Gil the Gunner Part 83

"Till Brace came with the guns," I thought.

I had wished to see something of the fight; now I regretted my desire, for I foresaw that there was going to be a desperate struggle. The light of the fire was rapidly increasing, and a very short time had elapsed before there was a sudden rush, and a disorderly mob of fighting men came tearing through the gateway, wild, excited, torn, and yelling furiously.

Then, as another volley was fired, I knew that the rajah's men had been driven in, for a tremendous fire was opened from the roof away to my right, and I could see the smoke rising in a dense cloud.

As this firing was kept up, the court gradually grew more packed. I could see mounted men come in, and before long I was able to make out the rajah, as he seemed to be giving orders, which resulted in a body of men rushing into the palace and returning bearing loads, which they piled up within the gateway, forming a breastwork, from behind which the men kept up a furious fire.

Outside, the replies had quite ceased, and I found what it meant; the infantry were under cover, and the guns had been ordered up to batter in the gateway, and send its defenders flying before a rush was made.

As I gazed down at the dense crowd of fighting men in the court, I shuddered, for, driven to bay as the sepoys were, and with no means of escape when the attack was made, the carnage would be frightful, and all the worse from the fact that the men would rush in and occupy the windows that looked upon the court from whence a sustained fire could be kept up on our men, one which would be frightful.

All at once it struck me that perhaps now the doors of my apartments would be unguarded, and I ran to look; but, on drawing aside the hangings, there sat Salaman and four attendants, while behind them were at least twenty well-armed men.

I went back, feeling that, whatever happened, these men would be faithful to their duty, though how I was to have got out of the palace and past the crowd of soldiers at every window and door, I had not stopped to think.

I again returned to the window from which I had watched before, and stood gazing out at the crowded court where the men had now been reduced to something more like military order, and it was a wonderful sight to see the swarthy faces with their gleaming eyes, and the flashing weapons the men carried. The moon poured down its silver light to mingle strangely with the glare of the torches many of the men bore; while away to my right the burning houses sent a glow of orange so strong that the broad end of the court opposite to me gleamed as if the fire was there as well.

It was a terrible pause that, and I knew that before long the attack would come, when the place would either be carried at once or its defenders starved into submission; for, though there was water in abundance, I did not believe there could be food to provide for a garrison.

I was thinking all this when a voice behind me made me start, and face round to the speaker.

"It is long hours since my lord has eaten," said Salaman. "Shall I bring in some food?"

"Who can eat at a time like this?" I cried; and I signed to him to go, turning back directly after, for I could hear a peculiar rattling sound in the distance which I knew well enough.

It was what I had antic.i.p.ated; they were bringing up the guns.

Almost at that moment the firing from the roof recommenced, and was answered from different directions; but it ceased as quickly as it had begun, for all at once there was the dull echoing thud of a six-pounder, and a rush of men from the barricade in the gateway, through which a round shot plunged, striking the edge of the stonework arch, sending down a shower of fragments, in the midst of whose falling the shot struck the wall of the palace on my left, shivering the stonework there.

No one attempted to man the barricades again, the task was too perilous, for gun after gun sent its iron messenger ploughing through the archway.

As I stood there midway between the gateway and the wall on my left, at right angles to my window, I did not stir, for I knew that though the b.a.l.l.s came by within ten feet from where I stood, none was likely to injure me. There was a kind of fascination in listening to the heavy report, and then instantly for the whistling of the ball as, after demolishing a portion of the barricade, it struck the wall with a heavy crash, and sent the splinters of stone flying.

Opposite to me were the soldiers, densely packed, forming one side of the lane, down which the b.a.l.l.s came plunging. Now and then one was deflected by the part of the barricade it struck, and it flew higher against the wall, or lower so as to touch the paving, and then ricochet; but the work was being thoroughly well done; and as I saw the great gaps made, and the clearance in the gateway, I knew the final attack must come before long.

It was much sooner than I expected, for the firing from the roof suddenly blazed out furiously, and it was as if shots were being poured from every window, as a fierce roar literally followed the next shot--a roar of men's voices, and beating feet, and my heart seemed for a moment to stand still, but then began to bound as I leaned out to watch the struggle, from which I could not have torn myself even to save my life.

