*
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A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
A FREELANCE IN
KASHMIR
A TALE OF THE GREAT ANARCHT
BY
LIEUT.-COLONEL G, F. MAcMUNN, D.S.O.
AUTHOR OF "ARMIES OF INDIA" AND "PIKE AND CARRONADE"
LONDON
SMITH, ELDER & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE
(All rights reserved)
PRINTED BY
WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED
LONDON AND BECCLES
INTRODUCTION
THE following romance is a story of the latter days of
" The Great Anarchy," a name which has been given
to the years following the death of the Emperor
Aurangzebe and the dismemberment of the Mogul
Empire to the bringing of peace to a distracted country
by the rise of the English. In 1707 died Aurangzebe,
the last of the great Emperors of Delhi. From that
date the Empire crumbled as province after province
fell away and one upstart after another tried to rule
the puppet throne. Ever from the North, Persian and
Afghan poured into the land, and the whole of Hin-
dostan became a vast camp, in which each and all
fought for his own hand, and the unhappy peasantry
never knew who would reap the crops they had sown and
tended. The last fifty years of the eighteenth century
saw a small host of Europeans take service with the
various contending chiefs, and even carve principalities
for themselves. They organized the forces of chiefs on
European lines, and contended with one another in
opposing ranks. English, French, American, Italian,
and Dutch, from runaway sailor to refugee Chevalier,
their histories are packed with romance, adventure,
and tragedy. Just before Lord Lake and General
Arthur Wellesley crushed the power of the great
Maratha usurpers of the Mogul throne, and broke up
the Maratha Confederacy, the Savoyard De Boigne in
the service of the Maharajah Scindiah had organized a
vi INTRODUCTION
large force on the Company's model. He had formed
an officer's cadre with even a cadet service, recruited
from Europeans of many races. The half-breed
children of English officials and their Indian wives
found a career in this service, notably James Skinner,
the famous " old Sikander." Among the " freelances "
as they were called were the Skinners, De Boigne,
Perron, the Chevalier Dudrenac, George Thomas of
Hansi, Walter Reinhart, nicknamed Sombre (corrupted
into Somru), Hyder Hearsey, and many another, while
in somewhat later days there were the officers in the
service of Runjeet Singh, of whom Avitabile, Allard
Ventura and Van Cortland were the best known.
To the fascination of the days of the Freelance
proper, i.e. the last decades of the eighteenth century,
must be added the traces of the Christian tradition,
the strange legend of the Tomb of Christ in Kashmir,
and the initials of the Cross on the Kashmir rupee,
born of Jesuit travel. Behind, and yet mingling with
this again, the Afghan origin, the descent from Saul,
the tomb of the prophet Lamech with that curious
and almost modern report of the presence of "Dan
and the half of Manassah " in Bactria, with all the
hint of Judaism that it involves. Then as a back-
ground to it all the ever-green memory, in village
mouths to this day, of the great coming of Alexander
of Macedon.
India is full of so much that strikes old broken
chords to memory.
" Some arms deep rusted, an old-world rhyme,
A broken idol, a ruined fane."
G. F. M.
September, 1914.
GAZETTEER AND GLOSSARY
Abdalli . . Another name for the Duranni race.
Amamath . . Caves in the Liddar Valley in Kashmir.
Baltistan . . A mountain district north of Kashmir.
Badakshan . A province in Central Asia, Afghanistan.
Begum . . A Muhammadan lady's title (fern, of Beg).
Ben-i-Israel . Children of Israel, a title claimed by the
Duranni tribes.
Bij Biharas . An old Mogul garden in the Jhelum in
Kashmir.
Birmal . . A district in Afghanistan south of Ghuzni.
Black Mountain A mass of mountains east of Peshawur and
south of the Indus.
Burzil . . A pass leading from Kashmir to the Gilgit
province.
Chib . . A Rajpoot tribe of the Punjab hills.
Chilas . . A village and district on the Indus above the
Black Mountain.
Cheneni . . A small Rajpoot state and town in the Pir
Panjal.
Churel . . The ghost of a woman who had died at
childbirth.
Cossid . . A mounted messenger.
Dardistan . . The country of the Dards, north of Kashmir.
Darel . , A wild mountain district north of the
Indus, and west of Gilgit.
Duranni . . The name of the ruling race in Afghanistan.
Vlll
GAZETTEEE AND GLOSSARY
Dole . . .A long Afghan drum.
Euzufzai . . The Sons of Joseph ; a group of tribes in the
mountains about Peshawur.
Gargabal . . A sacred lake near Haramukh.
Gilgit . . A town and province between Kashmir and
the Pamirs.
Ghazi . . A fanatical swordsman.
Ghor V .A mountainous district of Southern Afghani-
stan.
Gurais . . A beautiful valley and village in Kashmir.
Hazara . . A district near the Black Mountain ; also a
Mongol race in Afghanistan.
Hara-mukh . A mountain in Kashmir.
Hari Parbat . A fortified hill overlooking Srinagar.
Huqa . . An Eastern pipe, or bubble bubble.
Huzoor . . Lit. " Presence." A title of respect.
Jaghir . . Land granted in perpetuity on the feudal
system.
Jezail . . An Afghan matchlock.
Jhok . . A homestead.
Jihad . . A religious war of Islam.
Jirgah . . The representative assembly of tribal
elders.
Jo wan . . A young man.
Kafila . . A caravan.
Kamri . . A pass in Kashmir alternative to the
Burzil.
Kanzilwan . A village at the foot of the Kamri pass.
Kazilbash -.' Persians settled in Afghanistan.
Kabab . . Lumps of meat cooked on a skewer.
Kala Taka . Black Mountain.
Kasid or Cossid A mounted messenger.
Karewa . . An alluvial plateau in Kashmir through
which a river has cut its bed.
Khagan . . A valley in the mountains west of Kashmir.
GAZETTEER AND GLOSSARY
IX
Khagwani .
Khassadar
KMstwar .
Kirri.
Kishengunga
Eommadan
Lascar
Lashkar .
Lolab .
Malik
Mhanji
Mogul
Mooltan .
Moolah
Pathan
Pandav
Pawindah
Powandah
Pir Panjal
Rafzi
Rajpoot
Rissalah
Sanad
Salaam
Shapiyon
Sirdar
Sind .
. One of the Duranni clans.
. Militia.
. A district in the Pir Panjal.
. The camp of a nomadic tribe.
. A river of Kashmir running into the Jhelum.
. Commandant.
. A gunner ; literally a soldier.
. An army.
. A beautiful valley in Kashmir, colonized by
Afghans.
. A headman.
. A rower.
. The Mongolian race who conquered India
under Baber.
. An Afghan city, in what is now the Southern
Punjab.
. A priest of Islam.
. People who speak the Pushtoo ; tribesman
of the hills between Afghanistan and
India.
. An ancient Indian fabulous race of kings.
r fr A nomad race with centre about Ghuzni.
)
The great snowy spurs of the Himalaya
which separate Kashmir from the
Punjab.
A heretic.
Literally Sons of Kings ; one of the great
ruling Aryan races of India.
A squadron, or corps of cavalry.
A treaty.
Peace ; a salutation.
A village in Kashmir, close to the Pir Panjal.
Chief; officer.
A tributary of the Jheluni.
x GAZETTEER AND GLOSSARY
Suddozai . . The clan royal of the Durannis.
Surnai . . An Afghan reed pipe.
Swami . . A Hindu ascetic recluse.
Tazi . . .A swift breed of horses.
Tangir . . A wild mountain district near Gilgit.
Toorkoman . Men of Toork races of Central Asia, of whom
many had come to India with the various
invaders from the North.
Verinag . . An old royal palace and temple in Kashmir.
Zogi La . .A pass out of Kashmir towards Thibet.
SINCE the nomenclature of the characters in an Indian
romance is always puzzling to the reader, a list of
the persons mentioned by name is given here.
DAVID FRASBK .
Lucius TONE .
JEAN ARM AND E DU]
PLESSIS j
GANESHA SINGH
NlHAL SlNQH .
GUL JAN . .
SALABAT KHAN
YAE KHAN
HABIB ULLAH
ALTAMISH . .
WALI DAD
DAOUD SHAH . .
INAYAT ULLAH
ALLAHDAD KHAN
DUNDOO .
THE BEGUM SOMEU
THE LADY MIRIAM
THE LADY NUK JAN)
THE BIBI ALANA >
THE BEGUM ALLAH)
VISAYAH >
AZIZUN .
AMAH
The hero of the story, son of an officer of
the Bengal Artillery and an Afghan
mother.
An ex-Artillery Sergeant.
A Jesuit Priest.
A Rajpoot native officer.
A Rajpoot native non-commissioned
officer.
David Eraser's Afghan orderly.
The Governor of Kashmir.
His Wazir.
Commandant of his bodyguard.
A Toork noble.
An agent of his.
An Afghan, generalissimo of the Begum
Somru's army ; a mysterious cha-
racter.
Commandant of the palace at Srinagar.
A soldier of the Chib tribe.
Infant son of Allah Visayah.
An Indian princess well known to history.
A sister of Salabat Khan.
Wives of Salabat Khan.
A notorious courtesan of Srinagar.
A famous dancer.
Miriam's old nurse.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE BEQUM SOMKU'S CAMPO .... 1
II. SHATRANJ-BAZI . . ^o. <rj ; *. * . ... 13
III. THE NORTH ROAD . '" ". '', ''. . . 24
IV. THE NIGHT SKIRMISH 83
V. OVER THE PIR WITH MIRIAM .... 44
VI. THE RIVAL PARTY AT SRINAGAR .... 55
VII. ALIABAD SERAI . . . . ... 69
VIIL THE PILGRIM HOSTS 79
IX. THE GARDEN OF SWEET BREEZES ... 89
X. THE NIGHT ON THE TOP OF THE PASS . . 101
XI. A COUNCIL OF WAR 110
XII. THE NIGHT RIDE . , . . . .120
XIII. THE REWARD OF REBELLION .... 180
XIV. IN THE STREETS OF SRINAGAR .... 140
XV. THE SHERGARHI . . . -. . . . . 151
XVI. TOORK, AFGHAN, AND FRANK . . . . 164
XVII. THE RETURN OF SALABAT KHAN . . . 176
XVIII. WITH MIRIAM IN THE GARDEN .... 189
XIX. DAVID'S CAMP ON THE DHALL .... 198
xiv CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
XX. DURBAR AND FESTIVAL 208
XXI, THE GROVES OF ASHTAROTH .... 221
XXII. TROUBLE ON THE BORDER .... 236
XXIII. WAR AND RUMOURS OF WAR . . . .245
XXIV. THE ARMY ADVANCES 255
XXV. DEFEAT . . , V.vt -265
XXVI. BANGLES RING SOFTLY AND SADLY . . . 279
XXVII. TENDER RUTH 291
XXVIII. THE STRATAGEM OF FEROZ TUGLAK . .299
XXIX. THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN . . . . ., 308
XXX. THE HUNDREDTH NAME OF GOD . . 321
XXXI. THE PAX BRITANNICA . 335
A
FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
CHAPTEE I
THE hour of high twelve boomed across the plain of
the Jumna Kadir as the great brass field-piece Malik-
i-maidan (the Lord of the battlefield) fired its midday
charge in the campo of the Begum Somru, after the
custom of the English. Her Highness was the Company
Bahadur's very good friend for several excellent
reasons. The first reason was that it eminently suited
her interests; and the second one was that she had
had tender passages with sturdy English George Thomas
of Hansi, which had taken out of her mouth the bad
taste left by her lawful spouse, evil Walter Keinhart,
nicknamed Sombre. A third was that she had just
had a satisfactory interview with the English Com-
mander-in- Chief, General Gerald Lake, who had
beaten the Marathas and their French-trained army
at Delhi.
It was true that the gallant General had received
her in full Durbar and had kissed her before the
assembled officers, to their no small delight, the which
had taken some explaining to her retinue. She had,
however, succeeded in conveying the impression that
it was a mark of very great favour among the English,
B
2 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
and that it had nothing whatever to do with the
General's good lunch.
The army of Her Highness consisted of a mixed
brigade of all arms, horse, foot, and artillery, a rissalah *
of horse of mixed nationality, two battalions of foot-
men, one with muskets presented by the English, and
one armed with the matchlock of the country side ;
and lastly, the pride of every chieftain, the park of
artillery. Her Highness's park of artillery was not a
very formidable one. There were two light threes
that the Company had presented her as galloper guns,
two rickety nines, and the pride of the campo, the
great brass eighteen-pounder carronade that had just
boomed forth high twelve.
The campo was arranged in an irregular square,
the horse on one side, the foot on the opposite one,
a third occupied by the park of artillery with the
Begum's tents beyond. A peepal tree in the fore
ground, a ruined shrine at its foot, with irregular
clumps of mimosa round the edges of the camp com-
pleted the scene, and away in the distance, the white
buttress of the Himalaya, shimmered in the noonday
sun, and a dust devil danced widdershins down the
track hard by.
But though it was the hour of midday rest, for some
reason the army slept not, and a hum of voices
permeated the camp. Something had annoyed the
soldiery, and that something was no less than empty
pockets. Pockets so empty that even tobacco was
wanting, and it was little avail to swagger past the
house on the wall in the town they saw across the
fields, for who cared for an empty-handed swash-
buckler ruffle he never so bravely. Times had been
bad with the Begum Somru, the Maratha had ravaged
half her estates, and rents were overdue, and the
* A cavalry corps.
army was six months in arrears in the way of pay.
Moreover, they were still camped in the Company's
territory, and there was no living on the merchant
and the peasant, as Eastern soldiers should. The
army of Her Highness had therefore been in a bad
humour these two months past, and matters had
reached a climax, brought on perhaps by the jeers
of the mercenary fair in the bazaars of the neigh-
bouring town. Possibly, too, the commandant of
the force, a lean hungry Afghan, might have had
something to do with it, at any rate the army had
emerged from its tents and hummed round the sluim-
ianah of their lady the Begum Somru, with little
show of decorum, and many murmurings. Her High-
ness had come out discreetly veiled, but inwardly
raging, to meet her turbulent crew, and now faced
them as the brass eighteen boomed out the time of
day. But, alas! for the danger of suggestion. Big
brass Malik-i-maidan had been standing in the sun
for five full hours, and was very nearly red hot. Some
wag had seen the fun of it, the idea had flown apace.
" Sit her on tJie Ireech till she pays" had been the
suggestion and, alas for royalty flouted ! that dis-
solute soldiery then and there had seized her and
hoisted her astride the gun. As the hot metal burnt
through the thin muslin trousers, Her Highness gave
forth a shriek of rage and pain, and as she did so the
laughing crowd were torn asunder and a tall English
figure, in a yellow laced jacket and dragoon helmet,
swung the Begum from her humiliating seat, lay
around him with a heavy iron-shod stick, and thrust
his pistol into the face of one who made to draw his
sword. Behind, half a dozen mounted men in yellow
with drawn swords followed the man in the helmet,
making their horses kick and prance to clear a gang-
way. Then, as the crowd hung back to study the
apparition, up strode the commandant, laying about
him right and left and showering oaths of the forcible
Afghan variety, and the soldiery slank away, at the
shouts of " To your tents."
Her Highness lent wearily on the Englishman's arm,
while two of her girls cowered behind her. The yellow
troopers sat their horses behind the sahib, Daoud
Shah, the Afghan, sheathed his sword with a slam,
and men of Her Highness's own guards ran up. The
army had melted away. " So Daoud Shah of the
Ben-i-Israel," quoth the Begum ; " this is how you
can command an army, and this is how you arrive
late to help me. By all the prophets of all the people
of all the Books, I have had enough of this, see you
to it that the punishments are suitable, and think
who there be in this army that seek your place. The
Bijli Eissalah, and the Fatefi Pultan, march in this
afternoon, with Mian Sunnayat Singh at their head.
And you, sir," turning to the young Englishman, " you
are the young sahib, who came last night with a
troop of horse seeking service, whom I am to see in
audience this evening. KhusJi ameded,* indeed, and
my thanks for bringing these dogs to their senses.
I will receive you at sunset ; till then you have leave
to go, but let six of your men guard my tent, to teach
this crew their places. Ho Daoud Shah ! with
Sunnayat Singh comes the bakhshifi see that the
troops know it." And the Begum withdrew to her
tents.
The Afghan and the Englishmen looked each other
in the face, as men of the north should, till the Afghan
bit his lip and dropped his eye and the sahib turned
on his heel and strode to his tent, to turn out the
guard for Her Highness's tents. Six stalwart troopers,
turned out like English dragoons with clean arms and
* Welcome. t Pay-master.
THE BEGUM SOMEU'S CAMP 5
well fitting accoutrements, yet loose enough in their
Eastern frocks, were duly posted, and David Fraser
sat him down in his tent to take stock of the day's
doings, and to consider the next move.
And the next move was by no means an easy one,
for Eastern potentates love not to be found in humilia-
tion, and it is not always the saviour that receives
the favour. When, too, to the caprice of the East
is added that of the feminine, it may take the best
wits to turn the situation to advantage. So while
David Fraser rests in the noonday heat and turns
over the strange situation in which he found himself,
it will bo as well to review the circumstances which
brought that young soldier so opportunely into the
campo of Her Highness the Begum Somru, relict of
that unprincipled adventurer referred to, and recently
obligated ally of the Marquis Wellesley, the East
India Company Bahadur and their master His Majesty
King George.
In the year of Grace, 1804, David Fraser, the hero
of this story, was twenty-three years of age, the son
of Major Andrew David Fraser of Lagg of the Hon.
E. I. C.'s Bengal Artillery, and the Sultana Aluri
Suddozai, his lawful wife.
The '45 had left a ruined tower at Lagg, and a
penniless lad to be brought up by an uncle to a cadet-
ship in the Company's Artillery, with few ties to draw
that same lad back from the East. So when the
Eohilla War and fate had enabled him to rescue from
some irregular troopers the beautiful daughter of an
Afghan leader of horse, who had ridden from Ghuzni
to seek his fortune in the plains of Hindostan, he
married her then and there by all the rites available,
and she rode at his side in camp and leaguer for many
a year. Little David had seen the light in the guard-
room of the gateway of a Maratha hill fort, and lived
6 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIE
his first three years at the saddle bow, till the march
of peace and the red line on the map had brought his
parents to anchor in cantonments. If to the ancient
highland blood of the Frasers you add that of the
still older stock of the Jewish princes from the mountains
of Ghor, you may fairly reckon on getting blue blood
and pride of race and high courage for your pains.
The Sultana, like any other high-bred Afghan, was
little darker than her husband, and young David's
swarthiness was of the slightest, while his clean-cut
profile and lofty forehead proclaimed him as well
born as a man could wish to be. The mother had
brought the lad up as a horseman, and a man at arms,
and before she died, when he was twelve years of age,
had entered unsolicited into the faith of her husband,
peacefully changing the crescent for the Cross, and
dying happily under its shadow. Andrew Eraser in
his middle age had developed the Presbyter strain of
his family, and had brought up his son with far more
care than was then usually bestowed on those children
reared in India. He had intended that he also should
join the Company's service, and to this end had taught
the willing lad much of his own stock of lore in guns
and gunnery. An old Irish batman of the major's
had added to young David's education, by imparting
a cheery and simple philosophy that has brought
peace to so many of the sons of Erin. To the sterner
Calvinism of the old Scot, the trustful leaven of the
illiterate Irishman was a curious and not unfruitful
addition. The " Glory be to God, sorr," and the
" Praise the Virgin, sorr," that rose to the old soldier's
lips at almost every discussion, mellowed in the lad's
mind the sterner doctrine of his father's Presbyterian
teaching. It was more of the " Old Hundred " than
of the " Quare fremucrunt" It had been a happy
childhood, the stern and kindly father, the beautiful
THE BEGUM SOMKU'S CAMP 7
sad and fierce-eyed mother, the old servant, his play
mate, and a foster-mother and nurse from the Deccan,
all devoted to the child, who had grown up tall and
straight and truthful. He suffered, however, from
occasional moods of melancholy, the sure legacy of
a mountain race behind him on both sides, and
now and again had given way to wild bursts of
passion, which grew fewer as he had grown older.
The mother would speak of a terrible grandfather, a
prince and a ruler in Ghor, who had never spared man
in his wrath, while there were strong-willed, fierce
men enough away down the Fraser genealogy to
account for plenty of wayward temper.
At the age of sixteen young David Fraser had grown
to be as likely a lad as a father could wish to see, and
the dark blood in his veins merely bestowed on him
the complexion of any dark-haired man of Gael. So
according to his father's wishes the lad went, by favour
of the Directors, to the Cadet College at Barasset,
there to receive his military training. Trouble had
ensued soon enough, for young David had half killed
two brother cadets who had taunted him with his
colour, and had left the college then and there, and
turned up at Chunar where his father was quartered,
with his mind set on consorting no more with the
young English of the H. E. I. Company's service.
Andrew Fraser had then confided him to an old friend
in DeBoigne's French trained army, that served
the Gwalior State, and a cadetship under DeBoigne
had soon led to a cornetcy of irregular horse. The
DeBoigne corps were as systematically organized as
the Company's, and many an officer had put his
country-born sons to service there, since the pure
blood Saxon would have none of them. But then
it is not every officer of the Indian army who had
formed a union with a princess of the house of Ghor,
8 A FBEELANCE IN KASHMIR
and half the blood that runs in the veins of the half-
breed children was often poor enough. In the service
of Scindiah were courtly French officers of the Ancien
Eegime side by side with the most scoundrelly European
adventurers of every nationality, but the strong rule
of General DeBoigne had kept these gentry in their
proper place, and the service was one in which honour
and renown was to be won, with little of the evil that
prevailed in the adventurer forces of other Indian
rulers.
So the boy found himself under that prince among
the old irregulars, James Skinner the famous half-
breed, like himself the son of a Company's officer, and
soon became as good a leader of a troop of Goorcheras as
could be found in India. With the departure of
M. DeBoigne, and the advent to power of General
Perron, Scindiah' s service soon lost its prestige, and
the Maratha league against the English and the Marquis
Wellesley, brought nothing but rue. The English-
born officers left the service, and Captain Fraser with
a small following had set off to seek his fortune among
the princes not at war with the English.
As Generals Lake and Wellesley steadily broke the
power of the great Maratha confederacy in a series
of victories that created a universal respect for British
arms and British prestige, Fraser watched it all from
a distance with mingled pride and bitterness. Pride
in being the son of his father, bitterness that narrow
prejudice had driven him from being among the victors
bitterness that any man should dare look down on
him for the mother's share in his breeding. Letters
from his father came to him from time to time with
money remittances, with news of the war and its
progress, in which, however, Andrew Fraser was not
engaged. Then had come a break without letters, and
at last the news from an old friend of the family that
THE BEGUM SOMEU'S CAMP 9
Major Fraser had died, leaving apparently little but
his personal property, which was now stored awaiting
the son's instructions.
And so David Fraser, alone in the world, with little
but his sword by his side, and his uniform of Skinner's
Irregulars, had set out to fend for himself for the
rest of his life, alone, but undaunted. Miniatures by
a Delhi artist of his father and mother, a pair of beauti-
ful flint pistols that had been out with his grandfather
in the '45, and a Bible, were all of his outer connection
with the European world, when fate had brought
him seeking service in the campo of the Begum
Somru.
So reflecting in some sort on the happy past in his
father's house, and on the ventures of the day, the
hours of the hot afternoon passed away, without, how-
ever, any solution as to his future line of conduct, or
how he should comport himself in the forthcoming
interview with the princess. Now princesses, black
or white, or for the matter of that women of any kind,
had not come within the curriculum of his father's
scheme of upbringing, while he had set forth into the
world too early in life to see much of English society.
Somewhere had he read that you could not go far
wrong in life if you struck a man and kissed a woman,
whenever you met them, but the rule hardly seemed
to apply in this case, at least so far as the Begum was
concerned. Danny Irvine, his father's batman, had
other and quaint views regarding the eternal feminine,
which he had been wont to communicate at times in
the hour when he sucked at a dilapidated clay, but
they, too, hardly met the case. So about the time
that young David had come to the decision that it
would be best to wait on circumstance, his orderly
arrived to announce that his namesake, Daoud Shah,
the commander of all the Begum's campo, was about
10 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
to pay him a visit of ceremony. Now Eraser had
intended to comply with that formality during the
morning, and had sent to the neighbouring town for
a suitable offering of fruit that might serve as his
visiting card, after the manner of the East. The
events of the morning, however, had frustrated that
intention, and now contrary to precedent here was
the cominander-in-chief calling first, from which it
might be opined that the latter regarded Eraser as
a man who for the moment, at any rate, was of some
considerable importance. All of which Eraser was
such sufficiently versed in the ways of the East to
thoroughly understand and appraise at its proper
value. " Welcome, welcome, my lord," said he, " to
this humble one's shanty," as his excellency entered
with a suitable salutation. " Peace be with you and
yours," and the two seated themselves on the rug
spread over the dusty floor of the tent. When the
prolonged inquiries after each other's health had been
made, it was not so easy to discover a topic of con-
versation, and Eraser had an opportunity to scan
more closely the sardonic features of his visitor.
The Afghan face is almost always a Jewish one, though
here and there there may be some trace of the old
Greek strain from Bactria, and Daoud Shah's features
were Jewish in the extreme. To a high forehead
and almost hooked nose, were added deep-set, piercing
eyes with a queer haunting look of apprehension
at the back of them, and heavy lowering eyebrows
that completed an exceptionally sinister effect. A
ekin deeply cut and lined with a thin, dark beard
and moustache flecked with grey, completed his
countenance. A dark blue puggari hid his black
hair, and the rest of his costume was of the usual
flowing type of the Afghan gentry, while round his
waist was a leather belt with a pistol and long straight
THE BEGUM SOMRU'S CAMP 11
knife therein. The visitor's speech, however, was
pleasant enough, and he talked of the politics of
Hindostan with a detached air that gave an interesting
appearance of inner knowledge. There was no refer-
ence as to what he was dying to know, viz. the young
Englishman's exact business and what had brought
him to the camp at all.
In the East, however, a visit of ceremony is not
protracted for long, and the Afghan soon left with an
invitation to come sup with him that evening which
Fraser accepted willingly enough, with a mental
note to remember the long spoon, that precept recom-
mended for such occasions. Then when the Afghan
took his departure his orderly arrived to help him dress
for his interview with Her Highness. Fraser, at no
time a sloven, and imbued with a young man's natural
desire to look his best, understood well enough when
a man should be suitably attired. He would visit
the Begum in full dress, so far as an adventurer
officer could have such, and he put on his uniform as
an officer of Skinner's Irregular Horse in the service
of Scindiah, with a British dragoon helmet atop. This
consisted of a loose yellow tunic with embroidered
collar cut low at the neck, pieces of chain mail on
the shoulders to turn a sword cut, and Kashmir- em-
broidered cuffs. In those days even, the irregulars
in the Company's service wore the kurta, and all the
more so in Scindiah's. Under the loose tunic were
loose yellow cotton breeches tucked into high loose
jack boots, a la Marechal Turenne, and round the
waist a crimson embroidered sash with hanging ends,
and a stout sambher skin sword belt, outside. From
the belt hung a curved French dragoon sabre, and
the two ancestral flint pistols therein completed our
hero's grand tenue, and very effective it was, and a
pity that his mother could not have seen him in it.
12 A EEEELANCE IN KASHMIE
For Eraser, though he knew it not, possessed that gift
of the gods, a way with him that led straight to women's
hearts, and none the less so for his gallant figure hi
his bravery. And so wondering what might be in
store for him, his hand on his hip and his sabre trailing,
David Eraser adventurer, set forth to visit the Begum
Somru.
CHAPTER II
SHATEANJ-BAZI
OUTSIDE the tent the encampment presented a lively
appearance, for the corps under Mian Sunnayat Singh
had marched in, and it was " the hour of the kine,"
when the flocks coming home raised long trails of
dust in the evening gloom. The horses of the campo
were passing backwards and forwards to their evening
watering at the tank across the road. The sun dipping
on the horizon just glinted on a peak of the Himalaya
that was visible above the dust, and a flight of kulan
wore screaming overhead. Eraser strode over to
the Begum's tents accompanied by his orderly and
his troop duffedar, one Nihal Singh, a handsome veteran
Eajpoot, who had served in many services for over
thirty years, but could not resist the glamour of the
tented life. As they approached Her Highness's
quarters, the guard turned out to give a ragged
salute, a sure sign of which way the cat might jump,
since who would salute an unknown jeringhi adven-
turer without good cause.
An officer of the household received the Englishman,
and let him into the large two-poled tent in which the
Begum half veiled and clothed in crimson silk, sat
waiting to receive him, with two of her maids behind
her. The official who received him left him at the
13
14 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIE
entrance, and the Begum's voice broke the silence
which followed on the military salute which Fraser
had given her. " Fraser Sahib" said a mellow and
not unpleasing voice, " you are indeed welcome.
Come and sit on this stool and tell me what brings
you to my camp, and if I can befriend you." And
Fraser drew near to where Her Highness sat on a small
low divan covered with cushions, and close to which
stood another and smaller stool. " Fraser Sahib"
again said Her Highness, " I have ordered you to be
admitted to see me privately, and have sent away
my attendants all save these two girls. I have to
thank you for your assistance against those insolent
troopers this day, and I would speak to you of other
matters also. Come you from the camp of General
Lake Sahib?"
" I do not, your Highness," said Fraser. " I come
from Eajputana seeking service as a freelance, and
to make my fortune, for I have little else save my
sword, and I have never been in the Company
Bahadur's service."
" Tell me, then," said the Begum, " how you come
to be roaming Hindostan, for I see you are English
and not French, and therefore belong to the ruling
race of much of this country, how is it you are not
a Sahib of the army, for you look a soldier bom, I
meet French officers, and other Franks but not the
English unless they be sons of officers with Indian
mothers."
" There is no reason I should not tell your Highness.
My father was an officer in the Company's Artillery,
and my mother was a Duranni of Ghor, daughter of
Ghaur Khan the Eohilla, who came out of Ghuzni
to follow Nadir Shah the Persian."
"Ah, then I have heard of you, for I knew your
grandfather, and years after met your father, with
SHATEANJ-BAZI 15
the Sirkar's troops at Allahabad, and a proper man
he was. He came at the Resident's request to look
at my cannon, and they told he had married a Duranni
lady. It would be better if more Sahibs married
well-born women, than mate as they do, with the
sluts from the bazaar. Also I think I have heard
of you. Was it you who held the Tantri pass two
years ago, with the Rajah of Dhond's troops against
the Chevalier Dudrenac and Scindiah's best battalions
you with some of James Secunder's troopers ? Then
I have long hoped to give you service, if you came my
way, but not yet. I have other matters in hand at
present to which your presence will not help."
And the Begum's glance for all that fell admiringly
on this strong, well-knit young man, who sat beside
her.
" I have, however, a mission for which I need a
faithful messenger, are you willing to serve me and
take your chance of what reward I can give you ? It
is not much, I dare promise, since things in Hindostan
are more than unsettled. See here. The Afghans
seek once more to invade the Punjab, and drive back
the Sikhs, who have ousted the Abdalli, and regain
Ahmad Shah's empire. It is important that a message
connected with this should be sent to Salabut Khan,
the Duranni governor of Kashmir, and it is important
that some one I can trust should be with the Afghans
that I may know when these Sikhs are to be put in
their place, and what I am to do, and whether I am
to have a fair share of land north of Delhi. I can
trust an Englishman, even when he has Afghan blood
in him, and I now ask if you will serve me in this matter.
Later on I may want you here. There is no room for
you and Daoud Shah in this campo together, and for
my present purpose Daoud Shah must remain."
And the lady stopped, for long speech is rare in
16 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
the Oriental, and this had been far beyond her
wont.
To David Fraser the vista of adventure thus opened
up was attractive enough. He had long wanted to
see something of his Afghan kin, while to the young
mind Kashmir sounded a fairy land as it had done
to the Mogul Emperors who had made it their summer
playground. His answer, therefore, to the Begum's
proposal was a hearty acquiescence, which helped
to strengthen her in her reliance on the fidelity of her
new servant.
" Very well, then, Fraser Sahib" said she. " I will
therefore give you a letter to Salabat Khan, recom-
mending him to give you service, and telling him that
you are entirely in my confidence. You in your turn
must serve my interest there, and contrive to keep me
informed of the Afghan plans for the reconquest of
Upper India. You must also explain that they must
take good care to avoid coming into contest with
the English, against whom even their might will fail.
That they must fully realize that, and that I and
many of us here have made allies with the Company,
and will on no account quarrel with them. I shall
march my campo towards Meerut to-morrow, and
you should march off north at the same time, but tell
no one where you are going. I will also give you
a note on the bankers in Lahore or Sialkote for five
hundred rupees, and another on Srinagar for a thousand.
It is, of course, by serving Salabat Khan that you will
be able to support your horse, and I hope he will
order you to raise him a whole rissaldh. You may be
sure that if ever I can serve you I will, but I cannot
engage you here. You don't suppose that Daoud
Shah will forgive you for intervening to-day. And
Daoud Shah, villain though I know him to be, is too
useful to me to dismiss at present. It will be best
SHATRANJ-BAZI 17
for you to tell him that my terms to you have not been
inviting enough for you to accept."
When Fraser had expressed his complete under-
standing of what was required of him, the Begum
continued
" Well, now that that is settled, tell me of your
own life and your father the clever Fraser Sahib, who
came to see my gun park, many years ago."
And the lad, seeing that he had apparently made a
friend, told her so much as would interest her and
that she might safely know, and after some conversa-
tion the Begum bade him leave her, lest too long an
interview should excite comment and jealousy in
camp.
" Before you go, Sahib, you shall kiss my hand, as
they tell me the English Sahibs do to great English
ladies, so strange are your Feringhi customs."
And David did as he was bid, and a plump, small
hand it was, scented with sandal wood and the nails
dyed in henna, for the Begum, elderly though she
was, had preserved more of the comeliness of youth
than usual in the East. A comely amiable soul ho
thought, good to serve probably, and perhaps not
strong enough to hold her own in a distracted country
in which the hand must keep the head. But there
was little enough of weakness in all she had said to
him he was feign to confess to himself as he strolled
away from her tent. Some of the stories in the country-
side that were told of her, argued little of feminine
weakness, such as the plump hand in itself might
indicate. There was, for instance, that story of the
erring handmaid buried alive beneath her mistress's
bed as a punishment and a warning. . . But then
once again who sups with the devil needs a long spoon,
and campos and Indian states are none so easy to
manage. So reflecting, David drew near to his own
c
18 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
tent there only to get into more comfortable clothing
and give orders for the march.
But the morrow's march needed little preparation.
David's small body of horse were used to the road,
and the three pony carts that accompanied him carried
all the baggage with space to spare. A few words to
the native ressaldar, who under him commanded the
cavalry troop, would be all that was required. This
troop of horsemen that followed the will of David
Fraser were a mixed lot chosen by himself. At their
head was old Ganesha Singh, a Eajput of Oudh, who
had served with his father in the artillery, and led half
a dozen men of his own clan. Eajputs of the Agnicular
or Fire clans were they, as distinct from the Eajput
races of the Sun and Moon. Fiercely proud of race,
all the more so, perhaps, that the genuine Eajput
descent of the fire races is a matter of dispute among
pundits, willing and eager to follow a leader, amenable
to discipline, born horsemen, and swordsmen, exactly
the right leaven for a young leader of horse to temper
a mixed troop of Schwartzreiters. Next to Ganesha
Singh came Nihal Singh the Duffedar, a Eajput of the
Moon from the Dogra hills. The rest consisted of
half a dozen Afghans, two from the Afghan hills, the
rest settled in Eohilcund for two generations, two
Muhammadans from the Punjab, also of a Eajput
clan, whom the march of Islam had included in its
grasp by force of arms. This had been the fate of all
the northern clans except those whom the valleys
and buttresses of the Himalaya had sheltered. Two
Marathas from the Deccan and three Mogul lads
from near Delhi, completed the major portion of this
troop of twenty soldiers of fortune. Among the six
Afghans was old Gul Jan the Duranni, who had been
his mother's henchman and his father's orderly, and
nursed young David as a child and taught him to
SHATKANJ-BAZI 19
ride and use the sword. Grizzled and hard bitten,
his close cropped beard died red in imitation of
the traditional red beard of the prophet, there was
a jaunty air about the angle of his cocked head-dress,
and in the lilt of his mountaineer gait, that spoke of
plenty of resource and daring left in the old frame
yet.
Many a delightful tale of rapine and of war had
Gul Jan told David in his youth, and the old man
worshipped the lad. Of all the evil tales that an
Afghan life could boast of, the one that had best
pleased the young highlander, for highland he was
on both sides, had been one of Gul Jan's boyhood-
Two villages had long been at feud, and once Gul Jan
and half a dozen urchins of one village, had caught
a child of the other village alone, and had then and
there stretched his little wizand and slit it with a pen
knife or some kindred and insufficient weapon. It
was just that sort of tale, that would go straight to
a boy's heart, and for its sake as much as his general
faithful service, the David held the old redbeard very
dear. He called to the old man to come help him get
ready to sup with his namesake, Daoud Shah, the
Sipahsalar * of the Begum's campo, and accompany
him to the latter's tent. A loose white frock, over his
breeches, boots and belt with pistol holster, and a
Kashmir embroidered loungi on his head completed
David's evening attire, and with Gul Jan swaggering
behind him he strolled over to the Afghan's tent, to
be received with considerable show of ceremony.
As the ways of a camp are simple, the two soldiers
sat themselves down to the evening meal forthwith,
to kabab's and curds and cinnamon stew and the best
of unleavened chappattis. Bound the length and
breadth of Hindustan the conversation wandered, and
* Commander-in-Chief.
20 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
David told his host enough of his history to explain
how he fought for his own hand, and carried not
King George's commission. They talked of soldiers
and of cannon, of border forays and rival kings, and
now and again the Afghan would vouchsafe such
glimpse of a chequered life as made the other's blood
run cold in his veins. Daoud Shah would hint of
having come down the Gomal with Timur the lame
Tartar, founder of the Mogul Line, and seemed con-
versant with sacks of Delhi far earlier in the ages,
and of all the evil the world had ever known. The
Greeks in their Central Asian kingdoms, and the life
history of Balk and Samarkand, and how the tribe
of Gad and a half of Manasseh had come to settle
near the latter city. A great traveller, a great historian,
or a great romancer certainly, and as David sat silent
listening to the snatches of the other's experience,
and looked into the deep-knit brow, and deep-set
eyes, with the clear-cut, hawked nose and sharp chin,
a feeling almost of terror and certainly of aversion
seized him. Here was a man to whom half the horrors
of the world seemed familiar with none of the ruth
that horrors should stir. Then with the meal ended,
and the Imqa finished, they sat themselves down
almost instinctively to play at Sliatranj-bazi or chess,
on a board laid out on a low lacquered stool.
Chess has come to us from the East, like the horse
and the rose and many another wonder, and the great
marvel of all, the Christian Revelation, and though
David had learnt the game as a European from his
father, he knew something of the Persian variations.
True to the Asiatic conception of women, the English
queen is there called the Wazir, or minister, which
fairly explains the subordinate character of the king.
A king in the hands of his minister is a well-known
Eastern phenomenon. Our bishop, in the East is
SHATEANJ-BAZI 21
the ambassador, with the power of diagonal move,
and significantly so, since never could an Eastern
ambassador move straight forward to save his life,
which is just why, now and again, the simple English
succeed in diplomacy where the Eastern fails. Among
the chessmen our castle alone retains its Persian
name. Euh is Persian for a tower, and to this day
in England men call the castle the rook.
For two hours the pair played in silence, the Afghan
gazing now and again up from his board and under
his eyebrows at the eager set face of David Eraser,
his namesake. David and Dawad or Daoud are the
same. At last David's King had rest from his labours.
His hour had come. " Pharoah is dead," called
Daoud with the low hiss of a serpent in his words.
" Mate it is right enough," admitted namesake David,
" but why is Pharoah dead ? "
" Pshaw ! " returned the other, " What matters an
expression. In Egypt this was the royal game. Who
kills Pharoah or encompasses his death wins the throne."
" Where is it that this man has not been," thought
the younger man. " But there are no Pharoahs now."
And he lent back on his cushions and looked up into
his late opponent's face. Then he looked again.
What fascination in those grey-green eyes ! What
was the man staring for ? And the Afghan moved,
and David looked again. Involuntarily he made a
gesture in return. Then the Afghan lent forward
and looked him straight in the face again and said
" Have you seen the letters of the lost word
re-arranged ? "
David started. Old Major Eraser had belonged to
the first Masonic Lodge in India that had been started
at Vellore in early days. He had been master and
sat in the chair of Eoyal Solomon of a lodge in Upper
India, and had initiated his son David full young. In
22 A FBEELANCE IN KASHMIR
the lad the ancient rites had struck some chord in
the Jewish strain that came through his mother from
the Afghans of Ghor. David had been eager to see
more of the mysteries, and his father had enlightened
him. Therefore, when he suddenly found this Afghan
asking him searching questions concerning the word
that the High Priest of the Temple at Jerusalem alone
dare say, his earlier experiences came back clearly,
and he marvelled, aye, and feared somewhat. With
those searching eyes fixed on him some answer seemed
needed.
" I have," said David.
" Will you prove it to me."
" I will not," said the younger man. " How do I
know that you know?"
" Pish, lad ! How do I know ? Why, boy, I saw
the Eomans enter the city, I saw the streets run red
with blood, and I saw the starving mothers devouring
their own children."
David watched him now in amazement.
" So that is one of the reasons why I know how the
letters should be arranged. See that you never forget,
nor how the High Priest does it." And a change
came over his face, and the tense look left it. "Ah,
well, Ferassa Sahib, it has been a great pleasure to
entertain you. Pharoah is dead and turned to dust,
so have a sharbat to drink and let us rest."
So David took his leave, relieved to be out of
sight of those piercing eyes, and their horrible glimpses
of worlds dead and gone. At any rate, 7m connection
with Judah dated from a period long before the Eomans
took Jerusalem. That his father had often told him.
Who and what was this hawk-nosed stranger, who
knew the signs of the inner temples and whose eyes
had all the visions of a thousand years and more
within them? Thus puzzling David took a final
SHATEANJ-BAZI 23
look at his horse lines, spoke to his camp sentry, and
laid himself down to sleep and dream of all that had
befallen that day.. And ever through his dreams rodo
the figure of Daoud Shah dressed as a prince and a
ruler in Israel, devouring children spitted on skewers,
and before him marched the chessmen calling,
" Pharoah is dead ! Pharoah is dead ! "
CHAPTER III
THE NORTH ROAD
THE next morning in accordance with the suggestions
received from the Begum, David paraded his little
troop as if it was to march off with Her Highness's
campo. And a very wonderful thing to the military
eye that campo was. To David, with his knowledge
of the native states and their armies, the sight was not
new, though it contrasted strongly with what he also
knew of the orderly departure of the Honourable
Company's troops from one of their camping grounds.
Long before daylight, the camp was given up to turmoil
and hubbub. The groaning and bubbling of angry
camels, the screams of fighting stallions, and the
chattering of camp followers mingled with the hammer-
ing to loosen tent-pegs, and the jingle of harness and
saddle gear. The uneaten remnant of fodder and
bedding had been thrown on the camp-fires which
blazed to warm the chilly orientals who crouched round
them, and to flicker on the spear-points and harness-
ments. In the gloom of the smoke on the outskirts of
the glare, the huge forms of the elephants weaved
uneasily from forefoot to forefoot, as the mahouts
buckled on the heavy gun-harness and the riding
howdahs. It was a weird and ghostly scene of strange
sights and noises, till as the sun rose through the smoke
and the trampled dust, something emerged from the
24
THE NOETH ROAD 25
chaldron. Drums beat and trumpets blared, and a
battalion of Her Highness' s musketeers endeavoured to
lead the procession, their muskets in green cloth bags,
sloped over their shoulders. This corps actually moved
in fours, " Rompant par sections, droit en tite" as the
old Lille drill book had it from which the Chevalier,
their last instructor, had drilled them. The said drill
book annotated in Persian lay wrapped in the Kom-
madari's breast pocket, for his writer to read for him
if any one wished to argue a point of drill, or did he
wish to embark on so important a manoeuvre as
ordering that the section " Ligne mi kunand" *
The ordered tramp of the drilled musketeers was
mingled with the rattle and cries of a group of gossipping
matchlockmen who hurried along on their outer flank,
and then a string of camels went away, followed by the
elephants and two galloper guns horsed after the
manner of the English, save that the traces were old
frayed rope. That, as David reflected, would not bo
seen in John Company's artillery ! He and his own
troop carefully accoutred, had mounted and formed up
in line to watch the campo. At his side sat Ganesha
Singh, criticizing with humorous invective the in-
congruity of the equipages. Gul Jan, the Company's
veteran artilleryman, sat behind and echoed them even
more forcibly.
" Tut ! tut ! " said Ganesha Singh. " Did ever you
see such a horse as yon ressaldar is riding ? Black with
pink spots, I do declare, your honour I and he holding
on with both hands."
" That's the Bakshi, Ganesha Singh, who came in
yesterday with the pay. See ! the pink spots are
handmarks made with pink paint ; see the finger-tips,
that is to keep devils away at night. Look at his
* French-Persian = " were forming line."
26 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
embroidered velvet saddle, the old rogue ! Here
comes the Begum Saliiba. We will salute her."
David called his troop to attention, the lances being
brought to the carry with a rattle as Her Highness' s
lacquered carriage drawn by trotting bullocks jingled
past. The snap of the lances in the wrist throngs drew
attention. A hand half drew the silk curtains and
beckoned to the young soldier. David moved to her
side at a gallop, pulled his handsome Arab up on his
haunches and saluted. The Begurn Samba's eyes from
behind the curtains twinkled approval.
" I like to see your men and their orderly British
ways. I shall be glad indeed some day to have you
with me, to teach my worthless ones law and order.
Did you see the Chevalier's regiment of musketeers ? "
" I did, your Highness."
" What did you think of them ? "
" It was so dark that I could not see clearly, but they
marched well. I saw the guns also. Without doubt
a fine army."
" Well, well ! We shall see. Now, farewell, and
wait till we are well past, then wheel away north in the
dust and take my message to the Governor of Kashmir.
Peace be with you."
" And with you too, gracious lady," responded
David, and the curtains dropped and the march of the
campo continued.
Behind Her Highness rode a dozen troopers of the
retinue and some of her officers of state, and then
another troop of matchlockmen. On either side of the
line of march began to stream the impedimenta, more
camels, pack bullocks, and donkeys, women and
children and camp followers, Delilah in her litter, and
the like. After a short gap followed a body of dis-
ciplined horse, and at their head rode the sardonic
figure of Daoud Shah, the Commander-in-Chief of the
THE NOETH EOAD 27
distinguished army. To him also David Fraser the
politic accorded a military salute, the lances once more
springing to the carry with a snap of the thong.
Whether or no the Afghan detected the snap of derision
that underlay the act of homage, or whether he was
annoyed at the presence of so alert a body, it is certain
that a very vicious gleam of the keen eyes accompanied
his answering salaam, and his bearing seemed to resent
the jaunty cock of the dragoon helmet which David
was still wearing as perhaps the wearer meant he
should.
" That man," remarked Ganesha Singh, " is the very
worst kind of devil, and has the very greatest enmity
for you, Sahib"
" What makes you think that, old soldier ? "
" I don't think, Sahib, I know. I am certain. Does
any man love the stranger who rnaketh him look a
fool ? Did ever a man look such a fool as he ? You
either upset some design of his, or you kept his soldiers
in order when he himself could not. Is he likely to love
you, Sahib ? Will he stand with the Begum Sahiba as
he stood before, think you ? Never, till the dust
return whence it came ! The dogs bark, but the caravan
passes. The Afghan smiles with his lips and wishes you
peace, and all the while he says, ' God smite your soul
to the nethermost hell ! ' :
David was amused. " Well, do you know, old
soldier, I have been thinking very much the same thing
as you have. I am a foolish lad, I know ; but, perhaps,
not so foolish as to think I have made a friend of
Daoud Shah."
" Without doubt the Presence is full of wisdom,"
replied the old man, with no hint of irony. " But this
particular wisdom must always be uppermost in the
mind. That man will go out of his way to work evil.
Besides, he is well known to be possessed. I met in
28 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
the camp a man of my own cast whom I had known
before. He says that this devil is in league with all
the evil spirits and knows everything both of good and
evil, and can call up the spirits of folk long dead and
gone. The men will run past his tent at night, and
will never take him a message in the dark."
" Ganesha Singh, you are a great baby to listen to
such fairy tales."
" Your honour is my father and my mother. I do
but tell what others tell to me. But I am old and I
have been young, but never did I see a man with a
shaitan * showing so clearly in his face."
" Well, to blazes with him, as Danny Irvine would
have said. You don't remember him, do you, Ganesha
Singh ? He was my father's orderly, and well, never
mind ! We'll be off on the north road now. Here is
the last of the Begum's fauj, and the sun is getting up
in the heavens."
So, to the English order of " threes right," Fraser
moved away his troop to the north, across the great
cloud of red dust that the troops and their baggage had
raised, and which mingled with the smoke of the camp
fires heavy in the morning dew. The two made such
a canopy, that no one would see the direction of Fraser's
troop, nor that they had not marched in the track of
Her Highness's force. It was that lady's own sugges-
tion, so that Daoud Shah should not be let into the
secrets of the young Englishman's move, and her
simple suggestion was like to be effective. Daoud
Shah had evidently thought that he had his orders from
the Begum, and would fall in in the column of march.
Once clear on the north road, exhilaration rose in tho
lad. 'Tis good to be two-and- twenty with a fine troop
of light dragoons at your back a-setting out to seek
* Devil.
THE NOETH EOAD 29
your fortune, on a cool, brisk morning in an Indian
spring. Eh, sirs ! To hack your way to power with
your own sword arm and your own resources behind
you, what finer champagne for the imagination. Half
the troopers were lads, too, agog to have their day, full
of confidence in the lad who sat at their head, with old
Ganesha Singh at the helm for wisdom in the evil ways
of an Eastern world.
A few miles after starting the road broke out from
scattered fields and patches of scrab jungle to a fine
flat of plain covered in short dry grass and stone. The
opportunity was too good to be lost.
" Tell those two ekkas to come along quietly, Ganesha
Singh, with Gul Jan, and I will rattle some of these lad
across the plain.
" Head ! To the right, wheel ! Threes left ! Look
to your centre ! Can ter ! "
And away went the happy troop over the plain, till
the canter stretched to a gallop and the gallop to a
wild screaming charge such as David had seen the
Bengal Irregulars make in the old cantonment days.
Then the troop rallied round the halted figure of their
leader, and the young Afghans of the party yelped
delight.
" Steady now, steady men ! We will drill till Gul
Jan comes up with the ekkas" "^
And then and there the astonished wayfarer might
have seen a troop of cavalry drilling after the manner
of the English. And so drilling and training his men
and conditioning his horses David Eraser marched his
small party ever north, halting a day or two when the
camping ground was quiet and agreeable, beating for
wild boar when opportunity offered and meeting with
no adventure or interference for several days. Once
by a small group of shrines they found a fanatic woman
with a naked sword, standing athwart an old causeway
30 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
that dated from the days of good Emperor Akhbar,
who built roads and bridges. The stream it spanned
was deep, and the bridge alone offered passage, while
at the end the infuriated feminine flourished the sword
wildly. A trooper who advanced on her to bid her
make way, came back with his tail between his manly
legs, and a bleeding snick on his horse's nose. The
men openly said, " Kill her, and be done with it. We
can't wait here all day for that old piece of rag and
bone." But David had some of the English ruth.
" Nay, we will not slay the old body. Here, Ganesha
Singh, cannot you cope with the lady ? "
Ganesha Singh grinned behind his grizzled, twisted
beard. And he rode forward half over the causeway,
but the lady only waved her sword more furiously.
" Very well," said the old Rajpoot. " Now, listen to
me. I know you well. Your mother was the very
worst sort of woman, and had immoral relations with
every one, even sweepers. You have been the mistress
of the Evil One himself. You have lent yourself "
But the woman was gone, and Ganesha Singh, with a
perfectly solemn face took his stand to cover the further
end of the now free causeway while the troop, chuckling
with laughter, filed over.
On the twelfth day the party arrived close to the
ancient town of Sirhind, which means the head of all
India, and here Ganesha Singh met a relative in charge
of some horsemen of the local chief who sent an in-
vitation for them to halt in a garden of his, outside the
city. This David was glad enough to do, as he had
now heard that the snow was late on the passes, and
that he could not get to Kashmir yet awhile save by the
long route away in the north. For ten days they
rested and fed their horses on the young green wheat
till their coats shone again. The local chief, who was
a Sikh, received the visitor courteously, and sent him
THE NOETH EOAD 31
presents of fruit, and sweetmeats for his men, and
David found that state better controlled than any ho
had previously had doings with. One day, while
halting, he was surprised to see a British force pass
through, and to learn it was part of General Lake's
army chasing back some Sikh horse to their own
territory north of the Eiver Sutlej. A battery of native
horse artillery was with the column, and David felt that
sick longing for a happy life now past that most men
have known at one time or another. The well-fitted
harness, the well-kept horses, the trim, disciplined
gunners and the hard-bit British officers brought back
so forcibly his childhood, the swinging gun-buckets
below the gun axles so like those of his father's
battery moving out of cantonments. Often had he
watched those same gun-buckets swing when he had
peeped through the bars of his father's compound gate.
Now and again he had been allowed to come out and
be taken up on a limber, to sit on a gunner's knee, and,
joy of joys, to hold on to guard straps and feel the
jolting limbers as the teams broke into a trot. Why,
oh why, had he let that life slip from him ? And then
came the memory of those young officers who had
spoken of him contemptuously as a half-breed. The
blood rushed to his temples at the mere memory of it.
Little enough of a half-breed did he look, if half-breed
be synonymous with contempt and an inferior being, as
ho stood under the garden trees to watch them march
by. Tall and straight and clean cut, with clean high-
land ancestry behind him on both sides.
However, with the rush of blood to his temples he
remembered that he was off to seek his fortune and
come back as good a man as any of them. Then he
felt that he would have liked to have shown his own
troop, clean and fit after their rest, to the English
officers, but the men were all dispersed except the
82 A FKEELANCE IN KASHMIR
camp guard. Then again for the moment he was
chagrined that he had not his dragoon helmet on and
his yellow kurta and sword, so that he might ride out
and salute them as a soldier. Then he laughed at
himself for a vain fool, and the bitterness passed away.
He would keep away till he had a name and fame of his
own and then go among them, and so strolled off to
see his own troop horses, like the brave sturdy heart
he was.
And it was in some such manner that the journey
north continued, without misadventure save at the
boat bridge over the Bavi by Trimmoo Ghat. A party
of Afghans wanted to pick a quarrel and loot his baggage
ekkas, but this David carried off with a high hand,
leaving two Afghans dead in the river for their pains,
with no worse harm to his own lot than a dead horse
and a sword cut in old Ganesha Singh's forearm, happily
not his bridle arm. So on they went past the maiden
city of Sialkot, only staying to cash the Begum's bill,
and over the Jamrnu Tawi, to camp under the walls of
Jammu city itself, where a Dogra boy of the troop had
an uncle who greeted them well. At Jammu it be-
came necessary to sell the ekkas and buy pack-ponies
for the mountain road. Thence on again the road
would lie till they came to the great river Chenab
rushing out of its mountain gorges by the ancient city
of Akhnur, and here they were getting in to the outer
hills that lead up to that great branch of the Himalaya
that men call the Pir Panjal, behind which lies the
Happy Valley of Kashmir.
CHAPTER IV
THE NIGHT SKIRMISH
IT was again in the early morning that David and his
troopers started from their camp under the high loop-
holed walls of Jammu city and struck off on the Akhnur
road and the Chenab ferry towards the principality of
Poonch. The crossing of the Chenab involved somo
considerable delay, for the horses and mules had to bo
coaxed up shaky planks over the high sides of the ferry
boat, and then swept over in the swift current to the
landing ghat below the black walls of Akhnur fort.
Here the governor and commander of the Dogra
garrison had to be appeased, the Jammu passport duly
vised and suitable compliments exchanged. Finally,
a ragamuffin guard presented arms in the French style,
and the party clattered out along the cobbled highways
of the town towards the sandstone ridges and stunted
pines of the outer hills.
Three days of unadventurous travel brought them
to the old Imperial road at Rampur Rajaori, which
runs from Delhi ma Lahore and Gujerat over the great
snowy Pir Panjal mountains to the Valley of Kashmir.
By this road, summer after summer, year in year out,
the great Mogul emperors had moved with their
women, their elephants, their horse, their foot, and their
artillery, to escape in Kashmir from the devastating
heat of the plains of Hindostan. The great road had
33 D
Si A FKEELANCE IN KASHMIK
crumbled to decay as the Mogul Empire shrivelled, for
there were none to exercise authority to impress the
labour that could keep it in repair. For many a stage
over the mountains ran the Imperial road, cobbled and
graded, past oak and pine to juniper, the silver birch,
the snow and the glacier. At every stage a serai or
resthouse, stood crumbling. At any beautiful spot
the serai had expanded to a garden with fountains and
rippling waterfalls, with Moorish summer houses, now
the sport of the casual traveller. Grey stone towers,
deserted except by some occasional highland cateran,
stood commanding the defiles so that none should
harry the imperial travellers, hurrying from the
beautiful canals and fountains of the Shalimar Gardens
in Lahore, to the still more beautiful Shalimar under the
mountains on the shores of a Kashmir lake.
To the Mogul serai at Rarnpur Eajaori headed the
small cavalcade, to bivouac in the overgrown orange
groves that surrounded the fountains of the serai,
and to stall their horses where the moving court of
emperors had been pitched. Below the garden which
overhung the river Tawi stood the town of Eajaori,
bright with Hindu temple spires and full of traders
sending and receiving the mule caravans from Kashmir.
In due course the headman of the town had arrived, to
see who the strangers were, it being his duty to protect
the interests of the town. True, it was hardly meet
that he should have gone himself, a bailiff would have
done as well, but parties of horse are apt to be high-
handed, and it would be well to see what they wanted,
lest they started frolicking in the bazaars, or bullying
the town guard. Should the arrivals appear in-
significant they could be bounced, and if powerful they
could be grovelled to. Such is the morality of the
East or perhaps of the world, To enable him to
grovel suitably if need be, the headman of Eajaori
THE NIGHT SKIRMISH 85
would carry in his pocket two golden aslirafi, or Mogul
guineas, to be tendered by way of tribute should the
arrival seem sufficiently powerful to warrant such an
attention. The tendering of this tribute or nazar, to
give it its Persian name, was merely an act of courtesy
or fealty, and the recipient in the custom of the day
would touch and remit the tendered tribute. Now and
again, some grasping overlord might unexpectedly
pocket the coins and leave the donor gasping in surprise
and dismay, but that would be unusual.
So the headman mounted his pony and rode to the
serai, with two running footmen carrying guns in front;
and a bailiff with inkpot behind, and two gold coins
in case of need in his pocket. As he approached the
serai the small number of horses tethered down showed
that the arrival was not of much importance, but the
sight of David Eraser's tall figure and commanding air
sent his hand instinctively to his pocket. The gold
coins automatically appeared and were duly touched
and remitted, and the headman conducted to a seat
After the usual compliments David imparted such
account of his own object and destination as he deemed
sufficient, and then endeavoured to elicit such local
news as might guide him.
The village headman who, as a guardian of peaceful
traders, had little but guile to trust to against the
" better plan " of his masterful neighbours, answered
with equal circumspection. The Rajpoot Lord of
Poonch gave Rajaori such protection as he could, for a
suitable consideration, but this practically only held
good against the local lairds who owned towers and
fortified strongholds in the neighbourhood. When a
body of Afghan horse, or other freelances, came along
the local overlords were apt to be engaged elsewhere,
besides, Poonch lay over the Battan Pir, twenty miles
away. So as David Fraser only desired to be let alone
86 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
and get the supplies he wanted, and as the baillie but
wished for peace, they at last got on to talking terras.
Said Baillie Anand Kara, headman of Eampur
Rajaori
" Your honour is doubtless going over the Pir to
Kashmir by the ' snowy road ' ? "
To which David replied, " Well, I am not sure, I
had thought of going to Poonch, they tell me that the
Pir is blocked."
" No," said the baillie, " the road is open. A party
of Afghans is at Thanna Mandi, and they are said to
have crossed yesterday."
" Ah," said David, " you will no doubt see them
here."
"God forbid! What should I do with them?
Besides, this is a Sikh country, and unless they be
strong there are many here who wish them ill. The
Rajah of Sialsi has a death feud with every Afghan,
ever since the commandant of Banihal burnt his
brother alive in his tower."
This matter of the arrival of the Afghans from Kash-
mir was the only item of news of any value that Anand
Ram could purvey, and so, after gracious adieus, and
pronouncing himself true friend, with promise of all
supplies that Fraser could require, he ambled off as
oilily as he came.
That evening David fished with such success in the
Tawi below, that he stayed late to fish next morning,
and it was high noon before he started on the next
stage to Thanna Mandi. It was dusk when he reached
that village, and camped down among the patches of
purple iris, on the hither side, and sent a trooper to
inquire if the Afghan party was still there. Hardly
had the man returned with the news that they wero
in the traveller's serai a couple of hundred yards off
when a volley of musketry sounded, followed by shouts
THE NIGHT SKIEMISH 87
cries. David's men at once saddled their horses
and seized their arms. The business of the freelance
is to keep out of other folk's quarrels, unless expressly
hired to engage in them, and it was no man's affair in
David's party, as to who did, or did not, cut each other's
throats at the other side of the hamlet. They did
therefore the only wise thing. They stood by to see
what might befall. However, before many minutes
had elapsed women's cries were added to the hubbub;
and David, who had the European rather than the
Oriental view of women, bidding Nihal Singh hold the
camp and the horses with eight men, hurried out into
the darkness with the remainder. The shots and
cries came from the old serai, and now and again a
musket flashed in the darkness from the shadow of the
ruined gateway. Someone was evidently holding the
place and giving as good as he got. As David and
his men passed the last hut in the hamlet, they saw a
dozen or so of dark shadows rush at the serai wall, and
heard more shouts on the opposite side. Reflecting
that the folk in the rest house were in some sort his
kinsmen, and that as he was going to Kashmir he
might well ease the way by making friends there, he
rushed with a cheer on to the men attacking the serai.
