The breached bastion was found to be a tough piece of masonry, extremely thick and well put together; so we pegged away at its foundation. At last some of the stones began to give warning that they were tired of the fun, and would not stand it any longer—so down they came; and those on the top, wishing to show their attachment, soon followed, and by the following day, the breach looked ascendable. When I went down to the breaching-battery, I saw my old friend, the Irish sergeant, busy laying a gun. "Well, sergeant," said I, "what do you think of the breach?" He replied, "The divel a better within a day's march." "Do you think we shall get in, sergeant?" "The divel a fear of that, for there is not a living soul but what our shells have kilt and destroyed; so that when you are in, you will have nothing to do but shoot the remainder, and take the place in a moment." "I am afraid you are too sanguine, sergeant," said I. "Not at all, your honour: you will not find ten living men in the whole fort that our shells have not destroyed. If you do, call Paddy Dogan a spalpeen." "Well," I answered, "we shall see, sergeant." "Fait!" said he, "that's more than they will; it would do their dead eyes good to take a peep at our brave boys getting up the breach." Here was a general titter at the expense of poor Pat; and he exclaimed, "Fait! you may laugh, but it's no laughing At the back of the breach stood the once splendid palace of its rightful owner, but now one general mass of ruins. The breach was reported practicable, and the storming ordered for the following morning, giving time to knock off all defences behind which the enemy could secrete and hide themselves, so as to annoy the storming party; but the keeledar of the fort, seeing his haughty tower tumbling to the ground, his soldiers falling victims to our shells wherever they showed themselves, and that several fatal explosions had already occurred during the siege, began to think seriously of giving up the fort, rather than stand the storm. He had, indeed, lost a great number of his best men. A messenger was therefore dispatched from the fort, stating that, if the general would permit them to march out with their arms and private property, they would give up the fort. The proposal stood on these grounds: their arms were not worth ten pounds, and the whole of their property consisted of what they stood in. Need there be a scruple in granting such a proposition? Was there anything dishonourable in meeting such a proposal, if only in mercy for human lives? Certainly not. The breach was a most difficult one, and there is no question that, if they had defended it, we should have lost fifty or more men; and it was by no means clear to me, or any man who knew what a breach was, that our success would have been at all a certain thing. Our brave and humane general agreed at once to the terms proposed, much against the will of some of the Company's officers, who attempted to attach some degree of blame to his permitting them to march out with their arms. Our general, however, by his own nice judgment, and the advice of his staff-officers, some of whom had been years in the Company's army, overruled the opinions of the firebrand sub in search of promotion, and the following morning was appointed for their marching out. On viewing the garrison the next morning, it was found to consist of fifteen hundred The fort presented one mass of desolation and poverty, the old garrison having taken care of everything of value before they sold it. I had been appointed, on this occasion, prize-agent for the staff of the army, and commenced my search. It was rumoured that Jean Baptiste had in this fort secreted thirty lacs of rupees, which we were resolved to find, if possible. We dug up large pigs of lead, bars of iron, sheets of copper, pits of grain, vats of ghee (a kind of butter), but no money. If perseverance could discover this hidden treasure, we were resolved to find it. After digging above twenty feet, and working our way under the palace, we discovered a dungeon, or cell. Into this we descended, at the risk of treading on reptiles. From this dungeon we traced several rooms or cells, no doubt formerly the prisons of some captive beauties, till they were reconciled to an illicit intercourse with their tyrants. Searching every hole, and digging in every corner, we came at last to a kind of wall, newly built up, through the top of which we could see a door. This wall and door we soon forced to obedience, and we entered a large room, recently cleaned and whitewashed. In the centre of this room was a trap-door, with a large lock. Our hearts beat high with expectation; but what was our surprise, when we found this tomb contained the body of some poor murdered person, who had been buried here! Thus ended our search; and the whole captured property sold for fifteen hundred rupees, which we were obliged to hand over to Scindia some time afterwards. Our next duty was to commit the dead to the earth. In the performance of this unpleasant task, I had to follow one of the Company's artillery to his last home. Observing one of the funeral party lagging behind the rest, I asked him why he did not keep up. He answered, that "He had had a great big fight with the deceased a short time before he went dead, and he did not think the man had forgiven him." "Poh! poh!" replied I, "the man cannot hurt you now he is dead."