A HERO OF THE MUTINY.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11200, 15 February 1902, Page 6

A HERO OF THE MUTINY.

Not long ago .hare died in the German town j of Frelbf-rg. a quiet white-haired English gentlemran o£ more than .threescore yoars and tan, -who nearly fifty years ago kept I t_a flag of England ftying for thirteen desperate days against overwhelming odds; | and it is not fit that such as he who are , * ths m<aie__ and upholders of our Empire should pass away without a word of proud ! and grateful memory from even tha.youngest horn of English blood in the _*___oteet -orrjars of tliat Empire.- Herwald CourI tanay Walks was one of a .aniily who boasted their de_c__. ,from Her«ward_ surnamed the | Wake, the las*, of the English, the man,who hsM.the fortress of Ely so stoutly that even 'the Conqueror himself "Was foiled before its walls. Eight hundred years later the man of'whom we now speak proved himself no tu-worl-'y -UocE-sor of his great ancestor. But st> was no natural jSortrsss like the, I_e of Ely that Herwald Wake defended, in the days r p_ -the Blade Terror, when the native 'army of India revolted, and slew without j mercy.very-man, woman, and child of the ' English that fell into" their hands. - __ was nothing bttt an ordinary Indian house and i courtyard. '" Fifteen, En^&h.and na__caste_,' wi-h £{%•. faithful .Sikhs, ;tbe.d .his "_»u__ of fllfcy feet square for thirteen days "against more than, six thousand regular native troops and two field-guns. He.vrald Wake -was "th© c_____ailder of _iiis forlorn hopa <rf i d-ilence"; Vicars' Boyle,- to whom the house bzhmgkd, ''"#__ in charge of the "tortifkutions,"'and Colvin was second in'.ootomand. ' Ths ",*«-,-_?' oi the .h6n*4e -were yiddlted- by round sht-fr; 'lJoyi-\b_i_fc't_t_ jjaps up with s^nd-<ags,, and-U.ilised-them as loopholes. ] Tho _rkitane*«s , raised <b» on the ( roof of-a neighboifring-bouse,,and poured; a, plunging.;.'fire".,into; the oouxtyard '—the ". ... {besieged ; built one higher; | barricade' -for barricade, -, and their phoot-Ug ;,w__ so' deadly -that not a dark i face dared show- on that housetop. On the third day water began to fail, but dark--1 -kit_ned {Sikh aad- fair-haired, Englishman set'th-ir hand to the spade and dug side.by side:a .well eighteen feet deep in the sunbaked soil. Turn by' turn they took- it, one worked with the spade while tlie other watched keenly, rifle in hand, to slay the would.-a' slayer of his toiling brother in' arms. When provisions-ran out they simply sallied forth and took them; some drove in a few sheep, while a slender rear guard of picked marksmen kept the foe at bay, walking backwards, grim faces pressed to the rifle butt; keen eyes glancing down the deadly barrel, and so. great was the terror of them that they were suffered to pass unscathed. The foe who dared not face them in the open strove then to xn__e their tottering wafts, but here, too,- they were met by. men with fierce, pale -faces, that broke in upon: them suddenly, lantern in hand and revolver in the other, and shot them down.' and chased them pitilessly and slew them with edge of sword arid bayonet thrust by .lurid lamplight amid wreathing smoke and echoing din of musket shot in the dark bowels of the earth, and stayed not save for weariness of slaying. And all day long and every night there was making of cartridges from powder tbat Vicars Boyle had stored there .in prescient fear of such an evil day; and casting of bullets, from the lead which they stripped from the housetops. "And ever above the topmost roof, our banner of England blew." One attempt at relief had already faikd; they had heard the sound of tbe firing, and had listened heart-sickening sus-P-nse as it volleyed further and further away and ceas_d, but at last on ths thirteenth day Vincent Eyre fought his way literally through fire and water, through fashing volleys 'and Hooded fields and brought them relief. Such was the feat of arms known as' the Defence of the House of A'rah. Such were the men who dei fended it; and of such was $c kingdom of England fifty years ago. '"J&tigui num.ro sed bello vivida virtus." " Few in number ; were tL.y gallant souls in war.'' And now i that he that was the' leader of this gallant little band has passed away, and that ( the kingdom of England has grown into 1 the Empire of England, it is not seemly that he should go to lus! resting-place without a word of remembrance even in the remotest recesses of that Empire. It is right that the tale of the deed that he did

should be told wher-Ver the flag ofi_R«- nland flies, which he kept flying'against .u<j n .'* fearful odds. It is right tbat we should /"i.". name his name Avith pride and en. hriiie it * ■./ - among those heroic names nnd deeds which go to make up that Great Memory to th*-?: '*] inheritance of which every child of __ngIH&S:"- * blood is born into the world, that inherit, ance which none of us dare shame; that : - great cloud of great witnesses that e_. ] compasses Englishmen, and bids them be ■- unconquerable even as their lathers were 1 before them. -' 1

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