The Tiger of Mysore Part 20

He entered the hut, the soldiers crowding in after him, and examined the defences at the windows, and the loopholes; while d.i.c.k explained how the bars had been arranged to defend the door.

"We began on the other side, Uncle. We had a fight with four men who came up with us there. Only one of them got away--and he left his gun behind. It was lucky, for their guns and pistols were of immense use to us. We could not have held out with only our own weapons.

"About twenty of their cavalry came up a few minutes afterwards. We beat them off, and then they sent up to the fort for infantry, and about fifty men came down and attacked us, just at sunrise. They kept it up to within half an hour ago. Then the infantry marched back, knowing, of course, that your troop generally got here about seven.

"The hors.e.m.e.n stayed here till within a few minutes of your arrival.

No doubt they thought that we should suppose they had all gone, and might venture out, and let them get a shot at us."

"Why, it must have been a veritable battle, d.i.c.k."

"There was a good deal of noise, Uncle, though not much danger. So long as we kept below the level of the loopholes and windows, and out of the line of the door, there was no chance of our being hit."

"They must have made a strong attack on the door," the Rajah said. "I see that the two lying next to it were both killed by sword thrusts."

"Yes, that was the most critical moment, Uncle. We had emptied nearly all our barrels, and if they could have broken down the bars, which I have no doubt they could have done, if they had stuck to it, they would have made very short work of us."

"Now let us be going," the Rajah said. "You can tell me the whole story, as we go along."

Two of the sowars were ordered to give up their horses to d.i.c.k and Surajah, and to mount behind comrades. Then they started down the valley, d.i.c.k riding between his uncle and the captain, while Surajah took his place with the two other officers of the troop. They rode so rapidly that d.i.c.k's story was scarcely concluded by the time they reached the village where the troops were quartered.

"Well, you have done marvelously well, d.i.c.k," his uncle said. "Surajah deserves the highest praise, too. Now I will write a note to the British officer with the Nabob, giving the news of Tippoo's movements, and will send it off by two of the troopers, at once. Where Colonel Maxwell's force is, I have no idea. It marched to join General Meadows, on the day we came up here.

"In the meantime you can have a wash, while breakfast is being cooked.

I have no doubt that you are ready for it."

"I am indeed, Uncle. We had nothing, yesterday, but a few cakes made of flour and water; and have had nothing at all, since."

"All right, lad. I will be ready almost as soon as breakfast is."

After the meal was over, the Rajah lit his hookah, and said:

"You must go through the story again, this evening, d.i.c.k. You cut short some of the details, as you told it to me on the road, and I want to understand it all thoroughly. You had better turn in now for a long sleep. You must want it badly enough, lad, after the work of the two last nights."

d.i.c.k slept until his uncle roused him, at six o'clock.

"Dinner will be ready in ten minutes. It is just as well that you should get up, for two or three hours. After that, you will be good for another sleep till morning. We shall have to look out sharp now, and keep a couple of vedettes always at that village; as, for all we know, this may be the pa.s.s by which Tippoo is coming down."

d.i.c.k got up rather reluctantly, but he was not long in shaking off his drowsiness, and after dinner was able to go through the story again, with full details of his adventures.

"I don't know what I should have done without Surajah, Uncle. He is a capital fellow, and if ever I go up by myself, into Mysore, to look for my father, I hope that you will let me take him."

"That I will certainly do, d.i.c.k. Ever since I first heard of your plans, I have quite decided that you ought not to go alone. I daresay I should have chosen an older man to accompany you, but after what you and the lad have done together, I don't think you could do better than take him. Of course, such an affair would demand infinitely greater caution and care, though not greater courage, than you had occasion to use on this excursion. It is one thing to enter a village, to ask a few questions, make a purchase or two, and be off again; but it is a very different thing to be among people for weeks, or perhaps months, and to live as one of themselves. However, we may hope that this war will end in our army marching to Seringapatam, when we shall recover many of the prisoners in Tippoo's hands.

"I do not say all. We know how many hundreds remained in his power last time, in spite of his promise to deliver them all up; and maybe something of the same sort will occur next time. Numbers may be sent away, by him, to the hill fortresses dotted all over the country; and we should never be able to obtain news of them. However, we must hope for the best."

The next morning, the troopers arrived with a letter from the English resident at Arcot. The Rajah glanced through it, and handed it to d.i.c.k, with the remark:

"You will not get the honour you deserve, d.i.c.k."

The letter ran:

"Dear Rajah:

"Your news would be extremely valuable, were it correct; but unfortunately it is not so, and doubtless the reports brought down by your nephew were spread by Tippoo, for the purpose of deceiving us.

Or, possibly, he may have intended to have come that way, but afterwards changed his mind. We have news that, just after Colonel Maxwell effected his junction with General Meadows, near Caveripatam, and was about to ascend the ghauts by the Tapour pa.s.s, Tippoo came down by that very route, slipped past them, and is marching on to Trichinopoly. That being the case, I see no further utility in your remaining with your troop in the pa.s.ses, but think it were best that you should re-a.s.semble them at once, and march here. There is no chance of Tippoo capturing Trichinopoly before Meadows, who is following him, can come up and force on a battle; so it is likely that the Mysore army may continue their march in this direction, in which case every fighting man will be of use, to defend this place until it is relieved by the general."

d.i.c.k uttered an exclamation of disgust, as he laid the letter down.

"It does not matter about my news turning out wrong," he said, "but it is very bad that General Meadows should have allowed Tippoo to pa.s.s him, as he may do frightful damage to the country, before he can be overtaken."