The unexpected attack from behind settled the business,
the attackers turned and fled, with a volley in their
backs from the wall, and a few sword cuts from David
and his leading men. One of the strangers turned and
let off a blunderbuss into Ganesha Singh's face, knock-
ing off his turban and dusting his left ear, and the
scrimmage was over.
Collecting his men, David approached the serai
cautiously.
" Who are you, strangers of the night ? " called a
voice from the gateway in Persian.
" A friend," replied David, in the same language. " A
88 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
party of travellers making for Kashmir with messages
for the governor, who, hearing of the attack on you, have
come to your aid."
" Khush ameded " (welcome), replied the voice. " It
is good. We have been attacked by that son of a burnt
father, the Rajah of Sialsi God smite his soul to the
nethermost hell ! "
" I am coming forward alone with one attendant,"
called out David, stepping forward.
At the gate a form stepped out and took David's
hand in both his, after the manner of the Afghans, and
hah* a dozen men crowded round him, with expressions
of welcome and gratitude. The spokesman, evidently
one in authority; said again, " Welcome indeed, young
sir. If you are going to Kashmir you have done well,
for you have helped no less a person than His Excellency
Salabat Khan, the Subahdar of Kashmir, the Wazir-
Wizarat of the Emperor of Kabul, We came over
yesterday for certain business, and were attacked by
these swine."
" Oho Yar Khan, oho ! " called a faint voice from
within the yard. " Is that the strange chief that has
aided us ? Bid him bring the light of his countenance
here."
Yar Khan, apologizing to David, stepped back into
the darkness, and a whispered conversation ensued.
Yar Khan returned.
" Sir," said he, " His Excellency has been severely
wounded by those men without faith, and would speak
with you, first asking your name and business."
" My name is Daoud Ferassa ; but who I am and
what my business is I will only tell His Excellency in
private, but this you may say, that I have with me a
troop of cavalry, and have come intending to seek
service under him."
By this time some of the Afghans had set light to a
THE NIGHT SKIRMISH 89
fire of grass and brushwood, and the flickering flames
lit up the interior of the serai. Glancing round, David
saw a dozen or so horses, tethered, one lying dead,
while three bodies were being laid side by side, and two
wounded men were being attended to. The women's
cries were accounted for too, for in the corner by an
orange grove was a small crimson silk raoti (tent), and;
standing beside it, two women clasping each other's
arms, and muffled in veils. Close to the fire lay,
supported by two attendants, the wounded figure of
His Excellency the Wazir-Wazarat, a handsome fair-
visaged Afghan noble, with reddish cheeks and a
close-trimmed dark beard, not at all unlike David
himself. As David stepped forward into the light and
salaamed, the likeness at once struck the bystanders,
and Yar Khan exclaimed aloud at it. Yar Khan was
wazir and master of the horse to the governor, and
commander of the escort, a grizzled old Duranni soldier
with war and command written clear on his visage. As
David drew near to the fire, the two women advanced
and stood in the shadow of a tree behind the governor.
" Sir," said the latter. " We are very greatly
beholden to you for your timely arrival and bold
advance. As you saw, we were treacherously attacked
by those villains of Rajpoots, and were in some danger;
several men have been killed and these ladies were
much frightened. They are my sister and her maids,
and she has just come from my uncle's town at Sohan,
and we cross the Pir to-morrow."
Hero Yar Khan , who had been collecting reports, said
" Sher Baz Orakzai, and Kairn Khan Alisherzai, and
also Abdul Rafik Duranni are dead, and those two
young Afridis are wounded, one cannot stand. Here is
the lidkim to examine your Excellency's wound.
" Tush, Yar Khan ! it is nothing. Let every one
withdraw twenty yards so that I can speak with this
40 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
nobleman alone. Yar Khan; you may remain oh
yes, and my sister, if this illustrious stranger does not
mind women. She is a spoilt Afghan lass, -who rides
a horse and does what she pleases and is afraid of no
man, and not like your tied-up women of India."
So David represented himself as a freelance of
Rohilla birth, and Duranni tribe, concealing, however,
his mother's actual clan, and explained how he had a
letter from the Begum Somru for Salabat Khan, and
how he wanted service.
" Right willingly will I give you service, sir," said
Salabat Khan. " And proud to have you with me.
We will all march over the Pir to-morrow, for I have
pressing business, and must be back in my capital. In
the meantime I must get my wound seen to, and we
had better meet again at an hour after dawn. But let
me once again thank you, on my own and my sisters'
behalf."
And here one of the women drew herself up and
bowed, and a gentle rhythm of bangles disturbed the
silence, and a shapely hand emerged to draw the veil,
so that for a minute a pair of eyes flashed at him from
under the muslin. Then, escorted by Yar Khan and
some of the Afghans, who were fraternizing with the
Mussalmans of his own party, David Eraser marched
back to his bivouac, with a feeling that all was well
in the best of possible worlds.
Yar Khan treated him with some show of confidence,
and spoke of the value that would accrue at the
present juncture in Kashmir, from the services of so
well equipped a troop of horse, and how well worth
David's while it would be to serve Salabat Khan.
That noble, he explained, was powerful and popular,
but there were plenty of enemies of the state, and of
the ruler, and plenty of service and reward for good
soldiers,
THE NIGHT SKIRMISH 41
" We," he continued, speaking of the ruling race;
" hold the Shergarhi and the fort of Hari Parbat, and
indeed, the whole of Kashmir, while in the Lolab
valley we have a large Afghan colony ; but there are
many enemies. The Hindu chiefs here in this Dun
hate us, and attack us, as you see, when we are weak.
The Chinese in the mountains north, give us all the
trouble they can. So there is plenty of work for the
soldier with the ready hand that you have shown.
Join us, young sir, and find a glorious and a profitable
service."
From all of which David gathered or thought he
gathered two things first that Yar Khan had taken
a liking to him, and second that Salabat Khan was
none too secure in his viceroyalty.
After parting with Yar Khan at the gate of the serai,
David called away his followers, who were gossiping with
the Afghan guard, and returned to his bivouac to
picket his horses and seek well-earned sleep. Not so
the troopers, who, after their wont, piled brushwood on
the camp fires and sat to discuss the day's events when
sleep would have served them better. It was the first
skirmish they had had since the rissalaJi had been
seeking its own fortunes. The best of soldiers will
discuss their leaders even though never demurring at
any commands. As a man is no hero to his valet, so
a leader is open to his soldier's criticisms. Freelances
are less trammelled than are regular soldiers, and their
camp talk ranges free.
" So, Ganesha Singh jee, we are to take service with
this Afghan ? " queried one of the Marathas. Ganesha
Singh had pulled his sword from his waist belt and his
orderly was just offering him a pull from a huqa bowl,
with a bit of cloth at the end. That long-waited -for
whiff was soothing. Ganesha Singh let the accent on
the word Afghan pass. There were Afghan troopers
42 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIE
in the party, and if they roused it would be time to
comment.
" The Sahib says we are to go join this noble's troops
in Kashmir, There will be fighting always on the
borders and good pay and promotion."
"Fortunate enough for them that we broke in just now.
Some of those troopers were about to make a bolt."
Gul Jan had come up from easing his master of his
accoutrements, and had caught the last words.
" Young man, you are talking as usual as the young
crows talk. The Durannis of that escort were little
likely to give way to Hindus, and would have died to
a man in the serai."
Ganesha Singh broke in. " Never niind the lad, old
man. Sit down and take a pull at the huqa. It is a
good beginning to service that we should have helped
our new masters. Ferassa Sahib is a fine leader, as you
and I know, and it is good that those who have lately
joined us should know it. Are the horses all tethered,
Nihal Singh ? "
" All except that entire second charger of the Sahib's.
Not the Arab, but that country bred, That horse will
always be a trouble, and will surely spoil some night
enterprise. Hark to him squealing now."
" Entires are like men, the low grade ones are no use
to a soul. Tell the line sentry to hit him over the head,
Has the Sahib gone to sleep, Gul Jan ? "
" He has, Ressaldar Sahib."
11 Good ! Then we can talk on here, but I shall kick
the fire out in quarter of an hour, Has any one been
in these hills before ? "
" I live twenty or thirty miles south of this," said
Nihal Singh.
" And I have been into Kashmir in the late governor's
time, before Salabat Khan came from Kabul," said
Gul Jan.
THE NIGHT SKIBMISH 48
" And I also," said a young Mogul.
" Tell us what it is like, Mogul Jee"
" Fine place in the summer. Food very cheap, lots
of fruit. The women are very good looking, and the
Kashmiri women free-spoken ; but if you look at a
pundit woman there is the mischief to pay ! "
The young man spoke feelingly, and there was a laugh.
" You Muhammadans are always interfering with
other folk's women ! "
Nihal Singh winked across to another Kajpoot, and
the Hindus chuckled.
The Mogul lad saw nothing to be ashamed of in the
assertion ; every one knew that Zar Zan Zameen gold,
women, land were at the bottom of all the trouble,
and most of the interest in the world, at any rate the
interests of a freelance trooper.
" Anyway there will be lots of strong spirits brewed
in the valley from the apples; that will just suit you
wine-bibbing Hindus."
A chorus of ironical spirits laughed in his face; every
one was too tired to quarrel, and wine was an excellent
thing in due season. If Islam chose to eschew it, why
not ! The line sentry broke in.
" Two of the horses are off their feed, Jenab"
The good discipline of the English habit had bitten
into this small troop. Ganesha Singh got up and kicked
the fire out.
" To sleep, every man, lest I clout him, while I go
see the sick horses."
The old soldier and the sentry went down the lines, and
found two over-tired horses playing with their feed-bags.
" They are only tired. Take the bags away for an
hour and give them their grass. Stay, I have some
vinegar, Rub their nostrils with that before you give
them grass. They'll take their feeds later. Call me
if they don't,"
CHAPTER V
OVER THE PIR WITH MIRIAM
DAVID was astir early; bustling his troopers to clean
their horses and gear and make a good turnout before
the Afghans. By eight in the morning the shadows in
the galli were shortening, and the sun's rays were
climbing over the snowy peaks of the Pir Panjal as with
an ordered clatter, David's compact troop wheeled into
line outside the Afghan camp. Here, though the
chief's retinue hung around dismounted with their
horses ready and saddled, the chief's tent still stood in
the serai garden. Under the trees the ladies' cavalcade
seemed ready, but no one was mounted. Something
appeared wrong, and what that something was was
soon evident.
Salabat Khan's wound was much more serious than
had been imagined in the wipe up after the fray. He
had passed a bad night and was quite unfit to breast
the passes of the Pir Panjal. As David rode up to
make his salaam Salabat Khan and Yar Khan were in
close conference within the tent. He was invited to
dismount and did so, and entered the tent, to find the
wounded chief a far better -looking man than he had
imagined in the darkness and torchlight of the night
before. A well-born Afghan, a cadet of a Duranni clan of
the tribe of the Ben-i- Israel is or should be a fine figure
of a man. The Afghans proper are the Durannis, the
44
OVEE THE PIR WITH MIRIAM 45
race of the Pearl, who trace their descent from one
Kish or Kais eighteenth in descent from Saul. Whether
they be of the Children of Israel, which is how they style
themselves, or whether as some think they be of Judah,
and from which of the captivities they date, no man
can tell. Certain it is that there were traces of Dan and
half of Manasseh to be found within comparatively
recent times in Central Asia. The tomb of the patriarch
Lamech is claimed as one of the Afghan shrines. David
or Daoud, Jacob Abraham, Isaac, Joseph and Jesus
are among the e very-day names of the Afghans. How-
ever, whether or no the Afghan be of the missing tribes
and descendants of Royal Solomon, certain it is that
they are of a high-browed aquiline feature, Jewish
at tunes to a degree. The long, oiled locks are parted
in the centre and combed down over the ears; and any
dozen scoundrels from a border village might sit as
models for a picture of the last supper. The high-born
Afghan noble especially shows the Jewish feature, hard
and clear cut like the patriarchs of old. Hard, from a
life in a hard, fierce country, where the hand alone
keeps the head, hard in its climate and hard in its
people. Fair of skin is the Afghan compared with the
people of Hindostan and all are by no means dark-
haired. As David the King had fair red hair, so you
may see the Afghan of the Ben-i-Israel, fair of beard
and hair, with ruddy cheeks, born of a life in an
upland country. In the East, the higher you climb
the fairer, the lower you go the darker.
There was nothing therefore to wonder at in Salabat
Khan's well-bred features. Lofty of forehead, with knit
eyebrows and aquiline nose that promised to age to
a hawk's beak, blue eyes and a close-trimmed reddish
beard, he might well be of the house of Saul or David.
In fact, he had a considerable likeness to David Eraser,
save that he might be ten or fifteen years older. A
46 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
man to rule, no doubt, heavy of hand if need be,
ready of arm, and perhaps a soft heart on occasion.
A fascinating face, too, and so thought the young
Anglo-Indian, looking straight into the Afghan's eyes,
while exchanging the ever-profuse greetings of the
East.
" Ferassa Sahib," said the chief, " are you willing
to enter my service ? "
" That is my desire; sir," returned David. " I
have with me too, as I told you last night, a letter
for your Excellency from Her Highness the Begum
Somru."
" It is well. . . . You are highly spoken of herein.
Are you ready to swear fealty to me on the Koran ? "
" I am ready to swear fealty to you, sir."
" Yar Khan," said the chief, "let a Koran be
brought."
Here David felt a little disconcerted. To swear
allegiance he was ready, but not to swear by the
Crescent, he who had been brought up by the Cross.
Should he reveal his nationality ? So far he had passed
muster, not only in his language, but evidently in his
bearing and ways, as an Asiatic. He quickly came to
a decision. His men knew, and would be sure to
divulge it as a matter of course, Bven if he could hope
to disguise it himself. He knew well enough that it
is one thing to speak an alien language fluently, but
quite another matter to act the right part by instinct.
It is one thing to be grammatical, and idiomatic,
another to sit as an Oriental sits, to eat as he eats, to
scratch as he scratches and to yawn as he yawns.
The which is often forgotten by travellers to their
undoing. His decision came at once.
" May I speak to your Excellency alone ? "
And Salabat Khan waved away Yar Khan and the
attendants.
OVER THE PIE WITH MIRIAM 47
" I will swear to serve you and yours, Salabat Khan
Saliib, not by the Koran and the Prophet, but by the
Hdzdrdt Iswi, for lama Frank and a Christian,"
Then Salabat Khan, after eyeing him keenly; said,
" Ferassa Sahib, of the Franks I myself know but little
enough, but all men speak of their courage and truth.
I will accept your oath by the Hdzdrdt Iswi, on whom
be peace ! and will tell you now what I require of you.
Then, when time is of lesser import, you shall tell me
who and what you are and why you left the service of
Company Sahib Bahadur."
Now Hdzdrdt Iswi (the Prophet Jesus) is deeply
revered in Islam, and the educated Muhammedan is
ready enough to recognize the solemnity of such an
oath. The Christian is not an infidel in the eyes of
educated Islam, and Christians are " people of the
book " to be respected as such. That Salabat Khan
should unhesitatingly accept the sanctity of the in-
vocation merely proved him to David to be a man of
understanding and culture, to whom he was more than
ever prepared to trust his fortune. Then the Afghan
began again.
" Now, Ferassa Sahib, you are my servant, listen*
therefore, to my trouble, but first we will call Yar
Khan " which done, he continued " Yar Khan, I
am now telling Daoud Ferassa here who has accepted
my service, of the state of affairs. My wound of last
night is more severe than I thought. I cannot ride a
horse, and my hakim * forbids even that I ride in a litter
for my head swims and my eyes burn. Now, it is
most important that my Wazir, Yar Khan, should be
back in my palace of the Shergarhi in Srinagar without
delay with a following that he can trust. But I must
have an escort with me. I shall go to shelter with
* Doctor.
48 A FBEELANCE IN KASHMIR
Murad Ali, the Chib chief beyond Poonch, whose sister
my brother has married. Yar Khan will start now
with you and your troop and half my own escort, and
my sister and her girls must go with you. I trust her
to your care, Ferassa Sahib, and I know how the
Franks can keep their faith with women. On reaching
the Shergarhi, at Srinagar, you will at once occupy the
fort, and Yar Khan will fully explain to you all that
is necessary. I see you are ready and so is my sister
Miriam and Yar Khan's men. Start at once, you will
find the pass easier before the snow gets soft in the
sunlight. Fare thee well, I rely on your faith and your
oath on the Hdzdrdt Iswi."
Without more ado, David left the tent, and joined
his men, and a few minutes later Yar Khan came out,
called to all his party to mount, and came over to
where the freelance stood.
" Mount your men, please, Sahib" said the Afghan,
" and we will get along. My men will lead to com-
mence with. See, the princess is mounted, I will
start off the kafila"
By the time David had ordered his men to mount,
the whole party were on the move, Miriam and her two
women riding between the Afghan troopers and David's
party. In this order they rode away up the winding,
broken road over the Rattan Pir, where the old Moghul
causeway was crumbling to decay, and only served to
turn the rainwater to eat down into the present path.
Over the Pir and down again till about nine of the clock
they came to the ford on the Poonch river that must
be crossed ere the ascent of the Pir Panjal could be
commenced.
At the ford the party which had been strung out on
the narrow path came together again, and David was
able to take some stock of the troopers of Yar Khan's
party. Well mounted on Kabul! and Yarkandi ponies,
OVEE THE PIR WITH MIRIAM 49
they were evidently very similar men to the few Afghans
among his own troop, possibly clansmen of Salabat
Khan or Yar Khan, possibly mere mercenaries like
himself. They certainly looked good hard-bitten
soldiers such as his military eye appreciated. Of the
women there was little to be seen. The two attendants
rode heavily veiled, while even Miriam herself was
well wrapped in a muslin hood and scarf, and it was
little that David could see of her, or, for the matter of
that, wanted to see. His thoughts were rarely con-
cerned with the opposite sex. Not so, however, the lady
herself. She was now very well aware of the part in
last night's affray that the stranger and his men had
taken, and had quite realized that without his timely
assistance it might have gone hard with her brother and
herself. She had no mind to be led away to a Rajpoot
fort, and that no doubt would have been her fate if the
attack of last night had prevailed. Also the feminine
is much the same all the world over, and Afghan Miriam
had a good eye for a pretty man and a soldier. All her
life she had lived with soldiers and norsemen, and had
been brought up hi the atmosphere of war and strife,
and came from a country where the hand must keep
the head. Therefore men of action she understood.
Also an Afghan maid is as other maids are, curious,
always curious as to what may be her lot in life, and
whether she marry a lord she likes, and whether he
shall be a hero and a Rustum. Further, Persian love-
songs there be that tell of the devotion of man to maid
and the happiness that love may bring. Had not she
heard the wandering minstrel sing of such themes away
in the pomegranate groves of Kabul, and in Shalimar,
in gay Kashmir ? Old Amah, her nurse, had told her
many a tale of Khans and princes of the Tartars
riding away with their lady loves behind them on fast
Persian horses, carried off from under their papa's
E
60 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIE
very noses, despite their plans to give them in marriage
to stuffy old Usbeg nobles. Dear old squat-nose
Mongol Amah, with almond eye-slits and a skin like a
last year's pomegranate ! What good stories she had
of stranger princes who did mighty deeds. So, as the
keen wind blew off the Pir Panjal, and whistled
through the tops of the blue pine, Miriam's spirits had
risen and she had caught her pony up by his thorn bit
and made him prance down the slope to the Poonch
till her two serving girls squealed with alarm le^t their
sheepish ponies should do the same. Miriam was a
horse-woman and could ride at a tent-peg, if relations
only were looking on, like any girl of a Ghilzai clan.
The excitement of last night's fray, too, stirred her
good red blood, and all seemed well in the sunlit
forest, " Sing Ho ! Sing Heigh ! for Arcady," and her
prancing steed danced into the shiny swirling ford of
the Poonch. But mountain fords are chancy things,
and a leaping Mahseer * made Bijli, her horse, start
and turn down-stream. Two steps, and the ford was
lost, and the horse floundering in and out of deep holes
and stumbling breast-high over sunken rocks. Miriam
soon found she was like to get a wet skin, if nothing
worse, and called out to the troopers who had crossed
ahead. But the roar of the rapids drowned her voice;
when down the path to the river carne David and his
party. They saw at once that the force of the stream
was the trouble, and with a shout a dozen of his men
jumped from their horses and immediately rushed into
the stream forming a line shoulder to shoulder, arms
intertwined, above the rapids in which she was flounder-
ing. Almost at once the stream rose a foot high above
the waists of the wall of men and sank a foot below
them, so that the swirls in the pools lost its force, and
* A large kind of fish.
OVEK THE PIE WITH MIEIAM 51
Bijli was able to steady himself. As he did so David
arrived to seize his bridle and pilot the girl to the safe
path and the bank again.
The excitement of the situation had banished
reserve and disarranged Miriam's veil, so that David
found a bright-eyed maid with sparkling eyes and
braided hair ornamented with turquoise torques, bent
rather on handling a frightened horse than on pre-
serving the silent dignity of a lady of high degree and
Oriental seclusion. Her greeting to David in recogni-
tion of his assistance was entirely natural and en-
thusiastic, so that when that young officer had set the
ladies on their right path and rejoined his men, he
found himself for the first time in his life dwelling on
the memory of what feminine eyes could look like if
only you knew how to look at them. During his life,
women had not entered into his conception of the
world. His mother he remembered well as a being
apart, and there was one English lady, who had made
a friend of the Afghan dame, visiting at his father's
house, but that marriage itself had cut Major Eraser
off to a great extent from the social life of the English
settlements. The band, the dances and the reception
of the station assembly rooms, had not been for him;
so that young David had grown up with none of the
feminine society that young Englishmen would have
been accustomed too. Since he had become a free-
lance he had had no entanglements, nor had the
dancing girl adventuresses that thronged the Eastern
courts he had served at brought him at all within their
sway. If therefore the eyes of Miriam had looked
with favour on the handsome lad who had so success-
fully come to her assistance that morning, and that
of her party generally the night before, they had looked
on a promising material to experiment on.
Musing on the glimpse of the lady he had seen; and
52 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
speculating on her and her brother's position in
Kashmir and what military prospects his new engage-
ment offered him, he sat while his horse climbed for
him.
So up and ever upwards towards the snowy pass the
cavalcade slowly wound along the graded causeway,
past the blue pine and silver fir, and ilex, to the birch
and the juniper. Now and again the leading party
would halt to let the string close up, and to ease the
horses, and the headmen of any hamlets passed would
hurry out to offer the customary tribute to travellers
who were evidently of high degree. But it was full
high noon before the camping-ground and old fort of
Hydrabad Serai was reached, and here Yar Khan
announced his intention of halting for an hour while
the girths were loosed and the horses fed and the loads
lifted from the sumpter mules. The Afghan is
nothing if not a good horse-master, as David noticed
with appreciation. A place for the Lady Miriam was
found under a copse of silver birch and juniper, and
some skins to lie on, unrolled from one of the pack
loads. Then, having posted a couple of sentries, Yar
Khan drew David to a rock overhanging the road by
which they had come, and asked for details of what had
happened at the ford. When he had heard the story,
he remarked
" It's no bad thing to have made a friend of the Lady
Miriam. She has great influence with her brother, and
says and does what she likes. Thank God, that is
usually wise, or we might often be in trouble. She
won't marry any of the nobles who have sought her,
and Salabat Khan only laughs, and says she shall do
as she likes. 'Tis not my idea of how to manage
women. In my young day we married them to whom
we liked, and listened not to their weepings and their
tantrums."
OVEE THE PIE WITH MIEIAM 58
And here this fierce old hidalgo twisted his moustache
and pulled at his close cropped beard. Yar Khan's
thick squat nose and almond eye showed that there
must be Tartar blood in his veins for all his Afghan
pedigree, and with a pock-marked skin, ruddy cheeks
and grizzled beard he looked every inch the rough and
tumble highland chief of few scruples and imperfect
manners. His small turban was set jauntily on one
side of his head, and this lent an air of ram-you, dam-you
independence to his bearing which was singularly
attractive. His square, muscular figure heightened
this impression. A life of soldiering, of striving, and
at last of actual king-making, had given him great
confidence in his own power and judgment, and his
outer man bore testimony thereto.
" However," he continued, " that is no affair of
mine, I have other things to do than look after the
ladies of the governor's family and household. It is
quite enough for one poor Afghan to manage the affairs
of a vice-regal court. Now, see here, young sir. His
Excellency ordered me to tell you the whole situation,
and trust you fully since he was convinced of your
sincerity. I won't say that I am too, but according to
orders I now tell you all about it. Salabat Khan has
been governor in Kashmir for the last six years, on
behalf of the Shah at Kabul, and we have held the
province for the Duranni Empire against Rajput and
Sikh, but especially against intrigue. We have held
the valley against the first two as open enemies, for
His Excellency fears no man, but we have also held it
for his own hand against factions who would work him
harm at court and supplant him as governor. There
are many Afghan nobles settled on the land in Kashmir,
especially in the Lolab valley, and there are several
Toorki families who are bitterly hostile to His Ex-
cellency Salabat Khan. Altamish Khan is the principal
54
chief of the Toorks, and he has a large following. His
land is in jagliir,* and so long as he docs not commit
himself we cannot interfere with him, but we know
that he is at the bottom of half the trouble in Kashmir.
He hates Salabat Khan too, with a bitter hatred, bom
of some business over a maid of Baltistan some ten
years ago. Now it is because of some news we had of
doings at Srinagar that Salabat Khan was anxious to
push on over the Pir, and has sent me and the Lady
Miriam on in his stead with your support. The Lady
Miriam is much beloved of the people, and her presence
is always a strength to us in time of trouble. I expect
a runner to-night at our camp to say how things are in
the capital."
After which outline of Kashmir politics, it was time
for the kafila to be up and off again, the horses fresh
after their rest and feed,
* Feudal tenure.
CHAPTEE VI
THE RIVAL PARTY AT SRINAGAR
FIFTY or sixty miles away from the top of the Pir
Panjal, lies the capital of Srinagar, the Holy City, holy
to the Hindu and holy in the Sanscrit language. The
old Hindu kings had long been ousted by the all-
conquering might of Islam, and the population of the
valley save only the Brahmin Levite clans had long
been converted forcibly to believe in God and His
prophet. The beautiful old stone temples of the
Hindus, which men said had been built by the semi-
mythical Pandavs, had been destroyed. Destroyed,
men said again, by piling burning brushwood against
the walls and then dashing cold water on the heated
carvings so that they cracked and flaked away from
the wall, in which ruined and desolate state they
remain to this day. The Holy City stands bereft of its
holiness on both sides of the river Jhelum, on plinths
stolen from the ancient temples. The river rises away
at the top of the valley of Kashmir, clear and strong
from a pool under a hill, round which is built a palace,
and then wanders for sixty miles through that beautiful
upland valley where only man is vile, as wandered and
curled that wayward stream into which the goodly
youth Meander turned, far away in fair Hellas many a
century earlier. On the banks clustered the latticed
houses and the carved verandahs of the city folk, and
65
56 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
the tall spires of the mosques of Islam. Among these
same mosques there stood one in which men claim,
lies Christ, who according to the legend of Kashmir,
died not on the Cross, but survived to wander East and
preach peace and goodwill, recognized by modern Islam
as one of the prophets.
If you look on Srinagar from one of the northern
spurs of the Pir Panjal, you will see the green valley
and the meandering Jhelum curling in those figures of
eight that first suggested the famous shawl pattern.
And rising above the city of spires you will see the
tall hill in the middle of the valley overhanging the
city which folk call the Throne of Solomon, and close
to it a lesser hill crowned by a fortress. Across, on the
far side, the northern fringe of mountains, snow-clad
and commanding, whence the roads lead to China and
Thibet and the ever famous pilgrims' road. Then, as
you descend from the spurs and ride on you will come
to the walled palace and barrack of Srinagar known as
the Shergarhi, or lion's dwelling, in which the Governor
dwelt with all his machinery of government, save on
such occasions when he chose to move himself to the
greater fortress of Hari Parbat, on the lesser hill re-
ferred to, whence his iron guns frowned over the city
below. It is always good when an Eastern potentate
to have some frowning place of refuge against the days
when the people fail to appreciate efforts and methods
of governing, or when schism rends the land.
Bound the outskirts of the city stand many garden
residences of the nobles. Behind the Throne of
Solomon, between it and the great mountains, lies that
most wonderful land-locked lake known as the Dhall,
and on its shores the beautiful gardens that the Mogul
Emperors of Delhi had laid out for their own and their
ladies' pleasure the Shalimar, the Garden of Happi-
ness, and the Garden of Soft Breezes. The very name
THE EIVAL PARTY AT SBINAGAE 57
Shalimar is redolent of Eastern beauty and love and
wine, " The fair pale band I love beside the Shalimar."
And behind the Shalimar lay the village of Pulhalan;
and close by the village the suburban residence of
Al tarnish Khan, the Toork. If any one had been in an
observant mood in an afternoon in the middle of the
Hindu month of diet, he would have seen that row-
boats kept making for the Shalimar from various sides
of the lake, and by the green highway from the Holy
City, horse, foot, and sedan chairs. In fact, Altamish
Khan was giving a garden party to those of his friends
and supporters who might further his plans regarding
the governorship.
The evening before, a messenger had arrived from a
friend and watcher in the state of Poonch, and the news
that he had brought was that His Excellency Salabat
Khan had been killed in a skirmish with the Hill
Rajpoots close to Thanamandi on the Punjab side of
the Pir Panjal. Thereon Altamish Khan had decided
on seizing the governorship forthwith, by a coup de
main, cutting off in the process the heads of all the
Afghan party, as distinguished from the Toork party,
who might be likely to thwart or oppose him. The
which is a first principle in Eastern politics. Now
Altamish Khan, the Toork, was as dissolute and un-
principled as a man brought up in the decaying court
of Delhi well could be, sparing, when opportunity
offered, none who ever crossed his path to hindrance.
He was, moreover, a born intriguer, and, like many
of his kidney, often over-reached himself. His agents
of intrigue were many, and none more influential and
shrewder than the lady who, styling herself the Begum
Allah Visayah, belonged to what has been called the
oldest profession in the world. She dwelt, after the
manner of her kind, in a house on the city wall, but in
this case the wall that overhung the Jhelum. Her
58 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
upper room contained a long latticed balcony from
which the Jiabitues could smoke their Jmqas and scan
the busy life of the river and spy also on those who came
and went to and from the palace, at any rate, as far as
the river gate was concerned. Those who frequented
the salon of the Begum Allah Visayah were usually
of high degree, gallants from about the viceregal court,
captains of the horse, and the barons of the suburbs.
Gossip of the better type, was always to be had at the
time of morning audience, better, that is to say, so far
as interest went, but in little else. Gossip is always
evil, and gossip in the interior of an Eastern courtesan's
residence would hardly be of the highest. But such;
as it was, it had the spice which surrounds the doings
of the princes and governors, and a value of its own to
those who could sift the chaff from the grain. So
thought the Afghan lad, Habib Ullah, of the tribe of
the sons of Joseph, who lay at his ease on a crimson
divan in a dark corner of the Begum's inner reception
room, and listened whilst that astute lady conversed
with her morning's visitors. The gossip ran on the
invitations to Altamish's garden party, and what would
be likely to transpire, or if it was only a social gathering.
Now Habib Ullah commanded the squadron that
formed His Excellency's Klias Eissalali, or bodyguard,
a troop entirely of his own men, not connected with
the Duranni, save that his sister was married to a cousin
of Salabat Khan. After a while the company thinned
out till chatting with the Begum were two Toork gentry
only, relatives and supporters of Altamish, and regular
admirers of her own. One lay comfortably on a
Bokhara rug, while the other sat on a wicker stool, and
both were smoking rose-water huqas. They had not
noticed the Afghan in the comer as they entered,
and when unexpectedly they commenced to talk
secrets the Begum for the moment was at a loss what
THE RIVAL PARTY AT SRINAGAR 59
to do. Then sho made up her mind. Habib Ullah
was very much in her toils and she well, she cared
much more for him than any other of her clientele. A
handsome lad with a winning way, and a fine swords-
man, who carried her favours arrogantly before all, as
young men should, taking the wall to no man. There-
fore, thought the Begum, he shall hear what is going,
and ho shall keep the secret for my sake or make such
use of as he will, if I let him. So she lay back on her
cushions, and the Toorki visitors commenced.
" My Lord Al tarnish sends you greeting. Salabat
Khan, the Governor, is dead in Poonch, and my lord
will himself seize the Shergarhi and proclaim himself
governor in the name of the Emperor, which Emperor,
Delhi or Kabul, matters not. The clansmen from the
Lolab valley are even now moving in. The Regiment
of Victory hold the Hari Parbat fort. It is necessary
that that regiment shall either declare for Altarnish or
march out and hand the fort over, the former for
choice. It is understood that what you will the com-
mandant of the regiment does. Now, this is the
message to you. ' Let it be arranged that the
Regiment of Victory open the fort gates to me to-
morrow evening at sundown, and then march to the
Shergarhi.' "
" The words of the great Khan are a law unto his
servants, but this is a difficult matter, full of complica-
tions. This humble one may well lose all and her
life too."
" The Lord Altamish also bade us say; that if tho
Regiment of Victory came over, the estates of Pampur
should be yours and a lakh of Kabul-Shahi rupees as
well."
" The Lord Altamish," quoth the lady, " is liberal as
ever, and it is true that what I will, so does the com-
mandant of the Regiment of Victory act. But how am
60 A FKEELANCE IN KASHMIR
I to know that Salabat Khan is really dead ? Who can
appoint his successor but the Emperor of Kabul ?
Does my lord Al tarnish defy the Emperor ? "
" Nay, nay, Madam ! " urged the envoys together.
" The Lord Al tarnish takes the government to prevent
disorder till His Majesty at Kabul sends a sanad * to
his successor. The Begum herself knows well that
Kabul is a far cry from Kashmir, and that the Emperor
cares not who governs so long as tribute comes
regularly."
" But," again urged the cautious Begum who knew
too well the road that those tread who are caught in
intrigue between the nether millstones, " the Imperial
order of the Duranni is this, as all the world knows,
that when a governor dies the naib-Wazir, who as
thou knowest is the Sirdar Yar Khan, takes charge till
the Imperial will is known. Thou well knowest what
became of the Mooltani Pathan who took charge un-
authorized when the Khagwani governor of Mooltan
died of cholera."
" It were well I fancy to leave such points to the
Lord Al tarnish who no doubt knows his own business,
and besides has Kazilbash friends at court to support
his claim. The point for us is, will you earn our Lord's
lakh of rupees and the Pampur estates, by making
certain that the Regiment of Victory do as my Lord
may order ? He has ordered that you have some
earnest money of what is to come. By his command,
I now invest you with this chain."
And here the envoy hung round the neck of the
courtesan a chain of kincob and pearls with an emerald
pendant. This type of ornament, well known in all the
harems of the north, was modelled after the famous
necklace that Nadir Shah the Persian brought away
* Warrant of appointment.
THE EIVAL PAETY AT SEINAGAE 61
from the Great Mogul for his Hindu lady-love who had
followed him so faithfully. The pearls might vary in
value, but the pattern of the necklace had become
stereotyped. In this case the pearls though not large
were enough to stir the envy of better women than the
Begum. Her eyes glistened with desire, and she
eagerly said
" It is well, I accept the guerdon. The Kommadan *
of the Eegiment of Victory shall do as I tell him and
hand over Hari Parbat fort to whom the Lord Altamish
wills and at the time he wills."
And then the Toork envoys rose to go, feeling that
the less said now the better, lest the lady repent her of
her undertaking, or ask for more earnest money, after
the manner of her kind.
" Hush, my lords," cried she, " some one comes !
Oh, it is my friend Habib Ullah, whom doubtless you
know, of the governor's bodyguard. Come in, Khan
Sahib, I do but receive two gentlemen of the Lord
Altamish's following."
And here Habib Ullah, who had heard most of what
had been passing, and who understood that the Begum
had meant him to do so, quietly came forward, and
said
" Gracious one ! Here have I been waiting patiently
at your doorstep for I heard that you gave audience."
The young Afghan, to whom as to all of his kind,
intrigue and plot and counterplot is ever the salt of
life, bowed gracefully and courteously to the two Toork
nobles, saying
" Ever does this house of grace receive the great ones
of the city and the valley. May your star be exalted
and your fortunes ever flourish."
To which the Toorks replied, " May wisdom and
* Commandant.
62
prosperity ever remain at your disposal," and left the
room, to hunt for their shoes at the stairs and pay a
gratuity to the attendant whose business it was to look
after visitor's foot-wear.
Going out into the street, one remarked, " That pert
young cockerel is piping low to-day. Can it be that
he too wants service with the Lord ? "
" The devil, whom these Afghans serve, has no doubt
prompted him to seek his own advantage sooner than
his master's," quoth his companion. " It will be well
to let Allah Visayah know that she should make sure
of him too. He is young enough to be useful, and not
too old to be dangerous. Besides, we want some
Afghans, or we shall have trouble with all the following
in the city. We can't kill them all or we shall bring
the Emperor himself here. If we can square half the
Afghans once we have seized the fort, then we can
report to Kabul that we have taken temporary charge
of the government, and have the Afghans with us, and
that only those who tried to raise riot and rebellion
have been slain. At the worst we can but make for
Delhi, and as you know, Altamish has many Toork
friends there and in Oudh."
So the two plotters rode away on their stout ponies
that come from Yarkand away over the China passes
by the pilgrim's road, that wonderful road from which
the Chinese had come, rain and shine, for centuries to
worship at the shrine of Prince Gautama; the Buddha.
It is the record of these pilgrims' journeys that help us
more to follow the obscurer incidents of the Teacher's
life than anything else.
Altamish Khan the Toork was one of those many
freelance leaders who had so constantly come out of
that great Central Asian cauldron whence hardy fierce
Toork, Tartar, and Mongol races had poured to the
overrunning of a continent, north, south; east and
THE EIVAL PARTY AT SRINAGAR C3
west. As had been the custom of his forbears, he,
with a following of his own men to which he had added
any useful knave who could handle a sword and a
bowstring, had become one of the many powerful
chiefs who had sold their services to Ahmad Shah, the
Abdalli, who founded, on the death of Nadir Shah the
Persian, the Duranni Empire of Kabul. When that
monarch died, Altamish had continued to servo his
successors on the throne of Kabul, and had been
given estates in Kashmir, on that province being
wrested from the Mogul. Now estates are all very
well, but Altamish was growing old, and it was high
time that he should occupy some more lucrative post
than that of a mere landed baron of the Empire,
True, the great muscular Kashmiri peasant farmers
who were his tenants paid him fair dues and more, for
they were a chicken-hearted lot, despite their huge
thews, but he was too old an oppressor to overstrain
the moneymaker. As much as he could wring from
his tenantry he wrang, but that did not give him the
wealth that he coveted to surround his old age with
luxury and evil. He would fain be a governor of a
province free to farm the taxes and work his will after
the manner of the East. Therefore it was that he
sought ever to sit in the seat of Salabat Khan, by fair
means or foul, and all his following longed too that
their lord might come to wealth and more estate, that
each in his turn might farm some part of the revenue
and oppress his neighbour in official guise.
Salabat Khan Duranni was a better governor than
provinces of the Kabul Empire usually got. The Afghan
himself needs ever a cruel master. Centuries of war
and oppression and wrong have taught every man
to be a law unto himself. Never a hint of the law of
love and right doing have penetrated to these hills in
which the mountains of Asia break into crests of rugged
64 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
rock and stone. To paganism has succeeded Islam in
its cruellest form, and the law of Moses has long been
lost. To rule Afghans you must flay them alive, men
say, and gouge out their eyes, and if you would be
merciful, blow them away from a gun and have done
with it. And then as to be cruel is to be avaricious,
those who had the power must extract for themselves
just as much as could be had without the wretch
turning in despair, and ceasing to be a yielder of
revenue. So Afghan governors bred in this school
were apt to be sore taskmasters in gentler lands. Now
and again, however, the larger and more established
families had come to security of tenure and estates
and had sufficient strength to be free to learn. Nadir
Shah, despite his all-conquering genius and his ruth-
lessness on occasion, had wit to see that a milder folk
thrived under a kindlier sway, and the Hindu maid
that touched his warrior heart had softened his ways
and his laws. He had some knowledge of how to rule
the people for the people. And there were men of his
court and his armies who had learnt something of his
conceptions. Then ever there were memories among
learned men of the great Akbar who ruled as none
had ruled in India for a thousand years, who dreamed
of making all faiths one, and of the day when the lamb
I should lay down with the lion. And lay down with
the larnotlie lion had to in his day, in peace and honour
whether he like or no, lest worse befall. But the day
of Akbar had passed, and generation in generation out,
ever the Mogul had grown feebler and lost his northern
courage and character. However, that belongs to
another chapter of history than the days of David
Fraser and Maid Miriam, and suffice it to say, that
Salabat Khan had had a finer up-bringing than most.
He had been cared for by an uncle away up in the
valleys beyond Istalif, where, to some extent, the lie
THE EIVAL PARTY AT SRINAGAR 65
had been given to the saying that you ruled an Afghan
only with scorpions. His uncle had ruled as the good
barons rule, a word and a blow if you like, but a just
word and a just blow. And his aunt had brought
up a family of half a dozen as well as her nephew
and his sister, and that with some reference to the
ruth of God and the true teaching of the Prophet,
who, be it ever remembered, was born of a Christian
mother.
Salabat Khan, her nephew, had been appointed
ruler of Kashmir, because the Emperor knew that to
make Kashmir pay good revenue it was necessary to
treat it fair. Fair treatment then the valley had had,
these last seven years, and though the governor could
flay a man as promptly as any Afghan, he never did it
to his own ends, or for aught save in punishment for
cruel and dastard outrage. The valley had repaid
the good treatment it had received, the great rice
barges bringing in the revenue came yearly to the
state granaries full to the gunwale. There were
more rupees in the treasury than earlier governors
ever dreamt of.
It was some considerable knowledge of the history
of the valley and of what did or not make a good ruler
that caused Allah Visayah the courtesan to act as we
shall see her. To be in the higher flight of her pro-
fession in a large and official town, was to be something
more than a painted denizen of the housetop. To ride
with the hare and hunt with the hounds in an Eastern
capital requires some steadiness of brain and of purpose,
some knowledge of the hearts of men, and some inkling,
however afar off, of the mainsprings of good and of
evil. To be a courtesan in the East, and for the
matter of that, often enough in the West, is to be
born to the trade, to be born to snare men, to dance
for a livelihood, and to serve as attendants at holy
p
G6 A FBEELANCE IN KASHMIR
shrines. From her birth the Begurn had been devoted
to her profession as a votive offering, by her mother,
who had followed the same profession, and her grand-
mother before her. As also will her descendants,
so long as Hinduism and Islam have no public
conscience.
Allah Visayah had been brought up trained in the
arts and graces as usually imparted to one of her calling.
Musical by nature, she played the love -songs of Persia
and crooned their sibilant words, with more than per-
functory feeling, and the poetry and wisdom of Saadi
she had studied for what it was worth. To a love of
music and a desire for learning, she added good nature,
so that she was well equipped to acquire some amount
of backstairs influence. Added to which she had in
her youth spent some money lavished on her by a
Mogul noble in making a pilgrimage to a famed shrine
away in the snows, and had there picked up en route, or
was reputed to have acquired, some knowledge of the
occult sufficient for that useful acquisition, the fear
of her neighbours.
So with some larger outlook that those who counted
on their curry, and the jewels they could extract from
their admirers, the prosperity of the valley and of the
dwellers in the city was a matter on which she was
wont to ponder, Salabat Khan, the governor, it was
true, had other fish to fry than came to her net, but
once he had given a judgment against her, in a case
in which the whole mass of evidence was indubitably
on her side, but was false in every item, purchased at a
price. Therefore she knew him for a shrewd, just man,
before whom the right would prevail, and knew, too,
that Altamish Khan was the very reverse. Salabat
Khan's death, then, she recognized as a loss, if true,
and the question for her to decide was whether or no
she should aid his following. Business was business,
THE EIVAL PARTY AT SRINAGAR 67
and what had such as she to do with the ethics of
state craft? Nothing, absolutely nothing, of course,
and the Pampur estates, with a lakh of rupees thrown
in as a make weight, was not to be sneezed at. There-
fore, decided the quick mind of Allah Visayah, both
birds shall fall to my stone ! I will warn the Naib
Wazir, the Sirdar Yar Khan, and I will also see that
the Regiment of Victory shall render to Altamish the
Fort of Hari Parbat.
" Habib Ullah, you have heard what those mis-
begotten Toorks said to me ? "
" I heard, Lotus-Eyed, that His Excellency is dead,
and that Altamish Khan will try by force to succeed
him."
" How will he do that, Khan jee ? "
" That I do not know, but he has a considerable
following."
" You, no doubt, are on his side."
" I, Lotus-Eyed ? "
" Well, you seem in no hurry to prevent it."
" The race is not always to the swift, Lotus-Eyed.
I wait to hear more. It is easy to run into a tangle.
Patience is the practice of wisdom."
" Very well. Now, Khan Sahib ! Are you minded to
keep the Afghans as governors of this province ? If so,
listen. Go, warn the Commandant of the Shergarhi,
who himself is acting as governor, and then do you
ride straight as an arrow from Rustum's bow to the
Pir Panjal, by the Imperial Roadi and find the Sirdar
Yar Khan, and tell him. Also warn the commandant
that the Regiment of Victory may not be staunch, and
should on no account be brought into the Shergarhi,
and also say that it might be wise to leave it where it
is, as any attempt to move it may bring on trouble.
Doest understand ? "
" I understand, Lotus-Eyed, right well, You are
68 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
wise as ever. But is there not time that I stay a while
with you, and thou shalt sing me of the Rose that fell
on the Garden Path ? "
" Habib Ullah ! Is this a time for you and your
folly ? No wonder Empires are lost and won if you
would twang the zithar when you should be galloping
your Tazi horse to the mountains ! Go, and as you
and I are old friends, it is well that you should see that
both of us are no losers. See that the Lord Yar Khan
knows who is his friend here in Srinagar, and say also
that no man knoweth yet how far this mischief has
gone. Go now, lest I curse thee for a fool and sell
you all to the Toorks ! "
Then Habib Ullah, the captain of horse, took counsel
of the courtesan, and sped away to the Shergarhi, and
to saddle his swift Tazi.
And the Begum Allah Visayah thanked her stars
that men are fools ever.
CHAPTER VII
ALIABAD SERAI
SOON after leaving their midday halt at Hyderabad,
the cavalcade of Yar Khan and the Lady Miriam with
David Fraser and his troop entered the snow line, now
unfortunately soft with the full force of the sun. This
made the going heavy and difficult for the animals,
while the riders had to cover their faces with their
puggarees lest the glare blind them and strip the skin
from their faces. David had dismounted and given
his horse to his orderly, concerning himself with walking
beside the pony of Miriam, which was slipping and
Blithering at every step. After a few hundred feet of
climbing, the road lay through a shaded gully where
the sun had not penetrated and the hard snow was
better going for the horses. David pulled up her
horse to lift the feet and dig out the ball of caked snow
that had collected in the frogs. As he did this he was
surprised to hear her speak. The etiquette and custom
of the East leads not veiled women to speak to strange
men, and as yet they had not held converse. The ways
of an Afghan lady of rank, however, are above the
conventions that cramp the more secluded races.
" I have not thanked you, courteous stranger," said
she, " for your help at the ford. Damming the water
for me with a wall of men was well thought of. I have
heard my father speak of such a thing when crossing
69
70 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
our Afghan streams, but I have never seen it done.
Tell rne whence you come, if you will and it is no secret,
I can keep secrets too, if that be your pleasure."
And David looked up into the veiled face, and just
saw the tip of a well-turned chin.
" Nay, lady," said he. " Who am I that I should
have secrets, or what is there in my life that any one
would care to hear of ? "
" That is my business," quoth the maiden. " It is
enough that I am content to listen if you are willing to
tell. It is not of idle curiosity that I ask."
And again David looked up for another look of that
chin and perhaps a sparkle of the fairy eyes, but the
veil had closed again. Then; since ever has the female
stimulated the male by draping that on which he would
gaze on, David straightway desired very much indeed
to catch that sparkle once more. The sparkle of
bright eyes was a new phenomenon, and one that seemed
worth exploring.
" Lady, your brother the Sirdar, to whom I have
promised allegiance, knows something of my history,
and there is no reason why I should not tell you. I
am a Feringhi, a Christian Frank, who seeks fortune
among soldiers with his horse and his sword."
" Then why do you not serve the Company, Sahib
Bahadur, like the other Franks ? You are Angrez, are
you not ? "
" No, Lady; I am but half Angrez, or Feringhi, My
mother was an Afghani."
" Then you are of the true faith ? "
" No, Lady, not as you mean it, I am not of the
faith of Islam. My mother was of Islam, but became
of my father's faith, to follow the Holy One of Nazareth,
of whom Islam says, ' Aleh Salaam.' " *
* " On whom peace."
ALIABAD SEEAI 71
" Yea, I have heard of the Hdzdrdi Iswi Aleli Salaam I
and our priests say women have no souls, so what does
it matter ? I once heard that the Christians say that
women have souls as well as men."
" My mother, Lady, was ever happy as a Christian;
and the English padre sahib often came to see her and
to pray with her when she was ill."
" Tell me more, then; of your mother and the English;
and the padre that prayed with a woman."
So David found himself chatting away of his child-
hood and his father, of Danny Irvine the artillery
batman, of the soldiers and guns of the English canton-
ments, and of his delicate Afghan mother who had
worshipped her husband and son and had been wor-
shipped in return.
Miriam understood how she had worshipped her son;
and the son his mother ; but the care and love of the
father for his wife, the only woman about him, that
failed to strike a note of recognition in her conception
of life. The devouring flame of the love of man for
woman' she understood or had ken of in the burning
Persian poems that the strolling singers sang and her
old nurse crooned. Ephemeral as the day, short as
the summer's night, was the wooing and the passion of
a Persian ballad. The lover rode away to conquests
new and wives afresh, while the woman remained to
cherish a child that became all that life held for her
" bangles ring softly and sadly." She knew by hear-
say of the " tender ruth " of man to woman in the
Central Asian plateaus. She knew, too, of strong;
stem wives who ruled their lords' castles and retainers
and junior wives by sheer force of character and gift
of power. But that the rapture of the love-song should
be followed by peace and protection till evensong was
a new conception; and she must hear more of it.
Therefore 1 the ice once broken; she became the
72 A FBEELANCE IN KASHMIR
natural curious maiden demanding information of the
stranger as simply as she would have questioned Arnah
Jan, her nurse and maid. And the good, simple David
walked at her side answering her questions truly and
naturally, quite forgetting how incongruous it all was.
But then, perhaps, after all, it was not incongruous, for
a man is made for a maid all the world over, and high
converse is the gift of the Gods.
" Then your father had no other wives ? " queried
Miriam, lest she had not understood aright.
" The Christians only have one wife."
" What do they do when she is old or sick ? "
" They take care of her, at least the good ones do.
My father took more care of my mother the feebler she
became."
" I must tell old Amah Jan that/' mused Miriam.
" She always said men care naught for women when
they are ill, unless they are bearing sons. But your
father married again when she died ? "
" Nay, Lady. He mourned for her all his life."
" Amah will never believe that. She says no man
grieves for a woman save the woman he cannot possess.
Are all the English the same ? " she added.
" All the English I knew. There were English
ladies in the cantonment who came to see my mother.
Their husbands all treated them well, and they came
and went as they liked. Some were old and some were
young, but it did not make much difference. Every
one was as courteous to the old as well as to the
young."
" It is all very hard to believe. Tell me now of the
padre who used to come. We see the priests at times,
and we pay them money, but they regard us as of no
importance."
' The padre, the chaplain, as they call him, came
regularly to see my mother, and talked with her of the
ALIABAD SEEAI 73
God of the English, and of His Son; and she used to
tell it all to me when he had gone. There was always
something new to tell, though she had learnt enough to
become a Christian soon after my father married her."
" Tell me how your father came to marry your
mother. Did he buy her, as the Persians do ? "
" My lady, 'tis a curious story, and the English
ladies loved to hear it, and my mother would herself
tell it to those she liked. Her father was the Sirdar
Ghaur Khan, Suddozai, of Ghor, who had ridden with
two hundred of his clan to join his relatives the
Rohillas. After the Abdalli had beaten the Marathas
at Panipat, he rode through Hindostan for many
years, living at his ease on the country, always meaning
to found a state, but ever loving better to roam. My
mother had ridden at his saddle-bow ever since she
could remember, as when she was older on an Arab
horse by his side, in front of his Amirs. Then there
was war with the English, and a big battle. She was
in the middle of it, and the Afghans were destroyed.
My mother and her horse were carried away by some
irregular trooper in the Company's Horse. An English
Sahib, hearing screams, rode after her, and took her
from the troopers. She was lodged in all honour in a
tent of his, and marched for three days with the
political retinue. Then my father came to her and
said he wanted to marry her. She wept for her father
and relatives, but said she was his slave, and it must
be as he wished, according to custom. They were
married according to English custom by the political
officer, and then she marched with him north and south
for ten years, right down through the Deccan, and
when I was nine years old, to the capture of Seringa-
patam with Lord Cornwallis, the great English General.
After that the wars were over, and we lived in English
cantonments and were very happy."
74 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
" And did your mother know the English ladies ? "
" My mother was just as they were, controlling my
father's household, and entertaining his guests, though
she ever loved to be alone. Once the great Governor-
General of the English came to see her and invited her
to come with my father to his house."
11 And did she go ? "
" Surely, lady, surely. She went in all honour after
the English custom, and sat at the lord's table, and
even danced with him at his big reception."
" I've heard of this dancing among the English ; my
nurse had a friend who had been in an English station
once, but I do not understand it. But the way of the
English women, it is wonderful ! Your father had no
other wives ? "
" No ; did I not say that the English never marry
more than one at a time ? "
" H'm ! perhaps they are wise there, but to rule a
man all your life, and to have no young wives, with
their impudent ways when you grow old ! It is very
wonderful. Once there came to Birrnal an old man ;
he was a story-teller, and played a wavering pipe.
He was allowed to come to us women and play. He
said that there was only the one real love, and the one
real life. Perhaps he meant what the English mean.
My cousin Anari said it was a poor man that would be
content with the one wife, and for her part she would
think little enough of him. And the other English
ladies, were they held in the same esteem as your
mother ? "
" More or less. Always with honour and alone; but
perhaps my father cared for my mother more than
most ; but then he knew she must be lonely among a
strange people, He told me so after she died,"
" Prutt ! a woman has no people when she marries.
We Afghanis leave our homes and go away with our
ALIABAD SEEAI 75
lords, and no one misses us, or cares, and our lord may
do as he likes, though for all that some of us can hold
our own. Your father married again, of course ? "
" Nay, lady. He just mourned for my mother the
rest of his days."
To this Miriam said nothing, but David saw her
eyes once more, as she looked at him to see if he spoke
the truth. Then, as if satisfied, she said
" That I will tell to Yar Khan, who always tells me
that women are of no account, and that one is as good,
or, as he thinks it, as bad as another. He thinks
nothing but his horse soldiers and the rupee bags in
my brother's treasury are of any import. I'll just tell
him how the English ladies are treated. No ; you
shall tell him. He will only just crink his pock-bitten
eyebrows at me. I hate the ugly man ! "
" But Yar Khan must be a very firm and faithful
servant to you and your brother.
" Yes, he is, really. My brother trusts him I know;
beyond all. They have been together many years.
Long before he came to Kashmir, when I was a girl in
Birmal, we heard how Yar Khan stood by my brother,
when those wolves' heads the Abazai drove him from
Jellalabad. Oh yes, I trust him too, but he always
makes me feel so very small. No, I don't hate him
either, for once I lost my pet lamb over the cliffs of the
Zogi-la; when we were returning from Iskardu, it
was old Sirdar Yar Khan that slung himself over in a
grass rope to rescue it. He knows, too, that I hate to
see animals killed, and will not allow animals to be
hallaled * when I am there. Perhaps he thinks no
Afghani should shrink from blood and pain, Surely
it is always round us, When I think of all the stories
* Hnllal = made lawful food ; i.e. have their throats cut. A
Muhammadan only eats meat when thus killed.
76 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
old Amah tells us, I long for peace, and a world where
the men cease from slaughter. Now what you tell
me of your life with the English sounds of a new
world. Yet they too are terrible in battle."
" They are always victorious, true lady. But I've
heard men say they ever fight for the right and protect
the poor. Justice they give I know, and they prize
truth and honour."
" Then why, Ferassa Sahib, have you left them ? "
" I left them, Lady Miriam, sadly, because they love
not the mixed race. I, who am descended from
princes on my father's and my mother's side, care not
to be looked down on as a half-breed. They offered
to make me an officer in their army, but I heard two
of them talking of me, kindly enough, but with pity as
a half-breed. So out into the world come I, lady, as
I told you, to hack my own way to power, and a name,
with my father's sword and his father's pistols, and
naught else save only the Holy Book, that my father
gave my mother when she was baptized. Belike I
shall be the first and the last half-breed of the House of
Ghor, or of the Fraser Khel* That, Lady Miriam,
is niy story."
And Miriam sat silent, her veil tight drawn, and her
shapely head bent in thought, and in her heart she
hoped, she very ardently hoped, that this fine young
man might come by his own. Did she think that he
and she might share the life of the English ? She to be
tended and cared for in her old age, and not turned out
a-catching camels, when no longer a light o' the harem ?
Not she, she thought not at all of such things. The
Afghani is not lightly introspective or sentimental
No ! but she did think that she would like to let Yar
Khan know how some folk regarded women.
* Clan.
ALIABAD SEEAI 77
Then; as the cavalcade crested a southern spur they
came on a stony patch whence the snow had melted;
and the herbage was sprouting green down-grass
and saxifrage, a tulip, and a wild violet.
" See, Sahib, see ! " she cried. " An omen ! an
omen ! The Prophet's flower. The paighamber gul !
Success to all who see it first in the season."
Yes, there it was among the violets. The little five-
petalled yellow flower, with the brown spot in each
petal, where men say the Prophet touched it, and
blessed it for its promise of spring and life after winter.
To David it was a new flower and a new story, and an
omen of success, since beauty and youth and en-
thusiasm called it so.
By now, however, the sun was setting, and the keen
cold wind of sundown was blowing over the peaks.
They had wound over the top of the pass, and the cairn
of stones, each contributed by a wayfarer, and were
descending a spur and the side of a gully. Turning a
corner suddenly, thousands of feet below, lay the whole
of the valley of Kashmir itself, streaked with the
great purple shadows thrown by the Pir Panjal peaks.
The cool keen air swept up the gully, and beautiful
Miriam threw back her veil to drink it in, and let it
play with her braided hair. So David the Scotto-
Afghan gazed his full on that clear-cut profile and
the pale olive skin with the red blood mantling
under the cheek. A long, straight nose, delicate red
lips, and a regular well-curved chin and clean-bred
throat, showed the well-born maid of a race of rulers.
And David saw that the maid was good, and worthy
of service after the manner of the Pranks. Also had
he been deeper read in the world's history \ he might
have believed from that regular profile, the tale of
Alexander of Macedon and his Graeco-Bactrian colonies.
Women of such contour danced on the Frieze of the
78 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
Parthenon; and on the carvings on the temples in
Eusafzai, But then David knew not the history of
Bactria, It was enough for him that the picture was
good.
Whether the breeze struck too cold, or whether Yar
Khan's advent, from his place at the head of the
cavalcade, was the cause, the vision was quickly veiled
again. Neither pearls before swine nor beauty for
weather-beaten masters of horse, are well revealed.
The night's halt had now been reached. A castellated
serai was before them on a bare stony spur, with
Edelweiss growing among the rocks. The serai, once
the comfortable hostel of the Emperors of Delhi, was
now half ruined, and drafty, but even so, better shelter
than tents. The outer wall, too, would protect the
horses from the night wind. Miriam and her women
repaired to an inner room, Yar Khan and Eraser to a
small outhouse, and the troopers tethered their horses,
and lit fires of logs and fir cones round against the wall,
while the caretaker and his assistant hurried to catch
goats to milk, and issued hay from a stack in the yard.
Soldiers and horses soon settled down to rest, and when
David strolled over to his men, the horses were already
eating, and fires burning merrily. Ganesha Singh
hurried up to report all well, and discuss the affairs of
the troop, while Gul Jan carried off his master's
sword and holsters, and went over to the quarters to
get the bedding unrolled.
THE PILGRIM HOSTS
WHILE Miriam and David Fraser climbed the Pir
Panjal, and Toorks intrigued within the Holy City, a
vast pilgrim host was making its way to the Sind
Valley and thence to the icebound Lake of Gangarbal.
That great mysterious search for peace and hope
that the world is always engaged in, was here in active
progress. Tens of thousands of the simple folk of
the countryside over whose heads the wars of Maratha
and Mogul and Afghan rolled disregarded, save as
men regard plague and cholera, were hastening eagerly
to the shrine of forgiveness among the snows of
Haramukh and the Mountain Tarn. The hosts of
the freelances, the mailed squadrons of the emperors,
swept by, carrying off com and cattle and such maids
as they lusted, and ever the people went on their way
and struggled to live and to multiply. The sun and
the rain in due season, and the rest is the will of God !
