The Tiger of Mysore Part 31

"We should like to take our Palace attendant with us," Surajah said.

"He is a good man and, starting so suddenly, we should have a difficulty in hiring servants we could rely on."

"I have thought of that," the chamberlain replied, "and have ordered a horse to be got in readiness for him, together with a spare animal to carry food and necessaries for your journey. You will need them on your marches, and may even be glad of them in some of the smaller forts, where the fare will be very rough."

When they returned to their room, they found Ibrahim awaiting them. He was evidently delighted at the prospect of accompanying them.

"My lords," he said, "I have the pack horse saddled in the stable, with two great sacks and ropes. Is it your pleasure that I should go down, at once, to the market and buy flour and rice, spices, and other things necessary?"

"Certainly, Ibrahim. But it will not be necessary to buy much meat. It will not keep, and we ought always to be able to buy a sheep or a fowl from villagers. Get some thick, wadded sleeping rugs, some cooking pots, and whatever you think is necessary. Do not waste any time, for we shall start immediately after our meal."

As soon as the man had left, d.i.c.k said to Surajah:

"I will hurry down to the town and see Pertaub. You had best remain here, in case Tippoo should send for us to give us final instructions.

You can say, should he ask, that I have gone down to the town to get a supply of powder and ball for our pistols, writing materials, and other things that we may require; which will be true enough. It is most lucky that we buried our jewels in the forest, ten days ago, for we should not have had time to do it, now."

d.i.c.k returned in time for the meal, which was brought up by another servant.

"Pertaub was delighted to hear of our good fortune," he said, on his return. "He will keep our disguises by him, and if we have occasion for them, will either bring them himself with the merchandise, or will send them by a trusty messenger, to any place we may mention, directly he hears from us. I do not think there is any chance of our wanting them, but it is as well to prepare for any contingency that may occur."

Half an hour later they started, at the head of an escort of twenty troopers; Ibrahim riding in the rear, leading the pack horse, which carried a change of clothes, and thick cloths to keep out the night dews, as well as the stock of provisions. Ibrahim had also purchased two very large, dark blankets, that could be used for a temporary shelter. Surajah now felt quite at home, for he was engaged in the same sort of duty he performed at Tripataly; and more than one pair of dark eyes glanced admiringly at the two young officers, as they rode down to the ford.

They had been furnished, by Fazli, with a list of the forts they were to visit, and the order in which they were to take them; the first on the list being Savandroog, fifty miles northeast of the city. After a ride of twenty miles, they halted at a village. To the surprise of the troopers, Surajah gave orders that nothing was to be taken by force, as he was prepared to pay for all provisions required.

As soon as the villagers understood this, ample supplies were brought in. Rice, grain, and fowls were purchased for the soldiers, and forage for the horses, and after seeing that all were well provided for, the two officers went to a room that had been placed at their service, in the princ.i.p.al house in the village.

Ibrahim justified his a.s.sertion that he was a good cook, by turning out an excellent curry. By the time they had finished this it was getting dark, and after again visiting the troopers, and seeing that their own horses were fed and well groomed, they retired to bed.

An early start was made, and at ten o'clock they approached Savandroog. It was one of the most formidable of the hill forts of Mysore, and stood upon the summit of an enormous ma.s.s of granite, covering a base of eight miles in circuit, and rising in ragged precipices to the height of 2,500 feet. The summit of the rock was divided by a deep chasm into two peaks, each of which was crowned with strong works, and capable of separate defence. The lower part of the hill was, wherever ascent seemed possible, protected by walls, one behind the other. The natives had regarded the fort as absolutely impregnable, until it was stormed by the troops under Lord Cornwallis.

d.i.c.k looked with intense interest at the great rock, with its numerous fortifications. The damages committed by the British guns could not be seen at this distance, and it seemed to him well-nigh impossible that the place could have been captured. They rode on, until they neared an entrance in the wall that encircled the fort, at the side at which, alone, access was considered possible.

They were challenged as they approached. Ordering the troopers to remain behind, d.i.c.k and Surajah rode forward.

"We are the bearers," Surajah cried out, as they reined in their horses within twenty yards of the gate, "of an order from the sultan for our admittance, and of a letter to Mirzah Mohammed Bukshy, the governor."

"I will send up word to him," an officer on the wall replied. "I can admit no one, until I have received his orders to do so."

"How long will it be before we receive an answer?"

"An hour and a half, at the earliest. I regret that your Excellencies will be inconvenienced, but my orders are absolute."

"I do not blame you," Surajah replied. "It is necessary that you should always be vigilant;" and they retired under the shade of a tree, a hundred and fifty yards from the gate.

Ibrahim spread out the rugs, and then proceeded to light the fire, and to prepare a pillau of rice and fowl, while d.i.c.k and his companion regarded the rock with fixed attention, and conversed together as to the possibility of ascending at any of the points so steep as to be left undefended by walls. They concluded, at last, that it would be next to impossible to climb the rock anywhere on the side that faced them, save by scaling several walls.

They had just finished their luncheon when the gate opened, and an officer and four soldiers issued out. They at once rose, and went to meet them.

"I have the governor's order to admit you, on the production of the sultan's pa.s.s."

Surajah produced the doc.u.ment. The officer at once recognised the seal, and carried it to his forehead, salaaming deeply.

"Your troopers can enter at the gate, but cannot proceed farther than the second wall."

"Can we ride up, or must we walk?" d.i.c.k asked.

"You can ride," he replied. "The road is steep, but nowhere so steep that horses cannot mount it."

After the party had entered the gate, it was at once closed and bolted. The troopers dismounted, and were led to a small barrack; while Surajah and d.i.c.k, accompanied by the officer, and four soldiers on foot, rode on.

