Athelstane Ford

I gazed at him in horror.

“Do you mean, Rupert, that you have really embraced that idolatrous sect?” I demanded.

“You need not look so scandalised, cousin,” he retorted. “In the first place you are quite wrong to call it idolatrous, images of every kind being strictly forbidden by the Alcoran. In the second place it is a very decent, respectable religion, as religions go, and extremely convenient for seafaring men who sometimes need an excuse for overhauling a Christian cargo.”

“Rupert Gurney,” I replied sternly, “you have within the hour brought me away out of prison, and for that I thank you. But I will neither listen to your blasphemous talk, nor suffer it, and rather than consent to do so I will go back to the place from which you took me but now.”

“Fair and softly, young Athelstane,” he answered grinning. “I see you are as fierce a Puritan as ever, and as I have lost the wish to quarrel with you I will endeavour to refrain from saying anything offensive to your delicacy. But do you, on your part, abstain from flying into a passion at every word that does not happen to sound to your liking; for patience is a virtue recommended, as I believe, by your religion as well as mine, and it seems to me that your stock of it is rather scant.”

I cannot say how deeply mortified I was by this rebuke, which, coming from one whose evil life I held in just detestation, wrought more conviction in me than all the sermons I had heard from good Mr. Peter Walpole of Norwich, when I was a boy. I discovered, as though by a flash of light, how unchristian was the temper I had too often shown in my dealings, not only with my cousin, but with other persons, and from that moment I set an earnest watch on myself in this respect.

Forcing myself to acknowledge my error at once, though much against the grain, I said —

“I ask your pardon, Rupert, if I spoke harshly. But let us leave these questions, and come to the business in hand. What of Marian, and how do you propose that we should effect her escape?”

He looked at me surprised.

“Why, Athelstane, my boy, give me your hand!” he exclaimed, in a more cordial tone than I had ever heard him use before. “Curse me if I don’t heartily wish we had never quarrelled!” I gave him my hand with some reluctance, and he proceeded. “You saw that garden which we passed on our way to this spot? The girl is detained a prisoner in one of the Nabob’s summer-houses which stand within it. I have found means to corrupt one of the eunuchs who is a friend of mine, and anxious to stand well with the English. For I must tell you, Athelstane, that all is not working smoothly in the government here. Surajah Dowlah, by his arrogance and violence, has made many enemies, among whom are his own uncle, Meer Jaffier, and Roy Dullub, the most important of the Gentoos. These men have a just apprehension of the vengeance which the English may take for the late invasion of their settlements, and moreover they stand in dread of the young Nabob’s reckless temper, sometimes bordering on insanity. So that we have more friends than we know of in the Court. This eunuch, then, as I was going to say, has agreed to introduce me into the garden to-night, in about an hour’s time through a small postern in the wall of which he has the key. He is going to conduct me to the summer-house where Marian is. There it may be necessary to use force to overpower the eunuchs in charge of the place, but if we succeed in doing that, as I think there is little doubt we shall, we have nothing to do but to carry her off and retire by the way we came. I have provided a safe retreat afterwards to the coast.”

I fell in heartily with this scheme, which seemed to present a tolerable chance of success. Rupert went on to explain to me the means by which he hoped that we might afterwards be able to pass through the country without being stopped. He proposed that we should give it out that we were a party of Mahometan pilgrims bound for the mouth of the river, to take ship for Mecca; and he told me he had three horses already hired, with a driver, waiting for us in a certain place. In order that this scheme might be carried through it was necessary that I should be disguised to pass for a Moor, like himself. He now produced from his bosom a brown pigment, such as he had already used with good enough success on his own complexion, and carefully stained the skin of my face, also my feet and hands.

“Remember, above all,” he said, while he was thus engaged, “if you would be taken for a Mahometan, never to wash your hands without washing your feet at the same time, for this custom is inveterate with them, and is, I think, the principal point of difference between the two religions.”

When he had finished, I asked —

“And now what shall I do for a suitable dress?”

For I was still clad in the garments of rough canvas which the Moors had given to us on the morning after our release from the Black Hole.

