St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1895-09-28

round the burning house. Some OF
them pointed at me, and q couple OF
bullets sang past my head; so
broke away across the paddy fields, and
found myself late at night safe within
the walls at Agra.
= ..As 1t proved, however, there was no
great safety there, either. The whole
country was up like a, swarm of bees
Wherever the English could collect in
little bands they held just the ground
that their guns commended. Every
where else they were helpless fugi-
tives.s It was a fight of the millions
against the hundreds; and the cruelest
part of it was that these men that we
fought against, foot, horse and gun
ners, were our own picked troops,
whom we had taught and trained.
handling our own weapons, and blow
ing our own bug1e calls. At Agra there
were the Third Bengal Fusiliers, some,
ssikhs, two troops of horse and battery
of artillery A volunteer corps of
clerks and merchants had been formed,
and this / Joined, wooden leg and all.
We went out to meet the rebels at
Shahgunge early in July, and we
beat them back for a time. but our
powder gave out and we had to fall
back upon. the, city. Nothing but the
worst news came to MS from every side
which is not to be wondered at, for if
you look at the map you will see that
we were right in the heart of it. Luck
now is rather better than a hundred
~ a hNry1If
as far to the south. From every point
on the compass there was nothing but
torture and murder and outrage.
.vThe city Of Agra is a great place,
swar1ning with fanatics and fierce
devil-worshipers of all sorts. Our hand
full of men were lost among the mar
row, winding streets. Our leader
moved across the river, therefore, and
took up his position in the old fort OF
Agra. / don't know If any of you gem
| flenen have ever read or heard any
thing of that old fort. It is a very
| queer place--the aueerest that ever
! was in, and have been in sorae rum
corners, too First of all, ii is enormous
| in size. I should think that the inclos-
L
modern part, which took all our gar
rison, women, children, stores and
everything else, with plenty of room
over. But the modern part is nothing
/ like the size of the old quarter, where
nobody goes, and which is given over to
| the scorpions and the centipedes. It is
all full of great deserted halls, and
winding. passages, and long corridors
| twisting in and out, so that it Is easy
| for folks to get lost in it. For this rea-
son it was seldom that anyone Went
| into it, though now and again party
with torches might. go exploring.
1.-THE river washes along the front OF
the old fort, and 80 protects II, but ol1
/ the sides and behind there are many
| doors, and these had 10 be guar1Ied ,soi
course, in the old quarter as well as II
that which was actually held by out
troops. We were short-handed, With
! hardly men enough to man the angles
of the building and to serve the guns
1 1t was impossible for us, therefore, to
station strong guard at everyone O
the innumerable gates What we dig
was to organize a. central guardhouse
i in the middle of the fort, and to leave
each gate under the charge OF one
white man and two or three natives.
was selected to take charge during GER
/ tain hours Of the night of a small iso
lated door upon the southwestside o.
1 the building. Two Sikh troopers were
/ placed under my command, and was
] instructed If anything went wrong "
4 fire my ynusket. when might rely upoI
help coming at once from the eentra
guard AS the guard was good TIVE
hundred PAGES away, however, and a.
/ the space between was cut up into
labyrinth of passages and corridors,
had great doubts as to whether they
could arrive in time to be of any use il
case of an actual attack.
Wen, was pretty proud at having
this small command given me, since
4 was raw recruit, and a garne-legget
one at.that. For two nights I kept th,
1 watch with my Punjaubees- The,
were tall, .sferce-looking chaps, Ma
homet Singh and Abdullah Khan b,
name, both old fighting men who hat
borne arms against us at Chiiianwal
i lab. They could talk English prett.
j we'll, but could get little out Of them
They preferred to stand together a11e
iabber all night in their queer Sikh
/ lingo. For myself. I used to stant
i outside the gateway, looking down o.
/ the broad, winding river and on tn
twink1ing lights of the great city. Tn
beating of drums, the rattle of tom
toms, and the yells and howis OF tn
rebels, drunk with opium and witt
bang, were enough to remind us al
nightof our dangerous neighbofs acros
the stream Every two hours the Off
1 GERS of the night used to come roun,
to all the posts, to make sure that al
I was we'll
THE third night of my watch wa
dark and dirty, with small. drivini
q rain. It was droary work standing i
the gateway hour after hour in sue
4 weather I tried again and again {
make my sil5hs talk, but without rnuc.
success. At two in the morning th
rounds passed, and broke for. a momen
the wearinessof the night. Finding tina
rny companions would not be led int
conversation, took out my pipe. an
laid down my musket to strike
i match. In an instant the two Sikh
were upon me. One of them snatche
my firelock up and laveled it at m
4 head. while the other held a great knit
to my throat and swore between HI
teeth that he would plunge it into m
II il moved a step
My first thorgh twas that these fe