I could see nothing outside, only hear the coming of men, whose cheering was mingled with many a shriek and groan, as poor fellows dropped under the terrible fire poured down upon them. Then I saw the men within the court running round to defend the gateway; but ere they could fire a shot, there was the flashing of steel, and a little ridge of bristling bayonets appeared; their banners changed hands; the sepoys broke and rushed for the doorway and windows of the inner court; and in a wonderfully short time, so rapidly flowed in the stream of glittering bayonets through the archway, the court was cleared, and the firing came now, as I had expected, from the inner windows and the roof.

I heard the orders ring out. "No firing! In with you, lads; the bayonet!" and with a rush, our men leaped in at the door, climbed in at the windows, and as the stream still flowed in through the gateway, the fighting was going on in room after room, and our foot regiment chased the flying sepoys from floor to floor, to finish the deadly strife upon the roof.

It was horrible, but through it all there would come the remembrance of the horrors perpetrated by the savage mob and the brutal soldiery.

There was a wild fascination about it, too, and I could not turn away, but stood with staring eyes and stunned ears, noting how the fire rapidly ceased, and wild cheering rose as room and roof were cleared.

I was standing by the window full of exultation, triumphing in the bravery and daring of the Englishmen, who must have been outnumbered by six to one, when I heard shots close at hand, yells, shouts, and the rush of feet; and the next minute my attendants and guards came backing in, fighting desperately as much in my defence as for their own lives, for they were driven from room to room by half a dozen men of the foot regiment that had stormed the place, and then for the first time I recalled that I was standing there in turbaned helmet and regular Eastern uniform, girt with jewelled belts, and with a magnificent tulwar at my side.

"They'll take me for a Hindu chief," I thought as, quick as lightning, I s.n.a.t.c.hed out the blade.

I was just in time.

Half my defenders were down, the others had dropped from the windows in spite of the depth, and two men with levelled bayonets dashed at me.

I did not think I could have done it, but I had worked hard at sword practice, and with a parry I turned one bayonet aside, avoided the other with a bound, and sent the man who would have run me through, down on his knees, with a terrible cut across the ear.

The others turned upon me, but I had found my tongue.

"Halt! Back, you idiots!" I roared. "I am a friend."

"Oh, bedad, an' I don't belave ye," cried one of the party, as the others hesitated; and he held his bayonet to my breast. "Give up yez sword, or I'll make a c.o.c.kchafer of ye."

I turned his point, and cut at another man frantically, for they were too much excited to listen to explanations. But in another instant I believe I should have been bayoneted, if there had not been a wild cry, and a dark figure rushed between me and my dangerous friends.

"Stop, he's a sahib," roared the new-comer, and I saw it was Dost.

"Then he's me prisoner, and that sword's me loot," cried the Irishman.

"Stand back!" I roared. "I am Lieutenant Vincent, of Captain Brace's troop."

I took off my helmet as I spoke, and the men were convinced.

"Look at that now," said the Irishman; "jest, too, when I thought I'd got a bit of lovely shpoil."

At that moment there was a rush of feet, and a tall grey officer hurried in, followed by another, and quite a crowd of men.

"Have you found him?" cried the tall officer.

"Oh, bedad, yis, colonel," cried the Irishman.

"What! the rajah?"

"Yis, sor. There he is, only he shwears he's a liftinant in a troop."

"That!" cried the officer; and then, in a choking voice, "Why, Gil, my boy, is this you?"

I could not speak, only cling to him who had a thousand times nursed me in his arms.

"Hold up, boy, be a man," he whispered; but his arms tightened round me.

"I thought you were dead, Gil," he cried excitedly. "But why are you like this?"

"I am a prisoner, father," I said.

"But the rajah?" he said excitedly. "Where is he?"

"He left here an hour ago to head his men," I said. "But, father, if you take him, defend him; he has been very good to me."

"Let's take him first," cried my father. "Now, my lads, forward! He must be somewhere in the place."

"Three cheers for the colonel's boy!" cried the Irishman. "Your hanner should have been here a bit sooner to see him foight. Hi, Sam Raggett, get up and show the colonel your ear. You're not half killed yet."