The collector’s donnish affability vanished in an instant. He sprang up, seized the despatch from the babu, held it up close to the oil lamp on his desk and scanned its details with increasing dismay. ‘I knew it! I knew it! I’ve been warning for months but Fort George didn’t wish to hear!’
Hervey, on his feet now too, pressed him for details.
‘There are twenty villages along the Tiruvoor, probably ten thousand souls at the mercy of these devils. And there’s not a standing patrol in miles!’ He was railing so loud his bearer and khansamah came running.
‘What’s to be done?’ asked Hervey, having no notion of the proximity of the villages, and therefore of the predators.
‘What men are there in the garrison at present?’ said Somervile to the babu.
‘At present, sahib, there are being only one troop of cavalry. Infantry will not be returning inside of one week.’ His head rocked from side to side in the manner of babus offering news that might be disagreeable.
‘Very well then, be so good as to have it parade here at five tomorrow morning ready to take to the field. I shall ride with them myself: I wish to see at first hand the scale of these depredations.’
The babu took off his spectacles, made namaste and scurried from the room. Later he would tell his wife he had seen the collector in a rage, and she would not believe him, for the Collector of Guntoor had never been known to raise his voice. The meanest bondsman who had ever heard of his magistracy, or of his administration of land revenues, knew him to be of the purest fire and the most gentle, generous heart, and the most fastidious Brahman knew him to be of an intellect and sensibility no less remarkable.
And yet the collector’s gorge was now so risen that he could barely contain himself. He sank into his chair and struck the table with his fist, sending coffee cups spilling from their tray. ‘I dearly wish I could believe in your god, Captain Hervey, so that I might be assured that the fiends who inflicted such evils on their fellow humans would savour the same!’
Hervey poured a large glass of brandy and seltzer for him. ‘Do you have any objections to my accompanying you? And Mr Locke would, I know, wish to come too. As long as we may return within the week, for
‘No objection at all. I should be glad of it,’ said the collector, springing up again and searching the maps on his desk.
‘Locke will be the best of men in a fight,’ continued Hervey. ‘I’m glad his captain felt obliged to be so generous with leave.’
‘Yes,’ replied Somervile, having found the map he wanted. ‘Your Mr Locke is a good sort, though I regret there’ll be no need of his sword arm, for there won’t be a single Pindaree east of the Ghats by now.’ He sank down in his chair again and wiped a hand across his face. ‘I’ve been warning of it, I know; and yet I can hardly bring myself to believe it can have happened — that a native body has deliberately violated the territory of the Honourable East India Company, ravaged that which is under the Company’s protection’ (he took another large gulp of brandy), ‘plundered its villages, tortured and murdered native people under the dominion of the Company and, therefore, of His Majesty!’ He took out a large silk square and dabbed at his eyes.
Hervey tried to think of something that might help him regain his composure, but could not. ‘Somervile, I have not enquired before, since I formed the impression that it was Company business of a confidential nature,’ he tried, refilling both glasses and fixing him with a look that demanded serious attention, ‘but I should be very much obliged if you would tell me all that there is of the Pindarees.’
The collector paused a moment before laying aside the map. ‘Very well, I shall tell you all. And, I might add, if your Duke of Wellington were here I have not the slightest doubt that this would never have happened, for the policies which the previous governor-general pursued were too yielding, and the present one, though more vigorous, has yet to make his mark.’
‘Though he has subdued the Ghoorka tribes, I understand?’
‘I fear he was driven to it. I doubt he had any real appetite.’
Hervey was reassured that his principal was held in high regard by one official of the Company at least. ‘The Pindarees, then: what is their peculiar menace?’
