The Sabre's Edge

friends as here - an unpardonable indiscipline. But I may tell you that I have today sent Durjan Sal a letter laying out the general extent of our preparations, the hopelessness, therefore, of his position, and calling on his surrender of the fortress - upon generous terms, I might add, to his own person. But if he should refuse the terms -and I do not believe, gentlemen, that he will - I have laid upon him other wholly reasonable terms for the laisser aller of the women and children of the fortress, who must otherwise, I fear, suffer grievously soon from our mortars and when the assault itself begins.'

'Hear, hear!' said Sir Ivo, tapping the table with his palm.

With the third tap there was a huge, distant explosion. Combermere looked puzzled rather than troubled. Hervey felt a wrench at his gut, which might not have been as great had he been forward, as Armstrong. He made to rise. 'If you would excuse me, my lord . . .'

He did not wait for a reply. In any case, he was field officer of the day. He left the marquee, straining for his night vision, but it was not necessary. Flames and more explosions from the direction of Buldeo Singh's garden confirmed the worst. He raced to the charger lines, stumbling two or three times, and called out for saddle and bridle. Much fumbling and cursing followed before he was able to mount and leave camp - alone and at greater speed than any would have thought prudent in the direst of alarms. But it still took him a quarter of an hour to reach the garden.

As he neared the earthworks behind the engineer park, he could see quite clearly, for it looked as though everything combustible was alight, and blazing with a great noise punctuated by more explosions. It was at once obvious what had happened. There had been a single explosion - occasioned how, it did not matter - and then the fires had spread like ripples in a pond as successive explosions sent burning residue on a search for something else to ignite - charges for the guns, torpedoes, carcasses, rockets. And that initial explosion, massive as it was, could have been only one thing: ten thousand pounds of corned powder.

Gilbert stood the explosions well, neither did he shy from the flames. But Hervey would not take him any closer. He looked round for a horse-holder. Men were running everywhere, white and sepoy, equally dazed, but he could see no one into whose hands he could place the reins, and there was nowhere to tie a horse. He wished he'd a spancel, or even something to fashion one with. Instead, he knotted the reins and slid from the saddle, patted Gilbert's shoulder and said, 'Stay there' - as hopeless an arrangement as it was a command.

He ran through the park and into the zigzag, but he couldn't get through for sepoys carrying out the wounded. He climbed out of the trench and over the breastworks, but he couldn't see beyond the battery for there was so much flame. And all the time the noise - like a roaring wind and cannonade.

He turned back to go to the mouth of the tunnel. There was yet another explosion and he felt the air punched out of him as surely as if he had been struck by a pug. He hit the ground hard. His forage cap was gone, and his crossbelt was round his neck. He cursed loud and long, but he was not hurt.

He picked himself up, gave up the search for his cap and climbed back down into the trench. The flow was now against him again, as sappers in good order doubled through towards the battery. He flattened himself against the trench wall to let them pass, then rushed through the zigzag and out through the park to find the other way into the tunnel workings. Gilbert was standing where he had left him, head up.

'Ello, sir,' said Corporal Stray, changing hands with the reins in order to salute.

'Where's the sar'nt-major?'

'E's gone lookin' for yer, sir,' said Stray, as if the affair was nothing more than a night in the feringhee bazaar. 'We came across yer 'orse. T' serjeant-major were worried.'

'He was worried! It sounded as if an arsenal had blown up in camp. Was it the tunnel?'

'I don't think so, sir.'

'So you weren't in it at the time?'

'Oh ay, sir, we were in it. On us way out. But I don't think it were that.'

Corporal Stray's phlegmatic disposition - indeed, his utter and habitual indifference to all about him - was a byword throughout the regiment. Even so, Hervey found it difficult to credit with a siege battery and an engineer park blowing themselves to oblivion close by. Yet so relieved was he at learning that Armstrong was alive that he smiled and shook his head.

'Would yer like a wet, sir?' said Stray, holding out a flask.

Hervey had had more than his fill of champagne and claret - and port - but he felt a powerful need of the medicinal properties of Stray's flask. He took a good draw. 'This fell from the back of your hackery, I suppose?' He smiled again.

'Ullage, sir, we calls it in the trade.'

'There were no bloody ullage in my establishment, Corporal Stray!' came the serjeant-major's voice. 'Good evening, sir,^’ he added, throwing up a sharp salute. 'I heard the officers were dining with Lord Combermere?^’

‘I heard the sound of ten thousand pounds of powder, Sar^’nt-Major. I think we should have a word.^’ He handed the flask back to Stray. 'Hold on to him a little longer, if you please, Corporal,^’ he said portentously, and then led Armstrong into the shadows.

'I know what you're going to say,^’ said Armstrong once they were out of earshot.

'Well then?^’

'I can't slip the lead-rope now. Not just as they're coming to the end.'

'It seems to me that's a very good reason. Are you telling me they can't complete the tunnel without you?'

'No, I wouldn't say that. I just think they'll do it better if I'm there. And I want to see it through an' all.'

Hervey sighed. 'Look, Geordie; you're exposing yourself to unnecessary hazard. You've already had one very lucky escape, and tonight looks like a second.'

'Aw, come on sir! What are we supposed to be about, then?'

That was not the point, Hervey knew, but it was the point on which Armstrong was going to dig in his heels. 'I could say that you were E Troop's serjeant-major for one thing.'

'And you'd know that I knew that Collins were doing it fine. And good for him to do it, too.^’ He put a hand on Hervey's shoulder. 'Sir, I know what this is all about, and I'm grateful. But I'd rather stay, and I^’m sure you wouldn't just resort to ordering me to leave!'

'I ought to, Sar'nt-Major. I really ought to.'

No you oughtn't, sir. And you oughtn't to concern yourself another minute. Jack Armstrong's not going to 'ave 'is 'ead blown off by owt in these kegs,' he insisted, gesturing with a thumb to the engineer park behind. 'Yon Stray's kegs'll be a sight more trouble to me when we're done!'

CHAPTER TWENTY

THE STORM

Ten days later

Camp before Bhurtpore 17th January 1826

My Dear Somervile,

You will forgive me for having left these several weeks empty of any communication, and it is not as if by that you might rightly infer that I have been so engaged as to exclude aught else, for the last weeks especially, though not without incident, have been but a trial of labouring and waiting. Rather, I hesitated in placing on paper anything which, were it not to reach you, might be of material advantage to the enemies of the Company and its officers.

All the preparations are now made for the storming of The Pride of Hindoostan. And in this I must tell you of the part which our Corps has played of late, for besides the seizing of the jheels, whose possession has kept the ditches dry before us, it has fallen to no less a man than Sjt. Major Armstrong, together with a detachment of dragoons, to drive a gallery at great length - greater, indeed, than the Engineers had thought feasible - under the strongest part of the enemy's citadel, and this is now light-packed with not less than ten thousand pounds of powder. It shall be sprung at Eight o'clock in the morning, tomorrow, and shall be the signal for the storming of the fortress in as many as six places. Armstrong's exertions, and his devotion to duty, have been without equal. He has