Chapter 4.
The bugle sounded, and in a short time the infantry fell in. Theyhad been engaged in searching the houses for mutineers. ThePunjaubies had lost but five killed and thirteen wounded, while ofthe whites an officer and eighteen men were killed and sixteenwounded; nine of the former having fallen in the bayonet strugglewith the Sepoys. Nine guns were captured, none of which had beenfired, the attack having been so sudden that the Sepoys had onlyhad time to fall in before their assailants were upon them.
"It is a creditable victory," Mallett said, "considering that wehad to face more than double the number that we expected. Ourcasualties are heavy, but they are nothing to those of themutineers.
"Sergeant, take a file of men and go round and count the number ofthe enemy who have fallen.
"Ah, here comes a Sowar, and we shall hear what the cavalry havebeen doing outside."
The trooper handed him a paper: "Fifty-three of the enemy killed,the rest escaped into the jungle. On our side two wounded; oneseriously, one slightly."
"That is as well as we could expect, Marshall. Of course, most ofthem got over the wall at the back. You see, all our plans weredisarranged by finding them in such unexpected strength. Had webeen able to thrash them by ourselves, the Punjaubies would havecut off the retreat in that direction. As it was, that part of thebusiness is a failure."
The Sergeant presently returned.
"There are 340 in the streets, sir," he reported; "and I reckonthere are another 20 or 30 killed in the houses, but I have notsearched them yet."
"That is sufficiently close; upwards of 400 is good enough.
"Now, Mr. Marshall, set the men to work making stretchers to carrythe wounded.
"Mr. Herbert, will you tell off a party of your men to dig a largegrave outside the village for the killed, and a small one apart forMr. Anstruther? Poor fellow, I am sorry indeed at his loss; hewould have made a fine officer.
"Sergeant Hugging, take a party and search the village forprovisions. We have got bread, but lay hands on any fowls or goatsthat you can find, and there may be some sheep."
While this party was away, another tore down the woodwork of anempty house, and fires were soon burning, an abundance of fowl andgoats having been obtained. The cavalry had by this time come in.
While the meal was being cooked the British and Punjaub dead werecarried out to the spot where the grave had been dug. The troopshad a hearty meal, and then marched out from the village. They weredrawn up round the graves, and the bodies were laid reverently inthem. Captain Mallett said a few words over them; the earth wasthen shovelled in and levelled, and the troops marched to a wood amile distant, where they halted until the heat of the day was over.They returned by the direct road to the camp, which they reached atmidnight.
All concerned gained great credit for the heavy blow that had beeninflicted on the mutineers, and the affair was highly spoken of inthe Brigadier's report to the Commander in Chief. Shortlyafterwards Mallett's name appeared in general orders as promoted toa brevet Majority, pending a confirmation by the home authorities.
Two days after the return of the little column, the brigade marchedand joined the force collected at Cawnpore for the final operationagainst Lucknow, and on the 3rd of March reached the Commander inChief at the Dil Koosha, which had been captured with the same easeas on the occasion of the former advance.
They found that while the main body had gathered there, 6,000 menunder Sir James Outram had crossed the Goomtee from the Alum Bagh,and, after defeating two serious attacks by the enemy, had taken upa position at Chinhut. On the 9th, Sir Colin Campbell captured theMartiniere with trifling loss. On the 11th General Outram pushedhis advance as far as the iron bridge, and established batteriescommanding the passage of the stone bridge also. On the 12th theImambarra was breached and stormed, and the troops pressed so hotlyon the flying enemy that they entered the Kaiser Bagh, thestrongest fortified palace in the city, and drove the enemy fromit.
The ----th was engaged in this action, and Major Mallett was leadinghis company to the assault on the Imambarra when a shot brought himto the ground. When he recovered his senses he found himself in achamber that had been hastily converted into a hospital, with theregimental doctor leaning over him.
"What has happened?" he asked.
"You have been hit, Mallett, and have had a very close shave of it,indeed; but as it is, you will soon be about again."
"Where was I hit? I don't feel any pain."
"You were hit in the neck, about half an inch above the collarbone,and the ball has gone through the muscles of the neck; and beyondthe fact that you won't be able to turn your head for some time,you will be none the worse for it. An inch further to the right, oran inch lower or higher, and it would have been fatal. It was notone of the enemy who did you this service, for the ball went upfrom behind, and came out in front; it is evidently a random shotfrom one of our own fellows."
"I am always more afraid of a shot from behind than I am of one infront when I am leading the company, doctor. The men get so excitedthat they blaze away anyhow, and in the smoke are just as likely tohit an officer two or three paces ahead of them as an enemy. Howlong have I been insensible?"
