Not a man stirred an inch to save him until I gave orders to do so; and the half-drowned Pasha contented himself with writing a long letter of complaint to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, who, in reply, said he only got what he deserved.
CHAPTER IV.
FIRST ATTEMPTS AT DISCIPLINE IN CORPS—PREPARE TO START FOR THE FRONT—DIFFICULTY OF GETTING MEN ON BOARD SHIP—REVIEW AND SHAM FIGHT—FIRST FEATS OF ARMS—EMBARKATION—ARRIVE AT FORT ELIZABETH—ONWARD MARCH TOWARDS GRAHAM’S TOWN—FIRST ENCAMPMENT IN THE BUSH—MUTINY AND PUNISHMENT—FURTHER ADVANCE—PANIC AND FLIGHT.
To return to my men at the Cape;—Happy Jack and I, after many a good look at one another, were gradually nearing the point of trying conclusions as to which of the two really commanded the corps. On his part it was one perpetual scene of half-drunken, half-intentional defiance. He rolled about the streets in uniform, followed by besotted comrades, to gain, as he said, by their jolly appearance, fresh adherents. No one, he pretended, could look at their happy condition and refuse to join such companions. The fact is, he did bring in many recruits, and I hardly knew how to get on with or without him. Providence, however, decided in my favour. Colonel Ingleby, commandant of the town and castle, a fine old soldier, and extremely kind to me, sent a small detachment of artillerymen to keep order in the barracks. Happy Jack’s fate was sealed. A picket of regulars sent to scour the public-houses for absentees, brought Jack to barracks in a woful plight. He had had a frog’s march—that is to say, on hands, belly, and knees—almost from one end of the town to the other. Refusing to obey the picket, and march to barracks on his legs, he had been kindly allowed to come on all-fours, held up by the collar of his coat, for fear of stumbling, and the seat of his unmentionables. Poor fellow! he felt sorely his abject degradation in the eyes of his associates, male and female, and kept ever afterwards well in the background.
The day now approached for our starting to the front. Captain Hall, who commanded the man-of-war on the station, had prepared to take us all on board, but the difficulty was how to get the men there. Every one knew perfectly well, from their many loud boastings on the point, that they had not the least intention of going; and as no means existed in the town by which forcible coercion could be attempted on so large a body of men with a reasonable chance of success, it did look a very dubious question.
The matter, however, was finally arranged after this fashion, between Captain Hall, Colonel Ingleby, the police, and myself. We were to have a grand field-day, to end by a display of military prowess on the part of the men in a sham engagement, and thereby prove their fighting capacity against her Majesty’s sable foes. The general plan consisted in the police, and all the artillerymen Colonel Ingleby could spare, landing on the beach just outside the castle, under the protection of the guns of Captain Hall’s ship. They were then to proceed inland towards Wineberg, and, on arriving about two miles from the shore, were to be suddenly confronted by my corps, and driven back to the ship. The first part of the plan was carried out as intended. In the first place, Colonel Ingleby, in full uniform, attended by a sub-lieutenant, Dr B——, and two commissariat officers in regimentals, passed a review of the men, 167 rank and file. They looked very well in line, and knew enough drill to take open order for inspection; so that the first part of the programme gave every appearance of having a happy issue, by the way in which it was being carried out.
Colonel Ingleby, however, had the unfortunate idea to make the men a speech in praise of their gallant appearance. This was not in the order-book, so I scarcely knew what to say in reply. Happy Jack, however, was equal to the occasion. He stepped boldly out of the ranks and walked up to the Colonel, and said that as he was so pleased with their trim, he hoped he would, man-o’-war fashion, order a glass of grog all round. The good-tempered Colonel, rather taken aback, replied, “You had better ask Captain Lakeman for that.” “No, no,” said Jack; “I know better than to ask the skipper when the admiral is present, so please order the grog.” It was ordered. The Colonel drank to our success, I returned thanks, the men cheered, and then broke out with “We won’t go home till morning.”
In the course of half an hour passed in this agreeable manner, the men fell readily enough into the ranks, and proceeded in a rollicking, spirited manner towards the position assigned us in the forthcoming engagement. We had hardly taken up our post in the bend of the road that led to the Observatory, when the continued booming of Captain Hall’s guns told us the enemy were disembarking. Shortly afterwards they could be espied feeling their way through the brushwood that led up the valley. In approaching the cross-road that wound its way towards Wineberg they divided their forces. One party—the police—took the road; the other—the regulars—continued their way through the scrubby brushwood. They advanced but slowly, taking all due precautions, probing the ground right and left, with an advance and a rear guard. The police, on the contrary, came up the dusty road in a most disorderly, unhesitating manner—looking like a swarm of blue-bottles on a white, smoking, Cambridge sausage. This was setting such a bad example to my recruits that I determined to give them a profitable lesson; so, calling in the outposts, I prepared to meet them suddenly with the whole force at my disposal.
On they heedlessly came to the bend of the road, when they found themselves confronted by an impassable barrier of prickly cactus, that I had hastily strewn there. They evidently thought this a warning of approaching danger, for, hastily unslinging their carbines, they prepared for action. But I left them no time for this ceremonious proceeding. The order to fire was given, and these brave but misguided invaders received such a peppering discharge from both sides of the road that the error of their ways became pungently manifest; and, without the slightest demur, they wriggled their bent forms into the smallest possible shape, and bolted in the opposite direction. But my men were most anxious to prove their capacity for far harder fighting than the evanescent police force allowed them to display; so, with loud shouts and exulting halloos, they jumped up from behind the fence which had hitherto concealed them, and started off in pursuit of the scuttling foe.
Many a long itching grudge was feelingly rubbed off that day upon the heads of the police. Happy Jack was particularly conspicuous, as, with tucked-up sleeves, he laid the butt of his rifle (much to my dread of its breaking) upon the heads and shoulders of his natural enemies, in a manner quite uncalled for by the stricken.