Pillage.—Military surveying.—Tippoo Saib.—His armour and mantle.—Tippoo’s treachery.—Seringapatam attacked by British and native troops, commanded by Major-General Baird.—Colonels Dunlop and Sherbrooke.—A shot breaks the chain of the draw-bridge.—Terrible carnage.—Tippoo Saib killed.—Seringapatam taken.—The storming of Ghuznee.—The forlorn hope.—The gate of the fortress blown in.—Colonel Dennie leads on the stormers.—The mistake.—A retreat sounded.—Brigadier Sale advances.—Desperate struggle.—The place taken.

“You have been told, boys, of a blockade, a bombardment, and a siege, and now you shall 156have a storming party, which is one of the most desperate of military undertakings. Pity it is that there should ever be occasion to resort to it, for pillage and plunder never yet made a good soldier, though they are thought of more than they ought to be. A soldier should never step out in disgrace, nor halt in the march of duty. If there be one thing more than another that I abhor, it is pillage and plunder.”

“Do the soldiers when they storm a place plunder, and do what they like?”

“It has been too common a thing in war, to promise the soldiers a few days’ pillage before they storm a place, to hearten them on; and they are not backward to profit by the opportunity. Some on these occasions act a brutal part; but there are men in the army whose hearts are unhardened by their profession, and whose generous dispositions move them more to clemency than cruelty. War has horrors enough, without adding to its evils by selfish and reckless cruelty and brutality. The soldier, whether he carries a musket, or wears epaulettes on his shoulders, who, fired with revenge and flushed with victory, stains his blade with the blood of a vanquished enemy, or ill-uses fear-struck and defenceless woman, is a ruffian, and not worthy to be called a man. He may think lightly of the curse of a dying husband or brother; he may turn into mirth the clasped hands and weeping eyes of injured innocence, 157but the artillery of Heaven will roar in his ears in an unlooked-for hour, and its thunders will be directed against his heart;—but I forget that you are waiting to hear of a storming party. I have been present at some, and have heard a description of many. I will tell you, first, of the storming of Seringapatam in India, in the year 1799, and then of the storming of Ghuznee, in Persia, a year or two ago.”

“Now, then, for the storming of Seringapatam.”

“I should have mentioned to you, that one part of the duty of a commander, especially when the seat of war is but imperfectly known, is to take care that military surveying is not neglected.”

“What do you mean by military surveying?”

“The art of military surveying, is to represent on paper the features of a country, that the operations of the service may be carried on with less difficulty, and more effect. If the commander of an army, or of a smaller force, is unacquainted with the country or neighbourhood in which he is, it will be necessary to reconnoitre it, for a knowledge of hills, woods, rivers, and brooks, as well as that of the force and position of the enemy. Military surveying is much the same as reconnoitering, only the latter is done rapidly with the naked eye, the former with instruments, and with greater care. But, I am forgetting the storming of Seringapatam.”

“We are quite ready to hear all about it.”

158“In storming a place, in order to insure success, it is necessary to act scrupulously according to orders given; moving a minute before or after the proper time may endanger the whole enterprise. I will read you the Order under which the fifth regiment acted on the night of the 19th of January 1812, in the great breach, by the third division, at the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo.

“‘ORDER.

“‘The fifth regiment will attack the entrance of the ditch, at the junction of the counterscarpe with the main wall of the place. Major Sturgeon will show them the point of attack. They must issue from the right of the convent of Santa Cruz. They must have twelve axes, in order to cut down the gate by which the ditch is entered at the junction of the counterscarpe with the body of the place. The fifth regiment is likewise to have twelve scaling ladders, twenty-five feet long, and immediately on entering the ditch are to scale the fausse braye, in order to clear it of the enemy’s parties on their left, towards the principal breach. It will throw over any guns it may meet with, and will proceed along the fausse braye, where it will wait until Major-General Mackinnon’s column has passed on to the main attack, when it will follow in its rear. This regiment will make its attack at ten minutes before eleven o’clock. The seventy-seventh regiment 159will be in reserve on the right of the convent of Santa Cruz.’

“You see by this Order how necessary it is to be scrupulously exact in a storm. The capture of Seringapatam, the capital of the Mysore country, was, to the East India Company, an object of great importance, and the storming of the place was executed with great boldness. That Tippoo Saib was a treacherous and cruel tyrant there can be little doubt; and, if you have ever visited the museum of the East India House, you have seen a proof of his ferocity.”

“We have never been there. What is it that you mean?”

“There is in the museum a musical instrument that was made for Tippoo Saib. It is a kind of organ, and when the handle of it is turned round a tiger leaps on a prostrate British soldier, to tear him to pieces. The piteous cries of the soldier, and the savage yell of the tiger, afforded the tyrant much amusement.”

“Then he must have been a cruel savage, sure enough. We should like to see the museum.”

“There are many things in it which were taken from Tippoo, and among them his silken banners, decorated with the blazing sun, rent and torn by the storm of battle; his helm, his armour, and his mantle. His helmet is made of brass, with a silk covering, and his mantle has on it an inscription, 160written in Persian, which says that it had been dipped in the holy well at Mecca, and rendered invulnerable.”

“We shall, perhaps, see the India House Museum some day, and we shall be sure to look for the tiger and the soldier.”

“Tippoo Saib was the son of Hyder Ally; but he was much bolder and much more cunning and ferocious than his father. Soon after he ascended the throne, he attacked General Matthews, who had penetrated to Bednore, the capital of Cadnore. With his cavalry, and a few French troops, he made a desperate attack on the general, who, with the loss of five hundred Englishmen, took refuge in Bednore, where he soon surrendered.”

“Tippoo knew how to fight, it seems.”

“He did; but in battles, whether on sea or land, he who is a conqueror to-day may be a captive to-morrow. Tippoo found this to his cost. Detected in corresponding with the French, and plotting against the English, for their expulsion from India, it was determined to attack him in his capital. Desperate was the attack of the British and native troops, and desperate the defence of Tippoo, with his guards and his tiger grenadiers. General Harris was the British commander; but the attack on Seringapatam was entrusted to Major-General Baird, who had once been taken prisoner by Tippoo, and kept in irons for near four years.”

161“He would be sure to do his best, then.”

“No doubt he did. For some days the walls of Seringapatam were battered. At last a practicable breach was made, and then the place was stormed. Ten flank companies, supported by the 12th, 33rd, 73rd, and 74th regiments, with three corps of grenadier sepoys, and two hundred men from the troops of his highness the Nizam, formed the assaulting party, assisted by artillery-men and pioneers, while the battalions of Madras sepoys supported them in the trenches. Major-General Baird divided his forces, that he might the more easily clear the ramparts right and left. Colonel Sherbrooke led one party, and Lieutenant-Colonel Dunlop the other.”

“Tippoo would not be conquered very easily; he would never surrender.”

“A singular circumstance took place during the attack, that much favoured the British troops. A shot struck the chain that supported the draw-bridge, and divided it. Down fell the bridge, and thus enabled the besiegers to cross the moat. There was a rush to defend the bridge, and terrible was the carnage upon i............