With Clive in India; Or, The Beginnings of an Empire by G. A. Henty (lightest ebook reader TXT) 📗

then took his stand at the foot of the bed. Twice he raised his weapon; and then let it fall, with a drawing motion. The keen blade cut through the rug, as if it had been pasteboard; and, at the same instant, Tim sprang from the other side of the bed, and fainted in the arms of the men. Hossein threw off the rug, and there, severed in pieces, lay the writhing body of a huge cobra.

Tim soon recovered, under the administration of water sprinkled in his face, and brandy poured down his throat. But he was some time, ere he thoroughly recovered from the effects of the trying ordeal through which he had passed. Many of the buildings in the fort were in a very bad condition, and Charlie had several of the most dilapidated destroyed, finding in their walls several colonies of cobras, which were all killed by the troops.

Chapter 25: Besieged In A Pagoda.

A few days later Charlie received a message from the Rajah of Permacoil, saying that he was besieged by a strong native force, aided by the French. He at once moved his force to his assistance. He found that the besiegers, among whom were two hundred French troops, were too strong to be attacked. He therefore established himself in their rear, attacked and captured convoys, and prevented the country people from bringing in provisions. Several times the besieging infantry advanced against him, but before these he at once fell back, only to return as soon as they retired to their camp. Whenever their horse ventured out against him, he beat them back, with considerable loss.

Ten days after his arrival, the enemy, finding it impossible to maintain themselves in the face of so active an enemy, and suffering greatly from want of provisions, raised the siege and fell back.

As soon as they had drawn off, Charlie entered the fort. The rajah received him with the greatest warmth. He was, however, much distressed at the capture of a hill fort, at some distance from Permacoil. In this he had stowed his wives and treasure, thinking that it would be unmolested. The French, however, had, just before Charlie's arrival, detached a strong force with some guns, and these had captured the place. The force which had accomplished this had, he now heard, marched to Trinavody, a fort and town thirty miles away, upon the road by which the force which had besieged the town was retiring. The treasure was a considerable one, amounting to seven lacs of rupees, and as the rajah stated his willingness that the troops should take possession of this, if they could but rescue his women, Charlie at once determined to attempt the feat.

The main body of the enemy would not reach the place, until the afternoon of the following day. Charlie soon collected his men and, making a detour through the country, arrived next morning within a mile of Trinavody.

The town was a small one, and the fort one of the ordinary native forts, built in a parallelogram with flanking towers. The place, however, contained a very large and solidly built pagoda or temple. It was surrounded by a wall, forty feet high; and at the gateway stood an immense tower, with terraces rising one above the other.

Capturing a native, Charlie learnt that the fort was tenanted only by the troops of the native rajah of the place, the French detachment being encamped in the pagoda. He at once rode forward with his troops, dashed through the native town, and in through the wide gateway of the tower, into the courtyard within. Beyond two or three straggling shots from the sentries, he had so far encountered no opposition, and the native troops in the courtyard, thrown into wild confusion by this sudden appearance of a hostile force, threw down their arms and cried for mercy. From the temple within, however, the French infantry, a hundred strong, opened a brisk fire.

Charlie sent some of his men on to the tower, whence their fire commanded the flat roof of the temple, and these speedily drove the defenders from that post. The field pieces were unlimbered, and directed towards the gate of the inner temple, while a musketry fire was kept up against every window and loophole in the building. The gate gave way after a few shots had been fired, and Charlie led his party to the assault.

The French defended themselves bravely, but they were outnumbered and were driven, fighting, from room to room, until the survivors laid down their arms. The assault, however, had cost the British a loss of twenty-five men.

The Rajah of Permacoil's treasure, and his women, fell into the hands of the captors. Charlie ordered the chests to be brought down, and placed in bullock waggons. Just as he was about to order his men, who were scattered through the temple looting, to form up, he heard a shout from the tower; and, looking up, saw one of his men there gesticulating wildly. He ran up the tower, and on reaching the first terrace saw, to his surprise, the whole of the force which he believed to be fifteen miles distant, already entering the town.

The French officer in command, knowing the activity and dash of his opponent, and fearing that an attempt might be made to carry Trinavody and recapture the rajah's treasure, had marched all night. When within a mile of the place, he heard what had happened, and at once pushed forward.

Charlie saw that, already, his retreat was cut off; and, running to the edge of the terrace, shouted to Peters to hurry out with all the men already in the courtyard, to occupy the houses outside the gate, and to keep back the advancing enemy. Summoning another party to the tower, four guns upon the terrace were at once loaded, and these opened upon the head of the enemy's column, as they entered the street leading to the temple.

In a short time, a brisk fight began. The enemy planted guns to bear upon the tower. The cannon of the fort joined in the assault, the infantry pressed forward through the houses and inclosures to the temple, and were soon engaged with the men under Captain Peters, while the guns and musketry from the tower also opened upon them.

