’ says a voice close 
 to my ear just then. ‘ D’yer think if I ’d been made 
 an officer, I ’d ha’ shewed the white feather like that V 
 And turning round sharp, I saw it was Measles, who 
 was standing sentry by the gateway ; and he was so 
 disgusted, that he spat about in all directions, for he 
 was a man who didn’t smoke, like any other Christian, 
 but chewed his tobacco like a sailor. 
 
 ‘ Dyer,’ says the colonel, the next moment, and 
 they closed up together, but close to where we two 
 stood — ‘ Dyer,’ he says, ‘ I never felt before that it 
 would be hard to do my duty as a soldier; but, God 
 help me, I shall have to leave Annie and the children.’ 
 There were a couple of tears rolling down the poor 
 fellow’s cheeks as he spoke, and he took Captain 
 Dyer’s hand. 
 
 ‘ Look at him ! Cuss him ! ’ whispers Measles again ; 
 and I kicked out sharp behind, and hit him in the 
 shin. ‘ He ’s a pretty sort of a ’ 
 
 He didn’t say any more just then, for, like me, he was 
 staggered by the change that took place. 
 
 I think I ’ve said Colonel Maine was a little, easy- 
 going, pudgy man, with a red face ; but just then, 
 as he stood holding Captain Dyer’s hand, a change 
 seemed to come over him ; he dropped the hand he 
 had held, tightened his sword-belt, and then took 
 a step forward, to stand thoughtful, with despatches 
 in his left hand. It was then that I saw in a moment 
 that I had wronged him, and I felt as if I could have 
 gone down on the ground for him to have walked over 
 me, for whatever he might have been in peace, easy- 
 going, careless, and fond of idleness and good-living — 
 
 come time for action, there he was with the true 
 British officer flashing out of his face, his lips pinched, 
 his eyes flashing, and a stern look upon his counte- 
 nance that I had never seen before. 
 
 ‘ Now then ! ’ I says in a whisper to Measles. I 
 didn’t say anything else, for he knew what I meant. 
 
 ‘ Now then — now then ! ’ 
 
 ‘Well,’ says Measles then, in a whisper, ‘I s’pose 
 women and children will bring the soft out of a man 
 at a time like this ; but, cuss him ! what did he mean 
 by humbugging us like that ! ’ 
 
 I should think Colonel Maine stood alone thought- 
 ful and still in that court-yard, with the sun beating 
 down upon his muslin- covered forage-cap, while you 
 could slowly, and like a pendulum-beat, count 
 thirty. It was a tremendously hot morning, with 
 the sky a bright clear blue, and the shadows of 
 a deep purply black cast down and cut as sharp as 
 sharp. It was so still, too, that you could hear the 
 whirring, whizzy noise of the cricket things, and now 
 and then the champ, champ of the horse rattling his 
 bit as he stood outside the gateway. It was a strange 
 silence, that seemed to make itself felt ; and then the 
 colonel woke into life, stuck those despatches into 
 his sword-belt, gave an order here, an order there, 
 and the next minute — Tantaran-tantaran, Tantaran- 
 tantaran, Tantaran-tantarax, Tantaran-tay — the 
 bugle was ringing out the assemblee, men were hurry- 
 ing here and there, there was the trampling of feet, 
 the court-yard was full of busy figures, shadows were 
 passing backwards and forwards, and the news was 
 abroad that our regiment was to form a flying column 
 with another, and that we were off directly. 
 
 Ay, but it was exciting, that getting ready, and the 
 time went like magic before we formed a hollow 
 square, and the colonel said a few words to us, 
 mounted as he was now, his voice firm as firm, except 
 once, when I saw him glance at an upper window, and 
 then it trembled, but only for an instant. His words 
 were not many; and to this day, when I think of 
 the scene under that hot blue sky, they come ringing 
 back ; for it did not seem to us that our old colonel 
 was speaking, but a new man of a different mettle, 
 though it was only that the right stuff had been 
 sleeping in his breast, ready to be wakened by the 
 bugle. 
 
 ‘ My lads,’ he said, and to a man we all burst out 
 into a ringing cheer, when he took off his cap, and 
 waved it round — ‘My lads, this is a sharp call, but 
 I ’ve been expecting it, and it has not found us asleep. 
 I thank you for the smart way in which you have 
 answered it, for it shews me that a little easy-going 
 on my part in the piping times of peace has not been 
 taken advantage of. My lads, these are stern times ; 
 and this despatch tells me of what will bring the 
 honest British blood into every face, and make every 
 strong hand take a firm gripe of its piece as he longs 
 for the order to charge the mutinous traitors to their 
 Queen, who, taking her pay, sworn to serve her, have 
 turned, and in cold blood butchered their officers, 
 slain women, and hacked to pieces innocent babes. 
 My lads, we are going against a horde of monsters; 
 but I have bad news — you cannot all go ’ 
 
 There was a murmur here. 
 
 ‘That murmur is not meant,’ he continued; ‘and 
 I know it will be regretted when I explain myself. 
 We have women here and children : mine — yours— 
 and they must be protected’ (it was here that his 
 voice shook). ‘ Captain Dyer’s company will garrison 
 
10 
 
 CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL,— CHRISTMAS HUMBER. 
 
 the place till our return, and to those men many of 
 us leave all that is dear to us on earth. I have 
 spoken. God save the Queen ! ’ 
 
 How that place echoed with the hearty ‘ Hurray ! ’ 
 that rung out ; and then it was, ‘Fours right. March ! ’ 
 and only our company held firm, while I don’t know 
 whether I felt disappointed or pleased, till I happened 
 to look up at one of the windows, to see Mrs Maine 
 and Miss Boss, with those two poor little innocent 
 children clapping their hands with delight at seeing 
 the soldiers march away ; one of them, the little girl, 
 with her white muslin and scarlet sash over her 
 shoulder, being held up by Lizzy Green ; and then I 
 did know that I was not disappointed, but glad I was 
 to stay. 
 
 But to shew you how a man’s heart changes about 
 when it is blown by the hot breath of what you may 
 call love, let me tell you that only half a minute 
 later, I was disappointed again at not going; and 
 dared I have left the ranks, I ’d have run after the 
 departing column, for I caught Harry Lant looking 
 up at that window, and I thought a handkerchief was 
 waved to him. 
 
 Next minute, Captain Dyer calls out, ‘Form four 
 — deep. Bight face. March ! ’ and he led us to the 
 gateway, but only to halt us there, for Measles, who 
 was sentry, calls out something to him in a wild 
 excited way. 
 
 ‘ What do you want, man ?’ says Captain Dyer. 
 
 ‘ 0 sir, if you ’ll only let me exchange. ’Taint too 
 late. Let me go, captain.’ 
 
 ‘ How dare you, sir ! ’ says Captain Dyer sternly, 
 though I could see plainly enough it was only for 
 discipline, for he was, I thought, pleased at Measles 
 wanting to be in the thick of it. Then he shouts 
 again to Measles: ‘’Tention — present arms!’ and 
 Measles falls into his right position for a sentry when 
 troops are marching past. ‘ March ! ’ says the captain 
 again ; and we marched into the market-place, and — 
 all but those told off for sentries — we were dismissed ; 
 and Captain Dyer then stood talking earnestly to 
 Lieutenant Leigh, for it had fallen out that they two, 
 with a short company of eight-and- thirty rank and 
 file, were to have the guarding of the women and 
 children left in quarters at Begumbagh. 
 
 VII. 
 
 It seemed to me that, for the time being, Lieu- 
 tenant Leigh was too much of a soldier to let private 
 matters and personal feelings of enmity interfere 
 with duty ; and those two stood talking together for 
 a good half-hour, when, having apparently made their 
 plans, fatigue-parties were ordered out ; and what I 
 remember then thinking was a wise move, the soldiers’ 
 wives and children in quarters were brought into the 
 old palace, since it was the only likely spot for putting 
 into something like a state of defence. 
 
 I have called it a palace, and I suppose that a rajah 
 did once live in it, but, mind you, it was neither a 
 very large nor a very grand place, being only a square 
 of buildings, facing inward to a little court-yard, 
 entered by a gateway, after the fashion of no end of 
 buildings in the east. 
 
 Water we had in the tank, but provisions were 
 brought in, and what sheep there were. Fortunately, 
 there was a good supply of hay, and that we got in ; 
 but one thing we did not bargain for, and that was 
 the company of the great elephant, Nabob , he having 
 
 been left behind. And what does he do but come 
 slowly up on those india-rubber cushion feet of his, 
 and walk through the gateway, his back actually 
 brushing against the top ; and then, once in, he goes 
 quietly over to where the hay was stacked, and coolly 
 enough begins eating ! 
 
 The men laughed, and some jokes were made about 
 his taking up a deal of room, and I suppose, really, it 
 was through Harry Lant that the great beast came 
 in ; but no more was said then, we all being so busy,, 
 and not one of us had the sense to see what a fearful 
 strait that great inoffensive animal might bring us to_ 
 
 I believe we all forgot about the heat that day a& 
 we worked on, slaving away at things that, in an 
 ordinary way, we should have expected to be done 
 by the niggers. Food, ammunition, wood, particularly 
 planks, everything Captain Dyer thought likely to be 
 of use; and soon a breastwork was made inside the 
 gateway; such lower windows as looked outwards 
 carefully nailed up, and loopholed for a shot at the 
 enemy, should any appear ; and when night did come 
 at last, peaceful and still, the old palace was turned 
 into a regular little fort. 
 
 We all knew that all this might be labour in vain, 
 but all the same it seemed to be our duty to get the 
 place into as good a state of defence as we could, and 
 under orders we did it. But, after all, we knew well 
 enough that if the mutineers should bring up a small 
 field-piece, they could knock the place about our 
 ears in no time. Our hope, though, was that, at all 
 events while our regiment was away, we might bn 
 unmolested, for, if the enemy came in any number, 
 what could eight-and-thirty men do, hampered as 
 they were with half-a-dozen children, and twice as 
 many women ? Not that all the women were likely 
 to hamper us, for there was Mrs Bantem, busy as a- 
 bee, working here, comforting there, helping women 
 to make themselves snug in different rooms ; and 
 once, as she came near me, she gave me one of her 
 tremendous slaps on the back, her eyes twinkling 
 with pleasure, and the perspiration streaming down 
 her face., the while. ‘Ike Smith,’ she says, ‘this is- 
 something like, isn’t it? But ask Captain Dyer to 
 have that breastwork strengthened — there isn’t half 
 enough of it. Glad Bantem hasn’t gone. But, I say,, 
 only think of that poor woman ! I saw her just now 
 crying, fit to break her poor heart.’ 
 
 ‘ What poor woman ? ’ I said, staring hard. 
 
 ‘ Why, the colonel’s wife. Poor soul, it ’s pitiful to 
 see her ! it went through me like a knife. — What ! 
 are you there, my pretties?’ she cried, flumping down 
 on the stones as the colonel’s two little ones came 
 running out. ‘ Bless your pretty hearts, you ’ll come 
 and say a word to old Mother Bantem, won’t you ?’ 
 
 ‘What’s everybody tying about?’ says the little 
 girl, in her prattling way. ‘ I don’t like people to ty. 
 Has my ma been whipped, and Aunt Elsie been 
 naughty?’ 
 
 ‘ Look, look ! ’ cries the boy excitedly ; ‘ dere ’s 
 old Nabob!’ And toddling off, the next minute he 
 was close to the great beast, his little sister running 
 after him, to catch hold of his hand; and there the 
 little mites stood close to, and staring up at the great 
 elephant, as he kept on amusing himself by twisting 
 up a little hay in his trunk, and then lightly scatter- 
 ing it over his back, to get rid of the flies — for what 
 nature could have been about to givfe him such a 
 scrap of a tail, I can’t understand. He’d work it, 
 and flip it about hard enough ; but as to getting rid 
 
BEGUMBAGH. 
 
 11 
 
 of a fly, it ’s my belief that if insects can laugh, they 
 laughed at it, as they watched him from where they 
 were buzzing about the stone walls and windows in 
 the hot sunshine. 
 
 The next minute, like a chorus, there came a 
 scream from one of the upper windows, one from 
 another, and a sort of howl from Mrs Bantem, and we 
 all stood startled and staring, for what does J enny 
 Wren do, but, in a staggering way, lift up her little 
 brother for him to touch the elephant’s trunk, and 
 then she stood laughing and clapping her hands with 
 delight, seeing no fear, bless her ! as that long, soft 
 trunk was gently curled round the boy’s waist, he 
 was drawn out of his sister’s arms; and then the 
 great beast stood swinging the child to and fro, now 
 up a little way, now down between his legs, and him 
 crowing and laughing away all the while, as if it was 
 the best fun that could be. 
 
 I believe w T e were all struck motionless ; and it was 
 like taking a hand away from my throat to let me 
 breathe once more, when I saw the elephant gently 
 drop the little fellow down on a heap of hay, but only 
 for him to scramble up, and run forward shouting : 
 ‘Now ’gain, now ’gain ;’ and, as if Nabob understood 
 his little prattling, half-tied tongue, he takes him up 
 again, and swings him, just as there was a regular 
 rush made, and Mrs Colonel, Miss Boss, Lizzy, and 
 the captain and lieutenant came up. 
 
 ‘ For Heaven’s sake, save the child ! ’ cries Mrs 
 Maine. — ‘ Mr Leigh, pray, do something.’ 
 
 Miss Boss did not speak, but she looked at Captain 
 Dyer; and those two young men both went at the 
 elephant directly, to get the child away ; but, in an 
 instant, Nabob wheeled round, just the same as a 
 stubborn donkey would at home with a lot of boys 
 teasing it; and then, as they dodged round his great 
 carcass, he trumpeted fiercely, and began to shuffle off 
 round the court. 
 
 I went up too, and so did Mrs Bantem, brave as a 
 lion; but the great beast only kept on making his 
 loud snorting noise, and shuffled along, with the boy 
 in his trunk, swinging him backwards and forwards ; 
 and it was impossible to help thinking of what would 
 be the consequence if the elephant should drop the 
 little fellow, and then set on him one of his great feet. 
 
 It seemed as if nothing could be done, and once the 
 idea — wild enough too — rushed into my head that it 
 would be advisable to get a rifle put to the great 
 beast’s ear, and fire, when Measles shouted out from 
 where he was on guard : ‘ Here ’s Chunder coming ! ’ 
 and, directly after, with his opal eye-balls rolling, and 
 his dark, treacherous-looking face seeming to me all 
 wicked and pleased at what was going on, came the 
 mahout, and said a few words to the elephant, which 
 stopped directly, and went down upon its knees. 
 Chunder then tried to take hold of the child, but 
 somehow that seemed to make the great beast furious, 
 and, getting up again, he began to grunt and make a 
 noise after the fashion of a great pig, going on now 
 faster round the court, and sending those who had 
 come to look, and who stood in his way, fleeing in all 
 directions. 
 
 Mrs Maine was half fainting, and, catching the 
 little girl to her breast, I saw her go dowm upon her 
 knees and hide her face, expecting, no doubt, every 
 moment, that the next one would be her boy’s last ; 
 and, indeed, we were all alarmed npw, for the more 
 we tried to get the little chap away, the fiercer the 
 elephant grew ; the only one who did not seem to 
 mind being the boy himself, though his sister now 
 began to cry, and in her little artless way I heard her 
 ask her mother if the naughty elephant would eat 
 Clivey. 
 
 I ’ve often thought since that if we ’d been quiet, 
 and left the beast alone, he would soon have set the 
 child down ; and I ’ve often thought, too, that Mr 
 Chunder could have got the boy away if he had liked, 
 only he did nothing but tease and irritate the elephant, 
 which was not the best of friends with him. But 
 you will easily understand that there was not much 
 time for thought then. 
 
 I had been doing my best along with the others, 
 and then stood thinking what I could be at next, 
 when I caught Lizzy Green’s eye turned to me in an 
 appealing, reproachful sort of way, that seemed to say 
 as plainly as could be : ‘ Can’t you do anything ? ’ 
 when all at once Measles shouts out : ‘ ’Arry, ’Arry ! ’ 
 and Harry Lant came up at the double, having been 
 busy carrying arms out of the guard-room rack. 
 
 It was at one and the same moment that Harry 
 Lant saw what was wrong, and that a cold dull chill 
 ran through me, for I saw Lizzy clasp her hands 
 together in a sort of thankful way, and it seemed to 
 me then, as Harry ran up to the elephant, that he 
 was always to be put before me, and that I was 
 nobody, and the sooner I was out of the way the 
 better. 
 
 All the same, though, I couldn’t help admiring the 
 way Harry ran up to the great brute, and did what 
 none of us could manage. I quite hated him, I know, 
 but yet I was proud of my mate, as he went up and 
 says something to Nabob, and the elephant stands 
 still. 4 Put him down,’ says Harry, pointing to the 
 ground ; and the great flesh-mountain puts the little 
 fellow down. ‘Now then,’ says Harry, to the horror 
 of the ladies , 4 pick him up again ; ’ and in a twinkling 
 the great thing whips the boy up once more. ‘Now, 
 bring him up to the colonel’s lady.’ Well, if you’ll 
 believe me, if the great thing didn’t follow Harry like 
 a lamb, and carry the child up to where, half faint- 
 ing, knelt poor Mrs Maine. ‘Now, put him down,’ 
 says Harry ; and the next moment little Clive Maine 
 — Cock Bobin, as we called him — was being hugged 
 to his mother’s breast. ‘Now, go down on your 
 knees, and beg the ladies’ pardon,’ says Harry laugh- 
 ing. Down goes the elephant, and stops there, 
 making a queer chuntering noise the while. ‘ Says 
 he ’s very sorry, ma’am, and won’t do so no more,’ 
 says Harry, serious as a judge ; and in a moment, 
 half laughing, half crying, Mrs Maine caught hold of 
 Harry’s hand, and kissed it, and then held it for a 
 moment to her breast, sobbing hysterically as she did 
 so. 
 
 4 God bless you ! You ’re a good man,’ she cried ; 
 and then she broke down altogether ; and Miss Boss, 
 and Mrs Bantem, and Lizzy got round her, and helped 
 her in. 
 
 I could see that Harry was touched, for one of his 
 lips shook; but he tried to keep up the fun of the 
 thing ; and turning to the elephant, he says out 
 loud : 4 Now, get up, and go back to the hay ; and 
 don’t you come no more of those games, that’s all.’ 
 
 The elephant got up directly, making a grunting 
 noise as he did so. 
 
 4 Why not?’ says Harry, making-believe that that 
 was what the great beast said. 4 Because, if you ^ do, 
 I ’ll smash you. There ! ’ 
 
 Officers and men, they all burst out laughing, to see 
 little Harry Lant — a chap so little that he wouldn’t 
 have been in the regiment only that men were scarce, 
 and the standard was very low when he listed — to see 
 him standing shaking his fist at the great monster, 
 one of whose legs was bigger than Harry altogether 
 — stand shaking his fist in its face, and then take hold 
 of the soft trunk and lead him away. 
 
 Perhaps I did, perhaps I didn’t, but I thought I 
 caught sight of a glance passing between Lizzy Green, 
 now at one window, and Harry, leading off the 
 elephant ; but all the same I felt that jealous of him, 
 and to hate him so that I could have quarrelled with 
 
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 him about nothing. It seemed as if he was always 
 to come before me in everything. 
 
 And I wasn’t the only one jealous of Harry, for no 
 sooner was the court pretty well empty, than he 
 came slowly up towards me, in spite of my sour black 
 looks, which he wouldn’t notice ; but before he could 
 get to me, Chunder Chow, the mahout, goes up to the 
 elephant, muttering and spiteful-like, with his hook- 
 spear thing, that mahouts use to drive with ; and 
 being, I suppose, put out, and jealous, and annoyed 
 at his authority being taken away, and another man 
 doing what he couldn’t, he gives the elephant a kick 
 in the leg, and then hits him viciously with his iron 
 hook thing. 
 
 Lord bless you ! it didn’t take an instant, and it 
 seemed to me that the elephant only gave that trunk 
 of his a gentle swing against Chunder’s side, and he 
 was a couple of yards off, rolling over and over in the 
 hay scattered about. 
 
 Up he jumps, wild as wild ; and the first thing he 
 catches sight of is Harry laughing fit to crack his 
 sides, when Chunder rushes at him like a mad bull. 
 
 I suppose he expected to see Harry turn tail and 
 run ; but that being one of those things not included 
 in drill, and a British soldier having a good deal of the 
 machine about him, Harry stands fast, and Chunder 
 pulls up short, grinning, rolling his eyes, and twisting 
 his hands about, just for all the world like as if he was 
 robbing a hen-roost, and wringing all the chickens’ 
 necks. 
 
