Barclay of the Guides

by Herbert Strang

  CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FIFTH

  The Storming of Delhi

  Nicholson's victory at Najafgarh encouraged the little army on the Ridgeas much as it dismayed the enemy. The former needed encouragement. Morethan a thousand Englishmen were in hospital. General Wilson was anxiousand depressed; urged on the one side by Lawrence to strike a blow andsave India, on the other fearing to risk an assault which, if it failed,would mean annihilation or at best ignominious retirement. But Nicholsoninspired officers and men with confidence. The sight of his great formstalking or riding day after day from end to end of the position, mademen feel that when the long-expected siege-train arrived no time wouldbe lost in putting all to the hazard. He went carefully over the ground,deciding with Baird Smith, the head of the Engineers, the sites for thebreaching batteries, arranging the composition and disposition of theattacking columns, gaining all possible information about affairs in thecity.

  In Delhi, meanwhile, it was beginning to be felt that the hour ofretribution was at hand. The dissensions between the rival commandersbecame more acute; one day the king would refuse to see Bakht Khan,holding that he had disgraced himself; the next he would showercompliments on him and assure him of his continued good favour. The armystill complained of lack of pay; the princes still plundered the bankersand merchants; the whole city was in a state of terror. Day by daysepoys deserted, going away unarmed to seek their homes. Yet when apostal-runner from the Ridge fell into the rebels' hands, and, beingquestioned in the king's presence as to what was going on in the camp,declared that the sepoys would never prevail against the English, hisoutspoken opinion enraged the courtiers, and they sentenced him todeath.

  At last, on September 4, the siege-train arrived, a long line of heavyguns and mortars drawn by elephants, with miles of bullock-carts loadedwith shot and shell and ammunition of all kinds, enough to grind Delhito powder. During the next week all energies were strained to make readyfor the assault. Nicholson and Baird Smith had settled the plan. Themost vulnerable part of the wall lay between the Water gate and the Moribastion. Upon this it was decided to concentrate the artillery fire. Onthe night of September 6, the first battery was begun just below theSami-house, a half-ruined mosque six hundred yards from the city, andnext day, when it was completed and began to belch its shot on thedoomed walls, strong pickets took advantage of the distraction to occupyLudlow Castle, a large country-house of European make towards the leftof the position, and the Kudsia gardens opposite the Kashmir gate andoverlooking the river. Each night a new battery was erected and armed,to begin each morning its fierce work. The second battery stood in frontof Ludlow Castle, five hundred yards from the walls; the third,consisting of four heavy mortars, was made in the Kudsia gardens, andplaced in command of the gallant Major Tombs; the fourth, a triumph ofthe daring and skill of Captain Taylor of the Engineers, had creptwithin a hundred and sixty yards of the Mori bastion. Nor were thesefeats of engineering done without loss. As soon as the rebels perceivedwhat was afoot, they directed a storm of musketry on the heroic workerswho toiled day and night in the hot moist air. British and natives,officers and men, soldiers of all arms--for Lancers and Carabineers lenta hand in the work--laboured incessantly with unflinching courage. Assoon as one man was killed or disabled, another took his place.

  By the night of the 11th, all the batteries were complete, and on the12th more than fifty guns and mortars were pounding the walls. The dinwas deafening, and mingled with the roar of the guns was the crash ofshattered masonry as the red walls crumbled away. At nightfall everypost of vantage on the Ridge was crowded with sightseers, watching theliving shell flying through the air like falling meteors. The rebels atfirst attempted to answer the fire, but the gunners could not hold theirposts on the shot-swept ramparts. Parties of rebel horse sallied forthfrom time to time, as if to charge the batteries; but they were met byshowers of grape-shot, or set upon by troops of Hodson's Horse, whichdrove them back in frantic haste to find cover. Nicholson rode frombattery to battery, encouraging the men, taking counsel with BairdSmith, watching the effect of these tremendous salvos that shook theground.

  So the bombardment continued until the night of the 13th. Then the roarsuddenly ceased. A thrill of expectation ran through the camp. CaptainTaylor had reported that the breaches in the walls were practicable;every man knew that the moment for the great assault was at hand. And inthe city men knew it too. The old king spent many hours in his privatemosque praying for victory. The traders had all closed their shops, forfear of being carried off to serve at the fortifications. The officerswrangled; there was no commanding spirit like Nicholson among them.Bakht Khan was brave enough, but he was merely a fighter; he had nogenius for leadership. On the night of the 12th a proclamation wascarried with beat of drum through the streets, commanding all the men ofthe city, Hindu and Mohammedan alike, to assemble at the Kashmir gate,bringing picks and shovels; the king himself would lead them forth, andthey would fall on the infidels and sweep them away. The Hindus paid noheed; but ten thousand faithful Mohammedans, inflamed with fanaticardour, their religious feelings wrought upon by shrieking fakirs andmullahs, congregated at the gates waiting the arrival of their king. Buthe came not. Till midnight they remained; then hope died away, and withdespairing hearts the great throng dispersed to their homes.