“By the Lord Harry, I don’t know what you can do!” cried Rupert. “I had overlooked that part of it. Unless you were to cut down one of these black rascals in the dark, and exchange suits with him?”

I declined to do what I thought would amount to committing a murder, although it were to be done upon an Indian; whereupon my cousin offered to kill the man, if I would wear the clothes. At last we agreed to procure the dress by peaceful means, if that should be possible, and set out on our return to the centre of the town.

Sure enough we had not gone a great way when we met a man of the city, a Gentoo, wearing a loose woollen robe and white turban, which we thought would pass, and which he agreed very easily to part with for five rupees. I offered him my canvas suit into the bargain, but this he rejected with disdain, on account of his religion, and walked off from us stark naked, but for a loin-cloth.

It was now time that we should repair to the meeting appointed by the eunuch. We found the postern without any difficulty, and as soon as my cousin had knocked twice in a peculiar manner the eunuch came and admitted us. This eunuch appeared to be a very civil, worthy person, very different to most of his kind, whom I have found to be full of spite and malice, and untrustworthy in all their dealings.

As soon as we were entered in the garden the eunuch conducted us through an orchard and down a grove of persimmons, to where there was a fountain, and close by it a square marble tank bordered by roses in white marble boxes. Here he left us for a moment, while he went forward to examine the summer-house, if there were any one stirring within. While we were waiting I took an interest in gazing at the clear water of the tank, and picturing the scene when the Nabob’s women came thither to bathe, as I heard was their daily custom.

Presently the eunuch returned, and beckoned to us.

“The Sahibs may go forward now,” he said. “The cage is shut and the birds are asleep.”

We followed him, and he brought us out upon an open space, and in the midst of it a small pavilion, like a temple, built in white stone or marble, in two storeys, very elegantly, with small pillars before it and a dome above, the whole covered over with fantastical designs of trees and flowers, curiously wrought in the stone.

The door of the pavilion was closed. In the upper storey I saw several lattices open, but no lights.

“What are we to do in the next place?” I asked of the eunuch.

He gave me an expressive look out of his black eyes, and silently delivered to me a scymetar which he carried.

“Let the Sahib knock, and when they who keep the door put forth their heads, let the Sahib strike them off,” he said, seeing me hesitate.

It had been well for us, as it turned out, if I had done as he bid me, for the squeamishness which we feel about shedding blood is not understood amongst Indians, and they despise us for it. However, before I could say anything further, my cousin stepped up to the door and knocked boldly.

There was a commotion inside. I drew my scymetar, and Rupert did the same. As soon as the door was unfastened from within, without waiting to parley, we flung ourselves through the opening, striking out blindly in the dark.

Instantly there went up a howl for mercy, and the eunuchs inside – for there were two of them, both well-armed – cast themselves down writhing on the floor, evidently in the expectation that they were immediately to be put to death. Rupert aimed a deadly blow at one of them, but I, like a fool, struck up his weapon.

“Stay,” I said, using the Gentoo language purposely that they might understand, “it may save us trouble to spare their lives, on condition that they strictly obey our instructions.”

The wretches hearing this, instantly broke into all sorts of grovelling entreaties and oaths of fidelity. Quite disgusted by their slavish cowardice, I said to them —

“Hold your tongues! You have in this house a prisoner, an Englishwoman, whom we have come to carry away. Let one of you go at once and bring her here.”

The eunuch furthest in from the door immediately leaped to his feet and made off down the passage. But Rupert, who knew more about these sort of creatures than I did at this time, strode after him, calling out —

“Stay! I will go with you!”

But the fellow, without turning his head, sprang up a narrow staircase at the end, and darting into the first room he came to above, slammed the door to, and had it fastened before Rupert could catch him up. In another moment we heard him yelling and squalling out of the window for assistance to come and take the murderers and ravishers that were broken into the garden.

My cousin came jumping down the stairs three steps at a time.

“This comes of your cursed softness!” he growled out savagely. “As though it were not a Christian act to cut the throats of as many of these hell-hounds as possible!”

He fetched a slash at the man who lay whining at our feet that nearly severed his head from his trunk.