 ‘Didn’t hurt much, did it, blacky?’ says Harry 
 coolly. But the mahout couldn’t speak for rage ; but 
 he kept spitting on the ground, and making signs, 
 till really his face was anything but pretty to look 
 at. And there he kept on, till, from laughing, Harry 
 turned a bit nasty, for there was some one looking 
 out of a window; and from being half-amused at 
 what was going on, • I once more felt all cold and 
 bitter. But Harry fires up now, and makes towards 
 Mr Chunder, who begins to retreat ; and says Harry : 
 ‘ How I tell you what it is, young man ; I never did 
 you any ill turn ; and if I choose to have a bit of fun 
 with the elephant, it ’s government property, and as 
 much- mine as yours. But look ye here — if you come 
 cussing, and spitting, and swearing at me again in 
 
 your nasty heathen dialect, why, if I don’t Ho,’ 
 
 he says, stopping short, and half-turning to me, ‘I 
 can’t black his eyes, Isaac, for they ’re black enough 
 already ; but let him come any more of it, and, jigger - 
 maree, if I don’t bung ’em ! ’ 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Chunder didn’t like the looks of Harry, I suppose, 
 so he walked off, turning once to spit and curse, like 
 that turn-coat chap, Sliimei, that you read of in the 
 Bible ; and we two walked off together towards our 
 quarters. 
 
 ‘ I ain’t going to stand any of his nonsense,’ says 
 Harry. 
 
 ‘ It ’s bad making enemies now, Harry,’ I said 
 gruffly. And just then up comes Measles, who had 
 been relieved, for his spell was up now, and another 
 party were on, else he would have had to be in the 
 guard-room. 
 
 ‘ There never was such an unlucky beggar as me,’ 
 says Measles. ‘ If a chance does turn up for earning 
 a bit of promotion, it ’s always some one else gets it. 
 Come on, lads, and let ’s see what Mother Bantem ’s 
 got in the pot.’ 
 
 ‘ You ’ll perhaps have a chance before long of 
 earning your bit of promotion without going out,’ 
 I says. 
 
 ‘ Ike Smith ’s turned prophet and croaker in ornary,’ 
 says Harry, laughing. ‘ I believe he expects we ’re 
 oing to have a new siege of Seringapatam here, only 
 aclcards way on.’ 
 
 ‘Only wish some of ’em would come this way,’ 
 says Measles grimly ; and he made a sort of offer, and 
 a hit out at some imaginary enemy. 
 
 ‘ Here they are,’ says Joe Bantem, as we walked 
 in. ‘ Curry for dinner, lads — look alive.’ 
 
 ‘ What, my little hero ! ’ says Mrs Bantem, fetching 
 Harry one of her slaps on the back. ‘My word, 
 you ’re in fine plume wuth the colonel’s lady.’ 
 
 Slap came her hand down again on Harry’s back ; 
 and as soon as he could get wind : ‘ Oh, I say, don’t,’ 
 says Harry. ‘Thank goodness, I ain’t a marrie.d 
 man. — Is she often as affectionate as this with you, 
 Joe?’ 
 
 Joe Bantem laughed; and soon after we were all 
 making, in spite of threatened trouble and disappoint- 
 ment, an uncommonly hearty dinner, for, if there ever 
 was a woman who could make a good curry, it w r as 
 Mrs Bantem ; and many ’s the cold winter ’s day I ’ve 
 stood in Facet’s door there in Bond Street, and longed 
 for a plateful. Pearls stewed in sunshine, Harry Lant 
 used to call it ; and really to see the beautiful, glis- 
 tening, white rice, every grain tender as tender, and 
 yet dry and ready to roll away from the others — 
 none of your mosh-posh rice, if Mrs Bantem boiled it 
 — and then the rich golden curry itself : there, I ’ve 
 known that woman turn one of the toughest old 
 native cocks into what you ’d have sworn was a deli- 
 cate young Dorking chick — that is, so long as you 
 didn’t get hold of a drumstick, which perhaps would 
 be a bit ropy. That woman was a regular blessing 
 to our mess, and we fellows said so, many a time. 
 
 One, two, three days passed without any news, and 
 we in our quarters were quiet as if thousands of miles 
 from the rest of the world. The town kept as deserted 
 as ever, and it seemed almost startling to me when I 
 was posted sentry on the roof, after looking out over 
 the wide, sandy, dusty plain, over which the sunshine 
 was quivering and dancing, to peer down amongst the 
 little ramshackle native huts without a sign of life 
 amongst them, and it took but little thought for me 
 to come to the conclusion that the natives knew of 
 something terrible about to happen, and had made 
 that their reason for going away. Though, all the 
 same, it might have been from dread lest we should 
 seek to visit upon them and theirs the horrors that 
 had elsewhere befallen the British. 
 
 I used often to think, too, that Captain Dyer had 
 some such feelings as mine, for he looked very, very 
 serious and anxious, and he ’d spend hours on the 
 roof with his glass, Miss Boss often being by his side, 
 while Lieutenant Leigh used to watch them in a 
 strange way, when he thought no one was observing 
 him. 
 
 I ’ve often thought that when people get touched 
 with that queer complaint folks call love, they get 
 into a curious half-delirious way, that makes them 
 fancy that people are nearly blind, and have their 
 eyes shut to what they do or say. I fancy there was 
 something of this kind with Miss Boss, and I ’m 
 sure there was with me when I used to go hanging 
 about, trying to get a word with Lizzy ; and, of 
 course, shut up as w r e all were then, often having the 
 chance, but getting seldom anything but a few cold 
 answers, and a sort of show of fear of me whenever I 
 was near to her. 
 
 But what troubled me as much as anything, was 
 the behaviour of the four Indians we had shut up 
 with us — Chunder Chow, the old black nurse, and 
 two more — for they grew more uppish and bounce- 
 able every day, refusing to work, until Captain Dyer 
 had one of the. men tied up to the triangles and 
 flogged, down in a great cellar or vault place that 
 there was under the north end of the palace, so that 
 the ladies and women shouldn’t hear his cries. He 
 deserved all he got, as I can answer for, and that 
 made the rest a little more civil, but not for long ; 
 and, just the day before something happened, I took 
 
BEGUMBAGH. 
 
 Chambers’s Journal, 
 Dec. 25, 1869.] 
 
 13 
 
 the liberty of saluting Captain Dyer, after he had 
 been giving me some orders, and took that chance of 
 speaking my mind. 
 
 ‘ Captain,’ I says, ‘ 1 don’t think those black folks 
 are to be trusted.’ 
 
 ‘ Neither do I, Smith,’ he says. ‘ But what have 
 you to tell me ? ’ 
 
 ‘ Nothing at all, captain, only that I have my eye 
 on them ; and I ’ve been thinking that they must 
 somehow or another have held communication out- 
 side ; and I don’t like it, for those people don’t get 
 what we call cheeky without cause.’ 
 
 * Keep both eyes on them then, Smith,’ says Cap- 
 tain Dyer, smiling ; ‘ and, no matter what it is — if it 
 is the most trivial thing in any way connected with 
 them, report it.’ 
 
 ‘ I will, sir,’ I says ; and the very next day, much 
 against the grain, I did have something to report. 
 
 IX. 
 
 The next morning was hotter, I think, than ever, 
 with no prospect either of rain or change ; and, after 
 doing what little work I had to get over, it struck 
 me that I might as well attend to what Captain Dyer 
 advised — give two eyes to Chunder and his friends ; 
 so I left Mrs Bantem busy over her cooking, and went 
 down into the court. 
 
 All below was as still as death — sunshine here, 
 shadow there ; but, through one of the windows, open 
 to catch the least breeze that might be on the way, 
 and taking in instead the hot, sultry air, came now 
 and then the silvery laughter of the children — that 
 pleasant cheery sound that makes the most rugged 
 old face grow a trifle smoother. 
 
 I looked here, and I looked there, but could only 
 see old Nabob amusing himself with the hay, a sentry 
 on the roof to the east, and another on the roof to the 
 west, and one in the gateway, broiling almost, all of 
 them, with the heat. 
 
 The ladies and the children were seldom seen now’, 
 for they were in trouble ; and Mrs Maine was woru 
 almost to skin and bone with anxiety, as she sat wait- 
 ing for tidings of the expedition. 
 
 Not knowing what to do with myself, I sauntered 
 along by where there was a slip of shade, and entered 
 the south side of the palace— an old half-ruinous part ; 
 and after going first into one, and then into another 
 of the bare empty rooms, I picked out what seemed 
 to be the coolest corner I could find, sat down with 
 my back propped against the wall, filled and lit my 
 pipe, and then putting things together in my mind, 
 thoroughly enjoyed a good smoke. 
 
 There was something wonderfully soothing in that 
 bit of tobacco, and it appeared to me cooling, com- 
 forting, and to make my bit of a love-affair seem not 
 so bad as it was. So, on the strength of that, I 
 refilled, and was about half-way through another pipe, 
 when things began to grow very dim round about me’ 
 and I was wandering about in my dreams, and nodding 
 that head of mine in the most curious and wild way 
 you can think of. What I dreamed about most was 
 about getting married to Lizzy Green ; and in what 
 must have been a very short space, that event was 
 coming off at least half-a-dozen times over, only 
 Nabob , the elephant, would come in at an awkward 
 time and put a stop to it. But at last, in my dreamy 
 fashion, it seemed to me that matters were smoothed 
 over, and he consented to put down the child, and, 
 flapping his ears, promised he ’d say yes. But in my 
 stupid, confused muddle, I thought that he’d no 
 sooner put down the child with his trunk than he 
 wheeled round and took him up with his tail ; and so 
 on, backwards and forwards, when, getting quite out 
 of patience, I caught Lizzy’s hand in mine, saying : 
 ‘Never mind the elephant — let’s have it over;’ and 
 she gave a sharp scream. 
 
 I jumped to my feet, biting off and swallowing a 
 bit of pipe-shank as I did so, and then stood drenched 
 with perspiration, listening to a scuffling noise in the 
 next room ; when, shaking off the stupid confused 
 feeling, I ran towards the door just as another scream 
 — not a loud, but a faint excited scream — rang in my 
 ears, and the next moment Lizzy Green was sobbing 
 and crying in my arms, and that black thief Chunder 
 was crawling on his hands and knees to the door, 
 where he got up, holding his fist to his mouth, and 
 then he turned upon me such a look as I have never 
 forgotten. 
 
 I don’t wonder at the people of old painting devils 
 with black faces, for I don’t know anything more 
 devilish-looking than a black’s phiz when it is drawn 
 with rage, and the eyes are rolling about, now all 
 black flash, now all white, while the grinning ivories 
 below seem to be grinding and ready to tear you in 
 pieces. 
 
 It was after that fashion that Chunder looked at 
 me as he turned at the door ; but I was then only 
 thinking of the trembling, frightened girl I held in 
 my arms, trying at the same time to whisper a few 
 gentle words, while I had hard work to keep from 
 pressing my lips to her white forehead. 
 
 But the next minute she disengaged herself from 
 my grasp, and held out her little white hand to me, 
 thanking me as sweetly as thanks could be given. 
 
 ‘ Perhaps you had better not say a word about it,’ 
 she whispered. ‘ He ’s come under pretence of seeing 
 the nurse, and been rude to me once or twice before. 
 I came here to sit at that window with my work, and 
 did not see him come behind me.’ 
 
 I started as she spoke about that open window, for 
 it looked out upon the spot where I sometimes stood 
 sentry ; but then, Harry Lant sometimes stood just 
 in the same place, and I don’t know whether it was a 
 strange impression caused by his coming, that made 
 me think of him, but just then there were footsteps, 
 and, with his pipe in his mouth, and fatigue- jacket all 
 unbuttoned, Harry entered the room. 
 
 ‘ Beg pardon ; didn’t know it was engaged,’ he says 
 lightly, as he stepped back ; and then he stopped, for 
 Lizzy called to him by his name. 
 
 ‘ Please walk back with me to Mrs Maine’s 
 quarters,’ she said softly ; and once more holding her 
 hand out to me, with her eyes cast down, she thanked 
 me ; and the question I had been asking myself — Did 
 she love Harry Lant better than me ? — was to my 
 mind answered, and I gave a groan as I saw them 
 walk off together, for it struck me then that they had 
 engaged to meet in that room, only Harry Lant was 
 late. 
 
 ‘ Never mind,’ I says to myself ; ‘ I ’ve done a 
 comrade a good turn.’ And then I thought more and 
 more of there being a feeling in the blacks’ minds 
 that their day was coming, or that ill-looking 
 scoundrel would never have dared to insult a white 
 woman in open day. 
 
 Ten minutes after, I was on my way to Captain 
 Dyer, for, in spite of what Lizzy had said, I felt that, 
 being under orders, it was my duty to report all that 
 occurred with the blacks ; for we might at any time 
 have been under siege, and to have had unknown and 
 treacherous enemies in the camp would have been 
 ruin indeed. 
 
 ‘Well, Smith,’ he said, smiling as I entered and 
 saluted, ‘what news of the enemy?’ 
 
 ‘ Not much, sir,’ I said ; what I had to tell, going, 
 as I have before said, very much against the grain. 
 
 ‘ I was in one of the empty rooms on the south side, 
 when I heard a scream, and running up, I found it 
 was Miss Boss ’ 
 
 ‘ What ! ’ he roared, in a voice that would have 
 startled a stronger man than I. 
 
 ‘Miss Boss’s maid, sir, with that black fellow 
 Chunder, the mahout, trying to kiss her.’ 
 
 
CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL— CHRISTMAS NUMBER. 
 
 
 14 
 
 [Dee. 25, 1869. 
 
 ‘Well?’ he said, with a black angry look over- 
 spreading his face. 
 
 ‘Well, sir,’ I said, feeling quite red as I spoke, 
 ‘ he kissed my fist instead — that ’s all.’ 
 
 Captain Dyer began to walk up and down, playing 
 with one of the buttons on his breast, as was his way 
 when eager and excited. 
 
 ‘ Now, Smith,’ he said at last, stopping short before 
 me, ‘what does that mean?’ 
 
 ‘Mean, sir?’ I said, feeling quite as excited as him- 
 self. ‘ Well, sir, if you ask me, I say that if it was in 
 time of peace and quiet, it would only mean that it 
 
 was a bit of his damned black I beg your 
 
 pardon, captain,’ I says, stopping short, for, you see, 
 it was quite time. 
 
 ‘ Go on, Smith,’ he said quietly. 
 
 ‘ His black impudence, sir.’ 
 
 ‘ But, as it is not in time of peace and quiet, Smith?’ 
 he said, looking me through and through. 
 
 ‘ Well, sir,’ I said, ‘ I don’t want to croak, nor for 
 other people to believe what I say ; but it seems to 
 me that that black fellow’s kicking out of the ranks 
 means a good deal ; and I take it that he is excited 
 with the news that he has somehow got hold of — 
 news that is getting into his head like so much green 
 ’rack. I ’ve thought of it some little time now, 
 sir ; and it strikes me that if, instead of our short 
 company being Englishmen, they were all Chunder 
 Chows, before to-morrow morning, begging your 
 pardon, Captain Dyer and Lieutenant Leigh would 
 have said “ Right wheel ” for the last time.’ 
 
 ‘ And the women and children ! ’ he muttered softly : 
 but I heard him. 
 
 lie did not speak then for quite half a minute, 
 when he turned to me with a pleasant smile. 
 
 ‘ But you see, though, Smith,’ he said, ‘ our short 
 company is made up of different stuff ; and therefore 
 
 there ’s some hope for us yet ; but Ah, Leigh, 
 
 did you hear what he said ? ’ 
 
 ‘ Yes,’ said the lieutenant, who had been standing 
 at the door for a few moments, scowling at us 
 both. 
 
 ‘ Well, what do you think ? ’ said Captain Dyer. 
 
 ‘Think?’ said Lieutenant Leigh contemptuously, as 
 he turned away — ‘ nothing ! ’ 
 
 ‘ But,’ said Captain Dyer quietly, * really I think 
 there is much truth in what he, an observant man, 
 says.’ 
 
 There was a challenge from the roof just then ; 
 and we all went out to find that a mounted man 
 was in sight ; and on the captain making use of his 
 glass, I heard him tell Lieutenant Leigh that it was 
 an orderly dragoon. 
 
 A few minutes after, it was plain enough to every- 
 body ; and soon, man and horse dead beat, the orderly 
 with a despatch trotted into the court. 
 
 It was a sight worth seeing, to look upon Mrs Maine 
 clutching at the letter enclosed for her in Captain 
 Dyer’s despatch. Poor woman ! it was a treasure to 
 her — one that made her pant as she hurriedly snatched 
 it from the captain’s hand, for all formality was for- 
 gotten in those days; and then she hurried away 
 to where her sister was waiting to hear the news. 
 
 x. 
 
 The orderly took back a despatch from Captain 
 Dyer, starting at daybreak the next; morning; but 
 before then, we all knew that matters were getting to 
 wear a terrible aspect. At first, I had been disposed 
 to think that the orderly was romancing, and giving 
 us a few travellers’ tales ; but I soon found out that 
 he was in earnest ; and more than once I felt a shiver 
 as he sat with our mess, telling us of how regiment 
 after regiment had mutinied and murdered their 
 officers ; how station after station had been plun- 
 dered, collectors butchered, and their wives and 
 
 daughters sometimes cut down, sometimes carried off 
 by the wretches, who had made a sport of throwing 
 infants from one to the other on their bayonets. 
 
 ‘I never had any children,’ sobbed Mrs Bantem 
 then ; ‘ and I never wished to have any ; for they ’re 
 not right for soldiers’ wives ; but only to think— the 
 poor sweet, suffering little things. Oh, if I ’d only 
 been a man, and been there! ’ 
 
 We none of us said anything ; but I believe all 
 thought as I did, that if Mrs Bantem had been there, 
 she’d have done as much — ah, perhaps more — than 
 some men would have done. Bless my soul ! as I 
 think of it, and recall it from the bygone, there I can 
 see Mother Bantem — though why we called her 
 mother, I don’t know, unless it was because she was 
 like a mother to us — with her great strapping form ; 
 and think of the way in which she ’ 
 
 Halt ! Retire by fours from the left. 
 
 Just in time; for I find handliug my pen’s like 
 handling a commander-in-chief’s staff, and that I ’ve 
 got letters which make words, which make phrases, 
 which make sentences, which make paragraphs, which 
 make chapters, which make up the whole story : and 
 that is for all the world like the army with its privates 
 made into companies, and battalions, and regiments, 
 and brigades. Well, there you are : if you don’t 
 have discipline, and every private in his right place, 
 where are you ? Just so with me ; my words were 
 coming out in the wrong places, and in another 
 minute I should have spoiled my story, by letting 
 you know what was coming at the wrong time. 
 
 Well, we all felt very deeply the news brought in 
 by that orderly, for soldiers are not such harum- 
 scarum roughs as some people seem to imagine. For 
 the most part, they ’re men with the same feelings 
 as civilians ; and I don’t think many of us slept very 
 sound that night, feeling as we did what a charge we 
 had, and that we might be attacked at any time ; and 
 a good deal of my anxiety was on account of Lizzy 
 Green ; for even if she wouldn’t be my wife, but 
 Harry Lant’s, I could not help taking a wonderful 
 deal of interest in her. 
 
 But all the same it was a terribly awkward time, 
 as you must own, for falling in love; and I don’t 
 know hardly whom I pitied most, Captain Dyer or 
 myself; but think I had more leanings towards 
 number one, because Captain Dyer was happy; 
 though, perhaps, I might have been; only like lots 
 more hot sighing noodles, I never once thought of 
 asking the girl if she ’d have me. As for Lieutenant 
 Leigh, I never once thought of giving him a bit of 
 pity, for I did not think he deserved it. 
 
 Well, the trooper started off at daybreak, so as to 
 get well on his journey in the early morning; and 
 about an hour after he was gone, I had a fancy to go 
 into the old ruined room again, where there was the 
 bit of a'" scene I ’ve told you of. My orders from 
 Captain Dyer were, to watch Chunder strictly, both 
 as to seeing that he did not again insult any of the 
 women, and also to see if he had any little game of 
 his own that he was playing on the sly ; for though 
 Lieutenant Leigh, on being told, pooh-poohed it all, 
 and advised a flogging, Captain Dyer had his suspi- 
 cions — stronger ones, it seemed, than mine ; and hence 
 my orders and my being excused from mounting 
 guard. 
 
 It was all very still, and cool, and quiet as I walked 
 from room to room, slowly and thoughtfully, stopping 
 to pick up my broken pipe, which lay where I had 
 dropped it ; and then going on into the next room, 
 where, under the window, lay the bit of cotton cob- 
 web and cat’s-cradle work Lizzy had been doing, and 
 had left behind. I gave a bit of a gulp as I picked 
 that up, and I was tucking it inside my jacket when 
 I stopped short, for I thought I heard a whisper. 
 
 I listened, and there it was again — a low, earnest 
 whispering of first one and then another voice in the 
 
 -- 
 
Chambers’s Journal, 
 Dee. 25, 1869.] 
 
 BEGUMBAGH. 
 
 15 
 
 next room, whose wide broken doorway stood open, 
 for there wasn’t a bit of woodwork left. 
 
 I have heard about people saying, that in some 
 great surprise or fright, their hearts stood still ; but I 
 don’t believe it, because it always strikes me that, 
 when a peuson’s heart does stand still, it never goes 
 on again. All the same, though, my heart felt then as 
 if it did stand still with the dead, dull, miserable feel- 
 ing that came upon me. Only to think that on this, 
 the second time, I had come through these ruined 
 rooms, and they were here again ! It was plain enough 
 Harry Lant and Lizzy made this their meeting-place, 
 and only they knew how many times they’d met 
 before. 
 
