A Call To Arms (29 page)

Johnson did not hesitate for a moment. ‘Well, Colonel, it won’t be so far for t’recruits to fall, that’s for certain. But Cap’n ’Ervey says these things is right good doers, so I reckon we should be pleased.’

Johnson’s display of both independence and loyalty pleased captain and commanding officer alike. Hervey was especially heartened to hear a private man speak up so, and use ‘colonel’ to his commanding officer, as had long been the Sixth’s custom until the late unhappiness. ‘I fear there shall be some rib-bending in this, however,’ cautioned Lankester, smiling still. ‘You may yet be known as the pony troop, Hervey.’

‘Handsome is as handsome does, Colonel.’

‘You’re right, of course. But you may wait a deal of time before you have a chance to prove them handsome doers.’

Hervey knew it all too well. The review was closer at hand than they could possibly manage.

Two weeks later

That fortnight was a time of back-breaking toil for both men and horses. Hervey’s troop got the last of their remounts, more Marwaris, only five days before the brigade review. They looked puny even before they stood next to those of the other troops, who could at least form a decent front with their English troopers. But if any dragoons in the other troops had taunted them, E Troop could not have heard, for they were roused a full hour before the rest of the regiment and turned in a full hour later. Yet even by such means – a working day of sixteen hours – the troop was scarcely able to advance in column of threes at more than a walk, and the leading rein, about which Armstrong and others had joked, looked more and more likely to be their deliverer. And the sick list had grown – no malingerers these, for the NCOs would only let them report sick if the farrier had first given his opinion. And only a week ago poor Smith, ‘the Boiler’ as all and sundry had called him, had fallen to a fever after evening stables and was dead by first parade next day.

‘They’re so small we could walk next to ’em and at three ’undred
yards it’d look as if we were mounted!’ Johnson had opined early on.

Hervey had replied that it was not so bad an idea. ‘We are dragoons after all.’

The day of the review was on them, however, and finely run it was, for the gathering clouds spoke of the south-west monsoon which would before long engulf this last dry corner of India. On the cusp of what seemed bearable and what was not, the quality and the fashionable of Calcutta were driving out onto the plain north-west of the city to see the review of the 1st Bengal Cavalry Brigade. There could not have been a nabob or a potentate anywhere in the Bengal Presidency who would not be there, as well as many from the adjoining princely states. That, at any rate, was Lord Hastings’s intention.

And it seemed that the Governor-General had likewise deported from the city every piece of canvas. For a week and more, bullock carts and elephants had trudged back and forth to the review ground, by a different road so as not to rut the one to be used by the guests, with marquees and rugs and hangings, tables, cushions and chairs, and all manner of little comforts so that the princes and powers might see the wealth to which the Honourable Company had resource. And the Bengal Sappers had constructed a canvas pavilion where the guests might ease themselves, served by fresh running water the like of which no ryot could imagine, the whole bedecked with streamers and bunting so that it might have been the marching pavilion of the Great Moghul himself.

What choice food and wine was to be served, Hervey could only guess; but the whole regiment knew that since midnight the elephants had been porting yakhdans filled from the Fort William ice houses. The dragoons themselves at this minute would have pledged themselves to hefty stoppages of pay for the contents of those hay-boxes, for although their canteens were full, the water in them was warm. They would enjoy the same spectacle of the review as the nabobs, albeit from not so good a vantage point, but without shade or punkahs they could scarcely hope to enjoy it nearly so much.

Orders for the review itself had come at dusk two evenings before, and Sir Ivo had assembled his troop-leaders to discuss how
best to expedite them – a sensible course, the captains agreed afterwards, and one which only a commanding officer secure in his own position would have contemplated. The scheme was straightforward enough. Compared with some of the field days they had known at Hounslow it was indeed easy, not to mention the real evolutions many of them had performed for the Duke of Wellington that memorable day five years ago. Save for one thing: the state of training of the remounts. For the first four troops it was not perhaps so great a problem since the dragoons themselves were seasoned, but Hervey faced a compound difficulty of greenhead dragoons and greenhead horses. More than once during the two weeks which had passed since that conversation with Sir Ivo he had found himself wondering why the colonel had not spread the new recruits of both species across the regiment. From a commanding officer’s point of view it was better, probably, to be sure of four troops than to be not so sure of five, but Hervey had felt the price of that surety very keenly as he realized that all E Troop might do was stand and watch.

The plan which emerged from the colonel’s colloquium was for the first four troops to form two squadrons as the
masse de manoeuvre
on the right of the line; the two other regiments of the brigade were, after all, junior. In close order they would be an impressive sight with their blue coats and pipeclay crossbelts, white shakos and plumes (the brigadier wanted plumes, most emphatically). The trumpeters were good and well practised, and the officers were confident they could carry out the expected evolutions. Hervey’s troop, on the other hand, were to remain within sight of the noble spectators, dismounted and in reserve, and would mount only when the ‘battle’ was won, so that they could retire from the field as the squadrons rallied. There was no distinction in that, Hervey rued, but by the same token there was no danger of his dragoons being overmatched.

And so here, the day of the review, E Troop were mustered, thirty-eight strong, standing easy, sweat glistening on horses and men alike. The NCOs were chafing at being nursemaids when they might have been galloping with their fellows in the other troops, and Hervey was trying hard to conceal his own mixed feelings. The Sixth had worked into the silent hours on their equipment, so that it shone now in the bright sunlight, whether steel or leather. And
none had worked harder than E Troop who, though they were to make themselves scarce at the earliest opportunity, knew nevertheless that eyes would be upon them from the moment they led out their horses in the regimental lines.