“Now we must save ourselves if we can!” he muttered. And indeed it was time. The screams of the eunuch overhead had brought the whole place about our ears. As we stepped out of the pavilion again, we saw lights glittering through the trees all round us, and heard shouting and the running of feet. Our friendly eunuch had taken to flight, and we were left to extricate ourselves as best we could.

“We must not stay here or we shall be surrounded,” cried Rupert. “Which way is the gate?”

I strove to recollect, and then, taking what I thought to be the direction, we started off at a run.

Instantly that fiend who had betrayed us, leaning further out of the window to discover which way we fled, redoubled his cries. Looking back for a moment as we ran, I saw him pointing, and at the same time there was a movement of one of the other lattices, and I caught a glimpse of a white face and two hands thrust out with a despairing gesture, and knew that Marian was aware of our enterprise and that we had failed. Then the clamour on all sides grew louder, and men bearing lanterns and armed with swords and matchlocks burst out from the trees around the pavilion, and ran hither and thither, some towards the building, others searching for our track.

We ran like deer, bending down so as not to be seen, and dodging in among the trees and bushes. By this means we preserved ourselves from immediate capture, but soon missed our way, and found ourselves wandering about in the garden, stealing from one patch of cover to another; while every now and then a party of our pursuers would go past, so close that we could hear them speak, and see the sparks of lantern-light drip off the naked blades of their weapons as they thrust them into the bushes.

After several close escapes of this kind, when we at last stumbled on the postern, more by luck than skill, we found it barred and locked, and the key removed. Before we could decide what next to do, on a sudden a party of four gigantic blacks burst out upon us, brandishing their weapons at our heads and calling on us, by all manner of filthy names, to surrender. I believe they expected us to prove an easy prey, but I was now grown desperate, and rushed so fiercely on him that came first and carried a lantern, that I fairly bore him to earth at the first shock. And when I looked round for another I found all three in full flight, one of them leaving his right hand behind, which Rupert had managed to slice off at the wrist with the first blow. They ran for their lives, shouting out that they had to do with two demons from the pit. Rupert, seeing the man I had struck down move, stepped over to him, quite cool, drew his blade across the poor wretch’s throat, and wiped it on his turban. After this we lost no time in shifting our ground before the rest of the pursuers came up.

With the chase so hot after us, it had become plain that we must be taken before long, unless we could hit upon some means of escaping from the garden. In this strait I bethought myself of the trees whose boughs I had noticed from outside overhanging the wall, when we passed it earlier that night. I reminded Rupert of this, who exclaimed joyfully —

“Well done, cousin, I declare you have saved us now! I believe I can find that part of the garden easily enough, when it will be a simple matter to climb the trees and drop down on the other side of the wall.”

We set out at once, Rupert leading the way, and turning from side to side as we heard the Moors shouting after us. They now felt pretty sure of our whereabouts, and began discharging their pieces where we went, so that the balls tore the leaves off the trees all round us, but luckily without doing us any damage. We arrived at the wall, and seeing a tree suitable for our purpose, made for it, but just as we reached it one of those black rascals we had put to flight espied us. He raised the cry, and instantly we found ourselves surrounded by the whole band, at least twenty of them rushing at us out of the dark, and all with the most murderous looks I have ever seen.

I now gave up all for lost, and planting myself with my back against the tree prepared to sell my life dear. Not so Rupert, who was already off the ground, climbing like a cat up the smooth trunk. He was out of sight among the branches directly, and in another minute would have been safely over the wall, when at a signal from their leader, about a dozen of the Moors who had firearms discharged them all together into the tree. I heard a groan and a sound of scrambling above, and presently Rupert dropped, falling heavily straight on to the ground, where he lay quite still.

When I saw what had happened, I abandoned all further thoughts of resistance, and throwing away my weapon bade them do what they would with me. Even then, so great was the awe we had struck into them, that they advanced slowly, narrowing their circle all round, till at length the foremost took courage to lay his hand on my shoulder. They then led me away, jabbering the most horrid threats in my ear, while others picked up my unfortunate cousin, and carried him after, groaning miserably.