 Time back, I could have laughed at the idea of me, 
 a great strapping fellow, feeling as I did ; but now I 
 felt very wretched ; and as I thought of Harry Lant 
 kissing those bright red lips, and looking into those 
 -deep dark eyes, and being let pass his hand over the 
 glossy hair, with the prospect of some day calling it 
 all his own, I did not burn all over with a mad rage 
 and passion, but it was like a great grief coming upon 
 me, so that, if it hadn’t been for being a man, I could 
 have sat down and cried. 
 
 I should think ten minutes passed, and the whis- 
 pering still went on, when I said to myself : ‘ Be a 
 man, Isaac ; if she likes him better, hasn’t she a right 
 to her pick?’ But still I felt very miserable as I 
 turned to go away, when a something, said a little 
 louder than the rest, stopped me. 
 
 ‘ That ain’t English,’ I says to myself. ‘ What ! 
 surely she ’s not listening to that black scoundrel ?’ 
 
 I was red-hot then in a moment ; and as to think- 
 ing whether this or that was straightforward, or 
 whether I was playing the spy, or anything of that 
 -sort, such an idea never came into my head, Chunder 
 was evidently talking to Lizzy Green in that room ; 
 •and for a few seconds I felt blind with a sort of jealous 
 savage rage — against her, mind, now ; and going on 
 tip-toe, I looked round the doorway, so as to see as 
 well as hear. 
 
 I was back in an instant, with a fresh set of sensa- 
 tions busy in mjc. breast. It was Chunder, but he was 
 alone ; there was no Lizzy there ; and I don’t know 
 whether my heart beat then for joy at knowing it, or 
 for shame at myself for having thought such a thing 
 of her. 
 
 What did it mean, then ? 
 
 I did not have to ask myself the question twice, for 
 the answer came — Treachery ! And stealing to the 
 slit of window in the room I was in, I peeped cau- 
 tiously out in time to see Chunder throwing out what 
 looked like a white packet. I could see his arm move 
 .as he threw it down to a man in a turban — a dark 
 wiry-looking rascal; and in those few seconds I 
 seemed to read that packet word for word, though no 
 doubt the writing was in one of the native dialects, 
 and my reading of it was, that it was a correct list of 
 the defenders of the place, the women and children, 
 and what arms and ammunition there were stored up. 
 
 It was all plain enough, and the villain was sending 
 it by a man who must have brought him tidings of 
 some kind. 
 
 What was I to do ? That man ought to be stopped 
 at all hazards ; and what I ought to have done was 
 to steal back, give the alarm, and let a party go round 
 to try and cut him off. 
 
 That’s what I ought to have done; but I never 
 did have much judgment. 
 
 Now for what I did do. 
 
 Slipping back from the window, I went cautiously 
 to the doorway, and entered the old room where 
 Chunder was standing at the window ; and I went in 
 so quietly, and he was so intent, that I had crept 
 close, and was in the act of leaping on to him before 
 .he turned round and tried to avoid me. 
 
 He was too late, though, for with a bound I was on 
 
 him, pinioning his hands, and holding him down on 
 the window-sill, with his head half out, as bearing 
 down upon him, I leaned out as far as I could, yelling 
 out : 
 
 ‘ Sentry in the next roof, mark man below. Stop 
 him, or fire.’ 
 
 The black fellow below drew a long, awkward- 
 looking pistol, and aimed at me, but only for a 
 moment. Perhaps he was afraid of killing Chunder, 
 for the next instant he had stuck the pistol back in 
 his calico belt, and, with head stooped, was running 
 as hard as he could run, when I could hardly contain 
 myself for rage, knowing as I did how important it 
 was for him to have been stopped. 
 
 * Bang ! ’ 
 
 A sharp report from the roof, and the fellow made 
 a bound. 
 
 Was he hit ? 
 
 No : he only seemed to run the faster. 
 
 ‘ Bang ! ’ 
 
 Another report as the runner came in sight of the 
 second sentry. 
 
 But I saw T no more, for all my time was taken up 
 with Chunder ; for as the second shot rang out, he 
 gave a heave, and nearly sent me through the open 
 window. 
 
 It was by a miracle almost that I saved myself 
 from breaking my neck, for it was a good height from 
 the ground; but I held on to him tightly with a 
 clutch such as he never had on his arms and neck 
 before ; and then, with a strength for which I 
 shouldn’t have given him credit, he tussled with me, 
 now tugging to. get away, now to throw me from the 
 window, his hot breath beating all the time upon 
 my cheeks, and his teeth grinning, and eyes rolling 
 savagely. 
 
 It was only a spurt, though, and I soon got the 
 better of him. 
 
 I don’t want to boast, but I suppose our cold 
 northern bone and muscle are tougher and stronger 
 than theirs ; and at the end of five minutes, puffing 
 and blown, I was sitting on his chest, taking a paper 
 from inside his calico. 
 
 That laid me open; for, like a flash, I saw then 
 that he had a knife in one hand, while before another 
 thought could pass through my mind, it was sticking 
 through my jacket and the skin of my ribs, and my 
 fist was driven down against his mouth for him to 
 kiss for the second time in his life. 
 
 Next minute, Captain Dyer and a dozen men were 
 in the room, Chunder was handcuffed and marched 
 off, and the captain was eagerly questioning me. 
 
 ‘But is that fellow shot down or taken — the one 
 outside ? ’ I asked. 
 
 ‘Neither,’ said Captain Dyer; ‘and it is too late 
 now : he has got far enough away.’ 
 
 Then I told him what I had seen, and he looked 
 at the packet*, his brow knitting as he tried to make 
 it out. 
 
 ‘ I ought to have come round, and given the alarm, 
 captain,’ I said bitterly. 
 
 ‘ Yes, my good fellow, you ought,’ he said ; c and I 
 ought to have had that black scoundrel under lock 
 and key days ago. But it is too late now to talk of 
 what ought to have been done ; we must talk of what 
 there is to do. — But are you hurt ?’ 
 
 ‘He sent his knife through my jacket, sir,’ I said, 
 ‘ but it ’s only a scratch on the skin ; ’ and fortunately 
 that’s what it proved to be, for we had no room for 
 wounded men, since we should have them soon 
 enough. 
 
 XI. 
 
 An hour of council, and then another — our two 
 leaders not seeming to agree as to the extent of the 
 coming danger. Challenge from the west roof : 
 
 ‘ Orderly in sight.’ 
 
CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL— CHRISTMAS NUMBER. 
 
 L u - 
 
 - Hi 
 
 16 
 
 Sure enough, a man on horseback riding very 
 slowly, and as if his horse was dead beat. 
 
 ‘ Surely it isn’t that poor fellow come back, because 
 his horse has failed ? He ought to have walked on,’ 
 said Captain Dyer. 
 
 ‘ Same man,’ said Lieutenant Leigh, looking through 
 his glass ; and before very long, the poor fellow who 
 had gone away at daybreak rode slowly up to the 
 gate, was admitted, and then had to be helped from 
 his horse, giving a great sobbing groan as it was done. 
 
 ‘ In here, quick ! ’ I said, for I thought I heard the 
 ladies’ voices ; and we carried him in to where Mrs 
 Bantem was, as usual, getting ready for dinner, and 
 there we laid him on a mattress. 
 
 ‘Despatches, captain,’ he says, holding up the 
 captain’s letter to Colonel Maine. ‘ They didn’t get 
 that. They were too many for me. I dropped one, 
 though, with my pistol, and cut my way through the 
 others.’ 
 
 As he spoke, I untwisted his leather sword-knot, 
 which was cutting into his wrist, for his hacked and 
 blood-stained sabre was hanging from his hand. 
 
 ‘Wouldn’t go back into the scabbard,’ he said 
 faintly; and then with a harsh gasp: ‘Water — 
 water ! ’ 
 
 He revived then a bit ; and as Captain Dyer and 
 Mrs Bantem between them were attending to, and 
 binding up his wounds, he told as how he had been 
 set upon ten miles off, and been obliged to fight his 
 way back ; and, poor chap, he had fought ; for there 
 were no less than ten lance-wounds in his arms, 
 thighs, and chest, from a slight prick up to a horrible 
 gash, deep and long enough, it seemed to me, to let 
 out half-a-dozen poor fellows’ souls. 
 
 Just in the middle of it, I saw Captain Dyer start 
 and look strange, for there was a shadow came across 
 where we were kneeling ; and the next instant he 
 was standing between Miss Ross and the wounded 
 man. 
 
 ‘ Pray, go, dear Elsie ; this is no place for you,’ 
 I heard him whisper to her. 
 
 ‘ Indeed, Lawrence,’ she whispered, ‘ am I not a 
 soldier’s daughter ? I ought to say this is no place 
 for you. Go, and make your arrangements for our 
 defence.’ 
 
 I don’t think any one but me saw the look of love 
 she .gave him as she took sponge and lint from his 
 hand, pressing it as she did so, and then her pale face 
 lit up with a smile as she met his eyes ; the next 
 moment she was kneeling by the wounded trooper, 
 and in a quiet firm way helping Mrs Bantem ? in a 
 manner that made her, poor woman, stare with 
 astonishment. 
 
 ‘ God bless you, my darling,’ she whispered to her, 
 as soon as they had done, and the poor fellow was 
 lying still — a toss-up with him whether it should be 
 death or life ; and I saw Mrs Bantem take Miss 
 Ross’s soft white hand between her two -great rough 
 hard palms, and kiss it just once. 
 
 ‘And I’d always been abusing and running her 
 down for a fine madam, good for nothing but to squeak 
 songs, and be looked at,’ Mrs Bantem said to me, a 
 little while after. ‘Why, Isaac Smith, we shall be 
 having that little maid shewing next that there’s 
 something in her.’ 
 
 ‘ And why not ?’ I said gruffly. 
 
 ‘ Ah, to be sure,’ %ays she, with a comical look out 
 of one eye ; ‘ why not ? But, Isaac, my lad,’ she 
 said sadly, and looking at me very earnestly, ‘I’m 
 afraid there ’s sore times coming ; and if so, God in 
 heaven help those poor bairns ! Oh, if I ’d been a 
 man, and been there ! ’ she cried, as she recollected 
 what the trooper had told us ; and she shook her 
 fist fiercely in the air. ‘ It ’s what I always did 
 say : soldiers’ wives have no business to have chil- 
 dren ; and it ’s rank cruelty to the poor little things 
 to bring them into the world.’ 
 
 Mrs Bantem then went off to see to her patient*, 
 while I walked into the court, wondering what would 
 come next, and whether, in spite of all the little 
 bitternesses and grumbling, everybody, now some of 
 the stern realities of life were coming upon us, would 
 shew up the bright side of his or her nature ; and 
 somehow I got very hopeful that they would. 
 
 I felt just then that I should have much liked to 
 have a few words with Lizzy Green, but I had no 
 chance, for it was a busy time with us. Captain Dyer 
 felt strongly enough his responsibility, and not a 
 minute did he lose in doing all he could for our defence ; 
 so that after an anxious day, with nothing more occur- 
 ring, when I looked round at what had been done in 
 barricading and so on, it seemed to me, speaking as 
 a soldier, that, as far as I could judge, there was 
 nothing more to be done, though still the feeling 
 would come home to me that it was a great place for 
 forty men to defend, if attacked by any number. 
 Captain Dyer must have seen that, for he had. arranged 
 to have a sort of citadel at the north end by the gate- 
 way, and this was to be the last refuge, where all the 
 ammunition and food and no end of chatties of water 
 were stowed down in the great vault-place, -which 
 went under this part of the building and a good deal 
 of the court. Then the watch was set, trebled this 
 time, on roof and at window, and we waited impa- 
 tiently for the morning. Yes, we all of us, I believe, 
 waited impatiently for the morning, when I think, if 
 we had known all that was to come, we should have 
 knelt down and prayed for the darkness to keep on 
 hour after hour, for days, and weeks, and months, 
 sooner than the morning should have broke as it did 
 upon a rabble of black faces, some over white clothes, 
 some over the British uniform that they had dis- 
 graced ; and as I, who was on the west roof, heard 
 the first hum of their coming, and caught the first 
 glimpse of the ragged column, I gave the alarm, 
 setting my teeth hard as I did so ; for, after many 
 years of soldiering, I was now for the first time to 
 see a little war in earnest. 
 
 Captain Dyer’s first act on the alarm being given 
 was to double the guard over the three blacks, now 
 secured in the strongest room he could find, the black 
 nurse being well looked after by the women. Then, 
 quick almost as thought, every man was at the post 
 already assigned to him; the women and children 
 were brought into the corner rooms by the gates, and 
 then we waited excitedly for what should follow. 
 The captain now ordered me out of the little party 
 under a sergeant, and made me his orderly, and so it 
 happened that always being with or about him, I 
 knew how matters were going on, and was always 
 carrying the orders, now to Lieutenant Leigh, now to 
 this sergeant or that corporal ; but at the first offset 
 of the defence of the old place, there was a dispute 
 between captain and lieutenant ; and I ’m afraid it 
 was maintained by the last out of obstinacy, and just 
 at a time when there should have been nothing but 
 pulling together for the sake of all concerned. I must 
 say, though, that there was right on both sides. 
 
 Lieutenant Leigh put it forward as his opinion that, 
 short of men as we were, it was folly to keep four 
 enemies under the same roof, who were likely at any 
 time to overpower the one or two sentries placed over 
 them; while, if there was nothing to fear in that way, 
 there was still the necessity of shortening our defen- 
 sive forces by a couple of valuable men. 
 
 ‘What would you do with them, then?’ said 
 Captain Dyer. 
 
 ‘ Set them at liberty,’ said Lieutenant Leigh. 
 
 ‘I grant all you say, in the first place,’ said the 
 captain ; ‘ but our retaining them is a sheer necessity.’ 
 
 ‘Why?’ said Lieutenant Leigh, with a sneer; and 
 I must say that at first I held with him. 
 
 ‘ Because,’ said the captain Sternly, ‘ if we set them 
 at liberty, we increase our enemies’ power, not merely 
 
Chambers’s Journal, 
 Dec. 25, I860.] 
 
 BEGUMBAGH. 
 
 17 
 
 with three men, but with scoundrels who can give 
 them the fullest information of our defences, over and 
 above that of which I am afraid they are already 
 possessed. The matter will not bear further discus- 
 sion. — Lieutenant Leigh, go now to your post, and do 
 your duty to the best of your power.’ 
 
 Lieutenant Leigh did not like this, and he frowned ; 
 but Captain Dyer was his superior officer, and it was 
 his duty to obey, so of course he did. 
 
 Now, our position was such, that, say, a hundred 
 men with a field-piece could have knocked a wing in, 
 and then carried us by assault with ease ; but though 
 our enemies were full two hundred and fifty, and 
 many of them drilled soldiers, pieces you may say of 
 a great machine, fortunately for us, there was no one 
 to put that machine together, and set it in motion. 
 We soon found that out, for, instead of making the 
 best of things, and taking possession of buildings — 
 sheds and huts — here and there, from which to annoy 
 us, they came up in a mob to the gate, and one fellow 
 on a horse — a native chief, he seemed to be — gave his 
 sword a wave, and half-a-dozen sowars round him did 
 the same, and then they called to us to surrender. 
 
 Captain Dyer’s orders were to act entirely on the 
 defensive, and to fire no shot till we had orders, 
 leaving them to commence hostilities. 
 
 * For,’ said he, speaking to all the men, ‘ it may be 
 a cowardly policy with such a mutinous set in front 
 of us, but we have the women and children to think 
 of ; therefore, our duty is to hold the foe at bay, and 
 when we do fire, to make every shot tell. Beating 
 them off is, I fear, impossible, but we may keep them 
 out till help comes.’ 
 
 ‘Wouldn’t it be advisable, sir, to try and send off 
 another despatch?’ I said; ‘there’s the trooper’s 
 horse.’ 
 
 ‘Where?’ said Captain Dyer, with a smile. ‘That 
 has already been thought of, Smith; and Sergeant 
 Jones, the only good horseman we have, went off at 
 two o’clock, and by this time is, I hope, out of danger. 
 — Good heavens ! what does that mean?’ he said, using 
 his glass. 
 
 It was curious that I should have thought of such 
 a thing just then, at a time when four sowars led up 
 Sergeant Jones tied by a piece of rope to one of their 
 saddle-bows, while the trooper’s horse was behind. 
 
 Captain Dyer would not shew, though, that he was 
 put out by the failure of that hope : he only, passed 
 the word for the men to stand firm, and then, sent 
 me with a message to Mrs Colonel Maine, requesting 
 that every one might keep right away from the 
 windows, as the enemy might open fire at any time. 
 
 He was quite right, for just as I knocked at Mrs 
 Maine’s door, a regular squandering, scattering fire 
 began, and you could hear the bullets striking the 
 wall with a sharp pat, bringing down showers of 
 white lime-dust and powdered stone. 
 
 I found Mrs Maine seated on the floor with her 
 children, pale and trembling, the little things the 
 while laughing and playing over some pictures. Miss 
 Ross was leaning over her sister, and Lizzy Green 
 was waiting to give the children something else when 
 they were tired of the pictures. 
 
 As the rattle of the musketry began, it was soon 
 
 lain enough to see who had the stoutest hearts ; but 
 
 seemed to be noticing nothing, though I did a great 
 deal, and listened to Mrs Bantem’s voice in the next 
 room, bullying and scolding a woman for crying out 
 loud and upsetting everybody else. 
 
 I gave my message, and then Miss Ross asked me 
 if any one was hurt, to which I answered as cheerfully 
 as could be that we were all right as yet ; and then, 
 taking myself off, Lizzy Green came with me to the 
 door, and I held out my hand to say ‘ good-bye,’ for 
 I knew it was possible I might never see her again. 
 She gave me her hand, and said ‘Good-bye,’ in a 
 faltering sort of way, and it seemed to me that she 
 
 shrank from me. The next instant, though, there 
 was the rattling crash of the firing, and I knew now 
 that our men were answering. 
 
 XII. 
 
 As I went down into the court- yard, I found the 
 smoke rising in puffs as our men fired over the breast- 
 work at the mob coming at the gate. Captain Dyer 
 in the thick of it the while, going from man to man, 
 warning them to keep themselves out of sight, and to 
 aim low. 
 
 ‘ Take care of yourselves, my lads. I value every 
 one of you at a hundred of those black scoundrels. — 
 Tut, tut, whose that down ? ’ 
 
 ‘ Corporal Bray,’ says some one. 
 
 ‘Here, Emson, Smith, both of you lend a hand 
 here : we’ll make Bantem’s quarters hospital. — Now 
 then, look alive, ambulance party.’ 
 
 We were about lifting the poor fellow, who had 
 sunk down behind the breastwork, all doubled up 
 like, hands and knees ; and head down ; but as we 
 touched him, he straightened himself out, and looked 
 up at Captain Dyer. 
 
 ‘ Don’t touch me yet,’ he says in a whisper. ‘ My 
 stripes for some one, captain. Do for Isaac Smith 
 there. Hooray ! ’ he says faintly ; and he took off his 
 cap with one hand, gave it a bit of a wave — ‘God 
 save the Quee’ 
 
 ‘Bear him carefully to the empty ground floor, 
 south side,’ says Captain Dyer sternly; ‘and make 
 haste back, my lads : moments are precious.’ 
 
 ‘ I ’ll do that with Private Manning’s wife,’ says a 
 voice ; and turning as we were going to lift our dead 
 comrade, there was big, strapping Mrs Bantem, and 
 another soldier’s wife, and she then said a few words 
 to the captain. 
 
 ‘ Gone ?’ says Captain Dyer. 
 
 ‘ Quarter of an hour ago, sir,’ says Mrs Bantem ; 
 and then to me : ‘ Poor trooper, Isaac ! ’ 
 
 ‘ Another man here,’ says Captain Dyer. — ‘ No, not 
 you, Smith. — Fill up here, Bantem.’ 
 
 Joe Bantem waved his hand to his wife, and took 
 the dead corporal’s place, but not easily, for Measles, 
 who was next man, was stepping into it, when 
 Captain Dyer ordered him back. 
 
 ‘ But there ’s such a much better chance of dropping 
 one of them mounted chaps, sir,’ says Measles grum- 
 bling. 
 
 ‘Hold your tongue, sir, and go back to your own 
 loophole,’ says Captain Dyer ; and the way that 
 Measles kept on loading and firing, ramming down 
 his cartridges viciously, and then taking long and 
 careful aim, ah ! and with good effect, too, was a sight 
 to see. 
 
 All the while, we were expecting an assault, but 
 none came, for the mutineers fell fast, and did not 
 seem to dare to make a rush while we kept up such 
 practice. 
 
 Then I had to go round and ask Lieutenant Leigh 
 to send six more men to the gate, and to bring news 
 of what was going on round the other sides. 
 
 I found the lieutenant standing at the window 
 where I caught Chunder, and there was a man each 
 at all the other four little windows which looked 
 down at the outside — all the others, as I have said, 
 looking in upon the court. 
 
