Having gained this position, the next point was to reconnoitre the force of the enemy, and the posture of affairs outside.
A low parapet wall, some three feet high, encompassed the flat roof of the planter’s mansion; and over this last, sheltering as much of our persons as possible, we cast our eyes in the direction of the mass of bamboo and other foliage, amongst which the indigo vats and other out-buildings were principally situated.
All there was ominously still, except that, every now and then, a factory coolie, like a startled hare, would burst forth from his concealment, and with looks of terror, fly across the opposite rice-fields.
The vat-houses, &c., had now, it was clear, been abandoned by all the planters followers, and were in possession of the dacoits, who were probably rifling them. Of this we had speedy confirmation, by perceiving three or four dark, undersized figures, almost naked, and armed with swords and spears, creep cautiously out and cast furtive glances towards the house.
“There they are,” said Augustus: “those are some of the rascals preparing, no doubt, to make an assault upon us. Well, we must give them a warm reception. I wish with all my heart we had De la Chasse with us; but how to communicate with him and the distant police station, surrounded as we are, I know not. However,” he added, “he cannot fail sooner or later, to learn our situation from some of the runaways. Here, Gernon,” said he, handing me a double gun, “here is something for you; now do your best, like a valiant knight, and win your spurs.”
Here, thought I, is a pretty adventure! I shall inevitably be figuring in a return of killed and wounded, without ever having joined a regiment. Call you this a party of pleasure, i’faith? I had soliloquized to this extent, when a little white cloud of smoke puffed itself forth from the brightly verdant screen formed by the drooping bamboo hedge, followed by the whistling of a matchlock ball within a few feet of my pericranium.
To tell the truth, this music had no particular charms for me; though, when “honour pricked me on,” I could listen to it awhile, buoyed up by visions of glory, promotion, prize-money, and so forth, as well as another.
On hearing the whine of this ragged missile, I instinctively bobbed my head a shade lower than the parapet wall: this little involuntary working of the conservative principle, however, was speedily succeeded by an energetic display of its opposite, as by an active rebound up I started, presented my gun, and dropped shots—one, two—quick as thought, into the spot from which the cloud of smoke had yet hardly disappeared;—how many I killed, I can’t say.
Augustus also fired; and immediately, as if roused by our daring, a numerous band of some 200 or 300 dacoits, as ill-looking a set of fellows as I ever beheld, armed with swords, spears, and a rusty matchlock or two swarmed forth from their places of concealment, rushed down upon the house with a frightful yelling, sprung upon the terrace, and endeavoured to force the doors. These, however, though rather fragile, as Indian doors generally are, were sufficient for the moment to resist their efforts.
Our garrison replied by loud shouts of defiance, which, with a volley from the guns and matchlocks, sent them, to our astonishment, to the right-about, and they again sought shelter amongst the trees, carrying off two or three wounded.