The Romance of Modern Sieges: Describing the personal adventures, resource and daring of besiegers and beseiged in all parts of the worldGilliat, Edward
History
The Romance of Modern Sieges: Describing the personal adventures, resource and daring of besiegers and beseiged in all parts of the world
Gilliat, Edward
Adventure and adventurers; Battles; Sieges; War
“As we went our homes were seen to be on fire. Next morning our sepoy
escort deserted us. We were fired on by matchlock men and lost one
officer. We had no food. An officer kindly lent us a horse. We were
very faint. Our party now was only nine gentlemen, two children, the
sergeant, and his wife. On the 20th Captain Scott took my little
two-year-old Lottie on to his horse. Soon after sunrise we were
followed by villagers armed with clubs and spears. One of them struck
Captain Scott’s horse on the leg. He galloped off with Lottie, and my
poor husband never saw his child again.
“We rode on several miles, keeping away from villages, and then crossed
the river. Our thirst was extreme. Soon I saw water in a ravine. I
climbed down the steep descent. Our only drinking-vessel was M.’s cap
(which had once been a sepoy’s). Our horse got water and I bathed
my neck. I had no stockings and my feet were torn and blistered. My
husband was very weak, and, I thought, dying. He wished me good-bye
as he lay on the ground. My brain seemed burnt up: no tears came. Our
horse cantered away, so that escape was cut off. We sat down on the
ground waiting for death. Poor fellow! he was very weak; his thirst was
frightful, and I went to get him water. Some villagers came and took my
rupees and watch. I took off my wedding-ring, twisted it in my hair and
replaced the guard. I tore off the skirt of my dress to bring water in;
but it was no use, for when I returned, my beloved’s eyes were fixed,
and, though I called and tried to restore him and poured water into his
mouth, it only rattled in his throat. He never spoke to me again, and
he gradually sank down and died. I was alone. In an hour or so about
thirty villagers came. They dragged me out of the ravine and took off
my jacket; then they dragged me to a village, mocking me all the way.
The whole village came to look at me. I lay down outside the door of a
hut. They had dozens of cows, and yet refused me milk. When night came
and the village was quiet, some old woman brought me a leafful of rice.
The next morning a neighbouring Rajah sent a palanquin and a horseman
to fetch me, who told me that a little child and three sahibs had come
to his master’s house. That little child was my Lottie! She was sorely
blistered, but, thank God! alive and well.”
That is the sort of experience some ladies went through--ladies that
had never before known what thirst or privation or insult was like.
_July 2._--About 8 a.m. Sir Henry returned to the Residency and lay
down on his bed. Soon after an 8-inch shell from the enemy’s howitzer
entered the room at the window and exploded. A fragment struck the
Brigadier-General on the upper part of the right thigh near the hip,
inflicting a fearful wound.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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