A Call To Arms (35 page)

‘Yes,’ said Hervey, standing up and going to the map on the wall. ‘That much would serve both needs. Where should they best go?’

‘I was going to ask
your
opinion of that,’ replied Somervile, frowning.

Hervey was a little taken aback. ‘My purlieus these past months have been the exercise ground. I could only hazard an opinion from the map.’

‘My own knowledge is not extensive, Hervey, and your opinion from a map will be better than mine.’

Hervey returned to his chair. ‘Do we know anything of Burman dispositions? Or their equipment and how they fight?’

‘I don’t believe my office does, no. But the Arakanese will. It goes against the intent of my own mission here, but we shall have to enlist their support – at least, their intelligence. I wish their Chin Payan were still alive, for all the trouble he gave us.’

‘How long do you suppose it will take for Calcutta to despatch a brigade?’

‘I’ve asked for immediate advice in that respect. I have a fear it will not be as prompt as is necessary. There’s no standing force in East Bengal at present, as far as I know; they’re all deployed.’

Hervey had thought it might be the case. He knew his own brigade would be in the field still. ‘Colonel Piven will be back next week. That’s something.’

‘He has a very good knowledge of the frontiers; that much is certain. He would have an idea about where to strengthen our patrols, I suppose.’ Somervile sighed. ‘What I need is two brigades of cavalry and horse artillery. If we surprised the Burmans with a prodigious amount of fire we might well drive them back.’

Hervey nodded. ‘That relies on very fine intelligence. We were
humbugged at Waterloo – and that was with some of the best officers at work.’

‘We had better make a start, then. I’ll send word for the leaders of the Arakanese here in the city to come at once; and the more distant ones we shall have to see as they show. Let us meet here again at noon.’

Johnson waved his hand violently across his face. ‘Bastard flies! These are worse than them in Madras.’

Hervey agreed. What their provenance was he could not conclude: there was not a living thing in miles on this plain. ‘Let’s trot again,’ he sighed. ‘Perhaps they’ll give up this time.’

They had come a good way from the lines, but it had been worth it to see the sowars of Colonel Skinner’s regiment of siladar cavalry. Their skill with the lance was breathtaking, equalled only by their horsemanship. Both Johnson and Hervey admitted they had never seen the like. But they had been paying the price since with the flies.

This time, however, the flies were evidently more tired than the horses, falling away after the second furlong. Hervey pressed on for a third and then pulled up to a walk. Five minutes later they were still without their tormentors, so he presumed they could walk the remainder of the way in peace. And peaceful the land looked to be at this hour. The hills to the east were still shrouded with the morning’s mist – it was
Hemanto
, Hervey’s bearer had told him, the misty season – and the country looked even greener than in the days that followed the August deluges. An unruly flight of Brahminy duck passed high overhead, their funny clanging call seeming to protest against the intrusion.

Johnson was pleased to be able to resume the earlier conversation. ‘And so, this ’ere King Baggydrawers reckons we’d just give ’im t’country an’ go ’ome?’

‘That’s about the long and the short of it,’ said Hervey, not imagining there was any point insisting on respectful pronunciation. ‘And Mr Somervile says that Bagyidaw would not stop until he reached Calcutta.’

‘ ’Ow’s ’e think ’e’d get across all them rivers?’

‘I think he’d go by sea. They have a lot of war barges, apparently.’

‘ ’E wants tipping a settler, that’s what ’e wants!’

‘Just so, Johnson. But how? There’s the rub.’

‘ ’Fore ’e’s art o’ ’is pit.’

Mutual comprehension was by now a matter of context rather than knowledge of vocabulary, especially since Johnson, when aroused to indignation, reverted to a particularly impenetrable strain of Sheffield.

‘Yes, but how shall you find the pit? You’re right, though. Mr Somervile says that the Governor-General, a few years ago, wanted to do just that – march into Burma and teach them a lesson. Not that Bagyidaw was king at that time.’