And now at this season of the year was to be found
that peace and promise of redemption that the heart
of man ever searches for ; that desire and promise
that lays somewhere at the back of all the creeds.
The peasant and even the traders had left their shacks
and their booths and come tramping up from the plains
of India and through the passes and over the snows
of the outer Himalaya. Old and young, men and
70
80 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
matrons, lads and maidens, cowherds and farmers,
fishers and spearsmen, ascetic and jaqir parents
and children, " un qui march un qui tette un qui vient"
streamed out of the Holy City and up from Baramula
and over the Pir through Shapyon, and down the valley
from Verinag, while Islam watched and wondered.
For the great mass of Kashmir folk had long been
converted by the victor's sword to the superior and
comforting faith of the prophet, and looked with
amused scorn on the great struggling eager masses of
Hinduism, wrapt up in a faith that could lead them
away to the infinite. Past the ruined Pandav temples
that spoke of the ancient faith, past the almond
orchards, past the great mosques of the only God, out
on to the karewa plateau, and the dog rose and the wild
thyme and the iris bloom tramped the crowd of
pilgrims.
" Come brothers come for the snows are far
Come brothers come to the healing shrine
Come brothers come for the peace that endures,"
cry the priests to the swelling crowds.
And among the jostling eager folk on the Haramukh
road from the Holy City, swung and lurched a screened
litter on the shoulders of four bearers. In the litter
sat discreetly attired the comely figure of the Begum
Allah Visayah. But why should beauty frail go to
the shrine by the Lake of Gangarbal amid the snows
of Haramukh? "Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere
causas" Above all, why should a Muhammadan lady,
good, bad, or indifferent, seek peace at a shrine of
an alien creed ? And the answer would seem to be
that Allah Visayah was but taking time by the forelock.
She had promised for due reward, that the Kommadan
of the Regiment of Victory, which held the Fort of
Hari Parbat, should deliver it up that night to the
THE PILGBIM HOSTS 81
retainers of Altainish. But she was not quite sure that
her influence would make a man put his head into a
noose till he was quite sure that that noose would
not draw tight. Also she had further dipped her
hands into the waters of bewilderment by encouraging
Habib Ullah to ride post haste to find Salabat Khan's
party and tell them of the business afoot. So Allah
Visayah, self-styled begum, though she was well enough
placed whatever befell, had thought that she might
be better away for a while from the holy city of
Srinagar. If the Kommadan should fail to deliver
over his fort, so much the better for the official party,
and Habib Ullah was her slave. If the Kommadan
did come over to Altamish, so much the richer would
Allah Visayah be.
To rid Srinagar of her presence therefore unnoticed,
the Begum had called for her litter, and had mixed
with the stream of pilgrims hurrying away to the
shrines and snows of Haramukh. Outside the suburbs
a curtained bullock hackery awaited her. But shrines
and rocky paths would not be for her. She would
march with the crowd for a stage or more to the foot
of the ascent and then turn her fat bullocks and her
fat comely self off to a small farm she owned on the
beautiful Sind river.
The tramp of the pilgrims, and the grinding of the
hackery wheels of the few who made the first part of
the journey in a conveyance, mingled with the grunting
and grumbling of camels, the yelping of pariahs as
the crowd streamed through the green plains and level
upland karewas, past willow beds and almond orchards
to the Sind. Away on the river crowds of boats were
bringing their loads by water a portion of the journey.
As the evening neared and the sinking sun crimsoned
the snowy peaks of Haramukh and the Zogi-lah, the
wayfarers halted for the night by the roadside, when
G
82 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
and where they listed, so that fires twinkled on all
sides in the growing gloom. At each bivouac beggars
rattled their gourds and begged for food. Here under
a willow tree life and death were struggling. A
peasant family had halted, father and children, while
the mother struggled with the pangs of labour. The
un qui vient had been insistent. The mother had
sank under a tree and a coloured cotton sheet had
been stretched from the willow to the peasant's iron-shod
bamboo thrust into the ground. The children hunted
frogs in the marsh hard by, and the father sat silent
under the tree, wondering if his wife would die and her
ghost haunt him, as Hindoo mothers' ghosts who die
in childbed haunt Hindu fathers, with their feet
turned backward. That is how you know a cliurel, the
poor feet are turned backward, and they are very bitter
toward menfolk.
Allah Visayah's hackery rumbled past the pathetic
little bivouac. One of the children was crying, and
the lady looking out between her red silk curtains
divined what was in process. Now to belong to what
has been called the oldest profession in the world,
is not necessarily to have lost the sense of humanity,
nor of some of the essentials of womanliness. There
are some worse attributes of the human sex than
mere mercenary love. Away on the farm, to which she
was taking herself, in charge of a gnarled and doting
old 91007100, was a small son of her own, who was an
undoubted child of hers whatever its paternity might
be. So the comfortable Messalina of the Holy City
slipped out of her cart to do her best for the peasant
mother, like any other kindly old woman of the town,
by which act we may hope she acquired something on
the credit side of her life record.
Troubles pass quickly in peasant life. The Begum
was soon back in her cart, after giving sweets to the
THE PILGRIM HOSTS 83
children, and the mother had said she would be up
and on her way in the morning with the new-comer
on her back, while the frightened mumbling father
stood praying to escape the churel, too scared to even
thank the stranger. But Alathea of the housetops
continued on her way, with that feeling of satisfac-
tion which stirs all who do good actions, and none
more so than the habitual evil liver. Back in her
hackery, she reclined and drowsed within her curtains
smoking her bubbling rosewater Jiuqa and the onyx-
eyed bullocks shuffled on in the soft twilight with
which the rising moon was mingling. The clang of
the beggars' gourds and chains and the murmur of
the pilgrims had soon died away, and the jagged
outlines of the peaks of Haramukh stood up clear
and cold and deep black violet against the evening
sky, while peace unutterable fell on the land.
But once more fate was to bring her naughtiness
to the aid of the stricken. The bullocks stopped
suddenly, and ran out all ways as bullocks will, and
the Begum woke up with a jerk and demanded angrily
what was the matter.
'' Have we reached our destination ? Can you see
my kothi ? " she demanded.
" Nay, lady, nay," answered her servants. " 'Tis
but the bullocks shying at some man who lies in the
way."
" Drive on then ! Drive on ! " she called. " Drive
on, over the sleepy beast."
And Pandoo the bullock-driver smote each bullock
with a stick, and screwed their tails in their sockets
till they attempted to leap forward over the obstruction.
Then suddenly a tall white figure leapt up, and
waved its arms in front of them and shouted.
" Norn de Dieu I Arretez ! Arretez I Stop ! Keep
those cursed bullocks back, I say ! '!
84 A FBEBLANOE IN KASHMIR
The white figure drew itself up to a great height, and
on its forehead shone out in the darkness a lambent
living cross. The bullock driver leapt from his perch
on the pole of the cart, into the wild rose scrub at
the side of the road. Here at last really was the
devil, after all the charms ho had bought to keep him
away ! The Begum again poked her head through
her curtains and called to her servants for a light.
A torch was lit after some fumbling, and a trembling
domestic brought it round to the side of the conveyance.
Then she looked out again and saw astride a prostrate
form a tall white figure with a black skull cap on
his head, a long white cassock girt with a camel hair
rope, and on the forehead the fiery flaming cross.
Then she knew her man. It was surely the white
Padre of whom men spoke who had come no man
knew whence, to heal the sick in Kashmir, and who
dwelt unmolested in a hovel near the mosque of Shah
Hamadan. She had heard people speak of a Christian
priest with whom no one interfered, and of whom all
spoke good, even the moollahs of Islam in the city.
Since all men were fish to her net she decided to
speak the new-comer fair. She was on the best of
terms with the moollahs of the mosque near her house,
and would even contribute to a new levy on behalf
of their shrines. The Hindu priests of the temple
allowed her to provide marigolds and incense and
milk and ghee for their linga. Even the holy ascetic
in the garden under the Takht-i-Suleiman, had once
called her sister when she had taken her small son
to see the goldfish in his tank. It would be part of her
good-natured business to make friends with this new
form of priest also, for who knows when her little
Dundoo might need doctoring beyond the ordinary.
So Allah Visayah swallowed her annoyance at being
jerked from her sleep and stopped again on her road,
THE PILGEIM HOSTS 85
and asked the stranger in her most honeyed voice
what had befallen, and whether she could help.
Jean Armande St. Hilaire du Plessis, late Abbe of
St. Marie aux Chenes in the Province of the Loire,
and member of the Society of Jesus, abandoned his
angry attitude and stepped forward courteously at the
sound of a female voice. Ten years at the Court of
Versailles, an intime at the Petit Triannon, a woman's
voice and its tones he understood right well. Many a
high-born dame had he comforted and cautioned through
life, and conducted to her stoic end in the tumbrils
of Danton. The women he confessed through weal
and woo, the men he had quarrelled with and shriven
beneath La Veuve, had loved and trusted Armande
du Plessis, for his patience, his kindliness, and his clear;
ringing voice. " Au nom du pere, et dufils et du sante
esprit ainsi soil il" and the high-born head had dropped
still smiling into the dripping basket. The last of
his friends gone, he waited but his own order of release
in the squalid Conciergerie. Then a brawl among his
guards ; some dying wretch who remembered the old
religion had craved for a priest, and Armande St.
Hilaire du Plessis had found himself outside the
jail, with some one whispering a promise of life. With
five aristocrats snatched from the guillotine he found
himself sailing for India, his friends to sell their swords;
he, the finest swordsman of them all, to seek peace of
mind as a priest among infidels. From shrine to shrine
he had journeyed as a begging friar might wander,
ever north with the pilgrims, till he found his knowledge
of drugs and simples was taking him where his crucifix
failed. The year 1792 had brought him to Kashmir,
at first a tolerated and now a venerated physician, a
recluse and an ascetic, and as such ever venerable to
the Eastern mind. In that upland valley of the great
Himalaya, the abode of Snow, he had found a link with
86 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
Christianity, in that samo mosque already referred
to, in the shape of a legendary tomb of an uncrucified
Christ. To trace the origin of that strange story
had been one of his pursuits. That he was not the
first to do so he conjectured, for on the current cliilki
rupees of the kingdom cut deep in the obverse stood
among Persian and Sanscrit letters, the initials of
the great watchword, " In Hoc Signo Vinces" the
motto of those who raise, as he so often raised, the
Cross to the high heavens. Some predecessor in
the valley had no doubt been responsible for the
letters, I. H. S., cut clear for all the world to see, on
the Kashmir rupees ancient and mint new. Therefore
the Abbe felt himself not alone in his land of exile.
Some one had trod the path before, to gain influence
as he would gain it, to heal as he would heal, and
had left the Master's mark cut into the mould of
Time.
" Madame," said the Abbe, " see ! Here lies one
who needs our help. No woman's heart can pass him
by." And taking the torch from the Begum's servant,
he held it high as he had held the crucifix. There
across the road, effectually closing it to horse and
vehicle, lay a most pitiful mass of rags and corruption.
How it had crawled there was a puzzle. Two toeless
feet wrapped in such strips of cloth as pilgrims tie to
the branches above a shrine, drummed on the roadway
in agony. Two fingerless stumps were flung out over
the abject's head, and the noseless face emitted low
moans forged on anvils hot with pain. Tied round
the waist by a camel hair cord like that which girded
the Jesuit was a brass herd bell that told of the miser-
able's approach. It you could not say he was a
leper of the lepers. Unclean ! Unclean ! Nay, worse,
foul ! foul to horror unimaginable.
Allah Visayah drew back in horror. How much
THE PILGRIM HOSTS 87
simpler to pass the mass of corruption by on the way-
side. But two facts forbade that. The bullocks
would not drive on, smite the charioteer never so
cruelly, and Jean du Plessis, anointed Samaritan,
meant to have it otherwise.
The gift of intuition is the inherited quality of the
bad woman equally with the good. 'Tis perhaps the
extra endowment that has made her bad, enabled to
road deeper into the evil hearts of men. Allah Visayah
saw that it would pay her to play the lady gentle.
" Sir," said she, " the gods give with both hands
good and evil, health and wealth, pain and death.
Close here is a poor farm of mine. I have sheds and
stacked straw. I will now summon some of my people
to bring this " and here she hesitated for a word
" this poor man in. Ho ! Maula Baksh ! Go across
to the jhok, and call Peeroo and Pheeroo. Tell thorn
to bring the old charpoy out of the maize field, the
one that the bird scarer sits in. Will you come across,
Eeverend Sir, to my poor house ? "
" Nay, sister," returned the priest. " We will
remain and see this our brother removed to your
charitable shelter. You have, no doubt, some distant
out-house where ho may be sheltered, and which can
be burnt afterwards. Or perhaps your servants can
erect a lean-to ? "
The priest knew well that no person could rightly
be expected to do more. It is God or nature, not man,
taking vengeance for oft-neglected laws that makes
the leper outcaste. If man will give food and shelter,
distant temporary shelter it is the most that can be
expected. So when Peeroo and Pheeroo, the twin
sweepers, brought the charpoy and lifted the rags
thereon, they had done more than most of their
neighbours would. Then accompanied by the Abbe
and the Begum the leper was conducted across to
88 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIE
a matting hut, and given such food and drink as could
be made available. Allah Visayah then promised
that he should remain in charge of her sweepers at
her expense so long as he listed, and the Abbe" smiled
approval, and followed her to the lintel of her own
house, where the child Dundoo was awaiting his
mother.
But the Abbe had not come to the jliok for conver-
sation or entertainment, and the leper was beyond all
cure of mind or body, save the comfort of food and
shelter. If this could be assured, either at his expense
or the lady's, he would be content and would away up to
the pilgrims' camp. Allah Visayah agreed that he
might visit the leper whenever he wished, but was
anxious that he should tarry awhile. She had milk
and rice and hot curry ready, and all that a weary priest
could need. Armande, however, would have nothing
but a bowl of milk, and stayed but to look at Dundoo's
eyes, fly-sore like so many children in the East. In
his wallet he had a remedy, which he handed over to
the mother and then sped away. The Begum was
anxious enough that he should stay, but to him her
position in the city was fairly well known, and her
house was obviously no suitable resting-place for a
priestly head. So out once more into the night he
went, the phosphorescent cross still flaming on his
brow. Five years ago a wandering faqir had shown
him how to put on flaming castmarks without burning
the skin, and it had occurred to him that by this
means he might connect his healing powers with
a popular veneration for the holy sign. Through the
length and breadth of Kashmir and far away back to
India he was now known as the \[ Feringlii padre of the
flaming Cross."
And this is the story of how priest and courtesan
came in some sort to be allies.
CHAPTER IX
THE GARDEN OP SWEET BREEZES
WHILE Allah Visayah is leaving the Holy City with the
pilgrims and scraping a chance acquaintance with the
Abbe du Plessis, and Yar Khan with David Fraser
are marching in to Aliabad serai, the doings of the
Sirdar Altamish Khan the Toork noble must not be
overlooked. We may repair to the country residence
of the influential baron, situated beyond the apple
orchards, behind the Garden of Sweet Breezes, which
lay on the shores of Dhall Lake. There in the afternoon
of the day on which we have seen his emissaries hold
high converse with Allah Visayah in her house on the
city wall, a garden party was in progress. To it had
been bidden in all outward simplicity the chief
supporters of the faction of the Toork against the
official Afghan party of the Governor. On the lawn
among the almond blossom the old Toork stood to
receive his guests, who came over the lake by water,
or else a-horseback by road. And every one who
landed was first received by one Wali Dad, who was
the official receiver of guests to the household, and also
general procurer and intriguer to the same. And to
each of the guests known to be staunch to the Toork
pretensions the receiver presented a small bunch of
white iris with the request that it might be worn
in the puggari, a recognized place for the wearing
89
90 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
of emblems. And with every one to whom such
emblems had been offered it would not be indiscreet
to discuss the plans in immediate progress. The
which was a sign and a portent.
Up and down the green turf under the almond
trees strolled the guests, while their host chatted with
them in groups or drew them aside in turn. The
visitors were men of the Toork race for the most
part. Almond eyes and high cheek bones showed
clearly Toork or else Mogul origin. One only among
them with his little knot of followers, seemed of
different race. He was of dour and saturnine aspect
with an eye that gleamed under deep rough caste brows.
To all who bore the white iris in their headgear,
Altamish imparted the news; gradually manoeuvring
them down the main line of the garden fountains to
where a small causeway led to a marble summer house
that jutted into an inlet from the main lake. There
they were safe from listeners, and the city rumour
could be elaborated to exploit the Toork designs.
'Salabat Khan their excellent governor lay dead the
other side of the Pir Panjal, and there was likely to
be trouble enough in their beautiful state from the
evil-minded among them. It would doubtless be
long before orders should come from Imperial head-
quarters as to the successor. Unfortunately, it was
rumoured that their worthy naib and wazir the Sirdar
Yar Khan had also been killed, which left the ship of
state still further dismantled. What did his friends
think of the situation and so forth ? ' Before long it
naturally was suggested that some form of provisional
government had better be formed, lest disorder take
place. Then it was also natural, seeing how Wali
Dad, whom we have seen earlier in the day at the
Begum Allah Visayah's, had duly primed suitable
persons, that a suggestion should be put forward that
THE GAEDEN OF SWEET BEEEZES 91
the Sirdar Altamish Khan should himself in the
interests of the province and of the Empire, assume
not seize; that being an evil word . . , should assume
the position of governor. What, demanded another of
Wali Dad's tame plotters, should bo done if there was
any opposition by any of the other factions, what if
any of the functionaries of the present governor
endeavour to usurp power ? The answer was unani-
mous: they all must be ready to support Altamish
Klian. The Khan himself now thought time had
arrived to take a lead.
" Nobles and gentles of Srinagar, and the Kashmir
valley, may the star of your fortune never set ! I
gather from what you say that you deem it in the
interests of the Empire that I should assume the
governorship in the place of our lamented Afghan
Governor, and you believe that I shall be of service
to the province, and His Majesty the Emperor. I am
ready to do as you call on me. The Kommadan of
the Eegiment of Victory has also sent to know what he
is to do, and if I will take charge. I shall, therefore,
do my best. Now what I want is this. I want five
hundred horse and a hundred foot to meet me at the
garden behind the Amiran Kadal, at seven a.m. to-
morrow morning. We will then proceed to take pos-
session of the Shergarhi after riding through the city
and proclaiming myself as temporary Governor of
Kashmir. I shall be myself in the fort of Hari Parbat
to-night, and that will be my headquarters. Now,
Murad Beg, what force will your honour bring to my
help to-morrow ? "
" I will come myself with my son here and bring
one hundred horsed retainers and fifty match-
lock men."
" It is well, most noble Sirdar, And what will Ali
Khan Toorkoman do in the like cause ? "
92 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIB
" Ali Khan will be there with forty Toork troopers
and twenty pikemen."
" And you, my Lord Shams-tid-Deen ? "
" I, my Lord ! I am, or at least, I don't quite
know. ... I am a little uncertain as to our wisdom
in this matter. It is, as you well know, a rule of the
Empire that on the death of a governor his naib is to
take up the government. We are not so far from Kabul
here that we can afford to disregard its rules without
due care."
Altamish frowned and stamped his foot, muttering,
" This man's a fool or a traitor. What the foul fiend
does Wali Dad mean by giving him a white iris to
wear ! "
Then to Shams-ud-Deen, " Calm yourself, my Lord !
We should be the last to think of disregarding the laws
and rules of the Emperor, on whom be peace and on
whose name be glory ! But in these days Kabul is
a far cry. Tribes are up on the roads, and the Sikhs
ever give trouble. As an intimate of his court I know
full well that he wants peace and a capable government
in his provinces. Anarchy there must not be. Our
Afghan and his naib are dead. Besides, are we so
satisfied with this government by Afghans that we should
like any lesser sirdar to affront us Toorks and Moguls ?
A thousand times no ! and you know it every one of
3 T ou gentlemen here to-day. I declare unto you that;
as it is your wish, I shall proclaim myself governor
of Kashmir when I join you to-morrow at the Arniran
Kadal bridge. I shall take over the fort of Hari
Parbat to-night at the request of the garrison and use
it as my headquarters till we can move into the Sher-
garhi. I shall rule this province so that Toork and
Mogul shall have fair shares of what is right, and I
shall at once send tribute and a special messenger to
the Emperor on whom be glory ! Not for all the
diamonds in Golconda would I wish that sirdars who
think we are precipitate in this matter would join me.
I wish all to do that which they consider right. But
there is some amount of danger in this, and those who
would share my rewards must share my anxieties
and danger."
And here the Lord Altamish of the tribe of the Eed
Horde of the Attaman Toork, let his eye wander round
the company. And those who looked it fair saw that
behind the dreamy film of the opium habit, there
shone the sign of a devil. A devil of determination
and unscrupulousness, and daring also, that made each
feel that he must either be truly with him or hopelessly
against him and live a province or two apart. The
which is the wisdom of those words where men may still
hack their way to power.
" Now, gentlemen, we will return to the lawns, and
you will honour me with partaking of refreshment.
Sharbat and fruits await you, and Azizun from the city
hath some new dancers to entrance us. Then away,
and I trust you to be at the trysting place."
So the party melted away out of the summer house
and back by the causeway, past the waterfalls and the
stone rills and the die-away fountains, and came out into
the garden where Wali Dad had been keeping occupied
the guests to whom he had not given an iris. And ever
he spoke of the story of the death of the governor,
giving a substantial detail to what had been in the
bazaars of the city the merest of rumours. ' Salabat
Khan was dead and gone to paradise owing to a
treacherous attack by Rajpoots the other side of the
passes. Oh yes, the Naib Wazir, worthy old Yar Khan,
he was gone too ! What a soldier the man had been,
but how sadly he had neglected the just interests of
so many in the province ! Especially had he seemed
to have a malice against the Toork and Mogul, God
94 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIB
alone knew why; except that the fountain of justice
is ever clogged in men's hearts. Salabat Khan, of
course, was a mirror of justice, but what can a man
do when all his advisers are prejudiced ! Ah ! that
was a strange case when Mohammad Ali Beg had his
lands confiscated, and when Bakhtiar Ali the Persian;
who had received an estate in perpetuity for services
to the Emperor Ahmad Shah, had woken up one morning
to find a party of Afghans taking possession of his
lands, and his almond orchards. Had not they heard
about that ? why he thought every one knew. It
was one of Yar Khan's lieutenants who got the land
with a title deed signed by His Excellency Salabat
Khan. Well, if the latter was dead and his naib too,
it would be difficult for the machinery of government
to carry on. They did not want anarchy such as they
had had even in the Imperial Provinces of Delhi
within the memory of many there. He hoped some
one of the nobles would feel justified in assuming the
governorship, rather than a few junior officials at the
castle should be allowed to carry on. What ! you
suggest that the Lord Altamish would be the right
man ? Ah ! the same had occurred to him, but then
he knew Altamish Khan very well, and felt that he
could only do so in face of a general demand and
support. He quite agreed that it was high time some
one who understood Toork and Mogul interests should
be in power. Anyway it would be well if the leading
men in the province made up their minds. What ! the
Afghan sirdars would never agree to a Toork governor ?
Well, times were changing if a governor who had got
the reins did not know how to deal with people who
would not acknowledge him. Tut, tut, even my Lord
Altamish, who wished all men well, and was a mirror
of justice such as could only be found in history, lie
knew well enough what to do in a case like that, But
THE GAEDEN OF SWEET BEEEZES 95
he knew, too, that his master would be very shocked
at such a suggestion unless he felt the Toorks and
Moguls were all behind him,'
And such-like and so forth, talked Wali Dad the
wily, and all the while keeping an eye on the mysterious
stranger with the small following who had not as yet
talked with any guest. He, Wali Dad, did not know
who it was, but Altamish knew, no doubt, and had
forgotten to tell him. He had not been given an iris
too for the same reason. However, he was sitting
away there and did not seem wishful to intrude. He
was now sitting under a chenar tree with his followers
behind him, playing with two magnificent tazi hounds;
with which Altamish would course hares on the higher
plateaus above the Jhelum river. Harmless for the
moment, Wali Dad let him be, having already set two
of his own special myrmidons to watch him.
By this tune the guests were returning from tho
meeting in the summer house in the lake and began
to mingle with those whom Wali Dad had been enter-
taining. The latter at once led the way to a largo
awning or open tent with side walls enclosing three
sides of a portion of the lawn. The ground below
the awning was provided with settees and cushions
and covered with rugs from Persia and Bokhara. At
the back were waiting attendants with cooling sharbats
of many fragrance, samovars of brick tea from Kashgar,
and brass trays piled with fruits. And while the bearers
served the refreshments there glided on to the carpets
Azizun the beautiful dancer of Srinagar on whom
Altamish had lavished much of his wealthy and who
in her turn provided for his entertainment the best
of her profession whenever her master needed enter-
tainment other than her own.
To be born of a long line of dancers of purely
matriarchal descent, foi 1 so many generations that all
96 A FKEELANCE IN KASHMIR
count is lost, is to have every nerve and muscle, and
indeed every instinct of the body working to every
inspiration of the dance by intuition. When to such
a descent be added great personal grace and beauty,
it is to be imagined that the dancer so endowed is
likely to be an influence of no small weight in the
circles in which she moved. In the eyes of the Eastern
world the beautiful dancer lives without soul, without
caste, without religion, a thing of beauty, a plaything,
a useful instrument, a mistress, but by no possible
stretch of imagination or play of feeling could she be
given a status. To power and wealth they come and
have come through the ages like the most glorious
flowers of the universe, to die away in due season.
Children they have, who become dancers and have
children in their turn to unknown fathers and behind
them lies this curious matriarchal descent that no one
heeds. A race apart, never admitted to be human
any more than those outcaste tribes who scavenge,
and who are in reality but the aboriginal folk whom the
great Arian invasions contemned to be ostracized as
hereditary menials.
Out of this vista of dancing female ancestors, the
beautiful Azizun had sprung, and had early been
trained to her profession. She had cast her toils
over many of the young nobles of the valley, among
whom to maintain a dancing girl was quite the most
fashionable thing to do. The power and wealth of the
Lord Altarnish the Toork, however, had made her his
for so long as he pleased, or as she intended, so long
as she pleased, and her influence and weight was con-
siderable. It is one of the curiosities of Indian history
that the wholly worthless dancing girl, void of all
religious or moral teaching, wholly a parasite of evil,
leaving the world in due course as the sea wave turns
to foam, should often become the most influential
THE GARDEN OP SWEET BREEZES 97
adviser of a ruler. Disowned and ignored by the
respectable women of the zenanas, they have flourished
ephemerally as flourish the red agaric in the shade
of an autumn wood. For two years now Azizun had
twisted Altamish round her slender olive finger with
the orange-tipped henna-stained nail, which was more
than the three maidens who shared his legal board and
bed had ever been able to do. A considerable penny
it had cost him, though still he called his loss a gain.
And all the while Azizun danced exquisitely as well as
ruled wisely, and knew where her frontiers ran, and
where lay foreign land, which is more than most of her
profession know, or her sex either for that matter. And
Azizun while she danced kept also her professional eye
open, and had secured as a disciplined following the
best of the coming dancers in Kashmir. Their training
had been perfected under her own eye, and Altamish
wise in his generation had arranged that they should
dance for his supporters on those velvet lawns by the
Dhall Lake.
So as the sharbats circulated, Azizun and her maids
glided on to carpets and stood jinking their ankle
bells before the admiring nobles. And with them came
the makers of sweet music, retainers of Azizun also,
chosen for then: understanding of the more languid
and amorous tones of the pipe and zithar. Three of
them shuffled up behind the peris, the man with the
dole or tom-tom leading, a grey-bearded old habitue of
the courts of Delhi, well practised to throb the drum
exactly when most effective. The other two were
younger musicians, the piper with a ragged unkempt
beard and a black reed pipe, the man with a zithar
clean-shaven with eyes deeply lined with cosmetic, of
a vacuous unclean lear. Wholly unclean, wholly
leacherous and loathsome all three, but permissible in
that they understood their art to perfection. And that
H
98 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
art was the making of haunting seductive amorous
music that all the world, for its sins, could understand.
Then commenced one of those swaying insinuating
nautches, which to the English are often unspeakably
dreary and wholly unintelligible, but to the Eastern
mind are fraught with all the love and passion and
lust and high-drawn suggestion; that ever Persian
poet dreamed of. And the dance told a story, com-
mencing with the loneliness of a young captain ever
condemned to frontier guard, longing for the scented
delights of the city bazaar. And ever his desire grows,
and ever the dreary rocks of the frontier pall, till some
errand leads him citywards to woo some beauty frail
beneath whose verandah ho sings in vain. And then
despair and desire seize him, when lo ! a rival fair
appears and casts a lure, at first unheeded yet ever
more attractive till at last the lover begins to feel the
spell of the entrancing provoker. Then as the fire
leaps to new fuel, the inclination of the absconding
soldier becomes fiercer and ever more ardent, and the
charmer ever more compelling, till ho gives himself
body and soul to the personified goddess of incarnation.
The dancers elaborately and sinuously dance their
interpretation of the story, now swaying slowly with
eyes closed and balanced arms, as the despair of the
captain is depicted, changing to the motion of a
hurrying serpent, and the violence of love defeated.
Clash go the castanettes, and loud throbs the dole, and
then as despair is greatest the slow insinuating motions
of the new enchantress. Ever the spielman pipes, and
the zithar twangs, and you can see every muscle under
the soft olive skin and transparent muslins of the girls.
Azizun leads the motions as fugleman, with arm and
ankle and bosoms moving to the pipe in softness and
in frenzy,
That it is all very high class performing is evident
THE GAKDEN OF SWEET BEEEZES 99
in the intense gaze of the onlookers, and the low sounds
of approbation. Azizun is undoubtedly an artist of
the very first grade, with a figure and grace beyond
compare. And of all those who looked and admired
not one could have given birth to a thought that this
beautiful and graceful creature was in any sort a human
being with any claim to any of ordinary heritage of
the human race. Any existence beyond that of the
butterfly was absolutely denied her in the opinion
of each and all, from the greatest to least in that Eastern
land.
With a clap of Azizun's hands the music ceased,
the girls glide away and the musicians shuffle after
them, ere the audience could realize what it was all
about, or give vent to the chorus of Wdh I Wall !
'. Undoubtedly the Lord Altamish understood their
needs and also the secret of hospitality. Never had
they been so well entertained. Without fail he was
the man to rule among them. He would see to their
advancement and knew how to amuse them. Ho
must, of course, be king,' the which is a story as old
as ancient Eome, and the wanderings of Israel in the
peninsula of Sinai.
With the conclusion of the nautch, it was obviously
time to go, and the guests hastened to take their leave;
whispering assurances of their presence the next
morning at the Amiran Kaal without fail. In fifteen
minutes the lawn was empty, save of the sardonic
stranger who still fondled the dogs under the walnut
tree, unmoved by the music of the entertainment,
Altamish hurried over to Wali Dad.
" Who is your friend BakJishi Sahib ? "
" Surely, my lord, he is your friend."
" Not so, I know him not. Have you an armed
guard handy ? Let us ask his business."
Seeing that he was observed and that some one
100
had leisure to attend to him, the stranger approached
and saluted.
" I have business," said he, " with the Lord Alta-
mish, I would see him alone, and have an introduction
to him."
" The Lord Al tarnish is not in the habit of seeing
strangers alone, sir," quoth Wali Dad.
" Did you say strangers, young sir ? I am no
stranger to his lordship. My greetings to the Lord
Altamish and ask him who stood by with the bow
string to help get rid of the widows of his brother at
Sultanpur."
Here Altamish stepped forward in sudden dismay.
" Enough ! enough ! I will see this gentleman in
my own room ; " and he hastily led the way to the door
of his own dwelling, Wali Dad following, and taking
the precaution to see that half a dozen .of the house-
hold retainers were about with their arms, while ihe
stranger's retainers joined a group of their grooms
and horses at the entrance to the courtyard.
CHAPTEB X
THE NIGHT ON THE TOP OF THE PASS
IN the bivouac on the top of the Pir Panjal, the horses
had finished their corn, and the more weary had lain
down. Those of David's troop had bedding, and all
but one mare had taken advantage of it. He had stayed
once with his godfather in the Irregular Cavalry of
the Bengal Presidency. From him the main principles of
horse-mastery had been learnt never to be forgotten;
and the troop horses showed it in hard firm flesh and
clean-cut muscle. David came out of his quarters to
find Yar Khan looking at the horses. A fir cone fire
was blazing at the back of the horse lines, and a dozen
troopers crouched round warming their hands. The
glare of the fire lit up the Afghan's face. The shadows
of the pock-marked features, made the pits in them
stand out like the dark seas in the moon. One fierce
eyebrow had the firelight, and the close grey beard
died red with henna, red mingling with grey, also stood
out to the fire light. Temper, character, decision, were
marked in every angle and corner of the figure that
stood four-square to the night breeze. Yar Khan
was born to bo the hand behind the curtain. Reliable;
faithful, shrewd, a type of man to be seen hidden
in the gloom of the wings on the stage of history
through the ages. A believer in might, but with a
Bhrewd instinct if not of the justice that alone brings
101
102 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
to might its rightful inheritance; at any rate of how
far the rights of subjects must be respected. It was
chiefly due to Yar Khan's support that Salabat Khan
had reigned as governor of Kashmir for six years.
His predecessors had averaged eight months. The
wealth of the valley, and the meekness of its peasantry,
had made it too easy a prey ground for those who would
grow rich quickly. Salabat Khan of Kabul and Yar
Khan his wazir and deputy had kept the turbulent
colony of nobles and their retainers in order for six
full years of the Muharmnadan calendar. Land was
being broken that had not felt the plough for five
hundred years and more, and the State granaries were
full to bursting. It was a good two years since any
noble had dared raid a Kashmiri girl from any of the
dab and matting villages of the plain. Yar Khan or
the governor might order a levy of maids, that was
another story, done in due form as a matter of fail-
barter, but it was not to be done at will. Therefore
the nobles murmured against the governor, and w r ished
him ill, but no man murmured twice in the hearing
of Yar Khan. His ways, however, were the ways of
Central Asia, which are not the ways of Europe, save
perhaps that the disembowelling of a living rebel chief
in the market place in the year 1800 did in reality
differ little from the execution of the English gentle-
men on Tower Hill who had been ill-advised enough
to join the clansmen from the north at Carlisle in the
attempt to revive a defunct dynasty, the which fate
had overtaken two uncles of David. To be hung
and quartered and the still beating heart torn from the
body before a yelling London crowd is not very different
from a disembowelling scene in the main bazaar at
Kabul. All of which David Eraser may or may not
have thought, if ho did think at all on such matters,
but the Abbe" Armande du Plessis, who had seen the
THE NIGHT ON THE TOP OF THE PASS 103
tender heart of beautiful La Lamballe on a pike, found
little to choose between the tender ruth of Cross or
Crescent.
All of which is as may be. Certain it is that Salabat
Khan and Yar Khan his wazir and naib or deputy;
kept the peace with some ruth in Kashmir, and tho
people knew it. These methods, good or bad, were
tho methods of tho East. That set jaw of the wazir's
under the stubbly red beard meant soldierly qualities,
and it was with some approval that he watched one
of David's troopers on sentry, pace up the horse lines.
Among the Afghan horse, their animals tethered any
fashion, and the saddlery flung aside carelessly, there
was little to attract that appeal to precision which the
real leader understands. As David came down through
the rows of horses Yar Khan accosted him.
" Good evening, young sir ! You are looking to
your horses ? That is right. Lucky for my loons
here that they have hardy horses or it would fare ill
with them."
" Khan Sahib," replied the young man; " I early
learnt that no soldier should rest or break bread till
his horse be cared for."
Hero old Ganesha Singh sprang to his feet, the
troopers round the fire with him, standing to attention.
It was evident to the Afghan that the action meant
respectful obedience to their commander, It was
new to him, but he highly approved of it.
" Ah ! You've picked up this discipline of the
English, I have never seen their troops, but I hear
of a thousand bayonets moving as one. I begin to
understand. Your services will be very useful to
us here. Tell me, Ferassa Sahib, do you understand
cannon ? "
" Certainly I do, Khan Sahib, so far as working them
goes ; but I cannot cast them,"
104 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
" Never mind the casting, we have a hulslii * in
Srinagar who can do that well. He came from some
Maratha foundry in Agra. Our trouble is that we
have no one who can use our guns properly. I want
to expel our artillery commandant, who is quite useless,
but I've no one to put in his place. Can you train me
a man ? "
" I can try, Khan Sahib. They say an Arab makes
the best artilleryman. Have you any ? "
" One or two, but none of them worth their pay.
Come and look over the wall here and tell me how to
point a gun that will defend a steep approach. Our
Had Parbat guns are not placed right, I know."
Now, Hari Parbat was the citadel of Srinagar, the
one garrisoned by the Regiment of Victory.
The two walked over to the grey stone wall of the
serai, and peered into the shadows below shadows
that accentuated the white frosty light of a moon that
was nearly full. It was still and clear, and down
below a horse's footfall could be heard displacing an
occasional stone, as some horseman scrambled up
the steep path. Then the sound changed to the
measured cadence of a tired horse on level or slightly
rising ground, " three-ha'pence and tuppence, three-
ha'pence and tuppence."
" That horse is going lame," said the Afghan. " Do
you hear him ? ' Dot and carry one, dot and carry
one.' He is on the level piece about three-hundred
yards away."
And the sound continued to re-echo, " three-ha'pence
and tuppence," till the still night air was alive with it.
" Call two of your men here," continued Yar Khan ;
" and come, let us stand just within the serai gate.
Bid them bring their arms. I know not who would
* Negro.
be coining up this hill at such a pace. There is some
trouble in Srinagar, I'll be bound. I begged the
Sirdar to put Altamish in chains before we came
away. That accursed hound is the father of all the
evil and half the lies in the state."
The sound of the tired hoofs had died away, the
rider must now be scrambling up the last short ascent
to the serai, that had frozen slippery since the sun
went down. The two Rajpoot troopers whom David
had summoned stood with their lances at the charge
across the gateway. Yar Khan and David stood
within the gate in the shadows of the wall. The sound
of the hoofs again became clear, and in another minute
a horseman arrived with panting steed in front of
the gate, and nearly rode on to the two bright spear-
points, to call out hurriedly
" Ahoy ! watchman ahoy ! I seek shelter in the
name of the Governor of Kashmir, His Excellency the
Sirdar Salabat Khan. Who are these who block the
way of his messenger ? I want fire and shelter and
forage. Let me and my horse in, in the name of the
Sirdar."
" Let him in ! Let him in ! " said Yar Khan;
chuckling to himself to see the steady lance points
of the two well -disciplined troopers.
"It is young Habib Ullah, who is commandant
of His Excellency's bodyguard squadron. He is
all right."
" Anne do ! * Lai Singh ! Anne dot" called David,
and the lanco points fell away.
" Come in, Habib Ullah Khan, come in. It is I,
Yar Khan," and as the tired horseman slipped from
his horse, the old Afghan stepped out into the moonlight
within the gate. Habib Ullah rushed forward to Yar
* Let him come.
106 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
Khan, and salaamed, and then turned to David to call
out excitedly
" Your Excellency ! Your Excellency ! Praise be
to God you are here, They said you had been killed
by Rajpoots,"
And the young horse-soldier seized David's hand in
both his own. " Tush, fool ! " said Yar Khan. " Tush,
be quiet. Who are you talking to ? This is not the
Sirdar."
Habib Ullah stepped back and looked at David.
"If it is not the Sirdar, it is his own brother. I
do not understand."
Yar Khan looked at David, " Pish ! The boy is
right ; in this light there is a great resemblance.
However, whatever brings you here, young Habib
Ullah ? Come inside, and stop chattering outside.
We are talking like women round a well, Let one
of your men take his horse over to where mine are."
And so the three withdrew to the small out-quarter
in the serai, and Habib Ullah Khan of the Khas
Eissalali told his story. It was merely the story of
his hidden presence in the salon of Allah Visayah, and
the added interpretation of that lady. Of this naturally
the young captain of horse told as much as properly
pertained to the main subject.
To Yar Khan the threads, partly bared by Habib
Ullah, were clear enough. Altamish Khan he knew
for a pig-swine of the worst type whom he would long
ago have sent the way of all flesh had he had his way.
But His Excellency the Governor had some conception
of haute politique. He had believed Altamish to be
very much hand and glove with the Mogul party, both
in Hindostan and at Kabul, and too powerful to
be removed except as a last resort. The lesser evil
had seemed to be the continued existence of Altamish.
So Altamish had laughed in his evil sleeve and Yar
THE NIGHT ON THE TOP OF THE PASS 107
Khan had had to content himself with such knowledge
of his ways as a well-organized underground service
could purvey.
" You don't seem to have done much," he growled
at the young noble.
" My Lord, what was I to do ? Who am I to tal$o
your place ? You were reported to be on the passes
near. But I have given two orders in your name.
First, I told the commandant of the Shergarhi that it
was your order that on no account was any man of the
Regiment of Victory to be allowed into the Palace on
any pretext whatever. Further, that he should not
quack of this order to any one, Secondly, I saw
Kommadan Rung Khan of the artillery and told
him that it was your order that a salute was to be
prepared for, in readiness to fire to-morrow morning.
Also, as private information, that I believed that some
one had told you that his war supply of ammunition was
wrong and that you might be coming to inspect it.
He thanked me and swore all should bo in good order.
One more thing happened as I came out of the Poplar
Avenue, by the watermill. The tinker folk were there,
that gang which goes round snake-charming at the
fairs. The old woman who tells love chances perhaps
you know her, W azir Sahib 1 " Yar Khan snorted.
" Well, some of us know her, and she called out to
me, ' See the rats leave the falling tower. Whither
away so fast, Kommadan jee ? ' I stopped casually and
said, ' Why mother, to meet His Excellency, of course.'
Then she sidled up along my horse and whispered,
l . And what of the Lord Altamish ? ' I said, ' Late
again, mother, and here is five rupees to tell the town
so.' So you see that the tale has been spread."
" By the kirtle of the blessed Fatima," said Yar
Khan. " This boy is not quite the fool he looks.
He ventures to give orders in my name. Some day
108 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
I shall make a man of him, a real man. What sign
did you give the Kommadan of the palace to make him
sure that the order was imperative ? "
" Why, Wazir Sahib, I have a seal here that is
something like yours. I showed it to him and made
an impression on his court circular. I smudged it."
" If this young officer is not bowstrung or blown
from a gun, one of these days he will rise to power.
However, a truce to this, we must get to work. How
many troopers have you, Ferassa Sahib ? "
" Twenty, sir, all good men."
" And I have half as many again. Humph ! Fifty
men is not much to make a show with. We must try
and get His Excellency back, ill or well. If he cannot
be seen within twenty-four hours, half the garrison
and all the city will believe him dead, and I doubt we
can hold the place long against Altamish. If he is
alive I can raise the city and valley. If he is dead
or believed dead, nobody will care. To them an
ordinary baron is as good, or as evil, as another, and
it is a far cry to Kabul. It is the peasantry and the
merchant who know what Salabat Khan has done for
them."
Yar Khan strode up and down the room in his
anxiety, the glow from the log fire again throwing up
the ridge and furrow on his face, and his eyebrows
seemed to meet in one long scowl of perplexity. At that
moment a knock sounded at the door. Habib Ullah
sprang to see who waited. At the door stood a veiled
woman, who intimated that the Lady Miriam had heard
that a sirdar from Srinagar had ridden into camp with
important news, and she wished to know what it was,
and also to see the Sirdar Yar Khan at once.
The Sirdar frowned and muttered under his breath.
" May the fiend fly away with women. Their ears
are so accursedly long when they scent news, and
THE NIGHT ON THE TOP OF THE PASS 109
curiosity drives them wild, high or low, rich or poor,
drat them ! Tell the gracious lady that the news
is trivial, and that the Sirdar is loath to disturb her
to-night. And hark ye, my girl ! here is five rupees, and
get the princess to bed quietly. Nay, stay ! Don't
let her undress, but keep her quiet for a bit. All you
pretty things are a nuisance."
The waiting woman stepped into the middle of the
room.
" Thank you, my lord, for your gracious words. The
lady Miriam will herself hear the news, and give her
own message , . . Nay ! " said Miriam, who had now
slipped off the waiting woman's veil, and had only
her own thin veil across her eyes. " Don't try to quiet
me. Some one has told me that my brother himself
has returned. How can that be ? "
Yar Khan made a grimace at David, and assumed
an air of resignation.
CHAPTEE XI
A COUNCIL OF WAR
THE Lady Miriam, as has been explained, was a wilful
woman, even Yar Khan had admitted that, and knew
that she was not to be brushed aside lightly. So
pocketing his disgust at the arrival of a petticoat,
however desirable, he accepted the situation, and
gazed kindly on a lass that had acquired a freedom
almost unknown even among Afghan women.
" Lady," said he, " as you know so much, I agree
you must know all. There is greater trouble in
Srinagar than we anticipated. The Sirdar Habib
Ullah Khan who, as you know, commands the Khas
Rissalah, His Excellency's bodyguard, has but now
ridden in to say that Altamish Khan has spread the
tale that Salabat Khan your brother is dead, on the
far side of the Pir Panjal. He intends to proclaim
himself Governor, and has probably got possession
of the Hari Parbat fort. God send he has not got the
Shergarhi palace also ! I intend to go straight into
Srinagar now to see what can be done, and do take
you with me, as your presence may have some effect,
at any rate on our own supporters. Oh, that His
Excellency were here ! if only in a litter ? "
Miriam's eyes twinkled at the calm way in which
her movements had been settled.
" I am ready to start at once." Prompt action she
could see was needed. " Can we get my brother up
no
A COUNCIL OF WAE 111
to us ? Even wounded we shall find his counsel the
wisest, however bad his sword arm be." And here
her eye fell on Habib Ullah, who at once made obeisance.
She knew him by repute for one of the liveliest rustlers
of the vice-regal court.
" Aha, Sirdar Sahib, you have ridden promptly."
" Gracious lady, it were needed. Your brother's
presence, to be seen of the people, is badly required.
Yours is the next best. When I first saw this dis-
tinguished stranger in the moonlight, I thought it
was His Excellency, and my heart leapt."
Miriam looked at David. It has been mentioned
that he had some general resemblance to Salabat Khan,
who looked, however, some years the older. Miriam
had noticed it in a casual way when she first saw
David at Thana Mandi. In the dim firelight of the
little room, the resemblance noticed by Habib Ullah
was the more apparent. Her quick wit saw the con-
nection.
"It is true ! It is true ! This stranger is like my
brother. He shall ride with me to Srinagar to-night,
and we will proclaim that His Excellency has returned,
and all the people shall see him ride through the city.
How say you, Wazir Sahib," said she turning to Yar
Khan.
The audacity of the suggestion had taken the Wazir
by surprise.
" Pish ! " muttered he, thinking that there could
be no doubt but that women were angels of evil.
" Lady, the wisdom of your house is always great,
but " And here the wooden logs burst into a
blaze, and a jet of light shone out over David. " By
the Prophet's shoes, lady ! there is something in
what you say. The lad is very like His Excellency,
younger, but like. Wait here now, and it please
you, till I return."
112 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
And Yar Khan, naib and wazir to the Governor of
Kashmir, strode out into the cool night air to consider
the startling suggestion. It was rather beyond the
ken of even his experience to have to stem a rebellion
with a missing governor and then to find a substitute
to hand. Miriam's suggestion was novel and bold,
but it undoubtedly offered a prospect of success that
nothing else showed. The arrival of Yar Khan and
party would in itself hearten up the Afghan party it
is true, but it could only result in some form of civil
war in which they might or might not be successful.
There was no leader of any influence. Yar Khan
was clever enough to know his own limitations. He
had not the personality necessary, and he knew it.
A trusty adviser, a staunch servant, a daring sub-
ordinate leader, a judge of men and their evil ways,
he knew himself to be. He was the most invaluable
assistant that ruler and leader could have, but he
missed the divine spark. The art of command was
not to him. And marvel of marvels he knew it. He
was quite capable of holding the valley for Salabat Khan
wisely and determinedly, and intended to have a very
fair try to do so, but a wavering populace would not
come to heel to his call.
Therefore the daring proposal of Miriam came as
light from heaven. Manage a puppet king who would
give orders and sit at the head in another's robes he
felt quite equal to. It might be dangerous for the
substitute, but what were men made for, and no one
really cared a straw whether or no this young adven-
turer did lose his life in the game. A nice boy. Oh
yes ! quite a nice boy. In fact, he had been more
attracted by him than ever he could remember in
the course of his life, but this was a serious matter
in which likes and dislikes must be disregarded. The
thing must be gone through with, and that without
A COUNCIL OF WAR 113
delay, that was quite clear. Exactly how they had
best act, must be settled on as they rode along. Miriam
should come with them, which would effectively
corroborate the likeness of her brother should there
be any inclined to doubt Fraser's face on its merits.
None of her tiresome women should come, they must
follow after. There would be other women in the
palace ready to receive her, if they got there. Pshaw !
Got there ! Of course, they must get there. There
could be no failure.
So arguing, Yar Khan paced up and down in the
moonlight, till his ideas took shape. Being a man of
action, he decided that they must give the horses two
hours more rest and then ride hard. He therefore
issued orders that all men were to be roused in an hour
and a half's time, and then turned back to the quarters
where he had left David, the Sirdar Habib Ullah, and
the Lady Miriam.
While Yar Khan had been pacing outside, Miriam
had been putting Habib Ullah through a searching
cross-examination, much to that young officer's
surprise. Masterful women, excepting always the
Begum Allah Visayah, who belonged to a class apart,
were a new phenomenon to him. Beauty frail and
fair he understood, as well as the two quiet little
Mussalmani women to whom he was married, and
who lived far away in the Punjab. Here was a lady
of high degree, with a way of her own. Habib Ullah
at once proceeded to pay attention and answer categori-
cally. How had he first heard of the plot ? He told
her, not sparing her niceness in his relation of the
incident. What did he think of Altamish and his
party ? Did he expect the Kommadan of the Eegiment
of Victory would give up the Hari Parbat fort ? What
did he think the people of Srinagar would do ? Would
they at once support the Governor if they thought
i
114 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIK
he had returned ? To this latter question Habib
Ullah returned a very emphatic affirmative. He had
no doubt that the return of the Governor, if ho had
really been seen to have returned by reliable witnesses,
would have an immediate effect, which confirmed
Miriam in her determination to make them dress
Fraser to act the part of the returned Governor.
David sat silent while this cross-examination was
in progress, much approving the quiet determination
of the lady. The suggestion was not ill-pleasing which
would place him in such intimate relations with so
charming a companion, as promised to result from the
proposal that he should impersonate her brother and ride
with her in that capacity through the streets of Srinagar.
It was not, however, till Yar Khan reappeared that
the difficulties of the position became fully apparent.
In ten minutes from the time that that prompt indivi-
dual had left them, he was back again, with most of
the subsidiary details clear.
" Lady," said ho to Miriam, " we will start as
you suggest, in two hours' time. The difficulty that
I find is to prevent our arrangement and our secret
being known. The whole of my men know Ferassa
Sahib well, and they must therefore be let into the
secret ; then, of course, all his own men must know.
That is too many for a secret, and the whole thing is
bound to get out. It won't matter so much if we
can keep it secret for the first few days, till we get
the situation in hand, but it must not get out before
that. We must leave a good many of our men behind,
though we can ill spare them. Whether it will be best
to send Ferassa Sahib's men away, or our own, I
don't know. He can, perhaps, keep his own men from
talking, while we could, perhaps, keep ours; but with
the two parties I see no chance of it."
David paid nothing, but he felt that there was sound
A COUNCIL OF WAE 115
sense in it all. Secrecy that would be the difficulty.
Ho naturally did not want to be parted from his own
men, especially in a position likely to call for very
considerable strength of character on his part, when
a sound backing of his own would greatly stimulate
his self-reliance, but he would wait. Happily, the
keen wits of Miriam were at work.
" If I did not know how wise in all counsel you were,
Wazir Sahib, I should say you were quite stupid
to-night. How many men bo there who know that
the Sirdar Habib Ullah Khan mistook Ferassa Sahib
for my brother ? That was the first occasion, I under-
stand, that the likeness had been noted ? "
" The only man who could have heard was Duffedar
Faiz Ullah, who was in charge of the gate guard, and
opened it for the Sirdar ; the sentry could not have
heard. I hope Faiz Ullah has not been talking."
" Very well, then, Wazir Sahib, my suggestion is as
follows : Let Ferassa Sahib go away with one or two
of his own men, who must be told, with the purpose
of carrying a message to my brother. Then in an
hour's time let him ride in as my brother, recovered
of his wounds sufficiently to ride. Wo can tell the
men that ho had had an inkling from other sources
of the trouble in Srinagar, and has hurried in to put
it right despite his wound, which had taken a turn for
the better."
This fresh contribution to the possibilities of the
situation set Yar Khan thinking again for a few
seconds.
" By all the people of all the Books," quoth he,
" this lady is a wonder and a fit sister to a governor
of a province. It shall be as you wish. Ferassa
Sahib 1 Do you ride out as soon as we can get you
disguised and dressed like His Excellency. Take with
you a couple of your men, and I will send two of mine.
116 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIE
One of yours and one of mine will go on together with
a message to His Excellency. You shall merely turn
back on a pretext in a few minutes and ride in with
one of your men and one of mine, who know the secret,
and return to us as His Excellency."
David had been listening intently, but had an
amendment to suggest.
" What good will it do my taking out four men of
whom two are to go on ? I would rather that the men
to go be sent off first. Then I would start with the
4 wo men who are to return, telling them before we
start of what was in progress. I would further suggest
that you should accompany me out and that you
meet the Governor coming in with two retainers and
escort him in, announcing his return to all the men. My
men will think that I have gone off to Poonch and
missed him. At any rate, Ganesha Singh shall account
for my absence."
" Well thought of, Ferassa Sahib" cried the Lady
Miriam. " That will be splendid, will it not, Wazir
Sahib?"
And Yar Khan, who had a distinct preference for
being the guiding spirit himself in matters of action,
rather testily admitted that it would be splendid.
The next thing to do was to settle preliminaries and
get together the clothing for David to wear. Fortu-
nately a good deal of Salabat Khan's clothes were
with the party. Miriam had these unpacked ready for
old Gul Jan to take them outside the serai. Ganesha
Singh was sent for, and the whole situation was ex-
plained to him, and he was pleased to admit that the
situation was a pretty one, and one that it would become
Ferassa Sahib to do well in. The remaining details
were quickly arranged. David was to set out in his
own clothes, and his orderly would carry the change.
Miriam readily agreed to travel without her women,
A COUNCIL OP WAR 117
for the spirit of adventure in her was fully roused.
In half an hour David and old Gul Jan left the serai
with Yar Khan. Half an hour later Yar Khan shouted
to the sentry not to fire, and came in with a couple
of horsemen, announcing to the guard as he did so
that His Excellency had ridden after them in spite of
his wound, owing to rumours of trouble in Srinagar.
And sure enough there was the well-known figure of
the Governor, with the blue and gold lungi on his head
that he always wore, and the heavy silk-embroidered
sheep-skin mantle trimmed with astrakhan. The men
crowded out from their shelters and the camp fires.
They had now heard the news of the trouble in the
valley, and the sight of their chief was inspiring enough.
Gul Jan came in to Ganesha Singh to tell him that
Ferassa Sahib had sent him back to say that he would
not be with them for a few days, but that they were to
take all orders from the Sirdar Yar Khan, which
wondering somewhat they were prepared to do.
The wounded Governor, stiff and weary after his
long ride, was assisted down from his saddle, saying
that he had met David and had changed horses with
him, as his (the Governor's) horse would carry the latter
down the frozen slopes the better, and that David
had gone on urgent messages for him. It was now
close on midnight, and Yar Khan had arranged to
start at a half-hour after. Six of the Afghan troopers
would remain with Miriam's two women, and the
heavier baggage and the rest follow on in the morning,
while the others rode straight for Srinagar. Miriam
and Yar Khan took the wounded Governor inside
the quarters and settled some of the prehminary
plans. They three would ride together, followed by
David's own men, while half the Afghans under the
Sirdar Habib Ullah Khan would ride in front and a
similar party in rear. Miriam looked at David with
118 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
a grave air, despite a twinkle at the back of her eyes,
and said
" Ferassa Sahib, you really are extremely like my
brother as I remember him, perhaps ten years ago.
Do you feel equal to the part ? "
And Yar Khan added, " You will have to ride
officially through the city, when we have straightened
out this matter of these dog Toorks, and then you will
have to hold your Durbar at once. This His Excellency
usually did twice a week. We shall, of course, prime
you with information as to whom all the officials of
the state are. Should we be discovered, we shall rally
round you till the last. If, however, all goes well in
quelling this insurrection, it would be possible to you
to take to your bed to recover from your wound, while
I manage the state."
" And oh ! Ferassa Sahib" exclaimed Miriam,
" you will become such a friend to my brother if you
are the means of saving him from this cowardly
plot ! "
And there was sufficient glow in the firelight to
show a very real glint in the Lady Miriam's eye that
went straight to David's virgin heart. That great
swell of determination to do well and right for the
right's sake that lies in every man, stirred within him.
It has stirred many a heart before and since, and it is
often a woman that touches the string that looses it.
Most beautiful and many less favoured women have
the power if they are in themselves worthy of it.
Children and weaklings also call it forth in the civilized
heart. Some men have the gift. The Stuarts had
it by personal magnetism, others have it from strength
and straightness of character. David Fraser had been
moving through the world more or less aimlessly, look-
ing for some object to which to devote himself. Here
unconsciously he found it. That woman qua woman
A COUNCIL OF WAR 119
was mixed up with the discovery he was as yet too
unsophisticated or inexperienced to realize. But old
Andrew Fraser and Sultana Aluri his wife had built
up before they died some promising clay for the potter
to mould.
CHAPTER XII
THE NIGHT RIDE
AT half an hour after midnight the small cavalcade
left Aliabad Serai with horses none too fit for the
purpose. They had twenty-five miles to make, and
some five and a half hours to do it in, which, as the
descent to the level would take a couple of hours,
would leave them but three and a half hours for nineteen
miles. However, it was important to be in by six,
when the first shimmer of dawn was showing, to
forestall Altamish at the Shergarhi, and if possible
to regain Hari Parbat, supposing always that that
post had gone over to the Toork Party. This infor-
mation would probably not be forthcoming without
an actual visit there, but Yar Khan trusted to events
to guide him so far ahead as that. The first thing
was to get his party off the slippery slopes of the
mountain, which, melted during the daytime, froze at
night like glass. The horse-shoes had been roughed
at Ratan Pir, but the nails were already worn nearly
smooth. As a start Yar Khan led the calvacade, while
David commenced by leading Miriam's horse, a pro-
ceeding which that high-spirited young lady seemed to
think quite suitable. It was slow work slipping and
slithering down the frozen mule path, but at last
the old stone temple on the lowest spur was reached,
standing out as a landmark in the moonlight. All was
120
THE NIGHT RIDE 121
silent, not even a chiragh * burnt on the shrine, and
the deep bells and conchblowers were hushed, and the
wooden roofing glistened in the hoar frost. Below
the temple the road broadened somewhat, and the
gradients became less severe, so Yar Khan halted
on the grass beyond the shrine to let his party close
up, for it had straggled considerably on the narrower
road. As it was, one horse had come down and broken
a leg, so that its rider would have to follow on foot to
the Shergarhi.
Not far below the temple they came out on to the
flats at the foot of the mountains, which gradually
slope to the Jhelum, and began to quicken their pace
to some six or seven miles an hour. Gul Jan rode to
take care of Miriam, with one of her brother's men also,'
and David went forward to talk over the situation with
Yar Khan. That nobleman was in a fairly com-
municative mood.
" See here, Ferassa Sahib, we shall slip along now, I
hope, till we get close to the Shergarhi. We will then
ride straight in there if possible, and see that all is
well. Inayat Ullah, a Populzai, is in command. He
has with him perhaps fifty men of the palace guard,
and the whole of Habib Ullah 's squadron, except the
thirty men we had away south of the Pir Panjal, of
whom, as you know, we now have eighteen with us,
less that fool who let his horse down a while back.
We have your twenty men, which makes thirty-eight
or thirty-seven. We can rely on the rest of Habib
Ullah's men, whom, as I told you, are His Excellency's
special bodyguard, which will give us from sixty to
seventy sabres more. There are our three hundred
men in the Hari Parbat, whom we expect that thief
of a Kommadan will take over to the Toorks. The
* Small earthen oil lamp.
122 A FKEELANCE IN KASHMIR
rest of His Excellency's troops are scattered over the
province. We have a garrison up at Gilgit, the Prophet
alone knows why, for those hill tracts are not worth it.
We have troops up at Skardu, in Baltistan, on the
China road ; we have men at Uri Fort on the road to
the Punjab, down the Jhelum valley. Then those
troublesome Sikh settlements at Muzzaffarabad always
want a garrison. So you see we have not much in
or round the city. As it is, we are lucky it is not
autumn, when half those we have would be out getting
the revenue in. Of course, Altamish would never have
tried this on if he had not thought the people would
believe the story of His Excellency's death."
Here one of the orderlies rode up with a message
that the Lady Miriam would speak with Yar Khan,
so that old man dropped back. As he did so Ganesha
Singh rode up, and ranged himself alongside David.
" Ahj Ganesha Singh, old soldier ! I wanted to see
you. Have you anything to say or suggest ? "
" Not at present, Sahib. Save that I have been
talking to the Afghans; who all think you have got
very thin as the result of your wound."
" There is no question of doubting my identity ? "
" Not in the least, Sahib, and I heard that old
Euzufzai duffedar remark that he always said His Excel-
lency's Persian was a disgrace to an educated Afghan."
