CHAPTER XIII.
Something like a guerilla warfare having set in, with insurgents threatening our flanks, the baggage, etc., was directed to move between the tail of the Brigade and head of a strong body of all arms. But this precaution, however necessary, was the means of converting the march into a crawling, melancholy procession, resembling one following a funeral; and so tediously slow was our progress that the camp followers, in their impatience to outstrip an imaginary enemy, from whom no doubt they conjectured we were bolting, could not be restrained within the line allotted to them. Little therefore was our surprise when we heard that some grooms, who headed the Brigade by a few hundred yards, had been pounced upon by a band of marauders, and deprived of the valuable chargers they were leading.
It now became imperatively necessary to act, if possible, with greater vigour than heretofore, in order to summarily stamp out the seditious flame which had not yet ceased to burn, but, on the contrary, seemed rekindling again in this part of the country. Cuptāngung, therefore, was no sooner reached than the Brigade, indifferent to the fatigue it had already undergone during the long night march, pushed on to the Nugger fortress, which being but a short distance off, we commenced to assault at daybreak.
Without much ado, our howitzers and rocket-battery were at once brought into position, and opened, as usual, with magnificent effect. Indeed, the splendid practice of the sailors with their guns on all occasions, was one of the admirable features in the scenes of our field operations, and nothing tended more to animate the fighting, than the grand spectacle exhibited in the unerring flight of their destructive missiles darting through space, like falcons descending on their prey.
While the guns fed death in the fortress, the infantry advanced against the outer fortifications, and soon became warmly engaged, but the resistance there, though obstinate, was quickly brushed aside; and then the bayonet cleared the place, excepting where the mutineers stood firm and perished; while those who fled, fell fighting to the death beneath the sabres and revolvers of the Yeomanry.
In the midst of the ruins and bodies with which the fortress was filled, loot of the most miscellaneous description was found. There were ponies, bullocks, cows, goats, sheep (all “taken in” probably for the sake of protection, though several had been killed and wounded). Then there were arms of all sorts, drums, pipes, cooking utensils, and what not? In using the interrogative, I abbreviate the long heterogeneous category of the spoil; but I must not omit to add to it the chargers which the rebels had but just captured from our grooms, and their recapture by us was considered far more important and satisfactory than the seizure and value of all the other booty put together.
An example in energy so effectual, and in execution so severe, gave confidence to the distracted peasantry, and exacted submission from certain turbulent villages in the neighbourhood.
The rebels at Belwa, too, who at our sudden departure from Amorah exulted in the belief that we had, metaphorically speaking, hoisted the white flag and taken to our heels, when they heard of the victory, were reported to be impressed with an idea that our retrograde movement, though ostensibly undertaken to reduce Nugger, was in reality a trick or stratagem, by which the Brigade hoped to draw them farther out into the open country, and thus lure them to their destruction.
Nugger having fallen, the Brigade was in a position either to remain where it now rested, or return to its former post at Amorah. But Cuptāngung, offering as it did a wider range for field operations, and overlooking a greater expanse of the country, being rightly considered a more strategical locality, we halted there sine die; and again, by digging holes in the ground, we sought shelter in them from our “fiery foe”; and in the harassing routine of the camp duties, such as those to which I have already briefly alluded, the broiling month of May wore away.
During May the enemy received some vague rumours of an enormous force moving down from Oudh, and in consequence whole regiments of rebels, both horse and foot, were reported by spies to be hurrying northward with much alacrity and consternation. And by-and-bye these rumours proved so far correct, that a swarm of Gurkhas, returning to their homes in Nipal, passed by. our encampment laden with the spoils of Luknow, and exultant in the “exploits” they had there achieved! And yet, forsooth, of what real assistance were these Gurkhas in their confederacy with us after all? No European who had an opportunity of seeing them before the enemy in the field could applaud their prowess; while the natives of Upper India regarded their interference in the war as a proof of weakness on our part, and, in consequence, the Government temporarily lost considerable prestige in those districts through which this superfluous Gurkha army sauntered homeward to Nipal.
While these Gurkhas were passing on, a lull in hostilities temporarily followed; but it was not allowed to continue for any length of time. For now Banse, a large and loyal town on the border of Oudh, was invaded by hordes of rebels; and as it was ascertained that they had resolved to advance farther into the district, the Brigade at once, marched to Banse; while the perpetual and familiar booming of the enemy’s guns marked irregularly the cadence in a long, fatiguing tramp, through a line of country overshadowed with the gloom of a night so black, that our eyes could not pierce its density beyond our horses’ ears.
We crawled along — marching it could not be called — in a darkness that could almost be felt; and oft and anon, in the dead silence that prevailed in our ranks, an irritable mutter was all that could be heard. Now, without troubling to inquire what this “irritable mutter” suggested, there can be no doubt that some irritation in the Corps would seem natural enough, when it is remembered that for months and months we had been undergoing no ordinary torture from burning heat, and eking out an existence similar to that in which vermin, and reptiles are wont to thrive. And yet, although the neck of the rebellion had been dislocated by the fall of Luknow, our interminable troubles seemed still as dark as the night through which we were journeying.
To say that during this expedition we resembled half-starved brigands, is to suggest our appearance while living as best we could on the wing, like swallows, and on such food as astonished our stomachs. And as to our gallant and generous horses, poor brutes! they sobbed and hung their heads, and in their worn and wasted frames, they looked wretchedly gaunt, and as if on their “last legs” from the toil and torture of their daily life.
However, onwards to the “Devils” was the cry; so following our noses, and groping our way along the black and lonely road, we crawled slowly on and on, as savage and irritable as the present state of affairs had rendered us.