  On the night of the 13th, ere the bombardment ceased, every availableman in the British force, including men just risen from their sick bedsin the hospital, went to his appointed station. The assault was to bemade in four columns. A thousand men,--detachments from the 1stFusiliers, the 15th Regiment, and the 2nd Panjab Infantry--underNicholson himself, were to storm the breach in the Kashmir bastion, andescalade the walls. The second column, also a thousand strong, underColonel Jones of the 61st, was simultaneously to storm and scale theMori bastion. Meanwhile the Kashmir gate was to be blown up, and thethird column, under Colonel Campbell of the 52nd, would sweep in throughthe breach. The fourth column, commanded by Major Reid, who hadgallantly held Hindu Rao's house throughout the summer, was to attackthe suburb of Kishenganj and enter by the Lahore gate. A fifth column,of 1,500 men, was held in reserve to give support to the first, andColonel Hope Grant was to post himself on the Ridge, with the cavalrysix hundred strong, to prevent the rebels from re-entering the city whenthrust out of Kishenganj. The whole force consisted of some 7,000 men.

  Ahmed had been looking forward with great eagerness to the fight. TheGuides' cavalry, commanded now by Captain Sandford, formed part of HopeGrant's brigade, and they expected warm work at Kishenganj when MajorReid had driven the rebels into the open. But on the evening of the 13thAhmed was summoned to Nicholson's tent, and learnt, with mingled prideand disappointment, that he was to accompany the first column. When thetroops entered the city they would require a guide through its networkof streets and lanes, and Hodson had recommended Ahmed for the duty. Hewas proud at being selected to serve Nicholson, but at the same timedisappointed that he was not to go side by side with Sherdil into thefight. Sherdil himself was envious.

  "In very truth thou art favoured above all men," he said. "I myselfwould fain serve the great Nikalsain."

  "But thou dost not know Delhi, Sherdil-ji," replied Ahmed.

  "True, but by often asking one can find the way. Wah! I willnevertheless fight as befits one of my name, and I promise thee thatwhen the day is done the Purbiyas shall lie around me like grass fromthe scythe."

  Dawn was just breaking on that sultry September 14, when the buglesounded the advance. The Rifles led the way in skirmishing order; thefirst column, with Nicholson ahead, marched on steadily until theyreached the edge of the jungle. Then the Engineers and the stormingparty, with their ladders, rose from cover, and sprang forward to thebreach near the Kashmir bastion. A storm of musket-shots assailed themas they gained the crest of the glacis; scores of men fell; but thesurvivors let down their ladders, the British officers ran down theminto the ditch, the men close behind, and with a great cheer they rushedup the scarp and into the breach. The sight of
their gleaming bayonetswas too much for the sepoys. They fled, and Nicholson led his men intoDelhi.

  Meanwhile, at the Mori bastion, Colonel Jones had been met by atremendous fusillade that mowed down three-fourths of his ladder-men,and a great number of his storming party. But while his men were stillstruggling with the ladder, twenty-five of the 8th Foot slid into theditch, and scrambled up into the breach at a point where attack had notbeen expected. The rebels were taken aback; Jones seized the moment ofhesitation, and in a few minutes the rest of his column were upon theramparts. They swept on towards the Kabul gate, driving the enemy beforethem, and a wild whoop rose from the panting men as they saw their flagplanted on the summit of the gate.

  The progress of the third column had been marked by an act of heroism.The Kashmir gate must be blown open before they could enter. Home, asubaltern of the Engineers, with two British sergeants and a dozennatives, ran forward to the gate under a heavy fire, carryingtwenty-five pound powder-bags. A step or two behind came LieutenantSalkeld with a firing party and a bugler. They ran across the ditch bythe planks of the drawbridge, and came unscathed to the foot of thegreat double gates, the rebels seeming to be scared into inaction by thevery audacity of the feat. They laid the bags against the gate; then aterrible fire was again directed upon them. A sergeant fell dead; Homedropped unhurt into the ditch; Salkeld, holding the portfire, was shotthrough arm and leg, and fell back helpless. He handed the portfire toCorporal Burgess, who was shot dead before he could light the fuse.Carmichael took the portfire and had just lighted the fuse, when hereceived a mortal wound. Smith, fearing that Carmichael had failed,sprang forward, match-box in hand; but the portfire exploded just as hereached the gate, and he plunged into the ditch to escape the greaterexplosion. Next moment the gate was shattered to fragments. Now was thebugler's turn. Three times he sounded the advance, but amid the din allaround it was not heard. The explosion itself, however, gave the signal,and Colonel Campbell led his men forward at the double, and dashed intothe city but a few minutes after the first and second columns hadentered it.