" Aha ! " laughed David. " Lucky for me that
Salabat Khan's was bad, for I know my Persian is
none too good. I think my Pushtoo is better ; what
do our troop think of my disappearance ? "
" They are a little disappointed that you are not
with them, At the worst I shall have to tell thenij
but I have given them great promises of the service
and position you will receive from His Excellency,
and how, if all go well, there may be promotion for all."
!' Humph ! I hope we may be able to fulfil your
THE NIGHT BIDE 128
promises. They are certainly in a fair way to get
adventures, if that be their wish."
" Ah, well, Sahib, I used to go recruiting for the
Sirkar, and if I can't manage young soldiers I am
not fit to be your ressaldar. I can tell fairy tales and
make them come true, too. All shall be well."
Presently Habib Ullah rode up to David, and said
" Your Excellency, it will be well if I ride with you
for a while, or our Afghans will be wondering that
you have none of us with you."
" Come along, Sirdar Sahib, with all the pleasure
in the world, Come and let me practise my Persian
with you."
So while the cavalcade moved along at a steady
pace, Yar Khan reined in his horse till Miriam came
up, and then drew alongside her.
" Your ladyship sent for me ? "
" Yes, I did, Wazir Sahib. A terrible idea has come
into my head. I see great difficulty in front of our
scheme. How long will it be necessary for Ferassa Sahib
to impersonate my brother ? "
" Well, lady, it may be a week, more likely ten days,
for I doubt if His Excellency can be fit to move within
that time. Of course, if we find all is well and can
hold our own, then we must send a litter for him. I
told him so in the letter I sent this evening."
" Well, there will be a difficulty, and you, you
foolish Wazir, you forgot, oh you quite forgot, my
sisters-in-law, His Excellency's wives. You know
what an inquisitive, tiresome woman Alana Bibi is,
Nur Jan we can manage,"
Yar Khan swore aloud. It was quite teue he had
forgotten those infernal women. He had moved for
the most of his life in scenes in which women were
always an encumbrance, His attitude was always the
same, They were an encumbrance and an evil, The
124 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
Lady Miriam alone came into a different category;
and that only at times. To Yar Khan there was no
inner house with almond-eyed women and round fat
little children, no young son to teach hawking. Once;
long, long ago, before the small-pox had marked his
face like the surface of a full moon, there had been a
small tower and homestead with an apple orchard
and willow trees away in Badakshan, with an almond-
eyed wife and a round fat son, the dead spit of all
other round fat sons. Then while he was away there
had been a raid of rnanstealing Toorkoman tribes,
and he returned to find his henchmen dead and his
house burnt, and not the merest trace of his wife
and child. For three years he had tracked those
Toorkomans through rugged mountain and windswept
plain, never to find the Itirri * he searched for, though
taking full vengeance of the race when and where he
met them. Which redoubled his desire to get the
better of the whole of that race, as represented by
the Lord Altamish and his adherents, as may well be
imagined. Such was the life story of Yar Khan
Suddozai, and how it was his heart and his head had
become as hard as iron, out of touch with all woman-
kind, saving always at propitious moments the Lady
Miriam.
" Lady," replied he in some chagrin, " it is true,
we have forgotten the ladies of the household." Mark
the " we," that the lady might share the obloquy of the
admission. " A murrain on all women, say I, saving
your presence, lady, for they are always a trouble.
How shall we deal with them ? They will be all agog
to hear the story of his wound and this attempt at a
rising from His Excellency's own lips. If we tell them
the truth, it will be all over the palace in an hour."
* Nomad camp .
THE NIGHT RIDE 125
" We must try and think out some plan. We could
keep them quiet for a couple of days. Perhaps the
best thing would be to say ho was ill in his own apart-
ments, and that he only wanted Nur Jan. She could
stay and nurse him, and I could keep her in my apart-
ments and tell her the truth."
"Humph!" said Yar Khan. "You'll have the
Bibi Alana tearing the house down, and the Lady Nur
Jan's eyes out, if she thinks the other is preferred as a
nurse to her. Perhaps it would be best to send for
the she-devil alone, and let her into the mystery. The
Lady Nur Jan will keep her disappointment and injured
feelings to herself."
" Poor Nur Jan, I had rather have it the other way,
and see my lady in a tantrum, but I expect you are
right. Nur Jan is as a cushion of velvet, and will be
quiet ; we certainly can't tell them both, except as
a last resort."
" We shall have the Bibi Alana falling in love with
this young Ferassa; that will be a pretty kettle of
fish to plague us."
" I should certainly hope," said Miriam, who received
the suggestion coldly, " that my sister-in-law would do
nothing so foolish or so unseemly. I am surprised
at you, my Lord, suggesting it."
" Tut ! tut ! lady, I did but jest. I must to the
head of the column now, and I will turn over in my
mind how best to act."
All this while the steady pace had been continued,
past frosty fields, and silent hamlets, from which only
pariahs took notice of them. Through walled gardens
and orchards, and over the level karewas and water
channels, till they were at the Jhelum level, and dew
instead of frost glistened on the trees. It was past
five when they arrived at an open space at the end
of a, long line of Lombardy poplars, which told them
126 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
that Srinagar could not be more than three miles off.
Yar Khan called a halt for the cavalcade to close up,
and then ordered the nosebags to be put on the horses.
" We can spare ten minutes here, Ferassa Sahib,
and we could afford to lose that even if it were later,
for the sake of freshening up our horses."
The men dismounted, fumbled with the nosebags,
waved their cold arms, and wrung the night dew from
their beards.
" We will make straight for the Shergarhi first, to
see what news there is, and see if all be well. This
white mist will soon thicken for an hour or so, or I
am not mistaken."
Twenty minutes' further trot brought them to the
high corner bastions of the Shergarhi, which loomed
especially inaccessible in the sheer, amid the white
river mist, which had, as Yar Khan had foretold, got
thicker as the first trace of dawn lightened the horizon.
The fort was alert. From up in the bastions came the
nearing call of the sentries passing the watch.
" Number one, and all is well ! " away faint in the fog.
" Number two, and all is well ! " came nearer, and
then in the bastion above their road, " Number three,
and all is well," to die away again down the wall.
Yar Khan was satisfied. Inayat Ullah Populzai knew
his business, and his men were evidently on the
alert. That should be remembered to his credit.
There were more empires lost by carelessness than by
want of statesmanship.
Number three, too, had apparently announced
the approach of horsemen, for when Yar Khan chal-
lenged the main gate, it was the Sirdar Inayat Ullah
who answered, and the parapet between the gate
towers bristled with musket barrels.
" Who challenges ? " called the Sirdar.
" I the naib, and His Excellency," answered Yar
THE NIGHT RIDE 127
Khan, and the Sirdar recognized the well-known
voice. But caution was caution, and Yar Khan
might conceivably be impersonated, or might hardly
conceivable be in the plot of which the young soldier
Habib Ullah had warned him the day before. So wise
Inayat Ullah said
" The enemies of the state are many, and come in
strange guises. I would see your faces, before I open
my Lord's palace gate."
" You are wise to be cautious; old friend," replied
the wazir. " Put out a torch and see."
And presently a torch was thrust out bound to a
lance, and the Sirdar within saw the well-known faces,
standing afoot in the gloom holding their horses.
" Now, Allah be praised," cried the Sirdar, and the
great spiked gates rolled back to admit the Governor
and his escort. But just as they were about to ride
in an object crawled forward from out the fog, and
cried, " DoJiai I Khudawand. Dohai / " *
The party stopped instinctively, and a wounded
Goorkha bent at David's foot. His head was covered
in coagulated blood from a sword cut on his forehead,
and he thrust out a bleeding arm stump.
" Justice and mercy," he cried. " I have come from
the fort of Hari Parbat."
" What has happened ? Speak, wretch ! " said Yar
Khan.
" At the third watch this morning, I was on guard
at the gate, when the Kommadan of the Eegiment of
Victory came to my post. I am a sepoy of that
regiment. He said to me, ' Open the gate,' and I
opened it. Then in rushed a party of Toorks, who
cut at me, and attacked the remainder of my guard.
We have half a company of Goorkhas in the regiment,
* Justice ! Lord, Justice !
128 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
and we were all Goorkhas on the guard. They killed
them, I could hear their cries, and they never hurt
the Kommadan, who rushed on with them, ' saying the
regiment is yours, saving only these accursed men of
Nepal.' Then I crawled out of the gate, and the blood
from my head blinded me and I lay faint for a while,
and now I have come to my Lord."
And David said, " It is well, thou faithful soldier.
Take him in, and care for him. Now we will ride
straight for the Hari Parbat. How say you, Yar
Khan."
But Yar Khan thought the young man moving too
fast, with too little reference to himself, and at first
demurred. Again David urged that prompt action
must be taken.
" If that fort is known to be in Altarnish's hands,
we shall have the city believing that I am dead. We
must recover Hari Parbat, and then we can tackle
Altamish, if indeed he be not within the Hari Parbat
itself."
And Yar Khan yielded. For the moment affairs
were moving too fast for him.
" Very well, your Excellency, so be it. The Lady
Miriam will now leave us and go to her apartments."
But he had counted without that lady. She had
enjoyed the fruits of excitement and action for some
hours now, and she was not going to be relegated to
a back seat at the nautch.
" The Lady Miriam will accompany His Excellency
and his soldiers to the Hari Parbat, and will then ride
with him through the town that all the world may know
that we have returned and the story of His Excellency
having been killed is untrue."
Yar Khan shrugged his shoulders, as well he might,
and said nothing. If the Lady Miriam had made up
her mind there was nothing more to be said, and it was
THE NIGHT BIDE 129
only one more example of the eternal tiresomeness
of feminines. So he contented himself with demanding
of Inayat Ullah an account of the number of soldiers
available for duty in the fort. Of these the sixty
men forming the balance of Habib Ullah's bodyguard
squadron were ordered to join David's party, and after
some sharp instructions to Inayat Ullah as to the care
of the palace, the party struck off again to Hari
Parbat, by the road which would cross the river Jhelum
by the Amiran Kadal. Now it will be remembered
that it was near to this very bridge that Altamish
was to meet his friends that morning, and accompany
them to seize the Shergarhi, and generally take steps
to insure that Altamish should be accepted as the
de facto ruler of Kashmir.
CHAPTEE XIII
THE REWARD OF REBELLION
THE sight of the wounded Goorkha from Hari Parbat
stirred men's minds to anger. The troopers muttered
and loosed their weapons, and looked at David as
hounds look at their master. There were now ninety
lances in all eager for action. David was talking with
the Lady Miriam.
" Lady, I insist, and the Sirdar Yar Khan, our real
master, insists. You must remain in the palace.
This is no woman's work forward now."
" Ferassa Sahib, and you, Wazir Sahib, understand
me once and for all. I am with you and this party, to
help impress on the people of Srinagar that my brother
has returned. Ferassa Sahib here is not exactly like
Salabat Khan, being slighter and fairer, but he is
sufficiently like if I ride by his side. What does an
Afghani care for danger ! I insist on coming."
Yar Khan shrugged his shoulders. " The girl is
right, Sahib. She is necessary to make the deception
sure. Let her come and she will. It is best so."
To David the determination of the girl was a revela-
tion. Anxious he would be, with her on his hands,
but stimulated certainly, since what he had to do
would be done in her company. At any rate, the
sooner they were off the better. It was with a sigh
of relief that they saw Yar Khan climb into his saddle
and give the sign to march.
130
THE REWARD OF REBELLION 131
The white mist lay heavy and the daylight could do
little to pierce it, till the sun should get high above the
horizon. They clattered through the gardens of the
suburbs down the cobbled streets and over the Amiran
Kadal bridge, without meeting more than a half score
of townsfolk muffled in their blankets, too cold to
wonder who took the road so early. Through the
main town and out through more suburbs the party
sped for an hour, to find themselves without incident
at the foot of the hill of Hari Parbat.
During the ride David and Yar Khan had been dis-
cussing a plan of action, but it was not till they were
nearing the fort that their ideas came clear.
" There are three separate things wo might do,
Ferassa Sahib, and the longer you look at them the
less you will like them. First we may ride to the
gate and demand entrance in the Governor's name.
Do you think that will be listened to ? More like a
bullet in your abdomen. Again; wo may simply advance
to the attack, try to blow in the lock of the gate with
our pistols and scale the walls. You are an old enough
soldier to sec little chance of success in that."
" True, Khan Sahib, that is not a soldier's course
under the circumstances."
" Then, Sir Captain, we must try artifice. We must
present ourselves, or some of us, at the gates and
demand admission in the name of Altamish."
" I see what you mean. A small party, even two
or three, get in and hold the open gate ? "
11 That is about it. Let us send Habib Ullah first ; he
is well known as a frequenter of courtesans' courts, and
they will believe that he is in the revolution. He
and this Kommadan are probably boon companions."
" I like not the sending of others, Khan Sahib, on
an errand a man should do himself."
" Tush, lad, I know it." And Yar Khan laid his
132 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
hand on the other's bridle arm. " But all must bear
his share. There will be plenty for you to do, and
this man is the man to do it. Leaders cannot always
lead. Habib and half a dozen of his own men must
go first and try and get the gate open. Call him up."
Habib came up, and David gave him his instructions.
" Habib Ullah Khan. You are best known to the
Kommadan of the fort. You are to go and try and get
the gate open. We shall be close behind. As soon as
we hear a shot from you we shall rush in. Can you
manage it ? "
" Excellency, it won't be my fault if I don't get in.
Oh yes, I know the Kommadan well. We play at
shatranj together .' '
They came to the turn in the approach. A round
tower loomed distinctly through the mist.
" Now, Habib Ullah," said Yar Khan, " remember.
Straight up to the gate and demand admission with
a message from the Lord Altamish. Say who you
are and that you have brought six of your own men
with you. Say, too, that you have news that His
Excellency is really dead, and that you have transferred
your allegiance to Altamish. That will go down. If
it does not, we are no worse than we are now. And I
don't think that Altamish himself will be up at the
fort by this hour. So off with you, and may Allah
protect you."
" I will take Muhammad Akbar Ghilzai with me;
and the five men in his section. . . . Here you,
Muhammad Akbar ! Hand over your horses to the
men behind you. Loose your swords, and come here
round me."
So saying, Habib Ullah explained to his little party
what he intended to do, while Yar Khan stood by and
nodded approval, and David listened over his shoulder.
In five minutes Habib Ullah and his men moved on
183
up the paved roadway. And Yar Khan followed with
David and the rest of the troopers, less only horse -
holders and three soldiers under old Ganesha Singh,
left as personal escort to Miriam.
Yar Khan and David were to follow as close to the
gate as the fog would permit unseen, and then wait
for the sound of a shot or a summons from Habib
Ullah. Yar Khan, who had stepped slightly ahead,
soon found that he could make out the blurred outline
of the gateway, and returned to halt his party. For
five minutes five slow minutes they waited, David
watching the rigid face of the older man with some
interest. Then a pistol shot came down the breeze,
smothered to some extent by mist but clearly a pistol
shot. Yar Khan called to David, and his men, and they
doubled up the remainder of the causeway. As they
advanced two more pistol shots came down to them,
this time distincter. In a minute more they saw the
gateway open, with a struggle in progress.
Habib Ullah had obeyed instructions, and walking
boldly up to the gate had loudly called to the guard
to admit him. An officer of the garrison from the
parapet above, outside the guardhouse, called out to
know who sought admission.
" It is I, the Sirdar Habib Ullah Khan, commandant
of the bodyguard of the late Governor Salabat Khan.
I have now joined the newly declared Governor of
Kashmir, the Lord Altami^h. I have come here by
his direction to wait on the Kommadan with certain
orders and instructions, I also am to place the five
men I have with me at his disposal should he desire
their services."
This address had been sufficient. The door had
been opened, i.e. a small wicket hi the main gate
studded with iron spikes to prevent elephants from
pushing it in, and Habib Ullah was bidden to advance
134 A FKEELANCE IN KASHMIR
with one of bis men. The moment, however, that he
had got his foot inside the gateway, he called to his
men, who rushed in and jammed the door open. Habib
Ullah then fired his pistol into the guard inside, who
were drawn up across the inner gateway. Taken aback,
the latter broke into the courtyard leaving both gates
in Habib Ullah 's hand. But the officer of the guard
who had spoken to Habib Ullah from the top of the
gateway, now saw that he was in for serious trouble,
and calling on his men to follow, threw himself on
Habib, striking with a doubled-handed sword at the
latter's head. Habib Ullah had but time to throw
up a weak guard, which was battered down, bringing
him to his knee. Seeing this, the dumbfounded guard
rushed in with shouts on the small body of new-comers.
But Habib Ullah's shot had brought David and the
others on the scene. Arriving at the wicket gate,
they soon rushed through, David and Yar Khan
leading, the former excited but restrained, the latter
alert, set, and determined. Yar Khan rushed straight
at the officer who had struck down Habib Ullah, and
settled his count with a jab from his Afghan knife
well under the right rib. By this time the whole
garrison had been alarmed, and came rushing to the
alarm post, seizing any weapon handy. But the
arrival of Yar Khan and David had effectually broken
through the resistance at the gateway. Four of the
guard lay gasping out their lives on the cobbled road-
way, and the remainder had given way. Two of
Habib 's men lay badly wounded just inside the outer
gate, and Yar Khan was trying to form the men up
preparatory to taking on the garrison.
" Wait ! " said Yar Khan to David laconically.
;< Wait ! Stand out in front of the men."
And David did so. Then that which Yar Khan
had anticipated came to pass. The garrison was almost
THE REWARD OF REBELLION 135
entirely composed of the Regiment of Victory, to whom
His Excellency Salabat Khan was a familiar figure.
As David stood out in front of the men there was enough
light for his figure to be recognized. At once a murmur
arose, and then the cry, " The Governor himself is
here ; he is not dead." The Kommadan rushed forward
aghast and threw himself at the Governor's feet.
Then David took the situation into his own hands.
" What in the name of the Prophet does all this mean ?
How is it that I, the Governor of this province, have
to force my way into one of my own forts ? How is it
that my Goorkha soldiers are maimed and murdered,
and what has Kommadan Muhammad Khan of Kohistan,
whom I placed in command of the Regiment of Victory
and of the Fort of Hari Parbat, got to say ? "
Some one had lit a torch, and the white morning mist
and the gloom of the gateway were lit with its splut-
tering glare. The scene was a weird one. The great
grey walls and towers, the arched gateway, the orderly
line of soldiers behind David, the confused and dazed
garrison before him, and at his feet the grovelling,
prostrate figure of the Kommadan. Yar Khan saw
that the tide had turned, and he strode out on to the
space in front of David.
" Fall in at once, the Regiment of Victory. Fall
in on me as marker. Sharp now ! Double ! " And
the regiment flew, and in three minutes was drawn up
by companies.
" The Regiment of Victory will salute His Excel-
lency the Governor ! Present arms ! "
And with almost tearful alacrity the mutinous
regiment returned to its fealty, and delivered a ragged
though earnest salute after the manner of the West,
that had drifted East through French and English
officers. And all the while the wretched Kommadan
grovelled at the Governor's feet. His Excellency the
136 A FBEELANCE IN KASHMIR
Governor took no notice, but gravely returned the
salute and then called out
" The Regiment of Victory will resume its duties
as garrison of Hari Parbat. Fall out the officer com-
manding the leading company with twelve men." And
he did so.
" Pick up this grovelling wretch and let him stand
in custody before me."
And Yar Khan stepped out from the post he had
taken at the head of the now repentant regiment, and
placed himself alongside David.
" Hang him out of hand over the gateway," he
whispered. " You give the order, and I will see it
carried out." Then seeing that David looked aghast,
" If you hesitate, we shall not win through with this."
To David, still young in years and ill versed in the
bitterer side of partisan warfare, the position was a
trying one. Here he was called on to be judge and
jury within the space of a few minutes, and to condemn
a fellow being to immediate death. But as Yar Khan
had said, it was touch and go, and the situation just
trembling in their hands again, must be clinched.
Besides, there were dead Goorkhas, whose blood cried
aloud for vengeance, and the Kommadan was deeply
committed.
Turning to the now trembling wretch, he said,
" Muhammad Khan, Kommadan of the Eegiment of
Victory, and of the fort of Hari Parbat, how comes it
that I find my fort in rebellion held for another, and
my faithful Goorkha soldiers murdered ? "
" My Lord, mercy is yours to give, and yours alone.
I believed you were dead. Altamish the Toork sent
word to me that you were dead, and that he was the
new Governor by decree from the Emperor. He bade
me follow his orders."
" Did he bid you kill my faithful Goorkha soldiers ? '!
187
Then the Kommadan saw that the game was up, and
made one wild appeal for mercy, which David, whose
beating heart was for the moment steeled to all thought
of clemency, disregarded.
"Oh, W azir Sahib, listen ! I hereby sentence the
Kommadan of the Regiment of Victory to be hung
forthwith on the main gate of this fort, as a warning
to all who would tamper with my authority."
Yar Khan the Wazir promptly ordered Habib Ullah
to take the Kommadan to the parapet over the gate
and hang him there, while he himself remained at
the head of the wretch's regiment. Without a moment's
delay the Kommadan was hurried up the steep steps to
the rampart above. Three willing soldiers of the body-
guard tore down the flagstaff on the top and ran it
out horizontally from the battlements over the outer
gateway, turning the rope that wrapped the staff
into a noose at the end of the pole. The Kommadan's
hands were tied behind him, the noose placed round
his neck, and within five minutes of the order for his
execution, Muhammad Khan Kohistani was thrown
out through the battlements and swung choking over
the main gate of the post he had held so faithlessly.
Just as the foresworn commandant thus paid the
penalty of his faithlessness, the Lady Miriam, whose
impatience would allow her to wait no longer, rode up
to the gateway with Ganesha Singh, to whom a trooper
had brought news of the successful occupation of the
gate. Ganesha Singh was anxious that she should not
see the struggling wretch at the end of the rope, but
it was too late. With a shudder of horror, she
demanded what it could mean.
" Mean ? " said the old Kajput. " Why, lady, it
means that His Excellency is coming by his own
again ; listen ! "
And as they listened they could hear the men of
138 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
the garrison cheering lest worse befall. Riding into
the courtyard she found the apparently enthusiastic
and frankly loyal garrison being inspected by David,
and Yar Khan preparing some written orders wth the
help of a writer. Two Toorks, emissaries of Altamish,
who had been in the fort, were being dragged out from
whore they had hidden and were being lashed together.
Yar Khan and David had decided to send half the
Regiment of Victory down to the Shergarhi with the
two Toork prisoners, while Habib Ullah and twelve
of his troopers remained with the other half of the
Regiment in the Hari Parbat fort. Habib Ullah
would stay in command. Directly the written orders
for the Shergarhi were ready the party would start for
there, and the Governor's party move down for their
ride through the city, His Excellency and the Lady
Miriam side by side. As David finished examining
the ranks of the regiment, he looked back to find
Miriam on her horse with Ganesha Singh riding
from the gate towards him. He turned towards her
with pride and pleasure, pride that she should see him
carrying out his assumed role with success, pleasure
he did not quite know why, save that he always
experienced a pleasing exhilaration in her presence.
Then with these feelings mingled one of horror that
she had seen the wage of the faithless, hanging a horror
and offence in its wait for the morning sun.
" Lady, I much regret you should have come up
here, the gateway is no sight for a woman."
" Ah, Ferassa Sahib, I have been bom an Afghan
long enough to know that blood is demanded often
with or without cause. I am now content if I feel
that men deserve the death they die. Wo folk of
the mountains have not yet learnt to rule and be ruled
as men say you of the English rule. But your Excel-
lency " and here a dainty smile shone through the
THE REWARD OF REBELLION 139
corners of her veil " I am not addressing you as a
subject should address a Governor of an Imperial
province. You have done well, my Lord, right well
to re-assert the Imperial authority in the face of those
who usurp it. What next do we do ? "
Yar Khan had now come up, well pleased with the
morning's work.
" Lady, it was not right that you should have come
hero without my orders, or rather those of His Excel-
lency. Eh ! but you're a wilful baggage, and have
seen for your pains that which were better hidden."
For even rugged old Yar Khan knew that women
were best spared the harsher sights of the world,
" We now start for the city, as soon as the sun lifts
this mist. Wo ride by the Great Mosque, the market
place, and the temple of Shah Hamadan. Now comes
your share, for your presence will effectively mark the
fact that your brother has returned. Your Excellency,
all is now ready, and I have given all the orders to
Habib Ullah, and the SubaMar who will march these
prisoners to the Shergarhi. Also, Your Excellency,
I have found a bag of cliilki rupees, the property of
Altamish. If it be your wish, I will distribute them
to the Regiment of Victory to buy sweetmeats."
" Sirdar Sahib," said David, " it is my wish that
my regiment be given the wherewithal to entertain
themselves, the more especially at my enemy's expense.
Let it be as you desire."
And then the party took to horse.
CHAPTER XIV
IN THE STREETS OF SBINAGAR
As the Governor's party left the Hari Parbat by the
gateway above which swung dead and cooling Mu-
hammadan Khan, the Kommadan, a vision wonderful
broke upon their eyes. The fog had lifted from the
hilltops, and was fast dissipating, though it still hung
like cotton wool on the city below. From the top of
Hari Parbat hill the great ring of mountains stood out
clear and majestic, rose-red in the risen sun. The
Dhal Lake, where lay the dwelling of the Lord Al tarnish,
was still bathed in fog, but the circling mountains
caught the light on every fold. The clean, morning
air blew fresh in their faces unclogged by the mist, and
to David brought a sense of determination and a
yearning for high endeavour. The Lady Miriam,
riding by his side had bared her head to feel the breeze,
as she had done once before in his presence stirring
again thereby his admiration and his enthusiasm. The
beautiful profile stood out clear cut in the rising sun
and spoke of the true and steadfast spirit of the maid,
spoke, too, of the ancient Greeks in Bactria who could
leave such beauty behind them. Then David felt that
it was good to be alive in such glorious air, and good
to have such a face to serve, good to be young with the
world to conquer. To a be.iutiful face men attribute a
no
IN THE STREETS OF SRINAGAR 141
beautiful soul, and ever look for the motive that shall
spur them on to high endeavour and to yield their best.
The desire for female beauty is at best the desire for a
compelling deity in whose service men may strike their
best notes. So when David Fraser, half-breed of two
mountain races, saw fully bared for the second time that
beautiful high-bred profile of the Lady Miriam, he
knew that ho had seen the talisman that was to evoke
the very best that in him lay.
And when Miriam saw the look of homage and
devotion in the young man's eyes, she was first fain,
maidenlike, to draw her veil over head, but then
laughed and desisted, throwing conventionalities to
the wind, and said
" See, oh Excellency ! see our beautiful Kashmir
lies at your feet. See the Dhal Lake below you where
emperors have rowed the ladies of their court. Far
away in the corner under the mountains is the Garden
of Pleasure, to which you also shall be rowed, and over
the other side is the Shalimar, where great Jehangir
hold his summer court. Say now, sir, if our valley is
not worth preserving."
To all of which, David, still backward to follow
the talk of fair ladies, had little to answer. What he
did say was trivial enough, to the effect that he was
here to render such help to her and hers as in his power.
But he thought the more, nevertheless, and as they
wound down the roadway his soldier mind was busy
with how to tackle the forces of the Toork if such were
to present themselves in the city. Before long they
began to pass from the clear morning air of the hill to
the white mist which still remained in the lower
regions, but was fast dissipating even there. By the
time they had arrived at the main street and started
to clatter through the city it was clear enough for
them to be recognized. It was evident that the story
142 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
of the Governor's death had been diligently spread.
The puzzled look on men's faces as they first recognized
the Governor himself was proof of that. But there
could be no doubt in their minds, The Governor him-
self with Yar Khan, the Wazir, and the Lady Miriam,
were actually riding through the city accompanied by
the bodyguard of cavalry ! The story spread like wild-
fire. Those who were about to set forth to do homage
to the Lord Altamish, whom rumour had appointed to
the vacant office, had decided to postpone their action.
The Governor was there, sure enough, wearing his
well-known blue and gold puggari, with him that old
wazir. Ha ! there was some story last night about
the fort of Hari Parbat, but, however, that must have
been wrong. In front of the great mosque some
hundreds were assembling for prayer. To them the
sight of the cavalcade was a welcome one. To the
people generally the Governor was a popular entity,
and loud acclamations greeted his appearance in state.
One Toork trooper, however, who had ridden up to
find the crowd cheering, and who was himself a new-
comer to the valley, imagined it was the cortege of the
Lord Altamish or one of his principal adherents. He
had come to town specially to support his compatriots
who were, so his summons ran, taking possession of
the governorship. Here was evidently one of the
nobles going to join the new governor, or perhaps the
governor himself. A good opportunity for him to
show on whose side he was and gain notice. So, poor
lost soul, he urged his horse forward through the crowd,
shouting, " Fortune to the Lord Altamish ! Long live
our new Governor ! Success to the Toorks ! " His
horse caught the excitement and took him bounding up
to the head of the column. So ominous and threaten-
ing did this appear that it looked like an attack on
David. Whereon old Ganesha Singh flew at him and
struck him down with his sword. Down went the
rash Toork and the passing troopers thrust at him with
their lances, and then the crowd closed on him. God
help those who fall among an excited crowd ! Very
shortly the wretch's head was off, and an Afghan loafer
in the crowd held it up. " What offers for the head of
a rascally Toork ? " whereat the crowd pleasanted at
Toork expense, and one of the rearmost of David's
escort took it a-top his spear and carried it there un-
known to those who rode at the head of the cavalcade.
Yet, as emblems go- it was not a bad one, when authority
has been reshaken and is coming by its own again.
Near the mosque of Shah Harnmadan there was a
larger crowd, who cheered, and to whom the head on
a spear was unmixed delight. Attracted by the noise,
the Abbe himself, who had returned to his quiet hovel
to see some of his patients, emerged into the street.
He was but hi time to see the tail of the party with the
Toork head on a pole, and a strange shudder it had
given him. Heads on poles had been frequent enough
sights in the Terror, but especially did it strike a
painful chord in his memory, since he had seen the
beautiful head of poor La Lamballc waved at the window
where he had been sitting with the royal party, listening
to the howling crowd that they could not restrain.
Difference enough, true, between the head of a wild
worthless Toork trooper and that glorious golden head
of poor beautiful Lamballe, save that both had been
cut off in the heyday of life, but for loving memory of
the one poor head, Armande du Plessis demanded the
other of the trooper who carried it lance-high. Whereon
the latter, knowing the mysterious white padre who
cured the sick, when all other hakims failed, threw him
the head as a man would toss a bun to a bear, and the
padre took it and wrapped it in cloth and hid it to give
it decent burial later in the day,
141
Now it will be remembered that at seven o'clock on
that very morning Altamish was to meet his supporters
with their available men-at-arms, on the other side of
the Amiran Kadal Bridge on the Jhelum river. But the
foggy morning, and the rolling mist had sent many off
the road, and Altamish and Wali Dad and his own
retainers had to wait for a couple of hours and more
while the parties slowly dribbled in, and Altamish
himself foamed and fumed at the delay. He was
soldier enough to know that if success was to smile on
his endeavours they must be promptly and vigorously
carried out. Among those who had joined him was
the mysterious stranger who had put in an appearance
at the garden-party the day before in the Garden of
Sweet Breezes. That stranger, it will also be remem-
bered, had shown some mysterious power that Altamish
had at once given way to. As the latter with the
stranger sat in the gardens on the far side of the bridge
watching the mist roll away and inwardly cursing
those of his supporters who for one reason or another
had failed at the rendez-vous, the head of David's party
came into sight. Never dreaming but that they were
some of the missing partisans, Altamish and the
stranger galloped towards them. It was too late to
break away before Altamish found himself, to his
intense astonishment, ranged alongside no less a
person than the Governor of Kashmir, His Excellency
Salabat Khan, who on the surest information he
believed to be lying wounded on the south side of the
Pir Panjal. Yar Khan had been quick to recognize
the sirdar, and at once signed to half a dozen men to
surround the party, and at the same time whispered to
David, " It's the Lord Altamish, that infernal Toork,
speak him fair."
And once again David rose to the occasion.
" My Lord, you are well come indeed. I hear some
IN THE STEEETS OF SRINAGAR 145
tales of rebellion and of factions who would supplant
iny governorship. I am indeed satisfied to see that
you are about in my interests. Know you ought of
these alleged disturbances ? My troops here would
gladly have at those who would harm me."
" Nay, your Excellency ! I have no knowledge.
Over the way are some gentlemen assembling with a
view to putting their retainers at your Excellency's
disposal. Allow me to present this gentleman to
you."
And here Altamish drew back, and the mysterious
stranger was visible, and bowed to His Excellency.
And as he bowed, lo ! a look of comprehension spread
over the stranger's face. To David also a similar
knowledge came. It was none other than Daoud
Shah, whom he had last seen at the campo of the
Begum Somru.
" My Lord," said David, " I ride out now to the
Shergarhi, whither I trust you will accompany me."
To which Altamish made no reply, relying on chance
to put suitable words into his mouth as the morning
wore on, but signified, however, his apparent willing-
ness by ranging himself alongside David, and all the
while Yar Khan said not a word, nor showed by any
sign what his thoughts were, or even that he saw the
Toork at all. Daoud Shah, late Commander-in-Chief
of the forces of Her Highness the Begum Somru, fell
into the train of horsemen that rode behind the
Governor, and found himself alongside Ganesha Singh,
who took no notice of him whatever, nor did Daoud
Shah know even whether or no David had recognized
him. Ganesha Singh he had not noticed in the Begum's
camp, and did not recognize now. Not so the lynx-
eyed old Rajpoot, who had spotted him from the first.
By now the cavalcade had come on to the Amiran
Kadal, and they might, though they knew it not, come
146 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
at any moment on the parties of the faction of Altamish.
As the Governor and his escort had come near to the
bridge they had found themselves in a part of the town
to \vhich Salabat Khan was very dear. Loud had
been the lamentations at the rumours of his decease.
There were now cheers and shouts and an ominous
execrating of the Toork. To the Abbe du Plessis, who
had followed in the wake of the horsemen, the import
of the sound was old. He had heard the old men talk
of it when the Edict of Nantes was revoked. It re-
minded him of the old chaunt of St. Bartholomew's
Eve, that his father had remembered revived at the
Revocation. The words ran in his ears, " Hau Hau
Huguenots ! Faites Place aux Papegots ! " The words
were different, but there was an angry hum in the air,
the hum of an angry crowd that was out for mischief.
And the Lord Altamish heard it too, and recognized
it, and thanked his stars that things had turned out as
they had. Salabat Khan living was a very different
matter to tackle to Salabat Khan dead and gone. So
that it would be necessary to put a good complexion
on the assembly of armed men that were awaiting
Altamish on the other side of the river. The mist had
by now almost gone, and the sun was shining on the
houses that overhung the river-bed, and on the carved
plinths that edged the water, stolen from the Pandav
temples that lay in ruins up the valley. On the boat-
steps and on the plinths and terraces women were now
filling earthen jars with water, bathing, washing their
coloured scarves, and flooding the whole foreground
with warmth and colour that was a pleasant change
to those who had ridden the night through in frost and
fog. The Lady Miriam looked at David and smiled for
a moment through that convenient opening in her veil
that she was learning to handle so cunningly. Then
her face set somewhat, and she drew her veil sharply
IN THE STREETS OP SBINAGAE 147
together. They were approaching a row of latticed
verandahs where beauty fair and frail held sway.
Spangled heads smiled out of the open lattice, and
hands waved to the troopers of the escort. The fine
figure of the Governor himself always attracted the
attention of women, and in quarters such as these, where
the attributes of prominent males were eagerly dis-
cussed, there wore many heads out of their jilmills * to
see him. In the booths below, the various merchants
had opened their stalls for the day, and fruit, tobacco,
and grains were being arranged on the steps of the
house fronts. Every one was agog to see the Governor
whom bazaar gossip last night had reported dead.
It was seen, too, that his sister, who was so often about
with him, was riding by his side this day.
The sharp eye of Yar Khan had, however, seen some
lances and the tips of horses' ears showing over the
mud walls of the gardens on the other side of the bridge.
Edging his horse alongside to Altamish, he said
' Those are your men, no doubt, my Lord ? "
" My men ? Oh, yes ! yes ! No doubt ! "
" You don't seem very certain, my Lord. If His
Excellency approves, I will take fifty troopers forward
and go and see. Your Excellency would no doubt
desire that I should attack them, if not my Lord Alta-
mish's own following, of which fact he seems doubtful ? "
David looked at the place indicated, and then turned
to look at Altamish.
" Nay, Wazir Sahib, we will all move forward to-
gether, my Lord with us. He can then reassure us
that they are his own men, and I can order an attack
on them at once, if need be."
Altamish by no means relished the situation. How-
ever, there was nothing for it but to acquiesce, and
trust to events. David then led the party at a smart
* Venetian blinds.
148 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
pace over the bridge and up the short steep piece of
bazaar on the opposite bank, coming at once to an open
space surrounded by walls and gardens. On this were
drawn up some two hundred retainers of several
Toork chiefs, not more than half, however, of those
promised the day before. David decided to take the
nettle danger by the hand of action.
" My Lord, these troopers are more than are necessary
for my assistance. You will remain with us, but issue
orders that these gentlemen leave the city and its
suburbs at once. If in an hour's time there are any
of them left in the city, they will be at once attacked
by my troops. You understand ? "
Altamish was fain to admit that he did. By this
time the Toork leaders had recognized that it was both
Altamish and the Governor himself. With a very
distinct feeling of being on a fool's errand, three or
four of them rode forward on receiving a summons
from Altamish. That astute gentleman had by now
recovered his equanimity, and, however much in his
heart he might be calling for fire from heaven, he knew
well enough that he must dissemble.
" Gentlemen, you will be glad to see with your own
eyes that the sad rumours of yesterday are falsified.
Our noble Governor is safe and sound. It is not neces-
sary for us to maintain order till the Emperor appoints
a successor. His Excellency thanks you for your
offered services, and now desires that you at once leave
the city and return to your own estates."
After which David could not resist a little sarcasm
at Altamish's expense.
" Your assistance is very welcome to me, my Lord.
It is well with those in authority when they can rely
on such staunch support. I suppose all is well at fort
Hari Parbat ? I have half a mind to ask you to go and
see on my behalf."
IN THE STREETS OF SEINAGAR 149
The ruddy colour left the olive cheek of Altamish at
tho reference, but the suggestion appealed to him.
Anywhere away from the Shergarhi seemed a haven
of rest and safety.
" Your Excellency, it would be well doubtless that
I should go and report."
" Ah, well, my Lord, no doubt all is well there ; at
any rate, we will wait for a bit. I would that you
accompany me to the Shergarhi."
Yar Khan sat immobile behind David, and only a
gleam in his eye showed that he appreciated the humour
of the situation. It was evident that he was content
with David's handling of it. Now Yar Khan liked not
as a rule playing second fiddle to any man, more
especially when that man was of his own erecting. It
spoke therefore volumes for David's character that
the old soldier statesman should accept him so con-
tentedly, and let him, at any rate for the moment, call
the pace.
So, as the Toork gentry filed away, David and his
retinue headed for the Shergarhi, which lay some two
miles west from the Amiran Kadal. At his side rode
Altamish and Yar Khan, and behind was the Lady
Miriam with Ganesha Singh close to her. By them,
but a bit wide, rode Daoud Shah, silent but watchful.
The unusual sight of a lady a-horseback veiled and on
such an occasion, had already attracted his attention,
and he took opportunity to study her in profile as they
moved to the Shergarhi. That she was a practised
horsewoman was evident, and she sat her horse like an
Usbeg trooper, as if born to it. The breeze blew the
veil close to her face and showed the symmetrical
outline. Presently Altamish dropped back to speak
to him, and Daoud Shah demanded
" Who rides on my left ? A woman, seemingly ? "
" That must be the Lady Miriam, sister of the
150 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
Governor, a self-willed woman who is allowed much
license. She always accompanies her brother, and has
been away now with him over the pass, and was with
him at the time of the Eajpoot affray."
" A handsome woman, I warrant."
" No doubt. These Afghanis always are. It is not
much use your thinking about that, Khan Sahib"
" Why not, since I too am a Duranni of the blood
royal ? Not that I want to be mixed up with women
at the present time."
" 'Twouldn't much help you if you did. That girl
has refused many a good offer of marriage from better
men than you, and instead of giving her to the friend
that he needed most, her brother laughs and says she
shall do as she likes. A fine mother of sons all the
same, friend."
" Aye, no doubt, no doubt. You had better go back
and talk with that Governor. Keep him in a good
temper or you'll bo sorry for the morning's work."
The Afghan rode on alone, now and again glancing
at Miriam. The story had fired him. He was not
wont to be told things were impossible, besides, he did
want a wife and that a metalsome one. And the way
that Miriam managed her horse inspired him with
admiration, as her trim figure did with desire.
CHAPTER XV
THE SHERGARHI
OUTSIDE the Shergarhi they came across the wing of
the Regiment of Victory, returning from the Hari
Parbat with the two Toork prisoners. Yar Khan had
now the Lord Al tarnish in hand, and as they came
abreast the infantry he remarked
" Did I tell you what had taken place at the Hari
Parbat ? No ? Ah, well, it was like this. We found
that the commandant had apparently proclaimed him-
self as ruler of the place or as governor of the valley.
If you would know how he fared, go see the gateway
tower there. Some of His Majesty the Emperor's
Goorkha soldiers were murdered in the revolution. We
found there two emissaries of whoever was fomenting
the disturbances. They are now being brought here
for His Excellency's orders as to their execution."
And Altamish saw in their midst two of his own Toork
retainers, who looked up in his face as their escort
marched past him.
" You will see, my Lord, that happily for the sake of
peace and order, the Regiment of Victory has returned
to its allegiance. His Excellency, however, thought it
as well to bring them here, where they would be under
sound influence. If I had had my way, I would have
shot every man in ten. His Excellency thought other-
wise. He will perhaps be glad of your advice as to how
to deal with these two prisoners."
151
152 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
Altamish was getting into a very unpleasant posi-
tion indeed, and ho was faced with the alternatives
of sacrificing his own followers, or admitting his own
share in the conduct of the commandant of Han
Parbat. It was, perhaps, hardly wise of Yar Khan to
press him so hard, unless indeed it was proposed to take
extreme measures against him. The policy of the
golden bridge must always be at any rate considered.
Fortunately, they had arrived at the gate of the
Shergarhi, and Yar Khan ceased his goading at the
hated Toork.
He rode up to David, and asked what he thought
about Altamish.
" If we take him as prisoner we shall have half these
Toorks up in arms. We are now apparently safely
back in power. I would gladly hack off his foul head,
but it were wisest to deny ourselves the satisfaction.
I propose that we now give him leave to depart.
When His Excellency returns he will decide whether
he will take steps against him. So long as he is not in
open rebellion against us, it is difficult to act too strongly
against him without the Emperor's orders. If we could
have had a fight and killed him, it would have saved
much trouble."
To which David, whose natural instinct to command
had for the time made him forget that he was merely a
tenant for a few days in a state he knew little of, could
but agree. Not that he had for a moment thought any
other course possible, but he was about to propound
some such views as his own.
" Very well, Wazir Sahib, I agree. I will now give
him his leave to go. "
Then, turning to the Toork, " My Lord, I shall not
trouble you further. I am obliged to you for having
turned out with your retainers to enforce order in this
my province. You will confer a further favour if you
THE SHERGABHI 153
will inform mo of any facts that may come to your
notice concerning this extraordinary occurrence at fort
Hari Parbat. You now have my permission to
leave."
" Sire," returned Altamish, " I see two Toorks as
prisoners among your regiment. Would it not be well
that I take them with me to find out the reason of their
being found in your Excellency's fort under such
suspicious circumstances ? "
" Nay, my Lord. It is my purpose at present that
they remain here. I shall not pass any extreme
sentence on them without reference to you, but they
will remain in my prison for the present."
" Have I your permission to have speech with them ?"
" Surely, my Lord, the permission to depart that I
gave you should suffice for your present needs. I
would not wish to withdraw it."
The Lord Altamish then saw that the game was up
for the present, and wheeled his small party about,
saluted surlily, and galloped away down the road.
And with him still was Daoud Shah the Afghan.
The Governor's party then filed through the gate of
the Shergarhi, where the guard and garrison were
drawn up to receive them amid acclamations. Inside
the palace yard, the normal routine was in progress.
Below the latticed windows of the ladies' quarters in
front of the closed gateway, two of the palace guard
paced. Astrakhan caps on their heads, their muskets
in long baize bags, and a curved knife of terrifying
proportions in their belts, the guardians of beauty
looked ferocious and dauntless enough.
Outside the durbar room of the commandant of the
fort, an elephant weaved happily from foot to foot, the
hunting pad on his back gently swaying. Munshis,
with their lacquer pen boxes, sat writing for dear life,
or hurriedly mended their reed pens. The ordinary
154
working routine of the government was evidently not
paralyzed. In a corner of the first court an armourer
was hammering at a shirt of mail, and two saddlers sat
mending some camel trappings. Four pieces of artillery
of sorts on rather rickety carriages were being cleaned
by some lascars, and a couple of mounted troopers were
waiting to carry messages. It was, in fact, an every-
day scene in an Eastern palace yard. Behind the
screens over the inner gate the wives of the Governor
watched eagerly for the arrival of their spouse and
noted with approval the promptness with which the
garrison had got under arms to receive him. Yes, it
was undoubtedly their Salabat Khan, safe and sound,
thinner perhaps, but that was no doubt due to much
travel. They would soon put that right. Let the
state cook be sent for. And then and there, while
David was dismounting, the Lady Nur Jan had called
for that person, and he had appeared at the outer grill
to receive very precise orders as to the meals to bo
prepared for His Excellency.
In the meantime His Excellency was for the moment
far more concerned with seeing the Lady Miriam off
her horse, than thinking of his wives upstairs. He had
actually gone to help her alight a European courtesy
that that young lady was not slow to notice. The
eventful night and day had left her fairly weary, lithe
and elastic though she was, and for the moment she
was divided between an intense desire to rest on the
soft velvet cushions of her own apartment, and an
unaccountable instinctive wish to remain with David.
She had watched him closely through his somewhat
anxious day, and had noted appreciatively his steady,
determined bearing, and had taken a pride in his
success in the role which she had been the first to
suggest. She had noticed, too, with amusement
that Yar Khan had almost cheerfully accepted the
THE SHEEGAKHI 155
second place when David had chosen to direct the
proceedings.
We may therefore well imagine that when David
had handed her from her horse, the elusive veil had
come apart again at the right moment, and David was
once more able to look into those bright eyes that now
undoubtedly flashed approval. Time, however, fingers
on his rosary. One kindly look and her ladyship had
disappeared into the ladies' apartments, while the
escort had looked on stolidly, but with inward wonder
at the way in which His Excellency treated his un-
conventional sister.
Yar Khan then collected a few chosen guards around
him and escorted David to his quarters. Fortunately,
the quarters, the dwelling and business rooms in an
Eastern mansion, are well away from the ladies' apart-
ments, and there was no chance of anxious wives
bursting in on the master when engaged in business or
at rest. But since there had been wild rumours in the
air that morning, it was important to send a message
over to the ladies with due ceremony. It had, of
course, been also arranged that Miriam should make
a suitable statement. Yar Khan himself, as soon as
David had sat down to a meal in Salabat Khan's
private apartments, had gone off to see the official
charged with communicating with His Excellency's
ladies' attendants, and delivering a message to say that
His Excellency sent all greetings of courtesy and respect,
but was immensely fatigued with a long ride, which
the Lady Miriam would describe, and after a rest would
have to attend to very pressing affairs of state,
" That," Yar Khan told David, " will keep them
quiet for some time to come, and an attack of fever
will be the most natural sequence to a long day's
travel."
But the problem before the Wazir was an anxious
156 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIE
one. True, all the first moves had been more successful
than he could have hoped for. The attempt to over-
turn the government had failed and been thwarted
with far greater ease than he dared have looked for.
But several far greater dangers were really ahead.
The imposture of Ferassa Sahib could not go on for
long. They had as yet no news as to how Salabat
Khan's wound progressed, or what he would eventually
order, when the news of the situation had reached him.
He had not yet been told, of course, of the David im-
posture. It would be necessary to tell him carefully.
Eastern minds are suspicious, and Yar Khan was
anxious that the step they had taken on the spur of the
moment should not be misunderstood. Happily the
Lady Miriam was there to vouch for the purity of
their motives, nay, better, to explain that she herself
had proposed the course.
So musing, Yar Khan left David to rest, saying that
he would come to him in the afternoon, and that he
had given orders to the guard that no one was to be
admitted.
The hard old man had no need for rest himself. A
few mouthfuls of kababs and rice, with some sweet tea
in a samovar, restored him to full vigour, and he at
once started to see the commandant of the palace
guard. It was essential that nothing of a contretemps
should happen. Full military precautions against any
unexpected move of Altamish must be taken unosten-
tatiously. Then he must see Ganesha Singh, and know
that David's men were well cared for, and their horses
properly stabled and fed. Ganesha Singh had better
go and see his master later, orders to the guard had
been given to admit him. The detachment from the
Regiment of Victory had to be properly sandwiched in
among people who would keep them out of mischief
and stimulate their loyalty. There were few details
THE SHEKGARHI 167
that that wise old head ever forgot. A considerable
affection had sprung up in his heart for David, and as
Miriam had noticed, he seemed unaccountably to
acquiesce in being led by the young soldier a very new
trait in his character to be led by any one, even the
master he served. But the phenomenon was but the
phenomenon of India, where white blood even far
more dilute than that which ran in David's veins,
automatically demands obedience.
By three in the afternoon a considerable number of
the officials of the province had arrived to make the
customary salaam to the Governor. This, however;
Yar Khan would not hear of ; His Excellency was far
too tired to receive any one save perhaps the head of
the police. He himself, however, would hear any
reports necessary, and convey the greetings to His
Excellency. To admit the head of the police would,
however; be good policy. Yar Khan went off to
prepare David and his chamber. The room was to be
darkened, and David was to have an attack of fever
that kept him from doing more than hear one or two
urgent reports.
The chief of the police entered, made his reverence,
and then sat down. Thanks to Salabat Khan's Persian
reputation, David's was able to pass muster, and
the few sentences of Pushtoo he used were beyond
reproach. It was his mother's tongue. The chief of
the police, or kotwal, was an important functionary,
concerned with many varied duties and inquisitions.
He had heard, after His Excellency had put
things right, of the trouble at Hari Parbat. He
had hoped to have found something from the
Begum Allah Visayah, no doubt His Excellency
knew the name and would forgive mentioning her.
She had, however, left the city the day before. Then
there had been two recent arrivals. One a curious,
158 A FKEELANCE IN KASHMIE
secretive person, an Afghan with a small retinue, who
had come in they said by Muzzafarnagar, and up the
Jhelum Gorge route from Domel. There had also
come an Angrez. What sort of an Angrez he had not
yet found out, but he had a riding pony, and a servant
who rode a pack mule. He wore some sort of uniform
and had red hair, no one had interfered with him,
but police agents were watching him. He was
stopping at the Bibigunj serai (travellers' hostel).
Yar Khan, who was present, did most of the question-
ing, and then desired the chief of the police to report
whence the rumour of His Excellency's death had
started, and also to watch closely and report all move-
ments of the Lord Altamish. David then wearily gave
him leave to withdraw, and ordered a good report of
his health to be circulated. Yar Khan breathed again.
It had been quite a normal interview, and quite
natural. No one could suspect anything. Of course,
now that Altamish had been scotched, Yar Khan him-
self could have carried on government once the public
believed that Salabat Khan was not killed, but they
were already committed to His Excellency's presence
at the palace. The statement of the chief of police
that he had conversed with His Excellency would now
carry them well on for say at least forty-eight hours.
But Yar Khan had counted without the eternal
feminine. His life had left him void of that important
understanding; which is a fifth sense worth most of the
others put together.
The gentle lady Nur Jan, had sent a message begging
that she might come and attend her tired lord, and
when told that he must rest and then do urgent business,
had contented herself with sending a wifely message
and a tisanne made with her own fair hands. The Alana
Bibi, however, was made of more tiresome stuff. The
Lady Miriam's story of trouble and danger, and the
THE SHEEGAEHI 159
night ride through the frost and fog, and the fight at
Hari Parbat, with the march through the town, had
angered her.
" Hoighty toighty ! Pretty fine games for a chit of
a girl like you to be about in ; dignified, too, for an
Afghan lady ! I shall go to my lord at once, and make
him tell me his affairs of state, and not you ! "
So then and there my lady had collected a few of her
maids, called for her chamberlain, donned her veil, and
ordered it to be announced that she was approaching
His Excellency's apartments, and must speak with him
at once.
To Yar Khan's horror, then, as he came back from
passing out the chief of police, there, in the outer room
of David's quarters he found her. A very few words
convinced him that she must be told. She was out for
trouble, and would not be denied, Yar Khan luckily
hit at once on the only antidote. The Lady Miriam
must come forthwith, sleep or no sleep. He conducted
the Bibi into a side chamber with suitable cushions,
said that His Excellency would receive her immediately,
and sent an urgent summons to Miriam to join the
Bibi Alana at the Governor's quarters. Miriam at once
realized that trouble was imminent, and hurried into
her veil to follow through the same secluded route as
the Bibi had taken,
David had had his rest, and after the police official
had withdrawn, was pacing up and down his room,
turning over the situation in his mind. To him thus
came Yar Khan to announce that he must receive the
lady, and that she must be taken into their confidence.
" The Lady Miriam will, I hope; be here imme-
diately, I have sent for her urgently."
" You must stay with me, Waeir Sahib ; this is more
than I bargained for,"
" I think, Ferassa Sahib, that it will be better to
160 A FBEELANCE IN KASHMIR
begin with, that you receive the ladies alone. I will be
at hand if you call me. If I am here before the lady
is told anything she will be furious at such a breach
of etiquette. Later she will have other matters to
think of."
So for full five minutes they waited, and then another
five, but no sign of the Lady Miriam, and the Wazir,
knowing the Bibi's character, said
" I think that there will be less harm if you see the
lady alone, and if you make out that you have fever
and cannot rise. Ask her to sit by you on the cushions,
and then tell her the story. In the meantime the Lady
Miriam will be here and come in to corroborate your
good faith."
So saying, Yar Khan left the perturbed David, and
in a couple of minutes the Bibi entered. According to
the etiquette of the lady and her position she was fully
veiled, a handsome, well-shaped woman, graceful and
stately withal. She was the mother of the only sons of
Salabat Khan, and carried herself accordingly.
Yar Khan had told her that His Excellency had an
attack of fever. She entered David's room with a
rustle of silk and an aroma of musk.
" I trust my lord is well ? "
" Bibi Sahiba, I am much fatigued, and have
fever. I trust that you and your sons enjoy perfect
health."
" By my lord's favour we do. I much regret your
lordship's indisposition. I fear you have much over-
taxed your strength. The Lady Miriam has been
urging you to great fatigue."
" Not so, Bibi Sahiba. Come now, I have much to
tell you. You will hear how weak I am, and how
different my voice is from that you know."
" That is so, my lord, and I am much concerned."
Alana was mollified at the proposal to confide in her,
THE SHERGAKHI 161
and drew near to where David lay in rugs, and seated
herself on cushions near his head.
" Now, listen, Bibi Sahiba, and be not stirred till I
have finished my tale and you have seen again the
Lady Miriam and heard Yar Khan too. Know that
His Excellency Salabat Khan has been in great peril.
Nay, do not be frightened listen, and listen very
calmly, I implore you. His Excellency was attacked
by Rajpoots three days ago beyond Baram-galla, and
is now lying wounded at the castle of the Chib Chief
Lai Khan."
" My lord, I do not understand. What do you
mean ? Are you wounded ? "
" Lady I am not Salabat Khan."
The Bibi rose with a scream. " Treachery !
treachery ! "
" Be calm, I implore you. No harm is intended,
no treachery."
At this moment in came Yar Khan and Miriam.
The Bibi had left her seat on the cushions and rushed
towards them.
" What on earth," she demanded, " does all this
mean ? "
But the sight of Miriam and Yar Khan to all purposes
unmoved, at any rate induced her to listen, while they
explained to her the whole story. How the Governor,
being unfit to travel, had sent them on, and how they
heard at Aliabad Serai that Altamish was spreading a
rumour of Salabat Khan's death, and was about to
usurp the governorship. Then how, as it was impossible
to say when His Excellency would be fit to travel, it had
been decided by Miriam and Yar Khan to avail them-
selves of a resemblance of the young captain to the
Governor in making the people believe that Salabat
Khan was alive at the head of his government. How
they had then and there acted on the idea, recovered
II
102 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
Han Parbat, before even Altamish had known that
his plans had been successful there, and had then
brought their ruler in triumph through the streets,
with his sister as usual at his side. How the populace
had been given full proof that the rumour was a lie,
how the Toork chiefs had dispersed with their retinue,
and how at any rate for a short time all was well. It
would be essential that Ferassa Sahib should carry on
his role for the present. It was, of course, impossible to
tell many. A secret soon ceased to be a secret. Yar
Khan and Miriam had, however, both recognized that
she, as the mother of the Governor's sons, must of
course be told, and not be put off with tales of fever and
fatigue, and it was to tell her all this that they had
been about to crave a private audience. It would be
well not to tell the lady Nur Jan as yet.
The Bibi, mollified, listened in silence. If the lady
Nur Jan was not to know she could pretend that she
alone had been preferred by His Excellency on his
return. That would be one to her. Besides, the whole
story appealed to her love of intrigue and excitement.
Yes, and also without doubt this young man was very
personable, very personable, Afghan married ladies
do not have many chances of seeing strange men,
young or old.
" What," she now demanded " what is the next
move ? "
" We await some news of His Excellency. We
expect orders."
" Very well. I quite understand. You have done
wisely, I will now converse with this gentleman.
You have my leave to withdraw to your apartments,
Miriam."
Miriam could not restrain a grin of amusement at
Yar Khan, as she withdrew. As a matter of fact,
Alana was behaving magnificently. The touch as to
THE SHEKGAKHI 163
telling her and not Nur Jan had put her in the best of
humours. Her apparent intention to enjoy the irre-
gularity of confidential intercourse with a strange man
had its humorous side, even Yar Khan saw this. He
even accentuated the situation by withdrawing himself
for a few minutes so as to attend to any other affairs
that might need him outside.
David, who was growing more accustomed to female
society, without more ado asked Alana to resume her
seat, and had just commenced a more detailed account
of the fight at Thana-mandi and his opportune arrival,
when Yar Khan returned.
" A messenger has arrived from His Excellency,"
CHAPTER XVI
TOORK, AFGHAN, AND FRANK
ALTAMISH and his followers, with Daoucl Shah the
mysterious, cantered on from the Shergarhi till they
were out of musket shot it is as well to do that if you
must turn your back on an armed adversary and
then the Toork pulled up. Slowly and bitterly he
shook his fist at the mud bastions of the Shergarhi.
" God smite their souls to the nethermost hell ! "
And Daoud Shah the Afghan laughed a sarcastic,
derisive, insidious chuckle that made Altamish turn
sharp on him. It was just such a laugh as devils laugh
when men fall.
" You laugh ! You dare to laugh at me ! You
infernal snivelling Afghan of foul extraction. You "
" Nay, stay, my Lord, lest you say what is not easily
forgotten. Nay, but I will take my vengeance on you
now. What think you has become of His Excellency,
Salabat Khan ? "
" How the foul fiend should I know ? He was well
enough when he sent us to the right about just now like
whipped hounds. We Toorks little like to be made
fools of."
" Whether you like it or whether you don't, you have
been made very handsome fools of, more so too than
you think."
" Explain, lest I have you "
164
TOORK, AFGHAN, AND FRANK 165
" Enough ! enough, or I tell you some more of those
secrets you wot of. Who, for instance, was beneath
the Diwan-i-Khas at Delhi the night the Moghul
Emperor's eyes were put out ? "
" Nay, Sirdar Sahib, that were pure imagination on
your part. Nay, boar with me. Tell me what mean
you in this mystery ? "
" Why, I mean, oh blind man ! that the Sirdar
Salabat Khan is not in Srinagar, nor has been these
nine days. That was not His Excellency the Governor
who rode with you from the Amiran Kadal."
" What do you mean, in the Prophet's name ? "
" I mean what I say, the Governor was not there
to-day, and the story that reached you of this wound
was a true one."
" Who is the man ? "
" Ah, that is my secret."
" But the Lady Miriam, his sister, was with him.
She often rides with him. You saw that all the people
knew her."
" True, and thus helped to impose on you. The fact
remains."
" If he holds a durbar, we will go and denounce him.
Am I to disbelieve my own eyes ? "
" Just as you like, but mark what I have told you.
You have been duped, badly taken in, by very clever
people. That old man Yar Khan is the moving spirit,
and evidently that sister of the Governor's is in it too .
They have deliberately put up a puppet to prevent the
people declaring in your favour."
Altamish cursed low and fierce, and broke again into
a canter, and rode straight through the city, looking
neither to the right nor to the left. The children and
the chickens and the beggars fled from under his horse's
feet, and men looked up and wondered, and the women
grounded their water jars to look and marvel. Close
166 A FBEELANCE IN KASHMIR
to the mosque of Shah Hamadan the Abbe was visiting
a patient with cataract, and paused to see who clattered
by, surely there had been enough that morning of
retinues in city streets ! And he saw the fierce hatred
in the face of Altarnish and the evil countenance of
Daoud Shah, and the memory of the face of Fouqier
Tinqueville struck him as an evil dream. At the door
of the Bibigunj Serai stood the European whose
presence the chief of the police had reported to David,
and he too saw them pass, and the evil face of Daoud
Shah was the one that struck his fancy. " Holy
Moses ! 'Tis a Hebrew Jew ! Tear and Ages ! "
And crossed himself like the very proper Catholic he
was.
Through the city and out to the gardens of the
suburbs rode Altamish, never drawing rein till he came
to his own house and garden on the shores of the Dhall
Lake. Since the party of the day before, a wind had
blown and scattered the leaves of last year, and the
dead branches of the trees over the garden paths.