"You were brought in here half an hour ago, and I don't supposethat you had lain many minutes on the ground before you were pickedup."
"Have we taken the Imambarra?"
"Yes, and what is better still, our fellows rushed into the KaiserBagh at the heels of the enemy. We got the news ten minutes ago."
"That is good indeed. We anticipated desperate fighting before wetook that."
"Yes, it was an unlucky shot, Mallett, that knocked you out of yourshare in the loot. We have always heard that the place was full oftreasure and jewels."
"If there is no one else who wants your attention, doctor, I adviseyou to join the regiment there for an hour or two. As for me, Icare nothing about the loot. There are plenty of fellows who willbenefit by it more than I should, and I give up my sharewillingly."
The doctor shook his head.
"I am afraid I cannot do that; but, between ourselves, I have letFerguson slip away, and he is to divide what he gets with me."
"Have we any wounded?"
"I don't know yet. The whole thing was done so suddenly that theloss cannot have been heavy. I was in the rear of the brigade whenyou were brought in, and as the case at first looked bad, I gotsome of the stretcher men with me to burst open the door of thishouse and established a dozen temporary beds here. As you see,there are only four others tenanted, and they are all hopelesscases. No doubt the rest have all been carried off to the rear, asonly the men who helped me would have known of this place.
"Now that you have come round, I will send a couple of hospitalorderlies in here and be off myself to the hospital in the rear. Iwill look in again this evening."
In a short time the doctor returned with an orderly.
"I cannot find another now," he said, "but one will be enough. Hereis a flask of brandy, and he will find you water somewhere. Thereis nothing to be done for any of you at present, except to give youdrink when you want it."
Two hours later Marshall came in.
"Thank God you are not dangerously hurt, Mallett," he said. "I onlyheard that you were down three-quarters of an hour ago, when I ranagainst Armstrong in the Kaiser Bagh. He told me that he had seenyou fall at the beginning of the fight, and I got leave from theColonel to look for you. At the hospital, no one seemed to knowanything about you, but I luckily came across Jefferies, who toldme where to find you, and that your wound was not serious, so Ihurried back here. He said that you would be taken to the hospitalthis evening."
"Yes, I am in luck again. Like the last it is only a flesh wound,though it is rather worse, for I expect that I shall have to goabout with a stiff neck for some weeks to come, and it isdisgusting being laid up in the middle of an affair like this. Havewe lost many fellows?"
"No. Scobell is the only officer killed. Hunter, Groves andParkinson are
wounded--Parkinson, they say, seriously. We havetwenty-two rank and file killed, and twenty or thirty wounded. Ihave not seen the returns."
"And how about the loot, Marshall?" Mallett said, with a smile."Was that all humbug?"
"It is stupendous. We were among the first at the Kaiser Bagh, andI don't believe that there is a man who has not got his pocketsstuffed with gold coins. There were chests and chests full. Theydid not bother about the jewels--I think they took them forcoloured glass. I kept my eyes open, and picked up enough to pay mydebt to you five times over."
"I am heartily glad of that, Marshall. Don't let it slip throughyour fingers again."
"That you may be sure I won't. I shall send them all home to ouragent to sell, and have the money put by for purchasing my nextstep. I have had my lesson, and it will last me for life.
"Well, I must be going now, old man. The Colonel did not likeletting me go, as of course the men want looking after, and thePandies may make an effort to drive us out of the Kaiser Baghagain; so goodbye. If I can get away this evening I will come tosee you at the hospital."
A week later Frank Mallett was sitting in a chair by his bedside.The fighting was all over, and a strange quiet had succeeded thelong roar of battle. His neck was strapped up with bandages, andsave that he was unable to move his head in the slightest degree,he felt well enough to take his place with the regiment again. Manyof his fellow officers dropped in from time to time for a shortchat, but the duty was heavy. All open resistance had ceased, butthe troops were engaged in searching the houses, and turning outall rough characters who had made Lucknow their centre, and had novisible means of subsistence. Large gangs of the lower classpopulation were set to work to bury the dead, which would otherwisehave rendered the city uninhabitable. Strong guards were posted atnight, alike to prevent soldiers from wandering in search of lootand to prevent fanatics from making sudden attacks.
"There is a wounded man in the hospital across the road who wantsto see you, Mallett," the surgeon said one morning. "He belongs toyour company, but as he only came out with the last draft, and wastransferred only on the day that the fighting began, I don'tsuppose you know him. He said I was to tell you his name was GeorgeLechmere, though he enlisted as John Hilton."
"I seem to know the name, doctor, though I don't remember atpresent where I came across him. I suppose I can go in to see him?"