"He never can be overtaken, as long as he chooses to keep ahead. He is hampered with no baggage train. He lives on the plunder of the country he pa.s.ses through; and the British army, with all its baggage and provision train, has no more chance of overtaking him than it has of flying."

Messengers were at once sent off, to call in the scattered portions of the troop. These were a.s.sembled in twenty-four hours, and at once started for Arcot, where they arrived after a two days' march. They there learned that Tippoo had appeared before Trichinopoly, and after pillaging and laying waste the sacred island of Seringham, had marched north.

Day after day, news arrived of the devastation he was committing on his march. At Thiagur, however, he met with a serious repulse. Great numbers of the inhabitants from the surrounding country had crowded into the town with their valuables, and Tippoo, expecting a rich booty, attacked the town; but although its fortifications were insignificant, the little garrison was commanded by Captain Flint, the officer who had so bravely defended Wandiwash in the previous war, and two a.s.saults were repulsed with serious loss.

At Trinalee, thirty-five miles farther north, he was more successful, capturing the town, and putting the inhabitants to the sword. Here Tippoo changed his course, and marched for Pondicherry, capturing Permacoil by the way.

The news that Tippoo had changed his course, to the southeast, was received with great joy at Arcot. Although confident that this capital would be able to resist any sudden attack, the belief had been general that the whole territory would be laid waste, as it had been by Hyder; and hopes were now entertained that the British army would arrive in time to bar Tippoo's further progress.

Chapter 8: The Invasion Of Mysore.

For some time, there was a pause in the hostilities. Tippoo remained with his army near Pondicherry, carrying on negotiations with the French governor, and arranging for the despatch of an envoy to France, with a request that the Republic would furnish him with six thousand French troops. While he was thus wasting his time, General Meadows was slowly moving, with the army, towards an encampment formed at Vellout, some eighteen miles west of Madras.

On the 14th of December, a messenger arrived with the news that Lord Cornwallis had arrived from Calcutta, two days before, with considerable reinforcements, and that he was about to a.s.sume the supreme command of the army. The news caused unbounded satisfaction.

By the extreme dilatoriness of his movements, and especially by the manner in which he had allowed Tippoo to pa.s.s him near Caveripatam, when he might easily have attacked him, while his army was still struggling through the pa.s.s, General Meadows had disgusted his troops.

He had frittered away, without striking a single blow, the finest army that the British had, up to that time, ever put into the field in India; and had enabled Tippoo, unmolested, to spread destruction over a large extent of country.

The only countervailing success that had been gained, by the British, was a brilliant victory won by Colonel Hartley, who was in command of a Bombay force, consisting of a European regiment and two battalions of Sepoys. With these, he engaged Hossein Ali, who had been left by Tippoo in Malabar, with a force of 9000 men, when the sultan first retreated before General Meadows' advance. This force was defeated, with a loss of 1000 men killed and wounded, 900, including Hossein himself, taken prisoners on the field, and 1500 in the pursuit; the total British loss being only 52 men. A few days after this victory, General Abercrombie arrived from Madras with reinforcements, and the whole of Tippoo's fortified places in Malabar were captured, one after another, and the entire province conquered.

As soon as Lord Cornwallis reached the camp at Vellout, with a large train of draught animals that had been brought by sea from Calcutta, the Rajah and his troops received orders to join him. It was on the 29th of January, 1791, that the commander in chief arrived at Vellout, and the Rajah arrived there on the 4th of February. As he was the bearer of a letter from the Resident at Arcot, he was at once enabled to have an interview with Lord Cornwallis. On finding that he could speak English, the general received him with much courtesy.

"I am glad, indeed, to have a troop like yours with us, Rajah," he said. "There are few of my officers who know anything of this part of the country, and your local knowledge will be invaluable. Moreover, as I do not speak the language myself, it will be a great advantage to have someone with me through whom I can communicate freely with the people of the country. There is no doubt that such communications are much more effectual, when they come through one of their own princes, than through English officers. I shall therefore order that, on the march, a s.p.a.ce be allotted for the encampment of your troop by the side of that occupied by my own escort; and hope that, when not employed on scouting or other duties, you will ride with my staff.

"Your mother, Rajah, was an English lady, I am told."

"She was, sir. My sister, who married an Englishman, is at present in Madras with my family, and her son is with me.

"I beg to recommend him to your lordship. He speaks my language perfectly, and having been brought up in his father's country, naturally speaks English as well as Hindustani; and will understand, far better than I can do, any orders that you may give. He has come out, with his mother, in the hopes of finding his father, who has, if alive, been a prisoner for several years in the hands of Tippoo.

"He is a fine young fellow. The other day, he made a most dangerous reconnaissance into Mysore, in order to ascertain Tippoo's movements.

He had with him a young officer of mine, two or three years older than himself; and when I tell you that the two young fellows held a ruined hut, for hours, against the attack of some seventy of Tippoo's troops, and beat them off with a loss of upwards of twenty killed, I need hardly say that he has no lack of courage."

"You are right, indeed, Rajah. Let the lad ride beside you, with my staff. Some day he will, perhaps, shorten a long day's march by giving me details of this adventure of his."

On the 5th of February the army started on its march, and on the 11th reached Vellore. Tippoo had, for two months, been wasting his time at Pondicherry; but, upon hearing news that instead of, as he expected, the English general having marched south from Vellout to meet him, he had turned westward; and that Mysore, itself, was threatened with invasion, he hastily broke up his camp, and marched at full speed for the ghauts; and, reaching the table land, hurried to oppose the British army, as it endeavoured to ascend the pa.s.s going from Vellore through Amboor, by which he made sure he would come.