Altamish was moved to wrath, and ho called for his
garden sweeper. Instead, however, a woman drew
forth, and salaamed.
" Who are you ? " he shouted.
" Sire, I am the sweeper's wife."
" Why the devil are not the garden paths swept ? "
" Sire, my husband lies in his hut with bad fever and
ague. I am doing his work, but, as your honour sees,
I am many months gone with child, and I work but
slowly."
Whereon Altamish commanded that they throw her
down and beat her with rods, which was done forthwith,
so that she died that night. But there is no limit to
the fury of a Toork.
After which the mad rage of Altamish cooled for the
time, and he and Daoud Shah took counsel one with
TOORK, AFGHAN, AND FRANK 167
another, and Wall Dad, the plotter who failed, had an
exceeding bad quarter of an hour. Nature, however,
had provided him with the long spoon that he who sups
with the devil needs must have. Wali Dad was able
to exonerate himself from the failure of the night
before, and to show that not only had the Begum Allah
Visayah carried out her compact, but that at dawn
that morning the fort of Hari Parbat was in the hands
of the Toork party, and would have remained so had
not the Governor Salabat Khan with Yar Khan, the
old fox, appeared there shortly after, gained admittance,
and hanged the commandant over his own gateway.
Altamish now heard the full tale of what had
happened at the fort, and even began to realize how
extremely fortunate he was to be free himself and back
on his own domain. Food and rest were at any rate
the first need, and Altamish and Daoud Shah soon sat
down to a repast. That over, the Toork sat himself
down to smoke and drowse, while the latter, like the
restless soul he was, preferred to pace up and down in
the garden by the edge of the lake.
While his ally slept, Daoud Shah, the wandering
Afghan of evil memories and weird associations, paced
by himself, his eager brain plotting as had ever been
the case, some evil to thwart such good as men would
find room for in their daily undertakings. The man's
memory dwelt lovingly on all the evil he had seen in
the past, of which now and again he had let the world
see a glimpse. It was a foul cruel memory, and it
stretched back far into the evil time afore. But the
immediate business to plan was how to help Altamish
plunge that fair valley into war and misery, and
incidentally ruin that young sahib who had made the
Afghan seem a fool that morning in the Begum Somru's
campo. The line to take seemed clear enough. First
the number of the Toorks' supporters in the valley must
168 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
be increased in every way possible, then some attack
by folk beyond the borders would leave some oppor-
tunity for a Toork rising to be successful. The wild
folk on the borders of Kashmir were considerable.
In the north were the Chinese and Tibetans, on the
east the tribes of Baltistan and the districts bordering
on Gilgit. But in the west there were the actual
tribal unsubdued districts of the Indus uplands, where
the wildest of Afghans and similar peoples lay always
eager for war and rapine. If only they could be stirred
up, there would bo ample opportunity or trouble
the tribes from the Black Mountain, from the Hazarajat,
and the Khagan Valley from Tangir and Darel and
Chilas. And a grim smile came over the face of the
schemer at the mere thought of all the evil it might be
possible to engender and all the rue that lay a-waiting
for Salabat Khan, Governor, and Ferassa Sahib, his
friend. " By the hundred names of God," swore
Daoud Shah, into whose calculations the deity came
seldom enough " by the hundred names of God, we
shall make it hot for them." And the cold wind from
the mountain-tops whistled shrill through the poplars,
and memories of the evil he had had a hand in came
back as pure joy to that heart, the busy eternal mocker
of good in the world. How red had run Jerusalem
before the Eagles entered, how red had run the streets
of Paris a few years ago. How had the Toorks of the
Golden Horde sacked the city of Constantine ! and
Nadir Shah the Persian ripped the life and wealth
from Delhi ! All good memories for the evil mind and
soul of Daoud Shah of the Ben-i-Israel whom some men
said was the foul Mahound himself.
Then, when the Afghan had walked and planned and
plotted for full two hours, Altamish was awake, and
Daoud Shah went in to him to tell his plans, or as much
of them as might be profitable. And within, Altarnish
TOOEK, AFGHAN, AND FRANK 169
lay on cushions, and beside him twanging gently a
guitar sat the dancer Azizun, who laughed when the
Afghan entered, so that he demanded gruffly enough
why she laughed. Whereat that lady remarked pertly
that she laughed because she saw that he had come to
talk affairs of state, and because she also know that
the Lord Altamish had not the least intention of doing
anything else but listen to her for at least another
hour, and perhaps two. She had just prepared the
very sweetest rose-water huqa that man could dream
of for him, and further, if Daoud Shah was not too
grumpy, why she would prepare one for him also.
Then, since Paris speaks not with Menelaus when Helen
sits at his feet, Daoud Shah was fain also to accept the
huqa, and was fitted out with a separate alcove and
set of cushions and one of Azizun' s girls to amuse him.
Now, beauty and grace in due season were agreeable
enough to Daoud Shah, and since it was obviously no
time to get Altamish to talk sense, he was content to
dally with Delilah in the next alcove, and to smoke
and drowse while the lady played soft music. To do
him justice, it was a part which he could play well
enough if need be, and it was late in the afternoon
before it was in the least necessary to insist on talking
business with Altamish. After a while Azizun came
in quietly to the alcove where Lalun was singing softly
to the Afghan, who pulled at his huqa peaceably, and
said
" Lalun, the Lord Altamish would speak with thee
anent the new zithers you want. I will entertain this
Sirdar" And Lalun slipped away.
" I fear, my Lord, my girl has bored you. You are
not used to our simple Kashmir dancers."
Daoud Shah was not in the mood to trifle, and re-
moved not the nargille from his lips.
" Perhaps Azizun herself should have come to him."
170 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
The cleft in the Afghan forehead deepened. " See
here, Azizun. I am well pleased with you and your
far-famed girls and their dancing. I heard tell of it
from Balkh to Kandahar, and now I want your help.
Who is the lady that rides with His Excellency whom
I saw in the city ? "
" That, my Lord, is the Governor's sister, the Lady
Miriam."
" Ha ! so I have heard. Well, I propose to marry
that lady, and it will bo for you to assist me."
" I know not that I care to do anything of the sort."
" Perhaps you do not know that what Daoud Shah
wills in this world is generally done. I shall make it
worth your while to help me."
" Perhaps you do not know that I do as I please in
things save what the Lord Altamish wishes, and no
man bids me do his bidding."
" Ah ! I must talk to you of the past. I am best when
kept in with. What was that story of Ghuzni and the
Kuzilbash's garden ? Something about his son and a
fig-tree, if I remember right."
Azizun was perturbed. " Well, what of it ? "
" Oh, nothing. I mention it to show you that I am
no new traveller in this tortuous path. I am worth
pleasing and serving, and this Altamish will tell
you so."
Azizun bit her lip, and thought better of it. It is ill
to quarrel with a man till you can gauge his calibre.
" Such help as I can give my Lord I will give."
" Ah, that is better ; but enough, see, here comes
Lalun again."
Azizun returned to her lord, and the afternoon passed
away. The sun had set behind the Pir Panjal before
she and Lalun quietly withdrew and left the two
worthies to their plotting, with their scented breath
but a memory. Altamish was ready and keen enough
TOORK, AFGHAN, AND FRANK 171
to talk business, and Daoud Shah entered on his
plan for raising real trouble in the Happy Valley,
Ho also announced that among his share of success
would be Miriam to wife. " Take her, and welcome,"
said the other. " And I wish you joy o' her. You'll
find her need some taming." And then continued
their planning.
Daoud Shah, it was proposed, would himself go over
into Tangir and Darel, and from thence into the
Khagan, and perhaps to the Black Mountain. The
Sayads of Khagan would probably be stirred up against
the Afghan proper. Al tarnish must send agents too, up
the Gilgit road to tell of the plans to raise more revenue
for next year. There might be some hint too of a
coming levy of girls to be sent to the Emperor at
Kabul, that would always stir hatred, not so much for
the sake of the girls as that a levy meant that the fail-
price would not be paid. Daoud Shah felt sure that a
well worked incursion of the tribes into Kanzilwan and
the Gurais valley, or into the Lolab, would bring tho
Governor with the flower of his troops to expel tho
intruders. If they were strong and well handled, tho
troops might be separated and cut off, and thus give
plenty of occupation to the troops while Altamish and
his friends engineered a rising in the valley. It really
sounded quite promising, and while the two plotters
continued then: dreams their agents were already at
work throughout the valley.
After a few minutes' further discussion of their
projects, Daoud Shah announced his intention of going
to the city to arrange to despatch some agents ahead
of him to the tribal country, and leaving Altamish to
his huqa and cushions, started forth a-horseback towards
Srinagar.
As he reached one of the poplar avenues outside the
town he became aware of a tall white figure striding
172 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
along in front of him. From the small white cap on
the head he saw that it must be that Christian priest of
whose presence in the valley he was aware. Spurring his
horse, he was soon able to overtake the stranger, pulling
up the animal to a walk, and uttering the Muham-
madan greeting, " Peace be with all," to which the
Abbe, as he turned to see who had accosted him, replied
simply enough, " And with you too," and then gazed
intently into the Afghan's face. A curious sight ho
must have found it, the furrowed, sinister hawk-nosed
face with the deep furrows and a thousand lesser ones
radiating therefrom. The Afghan found the gaze a
little disconcerting. He was accustomed to scan
searchingly the features of others, not to have his own
taken stock of so seriously.
" You, sir, will perhaps know mo again," said he at
last.
" Your pardon," said the Abbe, rousing himself from
a reverie. " Your pardon a thousand times. Your
face struck a chord in my memory, and I forgot my
manners."
" You have, I believe, been long in Kashmir ? "
" Well, I am certainly not recently arrived."
' You are not, I understand, in the Company's
service ? "
"I am in the service of My Master, the Son of the
God of the Christians."
" Ah ! the God of the Nazarenes."
"Yes, if you will it so. The Great God of the
Nazarenes, whom all the world acknowledges, whether
they know it or no."
" I do not acknowledge him."
" No." People who knew the Abbe would recognize
that he was slightly ruffled. It did not please him to
have his Church and the Christian religion spoken of as
the " Nazarenes."
But Daoud Shah had been looking at the priest
steadily in his turn, and suddenly said
" Now I remember where we met."
" I did not know I had had the pleasure."
" Oh yes, we did ; but never mind. Tell me of the
Nazarene whom you worship."
" My friend, what need is there for me to waste such
news on the follower of the son of a Christian slave girl,
born six hundred years and more later than Him
whom ye call the Nazarene ? "
" All, Padre Sahib, you need not think that I worry
about him whom his followers call the Prophet. I
come of an older religion than that. Not that I
despise the Prophet or Him whom you follow, for the
matter of that. Oh yes ; I remember once He stood
by where some men were looking at a dead pariah, that
lay with its glassy eyes covered in dust, and the skin
shrivelled back from its teeth. ' Look at its ragged
paws ! ' said one. ' Faugh ! what a brute,' said
another. ' See ! ' cried a third, ' its draggled tail.'
' See its mangy skin,' said a fourth. And then your
Nazarene said, ' Yes, and see its teeth like pearls.' He
was, I think, the carpenter's son."
The Abbe looked and stared. " What are you say-
ing ? You say you saw the Son of Man ? "
" Well, did I ? Perhaps I am mistaken. You think
I know nothing of the Christian religion and their
Bible. I know many things. I know, for instance,
that you are French."
" How do you know I am French ? I care not if you
do know that. It can be little enough that a Muham-
medan like you knows of the Christian Bible."
" Padre," said the Afghan, " I have seen and know
many things. Look, do you remember this ? " And
here he made a sign.
The Abbe crossed himself. " What do you know
174 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
of the Hundredth Name of God or of a prince and ruler
in Israel ? "
" I told you, Padre Sahib, that I know many things.
I that saw the Eagles march over the walls of Jerusalem.
You ask how I know that you are French, and what I
know of your Bible. Listen to it in French
II est ecrit
Avant que la cordc d'argent se rompe
Que la lampe a" or se brise
Que la cruche casse sur la jontaine
Et que la roue casse au puits
Avant que la poussiere retourne a la terre
D'ou elle a ete tire. ...
And as he listened the Abbe remembered a secret
scene in his youth in which he had had share, and
apart from that, the pleasure that that last and most
beautiful chapter of Ecclesiastes had always brought
him, ' ' Jeune homme, rejouis toi dans ta jeunesse. ... Ah !
a long, long, weary while ago. How did this Afghan
come to know it in French of all tongues or any other
of the glimpses of old forgotten things, or the
Hundredth Name of God? And as he marvelled he
noticed that the rider and horse were farther away and
the voice came in a mocking tone.
" How do I know that you are French ? Because I
saw you in Paris in a tumbril with Marie Marquise de
Bourbel St. Stephanie."
" del I " quoth the Abbe, and there came to him
the memory of one in the crowd who mocked at the
crucifix he had held before the Marquise's brave eyes
as she went to the guillotine. Then there came to him
also a memory of that dark story of the Middle Ages,
of Ahasuerus who had similarly mocked the Christ as
he carried the Cross, and been bidden to wander the
world through till the Second Coming, taking part in
all the evil of the universe. With the old story was
TOOBK, AFGHAN, AND FRANK 175
that evil rumour of the blood ritual with which the
Jews were said to purge their sin in the blood of
Christian children. Le Juif Errant ! It would account
for the knowledge of the Scriptures, and the apochryphal
story of the pariah. Nay, it would account for that
secret knowledge of the building of the second temple.
An Afghan of the Ben-i-Israel, it was like enough too.
The Wandering Jew waiting for the second coming had,
he knew, been last heard of at Hamburg, in 1794,
Erwige Jude ! A strange story, and Jean Armande du
Plessis, greatly mystified, strode on down the poplar
avenue to the mosque Shah Hamadan; near which his
quiet abode lay, hard by that putative tomb of Christ
which men show to this day in Kashmir. Outside
it lay an old burial ground of Islam, " oil la poussi&re
retonrne d la terre."
CHAPTEK XVII
THE RETURN OF SALABAT KHAN
THE message that had arrived from Salabat Khan
promised to clear up the situation. It was to the effect
that he had received Yar Khan's letter regarding the
reported plot of Altamish, and that as his wound was
not so bad as he had expected, he would be at Aliabad
Serai in a litter the following evening with an escort
of Chib retainers belonging to his relative. He would
expect Yar Khan to send a party to meet him, if
possible under the young captain whom ho had engaged.
Yar Khan at once returned to David's apartments
and relieved that young man of the Bibi Alana's
searching questions. It would be necessary to rest
the horses and men that night, and start the next
morning when the sun was up. A fresh litter could be
provided from Shapiyon, and, if necessary, His
Excellency could then be brought straight in. The
Bibi Alana professed herself satisfied, and after a
suitable exchange of courtesies withdrew to her own
apartments. When she was gone Yar Khan heaved a
sigh of relief, for the presence of a petticoat was ever
an anxiety. But the evening was drawing in, and even
his iron frame craved for a rest. So since all was
apparently quiet within the province, and the palace
guards fresh and alert the weary folk from the other
side of the passes slept.
It was not therefore till the next morning that Yar
176
THE RETURN OF SALABAT KHAN 177
Khan would hear of making plans to give effect to
His Excellency's message. But the next morning
betimes, both David and the Wazir were astir.
The arrangements that seemed to be necessary were
simple enough. David would have to ride out from the
Shergarhi as Salabat Khan, and the following morning
the real Salabat Khan would come in accompanied by
the real David clothed in his own dress, who had been,
it was said, back to Chib-land from Aliabad Serai at the
time the news had come of the plans and machinations
of Altamish. It was only to bo expected that he would
return with the Governor, and the men of his own troop
who had escorted him so steadfastly through the city
were still believing their captain actually to be away
with Salabat Khan. It only remained therefore to
make it so. To this end Yar Khan proposed that
David should ride forth as His Excellency at about
noon that afternoon, and make straight for Aliabad
Serai. Yar Khan would, of course, accompany him.
It was necessary that he should explain to Salabat
Khan what the situation was, and how David had
saved the province.
The next move was to consider what strength of
escort should go with them. David voted against his
own men going ; there was no use in running more
risk of detection than was necessary. No, the re-
mainder of Habib Khan's bodyguard had better go,
there would be forty sabres, and that should be enough.
" We had better let the Lady Miriam know," said
David, who seemed to feel that something was wanting
in the atmosphere.
" We had better let the Bibi Alana know too, then,
she must now be told exactly how we are going to act,"
said Yar Khan. " It will be as well really to summon
them to His Excellency's presence. The Lady Miriam
will understand, and Alana too, and not be offended."
N
178 A FKEELANCE IN KASHMIR
Accordingly a discreet message was sent to both
ladies with the necessary summons, Miriam for ten and
the Bibi Alana for half -past. Yar Khan had thought
it would bo well to explain to Miriam alone exactly
what they proposed to tell Salabat Khan. David felt
comment was needless and was glad enough to acquiesce.
It was further arranged that the party should start at
eleven. At ten Lady Miriam arrived, and as Yar Khan
was not yet come, deeming it hardly courteous to let
her wait, he ordered her admittance. But when she was
ushered in, then David's heart rather failed him. It
was one thing to invite her to a conference, another
to appear to have summoned her to his apartments
alone.
Miriam saw that there was some embarrassment
and was inwardly amused and pleased thereat.
"My Lord, your humble servant awaits your pleasure."
In the ante-room the heavy burka used to cloak her
passage through the outside courts had been thrown
aside, and she only wore the veil with the accommo-
dating fold therein. It was really quite amusing to
see a man in some confusion, they were usually assured
enough.
David steadied himself. " Lady ! the Wazir and
I have ventured to send for you because we kne\y
that we could thus get speech with you without tho
palace wondering."
" My Lord seems unwell ? "
" I, Lady ? "
" Yes, you. You stammer and are faltering. I
hope it is not ague."
" Not the least, Lady, I was never better. It is your
kind heart that imagines trouble."
" I am reassured, my Lord, perhaps the presence
of ladies incommodes you. Pray proceed. I was
indiscreet in interrupting you."
THE RETURN OF SALABAT KHAN 179
Miriam was evidently not lacking in the instinct to
torture an admirer, and David did not recover his
evenness as the result of her kind inquiries. Badinage
was not his forte.
" Lady, we have news that His Excellency will bo
at Aliabad Serai this evening, and we are going up with
forty lances to meet him and bring him in. He has
an escort of Chibs with him at present. I ride out
with the Wazir in the capacity of Governor, and I
shall return as myself."
" Truly it is well and simply conceived. Glad arn I
to hoar of my brother's return. I trust he will bo
none the worse for his rash journey, with that open
wound. . . . We have not done very badly in his
absence." And hero the veil showed a tendency to
open.
There was something charming and stimulating
about that " we." David recognized it and felt duly
elated.
" Lady, I am well content, aye, and more than
proud to have escorted you and have been of service
to your house."
Miriam bowed gravely, and David found himself
wondering how he could see her face again.
At this juncture, however, in strode Yar Khan,
prompt and curt, and greeting the lady demanded if
she understood the situation. On hearing that sho
did, he exclaimed, " Good ! Good ! Our difficulties
will soon be over, and you must help us make it clear
to your brother why we have acted as we have."
The next moment the Bibi Alana was announced and
ushered in, and this time Yar Khan took the bull by
the horns without delay.
" We have ventured to summon you here, Madame,
in this unceremonious fashion, as it was the only way
you could hear our news and plans promptly. We
180 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
have also ventured to summon the Lady Miriam, and
now you can both hear. His Excellency, as we in-
formed you last night, has written that he has made
effort to travel, and will be at Aliabad Serai this
afternoon with a Chib escort. I leave shortly with
this gentleman to meet him. The Sahib will ride
out as Governor and return as his captain of horse. He
would like you to say that he has done his duty as his
Excellency's double with courage and decorum."
And the Bibi Alana bowed her head and said,
" Wazir Sahib, and young English sir, whoso name I
do not yet know, the Lady Miriam and I certify that
you have done your duty well and honourably, and
have rendered His Excellency and his family great
service."
Hereon, David, who felt himself much more com-
petent to face two women rather than one discon-
certing one, remembered how the Begum Somru had
expressed curiosity at the English manner of salute, and
said
" Ladies, I am your very humble servant, and trust
I may long remain in your service, and that of His
Excellency. Permit me to salute you after the manner
of the English." Whereon he raised first Alana's fair
plump hand and kissed it, and then the beautiful
tapering fingers of Miriam, whereat she drew her veil
the closer, and the ladies withdrew. It has been said
that David was a comely and attractive young man.
Yar Khan had stood and watched, and his wrinkled
eyelids blinked, but he said nothing.
Then when the ladies had gone, he put his hand on
David's shoulder in kindly fashion and said
" Boy, the horses and the troopers are ready."
So David clattered out of the palace gates, after
having been for six and thirty hours Governor of the
Province of Kashmir in the Empire of the Durannis.
THE EETUKN OF SALABAT KHAN 181
It was a bright, clear day, and the road across the
plateaus or Itarewas was more than beautiful, and the
great range of the Pir Panjal stood like a whitewashed
wall in the midday sun a stone's throw away. But it
took five hours' steady riding and climbing for that
stone to touch land, and it was not till the late after-
noon, when all the Eastern slopes were deep in shadow
and the paths frozen again, that they reached Aliabad
Serai. There they found that Salabat Khan had
arrived in a litter with thirty non-de-script troopers
from his relatives' estate, and had been resting in the
quarter for the last hour.
Yar Khan lost no time in going in and describing
to the Governor the situation in sufficient length and
in such guise as would reassure him. Salabat Khan
was startled to find how nearly his government had
been supplanted, though he was well aware of the
deep-rooted hostility of the Toork faction.
" That thrice misbegotten Altamish was at the bottom
of it ? I don't doubt it, I don't doubt it. He wag
ever faithless and intriguing. You and I know how
he served the Emperor of the Moguls, that blind
wretch. We also, I fancy, know who blinded him.
Wali Dad that secretary of his, I know too. A slimy
son of a dog if ever there was one. And they tried to
kill my Goorkhas ? You hanged the rebel Kommadan
of the Eegiment of Victory. Who ordered it ? The
young Frank did. Upon my soul that was well
done. God smite their souls to the nethermost hell I
Was Feroz Tuglag in it ? "
" So I am told."
" And AH Khan Toork? " The Wazir nodded.
" And Sabuktagin Gori and his brothers?"
" They were all in it, also, likewise Murad Beg."
" Oh, the Moguls, too, eh ? Well, I might have
guessed that. The Moguls have always hated ua
182 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
Pathans, curse them ! Perhaps they've had good
reason, but they ousted us from the Delhi thrones first.
You say that, except at the Hari Parbat, you had no
bloodshed. How was that ? "
" We found the whole of the Toork party drawn up
at the Amiran Kadal Bridge as we rode down from the
Hari Parbat. The young Frank made a bold advance,
and the sirdars were afraid, and thought you had
returned. Altamish rode up, and said he had come
to welcome you, having heard that you had been hurt
in Poonch. We judged best not to attack them as they
did not begin. They have a strong party at Kabul,
and we had little open evidence of their complicity.
You should have seen Altamish's face when he thought
it was you who rode up to him."
" I see, I see. It was well done well done by all of
you, and this young captain of horse seems the very
man I have long looked for. With him and you by
my side, old friend, we ought to be a match for them.
Call him in."
David had changed his head-dress during the ride,
and without that his likeness was not so striking. He
rode into Aliabad Serai, therefore, without attracting
attention from the Governor's new escort. Yar Khan
had halted the troopers who had accompanied them,
outside the serai, and this had given David time to
change into his ordinary dress as a captain of horse.
It had all passed off simply enough.
Salabat Khan received him with great heartiness.
" I have just heard from my Wazir, Ferassa Sahib,
of the plots of these sons of burnt fathers, and of your
conduct. Apart from the services you have rendered
me, you have shown great wisdom, and I am glad to
have you in my service, to help me confound these
conspiracies. I have tried hard, Sahib, to govern this
country well, with one law for the weak and the same
THE EETURN OF SALABAT KHAN 183
for the strong. I road history, Sahib, and I know how
the Emperor Akbar ruled. Now and again men come
who tell me how the English rule, and how wealth
and content accrue. The nobles in this valley have
resisted me, and I have tamed them ; but they hate
me and try to do me evil. Had I allowed them to
grind their estates, wo should have an unhappy poverty-
stricken valley, and contented nobles, so far as these
Toorks and Moguls can ever be content. Not that I
let these Kashmir peasantry do all they would like.
An insolent idle lot, if you treat them over generously.
I try to keep the mean, Ferassa Sahib, and at times I
weary of it. Yar Khan here helps me with all his
might, but he would flay men alive oftener to save
trouble. How do the English manage ? "
4 ' It is rather a long story, Your Excellency, and they
too have their troubles."
" Well, well ! You must tell me more of it at
leisure. Glory is for all, and heaven for those who
bleed. It is as holy to try and govern well as to fight
for God and His Prophet. Did not the old Moolah,
who came from Baramullah, say that, Yar Khan?"
" He did, Your Excellency, and he and that old
Frank priest who was visiting you at the same time
agreed on that. That was in the last cholera year."
The immediate question, however, was whether or
no they should push on at once with fresh bearers,
who had already been collected or remain at the serai
for the night.
" I doubt if Your Excellency is fit to move, or travel
further."
" Man ! My Excellency will suffer much more
cooped up here when that Toork party are at their
mischief in Srinagar ! A litter's as good as a bed.
Let us start immediately, Sirdars! Do my Chib
retainers come on with me to the Holy City ? "
184 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
" Jo hukm, Khudawand ! " murmured the grizzled
old Chib chieftain in charge of the clansmen. " What-
ever the Lord may order."
" To Srinagar then forthwith. It will be well to
arrive by night, so that Altamish shall not know that
I am in a litter."
The move down from the pass was uneventful,
and it was not long after midnight that Salabat Khan
was let in by Ganesha Singh, who was in charge of the
main gate of the Shergarhi, and quietly carried to his
apartments.
To Ganesha Singh's great satisfaction, too, there
was his Ferassa Sahib wearing his yellow clothes and
his dragon helmet, so that all anxieties and parrying
of his men's questions was over. The faithful old
Rajpoot ran to kneel and put his arms round his
sahib's ankles after the manner of the East, as if the
Governor behind whom he had been riding these last
two days had not been the same man. It was to his
squadron leader that he tendered the welcome, and
the warmth of his greeting had its use in confirming
the men in their belief that David had been absent.
" Is all well with my Eissalah, Ganesha Singh ? "
" Your Honour, all is well, by the favour of your
presence."
" Good ! All is well with His Excellency, I hear,
and that the men have behaved well and done me
credit. It is well, tell them I am pleased." And then
dropping the fiction as they drew apart from the guard,
" Is all well, old soldier, in the palace? What of the
Lady Miriam ? "
" All is well, your honour. The lady came out to the
parapet on the gate tower after the gates were closed,
and called to know if I was there. All has been quiet."
" Then you are satisfied with our position here ? "
" Sahib, as usual, your wisdom, is enough for your
THE RETURN OF SALABAT KHAN 185
servants. We have made a good start, and I see
honourable service before us. The men are well
content and have been anxious at your absence."
David smiled and giving the old man his dismissal,
withdrew to his own quarter near the entrance to the
Governor's apartments. Salabat Khan, he was told,
had ordered his litter to be carried in to the ladies'
portion of the palace, and all seemed quiet.
It was not long after noon the next morning when the
Lord Altamish, with retinue, presented himself at the
gate of the palace and demanded entrance in order to
pay his respects to His Excellency, and congratulate
him on having quelled the emeute in Hari Parbat so
effectively. Salabat Khan had been prescribed cooling
draughts by the court physician, and contrary to
expectation had been able to transact business all
the morning. Orders were given for Altamish to be
admitted. With him rode Daoud Shah, now guide,
philosopher, and friend, vice Wali Dad, who had fallen
from his high estate. They were admitted to the inner
court. There, standing dismounted against the wall,
was David, still wearing his dragoon helmet. To
Daoud Shah this was disconcerting. There was the
very man whom he had represented to Altamish as
sitting in the seat of Salabat Khan. To Altamish
happily the young Anglo-Indian was unknown, but
Daoud Shah ground his teeth with suppressed fury.
Here again was he up against this unknown influence
that had so humbled him in the Begum Somru's camp.
On Yar Khan's advice the wounded Governor had
himself carried back to his own apartments, and there
gave Altamish a short personal audience. The inter-
view was purely formal. As he came out, Yar Khan
could not refrain from a little banter, as he conducted
the Toork to his horse.
" Ah, my Lord, His Excellency is sadly fatigued as
186 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
you saw. We all marvel he was so well the day he
rode with you from the Amiran Kadal. He was wounded
as you had heard, in a skirmish with Eajpoots and
certainly ought to have taken more care of the wound.
But, as you know, he cares little for himself."
But Altamish was not always quick in the uptake,
and his mind was preoccupied with Daoud Shah's
assurance that he would find on close inspection that
the Governor was not Salabat Khan. He had, however,
convinced himself that the man he had interviewed
and paid his respects to actually was Salabat Khan
himself, and no other. From which he thought that
Daoud Shah had been talking as the Afghans say,
through his sleeve. Any possibility of substitution
had not occurred to him. Yar Khan's remarks
therefore contained for him no suggestion, and after
passing the saluting guard at the gate, he rallied Daoud
Shah on his absurd suggestion that Salabat Khan was
not the man who had ridden through the city two days
ago. But Daoud Shah the Afghan was not to be
drawn at that moment, and merely replied that if
his Lordship said so it was no doubt correct, and they
went their way in silence through the city and out to
the house and garden on the Dhall Lake.
Salabat, fatigued though he was, insisted on holding
conclave with Yar Khan and David on the military
affairs of the province, which must be thoroughly
overhauled if trouble was ahead. David came in
from the main-gate, saluting smartly after the English
fashion, and the Governor smiled approval.
" Ferassa Sahib, the Wazir and I have been talking
of our forces, and they must be increased ; are you
willing to help us in all our military affairs ? "
" Certainly, Your Excellency, so far as my know-
ledge goes."
" Bale, very well ! First of all I now commission
THE BETURN OF SALABAT KHAN 187
you to raise your troop to a whole rissalali of 150
lances as soon as can be. Do you see your way to
that ? "
" If I have full authority, and may offer the terms
that are necessary, I think I can. My own troop will
be a nucleus, especially if I have a free hand in pro-
moting my officers and non-commissioned officers. I
want to work on the Irregular system of the Company
Bahadur . I want to group each troop by clan and race."
" I have every confidence in you, and you shall have
the freest of hands. But I want more than that.
There are two rissalalis of state horse already. You
must assist in improving them. There are two
regiments of infantry, the Eegiment of Victory and
the Regiment of the Sun, Fateh-ki-Pultan and Suraj-
ki-Pultan. You must inspect these and their arms,
and must tell me what improvements you recommend ;
and how I can make them up to the standard of
Hindostan. Further, my artillery is not right. I have
several cannon, but very few trained gunners. I will
give you full control over them, and they must be
improved. You shall have what you want from the
military stores. You agree with me, Yar Khan ? "
The old warrior nodded approval, and David said,
" Your Excellency, I can but try. My father was an
artillery officer of the Company Sahib Bahadur, and
I learnt much of cannon from him. One or two of my
men have served the Company as artillerymen."
And Salabat Khan smiled again and said, " I have
full trust."
From which it will be seen that Yar Khan had
evidently formed a high opinion of the lad and had
said so freely, so that after the manner of Eastern
courts, David was about to rise from humble grade to
high command by the mere word of the ruler. Fortu-
nately youth is buoyant and of full ambition. David
188 A FBEELANCE IN KASHMIR
felt that he certainly knew more of the military methods
which had made the armies of the Company so success-
ful, than any one else in the province.
Salabat Khan continued. " You may have such
money as you require from my treasury, and all stores."
David knew something of the ways of storekeepers
in Indian states.
" May I have authority to bully all storekeepers who
try and put me off with worthless stores ? "
The Governor laughed. " You have my full per-
mission to blow any storekeeper or fraudulent teh-
kidar * away from a cannon. Will that suffice ? "
David gravely replied that it would, and pocketed
written authority that the munshi gave him. Yar
Khan then suggested that it would be well if David
moved his own troop out to the shores of the Dhall
Lake, to the opposite side to that on which was the
garden of Altamish, here there were some vacant
lines, and where he could camp under the walnut
groves, leaving his men there while absent on his tours
of inspection.
David, too, was anxious enough to get his own men
clear away from the palace and the always demoralizing
influence of the city, as well as to start his new enlist-
ments in freer surroundings. An order to draw tents
from the palace store was given him, and arrangements
to move the camp by water at once put in progress.
With every possible expression of confidence from
Salabat Khan, David then set about his business and
his move into camp. Well equipped with an order
on stores and treasury, and the Begum Somru's second
bill of exchange still uncashed in his pocket, he felt
that the sinews of war were his.
* Contractor.
CHAPTER XVIII
WITH MIRIAM IN THE GARDEN
OP all the wonderful and beautiful things in this very
beautiful world, there are few that will compare with a
spring morning in the vale of Kashmir. The country-
side covered with fruit blossom, the almond tree
flourishing and the apple and the cherry in all their
glory. The mountains overhanging the Dhall towered
over the water in all the splendour of their mantle of
snow. Wild tulips and iris grew in every stretch of
grass, and the very graves with their iris fringe echoed
the joy of the morning. The glorious sap of spring
was mantling in the youth of the plant as well as the
human world.
In the Nishat Bagh the fountains sparkled and the
waterfall over the carved and nicked cascades danced
in the morning sun. The orchards in all their finery,
and the green turf fresh from its winter sheet of snow
on the mountain side above the gardens, dazzled the
eye with their freshness. Up on the slopes the sun
shone on the ruins of the Palace of Fairies, the cells
and courts of an ancient Buddhist monastery. Outside
the garden walls with the moss-covered copings, the
cascades trickled into the lake. Two of the vice-regal
barges bobbed with the ripple of the water, and thrust
their noses into the rushes by the marble landing steps,
while the boatmen played cards and smoked on the
steps,
189
190 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
Inside, the Lady Miriam walked alone pulling showers
of almond blossom on to her shoulders as she passed.
Up on the top terrace three of her ladies sat or reclined
on shawls listening to fairy stories and Persian couplets
from old Noonu Balia, a famous teller of stories to the
ladies of the household. She told of real love and
adventure. Such love as they all knew never came to
women outside of the story books, but which it com-
forted them to think could at any rate be written of.
But Miriam had soon tired of the tales and strode
away. It were better to walk by one's self among the
almond blossom and listen to one's own thoughts,
than to the poor stuff that Noonu told. But why poor
stuff ? It had always sufficed before. And the answer,
though Miriam would not have acknowledged it, was
that her own heart was telling her a far more stirring
tale. The rich spring sap was, indeed, circulating,
and there were pleasant thrills in consequence, and my
lady know, she knew not why, that the world was a
very beautiful world, and that it was oh ! so good
to be in it. And then since Noonu was set for an
hour, and the girls too lazy to wish to stir, Miriam
thought that she would venture outside the garden,
by the gardeners' hole in the wall at the end of the top
terrace. So out she slipped to find the air even fresher
without and the world even brighter.
Outside the wall a footpath led away gently
up the hillside away to the Palace of Fairies, and
Miriam wondered where it went. To wonder in her
then mood was to follow. She climbed gently, just
with the pleasant feeling of being out for a spree.
Since Afghan maids are not so bound to seclusion as
those of Hindostan, she was not in the least dis-
concerted at having left her companions behind ; but
to be alone on a mountain side with never a human in
sight on a sunshiny spring morning with a wonderful
new song a singing in her heart was fine wine for a hill
girl of high degree.
Up the path my lady clomb, past tufts of little red
tulips, and whole prayer carpets of violets, the gentle
banajra that half Kashmir will be soon gathering as a
spring simple. On past the shooting wild rose that
is hardly aware that winter is gone, and the purple and
white iris flower of forgotten graves. In the young
grass the red-legged cliikor was making its nest and
calling for his mate, cliikor ! cliikor ! cliikor I rather
surprised to see a maid alone hi the mating season of
the year. Down in the lake below, Miriam watched
the fishers, standing hi the prow of their narrow boats
with their pronged tridents aloft, a novel way to catch
fish, and a very good one, and none so easy withal.
Above, the Palace of Fairies stood out in the sunlight
with its beautiful rows of arches and delicate plinths,
so old that no man had ever heard from his fathers who
built it, and for what purpose ; and all the world was
content to say that it must have been the fairies, whom
in England we should call the pixies, or some say
the Pictses, the painted people. Miriam thought little
save that it was a beautiful sight perched above the
young hillside against a clear blue sky, and that the
old Buddhist monks who must have built it, had a
keen eye for a beautiful site. Presently Miriam broke
into the graded road, now thickly overgrown, that the
monastery folk and their visitors must have used.
Fine roadmakers were those old Buddhist and GI'SBCO-
Bactrian communities.
The Palace of Fairies was haunted, badly haunted ;
that all Kashmir knew, but Miriam was in the mood
for adventure and the unseen had for the moment few
terrors. She left the shepherds' path to turn up the
graded road, putting up a hare as she did so. Puss
did not run far, for partner hare was waiting under an
192 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
adjacent thorn bush. The old road was not, however,
absolutely unused. A straggling footpath with bruised
stones wandered up the old grading, and Miriam
climbed lightly up it. She did not see a solitary
upright figure in white waiting and watching, till she
turned up the final gradient and had seated herself
on a corner plinth to gaze at the view unfolded. Then,
the noise of a footstep made her start, and a voice said,
" Peace be with you, daughter."
The greeting was the greeting of Islam, and Miriam
automatically replied, " And with you, too, father ! "
and then looked up to find that it was not as she had
expected some moollah, guardian of a shrine, but the
Christian padre, whom she knew well by sight, but had
never before spoken to. She had long wondered what
manner of man he was, and had heard folk talk of the
sick whom he had cured. Since she had been thrown
with David she had begun to realize something of that
mysterious white race, of whom all the East now
talked, whether they had seen them or no. Then there
was that Western conception of women, of which
David had spoken to her, with all the wonder of honour,
protection and consideration that seemed to be implied.
She would much like to ask the padrd, the man of
religion, something of it, if she dare, and something,
too, of that religion to which she had heard that it
was due. She got up from her seat on the plinth, arid
thereon the Abbe made her a most graceful, courteous
bow, which none knew how to make better than he.
Miriam instinctively understood the deference and
respect implied. Here was a man who could be talked
to quite freely if need be, which was exactly the
impression that the Abbe had conveyed to all who met
him since he was a boy at the old seminary in Malbeige-
la-fontaine. It was a worn, aged face now, that looked
down on the lady, a face that had seen much sorrow
WITH MIRIAM IN THE GARDEN 193
and much bitterness, and had come by way of such to
a peace that passed all understanding. And as those
faded blue eyes gazed into that clean-bred well-cut
young face, the wrinkles seemed to fade away and
the face looked as it had looked in the days when half
the court ladies raved of it because it could not, or
would not, be theirs ; and yet was ever ready to help
those who needed it. Beautiful imperious La Lamballc
herself had been known to take rebuke, and to ask for
guidance, she whom neither man nor woman had dared
thwart in her thoughtless ways.
" So, Lady, you are not afraid to come alone to the
Palace of Fairies ? There be few in Kashmir who
would come here, on to-day of all days, too, the
Festival of Spring."
" Father, I know not why I have come, save that
I take the air, wandering up from yonder garden."
" Ah, Lady, there is not a fairer place in all the
earth this day, than this plinth of the Palace of Fairies.
You do well to enjoy it. You are, I think, the sister
of His Excellency the Governor of Kashmir."
" That is so, father, and you ? . . . You, I know well
as that Christian padre who cures so many of the sick
that would otherwise die."
" Daughter, if I am permitted to heal the sick;
it is but the work that my Master has appointed
me to do."
" Your master, who is he ? "
" My Master is the Lord Jesus, the Son of the God
of all the Universe."
" The Prophet Iswi, Aleh Salaam / * I have heard of ;
but I do not understand."
"That is surely not surprising. Some day when
occasion offers I will try and explain what you now
find strange."
* Peace be with him.
194 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
" Father, there are many questions I would
ask."
" I do not doubt it, daughter."
" Father, you laugh at me ? "
" God forbid, daughter, that I a man, let alone a
priest, should laugh at a woman."
And here the Abbe's eyes puckered into a thousand
wrinkles, and Miriam looked up into them and saw . . .
what she saw, and broke into a merry happy laugh,
such as was good for aged weary priests to see. The
eyes wrinkled more than ever.
" Father, I have heard that the English treat women
quite differently from the way that we of the East do.
That a man marries one woman alone and protects her
to the end, whether she be old or whether she be young.
Is that so ? "
" To their shame there be many who do not,
daughter, but all right men do ; and that is not only
the English who do so, but all those of the Christian
faith. I am not English, though I know them for a
just people. I am a Frenchman, and the French, too,
treat women, or aim to do so, as I have said."
" Then, father, if a man marries a woman, will he
care for her and house her all his life ; and that too,
when she be old and querulous?"
" Right men do so, and it is accounted a shame and a
wrong when men do not."
" And a man does not bring a young woman to his
house when his wife ceases to please ? "
" He does not, or it is accounted a shame if he docs,
and in no case would she be his wedded wife."
" Truly this is a wonderful thing. I heard so before,
but could hardly believe it."
" But tell me now, my daughter, what makes you
ask these questions of the English, and how they treat
their women ? Know you aught of them ? Their
WITH MIRIAM IN THE GARDEN 195
rule is yet far from this province and from the
Punjab."
And Miriam was for the moment at a loss for an
answer, but said at last, with the blood mantling to a
cheek sufficiently olive to hide it, that she had lately
met a young Sahib whom His Excellency had employed
as a captain of horse, and had had some conversation
with him.
Whereon the Abbe had mused as to himself, and said
half aloud
" Is it good for East and West to wed ? "
And Miriam had heard him, and broke in, " His
father married an Afghan lady."
Whereon the Abbe had looked up at her, and the
thousand wrinkles grew a thousand more.
" And wherefore not, lady, wherefore not, Far be it
from me to suggest such a thing.'!
" Father, you are mocking at me again,"
And Jean Armande laughed, just the low, quiet,
reliant laugh that La Lamballe loved, but would not
have told him so for all the world.
" Lady, I would not mock any woman, as I have
said before. Much less a woman who is in love,"
" Who told you I was in love, father ? "
;t You did yourself."
" I, father ? How dare you say such things ? A
princess of the Duranni in love like a village girl ! In
love ! . , And Miriam snatched at her veil which
had fallen back over her shoulders, and swinging
sharply round marched off with a very indignant
chin in the air, till she disappeared behind the grey
walls of the old facades of the ruin.
The Abbe sat silent on the plinth while a faint smile
played round his mouth and eyes. It was very, very
long since a woman of sweetness and daintiness had
talked to him, and the experience was very pleasing,
196 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
and sad, too, for all the tragedy of the days when women
had crossed his path.
" Father, tell me about the sick and how you make
the blind see."
The Abbe moved not at all, neither looked he up.
" Sit down, Lady, and let us converse. The sick and
the blind I heal when I can because I long studied the
healing arts when young. Sometimes the blessing of
God falls on my work, and I am able to cure those who
long have been deemed incurable."
" Tell me something of the God of Christians, that
makes men treat the sick and women so."
Then the Abbe rose with a soft look in the eyes and
said
" Daughter, that I will tell you with pleasure on
some future occasion, I must now be about my business.
It is a very wonderful and beautiful story that I have
to tell. But it is not told in an hour ; but this I
would have you ponder over. The God of the Chris-
tians is a God of love and of peace and of truth, such
as you who have lived in the fierce Afghan hills can
hardly conceive. ..."
Suddenly the Abbe thought of La Lamballe and
Fouquier Tinqueville, and La Veuve ever waiting her
spouse . . . and wondered how such things could be
explained to wild Afghans. So that Miriam slipped
away down the mountain side, unnoticed, till he felt
as if the sun had gone behind a cloud. Then with a
sigh he turned to his shed behind the ruin, and Miriam
on her way down, met two villagers leading a third
with bandaged eyes, who said they were going up with
grandfer to see the padre hakim * sahib who lived up on
the hill.
Miriam, wondering and happy, re-entered the garden
* Doctor.
WITH MIEIAM IN THE GAEDEN 197
to find her companions still engrossed in a third and
more wonderful story, and slipped down on the ground
beside old Noonu, whose tale now fairly echoed again
with peris and heroes and gorgeous horsemen. After
which it was high time to clap hands for the boatmen
and to reassemble the party to return across the lake.
CHAPTEK XIX
DAVID'S CAMP ON THE DHALL
OUT in the old cantonment lines on the Dhall Lake,
David was as happy as a king. The enlisting and
training of soldiers is a fascinating sport to the young
man of enterprise, who has inherited any spark of
the power of command and leadership. David was
certainly not lacking in this, and had, moreover, the
good temper and patience which is necessary to train
both man and horse. Two of the many duties had
seemed urgent and to demand priority. First, the
raising of his own rissalali, and secondly, the assembling
and organizing of such artillery as the province pos-
sessed. The rissalali had been the first care, and he
had sat in solemn conclave with Ganesha Singh the
old Rajpoot officer, Nihal Singh, the daring Dogra
Bajpoot of the Moon, and Gul Jan Duranni his father's
Afghan orderly, and they were three wise men that
sat with him. David's experience in native states
had taught him that there was one thing that Irregular
troops of India, either in the Company's service or
in that of native potentates, understood better than
the Company's Line, viz. that to get the best out of
men they must be organized by sept and clan and
tribe, under their own class leaders, rather than mingled
cheek by jowl regardless of sympathy and liking for
each other. His father had always preached the
198
DAVID'S CAMP ON THE DHALL 199
same, and explained how first the Highland regiments
had been raised on these lines with MacKenzie com-
panies and Cameron companies, Fraser companies;
and the like, and that it was the Saxon imagination
that failed to realize the value of it. Old Fraser had
always said that it was the Celtic imagination that
saved the Saxon stolidity, and the Saxon stolidity that
leavened Celtic wildness to make a ruling race. The
principle, at any rate, was firm in David's mind to
have clans troops in his rissalah. Two should be
Hindu and two Mussalman, one from the Marathas and
Rajpoot clans of India so far as they might come
to hand so far north, and one from Nihal Singh's
friends on the westerly slopes of the Pir Panjal, one
from Afghan's proper whether Eohilla settled in India
or from the northern hills, and the last troop Moguls
and other Muhammadans. There were several men
in David's original troop who were well fitted to bo
non-commissioned officers in the new corps, and in a
week or so close on seventy satisfactory men and
nearly a hundred horses had been got together. The
latter, almost all of Afghan or Biluch breed, with
a few of the curly coated Badakshani ponies. The
Begum Somru's hundi on the Srinagar bankers had
given ample funds to supplement those allowed by
the Governor, and his men were well equipped.
Then fortune had favoured his enterprise, for riding
through the city the very day that Salabat Khan had
given him the military instructions described, he had
seen a European leaning and smoking outside the
travellers' serai in the city. It was the person whoso
arrival had been reported by the kotwal. David had for-
gotten the fact as reported, but a sight of the traveller
had recalled it. It was a European, there was no doubt
of that. Moreover, he was clothed in a well-worn but
scrupulously clean officer's undress coatee of blue
200 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIB
broad cloth, with white breeches and what were known
as " half " boots. He was clean shaven, and his red
hair flecked with grey was tied back in a rough queue.
A French cavalry sabre trailed at his side, and a
telescope was slung over his back. On his head was a
flat Austrian field cap, with a bag and tassel, that had
seen better days. David had some acquaintance with
the European adventurer class, indeed, was one himself,
and readily passed the time of day after the manner
of the freelances, which is ornate. The stranger
returned David's greeting with a military salute.
" It's little enough I expected to find a European
here at all," said he. " I'm glad to meet you, sorr."
" You've come from Rajputana, I fancy."
" I've come a long way, sorr, and that is thrue for
you. I was with the Chevalier Dudrenac, and for a
while with Colonel James Skinner."
" Do you know anything about artillery ? "
" Do I not, son- ! I was gunner's mate of a Frinch
privateer before I joined the Company's Artillery at
Madras as a matross of the Company."
" Are you open to employment ? "
" I am, sorr, if it's good enough and honourable, for
I am a man of honour."
" I am in command of the cavalry and artillery of
the troops of His Excellency Salabat Khan, Governor
of this province. I am Major Fraser, and I can pro-
bably offer you employment."
" I shall be indebted to you, sorr, for I have come
here in search of military service. Me name is Captain
Lucius Tone at your service, late of the service of His
Highness the Mararajah Scindiah." And here Captain
Tone once again bowed and saluted. " Are you by
chance, sorr, the Fraser who held the Tantri Pass against
Dudrenac Sahib and his Pindarees on behalf of the
Rajah of Kothi?"
DAVID'S CAMP ON THE DHALL 201
" I am."
" Then it is proud I'll be to serve under ye, sorr ;
ye may take my word for it."
So David had ridden back forthwith to see His
Excellency and Yar Khan and obtain sanction to
offer the adventurer a salary of rupees three hundred
per mensem. This was duly accepted, and in a few
days Captain Lucius Tone, with his servant Pando
and his Gulf Arab horse Monaghan were duly installed
as captain of artillery to the province of Kashmir.
David very soon found that he really did know some-
thing of his business. Nihal Singh and Gul Jan were
agreed on this point, for a wonder. They had both
long experience of artillery as seen from the gunner's
point of view, and Tone certainly filled that. Six
rickety pieces, varying from four to nine pounders,
had been collected from the Shergarhi and elsewhere
as an instalment. Tone was at once turned loose
on these, and with two smiths and a couple of carpenters
from the city was busy repairing their carriages. The
tyres had to come off the wheels and be cut and shrunk,
and the felloes wanted refitting, and the trails shaking
out, till at first it seemed that repairs would mean
the scrapping of the ordnance altogether. This,
however, the artilleryman would not admit. The
pieces were inferior he was bound to admit. " May
I be rammed, crammed, and damned down the big
gun of Athlone if iver I see a worse lot," was his
comment, saving always a small bronze piece with a
Persian inscription, that proclaimed the piece had been
cast in Samarkand for the " glory of God and His
Prophet," by one Imamuddeen Ghazi. It was of
gun metal and a hundred years old at least, but of
exquisite lines and as sound as a bell, and the heart
of Lucius Tone went out to it, as the heart of man to
woman. He would so mount it and sight it, and fix
202 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
such elevators that it should be famous in all the
north. It bore the poetic name of the " Iqd-i-Gul "
or " Bunch of Roses " quite different from the assertive
names of guns of rougher casting. Now gunners are
queer folk with their guns, and their pieces always have
some psychological influence over them, so that they
die with them but leave them not. To the " Bunch
of Roses " Lucius Tone had attached himself, and it
was well he did so.
A few weeks after the opening of the cantonment
on the Dhall, on a bright sunny morning of that warm
spring month, David and all his assistants were at work.
Tone had two gun-carriages stripped on the ground
with his artificers busy while two newly enlisted
artillerymen were polishing the " Bunch of Roses "
under a spreading walnut tree, on which the young
leaves were shining in the morning sun. David himself
sat at a table, two munshis at his feet with lacquered
pen box and shiny native rolls of paper, making out
pay rolls. His experience in native states had taught
him that by way of the pay roll came loyalty and
obedience. He had seen that, too, at the Begum Somru's
campo when he had rescued that good lady from her
painful seat on her red-hot piece of ordnance. So
an accurate pay roll and regular payments were his
first care. The rissalah was daily increasing as emis-
saries collected suitable men. David had carried out
his instructions to overhaul the two battalions of
infantry, and he found that at present, though not
void of good material, then- power of drill and manoeuvre
was practically nil. Happily Lucius Tone had come
to the rescue by producing a drill book that the
Chevalier Dudrenac had given him. It was one of
the drill books published when the Republican armies
were shaking themselves free from their first wildness,
and a godsend, therefore, to a reformer, the same as
DAVID'S CAMP ON THE DHALL 203
that from which the Begum Sornru's Kommadans
culled a few movements. But it was one thing to
be able to read the French haltingly, as David could;
and quite another to put it into Persian for the use
of the troops. The book said
' Un bataillon en bataille, rompant par peleton d
droite. Nota: On wit V adjutant-major qui apres
qu'on a rompu le bataillon, s'est porte sur Vavertissement
du chef de bataillon.' . . . How should such be trans-
lated ? Tone, it is true, understood some French, but
neither enough of that nor enough Persian to translate
a drill book.
While David was puzzling over his new acquisition
and admiring the plates that showed men in chakoes
and splatterdashes 'dans la position d'apretez vos
armes, or Varme au bras,' Gul Jan came up to say that
a padre sahib sent salaams and was waiting to see him.
" A padre sahib ! " said David. " What padre*
sahib?"
" I don't know, Sahib, but they say he is a padre 1 doctor
sahib who has lived many years in Kashmir, and cures
sick people when the hakims can't. He is an Angrez,
or a Frank"
" Ask him to come in." And David rose to receive
the visitor much wondering, and to call for another seat.
Coming towards him through the tents and the
neatly piled lances which his men had just learnt to
arrange from him, David saw a thin white figure with
a white skull cap, such as he remembered having seen
near the Catholic church in Agra. Then in another
minute he was bowing to the Abbe Jean Armando
du Plessis, and even shaking hands after the manner
of Europe, while the Abbe explained how he often
came to a hut of his on the hill above the lake by the
Palace of Fairies, and having heard that there was
a white man below, had ventured to pay his respects,
204 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
half expecting to find a countryman, of whom so
many had come to India. And while he spoke David
gazed into the high-bred, clean-cut face, and the
myriad crowsfeet that played thereon, and the
faded yet active eyes that looked straight at you under
the brows, with determination and kindliness inter-
mingled.
" I am no countryman, father, I am Scotch or partly
so by descent, and my mother was a Duranni. I am
not even of your faith, but I am very very glad to meet
you, and I hope I may often see you. I shall be here
some time training His Excellency's soldiers."
" Ah ! I heard of you from a lady who told me that
the Governor had entertained a European. She had,
I think, seen you, and spoken highly of you."
" Surely," said David eagerly. " Surely not the
Lady Miriam."
" The same, my son," replied the Abbe with a hint of
a smile playing among the crowsfeet round his mouth.
" Surely a gracious lady."
" Ah ! " was all that David could find to say, and
then the Abbe's eye lighted on the open drill book.
" Aha, there is something that I know, my old
friend Le Colonel de Savignac's work. Yes, I thought
so. . . ."
" Planches relatives au reglement concernant I'exercice
et les manoeuvres de I'infanterie." A Lille, Chez
Blocquelle, 1 791 . Ah, I know it well. You study it ? "
" I am trying to read it and put it into Persian for
His Excellency's battalions, but I find I do not quite
understand it."
" Perhaps I can help here. ' Six bataillons la
droite en tete qui se Jorment en ligne,' that would be
' Shash batayon darawat en let lain mee kunand.' But
you don't want to deal with a brigade, do you ? Let
us get back to L'ecole de bataillon."
DAVID'S CAMP ON THE DHALL 205
Then for a couple of hours David and his new friend
were absorbed in translating that drill book, by which
time Tone had finished examining the stripped ordnance,
had designed a new tangent sight for the " Bunch of
Boses," and strolled over to report to his commander.
David saw him coming, and said to the Abbe", " Here
comes an assistant of mine, an Irishman. I must
present him to you, but first may I crave your name,
wo have been so busy translating that we have forgotten
ceremony. I am David Fraser at your service, of
Scottish descent."
" Ah, my dear sir, the honour is mine. I am the
Abbe Armande du Plessis, of the Society of Jesus.
To both Scots and Irish we French always extend the
hand of welcome and cameraderie. Present me to
your friend."
" Captain Tone, may I present to you the Abbe du
Plessis, who has paid us the courtesy of calling, and
has been helping me these two hours to translate your
drill book."
Lucius Tone stepped eagerly up on seeing the
Abbe's clerical garb, and at once knelt and
craved a blessing, which Armande du Plessis, seeing
that the new-comer was a Catholic, readily gave.
It was the first Catholic he had seen for many a long
year. When Tone had recovered his standing position
he took off his cap and saluted, and then du Plessis
said
" My son, it is long since I met one of our Faith. I
must have a long talk with you and hear, so far as I
may, whence you come. Do you talk French ? "
" I do, your Eiverence. Was I not gunner's mate
on a Frinch privateer for a matter of three years? "
And then ensued a lively conversation in what Tone
considered to be on his part the best of French, so that
even David, who knew but little of the language, and
206 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
that from books, could not help smiling. The brogue
of Tone was delicious and soft and captivating in
itself, but hardly suited to the seafaring argot which
made up the most of his vocabulary. To the Abbe,
however, the pleasure of using his own tongue made
up a thousandfold for the other's shortcomings.
He was then pressed to stay to their tiffin, which
was laid under the trees looking out over the lake ;
and he did so, blessing the meal with a Latin grace
which David had not heard since he had been to the
old Lodge in Agra with his father. And so the time
passed happily till the guest rose to go, each feeling
that they were a small European band of sympathizers
who might look to each other for companionship and
relaxation. The Abbe on going said
" Gentlemen, I have a very tiny hovel near the
Mosque Hamadan, in the city, where you are always
welcome, and I have a small room which I use as a
dispensary up on the hillside. The country folk
come to me there. I am always there o' Sundays,
and shall welcome you even more there in the beautiful
sunshine. It is built up by a few peasants against the
back of the ruin of the Palace of Fairies."
David walked with him to the edge of the camp.
" I heard of you, my son, if I may call you so, as I
said, from the Lady Miriam, who spoke of some great
service you had rendered. I thought her a sweet
girl, too sweet to lead the life of tragedy among these
Afghan nobles."
" The lady makes much of my small services, but
I am proud that she should remember them. She
is a lady of great courage and spirit."
" She questioned me much about the ways of the
European, especially their treatment of women."
" She would question me, too, father, when we had
opportunity. It is not often that a maid can question
DAVID'S CAMP ON THE DHALL 207
any one in this barbaric land, but we rode together
awhile by difficult roads and so had quiet conversation."
" Ah well," returned the Abbe. " May the good
God grant her happiness and show her the way of
peace. I fear there are troublous times ahead. The
Toork faction in this valley are getting very powerful.
They are dribbling in adherents steadily. I fancy the
power of the Emperor at Kabul is waning. It is a
great empire and hard to manage. Louis XV., himself
of pious memory, could not have controlled all these
demons. I would warn you especially against an
Afghan I have met in Kashmir, aye, and elsewhere.
He goes now by the name of Daoud Shah, David the
same name as yourself. That the name of the great
David, the son of Jesse, should be borne by such a
scoundrel ! That is, I know, but an alias. He is a
mysterious and evil man. Before I joined the priest-
hood I was induced to join a secret society, which, as
you know, is anathema to mother Church. I found,
however, that he, too, knew some of the secrets that
I had learnt. I will tell you some day how I came to
know this. Beware of him."
" I have some ken of him, too, father, and am fore-
warned. I, too, am of that society, I fancy."
" Ah ! you surprise me. Perhaps it is all for the
good that it should be so. I will talk further of this
also with you. Now adieu, my son ! It has given me
great pleasure to meet you two gentlemen."
David watched the light, erect figure stride down the
slope and out of the camp as if his life was beginning
rather than nearing its end, and prayed that he, too,
might be as worthy. More especially he prayed that
it might be given to him to protect the Lady Miriam
through life, and especially to see her through the
brewing troubles. And then he walked off to go
round the horse lines, the last care of all horse soldiers.
CHAPTEK XX
DURBAR AND FESTIVAL
IT was not till several days after his return that Salabat
Khan could think of holding his first public durbar
or levee, though Yar Khan soon began to urge
that it was really important to do so. Not only were
there those who wished to see their chief after the
rumours of his death and wound, but there were others
with petitions to prefer, and there were several appeals
from the orders of local officials to be heard. The
Governor then expressed himself well enough to hold
a formal durbar the day after the next, which would be
the Festival of Spring, when the whole city would be
illuminated in the evening, and the river be crowded
with boats covered in small lamps. At this procession
the vice-regal barges were usually present, and it was
the custom for His Excellency to proceed in state by
water to be dined by some leading personages of the
city, whose ladies received the palace ladies behind
the grille. It would be convenient to hold the durbar
the morning of that day. The usual notices were
promptly issued, and the town criers sent through the
city. David was directed to be present with his own
rissalah, and the garrison of Shergarhi would also
attend.
On the appointed day the Durbar duly assembled
in the great hall of audience, and curiosity as well as
208
DUKBAR AND FESTIVAL 209
business brought all those who could by any means
claim a right to a seat. With them also came many
of the general public, for at the Governor's Durbar
there was no limit to all of orderly behaviour who might
enter into the outer court and stand, if they could find
room at the bottom of the hall.
The scene was one of considerable magnificence. In
the outer court Habib Ullah's bodyguard, and David's
rissalah, were drawn up facing each other. Two of
His Excellency's elephants in gold-embroidered
caparisons and newly-painted trunks shuffled cease-
lessly. Outside the palace gate, a score or so of beggars,
blind, shrivelled, and leprous, whined for alms. On a
raised dais at the end of the hall sat His Excellency,
surrounded by his principal officers. Standing on
either side of the hall were those who had the right
of entrd, and in the middle of the hall was ample
space for petitioners and litigants to advance to the
foot of the dais. Among those who had the entre was,
of course, the Lord Altamish, handsomely apparelled
in embroidered plum silk with a jewelled sword. As
His Excellency had advanced up the hall to the dais,
many of the sirdars presented him with the hilts of
their swords as a sign of fealty usually only proffered
to royalty, merely to be touched as a sign of acceptance
of service. Altamish himself, while reviling in his
heart, was fain to do as the demands of policy needed,
and extend his inlaid sword hilt also, marvelling the
while on the folly of Daoud Shah, who had said that
the Governor did not ride through the city that day.
