Like Another Helen

by Sydney C. Grier

But how my pen hastens along now that ’tis dipped in joy! Pardon me, madam, for my disorderly method of procedure. And yet ’tis better to have uttered the charming truth, for to write of all the circumstances without letting slip the all-important fact until the right moment arrived, would be impossible to me. Oh, madam, the amiable Sylvia still lives!

But once again, to my sober history. During the latter part of January, after my last letter was wrote, the Nabob amused himself and us with sending an Armenian named Coja Petruce[07] backwards and forwards with feigned offers of peace, while the entire time he was advancing steadily with his army, burning, as he approached our bounds, the villages which acknowledged our authority, and at last passing our furthest outpost. Finding a parcel of louchees plundering within our boundary, the officer in command at Perins Redoubt stopped them with a sally, but the head of the Moorish army coming up, began to entrench themselves on t’other side of the rivulet. Colonel Clive, marching out from Cossipore with a considerable force, treated them to a slight cannonade, but returning at night to his camp, the main body came up and established themselves before morning, the Soubah sending word from Nabob-gunge, a hamlet about six miles off, that he desired deputies from the English to attend him and treat of peace. Mess. Walsh and Scrafton were the gentlemen chosen for this perilous office, and setting out in good time reached Nabob-gunge only to find the Nabob departed, discovering, moreover, that the perfidious prince had crossed Dum Dumma Bridge, and was actually encamped in Omichund’s garden, within the circuit of the Morattoe-ditch. Our envoys, introduced by Rungeet Roy to the duan Roydoolub, were treated with great indignity, their persons being searched before they were admitted to the durbar, where they found Surajah Dowlah surrounded with a host of attendants, all huge and ferocious in appearance, and dressed out with thick stuffed clothes and prodigious turbands, in order to strike terror into the gentlemen. These, however, retained sufficient spirit to protest against the usage they had received, when the Nabob at once cut short their complaint by referring them back to Roydoolub. On returning to the tent assigned them, the deputies were warned by Omichund that the Soubah aimed only at keeping them in play until his cannon were come up, and with much presence of mind the two gentlemen, putting out their lights, as though they were about to wait on Roydoolub, went instead along the high road inside the Ditch until they came safely to Perins, and so to Colonel Clive’s camp. Since no one could now entertain a doubt as to the hostile intentions of the Nabob, an action was determined upon, the Colonel’s plans being precipitated by the desertion of all our servants and cooleys to the enemy, rendering it alarmingly difficult to obtain provisions.

Mess. Walsh and Scrafton arriving in the camp about seven in the evening, Colonel Clive, on hearing their report, repaired immediately on board the fleet, and asked and obtained from our brave Admiral the assistance of a body of seamen from the ships, designing to make an attack on the Nabob’s camp and seize his cannon. At three o’clock the next morning, the fifth of this month, the expedition left the camp at Cossipore, an example of that extraordinary promptitude in dealing with an enemy which has gained the Colonel his reputation among the Indians. So poorly was our army furnished with the means of transport, owing to the Council’s fears of offending the Nabob should they set on foot any warlike preparations, that it was necessary to employ men as beasts of burden. There was no bullocks, such as you, madam, know are commonly used in this country for the transport of artillery, and in all the army but one horse, which came with us from Madrass. The order of our march was first a body of Seapoys, then six hundred and fifty Europeans, both soldiers and volunteers, then another body of Seapoys, and lastly the guns, which were six field-pieces and a haubitzer,[08] all dragged by our gallant seamen, and with their ammunition carried on the heads of Lascars. A hundred artillerymen accompanied them, and the whole of the train was guarded by the remainder of the sailors, amounting to six hundred men, among whom was your humble correspondent. With the Europeans in front was Colonel Clive. Reaching the vicinity of the Morattoe-ditch, we found the huts and tents of the Nabob’s camp scattered in a disorderly manner on both sides of it, and coming suddenly upon the enemy, drove in their advanced guard, who fired off their matchlocks and other arms and fled. One of their rockets chancing to strike the cartouch-box of a Seapoy, the consequent explosion caused a temporary confusion in our ranks, but this being alleviated, we advanced as best we might, for no sooner had daylight appeared than one of those thick fogs peculiar to this season in Bengal immediately enwrapped the entire scene, concealing us from the enemy and them from us.

