STORIES OF THE BRITISH FLAG.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1354, 10 February 1898, Page 9

STORIES OF THE BRITISH FLAG.

HOW THE CHITRAL MINE WAS , BURST. [By Charles Lowe.] Century Magazine. It was the salvation of the holders of the fort that the enemy were unprovided with artillery of any kind, and had to rely solely upon their rifle and faggot-fire, But this they now began to vaty by slinging Stones into the fort; and thus harassing the British officers, who used the courtyard as a mess-room. Safe from the trajectory of rifle-fire, this courtyard could, nevertheless; be reached by the mortar-libe orbit of a sling-projected missile; and the turning on of this fire of stones which was catapulted in with great, velocity, was pretty conclusive evidence to the besieged that their domestic arrangements were known to the enemy, and that, in spite of all precautions, there must be treacherous correspondence between the inside and the outside of the fort. On the other hand, not a scrap of news was allowed to filter in, although by this time the besiegers themselves were well aware of the rapid approach of Sir Robert Low’s and Colonel Kelly’s relieving columns, the former from Peshawur; the latter from Gilgit. Gathering themselves together, theresore, for one last desperate effort, the enemy began to prepare huge scaling-ladders, broad enough to carry two cr three men abreast, as well as a huge pent-roof, lake an ancient Roman testudo, or tortoise shell, to prop up against the walls of the fort and afford protection to the escaladers. Suddenly the besieged heard a great noise—not the yelling and piping and drumming and general hullabaloo which the besiegers had of lata been keeping up all night. Jemidar Bab Nawaz Khau, of the Fifteenth Bengal Lancers, gave the opinion that the noise was designed to drown the dull sound of mining Thereupon Townshend warned the sentries in the gun (south-east) tower to be ou the alert; likewise the sentries in the tambour at the main gate. At midnight on the 16th one of the sentries in the lower story of the gun-tower reported the sound of a dull subterraneous knocking. Townshend went up, and listened for some time, bnt confessed that he could hear nothing. About eleven on the morning of the 17th the native officer in the gun-tower reported to the commander that he, like the sentry, could hear the noise of underground' picking. Again Townshend mounted to the lower story of the tower; and listened intently. Ye 3! there it was this time —pick, pick, pick. He made a calculation, and found that the mine had already reached within twelve feet of the tower. Dr Robertson came up to the tower, and he and Townshend agreed that there was but one thing to do ; the summer-house must be rushed and the mine destroyed. To Lieutenant Harley was assigned the honour of leading the sortie at the head of a party of forty Sikhs and sixty of the Cashmere Rifles. The latter had rather hung back on the day of the disaster which led to the siege; they would now have an opportunity of retrieving their reputation. It was assumed that the shaft of the mine would be found in or about the summerhouse, only about fifty yards distant. Men were told off to carry out three powderbags each of one hundred and ten pounds, forty feet of powder-hose, matches, picks and spades. Harley’s instructions were to rush the summer-house with the bayonet only, and to reserve his fire for the defence thereof, forty rounds being issued to each of his men; to go straight for the gap in the wall, with no dividing up of the party and no support; to take a prisoner or two if possible; to hold the garden house on its front toward Fateh Ali Shah’s house, and, with the rest of his men, to destroy the mine by pulling down the uprights or Wooden supports, if any, or to blow it in, as he saw fit, but without hurry ; and if harassed by fire from the garden sangar, to send a p irty to silence it, first sounding the “cease fire” twice as a sign to the riflemen on the parapets to suspend their supporting fusillade.

Townshend sent for all the native officers going out with Harley, and explained to them the object and methods of the sortie. All officers carried matches, while one was told off to bring up the rear and see that none hung back. Harley himself assumed the dress of a native officer, as otherwise he would have become the mark of every rifle in and about the garden house. It was about 11 a.m. on the 17th when Townsend had at last heard the picking in the mine, and by 4 p.m. everything was ready within the fort to put an ond to that picking once and for all. At the latter hour the garden gate was quietly opened, and Harley dashed out at the head of his men —the Sikhs in front—with fixed bayonets. A rush across the 50 yards, a few hurried shots from the garden house, the fall of a couple of Sikhs, who were shot dead on either side of Harley as he raced forward, sword in hand, and the garden house was won. It had been in the holding of about 40 Pathans, who, not daring to front this sudden and impetuous outfall of the besieged, had bolted along the garden wall after several of them had been bayoneted. They stopped at the farther end of the garden, threw up fascines, and opened a heavy and sustained fire on the house, Harley's men now replying vigorously. ;

Two Fathans were shot in the house, and two prisoners taken. In the meantime the garrison had gone to its stations on the parapets, and kept up a lively fire, killing several of the enemy as they ran across towards the bazaar. It was several times reported from the towers that a considerable number of the foe were heading to the river-bank from Fateh Ali Shahs house, as if with intent to make a Counter-attack on the waterway ; so Townshend took the necessafy steps, and at the same time sent three different messages to Harley to hasten his work of destroying the mine. It had tiken some liitle time to discover this, but at length the shaft was found, carefully overlaid with fascines, ! just outside the house behind the garden wall. Readily responding to Harley’s call [for volunteers, several of the Sikhs jumped down with him into the opening, and despatched from thirty to forty of the enemy as they rushed out of the mine—these tulwar-armed Pathans, however fierce, being no match for their sturdy, bayonet" weilding antagonists. The powder was then brought and placed in the mine; but much precious time was lost in laying it, as it was found that the mackintosh sheet-'hose had been ruptured. .The powder was placed a few feet along the mine, but it was found impossible to open it up, and Harley began to despair for the first time during the siege, the more so as. messengers from the fort were now following hard on one another’s heels, calling attention to gathering dangers, and urging him to be quick. But presently accident came to his aid. Two of the enemy’s engineers, who had held back in the mine, came rushing out, apd were fired by the Sikhs j the powder in the.mine was ignited " by the shots; and a loud explosion followed, knocking down Harley himself, and singeing the clothes of several of his men. Under-the impression that his mission had thus unfortunately failed of its main ' object, the powder being undamped, Harley , now sounded the rally, and ordered his , men to return to the fort, phich they did at a cool, steady double, under a perfect i hail of bullets, carrying with them as ( trophies of their valour all the arras and , accoutrements of-the enemy’s killed and i wounded. But what was Harley’s surprise and delight, on= .regaining the fort, from . which he had been absent about an hour and a half, to find that his mission had been completely successful, the whole mine having been burst, right open to the foot • of the gun-tower, and lying exposed like a , trench! Two of the enemy had been | killed in the by the explosion. . Harley and his party had done their work ( very well, but at a cost of eight killed and fourteen wounded, while the loss of the | enemy was estimated at about sixty, the } majority of whom had fallen by the ( bayonet. The next day Townshend set to * work to run a subterranean gallery round \ the tower, so as to bar any future attempt | at mining.