—"Och, fait!" said he, "I beg your honour's pardon. I once knew a Having buried our dead, we left one regiment of native infantry till Scindia should send a more loyal garrison. We were afterwards given to understand, that his highness was not at all obliged to us for knocking his fort to pieces. We then turned towards home, and in a few days reached Saugar to rest our weary limbs. After the toils of war, and seeing no prospect of having anything more to do, I obtained permission to visit my wife at Cawnpore, some four hundred miles from Saugar. This was readily granted: I reached Cawnpore in the space of fourteen days; and, in the embraces of an affectionate wife, I forgot, for a time, the "pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war." I remained in Cawnpore about eight or ten days, and the place was at that time the seat of festivity and splendour. Dinners, balls, and routs, followed each other in quick succession, so that, at the end of the ten days, I was completely exhausted by dissipation. On the eleventh day, I again bent my way to Having bidden her farewell, I started at speed, that I might not see her again; yet I could not help stealing another last look, when I saw her head was still turned towards me. I, would sooner go through the toils of a campaign than suffer the heaviness I always experience at parting with my family; but duty was my passport, and surmounted every difficulty and obstacle, and in thirteen days I reached Saugar; but, from being exposed to incessant rain, and afterwards to the scorching sun, I had sown the seeds of a disease which nearly cost me my life, though it was some time before it burst forth. It was supposed that the division of the army to which I was attached, would be continued at this station, for the purpose of watching the new-conquered provinces of Saugar and Candish; so we began to build huts or asylums against the winter, and we agreed to send for our wives—for what is man's life debarred the pleasure of female society? Men are little better than monsters without it. Wherever modest women are, there will always be a becoming decorum and decency; but men, when long estranged from their society, dwindle into gross habits; and the hilarity of an immodest While we were at this station, there was a large monkey that was a general nuisance, from the numerous robberies which he committed under the dark mantle of night. He would pounce into shops, and would run off with silks, satins, silver, gold, and indeed anything within his reach. On one of these excursions, having taken a fancy to a shawl, he rushed into the shop and grasped it; but the shawl being rather heavy and long, it retarded his progress, and the master of the shop seized him by the tail. He held fast, the monkey pulled; he called for help, the monkey screamed; he kicked, the monkey bit. At last the owner of the shawl seized the animal's tail with his grinders, and poor Jacko went off with his prize, but minus some six inches of his tail. By the blood they traced his steps to an old dilapidated mosque, where he was shot. Here were found the spoils of many a midnight ramble, and which many an honest neighbour laid under the stigma of having stolen. Such was the power of this monkey, that he would have mastered many a man. These animals, in India, I think are very sagacious and cunning, being petted and fed by men, and frequently living in the houses of the Hindoos. I recollect a young man, a cadet, who was proceeding up the river, and was not accustomed to these creatures, incautiously shot one of the older gentlemen out of several whom he saw. Even amongst these animals age is honourable; they one, and In the midst of all our gaiety our little division was again put in requisition, to proceed against the strong hill-fort of Asseerghur, some three hundred miles from Saugar. The monsoons or rains had commenced, and this sudden news distressed all the ladies exceedingly; but no faint-hearted husband shammed sick to remain behind. In two or three days we bade farewell to our fair spouses, and bent our way towards Asseerghur. The weather was intensely hot, so much so, that in a large double pool-tent, with tatties, or mats, suspended all round, made of grass, and continually kept wet, the glass stood at mid-day, at 120 and 130, and, after a shower of rain, the earth was like a hotbed. Notwithstanding this, we were obliged to proceed by forced marches, to reach Asseerghur as soon as possible. Our force was not very large, but our battering-train was considerable. The country in the immediate vicinity of this fort is barren and desolate, infested with wild beasts of every description, and many of our smaller cattle were carried away at night by them. The forces of the other two Presidencies, Madras and Bombay, had arrived before us, leaving a space for the Bengal division; and a most The fort had been the property of Scindia, who had agreed to cede it to the Company for some equivalent; but the governor had the impudence to refuse to obey the orders of his master and the summons of the Company, and to fire on the troops of both whenever they passed. This fellow trusted, no doubt, to the supposed impracticability of the fort, and therefore came to the resolution of keeping possession of it for himself. The great natural strength of this hill seemed to defy the combined power of the world. Human art and labour had also added to its strength. The idea of ever being able to ascend such a place seemed absurd and romantic, and to effect a breach would have been equally impracticable. To mine it was beyond the power of human skill. From its base to its summit was about two miles high, and, on a perpendicular rock, from a hundred and fifty to two hundred feet high, stood strong fortifications, with some very heavy cannon and ginjalls. In the centre stood their grand mosque, with its two sharp spires pricking holes in the clouds. At a considerable distance from this temple was a large sheet of water, fed by a beautiful spring; and the troops could shelter themselves from our shells in excavated rocks. The fort was about two miles long, by three-quarters broad. On the south side was One night, having dined with an officer of the Madras army, during the time