The Dilemma/Chapter XXIV
CHAPTER XXIV.
The residency at Mustaphabad, which was now to become the scene of an eventful episode in the history of the Great Mutiny, stood, as has already been explained, in a park of about fifty acres, surrounded by a strong brick wall, stuccoed white, and about five feet high. On the east side this boundary was distant about a hundred and fifty yards from the house; and immediately within the wall, and exactly east of the main building, was Captain Sparrow's house — or, as it was generally called, the Lodge, — the wall at this point being indented, and projecting into the outer road, so that the back wall of the house was without the general line of the boundary wall. The carriage entrance was about fifty yards to the north of Sparrow's house. There was no gate here, but only an opening in the wall about twenty feet wide, whence the road led by a slight sweep up to the portico on the north side of the house; a rough barricade of carts and carriages removed from their axles had been placed in this gap. Fifty yards more to the north came the end wall of the stables, which ran along the enclosure, their back wall corresponding with it, the open front of the stalls facing the park. In continuation of the stables was the range of servants' huts, also running along the wall and extending up to the north-east corner of it. The north wall was distant about two hundred and fifty yards from the house, and three hundred yards long. The west wall met the north wall at an obtuse angle, and ran obliquely to meet the west end of the south wall, which latter was more than a quarter of a mile long, and nearly three hundred yards from the south side of the buildings. Thus three sides of the park boundary were parallel to the house, and the fourth inclined to it, — the whole enclosure forming a trapezoid, the triangular portion of which was occupied by the vegetable and fruit garden. This garden was separated from the lawn, at the distance of some fifty yards from the house, by a thick hedge. Outside the park wall on the east side ran the road from cantonments to the city, about three quarters of a mile off, traversing a plain on which stood the court-house, surrounded by a grove of scattered trees. Opposite Sparrow's house, on the other side of this road, was a village surrounded by a mud wall. On the other three sides the park was surrounded by fields, at this season bare of crops. A line of well-grown trees ran along the wall on all sides; the park itself was dotted with timber, and laid out with grass, the turf being at this season of the year as hard as the roads and of a bright red colour. The garden, on the west side of the park, was thickly planted with bushes and fruit-trees.
The building itself has already been described in general terms. It was a very large rectangular block, substantially built of brick without regard to economy in the thickness of the walls, stuccoed red outside, flat-roofed, one storey high, with the floor raised about five feet from the ground. The portico was on the north side, and from underneath it a flight of broad steps gave access to the house, the centre rooms of which consisted of an anteroom, dining-room, drawing-room, and billiard-room, leading in order from one to the other, all very lofty and spacious, and communicating by two large folding-doors in each wall. On the left or east of the landing-place was a sort of pantry and storeroom, used to heat the dishes brought from the distant cook-house before dinner; and on the right a guard-room, communicating with the top of the steps, and in which also was the staircase to the roof. Next to these four public rooms on the west side was a suite of four large rooms, used in ordinary times as the commissioner's private office and dressing-room, his wife's bedroom, her boudoir, and her maid's room, communicating with each other and with the public rooms by folding-doors. A similar suite of four rooms, one of which was used as an office and occasional dining-room, the other three being usually reserved for guests, was on the east side. Outside these two suites of rooms were wide and lofty verandas, supported on substantial pillars, extending along the east and west sides, and terminated by bathing-rooms which projected into them at the four corners. There was a similar veranda on the south, outside the billiard-room. Part of the middle of the east veranda was also occupied by bath-rooms attached to the guest-chambers. The centre rooms were somewhat higher than the outer, and were lighted when the doors were closed by rectangular clerestory windows. The outer rooms, again, were higher than the veranda, and were lighted in the same way.
South of the house, and about thirty yards from it, was the bath-house — a rectangular building containing a swimming-bath about thirty feet long by twenty broad, enclosed on all sides by a wide platform, raised a few inches above the level of the water. The roof was supported partly on pillars which ran round the edge of the bath, and externally by a wall resting on brick arches which extended round the building on the outer edge of the platform; the spaces between the arches had been filled up with a brick wall seven feet high for the sake of privacy, leaving the space above open for circulation of air. The bath was supplied with water from a well adjacent to it on the south, worked ordinarily by bullocks and a Persian wheel. The platform of the bath-house was four feet above the ground, and was approached by a flight of steps on its north side, opposite the billiard-room veranda.
Such was the building which was now to be defended. Large, airy, and massive, and standing in its own grounds at a distance from other houses, one better adapted for defence could not have been found in India; and although the additional works improvised in the emergency were of a very simple kind, consisting mainly of the sandbag wall, which, as already described, had been erected round the outer edge of the verandas, the building presented a formidable obstacle against the attack of any enemy unprovided with guns. This sandbag parapet had been made seven feet high, with loopholes at a height of six feet from the ground. The portico had been enclosed in the same way, and gave a partial flanking defence to the north side of the building, while on the south side a similar advantage was more effectually given by the detached bath-house. Here no sandbag parapet was needed, the building being surrounded externally by a bullet-proof wall to the height of seven feet, in which loopholes had now been driven, while a sandbag parapet, erected on the circular rim of the well attached to the bath, brought this all-important element of the supplies within the line of defence. A trench of communication had been dug between the two buildings, the earth from which had been thrown up as a parapet on either side, but progress had been slow in the hard soil, and the trench was but a shallow one, forming imperfect cover. An opening left in the rampart of the south veranda gave access to this trench, a lane of sandbags leading to it down the steps. The landing at the top of the north flight of steps was also protected by a parapet, so as to cover the entrance to the guard and store rooms, an opening being left to give access to the portico. This completed the defenders' works, save that such of the numerous massive folding-doors as were not needed for communication about the building, and which usually stood open (privacy being secured by light hanging screens and curtains), were closed for the occasion. The strength of the building as thus set out was evidenced by the cautious manner in which the assailants had begun their attack.