  The fourth column had meanwhile suffered a disastrous check. The gunswhich were to accompany it were late in arriving, and when they didcome, the gunners were only sufficient to work one out of the four.Major Reid was waiting until others could be found, when he heard theexplosion at the Kashmir gate and learnt that a portion of his nativetroops were already engaged at the Idgah. It was time to be up anddoing, so he set off to the attack of Kishenganj, leaving his gunsbehind. But a musket-ball struck him on the head, and he fell insensibleinto the ditch. There was some disorder among the men, and a doubt as towho was now in command of the column; and when Reid settled that, onreturning to consciousness, by ordering Captain Lawrence to take thecommand, the fire of artillery and musketry from the unbreached walls ofKishenganj was so heavy as to necessitate the withdrawal of the columnto their starting-place at Hindu Rao's house. Hope Grant's cavalry,drawn up to guard their flank when they pressed forward to the city, ashad been the intention, were forced to sit their horses for two longhours without a chance of doing anything, under a hurricane of lead andiron from the Burn bastion. Only a third of them were British, but thetroopers of the Guides and Hodson's Horse behaved as steadily under thiscritical ordeal as the British Lancers. In the excitement of action menmay face lightheartedly dangers to which they are oblivious: it needsmore heroism to sit like sentries at the Horse Guards while balls areflying thick around. By and by they were helped to hold their ground byCaptain Bourchier's battery of horse artillery. And not till they learntthat the three storming columns had entered the city, and establishedthemselves there, did they fall back to their bivouac around LudlowCastle.

  In the city the ramparts were in British hands, from the Kashmir gate tothe Kabul gate, and Colonel Campbell had pushed on across the ChandniChauk, and as far as the great mosque, which had been fortified. From itand the surrounding houses a deadly fire was poured upon the British,and Campbell, finding that the support he had expected from the othercolumns was not forthcoming, fell back upon the Begam Bagh, a vastwalled garden, where he bivouacked.

  Meanwhile, Nicholson had pressed on along the foot of the walls towardsthe Kabul gate, where British colours now flew. The plan had been toclear the ramparts as far westward as the Lahore gate, and Nicholsonexpected that Major Reid's column would by this time have entered thecity there. Nothing daunted by Reid's failure, Nicholson determined topush forward without this support.

  Between the Kabul and the Lahore gates was the Burn bastion, thestrongest part of the defences, whence a galling fire was being kept upboth on the cavalry drawn up outside and on the infantry in the narrowstreets within. A narrow lane, three hundred yards long, and varyingfrom ten feet to three in width, ran between the Kabul gate and thebastion, lined with mud huts on one side and on the other by theramparts. The rebels, taking heart at the one success they had achievedin the repulse of the fourth column and the havoc wrought by the Burnbastion, had come crowding back into the lane, the further end of whichthey defended with two brass guns posted behind a bullet-proof screen.

  Nicholson knew that his task would not be finished until the bastion wastaken. The enemy would exult if it remained even for a day in theirhands. So he called on the 1st Fusiliers to charge along the lane,ordering the 75th to rush along the ramparts and carry the positionabove. The men, tired as they were, gallantly responded. On they went,reached the first gun, overwhelmed the gunners, then dashed on with acheer to the second. But ere they reached it a storm ofshot--musket-balls, grape, canister, round shot, even stones flung byhand--burst upon them. They recoiled. Again they formed up, againcharged up the lane, again captured the first gun, which CaptainGreville spiked. Once more they dashed forward to the second gun and thebullet-proof screen. Men fell fast, blocking the narrow lane. MajorJacob, of the 1st Fusiliers, and six other officers were struck down,and Captain Greville was withdrawing the men from what he deemed animpossible task.

  But at this moment the great voice of Nicholson himself was heardcalling on the men to make one more charge and follow him. He rushed tothe front, and turned his back for a moment to the enemy, so that hismen might see his face and take courage. A shot from the bastion struckhim in the back; he reeled and fell. A sergeant caught him, and laid himin one of the recesses below the ramparts. He was taken back to theKabul gate, and by and by was placed in a dooli and entrusted to nativebearers to carry to the field hospital below the Ridge.

  Lieutenant Frederick Roberts, an engineer on General Wilson's staff, hadbeen sent into the city to discover the truth of reports carried tohim--that Nicholson had fallen, and Hope Grant and Tombs were both dead.As he rode through the Kashmir gate, Lieutenant Roberts saw a dooli bythe roadside with a wounded man in it, but no bearers. The lieutenantdismounted to see what he could do. He found that the wounded man wasJohn Nicholson, deserted by the bearers, lying in helpless agony alone.The bearers had run off to plunder. Four men were found to supply theirplaces; a sergeant of the 61st Foot was put in charge of the party, andthe dying soldier was carried to Captain Daly's tent on the Ridge.