The collector sat in his armchair again. ‘From the beginning? The Pindarees are a body — several bodies — of irregular horse who serve without pay and who have licence to plunder wheresoever they can: chiefly south of the Nerbudda river, in the territories of the nizam and the Rajah of Berar and the peshwa.’ He dabbed at his brow again and loosened his collar. ‘They originated — as far as we may know — a century and a half ago in the Dekhin, in the service of the Mughal rulers, but as Mughal power declined they transferred their services to the Marathas — against whom your duke fought with signal success a dozen years ago. As Maratha power declined in turn, the Pindarees have become even less disciplined and predictable.’ He emptied his brandy and seltzer, peered at the motionless geckoes for what seemed an age, and then resumed as they began their descent of the wall. ‘They’ve separated into three clans, each led by the most odious of men. These chiefs rarely themselves lead a plundering foray; rather they appoint sirdars. That band which has penetrated hereabouts is led, it seems, by one Bikhu Sayed, who is known for his especial insolence and depravity. I fear we shall see and hear things that will make the strongest stomachs turn.’
Hervey was confident of his stomach, but the notion of lawlessness on a regimented scale was wholly alien to him. ‘How many are they?’
‘The estimates are varied, but the best formulations are probably those of the Bengal office, which put the number of horse at twenty-five thousand. That is the figure which their spies estimated to have assembled at the Dasahara festival five years ago — the most reliable intelligence in our possession, if a little dated.’
‘And all these may operate as one body, with effect?’ asked Hervey, incredulous, for he knew that no such body of European cavalry had manoeuvred to advantage during his service.
‘Again, so little is known,’ said the collector, frowning. ‘Captain Sydenham, from the Bengal office, has estimated that only some six or seven thousand may be counted truly effective cavalry.’ He shrugged. ‘But there is a saying here: “What cares the ass or the bullock whether his load be made of flowers?” It matters little to a ryot whether the cavalry that has ravaged him is counted effective or ineffective.’
‘No, of course,’ Hervey agreed, ‘but it matters more if some operation to extirpate the menace is being contemplated.’
The collector sighed and nodded. ‘Forgive me. Indeed it does. I am too distressed at the knowledge of what these demons have done. That and the certain knowledge that there will be
Hervey wished profoundly that he might reassure him on that point: the duke, for sure, would not sit idly by once he was appointed to Fort William. ‘What does this incursion portend in the wider sense?’
‘Hah!’ said the collector, getting up and pouring yet another glass. ‘That is the very question which should most be exercising the minds of those at Fort St George and Fort William — ay, and in Bombay Castle too. There must be some great concerted action on the part of the three presidencies, else we shall never be able to continue our business unmolested. More immediately, I fear for the peace hereabouts since the Rajah of Nagpore has evidently been unable to prevent Bikhu Sayed from traversing his lands, and this will put Chintal in a most perilous position — squeezed by the nizam to their south and west, and by the Pindarees to their north and east. It bodes ill for trade along the Godavari river if Chintal declines into chaos.’
Tempting though it was to question him directly on Chintal, Hervey held himself in check, though they sat talking for an hour before the collector thought fit to retire. Hervey penned a brief note for Henry Locke and hoped he would return before dawn. When he turned in, he lay for a full half-hour trying to think how Somervile’s estimate might affect his mission. But beyond the obvious conclusion that it could not make things easier, he was at a loss. Perhaps Bazzard in Calcutta would have a clearer picture, though he was inclined to think not, for Colonel Grant had seemed to suggest he would be little more than a facilitator, a clearing office. Was that why Selden was so useful as a point of contact in Chintal? Not for the first time he began to feel the want of that fuller exposition which Grant had said was not necessary.
There were just the remains of the night’s chill in the air as dawn came to Guntoor. The first rays of the sun were quick to pick out the whitened, single-storey residences of the civil lines, the verandahs, where sat the chowkidars, becoming for a time darker pools as a consequence. Smoke was already rising from stoves and ovens behind each residence as bearers prepared chota hazree — tea and poori, or chapatti perhaps. The collector’s household had risen earlier this morning, however, and after a fuller breakfast — eggs and cold beef — Somervile, Hervey and Locke were now gathered in the carriage drive at the front. Birds sang in every quarter — not as many
