The taunts and insolence of the guards were no small addition to our misery. We had the feelings of Englishmen, and we suffered from their insults more severely than from their punishments. We could not forbear uttering the most bitter invectives against them, although at the expense of our lives, had we been heard; but we were almost unmindful of their hate. Barbarity and cruelty were all we did, or could expect, from a tyrant; therefore we were almost callous to his power to injure us. We remembered our own native soil, where the freedom of the subject is co-equal with that of his sovereign, and despised those wretches, who so far swerved from the dictates of every honourable and manly principle, as to treat us with such baseness.
When we could meet together, which at this period was very dangerous, our conversation was very scanty, having no subject but our misfortunes to discuss. Hence a question would be, after perhaps a long silence, started by one of the party, Do you think we shall ever see our parents or country more? This never failed to draw tears from some eyes, and sighs from others’ bosoms; and here we could not refrain from inveighing bitterly against the government. But, alas! of what use! Our hopes were cut off, and we were secure. Patience, and an affiance in the Almighty, were our only consolation.
CHAP. VI.
War renewed with the English—Bangalore taken from Tippoo.—Author and Companions entertain some Hopes of Escaping—Seem zealous for Tippoo—Obtain Confidence—Trusted with Arms—Gain Military Employment—Storm a Fort—Meditate an Escape—Make an Effort—Compelled to Return—Take their Final Departure—Progress of their Journey—Accidents—Enter some Mahratta Forts—Alarm—Danger—Seasonable Relief—Reach a Hospital, under the Care of an English Doctor—Kindly received—Visit the Mahratta Camp—Hospitable Treatment—March with the Army—Military Progress—Extraordinary Death of a Sepoy—Repair to Madras—Sail for England, and arrive in Safety.
Nearly four tedious years had rolled away, during which we had scarcely heard of war; at length, Bangalore was taken by Lord Cornwallis: this was news indeed! but we were forced to dissemble, and affect to be very sorrowful. How necessary to act the hypocrite in some cases! We soon learned also—for they were kinder to us now, through fear—that the Mahrattas were making (to us glorious) inroads into Tippoo’s country, which afforded us some hopes of one day having an opportunity of making our escape. The Mahrattas, our allies, had, in the course of a few months, taken and destroyed two-thirds of the district of Chitteldroog; when Dowlah Saib, then killadare, or governor, not so unfriendly to the English as many others in his situation, collected together a force of about 3500, inclusive of the four battalions in which we were. With these he frequently made excursions, in order to retake from our allies what they had taken from him; and in these excursions we were always excepted.
We now more than ever put our mental powers to work, to effect our escape; the plan we adopted, was, apparently to be more zealous than ever we had been, in Tippoo’s service. When we supposed this was sufficiently noticed, we went to the commandant, who had the sole direction of the four battalions. We could now all talk the language fluently, and we appointed Mr. Drake, midshipman of the Hannibal, to negociate this, to us, important business, in which he acted the hypocrite admirably, and to our entire satisfaction. On our arrival before him, after paying our most reverential Mohammedan obedience, we humbly asked him the reason that we were not taken with our battalions? He frankly answered us, for he was by no means a cruel Moor, that he was apprehensive we should leave him. Here he was perfectly right; but duplicity was our only alternative. We therefore began to work upon his credulity, giving him to understand, that we had been a long time in the service, and had long eaten the sultan’s salt, (a common expression among the Moors;) that many of us had children, and that we were become as themselves; that we did not consider ourselves deficient in personal courage, and wished for an opportunity of shewing it. Our reasons had the desired effect: he placed confidence in our observations, good man; and the next day each was ordered a musket, bayonet, and twenty rounds of ammunition, &c.
We were not long unemployed, for our killadare receiving advice that Tilligore, a mud fort of some little strength, had been taken, not by the Mahrattas, but by a banditti of Canaries, he ordered his forces to be in readiness to march the next morning against them. We were taken with our battalions, and two days brought us near its walls, a distance of sixty miles. Here we halted for the night, and the next morning our commander, the killadare himself, sent a summons to the fort to surrender; but their answer being of a spirited nature, we were ordered to advance, and such was their tenderness towards us, that we were selected, and placed in front, like a forlorn hope; with this exception, that a forlorn hope is generally composed of volunteers, but we had no choice.
The fort was surrounded by a formidable thicket, which is always the case in the interior, where wild beasts abound; which we breached with our bayonets, throwing it in different directions. While doing this, we were assailed by stones, some of them a pound weight, from slings; one of our number, which was twelve altogether, was knocked down by a stone, and lost an eye. On entering the thicket, three more fell; two were killed, and one was wounded by a ball through his shoulder. The blacks now came to our assistance on the glacis; but here we had no chance of doing any execution, unless we could pass a shot through their loop-holes while they were in the act of firing. Scaling ladders were at length brought, and the poor wretches who had to erect them were scalded in a dreadful manner, by the besieged pouring on them boiling oil mixed with cowdung. However, one ladder was erected, on which about thirty mounted, when they threw a large log over the wall, which struck the ladder about the middle, and broke it; they all fell; and several with their swords through the bodies of their companions. Two small field-pieces were now brought out, served by Frenchmen, and by cannonading for about three hours, a breach in the wall was made, and deemed practicable; but the ladder was found considerably too short. Here numbers fell; and had they stood to it, they would have repulsed 3500 with about 90 men: but their ammunition failing, they grew timid, and ran from the breach, which they had defended awhile with bravery.
In short, the fort was stormed, the males were put to the sword, with the exception of a few, whom I am proud to say we were instrumental in saving, and who called upon all the deities they ever worshipped, to bless and preserve us. Mr. Wentworth Augustus Lesage, a midshipman of the Hannibal, was shot through the heart. He was the next man to me; we were like brothers, so firm a friendship existed between us, and were never apart more than necessary. As he was falling, I caught him in my arms, and at the same instant a black from the fort was deliberately levelling his musket at me. I fortunately observed him, laid the body of my unfortunate friend down, took up my musket, and, although it was unloaded, presented it at the deliberate villain; at which he was alarmed, and ran from his situation. Thus, by a sudden presence of mind, I saved my life. Lesage was one of the finest, and perhaps strongest, young men in India, both in body and mind, and was lamented by all who knew him, both black and white. He had made such rapid proficiency in a knowledge of their manners and customs, that, had he lived, he would have been an honour to his country, and a rival to Sir William Jones in Asiatic literature. They wished us to leave him where he fell; but myself and Mr. Drake, whom I have already mentioned, got a camel, (a blanket made of camel’s hair,) tied the four corners together, put a pole through it, and in this way carried him to a paddy, or rice field, where, with our hands and bayonets together, we secured him as well as we could under ground; but doubtless the jackals, which were remarkably numerous, soon had him up again. This being done, the night advanced apace; and when the butchery was over, which is more or less the consequence of storming, every thing that was inflammable was set on fire.