 The lieutenant’s men had a shot now and then at 
 any one who approached ; but the mutineers seemed 
 to have determined upon forcing the gate, and; so far 
 as I could see, there was very little danger to fear 
 from any other quarter. 
 
 I knew Lieutenant Leigh was not a coward, but 
 he seemed very half-hearted over the defence, doing 
 his duty but in a sullen sort of way; and of course 
 that was because he wanted to take the lead now 
 held by Captain Dyer ; and, perhaps it was misjudging 
 
CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL— CHRISTMAS NUMBER. 
 
 P - 
 
 18 
 
 =^1 
 
 (Dee. 25, 1869. 
 
 him, but I’m afraid just at that time be’d have been 
 very glad if a shot had dropped his rival, and he could 
 have stepped into his place. 
 
 Captain Dyer’s plan to keep the rabble at bay till 
 help could come, was of course quite right ; and that 
 night it was an understood thing, that another 
 attempt should be made to send a messenger to 
 Wallahbad, another of our corporals being selected for 
 the dangerous mission. 
 
 The fighting was kept on, in an on-and-off way till 
 evening, we losing several men, but a good many 
 falling^ on the other side, which made them more 
 cautious, and not once did we have a chance of 
 touching a Snan with the bayonet. Some of our men 
 grumbled a little at this, saying that it was very hard 
 to stand there hour after hour to be shot down ; and 
 Could they have done as they liked, they’d have 
 made a sally. 
 
 Then came the night, and a short consultation 
 between the captain and Lieutenant Leigh. The 
 mutineers had ceased firing at sundown, and we were 
 in hopes that there would be a rest till daylight, but 
 all the same the strictest watch was kept, and only 
 half the men lay down at a time. 
 
 Half the night, though, had not passed, when a 
 hand was laid upon my shoulder, and in an instant I 
 was up, piece in hand, to find that it was Captain 
 Dyer. 
 
 ‘Come here,’ he said quietly; and following him 
 into the room underneath where the women were 
 placed, he told me to listen, and I did, to hear a low, 
 grating, tearing noise, as of something scraping on 
 stone. ‘ That ’s been going on,’ he said, ‘ for a good 
 hour, and I can’t make it out, Smith.’ 
 
 ‘ Prisoners escaping,’ I said quietly. 
 
 ‘But they are not so near as thg,t. They were 
 confined in the next room but one,’ he said in a 
 whisper. 
 
 ‘ Broke through, then,’ I said. 
 
 Then we went — Captain Dyer and I— quietly up 
 on to the roof, answered the challenge, and then 
 walked to the edge, where, leaning over, we could 
 hear the dull grating noise once more ; then a stone 
 seemed to fall out on to the sandy way by the palace 
 walls. 
 
 It was all plain enough : they had broken through 
 from one room to another, where there was a window 
 no bigger than a loophole, and they were widening 
 this. 
 
 ‘ Quick, here, sentry,’ says the captain. 
 
 The next minute the sentry hurried up, and we had 
 a man posted as nearly over the window as we could 
 guess, and then I had my orders in a minute : 
 
 ‘ Take two men and the sentry at their door, rush 
 in, and secure them at once. But if they have got 
 out, join Sergeant Williams, and follow me to act as 
 reserve, for I am going to make a sally by the gate 
 to stop them from the outside.’ 
 
 I roused Harry Lant and Measles, and they were 
 with me in an instant. We passed a couple of 
 sentries, and gave the countersign, and then mounted 
 to the long stone passage which led to where the 
 prisoners had been placed. 
 
 As we three privates neared the door, the sentry 
 there challenged ; but when we came up to him and 
 listened, there was not a sound to be heard, neither 
 had he heard anything, he said. The next minute 
 the door Was thrown open, and we found an empty 
 room ; but a hole in the wall shewed us which way 
 the prisoners had gone. 
 
 We none of us much liked the idea of going through 
 that hole to be taken at a disadvantage, but duty 
 was duty, and running forward, I made a bold thrust 
 through with my piece in two or three directions ; 
 then I crept through, followed by Harry Lant, and 
 found that room empty too ; but they had not gone 
 by the doorway which led into the women’s part, but 
 
 enlarged the window, and dropped down, leaving a 
 large opening — one that, if we had not detected it 
 then, would no doubt have done nicely for the 
 entrance of a strong party of enemies. 
 
 ‘ Sentry here,’ I said ; and leaving the man at the 
 window, followed by Harry Lant and Measles, I ran 
 back, got down to the court-yard, crossed to where 
 Sergeant Williams with half-a-dozen men waited our 
 coming, and then we were passed through the gate, 
 and went along at the double to where we could hear 
 noise and shouting. 
 
 We had the narrow alley to go through — the one 
 I have before mentioned as being between the place 
 we had strengthened and the next building ; and no 
 sooner were we at the end, than we found we were 
 none too soon, for there, in the dim starlight, we 
 could see Captain Dyer and four men surrqunded by 
 a good score, howling and cutting at them like so 
 many demons, and plainly to be seen by their white 
 calico things. 
 
 ‘By your left* my lads, shoulder to shoulder — 
 double,’ says the sergeant. 
 
 Then we gave a cheer, and with hearts bounding 
 with excitement, down we rushed upon the scoundrels 
 to give them their first taste of the bayonet, cutting 
 Captain Dyer and two more men out, just as the 
 other two went down. 
 
 It was as fierce a fight that, as it was short ; for 
 we soon found the alarm spread, and enemies running 
 up on all sides. It was bayonet-drill then, and well 
 we shewed the practice, till we retired slowly to the 
 entrance of the alley ; but the pattering of feet and 
 cries told that there were 'more coming to meet us 
 that way ; when, following Captain Dyer’s orders, we 
 retreated in good form in the other direction, so as 
 to get round to the gate by the other alley, on the 
 south side. 
 
 And now for the first time we gave them a volley, 
 checking the advance for a few seconds, while we 
 retreated loading, to turn again, and give them 
 another volley, which checked them again ; but only 
 for a few seconds, when they came down upon us 
 like a swarm of bees, right upon our bayonets ; and 
 as fast as half-a-dozen fell, hali-a-dozen more were 
 leaping upon the steel. 
 
 We kept our line, though, one and all, retiring 
 in good order to the mouth of the second court, which 
 ran down by the south side of the palace ; when, as 
 if maddened at the idea of losing us, a whole host of 
 them came at us with a rush, breaking our line, and 
 driving us anyhow, mixed up together, down the 
 alley, which was dark as pitch ; but not so dark but 
 that we could make out a turban or a calico cloth, 
 and those bayonets of ours were used to some pur- 
 pose. 
 
 Half-a-dozen times over I heard the captain’s voice 
 cheering us on, and shouting : ‘ Cate, gate ! ’ Then I 
 saw the flash of his sword once, and managed to pin 
 a fellow who was making at him, just as we got out 
 at the other end with a fierce rush. Then I heard 
 the captain shout ‘ Bally ! ’ and saw him wave his 
 sword; and then I don’t recollect any more, for it 
 was one wild fierce scuffle — stab and thrust, in the 
 midst of a surging, howling, maddened mob, forcing 
 us towards the gateway. 
 
 I thought it was all over with us, when there came 
 a cheer, and the gate was thrown open, a dozen men 
 formed, and charged down, driving the niggers back 
 like sheep ; and then, somehow or another, we were 
 cut out, and, under cover of the new-comers, reached 
 the gate. 
 
 A ringing volley w r as then given into the thick 
 of the mutineers as they came pouring on again ; but 
 the next moment all were safely inside, and the gate 
 was thrust to and barred ; and, panting and bleed- 
 ing, we stood, six of us, trying to get our breath. 
 
 v ‘ This wouldn’t have happened,’ says a voice, ‘ if my 
 
 
 
Chambers’s Journal, 
 Dec. 25, 1869.] 
 
 BEGUMBAGH. 
 
 19 
 
 advice had been taken. I wish the black scoundrels 
 had been shot. ‘ Where’s Captain Dyer ? ’ 
 
 There was no answer, and a dead chill fell on me 
 as I seemed to realise that things had come now to 
 a bad pass. 
 
 ‘ Where’s Sergeant Williams ?’ said Lieutenant Leigh 
 again ; but it seemed to me that he spoke in a husky 
 voice. 
 
 ‘ Here ! ’ said some one faintly, and, turning, there 
 was the sergeant seated on the ground, and supporting 
 himself against the breast-work. 
 
 ‘Any one know the other men who went out on 
 this mad sally ? ’ says the lieutenant. 
 
 ‘ Where ’s Harry Lant ?’ I says. 
 
 There was no answer here either, and this time 
 it was my turn to speak in a queer husky voice as I 
 ©aid again : 
 
 ‘ Where ’s Measles ? I mean Sam Bigley.’ 
 
 * He ’s gone, too, poor chap,’ says some one. 
 
 ‘ No, he ain’t gone neither,’ says a voice behind me, 
 and, turning, there was Measles tying a handkerchief 
 round his head, muttering the while about some black 
 devil. ‘ I ain’t gone, nor I ain’t much hurt,’ he 
 growled ; ‘ and if I don’t take it out of some on ’em 
 for this chop o’ the head, it ’s a nun un ; and that ’s' 
 all I ’ve got to say.’ 
 
 ‘Load,’ says Lieutenant Leigh shortly; and we 
 loaded again, and then fired two or three volleys at 
 the niggers as they came up towards the gate once 
 more ; when some one calls out : 
 
 ‘ Ain’t none of us going to make a sally party, and 
 bring in the captain ? ’ 
 
 ‘ Silence there, in the ranks ! ’ shouts Lieutenant 
 Leigh ; and though it had a bad sound coming from 
 him as it did, and situated as he was, no one knew 
 better than I did, how that it would have been utter 
 madness to have gone out again ; for even if he were 
 alive, instead of bringing in Captain Dyer, now that 
 the whole mob was roused, we should have all been 
 ■cut to pieces. 
 
 It was as if in answer to the lieutenant’s order that 
 silence seemed to fall then, both inside and outside 
 the palace— a silence that was only broken now and 
 then by the half-smothered groan of some poor fellow 
 who had been hurt in the sortie— though the way 
 in which those men of ours did bear wounds, some 
 of them even that were positively awful, was a some- 
 thing worth a line in history. 
 
 Yes, there was a silence fell upon the place for the 
 rest of that night, and I remember thinking of the 
 wounds that had been made in two poor hearts by 
 that bad night’s work ; and I can say now, faithful 
 and true, that there was not a selfish thought in my 
 heart as I remembered Lizzy Green, any more than 
 there was when Miss Boss came uppermost in my 
 mind, for I knew well enough that they must have 
 soon known of the disaster that had befallen our 
 little party. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Whatever those poor women suffered, they took 
 •care it should not be seen by us men, and indeed we 
 had little time to think of them the next day. We 
 had given ourselves the task to protect them, and 
 we were fighting hard to do it, and that was all we 
 cpuld do then ; for the enemy gave us but little 
 peace ; not making any savage attack, but harassing 
 us in a cruel way, every man acting like for him- 
 self, and all the discipline the sepoys had learned 
 seeming to be forgotten. 
 
 As for Lieutenant Leigh, he looked cold and Stern, 
 but there was no flinching with him now: he was 
 in command, and he shewed it ; and though I never 
 liked the man, I must say that he shewed himself 
 now a brave and clever officer ; and but for his skilful 
 arrangement of the few men under his charge, that 
 place would have fallen half-a-dozen times over. 
 
 We had taken no prisoners, so that there was no 
 chance of talking of exchange; though I believe to 
 a man all thought that the captain and files missing 
 from our company were dead. , 
 
 The women now lent us their help, bringing down 
 spare muskets and cartridges, loading too for us ; so 
 that when the mutineers made an attack, we were 
 able to keep up a much sharper fire than we should 
 have done under other circumstances. 
 
 It was about the middle of the afternoon, when, 
 hot and exhausted, we were firing away, for the 
 bullets were coming thick and fast through the gate- 
 way, flying across the yard, and making a passage in 
 that direction nearly certain death, when I felt a 
 strange choking feeling, for Measles says to me all at 
 once : 
 
 ‘ Look there, Ike.’ 
 
 I looked, and I could hardly believe it, and rubbed 
 my eyes, for just in the thickest of the firing there 
 was the sound of merry laughter, and those two 
 children of the colonel’s came toddling out, right 
 across the line of fire, turned back to look up at some 
 one calling to them from the window, and then stood 
 still, laughing and clapping their hands. 
 
 I don’t know how it was, I only know that it 
 wasn’t to look brave, but, dropping my piece, I 
 rushed to catch them, just at the same moment as 
 did Miss Boss and Lizzy Green ; while, directly after, 
 Lieutenant Leigh rushed from where he was, caught 
 Miss Boss round the waist, and dragged her away, as 
 I did Lizzy and the children. 
 
 How it was that we were none of us hit, seems 
 strange to me, for all the time the bullets were 
 pattering on the wall beyond us. I only know I 
 turned sick and faint as I just said to Lizzy : ‘ Thank 
 God for that ! ’ and she led off the children ; Miss 
 Boss shrinking from Lieutenant Leigh with a strange 
 mistrustful look, as if she were afraid of him ; and the 
 next minute they were under cover, and we were back 
 at our posts. 
 
 ‘ Poor, bairns ! ’ says Measles to me, ‘ I ain’t often 
 glad of anything, Ike Smith, but I am glad they ain’t 
 hurt. Now my soul seemed to run and help them 
 myself, but my legs seemed as if they couldn’t move. 
 You need not believe it without you like,’ he added 
 in his sour way. 
 
 ‘ But I do believe it, old fellow,’ I said warmly, as I 
 held out my hand. ‘Chaff’s chaff, but you never 
 knew me make light of a good act done by a true- 
 hearted comrade.’ 
 
 ‘ All right,’ says Measles gruffly. ‘ Now, see me 
 pot that sowar. — Missed him, by Jove ! ’ he exclaimed, 
 as soon as he had fired. ‘ These pieces ain’t true. No ! 
 hit him ! He ’s down ! That ’s one bairn-killer the 
 less.’ f 
 
 ‘ Sam,’ I said just then, ‘ what ’s that coming up 
 between the huts yonder ?’ 
 
 ‘ Looks like a wagin,’ says Measles. ‘ ’Tis a wagin, 
 ain’t it ? ’ 
 
 ‘ No,’ I said, feeling that miserable I didn’t know 
 
 what to do ; ‘ it isn’t a wagon, Sam ; but Why, 
 
 there ’s another. A couple of field-pieces ! ’ 
 
 ‘ Nine-pounders, by all that ’s unlucky,’ said 
 Measles, slapping his thigh. ‘ Then I tell you what 
 it is, Ike Smith — it ’s about time we said our 
 prayers.’ 
 
 I didn’t answer, for the words would not come ; 
 but it was what had always been my dread, and it 
 seemed now that the end was very near. 
 
 Troubles were coming upon us thick; for being 
 relieved, a short time after, to go and have some tea 
 that* Mrs Bantem had got ready, I saw something 
 that made me stop short, and think of where we 
 should be- if the water supply was run out, for though 
 we ha<J the chatties down below in the vault under 
 the north end, we wanted what there was in the 
 tank, while there was 'Nabob, the great elephant, 
 
 
20 
 
 CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL — CHRISTMAS NUMBER. 
 
 - u 
 
 [Dec. 25, 186?. 
 
 drawing it up in his trunk, and cooling himself by 
 squirting it all over his back ! 
 
 I went to Lieutenant Leigh, and pointed it out to 
 him ; and the great *beast was led away ; when, there 
 being nothing else for it, we opened a way through 
 our breast- work, watched an opportunity, threw open 
 the gate, and he marched out right straight in 
 amongst the mutineers, who cheered loudly, after 
 their fashion, as he came up to them. 
 
 There was no more firing in that night, and taking 
 it in turns, we, some of us, had a sleep, I among the 
 rest, all dressed us I was, and with my gun in my 
 hand, ready for use at a moment’s notice ; and I 
 remember thinking what a deal depended on the 
 sentries, and how thoroughly our lives were in their 
 hands ; and then my next thought was of how was it 
 possible for it to be morning, for I had only seemed 
 to close my eyes, and then open them again on the 
 light of day. 
 
 But morning it was ; and with a dull, dead feeling 
 of misery upon me, I got up and gave myself a shake, 
 ran the ramrod down my piece, to see that it was 
 charged all right, looked to the cap, and then once 
 more prepared for the continuation of the struggle, 
 low-spirited and disheartened, but thankful for the 
 bit of refreshing rest I had had. 
 
 A couple of hours passed, and there was no move- 
 ment on the part of the enemy ; the ladies never 
 stirred, but we could hear ,the children laughing and 
 playing about, and how one did seem to envy the 
 little light-hearted, thoughtless things ! But my 
 thoughts were soon turned into another direction, for 
 Lieutenant Leigh ordered me up into one of the 
 rooms commanding the gateway, and looking out on 
 the square where the guns were standing, and came 
 up with me himself. 
 
 ‘You’ll have a good look-out from here, Smith,’ 
 he said ; ‘ and being a good shot’ 
 
 He didn’t say any more, for he was, like me, taken 
 up with the movement in the square — a lot of the 
 mutineers running the two guns forward in front of 
 the gate, and then closing round them, so that we 
 could not see what was going on ; but we knew well 
 enough that they were charging them, and there 
 seemed nothing for it but to let them fire, unless by a 
 bold sally we could get out and spike them. 
 
 Just then, Lieutenant Leigh looked at me, and I 
 at him, when, touching my cap in salute, I said : 
 ‘ Two good nails, sir, and a tap on each would do it.’ 
 
 ‘ Yes, Smith,’ he said grimly ; ‘ but who is to drive 
 those two nails home ?’ 
 
 I didn’t answer him for a minute, I should think, 
 for I was thinking over matters, about life, and 
 about Lizzy, and now that Harry Lant was gone, it 
 seemed to me that there might be a chance for me ; 
 but still duty was duty, and if men could not in such 
 a desperate time as this risk something, what was 
 the good of soldiers ? 
 
 ‘ I ’ll drive ’em home, sir,’ I says then quietly, ‘ or 
 they shall drive me home ! ’ 
 
 He looked at me for an instant, and then nodded. 
 
 ‘I’ll get the men ready,’ he says; ‘it’s our only 
 chance ; and with a bold dash we may do it. I ’ll 
 see to the armourer’s chest for hammers and spikes. 
 I ’ll spike one, Smith, and you the other ; but, mind, 
 if I fail, help me, as I will you, if you fail ; and God 
 help us ! Keep a sharp look-out till I come back.’ 
 
 He left the room, and I heard a little movement 
 below, as of the men getting ready for the sally; 
 and all the while I stood watching the crowd in 
 front, which now began hurraing and cheering ; and 
 there was a motion which shewed that the guns were 
 being run in nearer, till they stopped about fifty yards 
 from the gate. 
 
 ‘ What makes him so long ? ’ I thought, trembling 
 with excitement ; ‘ another minute, perhaps, and the 
 gate will be battered down, and that mob rushing in.’ 
 
 Then I thought that we ought all who escaped 
 from the sortie, in case of failure, to be ready to take 
 to the rooms adjoining where I was, which would be 
 our last hope ; and then I almost dropped my piece, 
 my mouth grew dry, and I seemed choked, for, with 
 a loud howl, the crowd opened out, and I saw a sight 
 that made my blood run cold — those two nine- 
 pounders standing with a man by each breech, smok- 
 ing linstock in hand; while bound, with their heads 
 against the muzzles, and their white faces towards 
 us, were Captain Dyer and Harry Lant ! 
 
 One spark — one touch of the linstock on the breech 
 — and those two brave fellows’ heads would be blown 
 to atoms ; and, as I expected that every moment 
 such would be the case, my knees knocked together ; 
 but the next moment I was down on those shaking 
 knees, my piece made ready, and a good aim taken, 
 so that I could have dropped one of the gunners 
 before he was able to fire. 
 
 I hesitated for a moment ^before I made up my 
 mind which to try and save, and the thought of Lizzy 
 Green came in my mind, and I said to myself : ‘ I love 
 her too well to give her pain,’ when, giving up Captain 
 Dyer, I aimed at the gunner by poor Harry Lant. 
 
 ‘Don’t fire,’ said a voice just then, and, turning, 
 there was Lieutenant Leigh. ‘ The black-hearted 
 wretches,’ he muttered. ‘But we are all ready ; though 
 now, if we start, it will be the signal for the death 
 of those two. — But what does this mean ? ’ 
 
 What made him say that, was a chief, all in shawls, 
 who rode forward and shouted out in good English, 
 that they gave us one hour to surrender ; but, at the 
 end of that time, if we had not marched out without 
 arms, they would blow their prisoners away from the 
 mouth of the guns. 
 
 Then, for fear we had not heard it, he spurred his 
 horse up to within ten yards of the gate, and shouted 
 it out again, so that every one could hear it through 
 the place ; and, though I could have sent a bullet 
 through and through him, I could not help admiring 
 the bold daring fellow, riding up right to the muzzles 
 of our pieces. 
 