Arrived opposite Omichund’s garden and the Nabob’s quarters, we were startled by the fog lifting suddenly and showing us a prodigious force of Persian cavalry, who had discovered us by the noise we made in marching, about to charge our line. But, as has often been remarked, ’tis in such alarming moments as this that Colonel Clive is at his best, and steadying the troops by his voice and example, they poured a volley into the horsemen at thirty yards’ distance, which caused them quickly to scamper off. There being now no hope of surprising the enemy, we proceeded in a very warlike manner, directing a constant fire both of cannon and musquetry on either hand into the fog, which was descended afresh, but this bravado on our part was like to have led us into a serious disaster. Some distance in front of us was a causeway, where a road crosses the Morattoe-ditch, and this causeway was strongly held by the enemy, whom the Colonel designed to drive off, and having reached the inner side of the Ditch, to retrace our steps to Omichund’s garden, and beat up the Nabob’s headquarters. But our cannon continuing to fire when our leading files turned to the right to cross the causeway, killed several Seapoys, which cast the rest into a panic, and while Colonel Clive was rallying ’em the enemy opened a smart fire from two cannon they had mounted in a redoubt to the right of the causeway, which threw the whole battalion into great confusion, so that the notion of forcing the barricade was given up, and all pressed forward to reach the next bridge, that at the commencement of the avenue called Lol Buzar. The necessity of dragging the field-pieces along the ditches between the rice-fields caused us incredible labour, while we were now and again compelled to raise ’em up the banks and bring ’em into action, in order to keep off the enemy’s horse, who were perpetually at our heels. A strong party held the bridge when we reached it, but giving way before our fire, we drove back also the horsemen pressing upon our rear, and gained our own territory, where the Colonel thought it well to give up the further prosecution of his design, in view of the prodigious fatigue to which the troops had been exposed, and we marched back to Fort William through the Lol Buzar. In fact, madam, we returned safely, though with considerable loss, having gained a victory in spite of our retreat, for the tyrannic and feeble-minded Surajah Dowlah was so deeply impressed by our performances that, hearing falsely that the Colonel had not lost a single man, and finding his own army much more disheartened than ours, he sent Rungeet Roy the next day to propose terms of peace.

But now for the affair which will make this indecisive battle for ever more memorable to Colvin Fraser than the most brilliant victory. I had been looking to the comfort of my men, who were permitted a rest and a mid-day meal at the Fort, and was expecting to receive orders to carry them on board the Tyger again, when there came up to me Lieutenant Carnac of Adlercron’s Regiment of foot, whose acquaintance I had made on the expedition against Houghley.

“The very man I was seeking!” he cried. “Pray do me the favour to accompany me, Mr Fraser. Your presence is desired.”

“And who may it be that desires it, sir?” said I.

“Why, certain very weighty persons, and for weighty reasons,” says the young gentleman, passing his arm through mine with an agreeable familiarity. “It seems you have been consorting with traitors, sir, and you must justify yourself.”

“Sure you’re in very good spirits, Captain.”

“Believe me, sir, I en’t rallying you. You’re needed to help clear up a strange affair. In seeking to find a way across the rice-fields this morning, I and some twenty of my men became separated from the battalion, and were brought up suddenly by coming upon two of the enemy’s guns, mounted in a rude battery. The men in charge of ’em were as much astonished as we were, and for a moment we stood staring at one another with open mouths. Then one of the Moors recovered his intellects sufficiently to rush to one of the pieces, intending to discharge it by firing his pistol into the touch-hole, but before he could reach it, up jumps one of the men at the gun and fells him with a rammer, then turns upon the rest, and lays about him with such good will that he had ’em all drove out of the battery in an instant. Having chased ’em all away, he returns suddenly, and seeing us with our pieces raised, cries out in a lamentable voice, ‘Don’t fire, gentlemen, for the love of heaven! I’m a Briton like yourselves!’ This confession inflamed the men so deeply, finding a European fighting on the side of the Moors, that they would have cut the poor wretch to pieces if I hadn’t held ’em back almost by force, but he pointing out that he had saved us all from destruction by the enemy, they cooled a little, when he showed us further that he had loaded both guns up to the very muzzle with stones and rubbish and such a quantity of powder that they must sure have burst and destroyed all the Moors in the place had they been fired. This proving him to be well affected, we spiked up the guns and carried him back with us, since he desired to be confronted with Mr Hastings or any of the Calcutta gentlemen that survived the Black Hole, saying they could vouch for his honesty. Since we returned to the Fort, hearing some one mention your name, he demanded vehemently to see you, saying that he had news of infinite gravity to give you.”