that we were before this place, and partaken rather too freely of the Tuscan grape, I started towards home on my favourite mare, whose speed not a horse in camp could equal, and lost my way. There was a considerable space between the camp where I dined, and our own encampment, the lights of which I thought I was standing fair for; but, after riding a much greater distance than that between the two encampments, and being in a thick jungle infested with tigers, I began to reflect seriously on my situation, and for a moment I paused to consider, under such circumstances, what was best to be done. How short-sighted is mortal man! That brief moment had nearly been my last! I had laid the reins of my mare over her neck, when in an instant she gathered herself up, snorted, and wheeled right round. Fortunately for me, I seized the mane, and, in an instant after, I saw, squatted down and crouching to the ground, a huge tiger. To have run I had some recollection of the place where this happened, as I always made a point of making myself acquainted with the localities of the encampment and its vicinity; so early the following morning I rode towards the spot, which was not far from the road, and where I found that the said tiger had feasted on a more delicious morsel—a nice little ghinee (a small cow). I would recommend to those who may chance to get into the vicinity of such bad neighbours, never to run from them, but, if sufficient courage can possibly be mustered, to run at them, or to stand and stare them full in the face. A captain in the Company's service once told me, when speaking of these savage beasts, that he was out shooting in some part near Loodianah alone, and he had just discharged his last barrel at some wild ducks, when a large tiger made his appearance. He had not time to load again, but, for a time, stood his ground. He stared—the tiger grinned, but did not seem inclined to come to the scratch. This said captain, being a funny fellow, at last thought of a stratagem that was likely to put his grinning neighbour to flight, which was by turning his back to the animal, looking at him through his legs, and thus running off backwards. He positively declared that, the moment the tiger saw this strange metamorphosis, he took to his heels, and was out of sight in an instant. I will not vouch for the verity of this tale, but I have heard, since my arrival in England, that the same trick was actually played on a savage mastiff belonging to a tan-yard, that would not permit a A few days after we had commenced the siege against this strong fort, General Watson, commanding the Bengal division, came into my tent, and, by the smile on his countenance, I could see he was much pleased. At last he said, "Shipp, I have got some good news for you, which I am sure will please you much." I replied, "General, good news is acceptable at all times; what is it?"—"I have at last obtained permission," said the general, "to lead in person my own column to the storm; and I am sure you and Knollis will support me with your lives." I replied, "Whenever my duty calls me, Sir, my life will be willingly risked in the service of my country."—"I know it," said the general; "and, ere this day week, I hope to plant Old England's banner higher on the After shelling almost incessantly for several days, a great number of the men in the fort were killed in going for water, which was about a hundred yards from their hiding-places, and these became so offensive that the garrison persuaded the keeledar to give up the fort as a hopeless business. To this the keeledar, who was a most dastardly coward, readily consented; for which purpose he dispatched a messenger to say, that if he would cease shelling he would come to some amicable arrangement. Our officers, foreseeing the total impossibility of our success, complied in some slight degree, stipulating that they would cease firing for a few hours. This was calculated to impress the garrison with a conviction, that a further resistance on their part in withholding the fort, would be only seeking their own destruction, and imbruing their hands in their own blood; and that, as the English were now inclined to be merciful, under the supposition that the garrison had been seduced to disaffection by some artful rebel, Natives, speaking of the height of this place, say that "none but the crafty hawk, high lingering over his prey, or the morning lark, sweetly soaring and singing over its young, could ever see the inside of Asseerghur." Some few days before our arrival, the cuttrah had been stormed and taken by a division of the Bombay army, under the command of Colonel Frazer, of the Royal Scots; but they found the detention of their little conquered town warm work, it being so completely commanded, that every street could be raked by the firing from the fort. Some part of the upper-works of the fort were within three hundred yards of the town. Our soldiers were obliged, therefore, to seek shelter in the temples and huts. If they had not had the opportunity of retiring to these places, the town would not have been tenable. Those who were obliged, in the course of duty, to run from one place to another, had, the moment they were observed, a hundred shots at them. The enemy, with some reason, conceived that this occupation of the town was but a preparatory step to an entry by escalade into their fort. They, therefore, had a strong party constantly on the look-out for the opportunity of destroying all whom they could attack, either by surprise or stratagem. Soldiers are prone to look about them, and many of them will, in spite of all risks, go in search of plunder. Some of our troops, on this occasion, paid dearly for their disobedience of orders and violation of military laws. The principal post held by our troops in this town, was a large |