 But all the admiration I felt was gone the next 
 moment, as I thought of the cruelties practised, and 
 of those bound there to those gun-muzzles. 
 
 There was nothing said for a few minutes, for I 
 expected the lieutenant to speak ; but as he did not, 
 I turned to him and said : 
 
 ‘ If all was ready, sir, I could drop one gunner; and 
 I ’d trust Measles — Sam Bigley — to drop the other, 
 when a bold dash might do it. You see they’ve 
 retired a good thirty yards, and we should only have 
 twenty more to run than they ; while the surprise 
 would give us that start. A good sharp jack-knife 
 would set the prisoners free, and a covering-party 
 would perhaps check the pursuit while we got in.’ 
 
 ‘We shall have to try it, Smith,’ he said, his 
 breath coming thick and fast with excitement ; and 
 then he seemed to turn white, for Miss Ross and 
 Lizzy came into the room. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 I should think it must have been the devil tempting 
 Lieutenant Leigh, or he would never have done as he 
 did ; for, as he looked at Miss Ross, the change that 
 came over him was quite startling. He could read 
 all that was passing in her heart ; there was no need 
 for her to lay her hand upon his arm, and point with 
 the other out of the window, as in a voice that I 
 didn’t know for hers, she said : 
 
 ‘ Will you leave those two brave men there to die, 
 Lieutenant Leigh ?’ 
 
 He didn’t answer for a moment, but seemed to be 
 struggling with himself ; then, speaking as huskily as 
 she did, he said : 
 
 ‘ Send away that girl ! ’ and before I could go 
 
Chambers’s Journal, 
 Dee. 25. 1869.] 
 
 BEGrUMBAGrH. 
 
 21 
 
 to her — for I should have done it then, I know — 
 and whisper a few words of hope, poor Lizzy went 
 out, mourning for Harry Lant, wringing her hands ; 
 and I stood at my post, a sentry by my commander’s 
 orders, so that it was no spying on my part if I heard 
 what followed. 
 
 I believe Lieutenant Leigh fancied he was speaking 
 in an undertone, when he led Miss Ross away to a 
 corner, and spoke to her ; but this was perhaps the 
 most exciting moment in his life, and his voice rose 
 in spite of himself, so that I heard all ; while she, poor 
 thing, I believe forgot all about my presence ; and, 
 as a sentry — a machine almost — placed there, what 
 right had I to speak ? 
 
 ‘ Will you leave him ? ’ said Miss Ross again. 
 ‘ Will you not try to save him ? ’ 
 
 Lieutenant Leigh did not answer for a bit, for he 
 was making his plans, and I felt quite staggered as 
 I saw through them. 
 
 ‘You see how he is placed : what can I do ?’ said 
 Lieutenant Leigh. ‘ If I go, it is the signal for firing. 
 You see the gunners waiting. And why should I 
 risk the lives of my men, and my own, to save him ? 
 He is a soldier, and it is the fortune of war : he must 
 die.’ 
 
 ‘ Are you a man, or a coward ? ’ said Miss Ross 
 angrily. 
 
 ‘ No coward,’ he said fiercely ; ‘ but a poor slighted 
 man, whom you have wronged, jilted, and ill-used ; 
 and now you come to me to save your lover’s life — 
 to give mine for it. You have robbed me of all that 
 is pleasant between you ; and now you ask more. 
 13 it just ?’ 
 
 ‘ Lieutenant Leigh, you are speaking madly. How 
 can you be so unjust ? ’ she cried, holding tightly by 
 his arm, for he was turning away, while I felt mad 
 with him for torturing the poor girl, when it was 
 decided that the attempt was to be made. 
 
 ‘ I am not unjust,’ he said. ‘ The hazard is too 
 great ; and what should I gain if I succeeded ? 
 Pshaw ! Why, if he were saved, it would be at the 
 expense of my own life.’ 
 
 ‘ I would die to save him,’ she said hoarsely. 
 
 ‘ I know it, Elsie ; but you would not give a loving 
 word to save me. You would send me out to my 
 death without compunction — without a care ; and yet 
 you know how I have loved you.’ 
 
 ‘ You — you loved me ; and yet stand and see my 
 heart torn — see me suffer like this ! ’ cried Miss Ross, 
 and there was something half wild in her looks as she 
 spoke. 
 
 ‘ Love you ! ’ he cried ; ‘ yes, you know how I have 
 loved you ’ 
 
 His voice sank here ; but he was talking in her ear 
 excitedly, saying words that made her shrink from 
 him up to the wall, and look at him as if he were some 
 object of the greatest disgust. 
 
 ‘ You can choose,’ he said bitterly, as he saw her 
 action ; and he turned away from her. 
 
 The next moment she was on her knees before him, 
 holding up her hands as if in prayer. 
 
 ‘ Promise me,’ he said, ‘ and I will do it.’ 
 
 ‘ Oh, some other way — some other way ! ’ she cried 
 piteously, her face all drawn the while. 
 
 ‘ As you will,* he said coldly. 
 
 ‘But think — oh, think! You cannot expect it of 
 me. Have mercy ! Oh, what am I saying?’ 
 
 ‘ Saying ! ’ he cried, catching her hands in his, and 
 speaking excitedly and fast — ‘ saying things that are 
 sending him to his death! What do I offer you? 
 Love, devotion, all that man can give. He would, 
 if asked now, give up all for his life ; and yet you, 
 who profess to love him so dearly, refuse to make 
 that sacrifice for his sake! You cannot love him. 
 If he could hear now, he would implore you to do 
 it. Think. I risk all. Most likely, my life will be 
 given for his ; perhaps we shall both fall. But you 
 
 refuse. Enough: I must go; I cannot stay. There 
 are many lives here under my charge ; they must not 
 be neglected for the sake of one. As I said before, 
 it is the fortune of war; and, poor fellow, he has 
 but a quarter of an hour or so to live, unless help 
 comes.’ 
 
 ‘ Unless help comes,’ groaned Miss Ross franticly, 
 when, as Lieutenant Leigh reached the door, watch- 
 ing me over his shoulder the while, Miss Ross went 
 down on her knees, stretched out her hands towards 
 where Captain Dyer was bound to the gun, and then 
 she rose, cold, and hard, and stern, and turned to 
 Lieutenant Leigh, holding out her hand. ‘ I promise,’ 
 she said hoarsely. 
 
 ‘ On your oath, before God? ’ he exclaimed joyfully, 
 as he caught her in his arms. 
 
 ‘As God is my judge,’ she faltered with her eyes 
 upturned ; and then, as he held her to his br east, 
 kissing her passionately, she shivered and shuddered, 
 and, as he released her, sank in a heap on the 
 floor. 
 
 ‘ Smith,’ cried Lieutenant Leigh ; ‘ right face — 
 forward ! ’ and as I passed Miss "Ross, I heard her 
 sob in a tone I shall never forget : ‘ 0 Lawrence, 
 Lawrence ! ’ and then a groan tore from her breast, 
 and I heard no more. 
 
 xv. 
 
 ‘ This is contrary to rule. As commandant, I ought 
 to stay in the fort ; but I ’ve no one to give the 
 leadership to, so I take it myself,’ said Lieutenant 
 Leigh ; ‘ and now, my lads, make ready — present ! 
 That ’s well. Are all ready ? At the word “ Eire ! ” 
 Privates Bigley and Smith fire at the two gunners. 
 If they miss, I cry fire again, and Privates Bantem 
 and Grainger try their skill ; then, at the double, 
 down on the guns. Smith and I spike them, while 
 Bantem and Grainger cut the cords. Mind this : 
 those guns must be spiked, and those two prisoners 
 brought in ; and if the sortie is well managed, it is 
 easy, for they will be taken by surprise. Hush ! 
 Confound it, men ; no cheering.’ 
 
 He only spoke in time, for in the excitement the 
 men were about to hurray. 
 
 ‘ Now, then, is that gate unbarred ? ’ 
 
 ‘ Yes, sir.’ 
 
 ‘ Is the covering-party ready ? ’ 
 
 ‘ Yes, sir.’ 
 
 My hand trembled as he spoke; but the next 
 instant it was of a piece with my gunstoclc. There 
 was the hot square, with the sun shining on the two 
 guns that must have been hot behind the poor 
 prisoners’ heads ; there stood the two gunners in 
 white, with their smoking linstocks, leaning against 
 the wheels, for; discipline was slack ; and there, thirty 
 or forty yards behind, were the mutineers, lounging 
 about, and smoking many of them. For all firing had 
 ceased, and judging that we should not risk having 
 the prisoners blown away from the guns, the mutineers 
 came boldly up within range, as if defying us, and it 
 was pretty safe practice at some of them now. 
 
 I saw all this at a glance, and while it seemed as if 
 the T order would never come; but come it did, at 
 last. 
 
 ‘ Fire ! ’ 
 
 Bang ! the two rifles going off like one ; and the 
 gunner behind Captain Dyer leaped into the air, 
 while the one I aimed at seemed to sink down 
 suddenly beside the wheel he had leaned upon. Then 
 the gate flew open, and with a rush and a cheer, we, 
 ten of us, raced down for the guns. 
 
 Double-quick time ? I tell you it was a hard race ; 
 and being without my gun now — only my bayonet 
 stuck in my trousers’ waist-band — I was there first, 
 and had driven my spike into the touch-hole before 
 Lieutenant Leigh reached his ; but the next moment 
 
CHAMBERS’S J OH EH AL— CHRISTMAS HUMBER. 
 
 m - 
 
 - LJ j 
 
 22 
 
 his was done, the cords were cut, and the prisoners 
 loose from the guns. But now we had to get back. 
 
 The first inkling I had of the difficulty of this was 
 seeing Captain Dyer and Harry Lant stagger, and 
 fall forward ; but they were saved by the men, and 
 we saw directly that they must be carried. 
 
 No sooner thought of than done. 
 
 ‘ Hoist Harry on my back,’ says Grainger ; and he 
 took him like a sack; Bantem acting the same part 
 by Captain Dyer ; and those two ran off, while we 
 tried to cover them. 
 
 For don’t you imagine that the mutineers were idle 
 all this while ; not a bit of it. They were completely 
 taken by surprise, though, at first, and gave us time 
 nearly to get to the guns before they could under- 
 stand what we meant ; but the next moment some 
 shouted and ran at us, and some began firing ; while 
 by the time the prisoners were cast loose, they were 
 down upon us in a hand-to-hand fight. 
 
 And. in those fierce struggles there is such excite- 
 ment, that, for my part, I ’ve now but a very misty 
 recollection of what took place ; but I do recollect 
 seeing the prisoners well on the way back, hearing a 
 cheer from our men, and then, hammer in one ; hand, 
 bayonet in the other, fighting my way backward 
 along with my comrades. Then all at once a glitter- 
 ing flash came in the air, and I felt a dull cut on the 
 face, followed directly after • by another strange, 
 numbing blow, which made me drop my bayonet, as 
 my arm fell uselessly to my side ; and then with a 
 lurch and a stagger, I fell, and was trampled upon 
 twice, when, as I rallied once, a black, savage- 
 looking sepoy raised his clubbed musket to knock 
 out my brains, but a voice I well knew cried : 
 ‘Not this time, my fine fellow. That’s number 
 three, that is, and well home and I saw Measles 
 drive his bayonet with a crash through the fellow’s 
 breast-bone, so that he fell across my legs. — ‘ Now, 
 old chap, come along,’ he shouts, and an arm was 
 passed under me. 
 
 ‘ Run, Measles, run ! ’ I said as well as I could. ‘ It ’s 
 all over with me.’ 
 
 ‘ No ; ’taint,’ he said ; ‘ and don’t be a fool. Let 
 me do as I like, for once in a way.’ 
 
 I don’t know how he did it, nor how, feeling sick 
 and faint as I did, I managed to get on my legs ; but 
 old Measles stuck to me like a true comrade, and 
 brought me in. For one moment I was struggling to 
 my feet; and the next, after what seemed a deal of 
 firing going over my head, I was inside the breastwork, 
 listening to our men cheering and firing away, as the 
 mutineers came howling and raging up almost to the 
 very gates. 
 
 ‘ All in ? ’ I heard Lieutenant Leigh ask. 
 
 ‘ To a man, sir,’ says some one ; ‘ but Private Ban- 
 tem is hurt.’ 
 
 ‘ Hold your tongue, will you ! ’ says J oe Bantem. 
 ‘ I ain’t killed, nor yet half. How would you like 
 your wife frightened if you had one ? ’ 
 
 ‘ How ’s Private Lant ? ’ 
 
 ‘ Cut to pieces, sir,’ says some one softly. 
 
 ‘ I ’m thankful that you are not wounded, Captain 
 Dyer,’ then says Lieutenant Leigh. 
 
 ‘ God.bless you, Leigh ! ’ says the captain faintly : 
 ‘ it was a brave act. I ’ve only a scratch or two 
 when I can get over the numbness of my limbs.’ 
 
 I heard all this in a dim sort of fashion, just as if 
 it was a dream in the early morning ; for I was lean- 
 ing up against the wall, with my face laid open and 
 bleeding, and my left arm smashed by a bullet, and 
 nobody just then took any notice of me, because they 
 were carrying in Captain. Dyer and Harry Lant ; 
 while the next minute, the fire was going on hard 
 and fast ; for the mutineers were furious, and I 
 suppose they danced round the guns in a way that 
 shewed how mad they were about the spiking. 
 
 As for me, I did not seem to be in a great deal of 
 
 pain ; but I got turning over in my mind how well 
 we had done it that morning ; and I felt proud of it 
 all, and glad that Captain Dyer and Harry Lant were 
 brought in ; but all the same what I had heard lay 
 like a load upon me ; and knowing, as I did, that poor 
 Miss Ross had, as it were, sold "herself to save the 
 captain’s life, and that she had, in a way of speaking, 
 been cheated into doing so, I felt that when the oppor- 
 tunity came, I must tell the captain all I knew. 
 When I had got as far as that with my thoughts, 
 the dull numbness began to leave me, and everything 
 else was driven out of my mind by the thought of 
 my wound ; and I got asking myself whether it was 
 going to be very bad, for I thought it was, so 
 getting up a little, I began to crawl along in the 
 shade towards the ruined south end of the palace, 
 nobody seeming to notice me. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 I daresay you who read tins don’t know what the 
 sensation is of having one arm-bone shivered, and 
 the dead limb swinging helplessly about in your 
 sleeve, whilst a great miserable sensation comes over 
 you that you are of no more use — that you are only a 
 broken pitcher, fit to hold water no more, but only to 
 be broken up to mend the road with. There were 
 all those women and children wanting my help, and , 
 the help of hundreds more such as me, and instead of 
 being of use, I knew that I must be a miserable 
 burden to everybody, and only in the way. 
 
 Now, whether man — as some of the great philo- 
 sophers say — did gradually get developed from the 
 beast of the field, I ’m not going to pretend to know ; 
 but what I do know is this — that, leave him in his 
 natural state, and when he, for some reason or another, 
 forgets all that has been taught him, he seems very 
 much like an animal } and acts as such. 
 
 It was something after this fashion with me then, 
 for feeling like a poor brute out of a herd that has 
 been shot by the hunters, I did just the same as it 
 would — crawled away to find a place where I might 
 hide myself and lie down and die. 
 
 You ’ll laugh, I daresay, when I tell you my sensa- : 
 
 tions just then, and I ’m ready to laugh at them now ' 
 
 myself ; for, in the midst of my pain and suffering, it 
 came to me that I felt precisely as I did when I was a 
 young shaver of ten years old. One Sunday afternoon, 
 when everybody but mother and me had gone to 
 church, and she had fallen asleep, I got father’s big 
 clay-pipe, rammed it full of tobacco out of his great lead 
 box, and then took it into the back kitchen, feeling 
 as grand as a churchwarden, and set to and smoked 
 it till I turned giddy and faint, and the place seemed 
 swimming about me. 
 
 Now, that was just how I felt when I crawled about 
 in that place, trying not to meet anybody, lest the 
 women should see me all covered with blood ; and at 
 last I got, as I thought, into a room where I should 
 be all alone. 
 
 I say I crawled ; and that ’s what I did do, on one 
 hand and my knees, the fingers of my broken arm 
 trailing over the white marble floor, with each finger 
 making a horrible red mark, when all at once I 
 stopped, drew myself up stiffly, and leaned trem- 
 bling and dizzy up against the wall, trying hard 
 not to faint. For I found that I wasn’t alone, and 
 that in place of getting away — crawling into some hole 
 to lie down and die, I was that low-spirited and weak 
 — I had come to a place where one of the women 
 was, for there, upon her knees, was Lizzy Green, 
 sobbing and crying, and tossing her hands about in 
 the agony of her poor heart. 
 
 I was misty, and faint, and confused, you know ; 
 but perhaps it was something like instinct made me 
 crawl to Lizzy’s favourite place, for it was not in- 
 tended. She did not see me, for her back was my 
 
Chambers’s Journal, 
 Dec. 25, 1869.] 
 
 BEGUMBAGH. 
 
 23 
 
 way ; and I did not mean her to know I was there ; 
 for in spite of my giddiness, I seemed to feel that she 
 had learned all the news about our failure, and that 
 she was crying about poor Harry Lant. 
 
 ‘ And he deserves to be cried for, poor chap,’ I said 
 to myself, for I forgot all about my own pains 
 then; but all the same something very dark and 
 bitter came over me, as I wished that she had been 
 crying instead for poor me. 
 
 ‘ But then he was always so bright, and merry, 
 and clever,’ I thought, ‘ and just the man who would 
 
 make his way with a woman; while I Please 
 
 God, let me die now ! ’ I whispered to myself directly 
 after, ‘for I’m only a poor, broken, helpless object, 
 in everybody’s way.’ 
 
 It seemed just then as if the hot weak tears that 
 came running out of my eyes made me clearer, and 
 better able to hear all that the sobbing girl said, as I 
 leaned closer and closer to the wall ; while, as to the 
 sharp pain every word she said gave me, the dull 
 dead aching of my broken arm was nothing. 
 
 ‘Why — why did they let him go?’ the poor girl 
 sobbed : ‘ as if there were not enough to # be killed 
 without him ; and him so brave, and stout, and 
 handsome, and true. My poor heart ’s broken. What 
 shall I do?’ 
 
 Then she sobbed again ; and I remember thinking 
 that unless help soon came, if poor Harry Lant died 
 of his wounds, she would soon go to join him in that 
 land where there was to be no more suffering and 
 pain. 
 
 Then I listened, for she was speaking again. 
 
 ‘ If I could only have died for him, or been with, 
 
 or Oh, what have I done, that I should be made 
 
 to suffer so?’ 
 
 I remember wondering whether she was suffering 
 more then than I was ; for, in spite of my jealous 
 despairing feeling, there was something of sorrow 
 mixed up with it for her. 
 
 For she had always seemed to like poor Harry’s 
 merry ways, when I never could get a smile from 
 her ; and she ’d go and sit with Mrs Bantem for long 
 enough when Harry was there, while if by chance I 
 went, it seemed like the signal for her to get up, and 
 say her young lady wanted her, when most likely 
 Harry would walk back with her; and I went and 
 told it all to my pipe. 
 
 ‘ If he ’d only known how I ’d loved him,’ she 
 sobbed again, ‘he’d have said one kind word to me 
 before he went, have kissed me, perhaps, once ; but 
 no, not a look nor a sign ! Ah ! Isaac, Isaac ! I shall 
 never see you more ! ’ 
 
 What — what ? What was it choking me ? What 
 was it that sent what blood I had left gushing up in 
 a dizzy cloud over my eyes, so that I could only gasp 
 out once the one word ‘ Lizzy ! ’ as I started to my 
 feet, and stood staring at her in a helpless, half-blind 
 fashion ; for it seemed as though I had been mis- 
 taken, and that it was possible after all that she had 
 been crying for me, believing me to be dead ; but the 
 next moment I was shrinking away from her, hiding 
 my wounded face with my hand for fear she should 
 see it, for leaping up, hot and flush-cheeked, and with 
 those eyes of hers flashing at me, she was at my side 
 with a bound. 
 
 ‘ You cowardly, cruel, bad fellow ! ’ she half- 
 shrieked ; ‘ how dare you stand in that mean deceitful 
 way, listening to my words ? Oh, that I should be 
 such a weak fool, with a stupid, blabbing, chattering 
 tongue, to keep on kneeling and crying there, telling 
 
 lies, every one of them, and Get away with 
 
 you ! ’ 
 
 I think it was a smile that was on my face then, 
 as she gave me a fierce thrust on the wounded arm, 
 when I staggered towards her. I know the pain was 
 as if a red-hot hand had grasped me ; but I smiled 
 all the same, and then, as I fell, I heard her cry out 
 
 two words, in a wild agonised way, that went right 
 to my heart, making it leap before all was blank ; 
 for I knew that those words meant that, in spite of 
 all my doubts, I was loved. 
 
 ‘ 0 Isaac ! ’ she cried, in a wild frightened way, 
 and then, as I said, all was blank and dark for I don’t 
 know how long ; but I seemed to wake up to what 
 was to me then like heaven, for my head was resting 
 on Lizzy’s breast, and, half-mad with fear and grief, 
 she was kissing my pale face again and again. 
 
