Like Another Helen

by Sydney C. Grier

The Admiral left us, and the other gentlemen, commiserating me for drawing his displeasure upon myself, fell to talking of the projected advance, which (whatever Mr Watson may choose to say) can bring me no satisfaction but the gratifying of my revenge. That this sentiment is an unchristian one I can’t deny; but how, madam, can I acquit the Admiral of encouraging my thirst for vengeance so long as it consorted well with his designs, and discovering its iniquity only when it threatened to oppose ’em? But this remark is in itself an offence against discipline, and I’ll say no more, merely laying the case before Mrs Hurstwood, and entreating her judgment upon it.

Calcutta, January ye 25th, 1757.

The extraordinary success which has greeted our arms seems, madam, to demand some record from me, that Mrs Hurstwood may be informed how signally the righteous enterprise on which we are embarked has been prospered by Heaven. But first, madam, permit me to say (lest you should suspect me of any design to glorify my own part in this campaign) that Colvin Fraser has not succeeded in slaying the Nabob, nor even in performing any notable feat of arms. Were the fame of his dear charmer dependent upon his puny efforts for its preservation, as the knights of the chivalric ages were wont to achieve their exploits in celebration of the beauty and merits of their mistresses, it would, alas! enjoy but a brief immortality; but since every man that beheld Miss Freyne must carry her image imprinted on his heart till death, her memory needs no assistance to maintain itself, although it may serve to glorify the feeble achievements of the man who unhappily survives her.

Our fleet, madam, sailed from Fulta on the 27th of December, and two days later cast anchor off the village of Mayapore, whence it appeared most convenient to undertake the assault to be made on the fortress of Budje Boodje. Here occurred the first of those dissensions between Admiral Watson and Mr Clive which, but for the interposition of Providence, must have jeopardised, if not destroyed, our expedition, Colonel Clive desiring that the troops should land from the ships in the immediate vicinity of the fortress, while the Admiral, foreseeing that Monickchund, who had been very busy strengthening the place, would have a great advantage in opposing their landing, recommended that they should march by land the ten miles from Mayapore. Colonel Clive at length yielding up his opinion, this was done; but the march having been over marshy ground much cut up with water-courses, and the labour of dragging the field-pieces and ammunition incredibly laborious, the troops, half-dead with fatigue, were permitted to rest themselves when they had reached the points from which the Colonel intended the assault to be made on the morrow. When our men were all asleep, Monickchund steals up with a prodigious force, having observed all Colonel Clive’s dispositions, and attacks our bivouack so hotly that our troops, hastily aroused from their slumbers, gave way to a temporary panic. The field-pieces proving useless (owing to their being mounted on the wrong carriages, and having neither tubes nor port-fires), they were abandoned to the enemy, together with the buildings in which we had been encamped, and but for the extraordinary spirit displayed by Colonel Clive, who was himself labouring under a severe illness, the affair must have ended in a disastrous rout. The Colonel, despatching two platoons to attack the village now held by the Moors, drove out the enemy, though not without a heavy loss, and rallying his men, succeeded in chasing Monickchund and his cavalry from the field, thus winning a victory which was even greater in its moral than its material result, aided, as it was, by the Admiral’s sailing up to Budje Boodje and engaging the fortress with the Kent alone, silencing the Moors’ guns and opening a breach in the walls.

The first proof of the enemy’s loss of spirit was seen the same evening, when a detachment of our seamen, being sent on shore in readiness to take part in the attack projected for the morrow, found the Moors so much cowed as to permit them to approach quite close to the walls of the place. Among these men (who had all, I fear, indulged somewhat freely in grog, which is a mixture of arrack and water, by way of celebrating Colonel Clive’s victory) was one Strahan, a common sailor belonging to the Kent, who was more drunk than his fellows. He, scrambling over the parapet of the fort, where it was broken down by the Admiral’s fire, found the place empty, but for a few Moormen seated on the platform of one of the bastions, and forthwith rushed upon them flourishing his cutlass, having first fired off his pistol and given three huzzas, crying out to his friends outside that he had taken the fort all by himself. Hearing the shout, first the rest of the sailors, and then the whole army, without waiting for either their officers or the Colonel’s orders, rushed over the bridge and into the place, the foremost arriving to find Strahan hotly engaged with the Moors that were left (who took to their heels at this accession of force), and with his cutlass broke to within a foot of the hilt. So happy was the exploit of these drunken sailors, that ’tis with regret I must add that, the fort being in our hands and guards posted about it from among our own Seapoys, the seamen, mistaking them for the enemy, fell to fighting with ’em, and discharging their pistols, were so unlucky as to kill Captain Dougald Campbell of the Company’s army, a very worthy person and a countryman of my own, who was come from Bulrumgurry to offer his services to Mr Drake at Fulta, and had accompanied the force.