Salabat Khan stopped in his passage up the hall to
talk with the more prominent of those present. Some
of the Afghan landowners from the more distant valleys
had come in to felicitate the Governor on his escape
and recovery, rugged old chiefs, some of them
holding large fiefs in the Lolab Valley, where they
210 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
lived on their estates and grew capons at ease under
Salabat Khan's competent regime.
Finally moving to his seat of audience on the dais
the ordinary work began. There were two complaints
of exorbitant demands from the tax-gatherer, and a
third for remission of revenue owing to damage from
a flood. Then a complaint from a farmer up on the
Kashmir side of the Pir Panjal, who said that Eajpoots
had come over the frontier and carried off his sheep.
And so forth, none of first importance, and Salabat
Khan grew bored, and his mood became whimsical.
Kneeling on the steps of the da'is was the treasurer,
Nubbi Bakhsh, busy counting over a bag of tribute sent
in that morning. Now, according to the customs of
the East, those on the dais had removed their shoes,
while those below in the body of the hall did not.
Presently one of the spies, without whom no Oriental
methods of rule are complete, went round behind
Salabat Khan and whispered that every now and then
Nubbi Bakhsh slipped a coin into his shoe. It has
been mentioned that His Excellency was in a whimsical
mood. He looked at Nubbi Bakhsh and then at the
Wazir Yar Khan.
" Yar Khan ! " he called aloud. " Yar Khan ! what
beastly big feet you've got."
Now, Yar Khan had his shoes off, and was intensely
taken aback by this sudden attack.
" My feet ! Your Excellency, my feet ! They are
no bigger than those of a soldier should be."
" Nonsense, man, I tell you they are beastly feet.
Now, if you want to see nice graceful feet, you should
see Nubbi Bakhsh's. Here, Nubbi Bakhsh ! Stop
counting out rupees. Come up on the dais here and
let the gentry see what very well-made feet you have.
I want the Sirdar Yar Khan to be ashamed of his."
But Nubbi Bakhsh did not respond with alacrity.
211
He was feeling unwell. His mother was dying. His
feet were not fit to be shown to gentry ; he would
crave His Excellency's permission to withdraw. . . .
But His Excellency would have none of it.
" Come here at once, Nubbi Bakhsh, do you hear
me ! " he shouted in a voice that before now has por-
tended a vacancy in a culprit's family. And poor
Nabbi Bakhsh the publican crawled on to the
dais.
" Take your shoes off," said the same stern voice.
Poor Nubbi Bakhsh, who had no friends, slipped
off his shoes, and as he did so a gold mohr rolled to
the ground.
" Hold up his shoes."
Some one held up his shoes. There rolled out on
to the floor four gold coins, and half a dozen rupees.
" Nubbi Bakhsh," said the Governor, " this is a
pretty way to pilfer my revenue as you count the bags
before me. You will now go to the Shergarhi dungeon
till you pay in to me the sum of one lakh of rupees to
teach you to play tricks on me again."
Nubbi Bakhsh, the picture of woe, with tears rolling
down his cheeks, was removed, while the whole Durbar
roared with laughter. A good jest at some one else's
expense was the very thing wanted to cheer them.
No one had any sympathy with a tax-gatherer OB
revenue official. Such people by instinct accumulated
illgotten gains, and when judiciously bled would always
disgorge if needs must. Nubbi Bakhsh would, of
course, pay up. He probably had pilfered twice
that sum. No government in the East, except perhaps
that of the Company, had ever been able to contend
against it, and many devices were used to keep it
within bounds. In the villages now and again the
village money-lender and corn merchant would be
roasted over a slow fire till he, too, disgorged, It was
212 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
the only known way to keep such folk within
reason.
Nubbi Bakhsh paid the next day and was released,
still weeping. This little diversion over, Salabat Khan
and his officers returned with new zest to business, and
for an hour the assembly in the hall chatted while
complaints and reports were heard at the head of the
room. These over, His Excellency called for the
reports of the frontier wardens. Prom the Lolab,
all quiet, but rumours of unrest among the Black
Mountain tribes. From Gurais, one or two raids,
by men of the Trans-Indus Kohistan. From Skardu,
merchants reported raids by Khanjut robbers from
Hunza. From Bunjee more reports of raids and
threatened incursions from Tangir and Darel. The
outlook was not quite satisfactory. The Governor
had called to David to hear the reports, and had
emphasized to him the necessity for getting the army
ready in case serious action should become necessary.
What about the mountain guns ? Would they be
fit to take the field ? David explained his plans for
mounting them on Yarkand ponies to be carried on
pack in pieces. He and Tone were preparing two small
mortars and two cannon. The Governor expressed
approval.
" If this goes on, Ferassa Sahib, I shall have to go
and hammer these people. They are not too easy
to get at, so get everything ready as soon as you can.
Do you want any orders on the store or the treasury ?
We will make Nubbi Bakhsh pay. He won't get the
revenue from Gurais if we don't have good troops."
David had a vanity, as officers of cavalry often have.
He very much wanted to give his own men an em-
broidered waist cloth, and a crimson saddle cloth to
their horse which should also serve as a horse rug in
the field. If Nabbi Bakhsh pays, why not ? He got
DUEBAE AND FESTIVAL 213
them and went his way rejoicing at this extra finery.
The essentials of war he had already obtained for his
reorganization.
Soon after noon, business was finished and Salabat
Khan gave the assembly the rukhsat, viz. the leave
to depart. The higher sirdars went with a fanfare
from the cavalry trumpets, and as Altamish rode
through the gates he was joined by Daoud Shah, who
had been among the throng at the lower end of the
hall. Altamish remarked to him on the improved
appearance of the cavalry on duty in the courtyard,
but this had by no means escaped the latter 's notice.
He had been keeping himself fairly well informed of
all that was going on in the military line. Tone's
employment, too, he knew of, and the improvement
that was being made in the artillery. To Altamish he
replied
" I have noticed and have known of it for some time.
That young half-breed, Ferassa Sahib they call himj
is a good soldier. It will be easier for you to bring
off your plans soon, than a year hence. Fortunately
he is drilling his troops after the manner of the Company.
Excellent against others in the plains of India, but
little enough good when we get them up in the
mountain gorges among the tribesmen of the hills.
We must get the whole of this trained army there
and wipe them out. You know how it has been done
in the past. You know how Ahmed Shah himself
lost a highly drilled force against the Ghilzais. There
was once an army from Bactria under a Greek com-
mander that came down against the Aprcetae whom
men now call the Afridis. They were armed and
marched as the Eomans used to march, but they
struggled out of those hills a tenth of those who went
in. Their bones and their helmets strewed the Khyber
for many a year."
214 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
" You talk of men and times I never heard of. Who
were the Bactrians and the Romans ? Had they
anything to do with Badshah Sikander, and his men,
who people say built those old ruins in Euzufzai?"
" Ah ! Badshali Alexander was before my time, but
he left a Greek kingdom behind him up in Bactria,
near where Samarkand is now. He did leave garrisons
in India, but they were swept away in a year or so.
Not so the Bactrian kingdom. That lasted for many
a generation, and those Bactrian kings reconquered
eventually most of the Punjab. How do I know
such things ? Well, my Lord Altamish, I know them
from two causes. First I read history and find myself
the wiser therefore. Secondly, I myself . . . pshaw !
You would not believe it if I told you. There is
one man only in Kashmir, aye, for the matter of that
in the world perhaps, who knows how I know the
things I do know. Nay, my lord, there is nothing
to start at. Surely a Toork is not easily disturbed.
However, enough but I agree with you that this
pestilent young Englishman and his reformed horse
will need watching. I have already arranged that
he should be watched."
So Daoud Shah, vapouring and sneering, and the
Toork listening uneasily, the choice spirits rode away
together towards the city. David, after watching
them out of sight and dismissing his men, strolled
down to the river bank to watch the boatmen catch
logs, and run them into the sand-bank. As he
approached the bank, a considerable hubbub arose
just below the palace steps. A great rice barge had
collided with one of His Excellency's boats, and the
Kashmiri boatmen were indulging in loud abuse,
which chiefly took the form of destroying the credit
of each other's female relatives. The Kashmiri is
a huge muscular animal with a gift for quarrelsome
DUBBAB AND FESTIVAL 215
language which he is much too much of a poltroon to
convert into any form of action. After endeavouring
to get one set of boatmen to board the other's boat
without avail David bade them sternly cease their
clamour lest he beat them, and then moved up the
bank to watch the state boats getting ready for the
evening's festival. At the Festival of Spring it is
the custom for half the town to come down the river
after dark in boats, illuminated to the counter with
myriads of chirags, small earthen lamps with a wick set
in mustard oil, the which give a fairyland effect of
great beauty. On the banks of the river the roofs of
the houses, the window sills, and the door plinths
would be similarly illuminated. It had been the
custom during the last few years for the Governor to
go in procession in his own illuminated barges to dinner
with some noble, and this evening was to be no
exception. Therefore it was that the state barges
were being got ready for the evening.
Having whiled away half an hour or so for no better
reason than that some sight or sign of the Lady Miriam
might be vouchsafed; David bethought himself of
work to do that afternoon out at his camp, and went
in search of his orderly and his horse. There was still
a squad of young troopers with whose riding he was
not quite satisfied, and to whom Ganesha Singh had
been giving an extra polish ; he had promised to see
them that afternoon. Tone also wanted him to
see the new mountain gun equipment. Back, there-
fore, to camp he rode, intending to return in time to
join in His Excellency's state progress. He had a
boat of his own, which six of his troopers could paddle
for him, and would come in that. That boat would
be in waiting below the slopes of the Throne of Soloman,
above the city, and he would ride across from his
cantonment to it when his work was over. So planning,
216 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
David swung himself on to his horse and started for
the Dhall at a hand canter. On his way through the
Lai Bazaar he saw Daoud Shah in converse with half
a dozen of the wildest looking hillmen as could well
be imagined. They were dressed in slate-grey shirts
and short loose drawers with a kummerbund stuck with
pistols and knives. Gul Jan, who was with him,
thought they must be Afridis from the Khyber, but
as a matter of fact they were men from the Black
Mountain come to see life in Kashmir.
It was after five before David could get away from
his parade ground, and dark before he arrived at the
bank where his shikara * awaited him. He called to
them to light up the little lamps and row down to
the landing steps of the Shergarhi, where he would
join the Governor's procession. It was down stream,
and the stout arms of his troopers soon brought the
light-weight boat down to the Palace. Here, however,
he was annoyed to find that His Excellency had left
ten minutes earlier, and that he was too late to accom-
pany the Governor's party. It was vexatious, very !
He had so hoped that he might have had speech with
the Lady Miriam, and now he had probably missed
the opportunity, and David swore audibly to himself
after the manner of the English, at which old Gul
Jan looked up and chuckled ; how like his father the
boy was at times ! But fortune sometimes cometh
to a man with both hands full. A figure stepped out
from the shade of the Watergate above, and called
out, " Is that our boat, Wazir Sahib ? " It was Miriam
herself.
" Nay, Lady," called the overjoyed David. " I have
this boat for you."
Now, this was not strictly true, and suggested that
* A canoe-like boat propelled by paddles.
DURBAR AND FESTIVAL 217
he had been specially left for her, but all is fair in
love.
" How provoking of them to go on. Is that you;
Ferassa Sahib ? Will you help me down ? "
Then David stepped on to the plinth and held out
his hand, and for the first time held that fairy hand
firmly in his, and very small and warm and fascinating
it was, as he helped her down and over the gunwale
into the little lacquered cupola in the stern of the
boat.
" There is not much room here, Sahib. You had
better sit down on the cushions here beside me." And
then to some one up above, " You come in the next
boat, Amah. I shan't want any one. I shall join the
Bibi Sahib's in the city," and then bade David push off.
It has been said that fortune cometh once and
again with full hands. With the right she brought
the Lady Miriam, with the left she offered David a
seat beside her, a seat too, away from the crew who
were steered by the leading paddle and not from the
stern.
" Lady," began David, " I I have long wanted to
hear that you are no worse for our ride together, and
your brave deeds that day."
" Ferassa Sahib, how can you talk of my brave
deeds when I but sat the horse beside you and dear
old Yar Khan. It was you. You, who rode as if
you had been a governor all your life, and reassured
the people, aye, and hanged that wicked Kommadan"
" Lady, an English poet wrote, ' They also serve
who only stand and wait,' my father often read it to
my mother. If you had not ridden so patiently and
bravely beside us, I could not have gone through
the part."
" Ah, now tell me more of your mother; and the
English. You told me your mother was an Afghan
218 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
lady. It was a remarkable thing that she should
marry an Englishman."
" Not at all, Lady Miriam. Sitting here with you
it seems the most natural thing in the world, for an
Englishman or half an Englishman to marry an Afghan
lady."
And it must be admitted that David was making
considerable progress in the art of serious love-making,
which is perhaps the way of men of action. At any
rate, the attack was too direct for Miriam to notice,
and the two remained silent, David's heart beating
as it had never beat before, and seeing now clear before
him the course he would pursue, and the goal he would
arrive at.
Then David said, " Though I speak of my father as
English, he was really of another tribe that is allied
with them, and sends many officers and men out to
Hindostan. He was really a Scotchman, and they are a
people who live up in great mountains like the Afghans,
and would often fight among themselves. Tell me;
Lady Miriam, would you come and be the wife of a
Scotch adventurer in Hindostan, and live the life
that a freelance lives ? Would you trust yourself
alone for ever with a Frank ? "
It was a fairly abrupt proposal of marriage, far
different from the ceremonious come and go of agents
and matchmakers that would precede such matters
in a high-grade Afghan family. But then Miriam
had been leading a life far different from that of an
ordinary maid of her class. Then there were other
differences. An Afghan marriage meant to share or
rule a home till another was brought to rule or to
quarrel; but this man, after the manner of the Frank,
had said alone and for ever ! And Miriam, like many
another maid of Europe, never doubted that it would
be so. Therefore, being free of guile, or just as free as
DURBAR AND FESTIVAL 219
those can be that have no other weapon, she looked up
into David's face and put her hand in his. Whereon
that young man did something quite unknown to
Miriam's conception of courtship. He moved the
light veil aside and kissed her twice, once on the
forehead and once on the lips. On the forehead for
respect, and the lips for love, since ' the love that is
purest and sweetest has a kiss of desire on the lips.'
All of which lay strictly outside the proper curriculum
of courtship as revealed by old Amah.
And all the while the shikara paddled easily down
the stream past the rows and rows of little lamps that
flickered along the housetops and the plinths, and were
reflecting a thousand times in the slowly rolling Jhelum.
Past other boats beautifully illuminated, and great
rice bargos fifteen feet in the sheer that loomed all
the blacker for a row of lights on their lofty lumbering
stern. Past, too, the latticed verandahs that overhung
the water, past the temples in which the great bronze
conches brayed out the hour of worship. Past the
mosques whence the muezzin again insisted, " Prayer
is better than sleep ! Prayer is better than sleep 1 "
as if any one had any intention of sleeping and very
few of praying at that hour, at any rate. Then
perhaps because Gul Jan was fofrgetful and thoughtless;
or perhaps because he was very wise and knew the
ways of sahibs, the shikara ran close in, under the
gloom of the plinths, within the glare of the lamps,
seeing and unseen, and glided down under the great
piles of the bridges and past all the bands and musicians
and laughing chattering crowds, till half the night
might have passed away, while whispered the wind and
murmured the water.
But there is a limit to all things, and when they
had passed the last bridge, Gul Jan thought the limit
had come.
220 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
" Whore does your honour wish to go ? "
" Why, to the city reception hall, of course, where
the city merchants entertain His Excellency."
" We passed that five bridges ago."
" Oh, Gul Jan, you are careless. Why, His Excel-
lency expects the Lady Miriam, who sits here patiently
waiting for us to take her there."
" Whatever your honour orders shall be done swiftty.
Oh, foolish rowers ! about boat at once, and take the
presence and the lady to where they would go."
Sometimes, as David remembered noticing before,
the old orderly had a hint of banter in his respectful
speech.
Back, therefore, upstream against the current under
the illuminated bridges once again the shikara sped.
But it is not hard for two lovers to lose themselves
without being missed. Every one had thought the
Lady Miriam was with other ladies behind the grille.
Salabat Khan had thought she was with the ladies,
and they had thought she was with him. Only Yar
Khan's eyes closed a shade more than usual. And
she oh, she was quite clever enough to take advantage
of that, and then amid the glare and festivities, lost
ken of the immortal hour in the shikara till once again
she sat in the stern sheets of a boat, on the way back
to the palace.
CHAPTER XXI
THE GEOVES OP ASHTAROTH
MIRIAM sat in her own boat following in the wake of
her brothers and his Begums. It was a long row back
against the current, and the rowers were chanting
as they swung their paddles. The short, quick stroke
changed now and again to a long, steady one, as the
head boatman changed the chant. The rowers
paddling on the bow side chanted to those on the other,
who answered back, " Allah pahunchdega ! Khuda
ka m rzi. Allah pahunchdega. Khuda ka m&rzi"
" God will bring us there, if it be His will. God will
bring us there, if it be His will." A short and quick
stroke, " Allah pahunchdega I Allah pahunchdega I "
changing to a long stroke, " Kudum durdz ! Kudum
diirdz ! Kudum durdz" and the paddle dipped deep
into the muddy Jhelumand the boat leapt to the changed
stroke. But the crowd of returning boats and sight-
seers rowing up and down was great. The pace had
to slow down, and Miriam's boat was separated from
the rest of the viceregal party. Shortly above the
fifth bridge there was a jam and the head boatman
turned aside by another canal that led towards the
Garden of Chenars. Here, however, the press seemed
no clearer, after proceeding half a mile it was not
even possible to turn. " Fool that I am ! " said
Kashmiru the head boatman, aloud. " Fool that I
221
222 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
am. I have forgotten that this is the Feast of Spring,
and that the women go to the temple of Mahadeo."
" Without doubt," chorused the rowers, " we, too,
had forgotten, not being Hindus small shame to us.
What ken should the sons of Islam have of such things? "
There they lied in their hearts, for each one knew
that his forbears had been converted to Islam at
the swords' point, and that they cherished, half
unwittingly, it is true, many memories of the old
religion. Probably the wives of one or two were
actually taking part in the worship of the spirit of
nativity. Sons were needed, and if Islam would not
help the old gods might. It is ever thus in Hindostan.
Miriam heard Kashmiru's ejaculation, and called him.
" Where are we, Kashrniru ? When did you leave
the river ? I did not notice."
" I turned up here, Lady, to escape the crowd of
boats on the big river, meaning to turn round by the
canal of the waterlilies. But here we are jammed in
by many boats, and I had forgotten that this is the
night that the Hindu women attend at the templo
of Mahadeo, a curse on them for their idolatry, and
I cannot turn yet nor stop."
Miriam had often heard of the festival, of tho
mysteries and idolatries connected therewith. She had
some feeling of curiosity, and also of horror and dread,
since Islam abhors idols and saturnalia. Old Amah
drowsed with her head on her knees outside the curtains
of Miriam's awning.
" Amah, come here ! Come here, I say ! Do you
know where we are ? We are jammed in a stream
of Hindu women going by boat to the temple of
Mahadeo. It is the night of the Festival of Spring."
Old Amah stirred herself. Here was something
unexpected, and quite out of her ordinary mental
horizon.
THE GEOVES OF ASHTABOTH 223
" The Lady Miriam ought not to be here."
" The Lady Miriam knows that quite well. The Lady
Miriam also wants to see something of the crowd. Did
you ever go, Amah ? "
Now, once, many years ago, Amah had been slave
to a wealthy Hindu's wife. Amah had gone with her
mistress.
" The Lady Miriam must not go, His Excellency
would never forgive her. It is no place for a Mussul-
mani."
" I know that, Amah, but here we are and we cannot
help seeing something of it." Miriam turned to
Kashmiru. " Send a man to the palace to see if we
are missed, and if so, to say that we are kept back
by the crowd of boats. If we are not missed, he had
better say nothing."
Kashmiru did as he was bid, and the boat paddled
on with the crowd. From behind came up a long gaily-
lit boat, the rowers singing merrily. To avoid them
Kashmiru turned his steering paddle inwards just
as they were alongside a row of sunken stakes, whence
the recent floods had carried away a pier. Eip r-r-rip
went the side planking below the water, and Miriam's
boat filled with water. Just as she had realized what
had happened, the shining boat, with the singing
crew drew alongside, and a silver voice said, " Jump
in here, lady, quick, or you'll be in the water. Steady,
Muhamdu, don't you see that the Begum's boat is
sinking. Steady ! "
Muhamdu shouted to his crew, who backwatered,
while the lady of the boat dragged Miriam over her
gunwale, and after her poor dripping old Amah.
Kashmiru swore again, and his crew dragged the
half sunken boat to the bank. Miriam called to him.
" Come with me, Kashmiru, with two rowers ; the
remainder stay on the bank by our boat."
224 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
Muhamdu, the head mhanji of the new-comers'
boat, turned her stern to the shore to allow Miriam's
men to come aboard, which they did, carrying their
paddles, while Miriam, whose toes only had got wet,
entered the curtained awning in which sat the owner
who had come to her assistance, and had also been the
cause of the accident. Miriam expected to see the
wife of some rich Hindu merchant or Brahmin pundit
of the city going to the festival, a mirror of decorum
save on an occasion of license such as she understood
this to be. Through the waving curtains, however,
the light from the chirags flickering on the gunwales
by the prow, shone on a figure clothed more glitteringly
than a Hindu matron. The same light showed to the
owner of the silver voice, the look of some surprise,
or rather the turn of the half-veiled head, and said
" Whom have I had the pleasure of assisting ? "
" I am a lady from the Shergarhi, of an officer's
family, and you ? "
" I, Lady, am Azizun the dancer . . . are you
ashamed to be assisted by me ? "
Miriam was for the moment taken aback. Not
only had she by the merest chance got separated
from her own party, and become part of a procession
of Hindu women going to a saturnalian festival that
all of her creed abhorred, which all the same she
had a rnind to see the beginning, but now by un-
toward chance she was sitting cheek by jowl with one
of the most notorious dancing women in the province.
She, like every one else, knew Azizun by name, for
the zenanas, even the inner seclusion, know all the
evil gossip of the outside world, else would life, indeed,
be dull, and she knew also that the dancer held high
sway over the Lord Altamish. Further, she had
never inquired, and had no desire to know. Therefore,
it was not surprising that she should show perturbation
THE GKOVES OP ASHTABOTH 225
at the strange company in which chance had thrown
her.
Then Azizun did a wise thing. All the devil in
her prompted jest and jibe and a high horse, which
would have made Miriam summon Kashmiru and
insist on landing on the mud bank. She refrained,
and a softer strain took possession of the hour. She
laid her richly ringed hand on Miriam's arm, and said
with a hint of falter in her voice
" Turn not from me, Lady ; I am what fate has made
me. I rule princes, but am outcaste, yet was not
born so."
Miriam knew well that ninety per cent, of the
dancer grade have been born of a long line of matri-
archal forebears of the same trade, but here was a
hint of tragedy.
" Tell me your story, Azizun. But stop, where are
we ? How can I get a boat ? "
" Lady, I am going to the great festival of Mahadeo,
not to pray, for I have no right, and am Mussulman!
born ; I go to see the tatnasha.* You can't get a boat.
It will take us more than half an hour to get to the
sunken temple in this press. I can send you back
in this boat either to the Shergarhi or till you can
find another. After the women have all arrived at
the temple the canal will be clear."
" I must avail myself of your offer, unless Kashmiru
can find a boat at the temple stairs. Tell me, then, while
we wait, your story. You say you are a Mussulmani."
" Aye, and Kashmiri, too. Well I remember my
father's hut on the hillside above the Sinde, and the
long-haired goats with the big horns that I used to
watch, while my mother would plait my hair. In
the summer we took our flocks up to Sonainarg, and
I played with my brothers and the goats in the beautiful
* Show.
Q
226 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
marg * covered in flowers. Often, often I try and
remember more."
The break in Azizun's voice increased, and Miriam
grew interested.
" What happened then to take you away ? "
" One day in early autumn there came by some
Afghan slave merchants ; we were all alone in the
hillside, and they carried rne off, and one of my brothers
too. My father did not know and could not have
helped if he had. I hardly remember what happened,
but I only know that I was brought with other children,
mostly girls, from the Siah Posh Kafirs to Istaliff,
and kept there. I can remember playing with other
children and being not unkindly treated, till one day
we were taken to the Kabul slave market and sold.
An old Kazilbash bought me, and I grew up a rnaid
in his household in Ghuzni. I was taught to sing and
dance, and my master took a great fancy to me. I
was given the best apartments, and all the women
hated me. But what cared I for such a life, with
an old white-bearded man ! He had a son who was a
captain of horse in the Emperor's service. I saw him
first one day in our walled garden, and we had many
meetings. I cared not for him, but anywhere to
get out from such a cage I, a Kashmiri girl of the
hills ! He was going south to the Punjab, and asked
me to go with him, and climbing the fig-tree by the
river wall at the end of my master's house, he lifted
me with ropes over the wall, delighted at stealing his
father's best slave. We rode south together, but he
was killed at Lahore, and I was sold again, to find
myself in the slave harem of a Mogul noble at Delhi.
Him I hated too, though I became his favourite dancer,
and even danced for the Emperor to see. That was
be-fore they blinded him."
* Meadow.
THE GROVES OF ASHTAROTH 227
By this time Miriam" was watching the narrator
with intense interest. She knew enough of life in
the North to know how true the story might well be;
and Amah had told her many a similar tale, but here
before her was an actual victim of the lawless life of
Central Asia.
" I now rule a Toork noble as I ruled that Mogul
and the old Kuzilbash, but only once have I loved a
man, Lady. He' was a Frank " at which Miriam's
attention deepened. " He came I know not whence,
to the court at Delhi, and I danced before him. That
night I know not how, but these Franks are daring,
an old woman brought a message that if I would come
with him he would get me away. I sent word to say
that I hated my present master, and all about him
and would come at once. That very morning, by
means I have never yet understood, the Keeper of the
Zenana came to me and touched me while I slept.
I expected a summons to await on my lord, with my
zithar, but was surprised to follow the passage to
the main gate that I had not seen for two years. The
gate opened, and a bullock cart with curtains was
outside. I found myself driven out into the country,
the open country that I used to love, and eventually
came to some tents in a palm grove. I was led in to
find the young Frank I had seen at the nautch. He
asked if I was ready to follow him, and if so could I
sit a horse at once, as they must be fifty miles away
from Delhi by nightfall. I would go anywhere or
do anything to live in the open, and away we rode
in an hour's time, with his fifty troopers behind him,
to seek service of Scindiah. We had a happy year
together, and then, alas, he was killed in a fight with
the Moguls. ' Dying in his own camp he gave me all
he had, and I took to being a dancer on my own account,
training others likewise. Now you see me here,
228
mistress of a Toork noble, for want of some one better :
spurn me if you like. You know the sort of life I
lead, and how I once minded goats in a Kashmir
valley."
There were tears in the dancing girl's eyes at the end
of the brief outline of her story. It was probably
true, and Miriam knew by repute of how the Afghan
and Uzbeg slave-dealers raided and stole far and wide,
and how the Mussalmani dancer and courtesan was
often the victim of such. A girl from the hills of
Kashmir ever fetched a high price in the markets of
the East. The lass who ' minded goats upon a hill,
sing hey, sing ho, a grassy hill,' might rise to heights
of infamy or even heights of honour through the
medium of the slave-dealer's yard. Poor Azizun
had come to power and infamy instead of power and
honour, and indeed it was the more likely fate. The
girl from the hillside whose ' hair was black and bright
and wild, sing hey, sing ho, so bright and wild,' ought
to have been left to live her contented life there, and
not taught with bitter teaching to prey on men.
Miriam wondered if girls were sold as slaves in the
English provinces, and who the young Frank was that
had carried off Azizun, then turning swiftly to the
dancer as a wave of sympathy welled up within her
" I believe it all, Azizun, and, indeed, you have had
a sad hard life. I will never turn from you, at least
in my thoughts, for we shall not meet again."
" Ah, Lady," returned poor Azizun, still in her soft
mood, "it is seldom enough that such as I get a kind
word or a kind thought ; we fight for our own hand,
and men and women are against us."
And the two sat awhile in silence while the rowers
paddled on.
" Allah pdhunchaega ! Khuda ka mdrzi I Allah
Pdhunchaega ! Khuda fea mtrzi I "
THE GROVES OF ASHTAROTH 229
While they sat Miriam was turning over in her mind
the story she had just heard, and wondering all the
time how she could best get back to the palace.
Outside, Kashmiru and Muhamdu were carrying
on a low-voiced discussion. Kashmiru soon dis-
covered who the inmate of the curtained awning was,
and began by expressing his disgust. Muhamdu, how-
ever, was able to remind him of the time when he,
too, was head mhanji to a lady of the same persuasion,
and Kashmiru changed his tone. What the Governor
was likely to say or do if he knew what had happened
was a much more important matter, with which
Muhamdu could frankly sympathize. Looked at
from an orthodox point of view, it was a mess, and
the best solution that the latter could see was that
when Azizun landed, Muhamdu and his crew should
row Miriam back, and merely appear as the crew
and boat that had been able to assist the palace lady.
Azizun was not the woman to remain in silence,
and soon recovered from her unwonted sadness and
the effects of her recital of her story.
" The Lady is going to the festival."
" Certainly not, Azizun ; I must get back to the
palace."
" It will be some time after we get to the temple
ghaut before the canal will be clear. If you will trust
me I will show you the idol worshippers at their
opening ceremonies."
" It is no fit place for a Mussalmani."
" It is not, except as a spectator of other folks' evil.
If you come with me I will take care that you only see
that which is fitting. Azizun knows it all, but will
not take the lady of the palace. It is not fit for her."
For the moment Miriam bridled at the suggestion
of patronage, implied, but quickly saw that it was
far preferable to an assumption that she might fitly
230 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
be present. Then the excitement of the occasion was
considerable. By a stream of favouring chances she
was in a position to view in the hands of a competent
guide one of the forbidden sights. The spirit of
adventure stirred within her. Already that night a
new world had opened. She would also explore for a
while another side passage.
" I will come, Azizun, with you for a while, if you
promise to help me away, when I want to leave. It
is not meet that I should see any of those doings that
are said to take place as the festival proceeds."
" Lady, I will see that you do not. We will see the
women pray in the outer temples of Mahadeo, the
women who want big, strong sons, and fear they will
have daughters to dower ; the women who have no
sons to take their husband's ashes to the Holy Ganges,
and close their dying lips."
The worship of Hinduism in its popular and unphilo-
sophical forms, takes chiefly the shape of worship of
that great creative force of nature, the great spring
of the world, the flocks in their abundance, the fields
in their fertility, the trees in all their blossom, so
fully amplified in early Kashmir, the whole world
obeying the great injunction of nature to be fruitful
and multiply. To the simple world and the simple
mind of a Hindu people, ever present is the tragedy
of the barren woman and the unwanted wife. So
once a year do Hindu women proceed, as did those
of Egypt and the stately Roman matron, to worship
and to fall before the emblems of the forces of nature,
Then, since human folk have strong and wild passions
when civilization fails them, there come strange tales
of frenzy from the inner scenes of the women's festivals,
to which no male save the officiating priests may be
present. Shorn of its animal side it is but the worship
of eternity and of " Death trod under a fair girl's feet,"
THE GEOVES OF ASHTAEOTH 231
So towards the sunken temple of Mahadeo, that
for half the year and more lies deserted, sped the boats,
and with them Miriam the maiden and Azizun the
courtesan. The boats jammed at the temple ghat
and the torches flickered and the chirags leapt, as
laughing, chattering women bundled out of their
curtained boats and scurried from among the crowd
of boatmen to the seclusion of the awning alley, which
ran through the arch of carved grey stone. Away in
the depths of a grove of trees temple bells were clanging,
and conches brayed to the blowing of some stout-
lunged priest. The crowd of hurrying women carried
Miriam and Azizun along, the former clutching at
the dancer's arm. They soon found themselves jammed
within the dark, cool entrance of a low vaulted stone
temple. The damp on the stones shone with the flicker
of the chirags, and the air was heavy with scent of
marigold and white chdmpah and the sickly aroma
of the burning incense. Through the darkness and
gloom that the lights only heightened, loomed the
great figure of ' the God of the sensuous fire,' and
around a flicker from a lamp would show the weird,
unholy carvings, the ' symbols of death and of man's
desire,' the organs of birth and the circlets of bones;
while Miriam of the clean creed of Islam shuddered
and gripped her guide tighter.
Round the figure of the god, faint in the gloom,
bowed and bent the figures of kneeling women,
swaying to the deep, low chant that came from none
knew whence. It rose and fell and swelled again;
till the swaying forms murmured responses or the
sharp cry of some woman, uplifted with hysterical
emotion, broke in on the cadence. Behind the giant
figure in the depths of shadow, amid the loose loves
carved on the temple stones, the inner recesses stretched
away in blackness unlit by the fitful flames. In vain
232 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
Miriam's eyes and thoughts tried to penetrate the
imagined mysteries beyond. The volume of the chant
gamed intensity, and the joint will of the multitude
was asserting itself till the suggestion of savage,
primitive instinct became all -pervading. The heavy,
scented atmosphere vibrated with the will and desires
of the many.
" Take me away, Azizun ! Take me out of this ! "
gasped Miriam, and she felt herself drawn down some
side cloister away from the obsession of the untamed
spirit of female force. A cool, soft breeze struck her
heated cheek, and the whispered sound of the west
wind's breath sighed through the cloister. The temple
chanting sounded afar off, and a soft light shone before
them. A mild, clear voice spoke.
" What seek my sisters in the cloistered cell ? "
Azizun whispered, " 'Tis the ascetic swami of the
garden shrine. He has been in the garden, men say,
for fifty years and more. Answer him. Answer him.
Say we seek escape from the crowd within. Nay !
Stay ! They say he is a seer. Ask what the future
may have in store."
" We seek to escape from the crowd and heat of
the temple."
" Rest awhile, my sisters, surely it is well to rest;
and to leave the whirl of human life. Seek ye peace
on the road untold ? 'Tis hard to come by. You
do well to break away from the ignorant crowds
within."
" Can we get out ? We are not shut in ? "
" Surely ye can get out. Shall I lead you to the
water's edge?"
" We crave leave to rest, but are afraid of the noise
and heat of the temple."
" There is nothing to fear here. It is but the thought
and knowledge of man and woman that you heard.
THE GROVES OF ASHTAROTH 283
Do you fear the secret tale of the emblems ? Do
you seek God's purpose or trace His plans ? "
" We would know something of our life to come."
" Ah ! that is ever man's desire, and little may be
revealed. Each age is a dream that is passing, and
sufficient unto the hour are the happenings thereof.
What lies in your own minds, or in the minds of others
regarding yourselves, that, perhaps, I can help you
realize. Come with me ! "
The swami led the two out through a side porch into
an open court, where the sounds from the temple did
not reach and the babel of the rowers without came
but faint on the night air. Straight overhead Orion
shone clear and Auriga twinkled across to Gemini,
while the world slept to the wind's crooning. The sweet
smell of white rose and narcissus softened the air, and
the west wind whispered again. Before a small shrine
the swami stopped and bade them enter, and then it
was that Miriam recognized the memory that had been
haunting her these ten minutes past. The voice was as
the voice of Jean Armande du Plessis. Soft and kind
and dead to the world, with ever the trend to things
of the spirit, the voices of men at peace.
Once again they found themselves before a Hindu
god, but this time their gaze fell, not on the horrors
of creation incarnate, but on the stately brow and
folded hands of Indra. A very different lesson
emanated from the black marble presentment . . .
peace in the uttermost borders and strength on a road
untold. A small fire burned before the deity.
" Sister, here before the mighty Indra I will unfold
something of a Brahmin's knowledge. Look now
into the fire. That which you may see is for your
own information or for ours as well, as your heart
may choose. Now look ! "
Miriam gazed into the fire, which slowly seemed to
234 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
rise and spread to a sheet of blue flame, clear and
steady as a mirror. And in this mirror Miriam saw
David Eraser, not as she had known him that evening,
she had yet no time to ponder on the day's happenings ;
but as she loved to think of him, the day he rode through
the city, at the head of his procession, for all the world
to see. She remained silent and the sicami spoke
again.
" You have seen that which your own thoughts
frame. Now look again."
And there came another vision. This time in a
garden by the shores of a lake a figure of an Afghan
paced up and down. His face was gnarled and scared,
and the beetling brows were knit in thought.
" Azizun ! Azizun ! I see the Afghan who was with
the Lord Altamish that day we rode through the city
from the Hari Parbat. I know him by the cleft in
his forehead, He walks in a garden by the lake
shore."
" You have seen, sister, some one whose thoughts
are bent on you."
Miriam gripped Azizun's arm again in sudden fear.
Why should she see in the flames this strange, fierce
man?
" Who is he, Azizun ? Why does he think of me ? "
" It must be the Afghan Sirdar Daoud Shah ; but
why he should think of you I know not, But stay !
Who are you ? "
" I am Miriam, the sister of His Excellency Salabat
Khan."
And then Azizun cried aloud, " Why, oh why did I
bring you here ? I must take you home : come away.
Oh, sir ! show us the shore and help us find our boat."
" Sisters, be not troubled. You see but the thoughts
of men, or your own free thoughts ; but, come, I will
show you the shore. Forget if the phantoms have
THE GEOVES OF ASHTAROTH 235
prophesied woe. Here in this garden none may molest
you. Come again when you seek peace and rest."
And he led them by courts and plinths to the water-
side. Azizun ran towards the boats, calling Muhamdu,
to find happily that her boat had pushed out clear
of the crowd and was tethered near by, the water
muttering under the prow and the rowers asleep on
the bank. The frightened Miriam hurried after her,
forgetting to bid the swami farewell as he stood, tall
and thin and serene, his faded eyes watching and
wondering as she sped.
" Put out all the lights, Muhamdu, and pull for
the Shergarhi. Is the Lady Miriam's head mhanji
there ? "
Kashmiru's deep voice attested his presence, and
Miriam heard the note of relief in it.
In silence and darkness they paddled past the jam
of boats at the gliat of the sunken temple down the
now empty canal and out again into the open Jhelurn,
to find at last the palace steps silent and deserted and
Miriam's own mhanji awaiting them.
"Ruzoorl His Excellency was delayed at a fire
in the city, and coming home late thought you had
arrived and gone in. I told him all was well."
Silently Miriam stepped out of the boat, and turning
to Azizun whispered
" All is well, and I thank you for your care. It was
all my doing that I went to the temple, and you brought
me out safely."
" Good-night, Lady, and remember that if Miriam,
the Governor's sister, ever wants aid from the broken
cowrie of seven markets, from Azizun the dancer, she
has but to send for it."
Up the steps and past the drowsy sentry, too
sleepy even to wonder why ladies roamed so late,
Miriam sped to her own apartments,
CHAPTER XXII
TROUBLE ON THE BORDER
WHEN Daoud Shah meant mischief in Upper India,
mischief there usually was. Hill tribes are queer rest-
less things, chiefly because hills breed many and feed
few. They, or at any rate their young men, are ever
ready to listen to any suggestion for inroad and raid
on their neighbours. When that suggestion comes
from so expert a stirrer of men as our wandering Afghan
of the Beni-Israel and his chosen assistants, there was
nothing to be expected but trouble prompt and wide-
spread. To each and all of the tribes Daoud Shah had
sent the message most likely to disturb them. To the
Black Mountain he had sent word of intended foreign
colonies in Hazara. To the Sayads of Khagan he
wrote of their alleged claim to the Lolab valley, and
the views of the Toork faction on that same subject,
and how the Lord Altamish intended that they should
have the land. To Tangir and Darel away in the
Trans-Indus Kohistan, he sent word that the Afghan
governor was about to invade Tangir, and levy the old
forgotten tribute of maidens.
Then to the Black Mountain tribes of the Sons of
Joseph, he betook himself in person, close on the heels
of his messengers, and arrived in time to find the full
tribal jirgahs Bitting in full-thing on his first message.
236
TKOUBLE ON THE BORDEB 287
Now a full jirgah of a large tribe is very important and
not unlike the old Full- Thing of the Anglo-Saxons.
Each of the clans and sub-clans had sent their repre-
sentatives with a goodly following, so that when the
jirgah itself sits, it is surrounded at a respectful distance
with a ring of clansmen, every one armed to the teeth
partly out of respect to the meeting, but chiefly in case
of accidents. Accidents often happen. The clans and
sub-clans have quarrels, and these are often fought out
on the way to and from the gathering. It is not
unknown in the case of heated arguments for a member
to fire his bell-mouthed pistol into his neighbour's side.
Outside the great ring in which the elders and
representatives sit, the tribal musicians will be in
attendance, their doles throbbing to the pulse of the
meeting.
Eight into the midst of this one morning in early
June then, rode Daoud Shah himself, attended by two
of his following, and dismounting outside the ring
strode into the centre and called out the peace greeting,
" Salaam Alek" to which came back the answer,
" Alekum Salaam." The mass of the jirgah sat in some
astonishment. Who was the assured stranger who
thus strode into their meeting ? It was a striking
scene. The elders sat on a grassy knoll outside a
village, with an outer circle of clansmen. The tall
loopholed mud towers of the village were covered with
women and children looking down on the gathering.
Slightly below the village lay a level piece of cultivated
ground, in which the young maize and buckwheat
showed a vivid green. Walnut, almond and peach
trees flourished dotted among the fields, with here and
there an outlying homestead, each with its mud tower
also. The said towers had solid mud and stone bases
that could not be undermined, and the only access to
an elevated doorway was by ladder, so that once inside
238 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIE
the enemy could be defied. Round the little valley
rose the rugged hills now covered with violet and tulip
and the Prophet's flower. Above them rose the
slopes of the higher mountains where blue pine and
deodar and silver birch stretched to the snow line.
A few stacks of the dried stalks of last year's maize
remaining from the cattle's winter store added another
colour to the picture, and the ensemble was a well-
enough setting to an embryo parliament. Unfortu-
nately, that parliament, despite the beauty of its setting,
was discussing war and the making of war for the mere
fun and lust of it. Here and there an elder had pro-
tested, but the spirit of the tribe was evidently in
favour of it. The crops promised well and could be
left to themselves and the women. There was plenty
of ammunition in hand from the last war. Neighbours
in the Trans-Indus were friendly, and all seemed
propitious for a jaunt over into the Kashmir domain.
Matters were at this stage when Daoud Shah
himself put in an appearance, with the greeting of
peace, and the jirgah demanded who the new-comer
might be. Three of the elders at once rose. Daoud
Shah could be no stranger to those who had seen a
generation of the Great Anarchy. He had been mixed
up in too many rebellious risings and invasions for that.
One of the elders extended the hands of greeting to the
Afghan. He had been to Kabul and to Lahore, and
had ridden in the Afghan ranks to Agra. He and the
others well knew the power and reach and uncanny
influence that the man had so long wielded, and
hastened to receive him suitably. The subject then
before the jirgah was explained to him, and he was
asked to seat himself. He remained for a while a
listener, but before long an opportunity offered itself,
and he sprang to his feet to urge on them the wisdom
and advisability of an incursion into the Lolab.
TEOUBLE ON THE BOEDER 239
" The beautiful valley of Kashmir which your
fathers used to share is yours by right. The province
is groaning under a Kabuli government. Will you
stand idle in your bare valleys when you can have milk
and honey for the asking ? Come and take tribute of
Kashmir, free tribes, men of the Black Mountain,
jowans * of the Kala Taka. Help us eject these
tyrants from Kabul and take your reward. Or if you
prefer it, go raid and disturb the near valleys for your
own hand. Men say in the bazaars of Srinagar that
this precious Governor is going to levy a tribute of
maids from you, as Imam-ud-Deen did fifty years ago !
There are greybeards here who remember that."
And here the jirgdh groaned and their arms clashed.
" Come with me, sirdars and clansmen of the Black
Mountain. Send your lasJikars, f Men of the Hassan
Khel, Men of the Achakzai, or shall I say Women of
the Achakzai and Hassan Khel ! The game is a great
one, and you of the race of the Euzufzai can play it.
Your fathers did. Sirdar Khunrez Khan here did, ! as
I have seen with my own eyes."
And again the jirgah clashed and the young men
shouted. Daoud Shah burst out into viking vein.
" Ohe ! Wolves of the Achakzai. Ohe ! Warriors
of the Sons of Joseph. Sharpen your stabbing knives !
Thrice prime your jezails ! Carry off cattle for your
wives and silk for your betrothed ! Over the moun-
tains and down to the valleys. Bole and throb the
doles. Skirl the surnai I J Who speaks of peace ?
Fie I Fie ! Greybeards must die 1 "
And Daoud Shah, the man of blood and mystery, sat
down well pleased with his day's work, while the young
men shouted again. For the moment the jirgah broke
up into groups. It seemed vain for the elders to
* Young men. f Annies. t A reed chanter.
240 A FBEELANCE IN KASHMIR
counsel moderation. Who cared for prudence ! One
large knot of elders talked together, and \vith three
aged white-bearded moolahs * and one younger one,
with dark set brows and thin, tightly closed lip. A
fanatic of fanatics. The elders, laymen, and priests
argued for prudence. Daoud Shah braced himself for
another effort.
" With the permission of the honourable jirgah, I
would speak again."
His rasping high-pitched voice rose over the babel
of tongues, and the groups broke away to reform the
great circle.
" men of Islam. Your Moolahs here say they are
against war, and that it is not lawful for Islam to war
with Islam. I tell you tribesmen and clans, men of
this mighty clan, that this Kabuli Governor of Kashmir
and his followers are not true Mussalmans. They
oppress the faithful, they favour the infidel dogs of
Hindu traders, who batten on the poor savings of
the followers of the blessed Prophet. So do they
oppress the faithful that I swear to you that to make
inroad into their territory is almost Jihad, a war of
religion ! Glory for all, and Heaven for those who
bleed ! Salabat Khan is rqfzi, a heretic, who consorts
with a Christian padre, and even worships at the shrine
of the Nazarene Iswi, near the mosque of Shah
Hamadan. Justice for the faithful clansmen ! Strike
for the faith ! Din Din ! Fateh Muhammad ! (The
Eaith ! The Faith ! Victory to Mahomed !) "
Then the fanatic-faced priest with the tight-closed
lips sprang up, and cried
" Din ! Din ! Fateh Muhammad ! " and began to
chant the Kalima, the creed of Islam. " La illah ha !
II illah ho ! o Muhammad rasul il illah ! " (',' There
* Priests.
TKOUBLE ON THE BOBDEE 241
is no God but the one God, and Mahomed is His
Prophet.")
Whereon the whole jirgah shouted as one man, " La
illah ha! il illah ho ! La illah ha ! il illah ho ! " till
the hillsides re-echoed with the ililillah, and the chant
changed to the deeper, " Glory for all, and Heaven for
those who bleed." An old moolah, with a raw red-dyed
beard, danced out beating a tomtom with both hands
till hearts and minds rang with fervour. There is no
roll of drum like to the drum ecclesiastic.
Then Khunrez Khan malik, as the shouting died
away, announced that according to the wish of the
tribe for a holy war, the lashkars would assemble at
the head of the valley, the afternoon of the day after
next, and every man was to bring a goatskin with five
days' rations therein. After which, with one more
shout of " Din I Din ! " the jirga melted away.
But how Daoud Shah managed to present a proposal
for a most unprovoked attack on a neighbour for pure
love of rapine and gain, as an enthusiastic righteous
war, is a marvel to this day, only to be accounted for
by the mysterious inhuman influence that the man
seemed to wield.
After some further conversation with Khunrez Khan
it was arranged that the tribal lashkar should appear
by the evening of the fifth day at the head of the Lolab
Valley, and in the passes above Gurais. Daoud Shah,
then scarcely waiting to partake of food, rode away
towards Chilas to still further disturb the countryside.
But he had so succeeded in imposing his will on the
clansmen that the preparations for the inroad went on
apace without him. The elders still regretted; as
elders will. To them war and rapine had lost much of
its savour. Dead men and burning hayricks were
wasteful features on a countryside, especially if it
happened to be their own. They knew well what
R
242 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
retaliatory raids meant, and were by no means sure that
the power of the government of Kashmir was so low
as had been represented. But the young men ever
jostle the elders, and Daoucl Shah had the power to
charm. So war it was to be, for weal or for woe.
Far below the Black Mountain in the Jhelum valley,
Altamish and his myrmidons were seeking to reap
when the crop should be ready. The Toork nobles
sat ready watching for a sign, and agents busily
endeavoured to sow discontent in men's minds and
especially in the minds of any of Salabat Khan's troops.
The insinuator, the agitator, is always a danger ; well-
calculated remarks easily produce some fancied
grievance. Some of Altamish's agents were men of
acute and subtle brain-power. Mysterious stones were
spreading in the bazaars of oppressions and abductions,
tales of children stolen to sacrifice at the new cannon
foundry, or in the foundations of fortresses, and the
like. The Governor was contemplating fresh taxation.
The Emperor at Kabul was displeased with him and
intended to recall him, the Frank officers had insulted
the moolahs, and every other vain yet restless tale
seemed rife.
Among the Toork nobles Wali Dad had been especi-
ally active. The old feeling was thoroughly stirred and
petitions were sent to Kabul to have a Toork governor
appointed, and each and all of the sirdars were asked
if they would share in a joint enterprise to place
Altamish in the Governor's chair should opportunity
offer. A good deal of which came round to Yar
Khan's ears, without his being able to locate its origin
at all definitely, however-so-much he might suspect it.
The day after Daoud Shah had disappeared, Altamish
himself decided to pay a visit incognito, accompanied
only by Wali Dad, to the salon of Allah Visayah, and
see what that lady might be able to tell him either of
TEOUBLE ON THE BORDER 243
Palace plans or the feelings of the soldiery, in both of
which she was well versed. Duly warned by Wali Dad
of his proposed visit, she had got rid of her morning
visitors, and with only a female attendant waited his
advent. The best tobacco and the best rosewater were
ready in the huqas, which stood resplendent in red
embroidered mouthpieces and lacquered metal stands.
Altamish climbed the narrow stairs that marred the
best of Indian houses with some difficulty, and sub-
sided into the rose silk Bokhara cushions out of wind
and short of temper.
However, the Begum understood the first essentials
of her business, and that was to induce good temper,
and the excellent huqa duly offered soon achieved this.
Altamish sat and drew at his mouthpiece and was
mollified. His visit being one of inquiry, he was at
pains to start various topics in the hope of coming by
way of chance on some of the clues he searched
for.
" I hear that there was some sort of a rising at the
Hari Parbat while His Excellency was away. Did you
hear much of it in the city ? "
" We heard, my Lord, that the Kommadan of the
Regiment of Victory was killed. He was hung, my
Lord."
" That was very sad."
" Very."
This was not very promising. Something more
leading was necessary.
" Why did they hang him ? "
" For trying to take possession of the fort for some
other chief."
" What made him do it ? "
" How should I know, my Lord ? "
" I should gladly pay a good deal to find out if
there is anything of the kind going on now."
244 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
" Surely my Lord should know better than any one
else."
" I, woman ? I care little enough about intrigues;
save that a wise man likes to know the inner workings
of all things. I can make it worth your while to find
out."
" I can do a great deal, as my Lord knowest, if it is
worth my while. It was not my fault that the
Kommadan was hung. He was a friend of mine, and
ever treated me well."
" I know, I know. It was a great pity, but many
people were weary of Afghan rule, and were anxious
to rise. He did but misjudge the occasion. Now what
I will make it worth your while to do, is to find out
who there be now among the kommadans of the
regiments and forts who are weary of Salabat Khan.
That is information I really should pay well for. I
want to know who there be who will join another
rising against those Afghans ? "
" I know three already, and can find out what their
present ideas are, but I don't wish to see more of my
friends swinging on gate-tops."
" I think I can promise that that shall not happen
again. What I want is to get the fort kommadans
in the valley to rise against the Governor if a sign be
given."
And then Allah Visayah, ever eager for money and
more money, promised that she would do her best to
obtain the information that night, or by the next night
at latest. After which Altamish pulled at his huqa in
silence, while the lady twanged her zithar softly. To
such effect did her promises and her music move the
Toork that a bag of fifty ashrafis * were left in her ample
lap.
* Gold coins.
CHAPTER XXIII
WAR AND RUMOURS OF WAR
THE tale of woo from the border soon penetrated to
Srinagar. Hot-foot from the Lolab came messengers
to say that the tribesmen of the Black Mountain had
marched over the Basses into the head of the valley,
had burnt villages, were carrying off slaves, cattle and
women, and had in most cases overcome the local
kliassadars (militia). The few Kabuli settlers had
been obliged to fall back and the Kashmiri villagers
were flying for their lives. From the beautiful valley
of Gurais came similar tidings. A lashkar from Tangir
and Darel and Chilas was carrying off sheep from both
valley and uplands, having marched over the Burzil
and Kamri passes to join a party from the Black
Mountain who had come up the Kishenganga. The
small mud fort in the Gurais Valley near Kanzilwan
was invested. A small detachment of Afghan soldiery
reinforced by local khassadars was holding out against
a determined attack. Daoud Shah's evil influence
had spread the fiery cross against his fellow-countrymen
with a vengeance ! A wind blew and the people with
it, as people will when some unknown spirit moves
them.
Salabat Khan was no loiterer. He could not have
held his own in the Duranni Empire at the time
of the Great Anarchy had he been otherwise. He
245
246 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
first sent off cossids to call out all the kliassadars of the
districts adjoining those threatened. Then he called
for his minister and Major David Fraser, his new-found
master of horse, who hurried post-haste to the Shergarhi.
The Governor demanded a statement of the strength
and location of his forces. Yar Khan produced an
exact tally. There were present in Srinagar the
following :
The Body Guard Eissaldh.
Ferassa Sahib's Eissalafi.
The Eegiment of Victory, 400 bayonets.
The Eegiment of Lightning, 100 bayonets.
Artillery, 3 mountain guns carried a ponytop ;
2 small mortars, ditto.
Away in the frontier posts and forts were the whole
of the Lai Kurta * Eegiment, while 300 men of the
Eegiment of Lightning were absent up the valley,
collecting revenue. One way and another perhaps a
thousand kliassadars armed with matchlock and knifo
were scattered about the valley. About 200 pack
ponies and 100 camels would also be immediately
available. The Toork nobles and Afghan landowners
should also be able to turn out 400 or 500 men.
The foregoing was an accurate resume of resources,
and Yar Khan argued that it would be as well to get
the Toork retainers away with them rather than leave
them unwatched in the country. But it was one
thing to take stock of resources, and another to decide
where to apply them. The enemy had overrun two
different parts. Where should the Kashmir force
strike ? The temptation to separate the forces was
great ; to send some of the Kashmir troops to the
Lolab, the remainder to Gurais. Against this Yar
Khan protested. He had learnt the great lesson of
* Red coated.
WAR AND RUMOURS OF WAR 247
war, in a bitter school. That lesson was as old as the
world. It is to concentrate at the decisive point. So
simple to enunciate ! So difficult to put into practice !
Where was the decisive point ? A leading question,
indeed, with an elusive answer. Yar Khan had one,
however, for the old man was ever strong in council.
In the Lolab there was a strong reliable body of
khassadars to oppose the raiders, and whose advance
they must eventually check. In Gurais, on the other
hand, there were few, and those few beleaguered.
To secure Gurais fort and release the garrison was
clearly the right objective, and it must be done with
all the available force. David supported Yar Khan
entirely. His own war experience, both that of actual
war as he had seen it with Sindiah, and as he had learnt
it from his father's teaching, was clear enough. Con-
centrate at the decisive point; if possible, but at any
rate concentrate to fight. That had been the teaching
of Turenne and the Great King. To Gurais then ! with
all available men except the Lolab khassadars and
one or two compulsory garrisons.
Salabat Khan was not the man to lose time when his
mind was made up. To Gurais, then, to-morrow
morning, the mounted troops by the lake-shore road
to Bandipura, and the infantry to the same place by
boat. David had now been admitted to his entire
confidence, and it was a kindly hand that he put on
the lad's shoulder, and said, as David was leaving for
his cantonment
" Now we shall see what the English training has
done for these pet children of yours 1 "
It was midday ere David was fairly started for the
shores of the Dhall Lake, and on his way he met the
Lady Miriam a-horseback, returning from hawking
quail, a las * on right wrist, Behind her came Ha bib
* A species of hawk.
248 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
Ullah, who had been escorting her, with half a dozen
retainers and huntsmen. Habib also held a baz, and
two of the men behind had bashas.* Her ladyship was
lightly veiled, and the glow and excitement of the
chase was still on her.
David's heart stirred within him at meeting his
lady love, full of memory of that never-to-be-forgotten
evening on the night of the Festival of Spring, when the
vague feelings that had so haunted him since ho
climbed beside Miriam up the slopes of the Pir Panjal,
had sprung into their full meaning. And Miriam
Miriam, too, had suddenly known herself, in the same
hour as man and maid so often do ; and, like other
maidens, was far less self-conscious over it than David.
It was certainly not etiquette for him to stop to talk
with a lady, especially with Habib Ullah in charge.
He would salute her and her escort and pass along.
But not so the Lady Miriam. Hers was an open soul
that knew no guile. They had ridden together through
the night and day of their adventure, and Habib knew
that story, so she might very well stop the Sahib.
She did so, and called to him gaily, with that proud
note behind the timbre of her voice, that women use
for those they conquer.
" Whither away so fast, Ferassa Sahib, that you
cannot tarry to talk to me or the Sirdar here ? "
Whereon David stopped and told her and Habib
Ullah of the news from the tribal borders, and of the
early start of the army. And as he told he remembered
what had slipped his thoughts in the excitement of
hearing the Governor's war plans. What was to
become of Miriam if they failed ? in whose ultimate
charge could he leave her ? and that feeling of responsi-
bility, that men feel when they first realize what the
burdens of a wife may mean, struck him chill.
* Another species of hawk.
WAR AND RUMOURS OP WAR 249
But Miriam only clapped her hands till her sleepy
old hawk woke up and tried to get loose. The
new model army should go and show its worth,
and her brother's government be more than ever
justified !
" Oh, Habib Ullah Khan Sahib, your rissalah will go
too, and the pack guns we have heard so much of, that
that other Sahib is getting ready. I have heard so
much, too, from His Excellency of your rissalah, and
how good you have made it. Oh ! I must see them all
march out ! "
Habib Ullah Khan was really a man of sterling
character. He had accepted David heartily in the
beginning, and listened contentedly to him in his hints
and orders on cavalry training. He had seen without
a spasm of jealousy, his troops improve each day in
order and discipline, and he had conceived a deep and
lasting friendship and devotion for David. David had
fully reciprocated this feeling, and save in the matter
of Miriam had now grown to confide in the Afghan most
of his thoughts and troubles. But the matter of
Miriam did not need confiding. Habib was the oldest
of students of love and its ways. He had two dear
good wives of his own at home in the Punjab, and he
had a sweetheart or a light of love in every town he
had frequented, and in many a village. Habib's
heart was large, and, for all his licence, sound. He
knew to differentiate between love as it should be and
the love that appealed to his lighter nature. The
signs of both phases of the sentiment were familiar to
him. He quite well understood the situation between
Miriam and David ; it was a common theme in poetry
if little known in practice. Therefore, that very
staunch comrade in arms, as is the wont of such, after
suitable reply to the lady, said
" I will hurry on with my men to the ferry, and
get the horses in ; will you escort our lady down
to the boat ? What also are your orders for the
march ? "
" Your rissalah must meet me and the troops from
the camp, at the village which lies a kos from the city,
on the Bandipura road at nine in the morning. You
can manage that ? "
" I can, Sahib. But what about food and forage ? "
" The Wazir has arranged to send it by boat to
Bandipura, and I have ordered it for one night at the
Shadipur Tehsil"
Whereon the cheery Habib waved his hand and rode
off, leaving David to conduct Miriam down to the ferry-
boat. They had not met again since the wonderful
evening on the river, though the thoughts of both
had dwelt lovingly on every detail. To Miriam's
genuine nature there was nothing to conceal, and
everything to rejoice at. Old Amah had been told
in secrecy, and Amah, the romantic, had applauded
and told the old tales of Persia of love, real love and
romance, that had come to the thrice-blessed ladies in
the poems. All was quite wonderful. There would
be a splendid marriage and His Excellency would give
the Sahib many jaghirs. But all was not quite such
plain sailing as Amah prophesied. David himself had
doubted whether he could immediately propose to the
Governor for his sister's hand, or should wait till further
service seemed likely to make him more indispensable
to Salabat Khan. Then came the rumour of war, and
the very occasion that seemed wanting was now likely
to present itself.
As they rode silently together the same thoughts
passed through their minds, and Miriam, through her
veil, noted with swelling pride how well her lad sat
his handsome horse, and how well the serious looks
became him.
WAR AND RUMOURS OF WAR 251
Then Miriam broke the silence. " What does my
Lord think of the frontier trouble ? "
" Nay ! dearest lady mine, I know not what to think
as yet. The trouble in itself is nothing ; but I wish I
knew if anything was behind it. Our Toork friends
are sending horsemen with us, but I wish I could trust
those that remain."
" What does my brother think ? "
" I hardly know yet. He seems to feel that the
frontier must be quieted at once, and we shall take all
the men we can."
" Ah, dearest mine, you make me anxious, and now
I know why women weep o' nights when their men folk
ride out to war."
" War is war, lady mine, and each of us must bear
our part. My mother wept, I well remember, when
my father left us for the wars ; but he returned safe
and gained great praise and honour for his share. I
shall return I hope with your brother's approba-
tion, and feel I may make open proposal for your
hand."
" Dear, dear ! how the man runs on. You make
sure that I will marry you at once then, sir ? "
And David looked up in her face and laughed, a laugh
that took all the care and thought out of his own brows,
and made the world ring young.
