Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 127.djvu/34

22 rest. Two or three of the party which now occupied Sparrow's house had been seen to fall; Braddon, from the main picket, had shot two. Yorke, also, had made his first hit: a man moving from one bush to another, musket in hand, stooping as he went, but still exposing himself, fell prone at Yorke's fire, and crawled away slowly, and the young man felt half savage and half sick at the result of his shot. His ideal of war had been associated with taking life in the abstract only, and the first actual taste of blood, albeit of a would-be murderer's, caused a sickening sensation, which, however, soon yielded to excitement, and the love of killing inherent in mankind. And now a couple of good shots sent up to the roof did some damage before the assailants in the garden, thus laid open to view, had time to withdraw more under cover. Altogether, when Falkland went the rounds, fifteen or sixteen of the enemy had been distinctly accounted for, but no one of the garrison had been touched.

These losses made the rebels more wary. The party which had occupied the garden retired to a safe distance, and the fire on all sides sensibly abated.

"I begin to feel like grub," said Mr. Egan to his comrades, after a time. "This is an exciting if not a very dangerous occupation, and makes one peckish, not to say thirsty. I feel as if I could dispose of any quantity of pegs if they were to be had. I wonder what time it is. By Jove!" he continued, pulling out his watch — "fancy, it's only eight o'clock!" And in truth, although the garrison seemed to have been undergoing an interminable siege, the day had scarcely begun.

Shortly after this, breakfast was served — tea, hot cakes of unleavened bread (the Indian chupattees), and stew with rice. The pantry by the portico served as the kitchen, and for occupation by the servants, while that opposite it was appropriated to the sepoys, who cooked for themselves. The flour and grain had been stored in the north-east spare room, while the commissioner's stock of sheep and poultry had been penned in a part of the platform of the bath-house. The ladies and the reserve took their meal in the dining-room; the different guards each furnished a detail of one of their number to receive their portion, except that stationed in the bath-house, which had been supplied with a day's provisions and a native servant to cook; for the trench leading to it afforded but imperfect cover, and Falkland would allow no one, except to convey orders, to go to and fro.

Various weak points in the sand-bag parapet had been discovered, especially where it joined the round pillars of the veranda, at which points two or three bullets had found entrance. These were made good, with eager zeal, and then the garrison awaited patiently the next movement of the enemy, one member of each picket, mounted on a box, keeping a lookout through a loophole, while the others sat, arms in hand, below.

As the sun mounted into the sky, the heat became fiercer than ever. The rainy season was approaching, and the high winds of the Indian summer had ceased, but not much air could find its way through the barrier, alhough many of the doors were open. In ordinary times it would have been declared impossible for Europeans to support such heat without punkahs, but now it was unnoticed. The ladies fanned themselves, the gentlemen wiped their faces. All were composed, but no one discussed the future.

The heat had the good effect of quieting the enemy. Towards noon the firing ceased entirely, and the first excitement of the defenders having passed over, they began to think about rest. A fourth part of each picket were allowed to leave their post at a time, to wash and dress; of the rest, a part were allowed to sleep in turn, which they did on cots brought into the verandas, or on blankets stretched on the pavement, while the remainder kept a look-out. But none of the enemy could be seen stirring. At one o'clock dinner was supplied, flour-cakes, and stew and rice as before, with a bottle of beer between every two persons. The sepoys, going off duty by turns, cooked their single meal of coarse wheat cakes, which they devoured in silence, sitting gravely on their hams and stripped to their waist, taking afterwards a long draught of water from the separate store they had previously themselves drawn from the well, for to drink water obtained in any other way would have been pollution; and then passing round the "hubble-bubble" or simple hookah for each to take a whiff.

Then Colonel Falkland, who had hardly had a minute's rest since the outbreak, fell asleep on a couch in the drawing-room, and slept till evening, his wife sitting by him and keeping the flies off his face with a brush of peacock's feathers; while Miss Peart took the children into a side-room to prevent their disturbing him,