In troop columns of threes, the Sixth had marched onto the exercise ground behind the Bengal horse, so that when the brigade turned into line they should be on the right, as their seniority required, with the artillery to their right in turn. At any distance it was an imposing sight, speaking of order and discipline, and a disposition for concerted action which must be the envy of the country powers. At the canvas pavilions, the assembled potentates were watching to a commentary by the major of brigade as relays of khitmagars served iced champagne and sherbet.

‘The brigadier, having received word that the enemy is approaching, has sent out scouts to range beyond the ridge,’ explained the brigade-major through a speaking trumpet, pointing out the direction. ‘Mindful that the enemy may deploy his own scouts forward, a line of vedettes will be established to counter them.’

The brigade-major handed his speaking trumpet to the officer who was to continue with the commentary, and rode down to the brigade commander – the signal for the vedettes to deploy and the horse artillery to unlimber. According to the carefully worked scheme there would be a quarter of an hour before the vedettes would signal the enemy’s approach, and so the brigadier concluded he had time for one small innovation. He cursed himself for not thinking of it before.

Hervey observed him through his telescope – Major-General Sir Mortimer Massey, a man of whom no one had heard until New Orleans, when he had parleyed successfully with the Americans to take the wounded from the field. He was an impressive figure, tall in the saddle, plumed, scarlet-coated, riding a grey Arab that would have made Bonaparte himself envious.

‘Sir Ivo,’ said the general, as he trotted up to the Sixth. ‘Seeing the ground this morning, I am much taken by the possibilities of that nullah over to your right.’

Sir Ivo looked to where the general was indicating.

‘I believe it ought to be possible to get a troop along it unseen
to all the nabobs, to come up on the flank of the vedette line.’

Sir Ivo glanced about the field to the points of reference. ‘I see it, General. To what advantage, may I ask?’

The general frowned. ‘By heavens, you’re slow this morning, Lankester! As the enemy come over the ridge and the vedettes pull back, the troop can take them in the flank. It will be the devil of a surprise to the nabobs!’

The proposition was entirely fair, though Sir Ivo wondered why, since this was a day to impress, they had not rehearsed it. Hervey’s troop might be in want of riding practice, but the other troops had scarcely had much opportunity for field drill. But he could hardly balk at so elementary a manoeuvre. ‘Very well, General. Shall you give me the signal?’

‘No, you may judge it for yourself, Sir Ivo. There’s no point in waiting for my off when you’ll see the vedettes signalling as well as I shall.’

A sensible decision, thought Sir Ivo, if late in the day.

The general reined about and trotted to the centre of the brigade.

‘Captain Rose and Mr Assheton-Smith, please.’

The commanding officer’s voice was raised no higher than if he were speaking to his charger, but the word was passed at once to A Troop’s leader, nearest the guns, and the adjutant in the supernumerary rank.

‘Gentlemen, the brigadier has determined a change in the manoeuvres,’ said Sir Ivo as they rode up. He explained the intention.

‘I’ll take a look then if I may, Colonel,’ said Rose.

‘Yes. But do it covertly.’

Rose saluted and returned to his troop.

‘A pity we did not have more time before today,’ said Sir Ivo to the adjutant. ‘It would have been a fair question of E Troop.’

Bands played for the entertainment of the spectators meanwhile, as the ‘enemy’, a regiment of native infantry, advanced to the ridge in full view of the pavilions but concealed from the brigade. The design was that when the infantry reached a bullock-cart track which ran obliquely across their front, some five hundred yards
short of the ridge, the vedettes would start to signal their approach. The general, a prudent man, had also placed a galloper to observe from a flank so that he could be warned independently. The infantry had rehearsed the manoeuvre twice, but in the early morning; the heat was now unexpectedly slowing their advance, so that the general was becoming anxious. When he saw his galloper approaching, dust rising behind him and exaggerating his speed, he was half convinced that something was amiss.

‘The infantry have reached the track, sir,’ said the lieutenant, saluting, pleased that he had been able to bring the report his general wished to hear.

But General Massey was disturbed by the news. He turned to his brigade-major. ‘Why in heaven’s name aren’t the vedettes signalling, Neville? Can’t they see?’

Brigade-Major Neville could have no more idea than the general. He turned to the galloper. ‘You saw with your own eyes they had reached the track?’

‘Sir! With my own eyes.’

The general looked about anxiously. He saw Hervey’s troop standing dismounted a furlong away. ‘Good God, Neville. What’s Sir Ivo doing? He’s not moved that troop into the nullah yet!’

The brigade-major turned round in the saddle to see for himself. ‘If the vedettes haven’t reported anything, General, Sir Ivo has no notion he should move them.’

The general, now very agitated, turned back to his galloper. ‘Go and tell Hervey’s troop to get into that nullah at once!’

‘What are they to do there, sir? I did not know of this part of the scheme.’

‘Tell him, Neville!’ snorted the general. The brigade-major obliged them both.

The galloper lost no further time. Hervey saw him approaching, the trail of dust indicating more speed than his descent from the ridge. ‘Hallo, Shawe,’ he said, returning the salute, bemused by the apparent urgency. ‘Who are you looking for?’