" Lady mine, I shall carry you off like many a true
Afghani before you, whether your brother wills it or
no ; and I will take my rissalah back to General Lake
Sahib and demand service."
" Ah ! I should like that ; but you would not leave
my brother ? "
" Not unless you trifle with me and make me carry
you away, lady mine."
And so happily sparring the two came to the ferry,
where the discreet Habib was awaiting them.
252 A FBEELANCE IN KASHMIR
" Tlie Lady Miriam will ride out, Habib, to see us
march off. Farewell, Lady."
And since the farewell could not be intimate, David
stood watching the boat cross to the palace side, and
then with a wave of his hand mounted and galloped
off to his camp. The hurry and excitement of prepara-
tion soon effaces from the soldiers' mind for the moment
the thought of the women to be left behind, and it was
late that night when he finished his preparations and
turned back to his own tent for a meal and sleep.
There waiting he found perhaps the man he wanted
most. The good padre had heard of the move of troops
and the frontier troubles, indeed, who had not, and
had come to wish God-speed. His heart was warm to
David and also to Miriam, and he had noticed, or
perhaps hoped, that there might be some link between
them. Since Miriam had questioned him of the ways
of the European with women away up by the Palace of
Fairies he had met her several times and talked. The
two were made for each other, he felt.
" Ah, Padre Sahib, welcome indeed ! You have
heard we are off to the wars."
" I have, indeed, my son, and I regret it. There
are better things to do with men than killing them."
" Ah, father, you can't expect soldiers to repine.
Fighting is our trade, and a man must practice his
trade if he be a true man."
" Agreed, my son ; but I have seen too many men
fall in others' quarrels to wish you joy of a campaign.
You've no one to leave behind, but others have. I
know that these invaders must be read a lesson, but
I mourn the need. I have been among these tribesmen
and I know so well the inhabitants of the harried tracts.
How long, Lord ! How long ? "
The reference to none to leave behind at once
brought uppermost his love for Miriam.
WAB AND RUMOURS OF WAR 253
" Father, as you have paid me this kind visit let me
tell you my troubles before Captain Tone may come.
Father ! the Lady Miriam has plighted troth to me,
and I would marry her as soon as I can get His Excel-
lency to accede ; though I know not yet how to
approach him."
" My son, I had guessed as much, and I would wish
you much joy. Oh, sir, I have had in my life some
experience of women, good and bad, and the good are
more than the bad. But I have never met a truer
woman's heart than beats in that Afghan girl. I wish
you every happiness."
And Jean Armande wrung the young soldier's hand.
" Father, one favour of favours I ask of you. Watch
over her while I am away. I mistrust those accursed
Toorks. Daoud Shah has disappeared. I fear mis-
chief in this valley, and so, I know, does the Wazir."
" Son, you do well to mistrust them all. As for
that evil Afghan, he has left the valley for none know
where. Certain it is he is gone for no good. That man
is a devil incarnate, and has the full knowledge of good
and evil." And here the padr6 seemed to speak to
himself. " He knows, too, the ineffable name."
" What ! Do you mean that which is spoken for
concealment, Adonai ? "
" You, too ! " said the priest. " How come you to
know that which conceals the ineffable name ? "
" I, father ! I know what my father taught me.
He was a prince and a ruler. . . ."
" Tush, my son, never mind it, and never say it. ...
Strange that I a Catholic and a member of the
Society of Jesus of all people should talk to you of
such forbidden things . . . but this Daoud Shah, he
knows far more than you or I ... he knows it of the
old time afore."
" Well, I am glad to know that he knows it. It may
254 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
be useful ; but now, father, I appeal to you by the
great appeal to protect the Lady Miriam by every
means in your power, by all the five. . . ."
" Son ... I have long foregone such things, and
I will help you and your lady not by the appeal of the
craft, mighty though the aids be that you invoke ; but
for the sake of the Son of God and His Mother, and the
greater includes the less."
And here Captain Tone came up and knelt to the old
Abbe, who after some conservation rose to go.
" Your blessing, your Riverence ! before we leave
for the war," he begged, to which David added a pica
for the same, " even though I be not a Catholic."
" Children," said the old man. " Such blessing as
I may bestow is for all the children, whether of the
Catholic Church or not," and the two men knelt, and
there under the walnut trees, with the flicker of the
camp fires on the waters of the lake, Jean St. Hilaire
Armando du Plessis of the family of Richelieu, gave his
blessing to those two soldiers of fortune, the old
sonorous Latin falling far afield in the clear night air,
" Benedicat vos, Omnipotens Pater, Filius et Spiritus
Sanctus. Amen"
CHAPTER XXIV
THE ARMY ADVANCES
BY nine in the morning the whole of the troops were
on the road or marching to their boats, and all night
long had Yar Khan laboured at his post of commissary-
general, and the spade work of war that the young
leaders forget till their belts grow loose and their horses
lean. To the Tehsildars, the representatives of govern-
ment, had gone forth orders for supplies to be collected
forthwith at Bandipura, that landing-place on the great
Wular Lake, whence the road rises over the mountain,
first to Gurais and then on over the dread Baroghil
pass to Gilgit and Dardestan. Five hundred ponies
were being collected to carry grain and other supplies,
and at least a hundred would be ready for the first
start. It was summer now, and the troops must move
light.
At the village on the Bandipura road two streams
met. One, that of the Bodyguard squadron, under
Habib Ullah, and the other that of David's rissaldh,
accompanied by Tone and his pack artillery, the dust
of the road rising high and white and acrid above the
lance penons. On the hither side of the village sat
awaiting them His Excellency and the Lady Miriam
with a few orderlies. Riding beside His Excellency
was the Lord Altamish, affable and voluble. He was
to accompany the force with one hundred and fifty of
255
256
his mounted retainers, who were already following
behind Habib Khan, somewhat to that gentleman's
disgust. There was a screw about his mouth and
moustache that made Miriam say to her brother as he
passed
" What is wrong with the Sirdar ? "
At which Salabat Khan laughed and leant over to
her with a glance at Altamish.
" Doesn't like the smell of Toorks, I fancy."
Directly after passing them, Habib formed up his
squadron on an open space outside the village, followed
by the Toorks. The new drill had enabled the former
to form up quietly and compactly, while the attempt
of the Toorks to follow suit was lamentable. A few
minutes later David's own rissaldh marched up in
six neatly turned out troops, beautifully mounted,
who formed up on the opposite side of the road, the
very pink of orderly light cavalry. A kettle drummer
too rode at the head, and the deep-rolled musical beat
breathed war and splendour. Fifty yards behind came
a jinketty jink and a shuffle, and lo ! here was the
pack battery of which there had been so much talk.
Thirty white and grey Yarkandi ponies were carrying
two guns and a small rnortar, with a good supply of
ammunition. The like, so light and movable, had
never been seen in Kashmir. Salabat Khan was
highly pleased with the results that David had obtained.
It was the first time that he had seen it all together, and
he had also noticed the steady drill of the infantry
whom he had passed en route to the boats. Sending
for David, Tone and Habib, he gave praise in no stinting
fashion. Altamish, too, was forced to praise where he
longed to curse and, under cloak of the talk, David
managed to get a word with Miriam, and even clasp
her hand, while saying
" Miriam, dear, if there is any trouble while we are
THE AEMY ADVANCES 257
away, rely on the old padre. He has power to help yon
that none other may have."
Then, with a nod from her, it was time to move off,
which they did, cheering loudly, David leading.
Salabat Khan answering their shouts, said he would
join them with the infantry at Bandipura, whereat
they cheered again. It took nearly an hour for the
mounted men and guns to file through the narrow
village, and the sun was high in the heavens before
the Governor and Miriam could leave the stirring sight
and canter back to the palace. As they went Salabat
Khan said to his sister
" Ah, Miriam, I have seen plenty of soldiers, but
never any like the Ferassa Eissalah and Habib Ullah'tf
corps. That Ferassa Sahib is a treasure, and soirw
day, when Yar Khan wants rest, I will make him
Wazir. Pity he is not wholly Afghan, or he would
make a good husband for you, and perhaps be able to
keep you in better order than I can. Eh, my lass ? "
But so obviously absurd a suggestion merited no
reply, though Miriam did agree and that con amorc,
that the troops were first rate, and the dear Yarkandi
ponies with the guns a -top splendid.
But as she rode, ever and anon her heart ran cold,
as it had done o'nights since that vision in the fire, at the
thought of Daoud Shah of the cleft forehead pacing
the garden by the lake shore and projecting himself
into her life. And she shuddered till the very horse
took up the rider's fear and perspired the more.
That night Salabat Khan placed Inayat Ullah, the
palace commandant, in temporary charge as governor
of the valley, and himself took boat for Bandipura and
the Wular Lake, while David's column halted at
Sambal, and pushed on early next morning round the
shores of the lake to the place of assembly, which they
reached ere the sun was over the top of Haramukh.
I
258 A FBEELANCE IN KASHMIE
All that day was spent in packing stores and grain,
and arranging for the despatch of convoys to follow. A
fat old Goorkha subaMar was left at the base on the
lake shore as superintendent of stores, which he tested
practically by sampling with his finger every keg of
<jhee, licking the same with his lips, till his waistbelt
refused to buckle more.
A reliable sirdar remained to control the despatch
of subsequent consignments. Yar Khan himself, com-
petent at all details, personally supervised everything
of this sort, while David cared for the actual war forma-
tions and the ammunition. Late in the afternoon
came a message from the fort at Kanzilwan to say that
they were still holding out but were hard pressed and
needed aid at once.
Salabat Khan decided to start forthwith, getting to
the top of the Eajdiangan Pass that night and advancing
on to Gurais in the early morning. To the top of the
pass from the lake or rather to a suitable halt a mile
or two this side of the top would be some fifteen miles,
and Gurais itself some thirteen miles further on. It
was essential that the ground to be occupied that night
should be clear of enemy, for it is impossible to
march by night except in ground already made good,
unless extraordinary risks are to be run. David, with
his rissalah of two hundred lances was therefore pushed
on early in the afternoon to make good the top of the
pass. This was done without incident, and by five p.m.
Salabat Khan received a message from him that all was
well, and that the remainder of the force could move
under cover of darkness with perfect safety. Soon
after midnight the whole of the force save for fifty
bayonets left at the base, was quietly collected and
sleeping without fires under arms on the top of the
Tragbal. It now consisted of six hundred sabres or
lances and three hundred bayonets, with a couple of
THE ARMY ADVANCES 259
hundred kassadars of little real value in the open
despite the fact that several of them were helping hold
the fort at Kanzilwan.
The Ferassa Bissalah led the way at five a.m., when
the first flush of dawn was slowly reddening the snow
on Haramukh, and the serrated tops of the distant
Burzil. Following behind came the Bodyguard, and
then two hundred and fifty men of the Regiment of
Victory, with Tone's artillery. After them came the
Toork horse to the number of a hundred and fifty, one
hundred men of the Regiment of Lightning closing the
column with the baggage animals and a hundred ponies
packed with supplies. Salabat Khan, with Altamish
and Yar Khan rode at the head of the Bodyguard, while
David commanded the advanced guard. By seven in
the morning the summit of the pass and the long knife-
edge at the top had been crossed, and the head of the
column was winding down towards the Gurais valley.
Here the first sign of an enemy was encountered.
Seeing some smoke at the bottom of the descent from
the pass, David had sent Ganesha Singh with half a
dozen troopers to see what was the cause of it, and
found some twenty men laden with the pillage of a
small farm, to which they had just set fire. Ganesha
Singh had at once trotted down towards them as fast
as the nature of the ground permitted, only to find
that half of them had galloped off on their ponies, and
the remainder had shinned up the adjacent hillside to
take pot-shots at him with their long- barrelled jezails.
As David came up half a dozen of his Afghan troopers
had been dismounted and sent up the hillside to dislodge
the snipers, which they soon did. Leaving them as a
piquet, David moved out the whole of his rissalah into
the open valley, and advanced a mile towards Gurais,
before he saw any further sign of the enemy. As the
leading files, however, turned a bend in the valley the
260 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
little fort of Kanzilwan could be seen on a small rise,
and round and in front of the fort bodies of troops
and skirmishers. It would appear that the fort still
held out.
David at once ordered Ganesha Singh to reconnoitre
again with half a dozen men, while he moved the
advanced guard out of sight behind a grove of ilex in
a bend of the stream. The temptation to go forward
himself and reconnoitre was strong. It always is in
good leaders, but there are times when the true leader
'will stay behind and let others be his eyes. In this
case as the troops were new and untried, and the main
body was but slowly filing down from off the pass, it
would be well to have the whole force at hand. Salabat
Khan himself soon came up, and David explained the
situation to him as far as he understood it. By this
time Ganesha Singh had gone a mile or so to the front
on the open plain, broken by patches of long grass and
the meanderings of the Gurais stream.
The tribesmen who had known for some little
time that the Kashmir troops were advancing, had
redoubled their attacks on the little fort. But the fort
garrison also had some inkling that help was forth-
coming, and had stiffened their backs accordingly. A
considerable body of tribesmen armed with sword and
matchlock, were waiting behind a small stony knoll
that had at one time been thrown down from the hills
above. The fort lay close to the hills, commanding a
ford and rough log-bridge over the stream. The plain
between the stream and the hills gradually narrowed
as the fort was approached, and as the stream was not
fordable everywhere, the terrain became restricted for
the action of horse, in their advance towards the fort.
David could not see this from his position by the ilex
grove, nor had Ganesha Singh the time to discover it.
Twenty or thirty horsemen advanced on his patrol as
THE ARMY ADVANCES 261
it got near the fort and drove them back helter
skelter. Salabat Khan then ordered David to take
forward his own men and he would support him with
the Bodyguard. The infantry and Toork horse, who
had now come down into the open, were to follow, the
artillery with them.
The tribal horsemen followed Ganesha Singh and his
patrol well down towards the ilex grove, when they
suddenly saw the troops descending the hill, and at
that moment David moved forward with his leading
troop at a hand canter. The troop gave a yell and
broke into a gallop which David could not restrain.
They were almost all young soldiers, and it was their
first fight. Nihal Singh was their commander, and
David, pulling up his own horse with difficulty, told
the duffedar to take them right on while he himself
endeavoured to steady the other three troops. It was
lucky he did so, for all were excited. However, his
voice brought them to their bearings, and he was able
to bring them along at a steady trot.
Nihal Singh's troop was wildly out of hand. Better
mounted than the tribesmen, it soon came up with
the latter. Some were cut down before they could
turn, some turned and closed on their pursuers, while
others circled their foe for an opening to cut or thrust.
It was cut and thrust and curse and cut again, and
several men had fallen from their horses, till the melee
had moved down level with the stony knoll, from out
behind which rushed a large number of swordsmen, yelling
fiercely. Atop the knoll the tom-tom drummers beat
their doles or tom-toms in a maddening throb and roll,
and Nihal Singh's two score or so seemed hard pressed,
for their gallop was over, and each was attacked by
two or three of the enemy.
Then the wisdom of David's action was evident
enough. Behind were three formed troops, two of
262 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
which he now brought up at a smart though steady
pace, and charged straight into the crowd, both friend
and foe. Their impetus took them right through the
crowd, though many of the swordsmen threw them-
selves on the ground and hacked and hamstrung the
horses as they galloped by. Passing through the
enemy and nearing the fort, David tried to rally his
men, and realized that it would have been wiser to
have had some men armed with the lance. Swordsmen
a-foot who hack at horses' bellies or who hide in scrub
can only be got at or dug out with the lance, which an
older soldier could have told him. On the opposite
bank of the river were posted matchlock men who kept
up a galling musketry fire, and David was beginning to
realize that a successful cavalry charge does not of
necessity carry you very much further. Here he was,
right through the enemy, who, instead of being hope-
lessly demoralized were lying down in the broken
ground defying him, galling by their musketry the
troopers whom he was trying to rally and reform.
Already three or four had been hit, and there were a
few wigs on the green on the site of the charge.
Then Salabat Khan took a hand in the game. Habib
Ullah, with half the Bodyguard crossed at a small ford,
half a mile back, and came cheering down the bank on
which the matchlock men were posted. They were rolled
up like straw in the wind, and Habib himself led a score
or so of troopers over the rickety bridge and on to the
reverse slope of the stony knoll. Half the drummers
were sabred, and a small knot of swordsmen broken
up. The cessation of the enthusing tom-tom changed the
attitude of the swordsmen who were lying in the scrub.
They lost their confidence and tried to bolt without
cohesion. Then was the time for David's men, both
those who had charged and those, like the reserve
troop, who only now came up. Round and round
THE ARMY ADVANCES 263
the plain they chased the tribesmen, who fled squealing,
rarely turning to aim a half-hearted blow. A dozen or
so were cut down, the remainder made their way to the
hillside or across the stream to be chased by the
Bodyguard who there awaited them. In an hour's
time the enemy surrounding the fort had been entirely
broken up, and the fight for the relief of the garrison
was over, though a large force of men hung against
the hillside a mile or so beyond the fort. Salabat
Khan was highly elated, and the army very satisfied
with itself. Horsemen kept breaking from the ranks
to shout out defiance to the distant enemy and recount
their own prowess. The troops of the Ferassa Rissalah
alone kept their re-formed ranks. The action had been
so short a one that Captain Tone had no chance to get
his guns to work, and was bemoaning the fact in choice
Hibernian.
As excitement cooled down, Yar Khan pressed for
further plans. Were they to pursue the enemy on
the hillside, or should they go into bivouac at once ?
Already the enemy had reappeared in the far corner of
the plain, and clusters of tribesmen with their banners
crowned every spur a mile away. David eagerly
pressed for an advance. He would take his own men
with the Toork horse let them do a bit and the guns
forward. Yar Khan was divided between the military
importance of following up a victory with the question
of supply and rest, and the obvious fact that the enemy
could not be struck a blow of any value in the remain-
ing hours of daylight. Salabat Khan's decision came
promptly enough. David should pursue as he sug-
gested, and at any rate fire his guns off. The remaining
troops should go into bivouac. It was not a really
admirable decision, but it was a very natural com-
promise, and quite appealed to the Oriental. As a
matter of practical politics, in view of the fact that it
264 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
was hoped to get the enemy to stand on the morrow
and take some punishment, it was hardly worth while
to run the chance of driving him a day's march further
off without any certainty of inflicting any real loss.
The result was as might have been expected. David
took his force forward boldly, the Toorks leading, his
own men in support. A few horsemen careered away
in front of him, and a knot of swordsmen advanced
with a standard and then thought better of it. The
Toorks advanced gaily enough, but there was little to
be done ; then, coming under musketry range of some
of the spurs, they were received by a peppering and
wheeled about. Tone brought his guns into action
five hundred yards away, but did little except advertise
their presence. So, after an hour's field day, enlivened
by the sight of the waving standards on the hillsidf,
the throb and roll of the doles and the exulting jeers
and cries of the tribesmen, David drew off in good
order. His men retired by alternate troops, facing
about in succession to show a front to the tribal horse-
men who hung about at a respectful distance. By five
in the afternoon all the Kashmir troops were in camp,
cooking their meals and resting their horses, while
arrangements for protection for the night were pre-
pared. From a corner of the little mud fort David and
Salabat Khan watched the enemy, the former being
the possessor of what was almost unknown to Orientals
his father's old spyglass.
Beyond the insolent standards there was little fresh
to see, and it only remained to make the morrow's
plans and hear the reports of the Kommadan of th-
leaguered fort, and his khassadars, and dispose of those
killed and wounded in the action.
CHAPTER XXV
DEFEAT
THE next morning found the Kashmir force under
arms early. The night had not been a restful one.
Half a dozen matchlock men from the hill overhanging
the little fort and the ford of the Kishenganga had
flicked hammered iron slugs into the camp right
through the long night. When the firing commenced,
the troops sprung to arms, soon to find that nothing
happened, and eventually had slept fitfully at their
alarm posts. About midnight, it is true, a throb of
doles and an outburst of shouting had seemed to
indicate a rush of swordsmen, but this had come to
nothing. Outside camp in the early morning, however,
two of their water-carriers were found hacked to pieces.
The army swore vengeance deep and loud. But a
disturbed night after a fatiguing day is not the best
preparation for another day's fighting, and Yar Khan
prevailed on Salabat Khan to let the men cook and
linish a good meal before starting.
It was therefore after eight when the advance began.
Salabat Khan had decided on advancing straight up
the pass in the hope of getting into close contact
with the tribesmen. The baggage and a hundred
infantry soldiers would remain at the fort, and the
whole of the rest of the force would move out. To
David's satisfaction the tribal banners still fluttered
265
266 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
on the hillside, a mile and a half away, and a-top the
first shoulder perhaps six hundred feet above the
Gurais valley. The plan was a straightforward one,
so far as arrangement went. David was to dismount
the whole of his men save horseholders and advance
up the hillside with all the available infantry, totalling
some three hundred bayonets and matchlocks. Habib
Ullah, with the Bodyguard and the Toork Horse, would
remain at the foot of the mountains, while Tone with
his guns would accompany the advance.
At the foot of the hill David put his horses under
cover from fire, protected by the Bodyguard, and com-
menced an advance up one of the spurs which led to
the enemy's position above. The Regiment of Victory
started up a parallel spur, while Tone brought his guns
up behind David. When the advance came within a
coviple of hundred yards of the enemy's standards a
spluttering fire of musketry commenced, the bullets
from the long hand-made steel jezails flicking in with
some precision. Two of the guns came into action
and began throwing round shot at the stone breast-
works behind which the tribesmen stood and yelled
defiance. Shooting up-hill with round-shot, however,
is not a very formidable proceeding, and after the first
moral effect of the artillery fire, the effect grew less on
the defenders. Short as it was, however, it created a
sufficient lull in the matchlock fire to allow of David's
men, of whom a hundred were leading and a hundred
in support, to get close within range. One man of
every two had a flint-lock carbine a la dragoon, and at
a distance of eighty yards the leading troop fired a
volley, and then started to rush in. The volley and
the rush carried the first breastwork. Over the stone
walls leapt David's men, who were almost all hillmen
themselves. There was a short sharp scrimmage,
sword on sword and sword against carbine and locking
DEFEAT 267
ring. Once a gigantic warrior had cut at David, to be
shot through the jaw from the young soldier's duelling-
pistol, of which he carried the pair in his waist sash.
Once a bell-mouthed pistol was jammed against his
abdomen by some one behind, but Gul Jan cut the
assailant's hand off before he could pull the trigger,
and a second trooper cut the man down. In a
minute after the troopers had reached the breastwork,
the occupants were scuttling back to the next ridge less
five of their number. Halting to recover breath after
the climb and rush, David stood surveying the ground
ahead, when there came loud shouts from the right.
Twenty men following one who carried a green banner
rushed out on them from a gorge close by. They came
silently, and David saw them first.
" Ganesha Singh, look out ! Look out ! The ghazis
are coming at you."
Ganesha Singh had a dozen of his own old troop
there. They at once ran together. The old officer
knew well enough that there was only one thing that
could stop the rush. Half a dozen of the men had not
discharged their pieces or had reloaded.
" Steady, sowar-log *, steady ! Now, altogether !
Fire ! "
Six one-ounce bullets whistled among the ghazis,
three found a billet, and the attack slowed down. A
volley is the recognized remedy for a rush among those
who are in the habit of meeting such ugly border
tactics. Then Ganesha Singh whipped out his curved
sword and, with those of the troopers who had not
carbines, rushed at the faltering ghazis. They turned
and fled, and that particular phase came to an end.
A hundred yards further on, however, were more
breastworks and banners and more throbbing doles.
* Troopers.
268 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
The drummers beat on the tightened sheepskins with
maddening persistency.
Another hundred yards away on his left, the men of
the Regiment of Victory, headed by a small party of
Goorkhas, were approaching this upper line. With the
support to this advance were Salabat Khan and Yar
Khan. Altamish had remained at the foot of the hill
with his horsemen. The leading company of the regi-
ment was armed with matchlocks, and it formed a
rough front and fired, before advancing to within
fifty yards or so of the breast w r ork. Then their Kom-
madan called on them to charge, which they did
readily enough, but before they could close they in
their turn received a volley from the jezails, and with
a wild roll on the doles and a blood-curdling yell the
whole of that portion of the defenders flung themselves
over their breastwork and rushed down the slope on
the Kashmir men. It would have taken all the staunch-
ness of old and tried troops on the Company's model to
withstand an assault of that kind. Before the long
hacking tribal knives could get within reach, the
leading company of the Regiment of Victory broke,
turned and fled. Fortunately for them all, Salabat
Khan himself was with the second company. He at
once put himself at its head and charged the tribes-
men. Down went the green banners, and back broke
the tribesmen at this fresh onslaught, but not before
they had left a dozen of their number on the ground.
And while they had been charging down from their
breastworks, David's party had been pressing on to the
second line of stones, which together with Salabat
Khan's onslaught definitely drove the enemy from
their main defensive line. With loud cheers the
Kashmir troops rushed up to the now vacant breast-
works to fire and cheer at the fleeing tribesmen.
But attacking hillmen is like cutting water, as Yar
DEFEAT 269
Khan knew, as Salabat Khan should have known, and
as David had to learn. Not three hundred yards
further on, down a slight slope and up another rise was
another ridge covered in boulder and undergrowth.
The fleeing standards were again raised thereon, and
the tom-toms slightly more distant recommenced their
defiant throbbing. The tribesmen had left perhaps a
dozen dead, and had killed ten of the Kashmir troops,
while at least twice as many had severe wounds, both
musket shot and sabre cut, and the sabre cut from a
long, cruel tribal knife is a very severe wound indeed.
The tribesmen had to some extent been punished.
Twenty, too, had been killed the day before, and whether
that was sufficient or not, it was not possible to achieve
more. The troops were tired and needed water, and the
day was wearing on. A further advance only meant a,
further unabashed withdrawal of the enemy, and it
was quite evident that they could not be brought to
battle on even equal terms.
Yar Khan's advice was wisdom itself. It was to
withdraw to the valley, carrying off the wounded,
despatch them back to Baramullah or Bandipura, and
then wait to see if the tribes would venture into the
plain where the cavalry might have a chance to get at
them again. There was, at any rate, nothing more to
be done up the hillside. Reluctantly Salabat Khan
gave the order to withdraw, the wounded being first sent
off by their comrades in blankets and on the backs of
men. The men under David's and Salabat Khan's
personal orders remained holding the breastworks they
had carried, while the wounded and the dead were being
carried down the hill. It was as necessary to carry the
dead as the living. The wounded would have been
mercilessly slain, and the dead might be mutilated, but
at any rate would be shameful trophies in an enemy's
hand.
270 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIE
When the last of the bodies was removed, David, in
accordance with his instructions, began to fall back
down the spurs along which he had advanced. Then
immediately the spirit of tribal warfare was evident.
The clansmen at once grasped the situation. All along
the upper ridges where the banners still waved, the
tom-toms redoubled their throbbing, and the yells grew
more and more defiant. Here and there a leader would
rush forward with a banner and plant it, and the tribes-
men would then rush on to it. Just as Salabat Khan
began to fall back to keep parallel to David, a red-
bearded moollali, carrying a huge green banner with a
crimson hand thereon, rushed forward to within fifty
yards of the breastworks the Kashmir troops had just
vacated, shouting the cry of the gliazi, " Glory for all
and heaven for those who bleed." With him and
behind him rushed a hundred yelling devils. Yelling,
tom-toming tribesmen are a terrifying sight to any but
the best troops, but Salabat Khan was emphatically a
soldier and yearned for a personal contest too. That
red-bearded moollali was too much for him. Calling to
the Eegiment of Victory to face about and follow him,
accompanied by half a dozen of his own entourage, he
went bald-headed for the green banner. The Eeginaent
of Victory, or that portion of it forming the rearmost
party, to its eternal honour responded to the order,
faced about and followed their leader under the per-
sonal direction of Yar Khan.
But it is not always given to the brave to command
success, deserve it however-so-much they may. Ten
yards from the banner, a jezail bullet fired from a
flank struck the Governor on the side of the temple.
His orderly on his right spoke afterwards of watching
him intently as he advanced, and seeing a blue hole
slowly appear in the forehead. The tenth part of the
second of striking appeared to him as a slow-measured
DEFEAT 271
happening. Salabat Khan, the powerful and masterful
ruler, fell crumbled, on a patch of the Prophet's flower,
just as Khar Yan led the remaining men close up behind
him. The sight turned the old man bere-serk. Down
again went the green banner, down went its followers
before the curved keen swords of Yar Khan and his
avenging troops. A few survivors fled back to whence
they had come, and once again the Kashmir troops
occupied the line from which they had withdrawn.
But there was no time to lament, and no time to gather
breath. The tribesmen had seen the backward move-
ment. From every spur and copse and thicket on
cither flank the jezails were playing, flicking their
hammered lead bullets into the Kashmir ranks. Swords-
men with the inevitable tom-tom drummer were
creeping up in knots waiting a chance to rush in.
There was now only one hope of salvation to get off
the hill as quickly as possible. Four of Salabat Khan's
personal retinue, the most of them wounded themselves,
carried off their leader's body, and behind them the
Kegiment of Victory turned to snarl and bite back at
the tribesmen hanging on their heels. The dead and
wounded had now to layjyhere they fell. It was enough
if the living could get away. Behind them flashed the
relentless swords, and rolled the exasperating, madden-
ing drums. On the flanks the jezails never ceased. At
last the Eegiment of Victory broke, broke badly as
sorely-tried corps will, and fled down the hill for safety,
away from those biting long tribal knives. Yar Khan
and half a dozen of Salabat Khan's personal escort
and retainers were left alone in charge of the body.
Fortunately, however, the retreat had now come
within reach of Tone's artillery, which could fling a
shell and roundshot into the pursuing yelling hordes.
This enabled Yar Khan to bring away the body
without further molestation, until he eventually joined
272 A PKEELANCE IN KASHMIR
David's party slowly falling back. This party had also
been harassed with jezail fire, but had held its own till
the flight of the Eegiment of Victory had heartened
the tribes and freed more men to harass him. Just
as Yar Khan joined him, matters were getting to a
head, the musketry fire was coming in on all sides and
the green banners were creeping in. But while the
Asiatic plays a winning game best, the majesty of the
English comes out with every access of trouble. Ee-
gardless of the hum of the hammered jezail ball,
David stood, a commanding figure to whom all looked.
Jest and abjurgation mingled kept his men steady.
" Ganesha Singh ! Ganesha Singh ! Look at that
young soldier on the right there, hiding behind a stone,
I do declare ! Oh, won't his village be proud of him !
Did you say he was a Eajpoot ? Ohe men, look at the
Eajpoot courage ! I see a man with a carbine over
there who does not know which way the enemy arc.
Smack his foolish head, Nihal Singh."
Nihal Singh sprang at the delinquent, and his
puggari rolled on the ground. The owner forgot his
fears in his endeavour to recover it and wind it on
his head again, while the men near laughed, as David
intended they should.
" Ganesha Singh, do you see that old man with the
red beard holding a standard and shouting ? Try and
hide with six men behind that rock, and let him have
it as he comes on. We'll teach him to wave green
banners at us ! "
And all the while the men were dropping, but
cheerful, with one eye on their leader and one on the foe.
David carried off one wounded man on his own shoulders,
shooting an adversary about to hack him as he lay.
Steadily the Kashmir troops fell back, so steadily that
a great wave of exultation at the success of his own
training swept over David. Close below them now
DEFEAT 273
was the gun position, and before they reached it he
determined on one more offensive move. A fanatic
attacking is a very different being from a fanatic
attacked. So while Yar Khan took the Governor's
body on down the hill, the rearguard faced about.
" Steady now the Ferassa Bissalah. Let us see the
Eajpoot valour. Show the Eegiment of Victory what
real soldiers can do."
And the Ferassa Bissalah yelped delight and followed
their leaders straight at the swordsmen who looked to
serve them as they had served the other regiment.
They were mistaken, and they paid for their mis-
calculation. The green banners streamed back, and
the rissalah drew off again, well satisfied.
The gun position was not more than three hundred
feet above the plain, and just as Yar Khan reached it
Habib Ullah rode up the spurs. Troubles rarely come
singly, and especially is this true of war. His news
was exceeding bitter. The fugitives from the Eegiment
of Victory had brought news of Salabat Khan's death.
Whereon, without ado, Altamish had mounted his men,
wheeled about, and galloped off up the valley in the
direction of Kashmir. He, Habib Ullah Khan, had not
realized what was up till it was too late.
Yar Khan looked at David and then back to Habib
Ullah.
" The eternal swine has gone to raise the Toorks
against us and declare himself Governor. Salabat
Khan is dead and gone to paradise, and can no more
rule in this valley, but no one shall rule except myself, if
I can help it, till we have the Imperial order for a
successor. But there is only one course open."
" To break away and return to Srinagar ? " asked
David, eagerly. To him the safety of Miriam bulked
very large. The old man nodded.
" It is the lesser evil. We have given these pig dogs
T
274 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
a lesson. They will hardly face us in the open for
some time. But whether they have had enough or no
does not immediately matter. The one thing is to get
back to the city and hold the control of the province.
They won't follow us now. Let Tone get his guns down
to Gurais Fort, with our Governor's body. Habib
Ullah, you must cover Ferassa Sahib's withdrawal.
Look sharp and get the guns away, I will settle further
moves at the fort."
It was an hour before Yar Khan had got his survivors
together, and the remnants of the corps reformed.
The enemy had followed in a half-hearted way as far
as the foothills, but the artillery and the resolute front
shown by Habib Ullah and the Bodyguard kept them
from further harassing the force. Clear of the hills
Yar Khan was able to review the situation calmly, and
he immediately recognized the fact that he must get
out of the Gurais valley that night, or run a fair risk
of being hemmed in. At this juncture he could not
afford to waste troops by leaving a detachment in
Gurais. He must abandon the fort also. The wounded
must press on at once. The dead so far as they had
been recovered must be hastily buried, the broken
Regiment of Victory must have time to cook and
recover itself. The small garrison of the post must
move off at once with the wounded, and with them on
a litter the corpse of Salabat Khan. The remainder
of the force would move immediately it was dark, and
as soon as they reached the rise up to the Tragbal Pass
the mounted troops would move on towards Srinagar,
leaving the infantry to come along as best they could.
It was certainly the only workable plan, and might
result in at any rate saving the province. The orders
were soon issued, and the wounded started off as best
they could be carried. A few of Habib Ullah's men
scoured the level plain and also kept watch on the
DEFEAT 275
foothills. The troops soon settled down to cook, and
Yar Khan directed fires to be made that would burn
on round the fort after they moved at dusk. David
spent his time looking to his own men and horses and
heartening up the Eegiment of Victory, which he fell
in by companies and drilled at close drill for a quarter
of an hour before he let them fall out to cook. It was
important to get the men back into their companies
and obeying orders. The tired, broken men at first
hesitated to get into the ranks, till David had kicked
half a dozen and reviled them heartily. The non-
commissioned officers then heartened up. and order and
discipline soon returned. As a climax, David with
Yar Khan nodding approval, put them twice through
the manual exercise, which they had been taught from
the Lille " VExercice de Ulnfanteric," called in the
French, " UEcole du soldat" By the time Les armes
presence was well done, the unfortunate corps looked
once more as if it belonged to an army. The men
broke off to cook, and David and Yar Khan gave
themselves half an hour to rest and eat also.
Shortly after five the force was got under arms again,
both with a view to moving off and because some knots
of tribesmen and standards seemed to be coming down
into the valley. David and Habib anxiously watched
them. Were the horsemen to be given a chance of
revenge ? It almost looked like it. The formed
troopers were moved out of sight close behind the mud
wall of the fort. From the stream, away half-right, a
little dry watercourse led towards the hills. A few
briar bushes dotted its edge, with here and there an
apricot tree. Up this David led a hundred of Habib
Ullah's men, with twenty of his own, dismounted,
leading their horses, their heads being just invisible.
For nearly half a mile he walked without daring to look
and see if the enemy were likely to give him a chance.
276
Then he halted and climbed the slope of the stream-bed.
Oh ! kind Providence ! There they were, nearly half
a mile from the hills, moving hastily in three clumps.
Were they going to attack the fort ? David looked
anxiously, hoping that Yar Khan had got that Kegiment
of Victory into line with the muskets loaded. Then
suddenly in front of the leading lot of tribesmen he
saw the bait that had more especially brought them
down into the open. Three figures were slowly crawling
along towards the fort. He drew his spy-glass. It
was undoubtedly three of their own wounded, probably
of the Eegiment of Victory. They must have been
left and been able to crawl down unnoticed till they
had reached the valley. Fools, not to wait till dark !
but perhaps they had guessed the force would retire.
There was little time to lose. David ordered the men to
mount, and eagerly showed Habib Ullah the wretched
three. David, with his own and thirty of Habib's, would
charge the first clump, Habib was to take the one a
little further back, the more distant clump must wait.
The moment the troopers had scrambled up the bank,
David showed them the enemy and the three wounded
men, of whom he could now see that two were support-
ing a third. The two bodies of cavalry separated,
Habib, riding fifty yards on the right rear of David's
party. Advancing at a trot for the first hundred
yards, they were now within three hundred yards of
the leading tribesmen. " Yih Hulla ka waqt hai ! "
" Shout, men, shout ! " The whole broke into a
canter, and, yelling like mad, boiled up to a wild
gallop. The three wounded men heard and looked,
and collapsed. They had hardly hoped for help, and
were advancing almost dazed. The tribes stopped to
look whence the sound came, and that wait sealed their
fate. It does not take galloping eager men long to
cover three hundred yards. Mad desire for revenge,
DEFEAT 277
mad yearning to get at a foe who had hunted them so
in the morning was the dominating desire, and the
yells meant fury and vengeance. The tribesman is a
poor thing in the open. The thud of the hoofs on the
dry plain added to the horror of the vision. Quadru
pedante putrem sonitu, quatit ungula campum ! The
plain shook and the clansmen shrieked with terror, as
David and Ganesha Singh struck the clump before it
had time to scatter. Two men offered fight for the
last time, the remainder fled, to be hacked and sabred.
Habib's objective had broken up before he could charge
home, but his enraged swordsmen took full toll. Through
the broken ranks and back again they rode, till the only
vestige of an enemy were odd scurrying figures nearing
the scrub of the foothills. David stood waving his
sword by the three wounded men, his trumpeter sound-
ing the rally after the mantoer he had learnt from the
English. Gradually the elated troopers assembled,
some holding their adversaries' heads in their hands.
He -forming, they returned to camp with no worse
result than a few cuts. The whole force was waiting
for them, and it was a new spirit and a new pride that
met them. In those few minutes the soldiery had passed
from depression to jauntiness. Even the Eegiment of
Victory believed it had borne a share. The three wounded
men were brought in amid cheers. There was now no
doubt that the force would get away unmolested.
Yar Khan's wrinkles actually wreathed into a smile,
despite the bitterness of Salabat Khan's death.
" No wonder you English rule half Hindostan you
deserve to. Now, get your horses blown, and we will
move out of this."
By ten o'clock that night the force reached the foot
of the ascent and Yar Khan felt that the Begiment of
Victory with the guns and the detachment from the
Lightning Corps could bo left to make their way up
278 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
the pass bringing Salabat Khan's body with them to
Bandipura. He, David, and those whose horses were
lit for it, would go on at once over the pass, rest at
Bandipura and push on to the city. So under the
stars for many weary hours that body of horsemen,
elated yet sore at heart, slowly climbed the Mai * and
led their tired horses down the other side.
* Mountain.
CHAPTER XXVI
BANGLES RING SOFTLY AND SADLY
DAWN in Srinagar on a morning in early summer is
very soft and very beautiful. A sweet, cool breeze
blew down from the mountains, and a scent of blossom
haunted the air. Armande du Plessis knelt in prayer
at the little altar in the whitewashed room adjoining
that hi which he lived. Prayer that peace should
reign in that beautiful valley, prayer that blessing
might attend his work in healing and hi spreading the
gospel. A healer of bodies he had been for many years,
and there was yet no sign that he had healed the
minds. He was old enough, however, to know that God
worked in His own method and not in man's, and that
the only command was to tell the News, which he,
poor refugee priest, had done with all his might.
Then his prayers ended, and because there were
wars and rumours of war, or because the soft breeze
perhaps blew unrest for all its softness, the Abbe went
to his pallet bed and drew from underneath a long
red leather bag, worked with a silken pattern at the
edges. From the bag he drew a shining basket-hilted
rapier, and a case with two small pistols. Wiping
the rapier he loaded the pistols, looked to their priming,
and then placed them under the skin rug that covered
the bed. They, his Bible, a small ebony crucifix,
and the miniature round his neck, were all that ho
279
280 A PEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
possessed of the old happy life in La Belle France.
He then passed to the tiny mud room where he kept
the few drugs and herbs that the resources of Kashmir
could purvey, and which his extending knowledge of
the secrets of medicine was slowly augmenting, and
busied himself in making certain extracts that he was
likely to want. His day's work had begun.
Allah Visayah had been sleeping out in the latticed
verandah overhanging the Jhelurn, whose sluggish
muddy waters lapped the plinth below in a monotonous
night-long chant, coating the old carved gods on tho
stolen plinth stones with a fresh coat of mud, for there
had been rain on the clay hills above Verinag. Allah
Visayah was tired, and had meant to sleep late, after
a long evening entertaining those officers whom she
hoped to bring over to the service of Altamish. But,
just as her servants were closing her outer gates, lo !
one Wali Dad arrived, weary and mud besplashed, full,
however, of the good news. He had ridden through on
relays to Symbal, and had come on in a shikara by
water. It had been necessary to admit him and hear
his good news of the death of Salabat Khan. No
fiction this time, but solid, joyful fact. Allah Visayah
already saw the Pampur estates standing in her name.
Wali Dad had come for one hour's sleep, and to ascertain
which Kommadans might be looked to to at once
declare for Altamish. She told him which of her
friends, chiefly officers of militia, could be relied on to
give up their trusts. Told him also how the Kommadan
of the Lightning Regiment at Hari Parbat Fort would
listen to no one. Was not the corpse of the late
Kommadan still hanging in chains over the gateway ?
To which Wali Dad had replied that he was now as
like to hang for sticking to his master as his predecessor
was for deserting him, which was true enough, and
the Begum grinned thereat. Wali Dad had slept an
BANGLES RING SOFTLY AND SADLY 281
hour and gone, and Allah Visayah had meant to
sleep late in the cool, shady verandah.
Hardly had she got properly off to dream the dreams
of those who are on the right side of the fence after
all, than a small shikara was paddled up to the steps
in the plinth by two men with perspiration streaming
from their brows. It was Peeroo and Pheroo, and
in the boat sat an old woman, and in her arms a child.
" Oh, Begum Sahiba ! Oh-e ! Oh ! Begum Sahiba
Darwaza kohlo jaldi ! " * The Begiim drowsily stirred
and stretched and below the child wailed. That
caught her ear. Surely that was her little Dundoo,
who should be peaceably asleep in the Jhok on the
Sindh ! She leapt up wide awake now, and called
her servants, and then threw open the lattice window.
The old woman, Dundoo's nurse, was bringing in the
small child. Very small and shrunken it looked
under the treble muslin wrapper. The Begum flew
down to meet it. That child, whose father she could
hardly even guess at, was all the world to her, more
even than that dream of the Pampur estates since
was it not for him she wanted them. She, the outcaste,
who dreamed of her son founding a race of landowning
barons !
The boy was but running the course of so many
children in early summer. It was the mulberry
season. In Kashmir everything happens in the mul-
berry season. " Jab molbari hoga " f is the promise. The
dogs eat mulberries, and the fish eat mulberries, and
the bears eat mulberries. Jab molbari hoga, then, is
the time to catch fish and shoot bears. It is the small,
sweet mulberry that grows wild and forms half the
hedges and the avenues to the roads, not the great
luscious king of mulberries, the Shah-tout. That
only grows in the gardens of princes. It is the sweet,
* Open the door at once. f When the mulberries come.
282 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
the sickly sweet, wild mulberries that every one and
everything eats at this season, especially children.
Which was the tale of little Dundoo. Too many
mulberries added to hot days and cold nights had
brought on infantile cholera, which would not yield
to the old wife's remedies, and the nurse had started
to the mother in a boat.
Allah Visayah now wholly mother, seized the little
shrunken figure and remembered the good padrd and
how she had served him by taking in the leper. She
knew where he lived, and followed by the old nurse
and Peeroo, she made towards the Shah Hamadan
mosque, past the little old burial ground and a skull
that half stuck out of a grave, straight for the little
mud, whitewashed house of the Abbe. The Abbe,
as we have seen, was at work in his dispensary. Without
knock or call the mother went straight in, laid the
child on the floor behind him, and threw herself down
clasping his ankles. Armande du Plessis, who had
not heard her entry, absorbed in his compounding,
turned round.
" Save my child, Padre Sahib ! Save him ! I know
you can."
The Abbe was used to the treating of sick babies,
and the case of Dundoo was clear enough, the stains
of mulberries on the child's garments gave the clue.
The opium jar was the obvious resort, with some
powdered ginger added thereto, and while preparing
this he asked for news of the city, and more especially
of the seat of war.
" There has been severe fighting, and a disaster
in the mountains, and the Governor has been
killed."
" We have heard that before," returned the Abbe.
" Yes, Padrd Sahib, I know, but this is true. Salabat
Khan is dead, and a good riddance too."
BANGLES RING SOFTLY AND SADLY 283
" A good riddance ! Why, this valley has never
been so well governed."
" Pah ! Folk want something more than good
government, at least town folk do. We want excite-
ment and display, and a chance for those that are
down. Every one hates these solemn Afghans. We
want Persians or Toorks to rule us. I've no use for
this lot, and as for that stuck-up Miriam, I should like
to spoil her beauty."
" What harm has the Lady Miriam done you ? "
" Harm ! Why, not content with riding about with
her brother, which a decent woman should be ashamed
to do, she goes past my house with her chin in the
air as if we of the Thunbi Bazaar had no right to live.
We are more use in the world than she is."
The news of Salabat Khan's death was serious, very
serious! Not only might his European employes be
involved in the slaughter, but what was to become of
the Lady Miriam? That simple, straightforward girl
had found a very warm corner in the Abbe's heart.
Not only had he detected and rejoiced at her penchant
for David, but her constant questionings, whenever
they met, which they often did, on the Christian faith,
had raised great hopes in his heart of a real convert at
last. For years had he sown the seed, but it had fallen
by the way. Here some unforeseen breeze had wafted
it to good soil. Always dwelling on the Christian
ideal of women, that had so obviously attracted her
from her first contact with the European point of view,
he had taught her much of the Glad Tidings. He felt
that Miriam was already a Christian at heart. The
fate of David and her position aroused a keen anxiety
and a desire to be up and doing. But this woman
knew half the gossip and much of the secrets of the
city. He would get more from her.
" If I promise to save your child, you must tell me
284 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
what you know. Who will carry on the Govern-
ment ? "
" Why, the Lord Altamish, of course. Already all
the Toork nobles and their retainers hold the town and
its approaches, and the khassadars will all declare
for him."
" But what of Kabul ? "
" Pshaw ! Kabul, indeed. The empire is almost
a name now. Kabul will ratify whoever has the power.
The Toorks will gain possession of the Shergarhi to-day,
and will surround the Kashmir troops when they
return."
" The Kommadan of the Shergarhi will never give
up the palace."
" No. But he has a small garrison. Most of the
best troops went to the wars."
" What will become of the women, of Salabat Khan's
wives, of the Lady Miriam ? "
" Oh, the wives will be allowed to go back to their
families probably. Who would be bothered with them?
Some one will carry off Miriam, no doubt. Her
brother is dead, and there will be none to raise a feud
over her, the minx."
" Do you wish your child to live ? "
' To live ? Ah-h, Padre Sahib ! "
" Very well, this child will die unless I save it. It
will require my medicine for five days. Now, under-
stand me very clearly. I shall not make that medicine
unless you help me. The Lady Miriam must escape
with me, and you must arrange it for me. No need to
ask why. I want to get her away. I shall give you
one dose for your child to-night. I will give you eight
more powders, one for morning and one for evening,
when I find that the Lady Miriam will be safe. Now
sit down there and think about it. Here, take the
child and rock it to sleep. See, the pain has gone."
BANGLES KING SOFTLY AND SADLY 285
It was true the little drawn features had become
round again. The Begum sat and crooned to it. She
was woman of the world enough not to talk needlessly,
and at once set about thinking out a plan. The Abbe
went to his bed and drew out the long rapier and
laid it handy, and then went back to his dispensary
while the Begum sat crooning to her boy, who was already
asleep. The Padre Sahib was clearly a master of life
and death, and must be humoured; besides, he had
the power of witchcraft, she knew, and witches must
never be crossed. There was only one way for him
to get the Lady Miriam away, and that was by entering
the palace, telling her the danger, and getting her to
come out and away with him. But there was also
only one way to get at her at short notice, and that
would be by permission of the Kommadan, in which
case he must be told. In any case, what did it matter ?
If he knew, he would either prepare to defend the
palace or give it up. His garrison was very weak ; ho
could not do much if he did resist. So cogitating, the
Begum called to the Abbe, who came to her and felt the
child's pulse.
" Ah ! he sleeps well. He may recover ; if he has
my drugs he surely will."
" Padre Sahib, for the sake of my child and your cure,
I will now arrange to help you. This is what you
must do. You must go to the Kommadan of the
Shergarhi and tell him the news, and say that you have
come to lead the Lady Miriam to safety. If he raises
difficulties you must bribe him. Here is a chain of
gold and turquoise. You shall give him this to win
his sanction. He must then let you out by the Eastern
gate, which is on the river. I will have a boat with four
rowers waiting, and they will take you upstream
towards Islamabad. The boat cannot be ready before
eleven in the morning, and it will wait there till
286 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
midnight to-night for you. I will put food into it for
you. Now swear to rne that if I have the boat there
you will give a fifth man, who shall be in the boat,
the four days' drugs and he will return to me."
" Lady, I swear it by all I hold holy."
" Very well, then, the sooner you can get to the
palace, the better ; and I will now take home my
Dundoo, who now sleeps as he used to sleep. Oh,
Padre Sahib, I will do all I have promised, and much
more if you will save the child."
And Allah Visayah, the remnants of yester'eens paint
and antimony on her face, and her hair still showing
the talc powder with which it had been sprinkled,
looked nevertheless a woman and not a Jezebel as she
gently rose and carried off the sleeping child.
Armande du Plessis had few preparations to make.
Under his white cassock he strapped the rapier, and
put the two primed pistols into the belt. He then
put the Bible in his pocket, locked the door of
his humble dwelling, and called for a shikara just as
in Paris he would have called for a fiacre. Three or
four public boats answered his call from the wide
steps on the plinth below the mosque, and he at once
set out for the Shergarhi, feeling some confidence that
once again a piece of good Damascus steel hung from
his side, so persistent is the old Adam in the holiest of
men. Half an hour's paddling brought him to the
palace landing stage. Tossing a chilki rupee to the
rowers, he sprang up the steps with the alertness of
that same young Abbe who was reputed one of the
best swordsmen in Paris, or at any rate about the
Court.
Outside the palace gate was a wooden pavilion,
under which the palace writers sat taking note of
those who came and went, and of those who had
business. At one end was a seat reserved for the
BANGLES EING SOFTLY AND SADLY 287
commandant, who had jusfc come down from it, about
to go inside as the Abbe came up. Knowing the
Abbe by sight, for since David and the Lady Miriam
had struck up a friendship with him he was a fairly
familiar figure, the commandant stopped to see
what he wanted. After greetings, du Plessis craved
a private audience, and Inayat Ullah took him into
a cool chamber adjoining the guard room at the gate-
way.
" Commandant Sahib, I have come on vital business.
You know the rumour, and I believe it is a true rumour,
that Salabat Khan has been killed and the troops
severely handled."
" No, Padre, I have had no news from the front at
all, except that the fort of Gurais had been easily
relieved, and all is well."
" I understand that the Governor is dead ; the troops
if not defeated at any rate severely handled, and that
Altamish will at once declare himself Governor. Also
that the Toork faction will prevent the troops from
returning, and that the khassadar garrisons will admit the
Toorks to all the government forts they are garrisoning."
" That, if true, is very serious, for all the best troops
are away. I have only twenty good men here, the
rest are Shapiyon khassadars. If this is true, which
God forbid ! I cannot hold this place, nor do I know
for whom to hold it. By Imperial custom, the Naib,
that is the Sirdar Yar Khan, should govern till the
Emperor's will is known, but Kabul is a far cry, and
if Altamish takes the government and makes sub-
mission to Kabul, I doubt any one saying him nay.
Therefore, too, I must consider my own position, and
the lives of my own men. I must either give up the
palace and ride away with those who will follow me
lo seek fresh service, or I must join the Toorks, That
I would not willingly do. I would gladly die for
288 A FBEELANCE IN KASHMIR
Salabat Khan, but not for a lost cause when the master
is dead."
All of which was a very just resume of the situation,
as du Plessis could but admit. He at once came to
the point.
" I wish to give safe custody and escape, wifh
honour, to the Lady Miriam, with your approval. I
am in some sort her guardian."
" Well, there are the other ladies, too, who must
be considered. They are only an anxiety to me. I
will make a bargain with you. If you will take away
the Lady Nur Jan and the Bibi Alana, too, I will help
you in every way, and if I have to leave this will come
after you and help escort them to their own homes in
the Punjab. Will you do this ? "
The proposal was not altogether an alluring one,
and a squire of dames was too old a role to be in itself
attractive. God knew ! he had seen enough in his time
of poor ladies wanting safe conduct, and if needs must
he was ready enough to do it, and he said so.
" Good," said Inayat Ullah. " There is no actual
need to move till we know something definite. The
Sirdar Yar Khan and the young Sahib may be here
and able to keep control. You had better see the Lady
Miriam at once and let her tell the Bibis."
Word was at once sent up to Miriam, that the Padre
Sahib wanted to speak with her on urgent matters,
and he was accommodated in a small private hall of
audience, with a carved grille at one end, used by
the ladies of the palace for such purposes. A very
few minutes and a rustle of clothes told the padre that
some one had arrived. It was Miriam, who, disdaining
to talk from behind the grille, opened the wicket and
came into the hall.
" You want to see me, father. You have news ?
Oh, bad news. I know it ? "
BANGLES RING SOFTLY AND SADLY 289
" Lady ! nay, daughter ! There are very serious
rumours, not yet confirmed, but so serious that we must
at once be prepared. It is said that your brother has
been killed in battle with the tribes, and that Altamish
is about to proclaim himself Governor, seizing the
palace and forts by force. Soldiers are few, and the
militia are said to be ready to join him. Indeed, if
your brother is dead, there is no very strong duty
owing to any one, and unless the Sirdar Yar Khan
can return in force, there is nothing very much that
any one can do. I have been consulting with Inayat
Ullah, and I am now prepared to take you up the river
in a boat with the two ladies of your brother's house-
hold. There is no one else to do it."
" Oh, Padre Sahib, my poor brother ! What of
Ferassa Sahib ? Is he killed ? " and the voice presaged
utter desolation.
" Nay, daughter, we have no news ; we believe him
well and Yar Khan also. The earlier reports spoke
of the relief of Gurais Fort and victory. But we know
nothing yet. You must keep calm for the sake of
the others. You will fall into the hands of Altamish
unless we are ready to escape. You must at once tell
the ladies, and have them, with some bedding, ready
to move if need be in half an hour's time at most.
When you are ready, we shall not actually leave till
we have information of some kind."
" Where are we to go to ? "
" You must go up towards Islamabad for the present,
till we can get in touch with Yar Khan and Fraser
Sahib, and cannot see further ahead yet."
" Oh, that I was a man to get even with that
Altamish; ah, yes, and that devil-faced Afghan who
used to be about with him."
" Ah, yes, my daughter, that is a man whom even
I, an old priest, and a man of peace, would fain bo
u
290 A FKEELANCE IN KASHMIR
even with for many reasons, for many reasons. Now
go tell the Sirdar's ladies, and may God in His mercy
soften the blow ! "
So Miriam went away sorrowfully, and du Plessis
returned to the guardroom to be near Inayat Ullah
and watch the situation. There was little else to
be done, however so much the spirit might fume,
but the memory of the sight she had seen in the fire
before the image of Indra held her a nightmare.
Daoud Shah, with the cleft forehead pacing in his
garden and thinking of her! Death, rather death a
thousand times, than fall into his hands !
Armande du Plessis watched her go. " Mary ! Pity
women," was the prayer on his lips. He who in
Christian France had seen the heart torn from still
warm La Lambdle ! Could worse befall in heathen
India !
CHAPTER XXVII
TENDER RUTH
THERE was no very great period of suspense. Hardly
had the Abbe taken up a position in the guardroom,
than message was brought to the commandant that
the Lord Altamish had been proclaimed as Governor
of Kashmir in lieu of Salabat Khan killed in action
with the tribes of the Black Mountain. The city was
in an uproar, and parties of Toork horsemen were every-
where. The Treasury guard had been overpowered,
and a Toork guard mounted in its place. The Lord
Altamish had returned from the front to take over
the government. All the watchmen and police in
the city had agreed to take orders from him. It was
now close on eleven o'clock, and the Abbe" went to the
Eastern gate to see if Allah Visayah's boat had arrived.
A long-prowed boat paddled across from the opposite
bank as he came on to the parapet above the gate.
It had four rowers with a covered curtained sort of
deck cabin in the stern, such as was often used to
take purdah women about in. As the Abbe stood
up on the parapet his head and shoulders showing
over, a fifth man sitting in the bows, stood up and
salaamed to him. The Abbe waved a reply. It was
undoubtedly the boat, he would get an order from
Inayat Ullah to get out through the Eastern wicket
and hold converse with the man in charge. Hurrying
back to the mainguard, he found Inayat Ullah standing
291
292 A FKEELANCE IN KASHMIE
at the gate in converse with two messengers, who
presently rode away.
" Padre, those two men have come from Altamish.
One is that rogue Wali Dad. They have come to
tell me that Altamish has been proclaimed Governor,
and to inquire when they can take over the palace !
I was more than inclined to give them a rough answer
at their impertinence in assuming it would of necessity
be theirs. However, I spoke them fair and promised
that I would yield the place at four of the afternoon
and not a moment before. They urged that they should
have it earlier. I said they must fight for it if they
insisted on that, but they should have it free at four.
I have therefore till four. At that hour I give over
the place. Yar Khan may arrive before that."
" What shall the ladies do ? "
" I should say that if nothing happens by noon that
you should start away to Islamabad. If I decide to
leave Kashmir, I shall come and join you. Here is an
order to you to come and go through the East gate,
and Allahdad Khan here will go with you."
The Abbe went away to the East gate, stopping
on his way to see Miriam, who again came down to
the grille, to say that the ladies were ready, and that
whereas Nur Jan was quiet and resigned and would go
wherever wanted, Alana Bibi was in a furious hysterical
mood. Du Plessis told her the news of Altamish's
proclamation and how they would start at noon if
nothing happened. Miriam promised to be ready,
and the Abbe went on through the Eastern gateway
to the bank, to talk with the man in charge of the boat.
As they approached the steps, Allahdad, a huge,
grizzled-looking man with a red-gray stubble of a
beard, asked if the Governor's ladies were going with
him. The Abbe explained that he was taking them
away pending help from Yar Khan.
TENDER RUTH 293
' Then," said Allahdad, " I will conic with you and
nine others. The Lady Nur Jan is of the Chib clan.
Her brother is a baron owning lands to the west of
Poonch. We will help you see her in safety to her
brother. We will ride upstream to-night and get in
touch with you."
And the Abbe, liking his rugged old face, made a pact
with him then and there, and told him how unless he
heard from Yar Khan he would make his way up to
Islamabad. Needs must when the devil drives, and
if you had to trust people it were well to do it thoroughly,
with an eye, however, on what might befall.
Twelve o'clock soon came without any sign from
Yar Khan or Fraser and Inayat Ullah urged the Abbe
to go while yet there was time. He willingly agreed
that the Chibs should go after them, and added that
Allahdad was a very faithful servant and an old
retainer of the right sort. The priest and the soldier
then embraced in Afghan fashion, and the former
went to the ladies' quarters and there found three
veiled and shrouded figures awaiting him, with three
serving women carrying bundles. The serving women
were more than he had bargained for, but as a query
raised a fretful remark from Alana Bibi, he said no
more and the six women scrambled into the boat, and
squatted inside the deckhouse. The Abbe according
to pact then gave into the hands of the fifth man in
the prow of the boat the bundle of powders for the
Begum's child, and bidding the rowers lay to, stepped
on board himself.
Up in the palace, Inayat Ullah had summoned all
the troops, the khassadars, and officials, and told
them how Altamish had declared himself Governor,
and how at four o'clock he would release all men from
any obedience to himself. He would ride forth to
join the Sirdar Yar Khan and seek fortune afresh,
294 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
whoever of his own men who cared to follow him might
do so. Then through the afternoon hours he sat
in the bastion above the gate and looked eagerly for
some sign of Yar Khan or even some mention. But
though now and again dust rose or parties of horse
appeared in the distance, nothing drew near that could
be Yar Khan. Shortly after three a large number of
Toork horsemen approached the gate of the palace,
and with them rode Altamish himself anxious to take
up his official quarters, and relieved that it had all
come about so peacefully. If the truth were known
Altamish had no heart for more fighting to his own
personal hand than was actually necessary. Inayat
Ullah, an obstinate man of his word, took not the
slightest notice of him and his escort till four o'clock,
for which hour Altamish waited with such patience
as he possessed, cursing under his breath all tiresome
Afghan punctilio. At four o'clock there being no
sign at all of Yar Khan and party, Inayat Ullah drew
up the remaining twenty odd troopers of the garrison
immediately within the gate. The said twenty men
having all signified their intention of riding away into
the world with him, the gates were thrown open, and
Inayat Ullah sent word to Altamish that he might
ride in. Hardly had he done so when a sign of dust
on the horizon that might have been Yar Khan, was
visible through the gateway, but Inayat Ullah, a man
of his word, sat immovable.