The persons who had taken refuge in the building, and composed its garrison, were as follows: —
1°. Falkland, Sparrow, and two East-Indian clerks belonging to the residency office. To these must be added the American missionary, Mr. Jabez P. Hodder. This gentleman had been deaf to all the entreaties made him on the outbreak to leave the mission-house, which was in the heart of the city, and his wife had refused to leave her husband; and they had held their ground at the mission until the émeute in the city of the day before, when some of his native catechists had carried him and his wife away, almost by force, till they fell in with Falkland's party returning from their fruitless errand, and committed the steadfast pair to his charge.
2°. Brigadier Polwheedle, Captain Buxey, and Major Peart from the cantonment staff, and a Mr. Layton, who kept a general store in cantonments.
3°. Major Dumble and eight officers 76th N.I.
4°. Seven officers 80th N.I.
5°. Two officers 82d N.I., the survivors from the massacre of that regiment.
6°. Drs. Maxwell, residency surgeon, and Grumbull of the 76th N.I.
Total, thirty Europeans, of whom, however, the brigadier was not effective for work.
Of native combatants there were — the commissioner's jemadar. Ameer Khan, and four orderlies, and the seventeen faithful sepoys of the 76th, or twenty-two in all. Thus there were fifty-one effective combatants altogether.
Six of the commissioner's servants, including his old butler, were still present of those who had promised to stay, and one native groom had been retained in charge of the horses picketed under the portico.
The women were — Mrs. Falkland, Justine, Mrs. Polwheedle, Mrs. and Miss Peart, Mrs. Hodder, Mrs. O'Halloran, the newly-made widow of the unfortunate bazaar-sergeant, and Mrs. De Souza, the wife of one of Falkland's clerks. There were also Mrs. O'Halloran's two children. The only native female of the party was Olivia's ayah.
Altogether seventy souls were collected within the building.
Hitherto there had seemed to many of the European members of the community thus strangely collected together, a sort of unreality in the situation. They had heard of bloodshed and massacre in other places, but so far they had gone through no experience of actual violence. Even when they escaped from the cantonments, the flight took place at night; and although firing could be heard, they had seen no enemy, and were not actually molested. Since that time, although they had been huddled together in this enforced companionship, everything without had seemed perfectly quiet, and, save for their own disordered appearance, there was no sign of outrage or rebellion. Only last evening when they were strolling round the house in the dusk, to get a breath of fresh air, the park presented a scene of perfect peace and quiet, even the ordinary traffic on the road outside being suspended. Possibly, then, to some of the party it may have seemed as if either what had taken place in other parts of the country was a horrid dream, or else that a special good-fortune attended them, and that the worst in store for themselves would be the burden of a day or two passed in this way, in discomfort and on their guard, until the expected relief should arrive. But now, as the sound of rapid firing suddenly broke out around, and the quick patter of the bullets could be heard against the walls, the truth dawned upon these poor women that no special providence would shield them from the same horrors as had overtaken so many of their friends and fellow-countrywomen. For them, too, awful moments had come, when they were called on to face battle and murder and sudden death; and some of them, as they stood trembling in the great dining-room, might well think that the enemy were upon them, and their last moment had come, as they heard the tramp of feet hurrying up the stone stairs and into the outer hall.
It was the body of the garrison returning from the outside, and who now passed by them swiftly to reinforce their respective posts, giving as they went by in their excitement a hurried word or two of encouragement.
Every man's place had been assigned to him beforehand, and within a few seconds after the re-entry of the picket, the garrison was distributed in the appointed order, awaiting the attack.
The distribution of that force had been arranged as follows: —
The main guard of six Europeans and six sepoys was established in the portico under command of Captain Braddon. Major Passey commanded the bath-house picket, consisting of four Europeans and four natives. A party of four Europeans and three natives was posted in the east veranda, under Captain Underwood, the senior officer of the 80th; and another of the same strength, under Major Peart, in the west. Dumble, Buxey, and two other Europeans, with the two doctors and five sepoys, formed a reserve to reinforce whatever part might be necessary. This reserve was stationed in the anteroom or entrance-hall.
Yorke was attached to Falkland as his staff-officer, but his post when not required in that capacity was in the western veranda; and his heart beat high with excitement as he thought that his share in the struggle was, as it were, to guard Olivia's own room.
Falkland also kept his jemadar unattached, in personal attendance on himself.