 ‘ Try — try to forgive me for being so cruel, so 
 unfeeling,’ she sobbed ; and then for a moment, as she 
 saw me smile, she was about to fly out again, fierce- 
 like, at having betrayed herself, and let me know 
 how she loved me. Even in those few minutes I 
 could read it all : how her passionate little heart was 
 fighting against discipline, and how angry she was 
 with herself ; but I saw it all pass away directly, as 
 she looked down at my bleeding face, and eagerly 
 asked me if I was very much hurt. 
 
 I tried to answer, but I could not ; for the same 
 deathly feeling of sickness came on again, and I saw 
 nothing. 
 
 I suppose, though, it only lasted a few minutes, for 
 I woke like again to hear a panting hard breathing, 
 as of some one using great exertion, and then I felt 
 that I was being moved ; but, for the life of me, for a 
 few moments I could not make it out, till I heard the 
 faint buzz of voices, when I found that Lizzy, the 
 little fierce girl, who seemed to be as nothing beside 
 me, was actually, in her excitement, carrying me to 
 where she could get help, struggling along panting, 
 a few feet at a time, beneath my weight, and me too 
 helpless and weak to say a word. 
 
 ‘ Good heavens ! look ! ’ I heard some one say the 
 next moment, and I think it was Miss Boss ; but it 
 was some time before I came to myself again enough 
 to find that I was lying with a rolled-up cloak under 
 my head, and Lizzy bathing my lips from time to 
 time, with what I afterwards learned was her share of 
 the water. 
 
 But what struck me most now was the way in 
 which she was altered : her sharp, angry way was 
 gone, and she seemed to be changed into a soft gentle 
 woman, without a single flirty way or thought, but 
 always ready to flinch and shrink away until she 
 saw how it troubled me, when she’d creep back to 
 kneel down by my side, and put her little hand in 
 mine ; when, to make the same comparison again that 
 I made before, I tell you that there, in that besieged 
 and ruined place, half-starved, choked with thirst, 
 and surrounded by a set of demons thirsting for our 
 blood — I tell you that it seemed to me like being in 
 heaven. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 I don’t know how time passed then ; but the next 
 thing I remember is listening to the firing for a while, 
 and then, leaning on Lizzy, being helped to the 
 women’s quarters, where, in spite of all they could 
 do, those children would keep escaping from their 
 mother to get to Harry Lant, who lay close to me, 
 poor fellow, smiling and looking happy whenever they 
 came near him; and I smiled, too, and felt as happy 
 when Lizzy, after tending me with Mrs Bantem as 
 long as was necessary, got bathing Harry’s forehead 
 with water and moistening his lips. 
 
 ‘ Poor fellow,’ I thought, ‘ it will do him good;’ and 
 I lay watching Lizzy moving about afterwards, and 
 then I think I must have gone to sleep, or have fallen 
 into a dull numb state, from which I was wakened 
 by a voice I knew ; and opening my eyes, I saw that 
 Miss Boss, pale and scared-looking, was on her knees 
 by the side of Harry Lant, and that Captain Dyer 
 was there. 
 
 ‘ Not one word of welcome,’ he said, with a strange 
 
CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL— CHRISTMAS NUMBER. 
 
 
 21 
 
 
 drawn look on his face, which deepened, as Miss Ross 
 rose and went close to him. 
 
 ‘ Yes,’ she said ; ‘ thank God you have returned 
 safe. — No, no; don’t touch me,’ she cried hoarsely. 
 ‘ Here, take me away — lead me out of this ! ’ she said, 
 format that moment Lieutenant Leigh came quietly in, 
 and she put her hands in his. ‘ Take me out,’ she 
 said again hoarsely ; and then like some one mutter- 
 ing in a dream : ‘ Take me away — take me away.’ 
 
 I said that drawn strange look on Captain Dyer’s 
 face seemed to deepen as he stood watching whilst 
 those two went out together; then he passed his 
 hand over his eyes, as if to ask himself whether it 
 was a dream ; and then, with a groan, he leaned one 
 hand against the wall, feeling his way out from the 
 room, and something seemed to hinder me from call- 
 ing out to him, and telling him what I knew. For I 
 was reasoning with myself, what ought I to do ? and 
 then, sick and faint, I seemed to sleep again. 
 
 But this time I was waked up by a loud shrieking, 
 and a rush of feet, and, confused as I was, I knew 
 what it meant : the hole where the blacks escaped 
 — Chunder and his party — had not been properly 
 guarded, and the mutineers had climbed up and made 
 an entrance. 
 
 The alarm spread fast enough, but not quick 
 enough to save life ; for, with a howl, half-a-dozen 
 sepoys, with their scarlet and white coatees open, 
 dashed in with fixed bayonets, and two women were 
 borne to the ground in an instant, while a couple of 
 wretches made a dash at those two children — Little 
 Cock Robin and Jenny Wren, as we called them — 
 standing there, wondering like, by Harry Lant’s bed 
 on the floor, whilst the golden light of the setting 
 sun filled the room, and lit up their little angels’ 
 faces. 
 
 But with a howl, such as I never heard woman give, 
 Mrs Bantem rushed between them and the children, 
 caught a bayonet in each hand, and held them 
 together, letting them pass under one arm, then with 
 a spring forward she threw those great arms of hers 
 round the black fellows’ necks as they hung together, 
 and held them in such a hug as they never suffered 
 from before. 
 
 The next moment they were all rolling together on 
 the floor ; but that incident saved the lives of those 
 poor children, for there came a cheer now, and 
 Measles and a dozen more were led in by Lieutenant 
 Leigh, and 
 
 There, I am telling you too many horrors. They 
 beat them back step by step, at the point of the 
 bayonet ; and a fierce struggle it was, a long fight kept 
 up from room to room, for our men were fierce now 
 as the mutineers, and it was a genuine death-struggle ; 
 and the broken window being guarded, not a man of 
 about a dozen mutineers who gained entrance lived to 
 go back and relate their want of success. 
 
 And can you wonder, when two of those who fought 
 had found their wives bayoneted : Grainger was one 
 of them ; and when the fight was over, during which, 
 .raging like a demon, he had bayoneted four men, the 
 poor fellow sat down by his dead wife, took her head 
 first in his lap, then to his breast, and rocked himself 
 to and fro, crying like a child, till there was a bugle- 
 call in the court-yard, when lie laid her gently in a 
 corner, carrying her like as if she had been a child, 
 kneeled down, and said ‘ Our Father ’ right through 
 by her side, kissed her lips two or three times, and 
 then covered her face with- a bit of an old red hand- 
 kerchief ; and him all the while covered with blood 
 and dust and black of powder. Then, poor fellow, 
 he got up and took his gun, and went out on the tips 
 of Ins toes, lest he should wake her who would wake 
 no more in this world. 
 
 Perhaps it was weakness, I don’t know, but my 
 eyes were very wet just then, and a soft little hand 
 was laid on my breast, and Lizzy’s head leant over 
 
 me, and her tears, too, fell very fast on my hot and 
 fevered face. 
 
 I felt that I should die, not then, perhaps, but before 
 very long, for I knew that my arm was so shattered 
 that it ought to be amputated just below the elbow, 
 while for want of surgical assistance it would mortify; 
 but somehow I felt very happy just then, and my 
 state did not give me much pain, only that I wanted 
 to have been up and doing ; and at last Lizzy helping 
 me, I got up, my arm being bandaged and in a 
 sling, to find that I could walk about a little ; and I 
 made my way down into the court-yard, where I got 
 near to Captain Dyer, who, better now, and able to 
 limp about, was talking with Lieutenant Leigh, both 
 officers now, and forgetful apparently of all but the 
 present crisis. 
 
 ‘ What wounded are there ? ? said Captain Dyer, as 
 I walked slowly up. 
 
 ‘ Nearly every man to some extent,’ said Lieutenant 
 Leigh ; ‘ but this man and Lant are the worst.’ 
 
 ‘ The place ought to be evacuated,’ said Captain 
 Dyer ; ‘ it is impossible to hold it another day.’ 
 
 ‘We m'ight hold out another day,’ said Lieutenant 
 Leigh, ‘ but not longer. Why not retreat under cover 
 of the night ?’ 
 
 ‘ It seems the only thing left,’ said Captain Dyer. 
 ‘ We might perhaps get to some hiding-place or other 
 before our absence was discovered ; but the gate and 
 that back window will be watched of course : how 
 are we to get away with two severely wounded men, 
 the women, and children?’ 
 
 ‘That must be planned,’ said Lieutenant Leigh; 
 and then the watch was set for the night, as far as 
 could be done, and another time of darkness set in. 
 
 It was that which puzzled me, why a good bold 
 attack was not made by night ; why, the place must 
 have been carried again and again ; but no, we were 
 left each night entirely at rest, and the attacks by 
 day were clumsy and bad. There was no support; 
 every man fought for himself, and after his own 
 fashion, and I suppose that every man did look upon 
 himself as an officer, and resented all discipline. At 
 all events, it was our salvation, though at this time it 
 seemed to me that the end must be coming on the 
 next day, and I remember thinking, that if it did 
 come to the end, I should like to keep one cartridge 
 left in my pouch. 
 
 Then my mind went off wandering in a misty way 
 upon a plan to get away by night, and I tried to make 
 one, taking into consideration, that the quarters on 
 the north side of us now, and only separated by ten 
 feet of alley, were in the hands of the mutineers, who 
 camped in them, the same being the case in the 
 quarters on the south side, separated again by the ten 
 feet of alley through which we returned when Captain 
 Dyer and Harry Lant were taken. While on the 
 east was the market plain or square, and on the west 
 a wilderness of open country with huts and sheds. I 
 felt, do you know, that a good plan of escape at this 
 time was just what I, ought to make, every one else 
 being busy with duty, and me not able to either fight 
 or stand sentry, so I worked on hard at it that night, 
 trying to be useful in some way; and after a fashion, 
 I worked one out. 
 
 But I have not told you what I meant to do with 
 that last cartridge in my pouch ; I meant that to be 
 pressed to my lips once before I contrived with one 
 hand to load my rifle, and then if the worst came to 
 the very worst, and when I had waited to the last to 
 see if help would come, then, when it seemed that there 
 was no hope, I meant to do what I told myself it 
 would be my duty, as a man and a soldier, to do, if 
 I loved Lizzy Green — do what more than one man 
 did, during the mutiny, by the woman for whom he 
 had been shedding his heart’s best blood; and in 
 the dead of that night I did load that gun, after 
 kissing the bullet ; and a deal of pain that gave me, 
 
 * 
 
 
BEGUMBAGH. 
 
 f l = 
 
 Chambers's Journal, 
 Dec. 25, 1869.] 
 
 =^J 
 
 25 
 
 mental as well as bodily, but I don’t think that I 
 need to tell you what that last cartridge was for. 
 
 xvm. 
 
 I think by this time you pretty well understand 
 the situation of our palace, and how our stronghold 
 was on the north side, close to which was the gate, 
 so hardly fought for : if you don’t, I’m afraid it is my 
 fault, and not yours. 
 
 At all events, being at liberty, - 1 went oyer it 
 here and there, and from floor to roof, as I tried to 
 make out which would be the best way for trying to 
 escape ; but somehow I couldn’t see it then. To go 
 out from the gate was impossible; and the same 
 related to the broken- out window, as both places 
 were thoroughly watched. 
 
 As for the other windows about the place, they 
 were such slips, that without they were widened, any 
 escaping by them was impossible. To have let our- 
 selves down, one by one, from the flat roof by a rope, 
 might have done, but it was a clumsy unsuitable way, 
 with all those children and women, so I gave that up, 
 and then sat down as I was by a little window 
 looking out on to the north alley. 
 
 Wearied out at last, I suppose that a sort of stupor 
 came over me, from which I did not wake till morning, 
 to find myself suffering a dull numb pain ; but when 
 I opened my eyes I forgot that, because of her who 
 was kneeling beside me, driving away the flies that 
 were buzzing about, as if they knew that I was soon 
 to be for them to rest on, without a hand to sweep 
 them away. 
 
 At last, though, as I lay there wondering what 
 could be done to save us, the thought came all at once, 
 and struggling to my feet, I held Lizzy to my heart 
 a minute, and then went off to find Captain Dyer. 
 
 It quite took me aback to see his poor haggard face, 
 and the way in which he took the trouble, for it was 
 plain enough to see how he was cut to the heart by 
 Miss Ross’s treatment of him. But for all that, he 
 was the officer and the gentleman ; he had his duty 
 to do, and he was doing it ; so that, if even now, after 
 losing so many men, and with so many more half 
 disabled, if the enemy had made a bold assault now, 
 they would have won the place dearly, though win it 
 they must. 
 
 That did not seem their way, though they wanted 
 the place for the sake of the great store of arms and 
 ammunition it contained, but all the same they wanted 
 to buy it cheap. 
 
 I found Captain Dyer ready enough to listen to my 
 plan, though he shook his head, and said it was des- 
 perate. But] after a little thought, he said : ‘ There 
 are some hours now between this and night — help 
 may come before then ; if not, Smith, we must try it. 
 My hands are full, so I leave the preparations with 
 you : let every one carry food and a bottle of water — 
 nothing more — all we want now is to save life.’ 
 
 I promised I’d see to it; and I went and spoke 
 cheerfully to the women, but Mrs Maine seemed 
 quite hysterical. Miss Ross listened to what I had 
 to say in a hard strange way ; and really, if it had not 
 been for Mrs Bantem putting a shoulder first to one 
 wheel and then the other, nothing would have been 
 done. 
 
 The next person I went to was Measles, who, 
 during a cessation of the firing, was sitting, black 
 and blood-smeared, with his head tied up, wiping out 
 his gun with pieces he tore off the sleeves of his 
 shirt. 
 
 ‘Well, Ike, mate,’ he says, ‘not dead yet, you see. 
 If we get out of this, I. mean to have my promotion ; 
 but I don’t see how we ’re going to manage it. What 
 bothers me most is, letting these black devils get all 
 this powder and stuff we have here. Blow my rags 
 if we shall ever use it all ! I ’ve been firing away till 
 
 my old Bess has been so hot that I ’ve been afraid to 
 charge her ; and I ’ll swear I ’ve used twice as many 
 cartridges as any other man. But I say, Ike, old 
 fellow, do you think it ’s wrong to pot these niggers ? ’ 
 
 ‘ No,’ I said — ‘not in a case like this.’ 
 
 ‘Glad of it,’ he says sincerely; ‘because, do you 
 know, old man, I ’ve polished off such a thundering 
 lot, that I ’ve got to be quite narvous about getting 
 killed myself. Only think having forty or fifty 
 black-looking beggars rising up against you in king- 
 dom come, and pointing at you, and saying : “ That ’s 
 the chap as shot me ! ” ’ 
 
 ‘I don’t think any soldier, acting under orders, 
 who does his duty in defence of women and children, 
 need fear to lie down and die,’ I said. 
 
 I never saw Measles look soft but that once, as, 
 laying down his ramrod, he took my hand in his, 
 and looked in my face for a bit ; then he shook my 
 hand softly, and nodded his head several times. 
 
 ‘ How’s Harry Lant?’ he says at last. 
 
 ‘ Very bad,’ I said. 
 
 ‘Poor old chap. But tell him I’ve paid some of 
 the beggars out for it. Mind you tell him— it ’ll make 
 him feel comfortable like, and ease his mind.’ 
 
 I nodded, and then told him about the plan. 
 
 ‘Well,’ lie said, as he slowly and thoughtfully 
 polished his gun-barrel, ‘ it might do, and it mightn’t. 
 Seems a rum dodge ; but, anyhow, we might try.’ 
 
 ‘ I shall want you to help make the bridge,’ I says. 
 
 ‘All right, matey ; but I don’t, somehow, like 
 leaving the beggars all that ammunition ; ’ and then 
 he loaded his rifle very thoughtfully, but only to 
 rouse up directly after, for the mutineers began firing 
 again ; and Captain Dyer giving the order, our men 
 replied swift and fast at every black face that shewed 
 itself for an instant. 
 
 That was a day : hot, so that everything you went 
 near seemed burning. The walls even sent forth a 
 heat of their own; and if it hadn’t been for the 
 chatties down below, we should have had to give up, 
 for the tank was now completely dried, and the 
 flies buzzing about its mud-caked bottom. But the 
 women went round from man to man with water and 
 biscuit, so that no one left his post, and every time 
 the black scoundrels tried to make a lodgment near 
 the gate, half were shot down, and the rest glad enough 
 to get back into shelter. 
 
 Towards that weary slow- coming evening, though, 
 after we had beaten them back — or, rather, after my 
 brave comrades had beaten them back half a score 
 of times — I saw that something was up ; and as soon 
 as I saw what that something was, I knew that it 
 was all over, for our men were too much cut up and 
 disheartened for any more gallant sorties. 
 
 I ’ve not said any more about the guns, only that 
 we spiked them, and left them standing in the market 
 plain, about fifty yards from the gates. I may tell 
 you now, though, that the next morning they were 
 gone, and we forgot all about them till the night I ’m 
 telling you of, when they were dragged out again, 
 with a lot of noise and shouting, from a building in 
 the far corner of the square. 
 
 We didn’t want telling what that meant. 
 
 It was plain enough to all of us that the scoundrels 
 had drilled out the touch-holes again, and that during 
 the night they would be planted, and the first dis- 
 charge would drive down all our defences, and leave 
 us open to a rush. 
 
 ‘We must try your plan, Smith,’ says Captain 
 Dyer with a quiet stern look. ‘ It is time to evacuate 
 the place now.’ 
 
 Then he knelt down and took 'a look at the guns 
 with his glass, and I knew he must have been thinking 
 of how he stood tied to the muzzle of one of them, 
 for he gave a sort of shudder as he closed his glass 
 with a snap. 
 
 Just then, Miss Ross came round with Lizzy and 
 
 t- 
 
 
CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL— CHRISTMAS NUMBER. 
 
 ip= 
 
 26 
 
 
 Mrs Bantem, with wine and water, and I saw a sort 
 of quiet triumph in Lieutenant Leigh’s face, as, 
 avoiding Captain Dyer, Miss Boss went up to 
 him, as he half-beckoned to her, and stood by 
 him like a slave, giving him bottle and glass, and 
 then standing by his side with her eyes fixed and 
 strange-looking ; while, though he fought against it 
 bravely, and tried to be unmoved, Captain Dyer 
 could not bear it, but walked away. 
 
 I was just then drinking some water given me by 
 Lizzy, whose pale troubled little face looked up so 
 lovingly in mine that I felt half-ashamed for me, a 
 poor private, to be so happy — for I forgot my wounds 
 then — while my captain was in pain and suffering. 
 And then it was that it struck me that Captain Dyer 
 was just in that state in which men feel despairing, 
 and go and do desperate things. I felt that I ought 
 before now to have told him all about what I had 
 heard, but I was in hopes that things would right 
 themselves, and always came to the conclusion that 
 it was Miss Ross’s- duty to have given the captain 
 some explanation of her treatment ; anyhow, it did 
 not seem to be mine ; but when I saw the poor 
 smitten fellow go off like he did, I followed him 
 softly till I came up with him, my heart beating the 
 while with a curious sense of fear. 
 
 There was nothing to fear, though : he had only 
 gone up to the roof, and when I came up with him 
 he was evidently calculating about our escape, for he 
 finished off by pulling out his telescope, and looking 
 right across the plain, towards where there was a 
 tank and a small station. 
 
 ‘ I think that ought to be our way, Smith,’ he said. 
 ‘We could stay there for half an hour’s rest, and 
 then on again towards Wallahbad, sending a couple 
 of the stoutest men on for help. By the way, we ’ll 
 try and start a man off to-night, as soon as it ’s dark. 
 Who will yon have to help you ? ’ 
 
 ‘ I should like to have Bigley, sir,’ I said. 
 
 ‘Will one be sufficient?’ 
 
 ‘ Quite, sir,’ I said ; for I thought Measles and I 
 could manage it between us. 
 
 Half an hour after, Measles was busy at work, 
 fetching up muskets, with bayonets fixed, from down 
 in the vault, and laying them in order on the flat 
 roof, taking care the while to keep out of sight ; and 
 I went to the room where the women were, qnder 
 Mrs Bantem’s management, getting ready for what 
 was to come, for they had been told that we might 
 leave the place all at once. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 I suppose it was my wound made me do things 
 in a sluggish dreamy way, and made me feel ready 
 to stop and look at any little thing which took my 
 attention. Anyhow, that ’s the way I acted ; and 
 going inside that room, I stopped short just inside 
 the place, for there were those two little children of 
 the colonel’s sitting on the floor, with a whole heap 
 of those numbers of the Bible — those that people 
 take in shilling parts — and with two or three large 
 pictures in each. Some one had given them the parts 
 to amuse themselves with ; and, as grand and old- 
 fashioned as could be, they were shewing these 
 pictures to the soldiers’ children. 
 
 As I went in, they ’d got a picture open, of Jacob 
 lying asleep, with his dream spread before you, of 
 the great flight of steps leading up into heaven, and 
 the angels going up and down. 
 
