hide his dislike of India and every native that lives here. If he was placed in charge of the Nizam’s army I fear we would be at war with the Nizam before the first day’s march was out.’ Harris leaned forward and looked closely at Arthur. ‘You, on the other hand, have precisely the qualities needed for the job: patience, diligence and integrity. I’ve been a soldier long enough to know that you are rather more than a cut above most officers, Colonel Wellesley. That this is so evident to others may well be more of a curse than a boon to you. I am well aware that many officers in this army are inclined to believe the worst of you, simply because you are Mornington’s brother and a better man than the rest of them. Another general might have used that as an excuse to hold you back.’ Harris’s smile returned. ‘But I am not another general. I’m a general with a war to fight and win, and everything is subordinate to the bloody defeat and destruction of my enemy, no matter whose feelings I have to hurt.’
Arthur grinned. ‘Thank you, sir. I won’t let you down.’
‘You had better not,’ Harris said seriously.‘This is your chance to do great things,Wellesley.You richly deserve it. But if you fail, there will never again be an opportunity like this.You will ruin yourself utterly, and in doing so you will fail your brother, and fatally damage his chances for greatness along with yours.’
‘Why, sir? Any mistakes I make are surely my own.’
‘No,’ Harris said sadly.‘That is not how it works. By taking this command you lay yourself open to charges of nepotism. If you succeed, men will only think that if you could have done it, then so could any man. If you fail, then men will say you were unfit for the task, and that your brother put family above country, and for that there is no forgiveness or pity.’
Arthur pondered this for a while, and then he nodded. ‘I understand. And I accept the position willingly.’
‘You accept?’ Harris looked bemused.‘There is no question of your accepting the position. It is an order.’
Arthur laughed. ‘Yes, sir.’
Chapter 47
The army advanced along the Baramahal valley, which led west from Amboor. The floor of the valley was wide and flat and dotted with small low-rising groves of trees, or topes, so that the army made good progress. Arthur’s column marched on the left, three miles from Harris. In between the two forces sprawled the vast train of
In the morning the sepoys used straw to light the morning fires, and fuelled the fires with cow dung that filled the air with its rich cloying odour. The shrill chatter of the women camp followers rose up on all sides as they hurriedly prepared a morning meal for their families, and then packed their belongings for the day’s trek to the next camp.
Arthur regarded the apparent chaos of the camp with a degree of tolerance, since the writ of British military discipline extended only to the 33rd Foot and the six Company sepoy battalions. The rest were native levies with their own customs. The men of the 33rd were enjoying the status of being the elite formation in such a large force and marched with a swagger that pleased their colonel greatly. When the time came to fight they would inspire the other battalions and the Nizam’s men to hold their places in the line.
When they reached the Ryacotta pass the wagons and guns ascended the slope on the road prepared for them by Harris’s engineers, while the infantry and camp followers climbed over the broken ground on either side. Once through the eastern ghats the army was in the territory of Mysore and at once small groups of enemy horsemen began to shadow the columns. Tipoo’s strategy was apparent the moment the army approached Kellamungallam. A huge pall of smoke hung over the remains of the city. Vast swaths of buildings had been burned and the defences pulled down or blown up. Beyond the city the route before General Harris’s army had been torched.
‘Tipoo has clearly decided to pull his soldiers back to defend Seringapatam,’ General Harris concluded, as he addressed his senior officers once the army had camped a short distance from the charred ruins of Kellamungallam.‘He aims to lure us through his lands, denying us forage on the way, in the hope that we will fail to lay siege to his capital for long enough to take it, just as Cornwallis failed the last time a British army attempted to defeat Mysore.’
Baird interrupted. ‘And what will make our attempt succeed where Cornwallis failed, sir?’
‘I was coming to that. Or rather, I was about to ask Colonel Wellesley to outline the progress of the campaign from this point, since he and his staff were largely responsible for the plan. Colonel?’
‘Thank you, sir.’ Arthur stood up and paused a moment to collect his thoughts before he spoke. It still felt strange to be addressing a gathering of senior officers, most of whom were his superiors and older and more experienced than he was. Yet he did not doubt himself, since every possible contingency had been considered when the campaign was still in its planning stage. He cleared his throat. ‘Tipoo knows that he would be defeated if he risked a pitched battle against us. So he has adopted the strategy of trying to starve our draught animals. I’ve spoken to the
‘Thank you, Colonel.’ General Harris gestured to him to resume his seat. ‘From now on, gentlemen, the enemy will be surrounding us. It is our duty to make sure we do not present him with the smallest opportunity to wreck our enterprise.’
The advance continued steadily through Mysore, over the ground that Tipoo’s men had burned, until late in the month, when Harris ordered the army to turn south-west and make directly for Seringapatam.Within a few miles they moved out of the belt of destruction and into country where there was abundant forage. The sudden change in direction threw off the harassing parties of enemy horsemen and it was two days before they were sighted again. After their early losses the enemy kept their distance and made no attempt to close with Arthur’s column.There was no sign of any of Tipoo’s infantry or artillery and it seemed to Arthur that these must be waiting in the enemy capital to repulse the British army when it finally laid siege to the city.
For four days the army marched towards Seringapatam, along a road hemmed in by dense jungle interspersed with flat country thickly dotted with clumps of trees. As his column advanced Arthur was constantly on the watch for signs of the enemy. This was the kind of country where Tipoo’s men could hold up the British army with ease. Long enough to prevent them from reaching and taking Seringapatam before the monsoon season struck. But there were no ambushes, no attacks of any kind, and the army continued its march without interruption until it approached the large village of Malavalley late one afternoon.
The jungle had given way to land that was largely clear of trees. Arthur was riding near the head of his column when he heard the dull thud of distant guns, and a moment later a divot of earth flew into the air some distance beyond his foremost troops. Spurring Diomed forward he drew out his telescope and trained it on the low hills on the far side of Malavalley.The puffs of smoke that hung in the still air gave away the enemy artillery positions. As Arthur turned his attention to the enemy guns he saw dense formations of infantry on the slope below the guns and, on the top of the hill, the unmistakable shapes of elephants.
He lowered his telescope and pulled out his pocket watch. If Tipoo’s forces stood their ground there was still time to attack them before the day was out. He turned to his small group of staff officers. ‘Lieutenant Beaumont!’
‘Sir?’
‘Ride to General Harris and tell him that I have sighted the enemy. He may have reports of the sighting from his own men by the time you arrive, but tell him that I respectfully suggest that we attack the enemy at once, before they withdraw under cover of night.’