"Oh, yes, there is no objection whatever. Your wound is doing aswell as can be; though, of course, you are still weak from loss ofblood. I shall send you up this afternoon to the hospital justestablished in the park of the Dil Koosha. We shall get you all outas soon as we can, for the stench of this town at present isdreadful, and wounds cannot be expected to do well in such apoisoned atmosphere."
"Is this man badly hit, doctor?"
"Very dangerously. I have scarcely a hope of saving him, and thinkit probable that he may not live another twenty-four hours. Ofcourse, he may take a change for the better. I will take you tohim. I have finished here now."
"It must have been a bad time for you, doctor," Mallett said, asthey went across.
"Tremendously hard, but most interesting. I had not had more thantwo hours' sleep at a time since the fighting began, till lastnight, and then I could not keep up any longer. Of course, it hasbeen the same with us all, and the heat has made it very trying. Iam particularly anxious to get the wounded well out of the place,for now that the excitement is over I expect an outbreak of feveror dysentery.
"There, that is your man in the corner bed over there."
Mallett went over to the bedside, and looked at the wounded man.His face was drawn and pinched, his eyes sunken in his head, hisface deadly pale, and his hair matted with perspiration.
"Do you know me, Captain Mallett?"
"No, lad, I cannot say that I do, though when the doctor told meyour name it seemed familiar to me. Very likely I should haverecognised you if I had met you a week since, but, you see, we areboth altered a good deal from the effect of our wounds."
"I am the son of Farmer Lechmere, your tenant."
"Good heavens! man. You don't mean to say you are Lechmere's eldestson, George! What in the world brought you to this?"
"You did," the man said, sternly. "Your villainy brought me here."
Frank Mallett gave a start of astonishment that cost him so violenta twinge in his wound that he almost cried out with sudden pain.
"What wild idea have you got into your head, my poor fellow?" hesaid soothingly. "I am conscious of having done no wrong to you oryours. I saw your father and mother on the afternoon before I cameaway. They made no complaint of anything."
"No, they were contented enough. Do you know, Captain Mallett, thatI loved Martha Bennett?"
"No. I have been so little at home of recent years that I know verylittle of the private affairs of my tenants, but I remember her, ofcourse, and I was grieved to learn by a letter from Sir JohnGreendale the other day that in some strange way she was missing."
"Who knew that better than yourself?" the man said, raising himselfon his elbow, and fixing a look of such deadly hatred upon Mallett,that the latter involuntarily drew back a step.
"I saw you laughing and talking to her in front of her father'shouse. I heard you with her in their garden the evening before youleft and she disappeared, and it was my voice you heard in thelane. Had I known that you were going that night, I would havefollowed you and killed you, and saved her. The next morning youwere both gone. I waited a time and then went to the depot of yourregiment and enlisted. I had failed to save her, but at least Icould avenge her. That bullet was mine, and had you not stumbledover a Pandy's body, I suppose, just as I pulled my trigger, youwould have been a dead man.
"I did not know that I had failed, and, rushing forward with mycompany, was in the thickest of the fight. I wanted to be killed,but no shot struck me, and at last, when chasing a Pandy along apassage in the Kaiser Bagh, he turned and levelled his piece at me.Mine was loaded, and I could have shot him down as he turned, but Istood and let him have his shot. When I found myself here I wassorry that he had not finished me at once, but when I heard thatyou were alive, and likely to recover, I thanked him in my heartthat he had left me a few more days of life, that I could let youknow that it was I who had fired, and that Martha's wrong had notbeen wholly unavenged."
He sank back exhausted on to the pillow. Frank Mallett had made noattempt to interrupt him: the sudden agony of his wound and hisastonishment at this strange accusation had given him so grave ashock that he leaned against the wall behind him in silent wonder.
"Hello! Mallett, what the deuce is the matter with you?" thesurgeon exclaimed, as, looking up from a patient over whom he wasbending a short distance away, his eyes fell on the officer's face."You look as if you were going to faint, man.
"Here, orderly, some brandy and water, quickly!"
Frank drank some of the brandy and water and sat down for a fewminutes. Then, when he saw the surgeon at the other end of theroom, he got up and went across to Lechmere's bed.
"There is some terrible mistake, Lechmere," he said, quietly. "Iswear to you on my honour as a gentleman that you are altogetherwrong. From the moment that I got into my dog cart at Bennett's Inever saw Martha again. I know nothing whatever of this talk in thegarden. Did you think you saw me as well as heard me?"
