With Clive in India; Or, The Beginnings of an Empire

Tim and Charlie remained perfectly quiet. Again the sentry challenged. Then there was a long silence. The sentry probably was unwilling to rouse the place by a false alarm, and the splash might have been caused by the fall of a piece of decayed stone from the face of the wall.

"Tim, you clumsy fellow," whispered Charlie, "you nearly spoiled all."

"Shure, yer honor, I was kilt entirely, and my arms were pulled out of my sockets. Holy Mother, who'd have thought 'twould be so difficult to come down a rope! The sailors are great men, entirely."

"Now, Tim, lie quiet. I will turn you on your back, and swim across with you."

The moat was some twenty yards wide. Charlie swam across, towing Tim after him, and taking the greatest pains to avoid making the slightest splash. The opposite side was of stonework, and rose six feet above the water. As soon as they touched the wall, a stout rope was lowered to them.

"Now, Tim, you climb up first."

"Is it climb up, yer honor? I couldn't do it, if it was to save my sowl. My arms are gone altogether, and I'm as weak as a child.

"You go, Mister Charles. I'll hould on by the rope till morning. They can but shoot me."

"Nonsense, Tim! Here, I will fasten the rope round your body. Then I will climb up, and we will pull you up after me."

In another minute, Charlie stood on the bank, and grasped the hand of his faithful follower. Hossein threw himself on his knees, and pressed his master to him. Then he rose and, at a word from Charlie, they hauled Tim to the top. The rope was taken off him and, noiselessly, they made their way across the country. Not a word was spoken, till they were at a considerable distance from the fort.

"Where are you taking us, Hossein?" Charlie asked, at last.

"I have two peasants' dresses, in a deserted cottage a quarter of a mile away."

Not another word was spoken, until they reached the hut, which stood at the end of a small village. When they had entered this, Charlie first thanked, in the warmest terms, his follower for having rescued them.

"My life is my lord's," Hossein answered simply. "He gave it me. It is his again, whenever it is useful to him."

"No, Hossein, the balance is all on your side, now. You saved my life that night at Ambur. You saved it that night at Calcutta, for, without the water you brought us, I question whether we could have lived till morning. Now you have procured our freedom. The debt is all on my side now, my friend."

"Hossein is glad that his lord is content," the Mohammedan murmured. "Now, what will my lord do?"

"Have you any place in the town to which we could go, Hossein?"

"Yes, Sahib. I hired a little house. I was dressed as a trader. I have been here for two months, but I could not find where you were confined, although I have tried all means, until I saw your cap."

"It was foolish of me not to have thought of it before," Charlie said. "Well, Hossein, for a little time we had better take refuge in your house. They will not think of searching in the city; and, as Calcutta is in their hands, there is nowhere we could go. Besides, I must discover, if possible, where Miss Haines is kept a prisoner; and rescue her, if it can be done."

"The white girl is in the zenana of Rajah Dulab Ram," Hossein replied.

"Where is the rajah's palace?"

"He has one in the city, one at Ajervam, twenty miles from here. I do not know at which she is lodged."

"We must find that out presently," Charlie said. "It is something to know she is in one of two houses.

"Now, about getting back into the town?"

"I have thought of that," Hossein said. "I have bought a quantity of plantains, and two large baskets. After the gates are opened, you will go boldly in with the baskets on your heads. No questions are asked of the country people who go in and out. I have some stain here, which will darken your skins.

"I will go in first in my merchant's dress, which I have here. I will stop a little way inside the gate, and when I see you coming, will walk on. Do you follow me, a little behind. My house is in a quiet street. When I reach the door, do you come up and offer to sell me plantains. If there are people about, I shall bargain with you until I see that no one is noticing us. Then you can enter. If none are about, you can follow me straight in."

Hossein now set about the disguises. A light was struck, and both Tim and Charlie were shaved, up to the line which the turban would cover. Charlie's whiskers, which were somewhat faint, as he was still under twenty-one years old, gave but little trouble. Tim, however, grumbled at parting with his much more bushy appendages. The shaven part of the heads, necks, and faces were then rubbed with a dark fluid, as were the arms and legs.

They were next wrapped in dark blue clothes, in peasant fashion, and turbans wound round their heads. Hossein then, examining them critically, announced that they would pass muster anywhere.

"I feel mighty quare," Tim exclaimed; "and it seems to me downright ondacent, to be walking about with my naked legs."

Charlie laughed.

"Why, Tim, you are accustomed to see thousands of men, every day, with nothing on but a loincloth."

