CHAPTER XIV. The army massing itself.—A living corpus delicti.-Sir J. Outram attacked.-Buy a gharry, a horse, and coachman.-Our army on the move.- -Destruction of Hindoo temples.-Reply to a priest's intercession.-War, and no quarter given.—Indiscriminate executions.—Striking tents.-Camels and their burdens.-A welcome invitation.-Cross the Ganges into Oude.— An apparently illimitable procession.-A notion of Old World times.—"Master's mess buckree."-Ruined villages.-Orders for marching. February 24th.-The enemy are becoming very uneasy at our gradual, workmanlike, and, as it were, mechanical advance; the army is massing itself all along the road from this to Bunnee-a column marches from Cawnpore to Oonao, the troops at Oonao move on one march nearer to the front-the regiment in that station goes on to Bunnee, and so the movement progresses like that of a snake, gathering up fold after fold, till he is ready for his spring. What fine active young fellows are all around us! Sir Colin evidently likes young officers, but keeps them well in hand—not a move is permitted without precise orders-every march is regulated by Mansfield, and the effect of almost every step is weighed by him and the Chief. Invited to dine at the mess of the civilians to-day-they have a big bungalow to themselves, and mess together in consideration of the hard times. Formerly, each man would, of course, have had his separate establishment on a large scale. There were at dinner Sherer, magistrate and collector; Batten, judge; Power, assistant judge; the doctor; Willock, civilian; Glyn, of the Rifle Brigade; some anonymous "uncovenanted; uncovenanted;" a travelling gent.; and an officer who had just returned from a Jack-Ketch expedition, in which he had great and deserved success. A very pleasant evening, with much discussion of Indian matters, which might have been very instructive to a griffin, were it not that all the authorities differed from each other on every one point. I perceived that the stupid men were sanguinary, shall I say in direct ratio to their stupidity? One story told of a magistrate, not very far off, was amusing enough. A woman was brought before him charged with the murder of her little daughter, by throwing her into the Ganges: the culprit confessed the crime, alleging that she could not maintain the child, and wished to save her from shame. Sentence of death was passed, and as justice hereabouts is rapid in all its movements, the woman was next day taken forth and hanged with a full company. As the magistrate sat in his cutchery that morning, lo! there came before him a little child, who demanded of the sahib, what he had done with her mother! It was a perplexing question; for the woman had been executed. It turned out, that the child had been carried down by the current and had been picked up by a fisherman, who kept her till she was sufficiently recovered to walk to the station to find her mother. Maxims of law are not disregarded with impunity; and here was a living corpus delicti in a most unpleasant form. What became of the girl I know not; and I suppose the judge, a very well-meaning, excellent man, took to reading Blackstone. February 25th.-Distant cannonading — a tele A GHARRY, A HORSE AND A COACHMAN. 217 gram from Sir James Outram to say he was attacked by a large force from Lucknow. The result, of course, excites not the smallest conjecture, for it is certain and invariable. Again: an outburst of firing at midday said to be from Russoolabad, in Oude-which Hope Grant was expected to attack. The Meeangunj affair has struck terror into the outlying rebels. The news from Sir Hugh Rose is not very hopeful. He is obliged to halt from sheer want of supplies. The authorities knew, months before, that he was about to make this march. It shows either that they were apathetic, that the country is hostile, or that it is barren. Sir Hugh has a fine force, is full of work, and is accompanied by Sir Robert Hamilton, and we hope to hear that he will clear all before him when he does move, though it will require hard fighting to do so, as the enemy are strongly posted at Jhansi and at Calpee, the country is exceedingly difficult, the people wild, fierce, and barbarous. Bought for 60l. a gharry, a horse and coachman from an Agra refugee. Well, the coachman is an exaggeration; but he came quite naturally with the horse, and squatted himself down, with his wife and three children, in the rear of my tent, as a matter of course, and just looked as if he were part of the bargain. He belongs to the horse, and the horse belongs to the man who owns the gharry. My next proceeding was to send my white mare to be broken; for it appeared that little preliminary had been neglected in early education. Dined with General Mansfield, where there was a small party-no "shop," and very agreeable conversation: the chief not well pleased at the mention of two officers' names as being the first in at the attack on Meeangunj, for he thinks this race after the Victoria Cross is destructive to discipline, and is determined to discountenance it. However, all these things will be forgotten for the moment. We are on the verge of the great move-another forty-eight hours, and hurrah for the Oude campaign! February 26th.-Busy writing and preparing for the march. Since dawn, a long cloud of dust, rising from the sandy plain across the Ganges, and the roll and tramp of endless wheels, and feet, and hoofs on the bridge, show our army is on the move. Simon's legs are quivering with anxiety and packing up; but there are no cares for carriage, no trouble about transport. See! There are elephants, camels, and oxen at call! Make requisition on that inexhaustible Commissariat! and if the rupees are in your purse, there will be no difficulty about impedimenta. In the evening went up to the Ghauts, where the Engineers are, positively this time, about to blow up Siva and her shrines. These latter present a front to the river about as long as that of the Temple Gardens, but they stand at a far greater elevation, being forty or fifty feet above the stream, which is approached by broad flights of white steps. The little nests of temples, which look so fine in the aggregate, are mean enough in the abstract; massive low domes rising from dumpy walls, and covered all over with lotus leaves -dark foul chambers, full of withered flowers, hideous idols, and lignam altars: that which was, perhaps, refined and elegant in Greece, is horrible in Hindostan; but it is not indecent. Last night there was an Engineer "sell" on a great scale; indeed, they are great practical humorists all over the world-nothing DESTRUCTION OF HINDOO TEMPLES. 219 diverts them so much as getting together a great crowd to see something blown up, and then not doing it the docks, or houses of Sebastopol, mines at Chatham, or temples on the Ganges-it's all the same. Last night we had all our trouble for nothing; and indeed I should be sorry to say how often it was the same case before. This evening one old temple obstinately refused to be blown up. Its companions were, however, less resolute, and two of them gave a kick, as it were, upwards in the midst of a column of dust and smoke, and, with a grumble which shook the ground, collapsed into heaps of brick, white plaster, and earth. None of the natives came to look at it, except the coolies engaged in the works and a few fakirs, who looked as if they thought the lightning from heaven would blast us. It must have been a great triumph for them when the stubborn old temple had its own way. And why not? The Russians showed me a gate of the Kremlin which was split by French gunpowder just up to the edge of a picture of the Virgin-there the force of the explosion was arrested. Two of the mines were fired ingeniously by Pat Stewart this evening. He had some Jacob's shells for his rifle, and, standing quite out of danger, he fired one at some loose powder on a stone, whereon the end of the fuse was lying. The shell exploded, fired the powder, and ignited the fuse, and, after a second or two, the temples, spitting fire and smoke out of their mouth-like gateways, were seized with sudden convulsions and dropped to pieces. Alas! dirty fakirs and Brahmins, your triumph was but short. Like the mediæval miracles which saved the lives of |