 ‘There,’ says little Jenny Wren to a boy half as 
 old again as herself ; ‘ those are angels, and they ’re 
 coming down from heaven, and they ’ve got beautiful 
 wings like birds.’ 
 
 ‘ Oh,’ says little Cock Robin thoughtfully, and he 
 leaned over the picture. Then he says quite seriously : 
 
 ‘ If they ’ve dot wings, why don’t they fly down ? ’ 
 
 That was a poser ; but Jenny Wren was ready 
 with her answer, old-fashioned as could be, and she 
 says : 
 
 ‘ I should think it ’s toz they were moulting.’ 
 
 I remember wishing that the poor little innocents 
 had wings of their own, for it seemed to me that 
 they would be a sad trouble to us to get away that 
 night, just at the time when a child’s most likely to 
 be cross and fretful. 
 
 Night at last, dark as dark, save only a light 
 twinkling here and there, in different parts where 
 the enemy had made their quarters. There was a 
 buzzing in the camp where the guns were, and as we 
 looked over, once there came the grinding noise of a 
 wheel, but only once. 
 
 We made sure that the gate and the broken window 
 opening were well watched, for there was the white 
 calico of the sentries to be seen ; but soon the dark- 
 ness hid them, and we should not have known that 
 they were there but for the faint spark now and then 
 which shewed that they were smoking, and once 
 I heard, quite plain in the dead stillness, the sound 
 made by a ‘ hubble-bubble ’ pipe. 
 
 We waited one hour, and then, with six of us 
 on the roof, the plan I made began to be put into 
 operation. 
 
 My idea was that if we could manage to cross the 
 north alley, which as I told you was about ten feet 
 wide, we might then go over the roof of the quarters 
 where the mutineers were ; then on to the next roof, 
 which was a few feet lower ; and from there get down 
 on to some sheds, from which it would be easy to 
 reach the ground, when the way would be open to us, 
 to escape, with perhaps some hours before we were 
 missed. 
 
 The plan was, I know, desperate, but it seemed 
 our only chance, and, as you well know, desperate 
 ventures will sometimes succeed when the most care- 
 fully arranged plots fail. At all events, Captain 
 Dyer took it up, and the men under my directions, a 
 couple of muskets were taken at a time, and putting 
 them muzzle to muzzle, the bayonet of each was 
 thrust down the other’s barrel, which saved lashing 
 them together, and gave us a sort of 3par about ten 
 feet long, and this was done with about fifty. 
 
 I told you that there was a tree grew up in the 
 centre of the alley— a stunty, short-boughed tree, 
 and to this Measles laid one of the double muskets, 
 feeling for a bough to rest it on in the darkness, 
 after listening whether there was any one below; 
 then he laid more and more, till, with a mattress laid 
 upon them, he formed a bridge, over which he boldly 
 crept to the tree, where, with the lashings he had 
 taken, he bound a couple more muskets horizontal, 
 and then shifted the others. He arranged them 
 all so that the butts of one end rested on the roof 
 of the palace ; the butts at the other end were across 
 those he had bound pretty level in the tree. Then 
 more and more were laid across, and a couple of thin 
 straw mattresses on them ; and though it took a tre- 
 mendously long time, through Measles fumbling in the 
 dark, it was surprising what a firm bridge that made 
 as far as the tree. 
 
 The other half was made in just the same fashion, 
 and much more easily. Mattresses were laid on it ; 
 and there, thirty feet above the ground, we had a 
 tolerably firm bridge, one that, though very irregular, 
 a man could cross with ease, creeping on his hands 
 and knees ; but then there were the women, children, 
 and poor Harry Lant. 
 
 Captain Dyer thought it would be better to say 
 nothing to them about it, but to bring them all 
 quietly up at the last minute, so as to give them no 
 time for thought and fear ; and then, the last prepara- 
 tion being made, and a rough, short ladder, eight feet 
 long, Measles and I had contrived, being carried 
 over and planted at the end of the other quarters, 
 
 ■ ' ■ 
 
BEGUMBAGH. 
 
 rp= 
 
 Dec. 25, 1869.] 
 
 reaching well down, to the next roof, we prepared 
 for a start. 
 
 Measles and Captain Dyer went over with the 
 ladder, and reported no sentries visible, the bridge 
 pretty firm, and nothing apparently to fear, when it 
 was decided that Harry Lant should be taken over 
 first — Measles volunteering to take him on his back 
 and crawl over— then the women and children were 
 to be got over, and we were to follow. 
 
 I know it was hard work for him, but Harry Lant 
 •never gave a groan, but let them lash his hands 
 together with a handkerchief, so that Measles put his 
 head through the poor fellow’s arms, for there was no 
 trusting to Harry’s feeble hold. 
 
 ‘ Now then, in silence,’ says Captain Dyer ; ‘ and you, 
 Lieutenant Leigh, get up the women and children. 
 But each child is to be . taken by a man, who is to be 
 ready to gag the little thing if it utters a sound* 
 Recollect, the lives of all depend on silence. — Now, 
 Bigley, forward ! ’ 
 
 ‘ Wait till I spit in my hands, captain,’ says 
 Measles, though what he wanted to spit in his hands 
 for, I don’t know, without it was from use, being 
 such a spitting man. 
 
 But spit in his hands he did, and then he was down 
 on his hands and knees, crawling on to the mattress 
 very slowly, and you could hear the bayonets creaking 
 and gritting, as they played in and out of the musket- 
 barrels; but they held firm, and the next minute 
 Measles was as far as the tree, but only to get his 
 load hitched somehow in a ragged branch, when there 
 was a loud crack as of dead-wood snapping, a struggle, 
 and Measles growled out an oath — he would swear, 
 ■that fellow would, in spite of all Mrs Bantem said, 
 so you mustn’t be surprised at his doing it then. 
 
 We all stood and crouched there, with our hearts 
 beating horribly; for it seemed that the next moment 
 we should hear a dull, heavy crash ; but instead, 
 there came the sharp fall of a dead branch, and at 
 the same moment there were voices at the end of 
 the alley. 
 
 If Captain Dyer dared to have spoken, he would 
 have called £ Halt ! ’ but he was silent ; and Measles 
 must have heard the voices, for he never moved, 
 while we listened minute after minute, our necks 
 just over the edge of the roof, till what appeared 
 to be three of the enemy crept cautiously along 
 through the alley, till one tripped and fell over the 
 <lead bough that must have been lying right in their 
 way. 
 
 Then there was a horrible silence, during which we 
 felt that it was all over with the plan — that the enemy 
 must look up and see the bridge, and bring down 
 those who would attack us with renewed fury. 
 
 But the next minute, there came a soft whisper or 
 two, a light rustling, and directly after we knew that 
 the alley was empty. 
 
 It seemed useless to go on now ; but after five 
 minutes’ interval, Captain Dyer determined to pur- 
 sue the plan, just as Measles came back panting to 
 announce Harry Lant as lying on the roof beyond 
 the officers’ quarters. 
 
 ‘And you’ve no idee what a weight the little 
 chap is,’ says Measles to me. — ‘ Now, who ’s next ? ’ 
 
 No one answered ; and Lieutenant Leigh stepped 
 forward with Miss Ross. He was about to carry her 
 over; but she thrust him back, and after scanning 
 the bridge for a few moments, she asked for one of 
 the children, and so as to have no time lost, the 
 little boy, fast asleep, bless him ! was put in her arms, 
 when brave as brave, if she did not step boldly on 
 to the trembling way, and walk slowly across. 
 
 Then Joe Bantem was sent, though he hung back 
 for his wife, till she ordered him on, to go over with 
 u soldier’s child on his back; and he was 'followed by 
 .a couple more. 
 
 Next came Mrs Bantem, with Mrs Colonel Maine, 
 
 27 
 
 and the stout-hearted woman stood as if hesitating 
 for a minute as to how to go, when catching up the 
 colonel’s wife, as if she had been a child, she stepped 
 on to the bridge, and two or three men held the butts 
 of the muskets, for it seemed as if they could not 
 bear the strain. 
 
 But tliough my heart seemed in my mouth, and 
 the creaking was terrible, she passed safely over, and. 
 it was wonderful what an effect that had on the rest. 
 
 ‘If it’ll bear that, it’ll bear anything,’ says some 
 one close to me ; and we went on, one after the other, 
 for the most part crawling, till it came to me and 
 Lizzy Green. 
 
 ‘You’ll go now,’ I said; but she would not leave 
 me, and we crept on together, till a bough of the tree 
 hindered us, when I made fier go first, and a minute 
 after we were hand-in-hand upon the roof of the 
 officers’ quarters. 
 
 The others followed, Captain Dyer coming last, 
 when, seeing me, he whispered: ‘Where’s Bigley?’ 
 of course meaning Measles. 
 
 I looked round, but it was too dark to distinguish 
 one face from another. I had not seen him for the 
 last quarter of an hour — not since he had asked me 
 if I had any matches, and I had passed him half-a- 
 dozen from my tobacco-pouch. 
 
 I asked first one, and then another, but nobody had 
 seen Measles ; and under the impression that he must 
 have joined Harry Lant, we cautiously walked along 
 the roof, right over the heads of our enemies; for 
 from time to time we could hear beneath our feet the 
 low buzzing sound of voices, and more than once came 
 a terrible catching of the breath, as one of the children 
 whispered or spoke. 
 
 It seemed impossible, even now, that we could 
 escape, and I was for proposing to Captain Dyer to 
 risk the noise, and have the bridge taken down, so 
 as to hold the top of the building we were on as a last 
 retreat; but I was stopped from that by Measles 
 coming up to me, when I told him Captain Dyer 
 wanted him, and he crept away once more. 
 
 We got down the short ladder in safety, and then 
 crossed a low building, to pass down the ladder on 
 to another, which fortunately for us was empty ; and 
 then, with a little contriving and climbing, we dropped 
 into a deserted street of the place, and all stood 
 huddled together, while Captain Dyer and Lieutenant 
 Leigh arranged the order of march. 
 
 And that was no light matter; but a litter was 
 made of the short ladder, and Harry Lant laid upon 
 it; the women and children placed in the middle; 
 the men were divided; and the order was given in 
 a low tone to march, and we began to walk right 
 away into the darkness, down the straggling street ; 
 but only for the advance-guard to come back directly, 
 and announce that they had stumbled upon an 
 elephant picketed with a couple of camels. 
 
 ‘ Any one with them ? ’ said Captain Dyer. 
 
 ‘Could not see a soul, sir,’ said Joe Bantem, for 
 he was one of the men, 
 
 ‘ Grenadiers, half -left,’ said Captain Dyer ; ‘ for- 
 ward ! ’ and once more we were in motion, tramp, 
 tramp, tramp, but quite softly ; Lieutenant Leigh at 
 the rear of the first party, so as to be with Miss Ross, 
 and Captain Dyer in the rear of all, hiding, poor fellow, 
 all he must have felt, and seeming to give up every 
 thought to the escape, and that only. 
 
 xx. 
 
 I could just make out the great looming figure of 
 an elephant, as we marched slowly on, when I was 
 startled by a low sort of wimmering noise, followed 
 directly after by a grunting on my right. 
 
 ‘What’s that?’ says Captain Dyer. Then in an 
 instant : ‘ Threes right ! ’ he cried to the men, and 
 
CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL— CHRISTMAS NUMBER. 
 
 [Dec. 25, 1869. 
 
 ra - 
 
 28 
 
 they faced round, so as to cover the women and 
 children. 
 
 There was no farther alarm, though, and all seemed 
 as silent as could be ; so once more under orders, the 
 march was continued till we were out from amidst 
 the houses, and travelling over the sandy dusty plain ; 
 when there was another alarm — we were followed — so 
 said the men in the rear ; and, sure enough, looming 
 up against the darkness — a mass of darkness itself — 
 we could see an elephant. 
 
 The men were faced round, and a score of pieces 
 were directed at the great brute; but when within 
 three or four yards, it was plain enough that it was 
 alone, and Measles says aloud : * Blest if it isn’t old 
 Nabob /’ 
 
 The old elephant it was ; and passing through, he 
 went up to where Harry Lant was calling him softly, 
 knelt down to order ; and then climbing and clinging 
 on as well as they could, the great brute’s back was 
 covered with women and children — the broad shallow 
 howdah pretty well taking the lot — while the great 
 beast seemed as pleased as possible to get back 
 amongst his old friends, rubbing his trunk first on 
 this one and then on that ; and thankful we were for 
 the help he gave us, for how else we should have got 
 over that desert plain I can’t say. 
 
 I should think we had gone a good eight miles, 
 when Measles ranges up close aside me as I walked 
 by the elephant, looking up at the riding-party from 
 time to time, and trying to make out which was 
 Lizzy, and pitying them too, for the children were 
 fretful, and it was a sad time they had of it up there. 
 
 ‘ They ’ll have it hot there sometime to-morrow 
 morning, Ike,’ says Measles to me. 
 
 ‘ Where?’ I said faintly, for I was nearly done for, 
 and I did not take much interest in anything. 
 
 ‘ Begumbagh,’ he says. And when I asked him 
 what he meant, he said : ‘ How much powder do you 
 think there was down in that vault ?’ 
 
 ‘ A good five hundredweight,’ I said. 
 
 * All that,’ says Measles. ‘ They ’ll have it hot, 
 some of ’em.’ 
 
 ‘What do you mean?’ I said, getting interested. 
 
 ‘ Oh, nothing pertickler, mate ; only been arranging 
 for promotion for some of ’em, since I can’t get it 
 myself. I took the head out of one keg, and emptied 
 it by the others, and made a train to where I ’ve set 
 a candle burning ; and when that candle ’s burnt out, 
 it will set light to another ; and that will have to 
 burn out, when some wooden chips will catch fire, and 
 they ’ll blaze a good deal, and one way and another 
 there ’ll be enough to burn to last till, say, eight 
 o’clock this morning, by which time the beauties will 
 have got into the place ; and then let ’em look out for 
 promotion, for there ’s enough powder there to startle 
 two or three of ’em.’ 
 
 ‘ That ’s what you wanted the matches for, then ?’ I 
 said. 
 
 ‘That’s it, matey; and what do you think of it, 
 eh?’ 
 
 ‘You’ve done wrong, my lad, I’m afraid, and’ 
 
 I didn’t finish ; for just then, behind us, there was a 
 bright flashing light, followed by a dull thud; and 
 looking back, we could see what looked like a little 
 fire- work ; and though plenty was said just then, no 
 one but Measles and I knew what that flash meant. 
 
 ‘ That ’s a dead failure,’ growled Measles to me as 
 we went on. ‘ I believe I am the unluckiest beggar 
 that ever breathed. That oughtn’t to have gone off 
 for hours yet, and now it ’ll let ’em know we ’re gone, 
 and that ’s all.’ 
 
 I did not say anything, for I was too weak and 
 troubled, and how I kept up as I did, I don’t know 
 to this day. 
 
 The morning broke at last with the knowledge 
 that we were three miles to the right of the tank 
 Captain Dyer had meant to reach. For a few 
 
 minutes, in a quiet stern way, he consulted with 
 Lieutenant Leigh as to what should be done — whether 
 to turn off to the tank, or to press on. The help 
 received from old Nabob , made them determine to 
 press on ; and after a short rest, and a better arrange- 
 ment for those who were to ride on the elephant, we 
 went on in the direction of Wallahbad, I, for my part, 
 never expecting to reach it alive. Many a look back 
 did I give to see if we were followed, but it was not 
 until we were within sight of a temple by the road- 
 side, that there was the news spread that there were 
 enemies behind ; and though I was ready enough to 
 lay the blame upon Measles, all the same they must 
 have soon found out our flight, and pursued us. 
 
 The sun could never have been hotter, nor the 
 ground more parched and dusty than it was now. 
 We were struggling on to reach that temple, which 
 .we might perhaps be able to hold till help came ; for 
 two men had been sent on to get assistance ; though 
 of all those sent, one and all were waylaid and cut 
 down, long before they could reach our friends. But 
 we did not know that then ; and in the full hope that 
 before long we should have help, we crawled on to 
 the temple, but only to find it so wide and exposed, 
 that in our weak condition it was little better than 
 being in the open. There was a building, though, 
 about a hundred yards farther on, and towards that 
 we made, every one rousing himself for what was 
 really the last struggle, for not a quarter of a mile 
 off, there was a yelling crowd of blood-hounds in eager 
 pursuit. 
 
 It was with a panting rush that we reached the 
 place, to find it must have been the house of the 
 collector of the district ; but it was all one wrack and 
 ruin — glass, tables, and chairs smashed ; hangings 
 and carpets burnt or ragged to pieces, and in one or 
 two places, blood-stains on the white floor, told a. 
 terrible tale of what had taken place not many days 
 before. 
 
 The elephant stopped and knelt, and the women 
 and children were passed in as quickly as possible; 
 but before all could be got in, about a dozen of the 
 foremost mutineers were down upon us with a savage 
 rush — I say us , but I was helpless, and only looking 
 on from inside — two of our fellows were cut down in 
 an instant, and the others borne back by the fierce- 
 charge. Then followed a desperate struggle, ending 
 in the black fellows dragging off Miss Ross and one 
 of the children that she held. 
 
 They had not gone many yards, though, before 
 Captain Dyer and Lieutenant Leigh seemed to see 
 the peril together, and shouting to our men, sword in 
 hand they went at the black fiends, well supported 
 by half-a-dozen of our poor wounded chaps. 
 
 There was a rush, and a cloud of dust ; then 
 there was the noise of yells and cheers, and Captain 
 Dyer shouting to the men to come on ; and it all 
 acted like something intoxicating on me, for, catch- 
 ing up a musket, I was making for the door, when I 
 felt an arm holding me back, and I did what I must 
 have done as soon as I got outside — reeled and fainted 
 dead away. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 It was a couple of hours after when I came to, and 
 became sufficiently sensible to know that I was lying 
 with my head in Lizzy’s lap, and Harry Lant close 
 beside me. It was very dim, and the heat seemed 
 stifling, so that I asked Lizzy where we were, and she 
 told me in the cellar of the house — a large wide vault, 
 where the women, children, and wounded had been 
 placed for safety, while the noise and firing above 
 told of what was taking place. 
 
 I was going to ask about Miss Ross, but just then 
 I caught sight of her trying to support her sister, and 
 to keep the children quiet. 
 
Chambers’s Journal, 
 Dec. 25, 18G9.] 
 
 BEGUMBAGH. 
 
 29 
 
 As I got more used to the gloom, I made out that 
 there was a small iron grating on one side, through 
 which came what little light and air we got ; on the 
 other, a flight of stone steps leading up to where the 
 struggle was going on. There was a strong wooden 
 door at the top of this, and twice that door was 
 opened for a wounded man to be brought down ; 
 when, coolly as if she were in barracks, there was 
 that noble woman, Mrs Bantem, tying up and binding 
 sword-cuts and bayonet-thrusts as she talked cheerily 
 to the men. 
 
 The struggle was "very fierce still, the men who 
 brought down the wounded hurrying away, for there 
 was no sign of flinching; but soon they were back 
 with another poor fellow, who was now whimpering, 
 now muttering fiercely : 
 
 ‘If I’d only have had — curse them ! — if I ’d only 
 had another cartridge or two, I wouldn’t have cared,’ 
 Ire said as they laid him down close by me; ‘but 
 I always was the unluckiest beggar on the face of 
 the earth. They’ve most done for me, Ike, and no 
 wonder, for it ’s all fifty to one up there, and I don’t 
 believe a man of ours has a shot left.’ 
 
 Again the door closed on the two men who had 
 brought down poor Measles, hacked almost to pieces ; 
 and again it was opened, to bring down another 
 wounded man, and this one was Lieutenant Leigh. 
 They laid him down, and were off back up the steps, 
 when there was a yelling, like as if all the devils in 
 hell 'had broken loose, and as the door was opened, 
 Captain Dyer and half-a-dozen more were beaten 
 back, and I thought they would have been followed 
 down — but no ; they stood fast in that doorway, 
 Captain Dyer and the six with him, while the two 
 fellows who had been down leaped up the stairs to 
 support them, so that, in that narrow opening, there 
 were eight sharp British bayonets, and the captain’s 
 sword, making such a steel hedge as the mutineers 
 could not pass. 
 
 They could not contrive either to fire at our 
 party, on account of the wall in front, and every 
 attempt at an entrance was thwarted; but we all 
 knew that it was only a question of time, for it was 
 impossible for man to do more. 
 
 There seemed now to be a lull, and only a buzzing 
 of voices above us, mingled with a groan and a dying 
 cry now and then, when I quite forgot my pain once 
 more on hearing poor Harry Lant, who had for some 
 time been quite off his head, and raving, commence 
 talking in a quiet sort of way. 
 
 ‘ Where’s Ike Smith ? ’ he said. ‘ It ’s all dark 
 here ; and I want to say good-bye to him.’ 
 
 I was kneeling by his side the next minute, holding 
 his hand. 
 
 ‘ God bless you, Ike,’ he said ; ‘ and God bless her. 
 I ’m going, old mate ; kiss her for me, and tell her 
 that if she hadn’t been made for you, I could have 
 loved her very dearly.’ 
 