"Yes, yer honor, but then they're hathens, and it seems natural for them to do so; but for a dacent boy to go walking about in the streets, with a thing on which covers no more than his shirt, is onnatural altogether. Mother of Moses, what a shindy there would be, in the streets of Cork, if I were to show myself in such a state!"

Charlie now lay down for a sleep till morning; while Tim, who had had three hours' repose, settled himself for a comfortable chat with Hossein, to whom sleep appeared altogether unnecessary.

Between Hossein and Tim there was a sort of brotherly attachment, arising from their mutual love of their master. During the two years which Tim had spent apart from all Europeans, save Charlie, he had contrived to pick up enough of the language to make himself fairly intelligible; and, since the day when Hossein had saved Charlie's life at Ambur, the warmest friendship had sprung up between the good-humoured and warm-hearted Irishman, and the silent and devoted Mohammedan.

Tim's friendship even extended so far as to induce a toleration of Hossein's religion. He had come to the conclusion that a man who, at stated times in the day, would leave his employment, whatever it might be, spread his carpet, and be for some minutes lost in prayer, could not be altogether a hathen; especially when he learned, from Charlie, that the Mohammedans, like ourselves, worship one God. For the sake of his friend, then, he now generally excluded the Mohammedans from the general designation of heathen, which he still applied to the Hindoos.

He learned from Hossein that the latter, having observed from a distance the Europeans driven into the cell at Calcutta, perceived at once how fatal the consequences would be. He had, an hour or two after they were confined there, approached with some water, but the officer on guard had refused to let him give it. He had then gone into the native town, but being unable to find any fruit there, had walked out to the gardens, and had picked a large basketful. This he had brought as an offering to the officer, and the latter had then consented to his giving one bowl of water to the prisoners, among whom, as he had told him, was his master. For bringing a second bowl, contrary to his orders, Hossein had, as Tim saw, been struck down; but had the satisfaction of believing that his master, and Tim, had derived some benefit from his effort.

On the following morning, to his delight, he saw them issue among the few survivors from the dungeon; and had, when they were taken up the country, followed close behind them, arriving at the town on the same day as themselves. He had, ever since, been wandering round the prison. He had taken a house, so close to it that he could keep a watch on all the windows facing the town; and had, day after day, kept his eyes fixed upon these without success. He had, at last, found out from one of the soldiers that the white prisoners were confined on the other side of the prison; but until he saw Charlie's cap, he had been unable to discover the room in which they were confined.

In the morning, they started for the town. Groups of peasants were already making their way towards the gate, with fruit and grain; and, keeping near one of these parties, while sufficiently distant to prevent the chance of their being addressed, Charlie and Tim made their way to the gate; the latter suffering acutely, in his mind, from the impropriety of his attire.

No questions were asked, as they passed the guard. They at once perceived Hossein, standing a little way off, and followed him through the busy streets. They soon turned off into a quieter quarter, and stopped at a house, in a street in which scarcely anyone was stirring. Hossein glanced round, as he opened the door, and beckoned to them to enter at once. This they did, and were glad, indeed, to set down the heavy baskets of plantains.

"My lord's room is upstairs," Hossein said, and led the way to a comfortably furnished apartment. "I think that you might stay here, for months, unsuspected. A sweeper comes, every day, to do my rooms downstairs. He believes the rest of the house to be untenanted, and you must remain perfectly quiet, during the half hour he is here. Otherwise, no one enters the house but myself."

Hossein soon set to work, and prepared an excellent breakfast. Then he left them, saying that he would now devote himself to finding out whether the young white lady was in the town palace of the rajah. He returned in the afternoon.

"She is here, Sahib," he said. "I got into conversation with one of the retainers of the rajah; and by giving him some wonderful bargains, in Delhi jewelry, succeeded in opening his lips. I dare not question him too closely, but I am to meet him tomorrow, to show him some more silver bracelets."

"It is fortunate, Hossein, that you have some money, for neither Tim nor I have a rupee."

"Thanks to the generosity of my lord," Hossein said, "I am well supplied."

The next day, Hossein discovered that the windows of the zenana were at the back of the palace, looking into the large garden.

"I hear, however," he said, "that the ladies of the zenana are, next week, going to the rajah's other palace. The ladies will, of course, travel in palanquins; but upon the road I might get to talk with one of the waiting women, and might bribe her to pass a note into the hands of the white lady."

"I suppose they will have a guard with them, Hossein?"

"Surely, a strong guard," Hossein answered.

The time passed, until the day came for the departure of the rajah's zenana. Charlie wrote a note, as follows:

"My dear Ada,