The road was a better one than d.i.c.k had expected. It was just wide enough for a cart to proceed up it, and was cut out of the solid rock.

It turned and zigzagged continually, and at each angle was a small fort, whose guns swept the approach. They pa.s.sed under a score of gateways, each defended by guns; and after upwards of an hour's climbing, at a quick pace, they approached one of the forts on its summit. The governor met them at the gate.

"You will pardon my not descending to meet you below," he said, "but I am not so young as I used to be, and the journey up and down fatigues me much."

d.i.c.k and Surajah dismounted, and the former presented the two doc.u.ments. The governor, after reading the pa.s.s, bowed, and led the way into the interior of the fort; and they were soon seated on a divan in his quarters, when he read the circular letter.

"I am glad indeed," he said, when he had finished, "that the sultan is pleased to take into consideration the many demands I have made for cannon and ammunition. A large number of the pieces are past service, and they would be as dangerous to those who fired them as to those at whom they were aimed; while I have scarcely powder enough to furnish three rounds for each. As to the defences, I have done my best to strengthen them. Idleness is bad for all men, most of all for soldiers, and I have kept them well employed at repairing the effects of the English fire. Still, there is much to do yet before they are finished, and there are points where fortifications might be added with advantage. These I will gladly point out to you. They have been beyond our means here, for, as you will perceive, it will need blasting in many places to scarp the rock, and to render inaccessible several points at which active men can now climb up. For this work, powder is required. And I would submit that, for such hard work, it will be needful to supply extra rations to the troops, for the present scale scarcely suffices to keep the men efficient, especially as most of them have their wives and families dependent on them."

"I have no doubt that the sultan will accede to any reasonable requests, your Excellency. He is anxious that the walls of the forts should be placed in the best possible condition for defence. No one doubts that we shall, ere long, be again at war with England, and although the sultan relies much upon large reinforcements that have been promised by France, with whom he has entered into an alliance, they have not yet arrived, and he may have to bear the brunt of the attack of the English by himself."

"I have heard of this," the governor said, "and regret that we shall again have the Feringhees upon us. As for the Mahrattis or the Nizam, I heed them not--they are dust, whom the sultan could sweep from his path; but these English are terrible soldiers. I have fought against them under Hyder, and in the last war they again showed their valour; and the strangest thing is that they make the natives under them fight as bravely as they do themselves.

"As to forts, nothing is safe from them. Were all the troops of the Nizam and the Mahrattis combined to besiege us, I should feel perfectly safe; while were there but five hundred Englishmen, I should tremble for the safety of the fortress. You have come up the hill, and have seen for yourselves how strong it is; and yet they took the place without the loss of a single man. I was not here, for I was in command of Kistnagherry at that time, and succeeded in holding it against their a.s.saults. When the war was over, and Kistnagherry was ceded to them, I was appointed to this fortress, which seems to me to be even stronger than that was.

"The commander was a brave man, the garrison was strong, there was no suspicion of treachery; and though, at last, the troops were seized with a panic, as they might well be when they saw that they were unable to arrest the advance of the enemy, the defence up to that time had been stout. The English brought up guns, where it was thought no guns could be taken. They knocked the defences to pieces; and, after winning their way to the top, in one day captured this fort, and that on the hill yonder. It seems miraculous."

Coffee was brought in, and pipes, for although Tippoo was violently opposed to smoking, and no one would venture upon the use of tobacco in the Palace or fort, old officers like the governor, in distant commands, did not relinquish tobacco.

"It is necessary here," the governor said, as he filled his pipe. "The country round is terribly unhealthy, and the air is full of fever. I do not discourage its use among the men, for they would die off like flies, did they not smoke to keep out the bad air. The climate is, indeed, the best protection to the fort, for an army that sat down for any length of time before it, would speedily melt away."

He opened a box that stood on the divan beside him.

"I have copies here," he said, taking some papers out, "of the memorials that I have sent in to the sultan, as to the guns. This is the last. It was sent in two months ago. You see I asked for forty-nine heavy pieces. Of these, thirty are to replace guns that are honeycombed, or split. The other eleven are for new works. I asked for thirty-two lighter ones, or howitzers, and a hundred wall guns. Of course I could do with less; but to place the fort in a perfect state of defence, that is the number that I and my artillery officer think are requisite.

"Of powder, we have not more than a ton and a half, and if the siege were to be a long one we might require ten times as much. We have not more than eight rounds of shot for each gun, and we ought to have at least fifty for the heavy pieces, and twenty for those defending the path up the hill."

d.i.c.k made a note of the figures, in a pocket book he had bought for the purpose.

"As for provisions," the governor went on, "we ought to have large stores of rice and grain. The magazines are nearly empty, and as we have eight hundred men in garrison, and perhaps twice as many women and children, we should require a large store were we blockaded for any time."

"Are the troops in good condition?" Surajah asked.

The governor shook his head.

"Many of them are past the term of service; but until I get reinforcements to supply their places, I shall not venture to discharge them. Many others are wasted by fever, and, I must say, from insufficient rations, which not only weakens their bodies, but lowers their spirits. As long as there was no fear of attack, this mattered little; but if the English are coming again, we shall want well-fed and contented men to oppose them.

"I see, by the stars on your turbans, that you are both colonels as well as officers of the Palace. You are fortunate in obtaining that rank so young."

"It was due to the sultan's favour," Surajah said. "The other day, at the sports, a tiger burst into the sultan's zenana, and we were lucky enough to kill it--that is, my friend did most of the killing. I only gave the brute the final coup."