Memoirs of the Extraordinary Military Career of John Shipp Part 16

_Sergeant._--Yes, your honour, but it was so loud, there were several men besides me who heard it, that were asleep at the same time, and not so near as I was, becase they slept at the other side of the barrack.

_President._--You must either be a confounded oaf, or you wish to impose upon the court. Take care you do not yourself become a prisoner and be tried before this very court for perjury. I suppose you mean to say that the prisoner's talking awoke you?

_Sergeant._--Fait! that's the very thing.

_President._--Then you heard the expressions after you awoke?

_Sergeant._--Fait! I did.

_President._--They were spoken quite loud?

_Sergeant._--- They were, your honour.

_President._--Your evidence is most extraordinary. Prisoner, have you any questions to put to this witness?

_Prisoner._--Yes, if you plase, your honour. Where was I standing when you heard me make use of the words you have been after mintioning to the court?

_Sergeant._--Behind the pillar in the barrack.

_Prisoner._--Did you see me at the time?

_Sergeant._--Fait! did I, plain enough.

_President._--What do you suppose was the distance of this pillar from you, sergeant?

_Sergeant._--About twelve feet, your honour.

_President._--You must have pretty good hearing, then, to hear a man whisper at that distance.

_Sergeant._--The divel better hearing in the world.

_President_--How far, now, do you think you could hear a gunshot?

_Sergeant._--Ten miles off, if I was near enough.

_President._--You stupid fellow, if the sound reaches you, you must hear.

_Sergeant._--Yes, your honour, but I meant that if I was wide awake I could hear a gun ten miles off, if the report was loud enough. I heard the guns at Vittoria when my eyes were shut and I was twenty miles off.

_President._--If I could suppose for a moment that your extraordinary evidence proceeded from any other motive than utter ignorance, I would this moment try, break, and flog you; but granting that your testimony proceeds entirely from that channel, you are no longer fit for a non-commissioned officer, and I shall speak to the commanding-officer to reduce you.

The prisoner was released, and the proceedings terminated. It appeared afterwards, that all the witness meant to say was, that he was awake, but had his eyes shut, when the prisoner made use of the words alluded to.

We did not remain at Saugar for above a month, after which the division of the army to which I was attached was ordered to be broken up, and I proceeded to rejoin my own corps at Cawnpore. This was in July, 1819; from which period to the beginning of the year 1821, my time was spent in domestic quiet, in the performance of the station-duties of my profession, and in social intercourse with my brother officers. About this period I was raised to the rank of lieutenant, and, to add to the happiness which I then enjoyed, on the 22nd of March, 1821, I became a father by the birth of a little boy. Little did I then think that this blessing was the forerunner of much evil to me and mine; but just at this crisis I entered into an agreement with the late Lieutenant-Colonel, then Major, Browne, to run, in partnership with him, at the ensuing Cawnpore races. My father-in-law being then in a bad state of health, and just about to leave India, I obtained leave of absence for six months, and accompanied him to Calcutta. Here I was to purchase certain horses, &c., for the races; and the circ.u.mstances connected with this unfortunate racing transaction led ultimately to a court-martial, the sentence of which was as follows:

"The court, having maturely weighed and considered the evidence for and against the prisoner, together with what he has urged in his defence, is of opinion that he is guilty of both the charges preferred against him, which being in breach of the Articles of War, it does sentence him, Lieutenant John Shipp, of his Majesty's 87th regiment, to be discharged his Majesty's service.

"Approved and confirmed, (Signed) "EDWARD PAGET, "_General, Commander-in-Chief_."

Attached to the sentence was the following recommendation of the court:--

"The court having performed a painful but imperative duty, in finding the prisoner guilty, beg respectfully, though earnestly, to recommend him to the clemency of his excellency the commander-in-chief. In presuming to express a wish that mercy may be extended to the present case, the court are impressed with a hope that the gallantry so frequently displayed by the prisoner, the numerous wounds he has received, and the high and apparently merited character which he has. .h.i.therto borne, will appear to his excellency sufficient grounds for the court's thus warmly interesting themselves in the prisoner's fate, and urging with anxious solicitude the present recommendation.

"Before closing their proceedings, the court deem it a justice due to Lieutenant-Colonel Browne, to express their opinion that his conduct, as far as it has come before them, has been honourable to himself and indulgent towards the prisoner."

_Remarks by the Commander-in-Chief._

"Lieutenant Shipp has thus, by his persevering resistance to the advice of his late most respected commanding-officer, of the general of his division, and of the commander-in-chief, brought upon himself the heavy penalty of the forfeiture of his commission. Although these are circ.u.mstances calculated greatly to aggravate the offences of this officer, still the commander-in-chief is willing to hope that, in yielding, as far as he feels it is consistent with his duty, to the earnest intercession of the court, he runs no risk of shaking the foundations of discipline and subordination. The sentence of the court is accordingly remitted; but as, under all the circ.u.mstances of the case, the commander-in-chief deems it quite impossible that Lieutenant Shipp should continue to do duty with the 87th regiment, he grants him leave of absence from it, and shall recommend that he be removed to the half-pay list.

"The foregoing orders to be entered in the General Order-Book, and read at the head of every regiment in his Majesty's service in India.

