"FORTY-ONE YEARS IN INDIA."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10413, 10 April 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

"FORTY-ONE YEARS IN INDIA."

Tug book published by General Roberts, containing an account) of big career in India, is of great interest and importance. Wβ give a fow extracts: — J THE SIEGE OF DELHI IN THE MDTI.NV. "I feel I cannot conclude my brief account without paying my small tribute of praise and admiration to the troops who bore themselves so nobly from the beginning to the end. Their behaviour whs throughout beyond all praise, their constancy was unwearied, their gallantry most conspicuous; in thirty-two different fights they were victorious over long odds, being often exposed to an enemy ten times their number, who, moreover, had the advantage of ground and superior artillery; they fought and worked as if each one felt that on his individual exertions alone depended the issue of the day; they willingly, nay, cheerfully, endured such trials as few armies have ever been exposed to for bo long a time. For three months, day after day, and for tho greater part of the day, every man had to bo constantly under arms, exposed to a scorching Indian sun, which was almost as destructive us, and much harder to bear than, the enemy's never-ceasing fire. They saw their comrades struck down by cholera, sunstroke, and dysentery, more dispiriting a thousand times than the daily casualties in action. They beheld their enemies reinforced while their own numbers rapidly decreased. Yet' they never lost heart, and at last, when it became evident that no hope of reinforcements could be entertained, and that if Delhi were to be taken at all it must be taken at once, they advanced to the assault with as high a courage and as complete a confidence in the result as if they were attacking at the commencement of a campaign, instead of being the remnant of a force worn out, by twelve long weeks of privation and suffering, by hope deferred (which truly "inaketh the heart sick' and by weary waiting for the help which never came. Batteries were thrown up within easy range of the walls, than which a more heroio piece of work was never performed ; and, finally, these gallant few, of whom England should in very truth be everlastingly proud, .'termed in the face of day a strong fortress defended by 30,000 desperate men, provided with everything necessary to defy assault." A HAIKBKEADTH ESCAPE. It was in one of the fights before Delhi that Roberts received his first wound, They hud been dislodging the enemy from a position before the Delhi Gate, and, having accomplished their task, wore retiring. He was helping to keep the horses quiet, while his men were limbering up their guns, when he suddenly felt a tremendous blow on his back, which made him faint and sick, Be managed, however, i.o stick to his horse until he got back to the camp, when he found that) he had been hit close to the spine by a ballet which would probably have killed him but for tho fact that a leather pouch for caps, usually worn in front, had slipped round to the back, and saved his life by intercepting the bullet. It was a month, however, before ho could again mount a horse or put on a sword • belt. He remained while wounded in a tent which was literally black with flies, and realised somewhat of the discomfort experienced by wounded soldiers in camp. The whole air was alive with Hie*, which frequently succeeded in getting down his throat. The united efforts of jackals, vultures, and (lisa failed to remove the garbage and rotten careases, which filled the air with pestilential stench. A RACE FOR DEATH. The most terrible picture of war which he gives us in his first volume is the storming of the Sikandarbagh in the relief of Lucknow. It was a formidable position, about 130 yards square, surrounded by a thick dark wall twenty feet high. They pounded a hole through the wall three feet square, three feet from the ground. When the ward was given to attack, the infantry sprang up and rushed for the breach :— " It was a magnificent eight.a sight never to be forgotten—that glorious struggle to be the fir3t to enter the deadly breach, the prize to the winner of the race being certain death ! Highlanders and Sikhs, Punjabi, Mahomedane, Dogras, and Pathans, all vied with each other in the generous competition. A Highlander was the first to reach the goal, and was snot dead as he jumped into the enclosure; a man of the 4th Punjab Infantry cams next, and met the same fete. A drummer-boy of the 93rd must have been one of the first to pass that grim boundary between life and death, for when I got in I found him just inside the breach lying on his back quite dead—apretty, innocent-looking, fair-haired lad, not more than 14 years of age," LORD CLYDE'S KIND-HEARTED MESSAGE In 1860, when Hope Grant was sent to China, the one desire of both Lord Roberts and his wife, although they had only been married twelve months, was that Roberts should be sent to the Far East. Lord Clyde, however, passed him over, much to i Roberts' disgust :— " A day or two afterwards we dined with the earnings, and Lord Clyde took my wife to dinner. Hie first remark to her was, I think I havo earned your gratitude, if I hare not managed to satisfy everyone by these China appointments.' On my wife asking for what the was expected to be grateful, he said, 'Why, for not sending your husband with the expedition, of course. I suppose you would rather nob be left in a foreign country alone a few months after your marriage ? If Roberts bad nob been a newly-married man, I would have senb him.' Thie was too much for my wife, who sympathised greatly with my disappointment ; and she could nob help retorting, ' I am afraid I cannot) be very grateful to you for making my husband feel I am ruining hie career by standing In the way of his being sent on service. You have done your best to make him regret hie marriage. . The poor old chief was greatly astonished,' and bursb out in his not too refined way, .' Well, I'll be hanged if I can understand you women! I have done the very thing I thought you would like, and hare only succeeded in making you angry. I will never try to help a woman again.' My wife «aw that he had meant to be kind, and that it wa«, as he said, only because he did nob' understand women' that.he had made the mistake. She was soon appeased, and in the end the and Lord Clyde became |gre»»frjendj.»;., - \ ~.-..,