Beneath the Banner: Being Narratives of Noble Lives and Brave Deeds — John Shaqi
Beneath the Banner: Being Narratives of Noble Lives and Brave DeedsCross, F. J. (Frederick J.)
General
Beneath the Banner: Being Narratives of Noble Lives and Brave Deeds
Cross, F. J. (Frederick J.)
Biography -- Juvenile literature
This, however, he objected to; and after a stay at Bombay he was
sufficiently restored to rejoin his regiment.
During this war a night attack was made by the enemy on an outpost;
and the men ordered to repulse it were not ready when summoned.
"Then call out Havelock's saints," said the commander-in-chief. "They
are always sober, and can be depended upon, and Havelock himself is
always ready." And, surely enough, "Havelock's saints" were among the
enemy in double quick time, and soon gave them as much steel and lead
as they had any wish for!
"Every inch a soldier, and every inch a Christian,"--that was an exact
description of this man.
Even the day he got married to Hannah Marshman, the missionary's
daughter, he showed that he was a soldier before all else. For, having
been suddenly summoned to attend a military court of inquiry at twelve
o'clock on his wedding day, he got married at an earlier hour than he
had previously arranged, took a quick boat to Calcutta, returning to
his bride when his business of the day was finished.
Time passed on, and the leader of "the saints" was still but a junior
lieutenant, though he had been seventeen years in the army.
Thrice were his hopes of promotion raised, and thrice doomed to
disappointment.
Still he murmured not. "I have only two wishes," he would say. "I
pray that in life and death I may glorify God, and that my wife and
children may be provided for."
Heavy trials befel him. Death laid its hand on his little boy Ettrick,
and another child was so burnt in a fire that happened at their
bungalow that he died also, whilst his beloved wife narrowly escaped
the same fate. Yet he bore all this with patience.
Stern commander though he was, his men loved him so much that they
wanted to give him a month of their pay to assist him in the loss of
means occasioned by the fire.
Though their offer was refused, yet Havelock could not but be thankful
for the kind feeling which prompted it.
At length, after over twenty years' service, he became a captain.
In the Afghan war Havelock was with General Sale at Jellalabad at the
time that Dr. Brydon brought the news of the massacre of our men by
the Afghans; and during the anxious time that followed he was able to
render good service in the field and at the council table.
He fought in the battles of Moodkee, Ferozeshah, and Sobraon. At
the first-named he had two horses shot under him; and in all he
distinguished himself by coolness and bravery.
When the terrible mutiny broke out in India in the year 1857, the
hour of dire emergency had come, and with it had come the man. "Your
excellency," said Sir Patrick Grant, presenting Havelock to Lord
Canning, "I have brought the man."
That was on 17th June, 1857.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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