"Well, sergeant, I have no reason to doubt your word; will you try a shell?"
"I should have no objection, but I have no chance of driving them away, because they are all gone; but I should like to try one, and see if I could hit something."
He fired, and immediately cried out, "By St. Patrick, but that's amongst them, if they should happen to be there." This blunder caused a general laugh at poor Paddy's expense, who seemed a little nettled, and peevishly replied, "Fait! you may laugh, but that's more than those will who were kilt by that shell just now."
We could distinctly hear the moanings of the wounded; and sad must have been the fate of those poor fellows whose gaping wounds were left bleeding, the shattered bones protruding through the lacerated flesh. The very idea makes the sympathetic mind shudder; but the hearts of these unfortunate creatures were as impenetrable as the stubborn rock on which their fort was erected. Yet, this very fact serves but to increase our sorrow for their benighted souls, influenced and guided by some hypocritical priest or mendicant impostor, who leads them blindfold to destruction.
The firing from the fort was good and steady, and some of their long shots would have been no disgrace to a European gunner. I was, during this siege, as before, baggage-master and acting aid-de-camp to Brigadier-General Watson, C.B., who invested this fort in person, and saw hourly the operations carried on under his own eye, being constantly riding round the chain of posts, or in the breaching and other batteries, always seeing things done, and strictly watching the progress of the siege.
Our principal breaching-battery was on the east side of the fort, keeping the pure stream of the sweet Nerbuddah running between ourselves and the foe. Many of the enemy, when sipping of its crystal water, were killed in the attempt to moisten their parched lips. I have more than once nearly quarrelled with my brother officers on the following subject, nor can I ever reconcile to my bosom, that the act is fair or right. The question to which I alluded is this, whether it is fair that I should secrete myself in a hole, or behind a wall, with a rifle, and thus, unseen, shoot every poor creature who shows his nose, without my own person being in the slightest danger. It is true, it is an enemy whom you thus treat, but I do consider the act of placing one's self in security, and from the hiding-place dealing out death, treads close upon the heels of cowardice, if it does not come under the designation of actual murder. Give me man to man, and sword to sword. I hate unfairness in anything; and I do not think this practice, though often adopted, will stand the test of scrutiny in the eye of justice.
We breached a corner bastion of the town, the base of which ran down into the river, on the banks of which we could approach the breach out of sight, and pounce upon it unobserved, and out of the reach of their cannon and small arms. All was impatience to get to work. The breach seemed fit for storming. Various were the opinions of the impetuous soldiers relative to its practicability. Some said they could ride up it, others that they could drive a gig up. Thus went round the thoughtless opinions of rash youth, ever willing to run headstrong into danger; but our prudent engineer, Captain Tickell, smiled on their hasty opinions, and sarcastically replied, "Whenever you do storm, rest assured you will not find the ascent of that breach a light job. To satisfy myself," he continued, "I will go. It is better to sacrifice one life than a hundred." Saying this, he immediately crossed the river, about a quarter of a mile lower down, and stole along the banks of the Nerbuddah unobserved, having given previous instructions to the whole of the batteries to keep their fire for the top of the breach, should he be attacked. He seemed to ascend with difficulty. Every heart trembled for his safety, for he was a brave officer, and one of our best engineers. He at last mounted the summit of the breach, and waved his hat. At that moment several of the enemy rushed out, but he jumped down the breach. They came to the very verge of it; but no sooner were their bodies seen, and the engineer safe from its top, than the whole of our guns, with shot and shells, were opened, and those who rushed out for his destruction met their own. Not one of them returned to tell the tale.
On the return of the engineer to the battery, he said nothing to any one, having been before much annoyed by the speculative opinions of those who stood about him. He, however, after his return, altered the direction of the firing of the breaching-battery to a large tree which had been shot down, and which must necessarily impede our ascent. This, he afterwards said, completely blocked up the footing of the breach; and, had we stormed according to the opinions and ardent wishes of many of the inexperienced, we must have suffered considerably in the loss of lives. He afterwards said, that he thought it a providential thing that such opinions, however foolish, had been expressed, for it was the cause of his being able to remedy an evil he could not for a moment have foreseen. On the contrary, it had before been his opinion, that the fallen tree would have facilitated our progress rather than impeded it. He thought we should be able to storm in the afternoon. A howitzer was immediately laid for the removal of this obstacle, and the shell fired from it lodged in the very centre of the rooty part of the tree, and when it burst blew it to pieces. This drew upon the artillery-officer who laid it the eulogiums of the spectators. Amongst the number was the Irish sergeant, who cried out, "By the powers, captain, but that's what I call a moving shot."
"Yes," replied the captain, "a remover, certainly, for I see the stump of the tree is gone. I wish you would remove the other large bough that hangs on the side of the bastion."
"I will try, if your honour pleases; but I should rather see your honour do it, to finish the work you are just after completing, and I will try and do the rest."