Part 10 (1/2)
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 hih, ”Havelock's saints” were aave 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 ot hter, he showed that he was a soldier before all else For, having been suddenly summoned to attend aday, he got ed, 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 tishes,” he would say ”I pray that in life and death I lorify 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 coh he was, his ive him a month of their pay to assist hih their offer was refused, yet Havelock could not but be thankful for the kind feeling which proth, after over twenty years' service, he becahan war Havelock ith General Sale at Jellalabad at the tiht the news of thethe anxious tiood service in the field and at the council table
He fought in the battles of Moodkee, Ferozeshah, and Sobraon At the first-nauished himself by coolness and bravery
When the terrible mutiny broke out in India in the year 1857, the hour of dire eency had come, and with it had come theHavelock to Lord Canning, ”I have brought the man”
That was on 17th June, 1857
Two days later Havelock was appointed to the command of the little ar all disturbances at Allahabad, he should not lose aSir Henry Lawrence at Lucknow, and Sir Hugh Wheeler at Cawnpore; and that he should take pro all e order that to tell a commander with 2000 men, to take a dozen fortified places defended by ten times the number of his own force!
Not a moment was to be lost, for both cities were in deadly peril
Alas! Early on the 1st July caarrison,--hter, which still makes the blood run cold to read about
Out of the 2000 men under Havelock's command 1400 only were British soldiers But in that force everyheat of an Indian summer,--in spite, too, of the fact that a nuarh death, disease, and a thousand perils lay in front of them,--not a man of Havelock's ”Ironsides” but was ieneral hiood spirits notwithstanding--perhaps because of--the perils before him For it is written of him that ”he was always as sour as if he had sed a pint of vinegar except when he was being shot at,--and then he was as blithe as a schoolboy out for a holiday”
Sour he was _not_, but he kept splendid discipline a his troops
”Soldiers,” he said as they set out, ”there is work before us We are bound on an expedition whose object is the supree the fate of British ht was at Futtehpore Writing to his wife on the saht, Havelock said: ”One of the prayers oft repeated throughout eneral action We fought, and in ten lory! Thanks to God Alave ht and ainst foes of reckless daring, carefully entrenched, auns, and infinitely superior in numbers
His men were often half fa of a few biscuits and porter!
Hearing that so escaped the massacre of 27th June, Havelock pressed on with his wearied little army ”With God's help,” said he, ”we shall save them, or every man die in the attempt”
Nana Sahib himself barred the way to Cawnpore His 5000 ood positions; but they were driven from post to post before the onset of the British
”Now, Highlanders!” shouted Havelock, as the hts; ”another charge like the last wins the day!”