The Great White Hand; Or, the Tiger of Cawnpore: A story of the Indian MutinyMuddock, J. E. (Joyce Emmerson)
History
The Great White Hand; Or, the Tiger of Cawnpore: A story of the Indian Mutiny
Muddock, J. E. (Joyce Emmerson)
Anglo-Indian fiction; India -- History -- Sepoy Rebellion, 1857-1858 -- Fiction; Kanpur (India) -- Fiction
For days and days went on the awful siege. The defenders, weary,
overworked and starving, laboured, with the might of giants, in the
trenches. The clothes rotted from their backs, and the grime from
the guns caked hard and black upon their faces and hands. But, with
dauntless courage, they served the guns, and this always under a
tremendous fire, from which they were barely screened.
Where all were heroes, comparisons would be invidious indeed, and yet
there were some whose names are indelibly written upon the scroll of
fame, for the conspicuous manner in which they displayed their heroism.
Captain Moore was one of these. He was wounded at the very commencement
of the siege--his arm was broken. But it could not break his spirit! He
went about with the fractured limb in a sling. No toil seemed to weary
him--no danger could daunt him. Day and night he laboured; encouraging
the women, cheering the children. Now serving a gun--now heading a
desperate sortie against the enemy. As a companion with him was Captain
Jenkins of the 2nd Cavalry. He held the outposts beyond the trenches.
Over and over again did the enemy try to dislodge him, but failed each
time. At length a treacherous Sepoy, who had been feigning death,
raised his gun and fired. The jawbone of the brave Jenkins was smashed,
and he died an agonising death.
One day a red-hot shot from the enemy’s battery blew up a tumbrel
and set fire to the woodwork of the carriage. A large quantity
of ammunition was stored close by. If this caught fire the whole
place, and every soul in it, would meet with instant destruction. It
seemed as if nothing but a miracle could save them, for there was no
water--nothing to extinguish the flames. But the miracle suddenly
appeared in the person of a young hero; his name was Delafosse. A
deadly stream of eighteen-pound shot was poured upon the spot by the
besiegers, but, unmoved by this, Delafosse flung himself upon the
ground beneath the blazing wood, which he tore off with his hands, and
then stifled out the fire with dry earth. Such a cheer rose from the
throats of the British at this heroic deed, that it must have sent
terror to the hearts of the cruel and cowardly enemy.
Then upon a projection of the barrack wall there was perched young
Stirling, known as the “dead-shot,” from his unerring aim. Day after
day he sat on his perch and picked off single Sepoys. And the list
would be incomplete without mention of the brave Scotchman, Jervis; he
was an engineer. He was out in the open compound one day, and with the
indomitable pride of race, refused to run from a black fellow, so he
fell shot through the heart.
If midst our tears we sing a pæan in honour of these hero-martyrs, the
wives and daughters of the fighting men of Cawnpore must go down to
posterity as an example of all that women should be--noble, patient,
uncomplaining.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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