 What could I do or say, when the next minute 
 Lizzy was kneeling on his other side, holding his hand ? 
 
 ‘ God bless you both,’ he whispered. ' ‘ You ’ll get 
 out of the trouble after all ; and don’t forget me.’ 
 
 We promised him we would not, as well as we 
 could, for we were both choked with sorrow; and 
 then he said, talking quickly : 
 
 .‘ Give poor old Sam Measles my tobacco-box, Ike, 
 the brass one, and shake hands with him for me ; 
 and now I want Mother Bantem.’ 
 
 She was by his side directly, to lift him gently in 
 her arms, calling him her poor gallant boy, her brave 
 lad, and no. end of fond expressions. 
 
 ‘ I never had a bairn, Harry,’ she sobbed ; ‘ but if 
 I could have had one, I’d have liked him to be like 
 you, my own gallant, light-hearted soldier boy ; and 
 you were always to me as a son.’ 
 
 ‘ Was I ? ’ says Harry softly. ‘ I ’m glad of it, for 
 I never knew what it was to have a mother.’ 
 
 He seemed to fall off to sleep after that, when, no 
 one noticing them, those two children came up, and 
 the first I heard of it was little Clive crying : ‘ Ally 
 Lant — Ally Lant, open eyes, and come and play wis 
 elf ant.’ 
 
 I started, «and looked up to see one of those little 
 innocents — his face smeared, and his little hands all 
 dabbled with blood, trying to open poor Harry Lant’s 
 eyes with his tiny fingers. 
 
 ‘Why [don’t Ally Lant come and play with us?’ 
 says the other ; and just then he opened his eyes, 
 and looked at them with a smile, when in a moment 
 I saw what was happening, for that poor . fellow’s 
 last act was to get those two children’s hands in his, 
 as if he felt that he should like to let his last grasp 
 in this world be upon something innocent ; and then 
 there was a deepening of that smile into a stern look, 
 his lips moved, and all was over ; while I was too 
 far off to hear his last words. 
 
 But there was one there who did hear them, and 
 she told me afterwards, sobbing as though her heart 
 would break. 
 
 ‘Poor Harry, poor light-hearted Harry,’ Mother 
 Bantem said. ‘And did you see the happy smile 
 upon his face as he passed away, clasping those two 
 poor children’s hands — so peaceful, so quiet, after all his 
 suffering; forgetting all then, but what seemed like 
 two angels’ faces by his dying pillow, for he said, Ike, 
 he said ’ 
 
 Poor Mother Bantem broke down here, and I 
 thought about what Harry’s dying pillow had been — 
 her faithful, old, motherly breast. But she forced 
 back her sobs, and wiped the tears from her rough, 
 plain face, as she said in low, reverent tones : ‘ Poor 
 Harry ! His last words : “ Of such is the kingdom 
 of Heaven.” ’ 
 
 Death was very busy amongst our poor company, 
 and one — two — three more passed away there, for 
 they were riddled with wounds ; and then I saw that, 
 in spite of all that could be done, Lieutenant Leigh 
 would be the next. He had received his death- wound, 
 and he knew it too ; and now he lay very still, 
 holding tightly by Miss Boss’s hand, while she knelt 
 beside him. 
 
 Captain Dyer, with his eight men, all left, were 
 still keeping the door ; but of late they had not been 
 interfered with, and the poor fellows were able to do 
 one another a good turn in binding up wounds. But 
 what all were now suffering for want of, was water ; 
 and beyond a few drops in one or two of the bottles 
 carried by the women, there was none to be had. 
 
 As for me, I could only lie there helpless, and in a 
 half-dreamy way, see and listen to all that was going 
 on. The spirit in me was good to help ; but think of 
 my state — going for days with that cut on the face, 
 and a broken arm, and in that climate. 
 
 I was puzzling myself about this time as to what 
 was going to happen next, for I could not understand 
 why the rebels were so quiet ; but the next minute 
 I was watching Lieutenant Leigh, and thinking about • 
 the morning when we saw Captain Dyer bound to 
 the muzzle of the nine-pounder. 
 
 Could he have been thinking about the same thing? 
 
 I say yes, for all at once he started right up, looking 
 wild and exeited. He had hold of Miss Boss’s hand ; 
 but he threw it from him, as he called out : ‘ Now, 
 my lads, a bold race, and a short one. We must 
 bring them in. Spike the guns — cut the cords. 
 Now, then — Elsie or death. Are you ready there? 
 Forward ! ’ 
 
 That last word rang through the vault we were in, 
 and Captain Dyer ran down the steps, his hacked 
 sword hanging from his wrist by the knot. But he 
 was ton late to take his messmate’s hand in his, and 
 say farewell, if that had been his intention, for 
 Lieutenant Leigh had fallen back ; and that senseless 
 figure by his side was to all appearance as dead, 
 
30 
 
 CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL— CHRISTMAS NUMBER. 
 
 [Dec. 25, 18CD. 
 
 when, with a quivering lip, Captain Dyer gently 
 lifted her, and bore her to where, half stupefied, Mrs 
 Colonel Maine was sitting. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 I got rather confused, and am to this day, about 
 how the time went ; things that only took a few 
 minutes seeming to be hours in happening, and what 
 really did take a long time gliding away as if by 
 magic. I think I was very often in a half- delirious 
 state ; but I can well remember what was the cause 
 of the silence above. 
 
 Captain Dyer was the first to see, and taking a rifle 
 in his hand, he whispered an order or two ; and then 
 he, with two more, rushed into the passage, and got 
 the door drawn towards us, for it opened outwards ; 
 but in so doing, he slipped on the floor, and fell with 
 a bayonet-thrust through his shoulder, when, with a 
 yell of rage — it was no cheer this time — our men 
 dashed forward, and dragged him in ; the door was 
 pulled to, and held close ; and then those poor 
 wounded fellows — heroes I call ’em — stood angrily 
 muttering. 
 
 I think I got more excited over that scene than 
 over any part of the struggle, and all because I was 
 lying’ there helpless ; but it was of no use to fret, 
 though I lay there with the weak tears running down 
 my cheeks, as that brave man was brought down, 
 and laid near the grating, with Mother Bantem at 
 work directly to tear off his coat, and begin to 
 bandage, as if she had been brought up in a hospital. 
 
 The door was forsaken, for there was a new guard 
 there, that no one would try to pass, for the silence 
 was explained to us all : first, there was a loud yell- 
 ing and shrieking outside ; and then there was a 
 little thin blue wreath of smoke beginning to curl 
 under the door, crawling along the top step, and 
 collecting like so much blue water, to spread very 
 slowly ; for the fiends had been carrying out' their 
 wounded and dead, and were now going to burn us 
 where we lay. 
 
 I can recollect all that ; for now a maddening sense 
 of horror seemed to come upon me, to think that 
 those few poor souls left were to be slain in such a 
 barbarous way, after all the gallant struggle for life ; 
 but what surprised me was the calm, quiet way in 
 which all seemed to take it. 
 
 Once, indeed, the men had a talk together, and 
 asked the women to join them in a rush through the 
 passage ; but they gave up the thought directly, for 
 they knew that if they could get by the flames, there 
 were more cruel foes outside, waiting to thrust them 
 back. 
 
 So they all sat down in a quiet, resigned way, 
 listening to the crackle outside the door, watching 
 the thin smoke filter through the crevices, and form 
 in clouds, or pools, according to where it came through. 
 
 And you ’d have wondered to see those poor fellows, 
 how they acted : why, Joe Bantem rubbed his face 
 with his handkerchief, smoothed his hair and whiskers, 
 and then got his belts square, as if off out on 
 parade, before going and sitting quietly down by his 
 wife. 
 
 Measles lay very still, gently humming over the 
 old child’s hymn, Oh ! that ’ll be joyful , but only to 
 burst out again into a fit of grumbling. 
 
 Another went and knelt down in a corner, where he 
 stayed; the rest shook hands all round, and then, 
 seeing Captain Dyer sitting up, and sensible, they 
 went and saluted him, and asked leave to shake hands 
 with him, quite upsetting him, poor fellow, as he 
 called them, in a faint voice, his ‘brave lads,’ and 
 asked their pardon, if he ’d ever been too harsh with 
 them. 
 
 ‘ God bless you ! no, sir,’ says Joe Bantem, jumping 
 up, and shaking the hand himself, ‘which that 
 
 lp_~ 
 
 you ’ve never been, but always a good officer as your 
 company loved. Keep a brave heart, my boys, it ’ll 
 soon be over. We’ve stood in front of death too 
 many times now to shew the white feather. Hurray 
 for Captain Dyer, and may he have his regiment in 
 the tother land, and we be some of his men ! ’ 
 
 Joe Bantem gave a bit of a reel as he. said this, and 
 then he ’d have fallen if it hadn’t been for his wife ; 
 and though his was rather strong language, you see it 
 must be excused, for, leave alone his wounds, and 
 the mad feeling they ’d bring on, there was a wild 
 excitement on the men then, brought on by the fight- 
 ing, which made them, as you may say, half-drunk. 
 
 We must all have been choked over and over again, 
 but for that grating; for the hotter the fire grew 
 above, the finer current of air swept in. The mutineers 
 could not have known of it, or one of their first acts 
 must have been to seal it up. But it was half- 
 covered by some creeping flower, which made it 
 invisible to them, and so we were able to breathe. 
 
 And now it may seem a curious thing, but I ’m 
 going to say a little more about love. A strange 
 time, you ’ll perhaps say, when those poor people 
 were crouching together in that horrible vault, expect- 
 ing their death moment by moment. But that ’s why 
 it was, and not from any want of retiring modesty. 
 I believe that those poor souls wished to shew those 
 they loved how true was that feeling ; and therefore 
 it was that wife crept to husband’s side, and Lizzy 
 Green, forgetting all else now, placed her arms round 
 my neck, and her lips to mine, and kissed me again 
 and again. 
 
 It was no time for scruples ; and thus it was that, 
 being close to them, I heard Miss Boss, kneeling by 
 the side of Captain Dyer, ask him, sobbing bitterly 
 the while — ask him to forgive her, while he looked 
 almost cold and strange at her, till she whispered to 
 him long and earnestly, when I knew that she must 
 be telling him all about the events of that morning. 
 It must have been, for with a cry of joy I saw him 
 bend towards her, when she threw her arms round 
 him, and clasped his poor bleeding form to her breast. 
 
 They were so when I last looked upon them, and 
 every one seemed lost in his or her own suffering, all 
 save those two children, one of whom was asleep on 
 Mrs Maine’s lap, and the other playing with the gold 
 knot of Captain Dyer’s sword. 
 
 Then came a time of misty smoke and heat, and the 
 crackling of woodwork ; but all the while there was 
 a stream of hot pure air rushing in at that grating to 
 give us life. 
 
 We could hear the black fiends running round 
 and round the burning building, yelling, and no doubt 
 ready to thrust back any one who tried to get out. 
 But there seemed then to come another misty time, 
 from which I was roused by Lizzy whispering to me : 
 
 ‘ Is it very near now ?’ 
 
 ‘ What ?’ I said faintly. 
 
 ‘ Death,’ she whispered, with her lips close to my 
 ear. ‘ If it is, pray God that He will never let us 
 part again in the land where all is peace ! ’ 
 
 I tried to answer her, but I could not, for the hot, 
 stifling, blinding smoke was now in my throat, when 
 the yelling outside seemed to increase. There was a 
 loud rushing sound ; the trampling of horses ; the 
 jingling of cavalry sabres ; a loud English hurray ; 
 and a crash ; and I knew that there was a charge of 
 horse sweeping by. Then came the hurried beating 
 of feet, the ring of platoon after platoon of musketry, 
 a rapid, squandering, skirmishing fire ; more yelling, 
 and more English cheers ; the rush, again, of galloping 
 horses ; and, by slow degrees, the sound of a fierce 
 skirmish, growing more and more distant, till there 
 came another rapid beating of hoofs, a sudden halt, 
 the jingle and rattle of harness, and a moment after, 
 bim — bom — bom — bom ! at regular intervals ; and I 
 waved my hand, and gave a faint cheer, for I could 
 
BEGUMBAGH. 
 
 31 
 
 mentally see it all : a troop of light - horse had 
 charged twice; the infantry had come up at the 
 double ; and now here were the horse-artillery, with 
 their light six-pounders, playing upon the retreating 
 rebels where the cavalry were not cutting them up. 
 
 That faint cheer of mine brought out some more ; 
 and then there was a terrible silence, for the relief 
 seemed to have come too late ; but a couple of our 
 men crawled to the grating, where the air reviving 
 them, they gave another ‘Hurray!’ which was 
 answered directly. 
 
 And then there was i loud shout, the excited 
 buzz of voides, the crashing of a pioneer’s axe 
 against the framework of the grating ; and after a 
 hard fight, from which our friends were beaten back 
 again and again, we poor wretches, nearly all insen- 
 sible, were dragged out about a quarter of an hour 
 before the burning house fell with a crash. Then 
 there was a raging whirlwind of flame, and smoke, and 
 sparks, and the cellar was choked up with the 
 burning ruin. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 How well I remember coming to myself as I lay there 
 on the grass, with our old surgeon, Mr Hughes, kneeling 
 by my side ; for it was our own men that formed the 
 infantry of the column, with a troop of lancers, and 
 one of horse-artillery. ' There was Colonel Maine 
 kneeling by his wife, who, poor soul, was recovering 
 fast, and him turning from her to the children, and 
 back again ; while it was hard work to keep our men 
 from following up the pursuit, now kept up by the 
 lancers and horse-artillery, so mad and excited were 
 they to find only eight wounded men out of the com- 
 pany they had left. 
 
 But, one way and another, the mutineers paid dear 
 for what suffering they caused us. I can undertake 
 to 'say that, for every life they took, half-a-dozen of 
 their own side fell — the explosion swept away, I 
 suppose, quite fifty, just as they had attempted a 
 surprise, and came over from the south side in a 
 night- attack ; while the way in which they were cut 
 up in the engagement was something awful. 
 
 For, anxious beyond measure at not hearing news 
 of the party left in Begumbagh, Colonel Maine had at 
 length obtained permission to go round by that 
 station, reinforce the troops, and then join the 
 general by another route. 
 
 They were making forced marches, when they 
 caught sight of the rebels yelling round the burning 
 building, fully a couple of hundred being outside ; 
 when, not knowing of the sore strait of those within, 
 they had charged down, driving the murderous black 
 scoundrels before them like so much chaff. 
 
 But you must not think that our pains were at an 
 end. Is it not told in the pages of history how for 
 long enough it was a hard fight for a standing in 
 India, and how our troops were in many places sore 
 put to it ; while home after home was made desolate 
 by the most cruel outrages ! It was many a long 
 week before we could be said to be in safety ; but I 
 don’t know that I suffered much beyond the pains of 
 that arm, or rather that stump, for our surgeon, Mr 
 Hughes, when I grumbled a little at his taking it off, 
 told me I might be very thankful that I had escaped 
 with life, for he had never known of such a case 
 before. 
 
 But it was rather hard lying alone there in the 
 temporary hospital, missing the tender hands that 
 one loved. 
 
 And yet I have no right to say quite alone, for 
 poor old Measles was on one side, and Joe Bantem 
 on the other, with Mrs Bantem doing all she could 
 for us three, as well as five more of our poor fellows. 
 
 More than once I heard Mr Hughes talk about the 
 
 men’s wounds, and say it was wonderful how they 
 could live through them; but live they all seemed 
 disposed to, except poor Measles, who was terrible 
 bad and delirious, till one day, when he could hardly 
 speak above a whisper, he says to me — being quite in 
 his right mind : 
 
 ‘I daresay some of you chaps think that I’m going 
 to take my discharge ; but all the same, you ’re 
 wrong, for I mean to go in now for promotion ! ’ 
 
 He said ‘ now ; ’ but what he did then was to go in 
 foi* sleep — and sleep he did for a good four-and- 
 twenty hours — when he woke up grumbling, and 
 calling himself the most unlucky beggar that ever 
 breathed. 
 
 Time went on ; and one by one we poor fellows 
 got out of hospital cured ; but I was the last ; and it 
 was many months after, that, at his wish, I called 
 upon Captain — then Major — Dyer, at his house in 
 London. For, during those many months, the mutiny 
 had been suppressed, and our regiment had been 
 ordered home. 
 
 I was very weak and pale, and I hadn’t got used to- 
 this empty sleeve, and things looked very gloomy 
 ahead ; but, somehow, that day when I called at 
 Major Dyer’s seemed the turning-point ; for, to a poor 
 soldier there was something very soothing for your 
 old officer to jump up, with both hands outstretched 
 to catch yours, and to greet you as warmly as did 
 his handsome, bonny wife. 
 
 They seemed as if they could hardly make enough 
 of me ; but the sight of their happiness made me 
 feel low-spirited ; and I felt no better when Mrs Dyer 
 — God bless her ! — took my hand in hers, and led me 
 to the next room, where she .said there was an old 
 friend wanted to see me. 
 
 I felt that soft jewelled hand holding mine, and I 
 heard the door close as Mrs Dyer went out again, and 
 then I stood seeing nothing — hearing nothing — feeling 
 nothing, but a pair of clinging arms round my neck,, 
 and a tear- wet face pressed to mine. 
 
 And did that make me feel happy ? 
 
 ATo ! I can say it with truth. For as the mist 
 cleared away from my eyes, and I looked down on, 
 i;o me, the brightest, truest face the sun ever shone 
 on, there was a great sorrow in my heart, as I 
 told myself that it was a sin and a wrong for me, 
 a poor invalided soldier, to think of taking advantage 
 of that fine handsome girl, and tying her down to 
 one who was maimed for life. 
 
 And at last, with the weak tears running down 
 my cheeks, I told her of how it could not be : that 
 I should be wronging her, and that she must think 
 no more of me, only as a dear friend ; when there 
 is that amount of folly in this world, that my heart 
 swelled, and a great ball seemed rising in my throat, 
 and I choked again and again, as those arms clung 
 tighter and tighter round my neck, and Lizzy called 
 me her hero, and her brave lad who had saved her 
 life again and again ; and asked me to take her to 
 my heart, and keep her there ; for her to try and be 
 to me a worthy loving wife — one that would never 
 say a bitter word to me as long as she lived. 
 
 1 said that there was so much folly in this world, so 
 how can you wonder at me catching it of her, when 
 she was so close that I could feel her breath upon 
 my cheeks, my hair, my eyes, as once more, forgetting 
 all in her love, she kissed me again and again. How, 
 then, could I help, but with that one hand press her 
 to my heart, and go the way that weak heart of mine 
 wished. 
 
 I know it was wrong ; but how can one always 
 fight against weakness. And, to tell you the truth, 
 I had fought long enough — so long that I wished for 
 peace. And I must say this, too, you must not be 
 hard on Lizzy, and think that it would have been 
 better for her to have let me do a little more of 
 
32 CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL — CHRISTMAS NUMBER. 
 
 the courting : there are exceptional cases, and this 
 was one. 
 
 I had a true friend in Major Dyer, and to him I 
 owe my present position — not a very grand one ; but 
 speaking honestly as a man, I don’t believe, if I had 
 been a general, some one at home could think more of 
 me ; while, as to this empty sleeve, she ’s proud of it, 
 and says that all the country is the same. 
 
 Wandering'* about as a regiment is, one does not 
 often have a charice to see' one’s old messmates ; but 
 Sergeant and Mrs Bantem, and Sergeant Measles did 
 have tea and supper with us one night here in 
 London, Mrs Bantem saying that Measles was as 
 proud of his promotion as a dog with two tails, 
 though Measles did say he was an unlucky beggar, 
 or he ’d have been a captain. And, my ! what a night 
 we did have of that, without one drawback, only 
 Measles would spit on my wife’s Brussels carpet ; 
 and so we did have a night last year when the old 
 regiment was stationed at Edinburgh, and the wife 
 and me had a holiday, and went down and saw 
 
 [Dec. 25, 1869. 
 
 Colonel and Mrs Maine, and those children grown up 
 a’most into a man and woman. But Colonel Dyer 
 had exchanged into another regiment, and they say 
 he is going to retire on half-pay, on account of his 
 wound troubling him. 
 
 We fought our old battles over again on those 
 nights ; and we did not forget the past and gone ; for 
 Mrs Bantem stood up after supper, with her stiff glass 
 of grog in her hand— a glass into which I saw a couple 
 of tears fall— as she spoke of the'dead — the brave men 
 who fell in defence of the defenceless and innocent, 
 hoping that the earth lay lightly on the grave of 
 Lieutenant Leigh, while she proposed the memory of 
 brave Harry Lant, 
 
 We drank that toast in silence ; and more than one 
 eye was wet as the old scenes came back — scenes 
 such as I hope may never fall to the lot of men again 
 to witness ; for if there is ever a fervent prayer sent 
 up to the Maker of All, by me, an old soldier, who 
 has much to answer for, it is contained in those words, 
 so familiar to you all at the season of Christmas : 
 
 ‘Peace on Earth!’ Amen. 
 

 
 
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