"No, you were on one side of that high wall and I on the other, butI heard enough to know who it was. You told her that you had to goabroad at once, but that if she would come out there you would puther in charge of someone until you could marry her. You told herthat she could not stay where she was long, and I knew what thatmeant. I suppose she is at Calcutta still waiting, for of courseshe could not have come out with you. I suppose that she isbreaking her heart there now--if she is not dead, as I hope sheis."
"Did you hear the word Calcutta or India mentioned, Lechmere?"
"No, I did not, but I heard quite enough. Everyone knew that youwere going in a day or two, and that was enough for me after w
hat Ihad seen in the afternoon."
"You saw nothing in the afternoon," Captain Mallett said, angrily."The girl's father and mother were at home. We were all chattingtogether until we came out. She came to the trap with me while theystood at the open window. It was not more than a minute before Idrove off. I have not spoken to the girl half a dozen times sinceshe was a little child.
"Why, man, if everyone took such insane fancies in his head as youdo, no man would dare to speak to a woman at all.
"However," he went on in an altered voice, "this is not a time foranger. You are very ill, Lechmere, but the doctor has not given youup, and I trust that you will yet get round and will be able toprove to your own satisfaction that, whatever has happened to thispoor girl, I, at least, am wholly innocent of it. But should younot get over this hurt, I should not like you to go to your gravebelieving that I had done you this great wrong. I speak to you asto a dying man, and having no interest in deceiving you, and Iswear to you before Heaven that I know absolutely nothing of this.I, too, may fall from a rebel shot before long, and I thank Godthat I can meet you before Him as an innocent man in this matter.
"I must be going, for I see the doctor coming to fetch me. Goodbye,lad, we may not meet again, though I trust we shall; but if not, Igive you my full forgiveness for that shot you fired at me. It wasthe result of a strange mistake, but had I acted as you believed, Ishould have well deserved the death you intended for me."
"Confound it, Mallett, there seems no end of mischief from yourvisit here. In the first place, you were nearly knocked overyourself, and now there is this man lying insensible. So forgoodness' sake get off to your room again, and lie down and keepyourself quiet for the rest of the day. I shall have youdemoralising the whole ward if you stay here."
Captain Mallett walked back with a much feebler and less steadystep than that with which he had entered the hospital. He had somedoubts whether the man who had made this strange accusation and hadso nearly taken his life was really sane, and whether he had notaltogether imagined the conversation which he declared he had heardin the garden. He remembered now the sudden way in which GeorgeLechmere had turned round and gone away when he saw him sayinggoodbye to Martha, and how she had shrugged her shoulders incontempt.
The man must either be mad, or of a frightfully jealousdisposition, to conjure up harm out of such an incident: and onewho would do so might well, when his brain was on fire, conjure upthis imaginary conversation. Still, he might have heard some mantalking to her. From what Sir John had said, she did leave thehouse and go into the garden about that hour, and she certainlynever returned.
He remembered all about George Lechmere now. He had the reputationof being the best judge of cattle in the neighbourhood, and athoroughly steady fellow, but he could see no resemblance in theshrunk and wasted face to that he remembered.
That evening both the officers and men in the hospital were carriedaway to the new one outside the town. When the doctor came inbefore they were moved, he told Mallett that the man he had seenhad recovered from his swoon.
"He was very nearly gone," he said, "but we managed to get himround, and it seems to me that he has been better since. I don'tknow what he said to you or you to him, and I don't want to know;but he seems to have got something off his mind. He is lessfeverish than he was, and I have really some faint hopes of pullinghim through, especially as he will now be in a more healthfulatmosphere."
It was a comfort indeed to all the wounded when late that eveningthey lay on beds in the hospital marquees. The air seemeddeliciously cool and fresh, and there was a feeling of quiet andrestfulness that was impossible in the town, with the constantmovement of troops, the sound of falling masonry, the dust andfetid odour of decay.
A week later the surgeon told Mallett that he had now hopes thatthe soldier he was interested in would recover.
"The chances were a hundred to one against him," he said, "but theone chance has come off."
"Will he be fit for service again, doctor?"
"Yes, I don't see why he should not be, though it will be a longtime before he can carry his kit and arms on a long day's march. Itis hot enough now, but we have not got to the worst by a long way,and as there is still a vast amount of work to be done, I expectthat the regiment will be off again before long."
"Well, at any rate, I shall be able to go with you, doctor."
"I don't quite say that, Mallett," the doctor said, doubtfully. "Inanother fortnight your wound will be healed so that you will becapable of ordinary duty, but certainly not long marches. If you dogo you will have to ride. There must be no more marching with yourcompany for some time."
