I will try to describe no more, save that the funeral pyre, which the murderers had raised to hide their crime, had not reached them, not a garment being singed.
The men stood back, panting as if after a hard run, watching us now, as if to see what effect it would have upon us, and the silence after their fierce oaths and shouting was terrible.
As we drew back, one of our corporals cried fiercely—
“We don’t want no more rest, sir. Take us on at once.”
“Oh,” shouted another, “how can we hold our hands after this, sir?”
“Ay,” cried an Irish gunner, who was one of the party, “we were ready to foight the mutineers as min again min; but it isn’t min, lads—it’s savage bastes. And, hurrah! boys, come and take a last look of the poor darlins, to harden your hearts!”
“Halt!” cried Brace, sternly. “Joliffe,—Brian, advance; draw! Stand sentry at this door. No one is to profane the resting-place of our dead. Go back, my lads; you want no such sight to nerve your arms for the work we have to do.”
The men uttered a low murmur of acquiescence, and, without orders, fell in and marched behind us to the spot we had made our head-quarters. Here there was a short consultation between the officers, and directly a party of men was marched out to the foot of a clump of trees, where one great shallow grave was dug, and an hour afterwards, every man under arms, and the infantry lining the road to keep back the crowd of natives gathered from all parts of the town, the remains of the unfortunate people were borne, reverently draped, on the guns and tumbrils of our troop, to the open grave, laid therein carefully, the colonel said a short prayer, a volley was fired, the last resting-place of the two civil officials and their families was filled in, and a cross carved upon the nearest tree.
Long before the little ceremony was over, I saw that the natives, of whom a great crowd had collected, were beginning to steal away, till scarcely a soul was left; but I thought very little of this, for supposing that their curiosity was satisfied, it did not appear strange to me that they should go back to their homes. Perhaps, I thought, they may think we shall take vengeance upon them.
But this fact suddenly took Brace’s attention, just as the final duties were being paid to the dead; and, turning sharply to the colonel of the foot regiment, he said sharply—