Having seen that the preparations to repulse an immediate attack were complete, Charlie again ran down to the courtyard. The weak point of the defences was the gateway. This was fifty feet wide, and unprovided with gates; and Charlie at once set a strong party to work, to form a barricade across it.

For some hours, the party outside the gates maintained their position, but they were gradually driven back; and towards evening, by Charlie's orders, they retired within the temple. The barricade was now eight feet high. The face was formed of large slabs of stone, piled one upon another, backed by a considerable thickness of earthwork. This, however, although capable of resisting a sudden rush of infantry, would, Charlie knew, be incapable of resisting artillery.

During the night, he divided his men in two parties, which alternately slept and worked at the inner defences which he had designed. These consisted of two walls, running from each side of the gateway to the temple. They were placed a few feet farther back than the edge of the gateway, so that an enemy advancing to the storm would not see them, until within the gate. These walls he intended to be eight feet high; and to be backed with earth, four feet high, so as to form a bank on which the defenders could stand, and fire into the space between them. To obtain materials, he pulled down several buildings forming a part of the temple. The distance from the gateway to the temple was fifty yards, and although the men worked without ceasing, the wall had made but little progress when daylight dawned.

During the night, Charlie lowered one of his men from the wall farthest from the enemy; with instructions to make his way, as fast as possible, to Madras to ask for succour. In the morning, Charlie found that the enemy had, on their side, been also busy. A house, which faced the end of the street leading to the temple, had been pulled down; and a battery of four guns erected there.

As soon as it was light, the combat began. The enemy had sixteen pieces of artillery, besides those on the fort; and while the four guns in front played unceasingly upon the barricade across the gateway, the others cannonaded the tower, whence the English guns kept up a fire on the battery in front. So well were these directed, and so heavy was the musketry, that the enemy's guns were several times silenced, and the artillerymen driven from them.

Behind the barricade, a working party threw up fresh earth, to strengthen the part most shaken by the enemy's fire, and then set to work to form a similar barricade, in a line with the back of the gateway. This was completed by nightfall, by which time the enemy's guns had completely shattered the stone facing of the outer barricade, rendering it possible for it to be carried with a rush. As, from the windows of the houses, they could see the new work behind it; they would, Charlie judged, not attempt an assault, until this also was destroyed.

During the night, large quantities of fresh earth were piled on the outer barricade, which was now useful as forming a screen to that behind it from the guns. All night the work at the parallel walls continued, and by morning these had reached a height of three feet.

During the next two days the fight continued, without much advantage on either side. Each day the enemy's guns shattered the outer barricade, but this was as regularly repaired at night, in spite of the heavy artillery and matchlock fire which they kept up towards the spot.

On the fourth day the enemy pulled down a house, standing just in the rear of their battery, and Charlie found that behind it they had erected another. It was a solidly built work, of fifteen feet in height, and the enemy must have laboured continuously at it, every night. It had a strong and high parapet, of sandbags, protecting the gunners from the musketry fire of the tower. The muzzles of four guns projected through embrasures, which had been left for them, and these opened fire over the heads of the gunners in the lower battery.

In spite of the efforts of the besieged, the enemy kept up so heavy a fire that, by the afternoon, the inner as well as the outer barricade was knocked to pieces. By this time, however, the inner walls were completed, and the English awaited the storm with confidence. The doorway of the temple had been closed, and blocked up behind; but the doors had been shattered to pieces, by the shot which had passed through the gateway, and the entrance now stood open.

Inside the temple, out of the line of fire, Charlie had the two little field pieces, each crammed to the muzzle with bullets, placed in readiness to fire. The lower floor of the tower had been pierced, above the gateway, and here two huge caldrons filled with boiling lead, stripped from the roof, stood ready for action.

At three in the afternoon, after a furious cannonade, the fire of the enemy's battery suddenly ceased. They had formed communications between the houses, on either side of the street; and, at the signal, the troops poured out from these in large bodies, and rushed to the assault.

The guns from the tower, which had been awaiting the moment, poured showers of grape among them; but, believing that the temple now lay at their mercy, the enemy did not hesitate, but rushed at the gateway.

Not a shot was fired, as they entered. Scrambling over the remains of the two barricades, the enemy poured with exulting shouts into the courtyard. Then those in front hesitated. On either hand, as far as the doorway of the temple, extended a massive wall, eight feet high; roughly built, certainly, but far too strong to be battered down, too steep to be scaled. They would have retreated, but they were driven forward by the mass which poured in through the gateway behind them; and, seeing that their only safety was in victory, they pressed forward again.

Not a defender showed himself, until the head of the column had reached a point two-thirds of the distance across the courtyard. Then suddenly, on either side, the wall was lined by the British, who at once opened a tremendous fire on the mass below. At the same moment, the guns were run into the doorway, and poured their contents into the struggling mass.

Pent up between the walls, unable to return the fire poured down upon them, with lanes torn through them by the discharge of the cannon, the greater portion of the mass strove to turn and retire. The officer in