The remaining Guns of the Light Field Battery (from which a portion has already been attached) on duty at the Advanced Posts, are to be ordered down to join this afternoon, and to be considered as placed under the orders of the General of the Day.
One hundred Sepoys (Goorkas) from the Sirmoor Detachment, with a proportion of Native Officers, to be sent to Buldeo Singh's Garden at three p.m.; and the Officer in Command is instructed to report himself to the General of the Day.
Working parties for the Trenches will parade in front of H.M.'s 14th and 59th Regiments, this afternoon at four o'clock, and to be furnished as follows: by the 1st Division, for the Posts of Buldeo Singh's Garden, 200 Europeans, and 450 sepoys; by the 2nd Division, for the Post of Kuddum Kundee, 100 Europeans, and 400 Sepoys. An Engineer Officer to attend at the hour appointed.
Officers proceeding in charge of working parties, are to be strictly cautioned to pay particular attention to the conduct of the men under their command, whilst employed on working duties, and to prevent fires being lighted in the Trenches, and any unnecessary noise being made . . .
. . . The Hon. Lieut.-Col. Finch, Military Secretary to the Commander in Chief, is appointed Prize-Agent for His Excellency and the Field-Officers of the Army.
The second Agent, authorized to be nominated by the Captains and Subalterns, is to be selected from the Hon. Company's Service, and may be an officer of any rank.
The General Officers commanding Divisions, and Commandants of Departments, are requested to collect, without delay, the Votes for a Prize-Agent from the Captains and Subalterns of their Divisions and Commands respectively, and will transmit them to the Adjutant-General.
It is to be proclaimed through the several Suddur Bazaars in Camp, and Bazaars of Corps, that any person bringing in cannon-shot or shell, delivering them into the Park, to the Commissary or Deputy-Commissary of Ordnance, will be entitled to rewards, as follows:
For every 24lb. Shot . 12 annas.
8 & 12 ditto. 6 ditto.
6 ditto. 4 ditto.
13-inch shell. 2 rupees.
10-inch ditto. 1 rupee, 4 annas.
8-inch ditto. 1 rupee.
The Commissary or Deputy-Commissary of Ordnance, will grant Certificates for shot or shell received, and the Commissariat is directed to pay the amount on presentation of Certificate so furnished.
To-morrow being Christmas-Day, the usual gratuity of extra Batta to be issued to the Europeans in Camp.
Joynson took off his spectacles. ‘Well, Gentlemen, the orders are eminently clear, if late in the arriving. The adjutant will collect votes for prize agent at evening stables. By the by, who is field officer of the day?'
‘I am,' said Rose.
'The outlying picket, only, under saddle today please.'
Rose nodded.
'I conclude, then, by extending my own good wishes for the day. The chaplain will say prayers at eleven. That is all.'
Joynson had called them together earlier than usual. Since the officers had taken gunfire to every man at reveille he had thought it best to capitalize on their wakefulness by holding his conference immediately after stand-down. The sun was now well up and taking the chill off the air, which even the braziers in the marquee had not managed to do when they first assembled, and the prospects for the festive day looked good.
Hervey stayed seated as the others left.
'I believe I may guess your thoughts’ said the major.
'It were better not to’ replied Hervey. 'Not all of them at any rate. I was wondering earlier what we might do to tempt out Durjan Sal's cavalry.'
'And what did you conclude?'
'That we couldn't.'
Joynson looked blank. 'Really, Hervey, what profit had you supposed lay in such a line of thought?'
'When I was brigade field officer the day before yesterday, Murray told me he had conceived a stratagem by which all the Jhaut cavalry could be lured from the fortress and then destroyed, which would mean that Durjan Sal, having no means to escape if the fortress fell, could not dare risk a storming and would have to sue for peace at once.'
Joynson nodded. 'That is artful. I wonder you didn't tell me of it.'
'Murray said to speak to no one. He asked my opinion as to where a demonstration would have greatest effect, and I concluded the Agra gate. But thinking the more, I believe now that nothing would tempt him out, for he can risk losing his cavalry even less than losing the fortress. And it would be folly to suppose he has not made that inference for himself. Perhaps General Sleigh thinks the same and does not approve it, therefore.'
'Mm.' Joynson nodded again, but slower.
'You're a very clever fellow, Hervey. You ought by rights to be on Combermere's staff.’
Hervey smiled, acknowledging the tease.
'You know,' he continued, putting his spectacles in their case in such a way as to suggest a conclusion. 'I've seen little enough field service, but what I've seen and read leads me to believe that there's rarely a clever way to things. Better to do well what's to be done.'
It would have been too easy to dismiss Joynson as a plodder, suited only to organizing supply for the fixed defences of the Sussex coast - which had been his former extra-regimental service. Hervey would not. Indeed, he had come to respect 'Daddy' Joynson as a man who knew his limitations to an uncommon degree, and acknowledged them. 'That would appear to be what Combermere is about, is it not - doing well what's to be done?'
'I hope so. I hope he's listening to Anburey rather than Murray. I can't see that this business will be settled other than by powder and the bayonet. You know, I've a mind to leave things here for a while and go see Armstrong and his cohort. I've a mind that Armstrong's shovel will be a deal more serviceable in this than the whole of Murray's brigade. You'll come with me?'
As they rode into the extensive earthworks that Buldeo Singh's garden had become, the battery at Kuddum Kundee, a furlong away, fired in unison - eight of the artillery's biggest siege guns laid painstakingly on the same point of the long-necked bastion, 250 pounds of iron hurled with a velocity which vastly multiplied that weight on impact. Hervey pressed Gilbert to the top of one of the earth ramparts just in time to observe the effect - a column of dust higher than the walls of the fortress itself. Were there troops ready to assault the breach?
As the dust cleared, he saw there was no need of a breaching party, nor even a sign of the gunners' work. The long-necked bastion stood as before, prominent and defiant. He frowned and turned Gilbert back down the bank, muttering about Joshua and his trumpets.
'God in heaven!' cursed Joynson, climbing from the saddle. His mare looked as if she had taken root, her legs splayed, immovable.
'It was enough to startle a seasoned trooper, Eustace. She's very green, still.' Joynson's luck with horses was evidently not great, thought Hervey. 'Give her a lead?'
Joynson shook his head crossly. 'No, no. I'll walk in, damn it! Serjeant Lightfoot!'
The major's covering-serjeant took the reins. Hervey dismounted and handed his to Private Johnson.
They set off through the tamarisk grove with Joynson still tutting about his second charger.
'It's as well we approach on foot, anyway,' said Hervey, leading. 'The place is getting tight-packed with limbers.'
They picked their way through the siege park like sightseers at a fair. There were piles of shot, powder kegs in dugout bays, explosive shell in others, all manner of engineer stores neatly piled, sacks of corn for the horses, tubs of salt beef, dripping, biscuit, heaps of black bread, barrels of water, firewood and quartermaster stores, and the surgeon's dressing post, empty now, though at the same hour yesterday it was a sorry butcher's shop. It all spoke of the effort and patience a siege required, the organization. Someone at least knew his job, thought Hervey. And it was as well, given the impotence of the eighteen-pounders that had just been demonstrated.