페이지 이미지
PDF
ePub

up; for the moment they were compelled to leave the road, and toil through the ploughed fields, their advance became slow, and very laborious.

Havelock, whose blood was now up, determined not to delay his advance till they could be brought forward, and forming line, moved down on the enemy. Three guns posted behind an intrenched hamlet, kept up a galling fire, and Havelock resolved, as he could not silence, to take them. He had long wished to "develop the prowess of the 78th Highlanders," and galloping up he ordered them to advance and take that battery. The brave fellows, led by Col. Hamilton, moved off with a smile on their countenances, while the eyes of the whole army became fixed upon them. Over the ploughed fields and broken ground, "with sloped arms and measured tread, the rear rank locked up as if on parade;" they swept on like a dark and resistless wave-scorning the iron storms that smote them and closing up their rent ranks with stern composure. They kept on their terrible way in dead silence-not a shot, not a shout-till within a hundred yards of the battery, when the word "charge " ran along their unfaltering lines. With one loud, thrilling cheer, they then dashed forward, the pipes sounding the pibroch. Roused by the wild, shrill scream of their native pipes, they rushed over the mound, over the battery-treading everything down in their passage.

The left wing then pushed forward towards another village, and captured more guns. Every where now over the field, the enemy was in full

[graphic][merged small][ocr errors]

STORMS A VILLAGE.

261

retreat, and the artillery not having yet arrived, a halt was made to wait for it to come up. When the troops had once more rejoined, Havelock was told that the enemy had reoccupied a village sheltered by groves of mangoes, about a mile distant from the cantonment of Cawnpore, from which they had been reinforced. He immediately advanced, but, in passing around it, became exposed to a severe fire. Shifting his ground, he again halted to wait for the artillery, which was working its way bravely forward. But in the meantime the enemy concentrated their fire on his new position, which· soon became so hot and destructive that Havelock grew impatient, and resolved not to wait for his guns any longer; and riding along the lines, he, in "the clear tones of his peculiar voice," roused to the highest pitch the courage of his exhausted troops, and as he came up to the Highlanders and the 64th, said "Come, who'll take this village, the Highlanders or the 64th?" Away went the Highlanders, sweeping the village like a storm. The line then advanced, when they suddenly came upon a 24-pounder, which commanded the entire road, while a new and fresh body of mutineers, with a numerous cavalry, making a horrible din with their large drums and bugles, swept in a semicircle around them. Havelock, who seemed endowed with ubiquity, so constantly present was he in every part of the field, no sooner saw the village carried than he galloped back to look after his wearied artillery forces in the rear.

In the meantime the enemy's guns began to play

with deadly effect on the infantry, compelling them tc lie down for protection. These did not number probably over 900 men, and without artillery or cavalry, lay embraced in a semicircle by an apparently overwhelming force. That 24 pounder kept sending its heavy shot among them, and the entire field was so completely swept by the enemy's guns that they dared not rise. Twilight had now settled on the plain, and the brave troops who had almost won the day, seemed about to be totally overwhelmed. Encouraged by their advantage, and the apparent terror of their enemies, the rebels, with drums and trumpets, sounded the advance in rapid succession, while enveloping squadrons of cavalry swept round in the form of a crescent. A deadly encounter was close at hand, and yet, for the first time, a fatal vacillation seemed to have seized the British troops. At that critical moment, Havelock, who had just had a horse shot under him, came boldly riding on a hack, the only man who dared show his head upon the field. Galloping unmoved through the fire, he shouted, in that calm, encouraging voice, which always inspires troops with confidence: "Get up, my lads, and take those guns." Doubt, fear, vacillation, all vanished at once. Those brave men only wanted the presence of their glorious leader, and springing to their feet, they gave a shout, that drowned for a moment the blasts of the enemy's bugles.

Young Havelock spurred forward, and wheeling his horse in front of the 64th, planted himself directly in front of the 24-pounder. At a foot pace, with his eye fixed steadily on the deadly gun, that

« 이전계속 »