A week later orders were issued, under which the regiment wasappointed to form part of the force which, under the command ofGeneral Walpole, was to undertake a campaign against Rohilcund, adistrict in which the great majority of the rebels who had escapedfrom Lucknow had now established themselves. Unfortunately, theextent of the city and the necessity for the employment of a largeproportion of the British force in the actual assault, hadprevented anything like a complete investment of the town, and theconsequence had been that after the fall of the Kaiser Bagh, by farthe greater portion of the rebel force in the city had been able tomarch away without molestation.
Before leaving, Mallett had an interview with George Lechmere, whowas now out of danger.
"I should have known you now, Lechmere," he said, as he came to hisbedside. "Of course you are still greatly changed, but you aregetting back your old expression, and I hope that in the course oftwo or three months you will be able to take your place in theranks again."
"I don't know, sir. I ain't fit to stay with the regiment, and havethought of being invalided home and then buying my discharge. Iknow you have said nothing as to how you got that wound, not evento the doctor; for if you had done so there is not a man inhospital who would have spoken to me. But how could I join theregiment again? knowing that if there was any suspicion of what Ihad done, every man would draw away from me, and that there wouldbe nothing for me to do but to put a bullet in my head."
"But no one ever will know it. It was a mad act, and I believe youwere partly mad at the time."
"I think so myself now that I look back. I think now that I musthave been mad all along. It never once entered my mind to doubtthat it was you, and now I see plainly enough that except what theman said about going away--and anyone might have said that--therewas not a shadow of ground or suspicion against you. But even if Ihad never had that suspicion I should have left home.
"Why, sir, I know that my own father and mother suspected that Ikilled her. I resented it at the time. I felt hard and bitteragainst it, but as I have been lying here I have come to see that Ibrought their suspicions upon myself by my own conduct, and thatthey had a thousand times better ground for suspecting me than Ihad for suspecting you.
"All that happened was my fault. Martha cared for me once, but itwas my cursed jealousy that drove her from me. She was gay andlight hearted, and it was natural for her to take her pleasure,which was harmless enough if I had not made a grievance of it. If Ihad not driven her from me she would have been my wife long beforeharm came to her; but it was as well that it was not so, for as Iwas then I know I should have made her life a hell.
"I did it all and I have been punished for it. Even at the end shemight never have gone off if I had not shouted out and tried toclimb the wall. She must have recognised my voice, and, knowingthat I had her secret, feared that I might kill her and him too,and so she went. She would not have gone as she did, without even abonnet or a shawl, if it had not been for that."
"Then you don't think, as most people there do, that she wasmurdered?"
"Not a bit, sir. I never thought so for a moment. She went straightaway with that man. I think now I know who it was."
"Never mind about that, Lechmere. You know what the Bible says,'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord,' and whoever it may be, leavehim safely in God's hands."
"Yes, sir, I shall try to act
up to that. I was fool enough tothink that I could avenge her, and a nice business I made of it."
"Well, I think it is nonsense of you to think of leaving theregiment. There is work to be done here. There is the work ofpunishing men who have committed the most atrocious crimes. Thereis the work of winning back India for England. Every Englishman outhere, who can carry a weapon, ought to remain at his post until thework is done.
"As to this wound of mine, that is a matter between us only. As Ihave told you, I have altogether forgiven you, and am not evendisposed greatly to blame you, thinking, as you did, that I wasresponsible for that poor girl's flight. I shall never mention itto a soul. I have already put it out of my mind, therefore it is asif it had never been done, and there is no reason whatever why youshould shrink from companionship with your comrades. I shall thinkmuch better of you for doing your duty like a man, than if you wenthome again and shrank from it."
"You are too good, sir, altogether too good."
"Nonsense, man. Besides, you have to remember that you have notgone unpunished. Had it not been for your feeling, after you had,as you believed, killed me, you never would have stood and let thatSepoy shoot you; so that all the pain that you have been goingthrough, and may still have to go through before you are quitecured, is a punishment that you have yourself accepted. After a manhas once been punished for a crime there is an end of it, and youneed grieve no further over it; but it will be a lesson that I hopeand believe you will never forget.
"Hackett, who has been my soldier servant for the last five years,was killed in the fight in the Kaiser Bagh. If you like, when yourejoin, I shall apply for you in his stead. It will make your worka good deal easier for you, and I should like to have the son ofone of my old tenants about me."
The man burst into tears.
"There, don't let's say anything more about it," Mallett went on,taking the thin hand of the soldier in his. "We will consider itsettled, and I shall look out for you in a couple of months, so getwell as quick as you can, and don't worry yourself by thinking ofthe past. I must be off now, for I have to take down a party ofconvalescents to rejoin this evening.
"Goodbye, lad," and without waiting for any reply, he turned andleft the marquee.