Our next achievement was the capture of Calcutta, which held out for less than two hours against our cannon from the ships, the garrison firing only those guns that were already loaded. Monickchund had quitted Fort William even before our arrival, so great was his terror of Colonel Clive, and the troops he left were not concerned to improve upon his example, while the peaceable inhabitants, relieved from their oppressors, welcomed us gladly. Here again there occurred an unhappy dissension between our commanders. Admiral Watson, the place having surrendered to the fire of the ships, appointed as its governor Captain Coote,[04] who is in command of the detachment of Adlercron’s Regiment[05] serving as marines on board the fleet. Mr Clive resenting this very seriously on his arrival, a hot discussion followed, Mr Watson even going so far as to threaten to turn his guns on the Colonel; but both gentlemen being equally zealous for the public good, the quarrel was quickly composed, through the mediation of Captain Latham, who is in a strict intimacy with both parties, by the Admiral’s taking possession of the town himself and handing over the keys to Mr Drake. Yes, madam, to Mr President Drake. I think I behold your indignant countenance on reading this piece of news. As soon as the intelligence of our success was received by the other European factories, we were overwhelmed with congratulations from the French and Dutch, who proved themselves such broken reeds to the unhappy defenders of Calcutta in their extremity; but our leaders were prepared to overlook this former time-serving behaviour in return for their assistance in crushing the Nabob, and offered them an alliance. This they refused, however, the chiefs declaring that they had no power to conclude such a treaty without instructions, although they offered to preserve a strict neutrality between us and the Moors; but this not being considered worth entering into articles about, the Mynheers and Mounseers returned empty to Chinchura and Chandernagore respectively. Only two days later there reached us by way of Aleppo the news that war was declared against France last May, and I venture to say that the gentlemen are now regretting their precipitation in declining our friendship.

When this news arrived, madam, I was absent with the force which was sent against Houghley under Captain Coote, who, assisted by a body of seamen from the fleet, captured the place with slight loss on the 15th of this month, destroying the houses and magazines in order to strike terror into the Nabob, and obtaining plunder to the amount of 15,000l., although, as has since been discovered, the Dutch had taken all the Moors’ most valuable effects under their protection, and hid them safe at Chinchura. In this capture of Houghley I had the good fortune to receive a musquet-ball right through my hat without injuring me in the least, but alas! I can’t now take the comfort from this miraculous escape that I would have done five weeks ago. Returning from the expedition amid the acclamations of our fellows, we were in hopes to find the fleet already preparing to move up the river against Muxidavad itself, but discovered instead that our leaders were again divided in opinion, the Admiral desiring to press on immediately at all hazards, but Mr Clive, whose instructions from the Council at Madras bind him to return to that place by April, willing to come to an accommodation with the Nabob, sooner than drive to extremities the master of such vast armies. On this occasion ’twas the Admiral that yielded, finding himself opposed not only by Colonel Clive, but by Mr Drake and the Bengal Council, who, fearing lest the French should unite with the Soubah against us, have sought to forestall ’em by obtaining his ear through his bankers Mootabray and Roopchund Seat. From what appears, however, the report of our successes has so much irritated the despot that no one dares to suggest making peace with us, and he is already marching from Muxidavad at the head of his army. Meanwhile, the Seats’ agent or vacqueel, Rungeet Roy, is with Colonel Clive in the camp he has fixed at Cossipore,[06] in the direction of Chitpore, but beyond the Morattoe-ditch, while in the Nabob’s attendance we have an agent of our own, a Gentoo banker of this place called Omichund, with whose name you, madam, may be acquainted. This man’s interest in Calcutta, owing to the quantity of houses he owns here, makes him very desirous of peace, although he is so intimate with Surajah Dowlah as to possess his ear, and we who follow Admiral Watson are prodigiously apprehensive that he’ll succeed in bringing about a settlement without any further fighting.

Meanwhile, madam, since our betters are all engaged with these weighty matters, time hangs somewhat heavy upon our hands. The Bengal gentlemen, it’s true, can think of nothing but their own hard case, for while the Company’s merchandise was found for the most part untouched in the Fort, all their private property is gone. Their houses are destroyed and their livelihood lost, while there remains a standing memorial of their humiliation in the shape of the mosque built within the very walls of the Fort by the Moors. ’Tis, perhaps, not wonderful that these gentlemen should be anxious for peace to be made, when they can fall to their money-making once more, but their conduct in the past forbids any excess of sympathy with their present situation. As for me, madam, I experience a melancholy pleasure in tracing the scenes associated in my mind with the memory of my lost charmer. The ruins of her father’s abode, the chamber in the Fort where, detained by a more than filial devotion, she risqued, and as we now know, sacrificed her life in her tender care of Mr Freyne, are my daily resort. Captain Labaume and young Mr Fisherton have filled my gratified yet regretful ear with praises of her demeanour during the siege and in the awful events which succeeded it, and will it shock Mrs Hurstwood if I confess that in all my natural grief for my angel’s loss I can’t escape a sentiment of grateful pride that so glorious a creature would condescend to entertain a particular regard for Colvin Fraser?

Calcutta, Feb. ye 14th.

Oh, madam, I can scarce bring myself to sit down quietly and write to you, and yet this time it’s no bad news that forbids me to proceed. What bad news, indeed, could I send to Mrs Hurstwood in any degree comparable with that contained in my letter announcing the death of her friend? And what joy, then, must inspire my pen when the charming task before me is to cheer the heart of the most faithful of women by reversing that announcement? Yes, madam, the news I have to communicate is the best, the very best—or if not the very best that our dear Miss Freyne’s well-wishers could desire, at least so good that the delighted mind foresees immediately the best of all following it. Miss Freyne, madam, is living, and to Colvin Fraser has been vouchsafed the honour of attempting to restore her to her enraptured friends.