‘Daft name. Mebbe if ’is men knew what it meant they’d pack it all in.’

Hervey smiled. ‘I think they would be parted from their heads first. He’s a very brutal man, it seems.’

‘Sounds as if they’d be pleased if we
did
knock ’im abaht a bit.’

‘Perhaps. Anyway, we might get to know a bit more from these Arakanese in an hour or so.’ He checked his watch. ‘Come on; we’d better not dawdle.’

All about Eyre Somervile’s study were papers and ledgers, boxes and maps. ‘Did you have an agreeable ride?’ he asked, without looking up.

Hervey felt rather guilty. ‘Yes. I watched the native horse at drill. They go very well.’

‘Mm,’ was the reply.

‘What has engaged
you
?’

‘The
Bengal Secret and Political Consultations.
And they would have engaged far less of my time had they a proper index. I found what I was looking for by a most circular exercise – in volume ninety-one, no less.’

Hervey had learned to tread gently when Somervile was in his ‘scholarly’ frame of mind, as he thought of it. ‘May I ask what were you searching for?’

‘After you had gone this morning, I remembered that Lord Wellesley had sent an officer to Ava to treaty with the then king, Bodawpaya, Bagyidaw’s grandfather. A Colonel Symes it was, and it occurred to me that his reports must include some military assessments, and so I have been searching them out.’

‘And do they contain that information?’

‘In admirable detail. You must read him. The papers are on yonder table.’ He gestured without looking up again.

Hervey turned, but at that moment Somervile looked up and took off his spectacles. ‘You know, the real danger is these war boats. There are five hundred of them: every town or village near the rivers has to supply a certain number of oarsmen and soldiers – a hundred or so for each boat – and they mount a gun in the bows. These could swarm on Chittagong – and Calcutta for that matter – and there’d be the very devil of a fight.’

Hervey made rapid calculations. The results were indeed ominous. ‘Then the answer would be to destroy the boats before they discharged their cargo. But that too might be easier said than done, though I dare say Commodore Peto would know how.’

Somervile raised an eyebrow. ‘I have a sense that we shall feel his want very keenly before too long.’ He took out his watch. ‘Let us go and see who of the Arakanese is come.’

There were a dozen of them, men who hitherto had been regarded as at best troublesome and at worst practitioners of dacoity. Now they all sat in the lieutenant-governor’s audience room as if they were waiting for a wedding. ‘I have called you here today,’ began Somervile, in confident Bengali, ‘to ask you for information on the activities of the Burmans.’

There was at once a hubbub, with keen looks of anticipation on the faces of the Arakanese.

Somervile halted it magisterially. ‘I must warn you, however, that this does
not
mean we are contemplating any hostilities. It is simply that the Company in Calcutta wishes to know what movements in general are there.’

None of the Arakanese looked convinced, but that suited Somervile. He wanted their help, and it would be the more vigorous for believing that the fight might be taken to their old enemy. He pointed to the map several times as he elaborated on his requirements, unsure as to its usefulness in that company, but the place names he mentioned, especially the rivers, brought eager nods. At length he promised them the Company would meet all reasonable expenses. ‘But I must warn you that the Company cannot extend any protection. And I will not condone any offensive
action whatever. Indeed, I shall deal with it with infinitely greater severity than hitherto.’

This latter was unwelcome news, but the manifest disappointment was soon replaced by enthusiasm for the covert action to come, and the meeting was ended with Somervile shaking each of the Arakanese by the hand and bidding them
khuda
ha
fiz
, and expressing his hope that he would see them again soon –
a
ba
r deka
hobe
. When they were gone he asked Hervey for his opinion.

Hervey smiled. He had understood barely a word. ‘I’d wager those men will bring you your intelligence, and severed heads too to prove their word.’

Somervile nodded, and frowned. ‘That is my fear. I wanted them keen, but I warned them there was to be no dacoity.’