"By order of his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, (Signed) "THOMAS M'MAHON, (A true copy.) "_Colonel, Adjutant-General._"

"_J Bowes, Lieutenant and Adjutant, 87th Regiment._"

On the tenth day of the proceedings, Colonel Browne, being examined on oath, is questioned by the court:--

_Question._--"How long have you known the prisoner, and what was your opinion of his character previous to the misunderstanding between you and him?"

_Answer._--"I have known the prisoner since the year 1816. He was in the light company with me for a considerable time, and distinguished himself highly at Hattra.s.s. I always considered him, and indeed know him to be, up to the present moment, one of the best officers in his Majesty's service."[16]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

FOOTNOTES:

[16] A summary of the court-martial proceedings (which in the original covered 300 foolscap folios) is given in the first edition of Shipp's "Memoirs," but omitted from the edition of which the present volume is a reprint.--ED.

CHAPTER XXV.

When an officer has been tried by an honourable military tribunal, composed of fifteen British officers, and the sentence of the court-martial has been sanctioned and approved by a most merciful and gracious sovereign, it were as fruitless, as it would be highly improper and presumptuous, for the sentenced individual to urge anything further in his defence. I, therefore, as a sincere admirer of my country's laws, bow most humbly to my fate; I love my country as truly as ever I did, and would as willingly as ever risk my life to support its laws and freedom.

During the trial, which lasted thirteen days, I was exceedingly hara.s.sed, and my feelings were worked up to a state bordering on frenzy.

There was a host against me, and I had not a soul to advise me how to proceed. I stood alone and unaided, with a limited education, to rebut the whole ma.s.s of evidence adduced against me.

The time necessarily occupied in sending the proceedings of the court-martial to my native country, and the long period which elapsed before its return, were spent in the bosom of domestic bliss, where I found refuge from the storm. The contemplation of my recent fall would at times sink me in gloomy despair, and it was my wife only who could divert my mind from useless forebodings, and whisper in my ear sweet hopes of better days to come. I removed some miles from the regiment, as I could not bear the commiserating remarks of the soldiers as they pa.s.sed me, which only served to plunge me deeper in the vortex of despondency. From these motives I was induced to remove from that station where my profession had been my pride and boast, to where I should not meet the pitying countenances of those brave fellows with whom I had often shared in glory, and where I could, unmolested and undisturbed, think of the future, and compose my feelings. On leaving the regiment, and pa.s.sing by the houses of the officers, that hung on the rapid Ganges, my feelings can be better imagined than described.

Need I be ashamed to confess that I felt the tear trickling down my cheek, and a weight at my heart that the utmost ingenuity of man cannot accurately describe. I could not help comparing my then forlorn situation with the day I looked back on the little white village spire out-topping the high poplars that reared their heads over the briar-woven grave of my mother, save that I had now one near and dear to me, and ever ready to share the cup of sorrow. Many of the men whom I had befriended and had got promoted, followed my boat on the banks of the river, wishing me every prosperity, till prudence bade them return to their lines. The feelings I experienced on this occasion are such as the tyrant soldier never knows, and never ought to know. These friendly greetings of the men gratified my pride, but only sunk my heart deeper in anguish. Scarcely were my feelings so composed as to reconcile me in some degree to my fate, when an event, the most dreadful and agonizing, and which of all others I was the least prepared for, happened to her on whom I had built my most felicitous hopes, when more halcyon days should visit our humble cot. I could have borne poverty with a smile of contentment; but this blow was vital, and at once dashed the flattering cup of hope from my lips. During my long and hara.s.sing trial, such was the anxiety of my wife, that a premature birth of a boy was the consequence. This had nearly deprived me of her who was my best friend and guide; but, by dint of great care and good nursing, she recovered, and was at this moment in all the health and beauty of twenty-two, and expected shortly to present me with another pledge of mutual love. A strange coincidence brought her good mother, brother, and sister to the station, neither of whom we could have expected, and we all waited the happy issue of this event. I cannot relate our preliminary proceedings and great anxiety. Suffice it that, on the following morning, having given birth, after twelve hours' protracted labour, to a beautiful boy, she was a corpse, having that morning completed her two-and-twentieth year. All my former misfortunes now rushed upon my distracted mind with tenfold force, and this last blow seemed to bereave me of all that on earth I could love; and my poor child, kissing the cold lips of his dead mother, and pathetically beseeching her to get up and speak to him, roused me to a full sense of my utter misery and woe. Neither his uncle nor his aunt could drag him from embracing the corpse of his dear mother; his cries were dreadful; and it was imagined, for some time after, that the dear boy's intellect had received a shock that was likely to prove lasting. He frequently wept bitterly, and would affectionately hug and kiss, a thousand times, any little thing that had been his mother's, preserving most carefully even little pieces of rag or paper that he knew had been hers. My poor mother-in-law scarcely ever spoke for the long period of six months, after this dreadful shock, but lay in a melancholy state of insensibility, not knowing even her little grandson, who would linger over her sick-bed for whole days together.

At this very crisis of my life the court-martial was communicated to me as having been confirmed in England, and I was directed to proceed to the Presidency of Fort William, preparatory to being sent home, to be placed on the half-pay.

This final sentence was communicated to me through the regiment, some few days after my wife's death, who was, therefore, spared this last pang. When the letter was delivered to me, I was sitting on a couch with my two motherless babes, one four years old, the other but a few days.