The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-16 00:00:00

711 E MAGNIFICENT SADDLE MU7INY.

Among the curiosities formerly to be seen in the
old East India House was a magnificent saddle,
covered with crimson velvet and lavishly decorated
with caparisons of gold. It was a wonderful thing
to look at, but the story which it recorded was more
wonderful still. That saddle was the ttophy and
memorial of an event which, forty years afterwards,
was followed by the massacre at Cawnpore and the
most terrible scenes of the great Bengal mutinies.
The very exploit which we shall presently relate
springs out of the same transactions, and, as Nana
Sahib has still to be captured, this is not the last
time, we trust, that the tale will be brought before
the public. The object in question was the State
saddle of the Peishwa, or Prime Minister of the
great Mahratta Confederacy, taken by us at the
battle of Ashti in 1818, by which victory the
Mahratta power was overthrown and the Peishwa
himself made a pensioner of the British Govern-
ment. His pension, however, was large, and his
position, except that he was under restraint, by no
means a bad one. He survived as a kind of State
prisoner in Hindostan for many years, and, being
childless, exercised the Hindoo privilege of adopt-
ing sons. The children of his adoption were three
in number—Nana Sahib, Bala Rau, and a third,
who died, but who left a son named Pandoo Rao,
or Rao Sahib. All this family, though living in
luxurious opulence, conceived themselves aggrieved
by the proceedings of our Government in the ex-
Peishwa's affairs, and the atrocities at Cawnpore,
near which city they resided, were executed under
their direction. Nana Sahib and Bala Rao
superintended the massacres in person ; Rao
Sahib, it is said, remained at Bithoor, the family
residence, in charge of the mansion ; but mere than
one cold-blooded murder was perpetrated by his
orders, and a body of fugitives from Futtyghur, in-
tercepted by his troops, were forwarded by him to
Cawnpore to share the fate of the other vietims.
After the restoration of our ascendancy it was, of
course, the anxious desire of Government to capture
these three assassins, and to many persons it has
probably appeared strange that, with the whole of
India in our hands, and all the resources of a well-
organised Administration at our command, we should
hitherto have failed in the attempt. The fact, how-
ever, that an Irish murderer is still defying justice
at home, and eluding all the efforts of a trained con-
stabulary to arrest him, may serve to render the
escape of the Bithoor family somewhat less extra-
ordinary. Nana Sahib and Bala Rao, if they still
live, are probably beyond the frontiers of our terri-
tory, either in Nepaul or on the other side of the
Himalayas. Rao Sahib might have been supposed,
till the other day, to be in the company of his uncles
—but he at last was delivered into our hands, and
by the intelligence and energy of an Indian officer
has been consigned, after a series of extraordinary
adventures, to the gallows he so well deserved,
It appears that after escaping from the advance of
our troops he joined Tent ia Topee. the partisan who
so long eluded our flying columns, and vvas only
taken and hanged after two years' flight. After the
dispersion of that chief's band he wandered about
India in disguise, settling sometimes at one place of
pilgrimage and sometimes at length, till at length,
about a year ago, he took up his abode at Chineanee,
a small district in the territory of Jummoo, lying
between the northern frontier of the Punjab and
the rugged hills of Cashmere. In this remote
and secluded spot he remained for twelve months,
unnoticed and unknown, till he was one day recog-
nised by a Hindoo pilgrim, with whom be had
formerly had some cause of quarrel. The pilgrim
immediately betook himself to Sealkote, the nearest
station in the Punjab, and communicated the
intelligence to Mr. Macnab, acting deputy commis-
sioner in the Punjab. That gentleman took his
measures without an hour's delay. First arming
himself with a letter from the Lieut.-Governor to
the 'Maharajah of Jummoo, in order to meet the con?
tingency of any reluctance or timidity on the part
of that Prince, be started for Jummoo in the night,
and arrived there by daybreak. An interview with
the Maharajah satisfied him that his Holiness was
entirely ignorant of the facts reported and without
any suspicion of the people who had found a hiding-
place in his territories. For the rest, he was willing
enough to co-operate in the capture of the murderer,
but the enterprise, notwithstanding the proffered
assistance, was beset with difficulties. Rao Sahib
was on his guard day and night. His servants and
followers watched for him ; the arrival of a British
officer in those parts would be instantly signaled,
and at the first alarm the fugitive might plunge
into a country through which it would be hopeless
to follow him. It was necessary, therefore, that
Mr. Macnab should succeed in getting to Chineanee
not only in person, but with such an escort as might
be required for effecting the arrest, and yet excite
no suspicion of his approach or his purpose. Such
a problem was no easy one, nor was it facilitated
by the circumstance that Mr. Macnab himself was
so ill at the time as to be unable either to walk or
ride. From Jummoo to Chineanee is a distance of
45 miles, through passes and over precipices of the
wildest character, and seldom traversed by Euro-
peans. How was such a journey to be accomplished,
and, above all, to be accomplished without alarm ?
And after a brief consultation—for time pressed,
and the loss of an hour might be fatal to the whole
enterprise—the following scheme was arranged and
adopted :—A Tehsilder, or revenue agent of the
Maharajah's, stationed a little beyond Chineanee,
either was, or could very naturally be supposed to
be, a defaulter in his accounts, and the Maharajah,
therefore, was to despatch a trusty secretary
eu such
for the ostensible purpose of superseding
him. That the secretary proceeding on ban
errand should take an escort was but reasonable,
and this pretext provided for the guard of 50 sol-
diers. Finally, as the new agent might wish for
his wife's company at the scene of his duties, a litter
was provided for the conveyance of his lady, and
this character and; conveyance Mr. Macnab appro-
priated to himself. He next took the precaution of
sending his own litter back to the Sealkote with a
little public demonstration, in order that he might
be thought to have returned to his station, and that
his name might not by any chance be connected
with the expedition to Chineanee. This done, the
little party started ; the Secretary at the bead of
his soldiers, and the British officer representing
the Secretary's wife in the closed litter. The road
lay across the most terrible rocks and solitudes,
and was so painfully difficult that half-a-rnile an
hours
hour was as much as could be done. Ninety the
of fatigue and peril hardly sufficed to d to bring
party to Chineanee, when the origmal informer,
who had been taken into the expedition,messengerto see
if the prize was still safe. The mess was sent
forward, accompanied by a trusty
messenger presently
that the informer
returned with the intelligence
had found Rao Sahib, and taken a seat by his
.hed on, and pre-
Macnabb from
but littleßa
of successisement not only of the vil-
lagers, Taheerysoldiers therreofourseedm; ;re
his litter, to the astonishment
themselves, who had been
ignorance
no
or r e
his
and
m ake presence,
lagers, but of the
offer s resistance anocf e
o
diehh
keptdseafheinbi: in
.opuelnraf perfect
eoeffct
confessed at once, surrenewreh
him-
self with about £4,000 worth of jewels,