Altamish rode in cautiously, followed by a couple
of hundred horsemen, though before they entered
Inayat Ullah led his men out lest they be caught in
a trap. Without more than a passing salutation, he
remarked to Altamish that the palace was his and
prepared to ride away. The dust on the horizon
changed to a party of galloping horsemen, and who
should ride up hot haste but the Sirdar Daoud Shah
TENDER RUTH 295
himself, and with him a score or so of wild-looking
Toork and Persian troopers. Drawing rein at the
gateway, he entered alone and found Altamish at the
entrance to the ladies' apartments.
" Where are the late Governor's women, his wives,
and the Lady Miriam, his sister?" he demanded.
" I am told that they have left the palace some hours
ago," replied Altamish.
" Who allowed them to go ? "
" Why, that palace commandant who has just made
over the palace to me as the new Governor."
" Has he had the impertinence to let these women
go?"
" Well, I don't know that I mind. I don't want
'em. Got more than enough of my own, and, as you
know, Azizun alone is enough in the way of anything
extra."
" Fool ! What do I care about you and your
women. I want that precious sister of his to be my
wife. For what else do you suppose that I have
been interfering in your affairs ? Fetch the com-
mandant back at once."
" You won't find it easy by force. Perhaps I can
get him back. Here, Wali Dad, ride and ask that
sirdar to return here. Say that I have that to speak
of that will be greatly to his advantage."
Inayat Ullah, who had only moved, and that at
a walk, some one hundred and fifty yards from the
palace gateway, turned back. He was not really
particular with whom he took service, and was quite
open to a tempting offer.
He halted his party and looked back. He then
wheeled them about, half hesitated, and then halted
them. That halt was his undoing. Daoud Shah
slipped out with his men and rode away to one side,
and Wali Dad had led out some thirty Toork troopers
296
on the other. Inayat Ullah was surrounded. Fearing
nothing, however, that sturdy soldier of fortune rode
up to Altamish and saluted.
" Your Excellency summoned me."
" Yes ! I wanted to know what had become of the
ladies of Salabat Khan's household."
" They left the palace some hours ago."
" I would know where they went."
" That, Excellency, is their business. I neither
know nor care."
At this juncture Daoud Shah had ridden up and
he sat his horse as men sit who live in the saddle.
Fair and square he sat, with his eyes blazing out
from under his fierce lowering eyebrows, and his
forehead knit with a scowl. Inayat looked into that
weird countenance, and for the first time in all his
life shuddered, and with reason. Daoud Shah barked
at him in short staccato tones.
" Do I understand that you have allowed the ladies
of Salabat Khan's household to leave the palace ? "
" That is so," said Inayat Ullah, his temper rising.
Even the foul fiend himself must speak civilly if ho
would have an answer from him.
" By what right do you dare to do this thing ? "
" By my sole right as commandant of the palace."
" Will you tell me where they have gone ? "
" I do not know where they have gone, and I should
not tell you if I did."
Whereon Daoud Shah's lips curled in a snarl on his
set teeth, and riding close to the jaunty sturdy sirdar
barked at him again.
" Then take that for your pains," and struck him
across the face with a small, heavy mace of brass that
he carried, studded at the head with some set stones.
Inayat Ullah, taken unawares, made a feeble attempt
to ward off the blow, and fell from his horse half
TENDER RUTH 297
stunned. His troopers gave a yell of rage, and dashed
in to help their leader. But the Toork horse at onco
closed on them, and a fierce hack and slash ensued,
with the inevitable result that four or five of them fell
and the remainder broken and outmatched, scampered
away with Toork troopers after them.
Altamish, rising in his stirrups, said to Daoud Shah,
" I would not have had this. This man deserved
safe conduct."
" This man deserved nothing of the kind, as does no
man who thwarts Daoud Shah. Your revolution needs
anointing, ah ha ! You need a victim. Never should
a revolution take place without the red blood flowing.
Come, now, you must clinch your position. I demand
now that this dog, who has stood in my way, be blown
away immediately from that gun up on the bastion
yonder, that all the world may know that you are
Governor and I am your wazir. Nay, my lord, will it
be necessary that I should tell you once again why you
will do that which I bid. Surely you have not
forgotten ? "
And Daoud Shah looked straight into the eyes of
Altamish, who turned his head and said
" Wazir, let it be as you wish."
Whereupon then and there, the wretched Inayat
Ullah Khan, only yet half sensible from the blow he
had received, was carried up on to the bastion and
tied to the gun, which was loaded first with a double
charge, the shot having been withdrawn.
Blowing away from a gun is a favourite Eastern
punishment practised in Kabul to this day, and one
thoroughly understood of the people, as a sign of
power, majesty, and dominion. As an outward and
visible sign at this epoque, it was no doubt a desirable
happening. The death, too, had the questionable
merit to the Oriental of being instantaneous and
298 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
practically painless. On the other hand, it was
certainly a good iamaslia, a good spectacle for onlookers.
So several willing hands bound the wretched Inayat
Ullah to the gun, and the method of the binding was
this. The prisoner was placed standing in front of
the piece, the muzzle pressed against the small of his
back. His body and wrists were bent back and lashed
to the tops of the wheels, while below in the same way
his ankles were bent back and lashed to the bottom
of the wheels, the victim thus being as it were, a
spread eagle, or a Saint Andrew's cross. All was
then ready for the sacrifice to a relentless vengeance,
and the possible need for some sign of authority.
Standing behind the piece stood an artilleryman with
a priming horn and wad, and opposite him another
with a lighted port fire.
One moment of suspense, and then the new wazir
himself gave the order to fire. The great gun roared,
and away to the horizon flew the mortal remains of
the gallant Inayat Ullah butchered to make a
holiday even as the Romans did, his poor arms and
legs dropping back to the wheels to which they were
lashed. The head blown high in the air, fell down on
to the floor of the bastion. ..." And none so poor
to do him reverence."
CHAPTEK XXVIII
THE STRATAGEM OP FEEOZ TUGLAK
ALL through the night the wearied horsemen continued
their forced march from Gurais towards the Holy City,
and by the small hours of the morning had reached
Bandipura at the foot of the Tragbal, by the shores of
the great Wular Lake. Here happily some food for
man and beast could be found. Knocking up the
sweetmeat-sellers, some jellabies, tea and curds could be
got for the men. For the horses it was possible to find
materials for a pudding of flour and sugar and powdered
ginger, such as would keep them going for another
twelve hours. The horses fed, the men swallowed
what they could get, and fell asleep by the roadway
holding their horses' reins, too tired even to set a watch.
And David, old in the minor truths of war, saw that
it was wiser to risk a surprise than to force over-tired
men beyond the powers of the bonds of discipline.
It was therefore David and Tone themselves who
shared the watch, for even Yar Khan slept. Tone had
unwillingly left his guns and his treasured Igd-i-gul,
urged thereto by David, who realized that the troops
alone could, if need be, make their peace with the new
administration, while Tone might easily be sacrificed.
It was in the hour of trouble that the Irishman showed
especially to advantage, and as he grew more tired,
and the men around more dejected, the higher rose
299
300 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
his natural spirits. From three a.m. till seven, and
not a second more, did David the inexorable allow that
bivouac sleep, having dozed but the last two hours
himself. Away on the western slopes the sun shone
merrily across the valley, though Bandipura still lay
in the shadows of Haramukh, when the tired men
stretched themselves, and demanded more tea and
curds from the sweet-sellers and watered their horses
in the lake. Yar Khan was about in all his vigour,
and in half an hour the party started for Srinagar.
Wounds, death, and broken-down horses had now
reduced their total to little over a hundred. The
surviving animals, however, were of wire, and could
be relied on, and David believed that the men, certainly
those of his own rissalafi, could all be trusted to follow
his fortunes. Indeed, he felt that every stout heart
and trusty sword would be needed if Miriam was to be
carried safe out of the turmoil of the valley. All down
the slow winding track from the Tragbal, with tho
tired horses slipping and stumbling there had been one
echo in his heart and mind, just Miriam ! Miriam !
with a plaintive wail in tune to the chorus of the
slipping of the horses' feet on the dew- wet rocks. Now
as the refreshed cavalcade trotted off on the road to
the city, the same refrain beat to a new tune. The
horses' hoofs rattled and the accoutrements clattered,
and the sun shone, and the tune was a cheerful one,
Mir-Mir-Miriam ! Mir-Mir-Miriam ! till even the tired
horses took up the spirit of hope and the desire for action.
David and Yar Khan rode at the head, and talked of
plans. They would get to the Shergarhi if possible,
and join forces with Inayat Ullah, get the garrison
of the Hari Parbat, all staunch they knew. They
would make Altamish smell hell as he had never smelt
it before. Some must swim while others sink, no
doubt, but that Altamish must be brought low. What
THE STKATAGEM OF FEROZ TUGLAK 301
if they had got the Shergarhi and carried off the ladies
or refused to give them up. Ah, well ! there would be
riot of chargers and revel of blows with a vengeance.
Tone rode up to join in the discussion. Could he come
by more cannon if need be ? Yes, there were three
good pieces left in Hari Par bat, and there were two in
the Shergarhi. One on the bastion at the main gate,
one in the godown. Could he get ammunition for
them ? " May I be damned, rammed and crammed down
the big gun of Athlone if I can't," said he. " Give us
enough force to maintain ourselves, I'll fit out your
cannon."
So full of spirit and hope and plans they rode on,
resting their horses for a few minutes every three or
four miles lest they give way altogether. But once again
the race is not always to the swift neither the victory to
the strong. Among those who had openly joined forces
with Altamish on the occasion of the memorable garden
party in The Garden of Sweet Breezes, was Feroz
Tuglak, one of the " Lords of Turan," lord of the manor
by imperial grant, of the country east of the Jhelum,
and north of the Sindh between the Wular Lake and
that river. With three hundred horse and some
khassadars, he had been deputed to prevent any of
Salabat Khan's followers returning to Srinagar. Lord
of the manor of Bandipura, he easily made it his business
to know what passed there ; and while the tired
troopers had drunk curds and slept, a tobacco seller
had left his booth and taken count of the number of
troopers, and then sped away on a pony to the village
of Pulpattan, near where dwelt my lord Feroz Tuglak.
Now, as the country was heavy with rice cultivation
and marsh, the only road to the city lay through that
village. Therefore, the Toork had arranged cunningly.
An officer of his, with fifty of his khassadars armed with
matchlocks, would remain hid in the village at the far
302 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
of which would be a barricade. Outside on the
village green his three hundred Toork troopers would be
drawn up, awaiting to charge in and to close the exit,
while the matchlock men harried Yar Khan's force as
as h was well involved in an apparently peaceful
All of which was simple enough. A little
wfafle after ten o' the morning, the advanced troopers
of Eraser's corps came into the village and cantered
ihtMtgft. It was a longish mud and dab village of one
single street, and they did not come on the barricade
tiD their main body was well involved. Apprised of
trouble in front, David dashed forward to reconnoitre.
Then it was that the matchlocks opened, some one
rolling a tom-tom. From every house a long barrel
protruded and flashed. Back galloped Yar Khan
and Tone to endeavour to extricate the party, the
way it had come, only to find the entrance of the village
now closed with two bulloek-earte and a row of match-
locks. Then returning to the front they met the whole
of the Toork mounted retainers, and a wild fierce
mdte ensued lance and scimitar and flint horse
pistol, lVmg biting horse and yelling partisan till
there was an inextricable jam in the main road. From
the roofs matchlock men were picking off the Afghan
troopers, and very soon a house caught fire to spread
furiously in the morning breeze. Hell for leather and
devil take the hindmost ! hit and hit again ! curse the
swine that blocks the way ! Die and be damned to
you ! Altamish ! Altamish ! Fateh Afghannon,
Ferassa Sahib fci Jai ! On the roofs of the house that
burnt not, the busy mockers loaded their matchlocks
again and again to fire into the jam of Afghan troopers.
Many of the latter fell to be trampled under the bones,
many carried away a matchlock ball ; but at last Yar
Khan followed by several of the harder spirits cut their
way through the Toork? out past the burning bouses
THE STRATAGEM OF FEROZ TUGLAK 803
into the green and then galloped away down a side path
that led to the Jhelum. A few hundred yards gone,
he pulled up for the dropping horses, and waited to see
if more would join him. And as he waited he bitterly
thought of the world lost, and the end of the Afghan
faction in the province. Nothing to do but to set his
face to the world once again ! He had done it often
enough, but was gey old to do it once more. Gradually
there dribbled out to him thirty or forty of Eraser's men,
and a dozen or so of his own. The shouting died away
and none seemed to pursue. And Yar Khan turned
his back on the blazing village, and the shouts of the
villagers fighting the flames, to head for a ferry on the
Jhelum, across which he would allow rest and sleep
but not before.
What had become of David ? Ah ! that was the
chief thought in the brave old mind as he slowly led
away his weary wounded following. It was certainly
madness to go and look for him. As a matter of fact
David himself was safe. Riding forward when his
men had first reported an obstacle, he had found the
barricade with matchlock men behind it, and had
galloped back to find himself cut off from Yar Khan by
the press of horsemen. With him were now but four
survivors, Nihal Singh the duffedar, Gul Jan, and two
Rajput troopers, who had been forward with Nihal Singh
as the advance points. There was only one thing to do,
and that was get clear, so the five turned back towards
the barricade. Coming down the street towards them
where a dozen or so Toork troopers, some carrying
lances. Before these could recover themselves, or
bring their lances to the charge, David's party dashed
headlong into them overturning two, while at least
one head rolled from its shoulders beneath Nihal
Singh's practised sweeping cut. Through the crowd
they dashed on to the barricade to find it only
304 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIE
composed of thorn scrub. Straight into the face of the
thorns and the matchlocks David led them, which in
itself was enough to paralyze the aim of the muske-
teers. Stirred to a supreme effort, four of the tired
horses leapt the barrier, David cutting clown one of the
defenders as he did so, and it was not till they were a
hundred yards clear that they counted heads and found
one of the Eajputs missing. Alas ! a musket ball
had penetrated his horse which had fallen across the
barricade. A few seconds had sufficed for the rider
to be knifed before he could struggle free from his
horse. The mercy of God had come in a swift end.
It was no time to wait for those who fell by the way,
and David preferred to put four hundred yards between
him and the hostile matchlocks ere he drew rein.
Slipped from their stumbling horses, they took cover
behind a clump of Lombardy poplar. The roar in the
village still continued, and the flames and smoke rose
high in the air. Then a party of horse rode up, and
David saw the barrier being cleared away ; evidence
enough that safety only lay in flight, and for three more
weary miles he and his three followers urged their
flagging steeds to greater efforts. Passing over an
open karewa, and coming to a hamlet it seemed as if
the pursuit had come to an end, and they dare halt
to give their horses a drink and buy some milk for
themselves. A few minutes for thought and further
plans was a necessity.
His reflections were not cheering. Yar Khan and
the rest of his followers were either killed, captured or
had escaped in other directions ; and it was impossible
to get touch with them. Every instinct urged him
on to the city to see what had become of Miriam, and
how he could serve her. There, there might be some
troops still faithful to the Afghan ascendency, and if
not he would, at any rate, be able to do or arrange
something. So to the city they would go ; but if any-
thing of use was to be done, fresh cattle was a necessity,
and fresh cattle was an unlikely happening. Then up
spoke Gul Jan, the orderly wise among men, and said
" Your Honour, do you not know that that old
Afghan sirdar of the Suddozai family lives near here.
He is much too careful a trimmer to help you with men
or anything likely to get himself into trouble with the
Toork faction, but he will give you fresh horses for
love of Salabat Khan. His residence is not a mile
from here, and this is his land we are on."
So as David knew the name, and had seen the old
man in durbar, he decided to clutch at this opportunity,
and led the way over the karewa to the house of Sayad
Ali Khan Suddozai, a cadet of the clan royal of Kabul.
Gul Jan's acumen was not falsified. The old sirdar
knew more of David than David did of him, and had a
genuine affection for Salabat Khan and all who served
him. He promised them fresh horses and spread a meal
before them. But their demand for news from the
city he could not gratify. After eating it was decided
to rest there till later in the afternoon, so that they
should reach Srinagar after dark. It was past four and
the shadows lengthening when Sayad Ali woke his
guests, and announced their horses at the door.
" If you want information from the town," said he,
" you will find that Allah Visayah, the famous courtesan
of the Thunbi Bazaar, is at her jhok my boatmen say
she came down by shikara * half an hour ago. If you
ride by, you will get news, I dare say."
Mounting their horses, and thanking the old man for
his kindliness, David rode straight across to Allah
Visayah's jhok, on the banks of the Sindh, and without
ceremony rode up to her verandah. The lady was
sitting outside nursing a child.
* Canoe.
X
306 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
" Tell me what has happened in the city ? "
Allah Visayah looked up, and saw a handsome
enough man, indeed, she knew him well by sight, and
all about him.
" Happen enough," said she. " The Lord Altamish
is proclaimed Governor, and he has occupied the
treasury, and by now the Shergarhi."
" What of Salabat Khan's ladies ? "
" What do I care about them ? No doubt the Lord
Altamish and that old Afghan renegade, Daoud Shah,
has them by now. Men said he was to have that
Miriam. If I did know, I would hardly tell a stranger
either, not unless it was worth while."
David was not in the mood to stop at trifles.
" Dismount, Gul Jan, and come here."
Gul Jan obeyed.
" Take that child, and get on your horse."
Gul Jan again obeyed.
The mother sprang fiercely to her feet. " Give mo
that child at once ... oh, sir ! give me that child ! "
" I shall do nothing of the kind till I know all you
know of the Lady Miriam."
" What should I know more of your precious
Miriam ? "
" You know all the news of the palace. If you do
not tell me more, you shall never see that child again.
I have no time to waste. Pinch that child, Gul Jan."
The child woke and yelled with pain.
" Oh ! cease, cease torturing my child. I only know
that that old Feringhi padre was going to take the
ladies up towards Islamabad, and I lent him a boat."
" Give the child to the woman. Here, woe betide
you if it be false news; take this gift for the child," and
he tossed her a small chain with a silver charm.
" Get mounted, all of you; about ! canter ! " and they
hurried down to the ford on the Sindh, and rode on and
THE STEATAGEM OF FEROZ TUGLAK 307
on through the evening towards the gardens of
Srinagar.
A couple of miles outside the city, just as the sun
had set, two horsemen came out from a grove, in which
they had evidently been hiding. Gul Jan recognized
them as belonging to the palace guard ; and calling
to them, was told the whole pitiful story of the death
of Inayat Ullah, and the treachery of Daoud Shah, and
once again David swore a deep oath of vengeanco
should opportunity be his. The story of the departure
of the ladies with the Abbe was confirmed, and one of
the two men offered to join David, an offer gladly
accepted. So they rode on till past midnight, without
going through the city, and halted for the night in a
willow grove on the banks of Jhelum, eight miles as the
crow flies, above the city, and half a mile or so from the
high-road to Islamabad.
THE TEMPLE OP THE SUN
ABOUT the hour that David was escaping from Pul-
pattan, the Abbe and his novel cure were paddled
briskly away from the Shergarhi, and then across
stream to the tow-path, where three of the crew had
harnessed themselves to a tow-rope to proceed steadily
up the river. The noonday heat shimmered on the
water and the ripples muttered drowsily under the
prows, and the anxious ladies dropped off to sleep ;
only Miriam coming out from time to time to talk with
the padre. The countryside was dreamily peaceful,
and they attracted no notice from the peasantry or
other passers-by on the water, as they pursued their
way. After some hours' steady going they pulled up
under a chenar tree to rest the men on the towpath
and obtain some milk and fruit. Kipe baskets of
cherries and apricots were offered for sale, and the
Abbe found himself among friends ; for an old lady
on the bank eagerly told how she had been to Srinagar
to have her bad eyes cured by the padre sahib. The
Abbe made this an occasion to buy eggs and rice, and
lay in supplies to add to those they had been able to
get away with. Then, just as they were starting again,
Allahdad, the Chib rode up, and said that when they
had left the palace all was quiet, and that he and his
men would now follow the towpath of that winding,
303
THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN 309
meandering river that gave rise to the world-famous
shawl pattern. They would ride on to Bij-Bihara and
camp under the chenar trees in the old Mogul garden
there ; and suggested, that, if possible, the boat should
tow past there at night when no one would be about.
That should bring them to Islamabad very early in the
morning. While they were holding converse a dull
rumble told them that a cannon had been fired away
in the city ; but it was not till later that they learnt
that it had hurled brave and faithful Inayat Ullah into
eternity. They were fortunate, too, in getting help
in the towing, and six relatives of the old lady towed
them for twelve miles up stream while their own crew
slept.
The night was one of peace and bright moonlight,
alternated by the passing of clouds and an increasing
apprehension of thunder which never came. But
the oppression of the night was nothing to the oppres-
sion that sat heavy on Miriam. All the happy thoughts
of David were overpowered by the obsession of that
vision at the shrine of Indra, evil enough when all
went well, appalling in their present situation. But
at last the night was drawing to a close, and they
arrived without adventure at Islamabad, just as the
early breeze heralded the approach of dawn. Hero
Allahdad was again in waiting, having also hailed them
once during the night at Bij Bihara. This time, how-
ever, all was not well.
" Huzoor, we must be very careful, the folk here say
that Inayat Ullah has been blown from a gun in the
Havi Parbat. Half an hour gone a mounted messenger
rode through Islamabad proclaiming a reward of a
thousand rupees chilki for the capture of the Lady
Miriam. Especially had the messenger sent men along
the road over the passes to the Punjab by Verinag.
We cannot make for there yet. I only know one place
310 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
where your honours will be safe concealed for a while.
The three ladies must come with us across the karewa
to the old ruined temple of the Sun at Martand. But
the fewer there be the better ; especially if we have
to take to flight again. The serving women must go
back to Srinagar in the boat. At Martand we may lie
hid for a few days and then escape to Cheneni over the
Banihal. If the worst come to the worst we must go
by Kishtwar."
The Abbe spoke for the party. " You are right
about Martand, my son, I have often been there, and it
is a lonely spot. But can we get food there ; and how
can these ladies get across the ~karewa ? "
" I have arranged for some supplies, and have here
on a pony enough for two days, Huzoor. I have three
ponies here, too, for the ladies to ride. If we get off
before daylight, no one will think of looking out
there."
" Allahdad, you must be mad," broke in the Bibi
Alana. " How are ladies like us to go without our
women. Have you forgotten who we are ? "
" Ndhin, Sahiba! This dustlike one knows full
well, but as the padre sahib will tell you, in war and
rebellion, the great folk have to shift like the humble.
If your ladyship wishes to escape, these women must
be sent away ; we cannot move unnoticed through a
country with unnecessary following."
" Indeed, Alana," broke in Miriam, " we must do
as this good man says ; we must let the women go.
You and I know well how Khanuns of our families
have wandered in escapes of days gone by. My
mother had many such escapes from Balk and
Kandahar. Indeed ! Indeed ! you must agree."
There was no help for it, and back to Srinagar the
serving women went. They had not heard the plans,
but lest they should give information they were to go
TPIE TEMPLE OF THE SUN 311
back slowly, and Allah Visayah's boatmen who were
to take them back were told that the party were riding
across country at once to cross the Pir by the Shapiyon
route. This would, perhaps, mislead pursuers, and the
sight of the ladies on ponies gave colour to this idea.
Led by the Abbe, and escorted by two of Allahdad's
men, the cavalcade filed out on to the high karewa
hidden by the maize fields for the first half-mile, and
emerged into the open just as the first faint flush of
dawn tinged the mountain tops. The wily old Chib
then paraded the streets of Islamabad and called loudly
for the village headman and the watchman. To him
those worthies came running, the call of armed soldiers
being best obeyed promptly.
" Ohe headman, jee, I bring orders from the great
Lord Altamish, chief of chiefs, and friend of the
Emperor. You have already seen our messenger.
The late Governor is dead, as you all know. Know,
too, now that his wives have escaped, taking with
them the state jewels and much of the Emperor's
revenue. A thousand rupees chilki is offered for news
that will ensure then: capture. I hear they have gone
by Shapiyon ; but you now go and spread the news
in that direction and proclaim the reward. As you
hope for his lordship's favour so be zealous, and the
tongue of good repute shall be heard in your favour.
Stay, I must have supplies at once. A bag of atta and
some rice and lentils, at proper price, too, d'ye hear,
master headman."
" Noble ressaldar jee, all shall be done as you've
ordered. I pray you stand in my favour with the
new Governor. May a wretch like myself entertain
you and offer you the huqa ? "
While Allahdad smoked with the headman, the
troopers lolled through the bazaar and drew the
supplies required, gossiping the while of events in
312 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
Srinagar, and how the change would affect the province.
After half an hour or so, when the Abbe's party had
time to get well away, Allahdad called his men together
and announced his intention of scouring the Verinag
road for the fugitives. Accepting the headman's good
wishes for their success, they rode out towards Verinag,
and behind the willow groves turned off towards
Martand. Half an hour's canter brought them up to
the slower moving party, to the Abbe's relief, since
there was a chance of meeting strangers on the road,
unfrequented though it usually was.
Now the great Temple to the Sun at Martand stands
four square to the breeze on a lonely upland plain
some few miles inland from the river at Islamabad, a
relic of the old, old days when Hinduism reigned in the
province, and Hindu kings built splendid temples to
their gods ; before, perhaps, even Prince Gautama,
the Buddha, preached his great reformed faith. High
up against the skyline its ruined plinths and giant
pillars raised their heads, clearly visible for some miles
before the travellers arrived there. They found a
maze of ruined courts and shrines and cloisters,
fantastically carved with images of many gods, spoilt
when the notorious iconoclast King of Islam piled his
brushwood fires high against the carved walls and
dashed water on the red-hot stone till it split in flakes
and its beauty could no more be seen. Deserted and
imposing, solemn and pathetic, the great Temple of the
Sun stands, even as stands the Temple of Baalbeck,
where the people of idols have gone down before a
people of the book.
On arrival Allahdad and the Abbe at once set about
looking for quarters, and found a sheltered court with
overhanging cornices and some carved cloisters that
made a reasonable shelter and ample seclusion for the
ladies. A separate court was equally suited for the
THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN 313
troopers while Allahdad and the padre occupied a small
roofless room each on either side of the great entrance
looking out across the plain, whence they had come.
Good fortune also showed them a store of dried maize
stalks and hay that some farmer had stored there
for his cattle perhaps, on the uplands in winter. The
troopers soon collected enough wood for fuel, and
Miriam set to work to cook for her sisters-in-law, who
now dozed peacefully in the cool cloister. After they
had rested awhile the Abbe begged to have converse
and Miriam came out and paced the courtyard with
him. He told her of Daoud Shah's proclamation, and
she shuddered visibly. " Never ! said she, " never
will I fall prisoner to any man," and then unfaltering
proceeded to discuss possible ways of escape. Ferassa
Sahib with Yar Khan and all their horsemen, where
could they be ? Could no one find out ? What was
the victorious army doing ? Had it been destroyed
when Salabat Khan was killed ?
The Abbe went out to talk to Allahdad, and found
that he had intended sending out two of his men and
also going with two himself to Islamabad at different
times, after dark, lest they should be seen coming from
bivouac, to find out the news and get in touch with
any of Yar Khan's or Ferassa Sahib's men. It was
necessary to possess their souls in patience till evening
and watch the sun move across the heavens and down
to the mountains of the west. But the peace and
soft breezes of that upland haven was beyond compare,
and Miriam found herself sitting with her Abbe talking
once more of their trouble, and learning from his lips
the Christian view of death and resurrection and the
doctrine of The Atonement. And a very beautiful
faith for weary souls it all sounded, delivered softly in
the subdued earnest tones and musical words of Jean
du Plessis. And ever and anon it was on the tip of
314 A FKEELANCE IN KASHMIR
Miriam's lips to ask how she might be of the faith of
those who loved pity for pity's sake, and whose God was
a God of Justice and of Mercy. But always the
instinct born of many generations that a woman had
no real part in the faith of the world, held her bound,
while the Abbe thought that the hour to pick the ripe
fruit had hardly come. But they talked on far into
the beautiful cool night, and when Miriam went to
bed she went firm in the feeling that all the world lies
in the hands of Providence and that not a sparrow falls
to the ground unnoticed.
The sun was high in the heavens before the tired
and anxious ladies rose from their blankets spread on
grass, and Miriam looked out to see if the padre was
visible. Not seeing him in the inner cloister she
ventured out into the central ruined court, and saw
him with several of the Chib troopers with their arms,
anxiously looking towards Islamabad. Through the
high porch she could see a party of horsemen advancing,
and stayed eagerly to see what might befall. It was
not long before one of them, soon recognized to be
Allahdad Khan, detached himself from the others
and galloped up to the ruin. The party consisted of
no less than David himself with his four companions,
whom Allahdad's patrol had met riding into Islamabad.
David had recognized the Chibs of the palace guard and
had eagerly asked for news of Miriam, and they recog-
nizing him also, had gladly offered to lead him to the
refugees. Prom the Chibs he had heard of Daoud
Shah's proclamation and ground his teeth thereat.
On arriving at the temple the troopers went off to the
troopers' court, and the Abbe led David to a secluded
spot to discuss and hear what the situation might be
before he ascertained if the ladies would see him.
" I must see the Lady Miriam, father, at any rate.
Will she see me ? "
THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN 315
" Remain here, rny son, and I will see."
And in a minute or two the impatient David saw her
slender active form come across the plinth and turn
into his court. He stepped out of the shadow of the
wall and ran towards her. She would have eagerly
greeted him ceremoniously, but he would have none
of it.
" Nay, dearest, this is no time for ceremony. Here
on my shoulder after the manner of the English."
And beautiful, reserved Miriam allowed herself to
be folded in her lover's arms, as her English sisters would
have done, trembling yet happy and at peace. After
a few minutes of happy silence, David sat her down on
a fallen block of stone, and told her gently the story
of her brother's death and the weary return, with the
final debacle at Pulpattan, the rise of Altamish and the
cruel death of Inayat Ullah. Miriam wept quietly for a
few minutes, for the first time since they were first hurried
from their security in the Shergarhi. The high spirit
soon returned, however, youth and health and strength
added to the all-powerful effect of love soon dry the
eyes of sorrow. They then talked of Yar Khan and the
possibility of his escape with poor Tone the artillery-
man, and then of the ladies and their future. The
Lady Nur Jan they could soon perhaps convoy safely
to her own home, but Alana Bibi came from near
Mooltan and was an Alisherzai of the great Duranni
clan. To get her there would be a difficulty. Perhaps
it would be possible to leave her with Nur Jan till
something could be arranged. Then came the case
of Miriam herself, and the unthinkable intentions of
Daoud Shah. At mention of these Miriam once more
nestled close to her lover, and his heart glowed again
at the sense of protection that the action invoked.
And as she nestled, a very different being from the
somewhat masterful young lady who had ridden with
316 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
him over the Pir from Baramgalla, an inspiration camo
to him. Would she marry him then and there, the
padre would perform the ceremony, and then Daoud
Shah would have a different problem before him.
To Miriam, sudden though the proposal was, the
great boulversement of her affairs had so changed her
mental outlook, that nothing seemed unusual or out
of place. She was quite prepared to do as David
wished. He, the inspiration surging in his head,
wrecking little of legal or religious difficulties, left her
in the court to look for the Abbe. Jean du Plessis was
pacing the central court deep in thought, pondering
the news he had received in full from David's com-
panions, of the defeat at Pulpattan. If Yar Khan was
killed, farewell all hope for the Afghan faction. If he
lived and could get back to the troops returning from
Gurais, there was a chance at any rate of an internecine
struggle in the valley. The revolution, however, was
too complete to make it fitting that there should be
a struggle. The province wanted peace and govern-
ment and had a right to get it. Granted that Altamish
governed fairly the change did not so very much
matter, though Salabat Khan had been a ruler, such
as Eastern provinces rarely come by. As he mused
the eager David broke in on him.
" Father! father! I want you to marry me and the
Lady Miriam, it is the only way to protect her against
Daoud Shah."
" My son, it will take much to protect against that
evil being. Please God we shall be able to do it. But
how can I marry you ? I am a Catholic priest, you are
a presbyterian, a heretic in the eyes of my Church.
She is a Mussalmani. There is no connection at all,
that I can have in the matter as a priest."
"But you are a Christian and can marry people."
" I am a Christian, and so are you ; but I am no
THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN 317
priest to you, and such as you by any ecclesiastical
canon that will make it possible for me to marry you."
" Is there no way in which it would be possible for
you to marry us ? "
" It would be feasible if the Lady Miriam were a
Catholic. It is true the marriage could not be strictly
legal, for I am here under no ecclesiastical rule, and
have no proper authority ; but it would make the
marriage legal enough for you to get it duly ratified
hereafter."
" But is it possible for the Lady Miriam to bo
baptized ? "
"It is feasible should she wish it ; and should I
consider that she has a sufficient knowledge of tho
Christian Faith to justify me baptizing her."
" Has she sufficient knowledge, father ? "
" She has, my son."
" Then did she ask you to baptize her, you would
feel justified in so doing ? "
" I should, my son."
" Do you approve of our marriage suppose such were
possible ? "
" My son, I have a great affection for the Lady
Miriam, never have I known a truer heart ; and
believe me, my son, I have seen much of women, of
all classes and many races. I have also a regard for
you, as a brave God-fearing man. I would rather see
the Lady Miriam married to you than to any man.
I can say no more."
" Can you suggest to her that she be baptized ? "
" I can hardly do that, the request must come from
her in all genuineness."
" Then, father, I must see if I can suggest it to her."
And the Abbe resumed his pacing, by no means
perturbed at a request which as a matter of fact he had
anticipated in some form for many weeks. He was
318 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
more immediately concerned with how to get the
women away married or unmarried. Then it was it
occurred to him that he might go talk with the widows
in their court to which he moved, craving permission
to enter which after some scurrying was accorded him.
Lifting the big silk shawl that then had hung over the
ruined doorway, he found the two ladies awaiting
him. He first told them of the arrival of David and
of the fight in which Yar Khan's force had been dissi-
pated. Then he dwelt on Daoud Shah's search for
Miriam, and his obvious intentions towards her, at
which the two ladies who now lent much on her were
aghast. Then he spoke of the great subject, of David's
wish to marry her and their betrothal. The ladies
were interested intensely ; but wondered how it could
be arranged. The patient Abbe gradually worked up
to his point. He could marry them were Miriam a
Christian, and dwelt on the great support David, with
his English connection, would be to them, in their
widowed state. Alana Bibi clinched matters, " In
the Prophet's name then baptize the lass and marry
her, and let's ha' done with it. In my young days a
man would ha' carried her off and no questions asked.
Women who have no souls may be Mussalmani or
Christian, and no one a penny the worse."
The gentle Nur Jan, put her hand on the Abbe's
arm and said
" I have heard much at times of your faith, and tho
lot of Christian ladies. Baptize our Miriam, and marry
her to Ferassa Sahib. We know that his mother was a
Duranni, too."
The Abbe reassured by their goodwill returned to
the main court; and there found Miriam waiting for
him, and very gentle and sweet and humble he found
her.
" Father ! Is it true what Ferassa Sahib tells me,
THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN 319
that if I wish you will baptize me, and that were I
baptized you could marry me to him by the Christian
rite ? 'Tis a fine thing for a maiden thus to talk of her
marriage ! but everything seems upside down."
" Daughter, I would willingly baptize you, for I
believe that you are really a believer in all the faith of
the Christians, and really long to serve the Son of
Man. But I must first satisfy myself on certain points
without which it would not be lawful that I should
baptize you, and then I will right willingly marry
you to Ferassa Sahib, because I believe him to be
worthy of you and able to protect you."
So it came about that Jean Armande St. Hilaire du
Plessis of the Society of Jesus, walked in the ruined
cloisters of the Temple of the Sun, holding high
converse with a catechumen he was about to baptize,
while outside the dry grass on the karewa shimmered
in the midday sun.
In the space of the great inner court they walked,
up and down on the untrod grass, till suddenly they
became aware of two figures who watched them from
the deep shade of a cloister wall. One was tall and
thin, clothed in yellow robe, the other a veiled figure
of a woman. The tall figure stepped forward towards
the Abbe, and the two looked into one another's faces.
The swami and the padre had such in common. The
dark, sad eyes of the former were set like those of the
priest in a thousand wrinkles, and each bore the stamp
of peace on his brow, as men who held the keys of
all the creeds. Instinctively the two exchanged greet-
ings, and the swami spoke, as one master to another.
" From the East to the West, in friendliness and in
sympathy. I have come intruding where I have no
concern, at the request of my companion, to offer the
Lady Miriam sanctuary in my garden of the shrine
till these troublous times be past."
320 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
The Abbe bowed his head.
" Azizun here believes the Lady Miriam to be in
great danger, and praying me to help, has brought
me in her boat. That boat can pass down the river
unmolested. She has the pass of the new Governor of
the province."
Azizun had gone over to Miriam and made her a
similar offer. Miriam explained the situation to her,
while the Abbe followed by the swami walked towards
them.
" Miriam, this holy man of peace and sanctity offers
you an asylum. I have explained to him that we hope
to get you out of the province and that you are about
to marry my friend, David Fraser. He tells me that he
understands little of the outer world, but offers
sanctuary now and at any time."
" Let us refuse it with much gratitude. Azizun
here has done much to serve me, though I have no
claim to her help or her regard."
The Abbe talked long and earnestly to the swami,
who now and again inclined his head in acquiescence.
To Azizun, Miriam explained the ceremonies that were
so soon to take place, and then whispered to the
padre a request that Azizun should stay to witness
them.
" Assuredly, my daughter ; be it as you will. We
can easily find her shelter."
It was a strangely mingled congregation before
whom he was to officiate.
CHAPTER XXX
THE HUNDREDTH NAME OF GOD
TIME and space trod close on the heels of love. The
Abbe had first thought that both baptism and marriage
should take place the next day, but late in the after-
noon, Allahdad returned with a patrol from a long
reconnaissance. The news he brought was important.
Daoud Shah, with a strong party of horse, had been
in Islamabad and gone off that afternoon hot-foot to
Shapiyon. The passes to the Punjab by Verinag were
clear of anything but khassadars at worst, and the
united forces of the refugees was now enough to ensure
safety against any such. It was essential, however,
that they should move that night if they were to avail
themselves of the opportunity, another might not arise.
David looked at the Abbe and the Abbe smiled
back again. The baptism and the marriage must take
place early that night as soon as everything could be
arranged. Allahdad thought that they should start
by ten o'clock, so that there was little enough time
to spare. Not that there were many arrangements to
make. When the marriage had been settled there had
been a pitiful little diving into their small bundles by
the widows, and NUT Jan produced a plum silk em-
broidered bodice for the bride to wear, while Alana
Bibi unearthed a set of turquoise and gold head orna-
ments that had come from her mother who was a
321
822
Toorkoinani. A marriage even at an hour's notice in
a ruined temple, in fugitive guise, appealed to their
feminine love of romance. Miriam should have at any
rate such pomp as they could contribute* though that
was little enough, poor souls! The Abbe soon came
in to say that he would carry out the baptism service
at eight o'clock, in the presence of her two sisters-
in-law and David, and that the wedding should be at
half-past eight, when Allahdad Khan, and one or two
of David's own men should be present, Nihal Singh and
Gul Jan, the orderly, and also Azizun and the swami.
He would like the inaid to be in white or in a white
veil, if they had such a thing, for the baptism, and in
anything she liked for the wedding.
So, inside, the Christian-and-bride-elect was pre-
paring for the two great sacraments of the Church of
Eome, and outside the troopers prepared the horses
for a long night ride. David, in that strange trance
which overtakes men in sudden view of the novel
condition of matrimony, paced the courts as one dazed.
It was not till the old Abbe came up and slipped his arm
in his, that the demands on the wits of the party to ensure
escape over the mountain passes to India came back to
him. Anxiously, the priest dwelt on the route they
must take and the miles to be covered, and then seeing
the young man's nerves were steadying, harked back
to the coming ceremonies, and the way of them that
he proposed. David would stand sponsor to Miriam at
her baptism, and immediately that was over, he was to
lead her out, and then bring her in once more to the
cloister selected for the second ceremony. There was an
alcove adjoining, which would suffice for the baptism,
and the marriage would take place in the larger
court with the spectators round and a fire alight in one
corner as a luminant. David gravely bowed his head
to the instructions, and then squeezing the old man's
arm in token of his thanks, passed out to the court-
yard, where the horses were picketed, to see that his
and the ladies' steeds were in good case.
The last hour of the evening dragged anxiously along,
till the Abbe came to tell him that all was ready for the
baptism. He entered into a small cloistered alcove in
the corner of which a dim log-fire burnt, with a heap
of dry grass in the opposite corner. On an old grey
stone in the centre stood a brass dish, full of water,
placed on an embroidered handkerchief, and a smaller
saucer, also of brass, filled with the red rock salt of the
bazaar. The grey carved walls looked strange in the
glow of the fire, the carved figures minus their noses
and cheeks flaked off in the fires of the iconoclast king,
grinned like hobgoblins and gargoyles, and out, through
a distant porch, lay the great grey moor in the moon-
light, which played on the shuddering, unshorn grass
that the night wind was stirring.
The fining pot for silver and the furnace for gold.
Suddenly there broke on that tense, cloistered silence,
a silence almost of the grave, a clear, sweet voice,
the well-preserved baritone of Jean du Plessis, chanting
the Quare Fremuerunt, to an old psalm tune that was
familiar even to David's presbyterian ear. Behind
the priest, walking fearless and steadfast, came Miriam
herself, and behind her again the huddled begums,
half -frightened at taking part in the ceremonies of an
unknown religion. The Abbe" wheeled round to the
head of the stone block, on which stood the improvised
font and the holy water, and pointing to the ground
on the other side of the block, bade Miriam kneel,
motioning also the begums to stand or crouch by the
wall.
David tossed some of the dry grass on to the smoul-
dering logs, and the fitful flames blazed till the red light
shone again from the features of the gargoyled idols
824
on the walls. Quietly and solemnly, as if he had been
in his old parish church of St. Marie aux Chenes, the
Abbe commenced the beautiful sonorous Latin of the
old Catholic sacrament of Holy Baptism. On her knees
with her head bowed, and her hands clasped in front
of her, the Afghan maiden awaited her admission to the
Christian faith while the fire flickered and the gar-
goyles blinked and waited as they had waited a thousand
years and more on the grey Martand Moor.
Then came the questions to which she had learnt
the answers :
" Miriam, what dost thou ask of the Church of
God ? "
And the clear answer of the maid rose through the
roofless chamber :
" Faith."
Then again the insistant question :
" What does Faith obtain for thee ? "
And once again the prompted answer of the initiate
mind :
" Life Everlasting."
Then, as David threw more grass on the fire, the
priest came round to where the maid knelt, and breath-
ing thrice on her face, pronounced the exorcism of evil
spirits, the solemn phrases fitting well the memories of
unholy rites invoked by the idols round.
Loud and clear rose the exorcism till it echoed
through the cloisters :
" Exi ab ea, spiritus immunda et da locum spiritui
Sancto Paraclite. Ergo maledicta diabole recognosce
sententiam tuam, et da Iwnorem Jesu Christo"
Making the sign of the Cross, the priest placed the
blessed salt in the devotee's mouth.
" Receive the salt of wisdom. Let it be to thee
a propitiation unto life everlasting."
When the veil had been removed from the still
THE HUNDEEDTH NAME OF GOD 325
kneeling girl and the holy water poured thrice on her
head, once again the beautiful language of the dead
builders of a distant empire filled the chamber.
" Ego te baptizo in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus
Sancti"
Then David came and knelt by the side of Mary
that was Miriam, and as the blessing ended led her away
to her own cloister, whither scuttled the begums to
take their share in the propitious work of dressing the
bride for the bridal. To which ceremony was ad-
mitted also Azizun the dancer.
In the larger chamber adjoining, the Abbe had
made the preparations for the wedding. The brass
dish and the embroidered handkerchief he had placed on
a similar stone and fires blazed as before in the corners.
Allahdad Khan the Chib, Nihal Singh the Kajpoot,
and Gul Jan Duranni had been summoned and stood
solemn and immovable fully accoutred against the
wall. Opposite them were the begums properly veiled,
and with them, Azizun, in her softest mood. And the
swami who had little enough to do with marrying and
giving in marriage looked on from his puckered eyes
with the glance of understanding. It had been
arranged that David himself, should lead in his bride,
while the Abbe waited for them at the head of the
improvised altar stone.
Thus in due form was David Fraser of Lagg joined
to Mary, his wife, in Holy Matrimony, while the fire-
light flickered red on those gargoyle heads in the temple
of
" The God of the sensuous fire
That moulds all nature in forms divine."
Eed danced the fire on the light loves carved on the
temple stones, as the Latin rolled again :
" Ego Conjungo vos in matrimonium, in nomine
Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen."
326 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
Then after the holy water, while the begums and
the soldiers wondered, and tho swami understood, came
the exhortation :
" Oremus, respice quaesumus Domine, super lios
jormulos tuos, et institutis iuis, quaebus propagations
humani generis ordinasti benignus assiste, ut qui te
autore junguntur, te auxiliante serventur, per Christum
Dominum Nostrum. Amen."
Outside the saddled horses champed a chant to the
blessing :
" Benedicat vos, Omnipotens Deus, Pater, Films
et Spiritus Sanctus. Amen."
The beautiful ceremony over, beautiful in the rich
Latin, solemn in that striking setting, David Fraser of
Lagg, escheat since the '45, and Mary his wife, left
the cloister, and waited in the court, where there came
to them, Nihal Singh, Gul Jan, and Allahdad the Chib.
Each stood square before the pair, and with that
wonderful gift of tongues in which the East is so
blest, took first his, and then her hands in theirs, and
offered their felicitations. Tears of happiness and con-
tent stood in Miriam's eyes, her heart stirred to its
foundations at the faithful, respectful sentiment in
the grip of those rough warworn hands. Now and
again it is given to men to take the hearts of others
from their place, and restore them stimulated and
strengthened, and the homage of the three warriors of
divergent races, took out and stirred the hearts of
David and Miriam to mighty resolutions. And behind
them, huddled in the shadow, stood the widows,
weeping quietly, not at their own loss and sorrows,
but in sympathy at their sisters' fateful day. Azizun,
the dancer, clasped the hand of Miriam, the bride, in
silent sympathy for a lot that might not be hers.
For a minute, the Abbe stood watching the subtler
sex murmuring : " Jouis de la vie avec lafemme que tu
THE HUNDEEDTH NAME OF GOD 827
aimes " from the wisdom of Elohim, and then had
perforce to break the thread of the scene.
" Children, we must now to horse. Allahdad has
told us that we must lose no time. Permit me ! " and
offering his arm to Miriam with all the old-world cour-
tesy of the Ancien Regime, he led the way to the centre
court, where troopers held the saddled horses. The two
begums were hoisted on to the quiet ponies provided
for them, and Mistress David Fraser helped on to hers.
Then Allahdad and the Abbe leading, with the ladies
in the middle and David at their side, the cavalcade
set out in the moonlight for a ride of uncertain length
and possible peril, while Azizun and the swami made
their way to their boat. The change from the deep
shadow of the ruin to the tense almost fierce moonlight
of the moor, unloosed the tongues and both ladies and
escort commenced to converse one with another, till
Allahdad rode back along the line to urge silence. It
were well that no wayfarers should have ken of their
presence.
So they rode away silent again into the night, with
no sound but the thresh of the horses' hoofs in the
grass and the occasional rattle of a sabre, with now
and again the hoot of some frightened owl. For some
miles the route lay across the plain, till at last the out-
lying gardens of Islamabad were reached. Skirting
the village, Allahdad headed for the conical hill above
Verinag, past tall poplars and orchards of apricot
trees, and over streams and irrigation cuts, on, past
tall double storied peasants' huts and the spires of
woodland temples. After two hours' trot-and-jog, the
party halted for a few minutes and the men dismounted.
The night had changed, and the unusual warmth de-
noted storm. Great black clouds half obscured the
moon, and distant lightning flashed across the summer
sky. David and Allahdad spoke of the weather, and
328 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
decided that they must push on as far as possible.
The storm might not come, and at any rate there was
a farm where they might shelter, five or six miles on.
The party pushed on in anxious silence. Heavy rain
would make it more than difficult to climb the passes.
For several miles the road lay through gardens and fields,
past the old Hindu palace and sacred pool of Verinag,
where the Jhelum river rises from out the mountain side.
The rumble of distant thunder and the flashing light-
ning added to their speed, and at last the road began to
ascend, winding and zigzagging up a deep dark gully.
Half-way up they passed a couple of huts and a small
bazaar, and here Allahdad stopped, just as a loud
clap of thunder proclaimed that the storm was on them.
Up to the right, he said, turned a path up the spur to
a large walled farm and homestead. Here the ladies
and the sahibs could get shelter, he knew the owner
well. He would take them up and leave his own men
to shelter in the bazaar. Down came the rain as he
spoke, and the ladies were hurried off up the cobbled
path to the homestead, with the padre and David's
own four men. The road wound up through a deodar
forest, and the rugged straight trunks stood out from
time to time to the flash of the lightning, while the
thunder re-echoed up the gully. Ten minutes'
climb brought them to a massive mud-built thatched
house and courtyard, a welcome haven at the
commencement of a wild night. Allahdad succeeded
in rousing the owner, who readily admitted the travel-
lers. In a very short time the begums were installed
in an inner room, to crouch in each other's arms in
one corner to listen to the storm, while Miriam slept
in David's arms in the other, utterly worn out with
the strain and excitement of the day. Nihal Singh
and the others of David's men, slept in the verandah,
and with them remained the Abbe", while Allahdad
returned to his own party in the bazaar, where they
and their horses could obtain shelter.
Sleep, well-earned, took control of the party, and
the confident Chibs slept without a sentry, the end of
which is death. The storm died away in the small
hours of the morning, and it was close on four when the
Abbe woke with a start, the sound of a pistol shot,
of which he had dreamed, ringing in his ears. Phew !
How vivid the report had seemed to him, and then as
he listened, another ! This time there was no doubt
about it, down in the little bazaar. The Abbe" got up,
buckled securely to his side, the rapier he had been
carrying since he left Srinagar, and walked to the gate-
way of the courtyard. It was a glorious morning, with
a hint of the false dawn, and a soft breeze through the
dripping cedars. He could hear voices down in the
bazaar. He returned inside to wake, gently, the
others, and then went back to the gateway and looked
out. The thunder was still rumbling in the distance,
and sounded as if the storm might return. Heavy
thunder clouds still hung over the tops of the deodars, to
the west, and the setting moon shone clear below them.
As the Abbe" looked and listened, suddenly, from
behind the trunks of the trees, there rushed at him
half a dozen men, followed, immediately, by as many
more. Fortunately, the gate of the courtyard was
narrow, and the old man had time to throw himself
on guard with drawn rapier in the roadway. An old
man in a white soutane seemed little enough to fear,
and three men closed on him. But the iron old wrist
had not lost its cunning and nerve. Two sharp passes,
and two Toork troopers fell, run through the body, and
the third escaped with a burning livid furrow in his
arm. The Abbe stamped and shouted, the old joy of
battle back in his faded eyes. Half a dozen more
of the assailants rushed forward to fall back before
880 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
that flashing circling steel, not before a fourth had
paid for his temerity. The old man's stand had given
time for the others to hurry out with their weapons.
Five stalwart pairs of arms were brought to the defence
of the gateway, Nihal Singh, the Dogra, leading. The
enemy hesitated, till a sneering voice in the rear urged
them onward, lashing them with biting jest and jibe.
A dozen men flung themselves at the now waiting
rapier behind which stood the swords of the
troopers. The rapier flashed and circled; the maitrc
d'armcs lunged again twice, and two more fell to a
weapon they had no ken of. Then again, the cool
rasping voice behind spoke, and the outer men in the
scrimmage died away and since the courtyard wall
was of mud, and but six foot high, on either side of the
gateway half a dozen Toorks scrambled over the tops
and dropped into the interior. Without a moment's
hesitation they rushed in on the rear of the little knot
by the gateway, who faced to receive them. As they
did so, the Abbe's attention was taken off for an
instant and a huge savage rushed in to strike him on
the arm with an iron mace, another fired a bell-mouthed
pistol into Nihal Singh's face, and the two Rajpoots
were cut down. Gul Jan rushed back towards the
house, and the remaining trooper, he who had escaped
from Inayat Ullah's party, was piked in the eyeball.
Three men jumped on the Abbe, his sword arm now
powerless, and dragged him into the court, just as
David, roused by the shouting, had rushed out of the
building, sword in one hand and pistol in the other.
Jamming his pistol into the face of a man who rushed
on him he fired, only to be seized by two others, who
leapt on to him from a-top the courtyard wall, from
which a third dropped a huge stone on Gul Jan's
head.
Of the seven men who had entered the homestead
THE HUNDREDTH NAME OF GOD 331
an hoar or so before, five lay prostrate, David had been
seized and bound, and the old Abbe lay half-dazed
between his captors, who eagerly waited someone's
orders to dispatch him. Standing in the gateway,
silhouetted against the red glow on the eastern horizon
stood Daoud Shah himself, sword in hand, a sarcastic
smile playing round his month. Opposite, was the
verandah of the house in which lay David and the
Abbe, while dragged from the inner rooms in huddled
fear crouched the two begums. Standing alone and
upright between two Toorks, was the Lady Miriam,
otherwise Mary Eraser herself, at which sight the
bound David, his arms held with leather thongs,
strained and struggled to be free.
As Daoud Shah stood in the gateway the Abbe
staggered to his feet. The Afghan smiled again.
" Aha ! gentlemen ! He laughs longest who laughs
last ! Is it meet that you should conspire to carry
off my bride," and David cursed. The curse of despair.
" What punishment do you consider fit, mistress,
for those who dare to carry thee from thy lawful lord ? "
And Mary Eraser looked him fair in his bitter,
evil face and said :
" Alive or dead I can never belong to an infidel like
you."
" Hoity t eighty, Mussalmani ! dost talk of infidel
to me."
" Infidel and faithless to turn against my brother,
a fellow Afghan and a Duranni of the PearL"
" Is that all the trouble ? good faith never troubled
an Afghan yet," but I have other things to do than
bandy words with my bride that is to be. TinNa
now, you snivelling Christian priest, and you mtihr
Ferassa you Afghan half breed. Pharaoh is dead, dost
remember ? In ten minutes you will both hang from
yonder deodar, and you may thank your stars and
332 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
my mercy that I flay you not alive for your pains. I
will hang your men with you, dead or alive, and these
two old baggages also. You, my Lady Miriam, will
make ready to return a-horseback with me to Srinagar.
Here, Solomani! get ropes round their necks sharp."
The men holding David and the priest produced
ropes. The Abbe had faced death too often to dread it
under any circumstances, and had little enough desire
to crave his life at any man's hands. But Miriam's,
above all, was to be saved.
" Ahasuerus of Jerusalem," he began, and Daoud
Shah's face changed, and then hardened.
" Old man, best tempt me not, lest I order
that flaying. Talk not to me of Jerusalem. Look
sharp there, and get those nooses over the branch, lest
I hang some of you as well."
The Toork soldiers cast the ropes up over the branch
of Cedar Deodaris, which is first cousin to Cedar Lebani,
and David Fraser and Jean du Plessis stood ready for
the hanging, while Miriam waited, dazed and motionless,
as one in a trance.
The great cloud hung over the west, and the thunder
rolled and boomed among the peaks of the Pir Panjal,
and the red in the east grew brighter, while in the
foreground, between Daoud Shah and his victims, lay
the dead and wounded in the fray. Then, up spoke
once again, Jean Armande du Plessis.
" Dost remember, Ahasuerus, of the tribe of the
Ben-i-Israel ? ' Tarry thou till I return,' was the com-
mand, but He never bade thee do evil for ever and
ever. Is the curse of the Living God so deep that
thou canst never abide the good ? Spare this girl and
this young man, if ever thou hopest for peace at the
last. See now ! I make the Great Appeal. By the
Hundredth Name of God, that thou knowest ! By
the Scattered Letters and the Day of Atonement ! By
THE HUNDEEDTH NAME OF GOD 838
the Sign and the Word that thou hast learnt ! behold,
I make to thee, the Great Appeal."
As the lightning flashed in the cloud behind the
forest spur, Daoud Shah looked and saw Jean du
Plessis giving the sign of the Great Appeal that goes
with the Omnific Word. By his side, too, stood David,
concerned only in how he might get respite to save
Mary his wife, making also the Appeal.
Then it was, that Daoud Shah remembered an oath,
he that had scorned oaths and compacts and faith
between man and man, and man and God; remembered,
too, the strange happenings in the ruins of the Great
Temple, and how the Koman Eagles had marched in
over the ruined walls of Jerusalem, and to his heart
there came a glimmer of ruth for the first time for
many a long year. Instinctively, he found himself
answering the Great Appeal and the Omnific Word,
thereby binding himself to save.
" Take off those ropes," he snarled. " Take them
off, and take the men and women inside, and let them
be guarded." Then, turning his back on the scene
of carnage inside the court, he walked out of the gate
and up the spur, and stood on a ledge looking into the
gloom below. Below him on the spur stood a Toork
trooper holding his horse.
As he stood gazing back on the ages and into the
eye of the rising sun, a fierce shouting in the homestead
broke on his ear. Down the spur above the farm,
were rushing sixty or seventy men. They flung them-
selves into the courtyard, over the walls, and round to
the gate. His own surprised followers hurried to oppose
them, to be swamped and beaten down. He turned
fiercely to his horse, sprang to the saddle, and spurred
down to the gate. Towards him rushed twenty or
thirty of the new-comers, who had already swept away
his own men. Hack and slash and shout again, they
A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
tumbled out from the gateway and at their head that
cursed old wazir, Yar Khan himself ! His men over-
powered, escape seemed impossible, but jamming his
heels to his high-spirited horse, he rushed straight
into their midst, clearing a way for himself as they fell
aside before the impetus. Bursting through them, the
level space came to an end, and nothing remained, but
the drop over the spur, a sheer precipice, from which
peered up the tops of the deodars that grew out from
the face of the cliff. The frightened horse jumped
wildly into the air, and horse and rider, Zabulon. the
arab, and Daoud Shah, of the Ben-i-Israel, his rider,
sprang out into space, and then fell turning over and
over and over in the gorge below, till lost in the
shroud of a rising cloud, " et la poussiere retournt a la
Hat Aft A 41 Jr"
CHAPTER XXXI
THE PAX BBITANNICA
So Daoud Shah, the incomprehensible firebrand of the
Northern States, disappeared over the cliff into the
cloud and mists, and his following melted away before
the onslaught. It was Yar Khan, with Tone, Ganesha
Singh, and Habib Ullah Khan, who had arrived so
opportunely, in time to save the refugees. Yar Khan
and Tone had broken away from the ambush of Feroz
Tuglak at the village of Pulpattan, and had rallied
most of the survivors at the Jhelum ferry. A few
Kashmiri villagers had been sent to let the broken ranks
know where to collect, and then unexpectedly to them
had come Habib, who had been marching the infantry
and guns quietly back over the Tragbal. At Bandipura
came the news of the successful coup de main of Altamish
and also of the debacle at Palpattan. The officers had
called a gathering of the men and had proposed that
as the rule of dead Salabat Khan must be over, they
had best join the de facto Governor. The body of their
late Governor they handed to a local moollali to bury,
and Habib Ullah and a few of his following decided to
ride away and try and rejoin Yar Khan.
The next step for Yar Khan was to learn what had
happened to the ladies at the Shergarhi, after which he
could decide on some plan. Troopers from Inayat
Ullah's following found them and told the tale of the
335
336 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
blowing away from the cannon, and the reason therefor,
and the flight of the ladies to Islamabad. Thither then
Yar Khan bent his steps after resting man and horse,
had come across the trail of Daoud Shah and learnt of
the reward that he had offered for news of Miriam.
That touched the only really tender spot in the old
man's heart. Miriam had found a very soft corner for
herself there, more especially since she had shown such
grit when David had personated her brother. For David
also he had regard and interest, but to rescue Miriam
stimulated all his faculties. One way and another
over a hundred men were still with him, and with
these he started for Islamabad. Nothing could be
heard of the refugees, but late in the evening he had
again struck the trail of Daoud Shah returning on his
tracks and making for Verinag. He had come up as
has been related with them at the critical moment in
the mountain homestead. Daoud Shah's men sur-
prised and overpowered, were either killed or fled
down the spur in all directions, much aided thereto by
Allahdad's men, who had been found by Yar Khan,
furious at having been surprised and separated from
David and the ladies.
It did not take long to release David and the Abbe
or restore confidence to the frightened begums. Miriam
herself or Mary, as she now was, stood dry-eyed but
dazed just where her guards had left her when Yar
Khan came into the courtyard, and to that old warrior's
concern, had collapsed into his arms. The sun had now
risen, and there was plenty of daylight. To make
assurance doubly sure, lest more Toorks be about, Yar
Khan decided that they must cross the pass at once.
Their own wounded they would carry, but their own
and the attacker's dead must remain. The frightened
farmer promised to arrange for burial if he might keep
the arms and appointments and any stray horses.
THE PAX BEITANNICA 337
One dead Eajpoot trooper should be carried with them
strapped across a horse to be burnt by his brother
Hindus next day. A couple of dozen Kashmiri
villagers were impressed from a village down the
hillside to carry improvised litters, and by an hour
after daylight the whole cavalcade slowly climbed the
Banihal pass and crossed the waterparting that
separated Kashmir from the Kajpoot territories of the
upper Chenab valleys.
Near the top of the pass the border post of kfiassadars
had not even heard of the change of rule, and the party
passed them without incident, to encamp without
interference in a quiet grass valley below the fast
vanishing snow-line.
The next day plans had to be settled. Nihal Singh,
despite his pistol wound, was able to suggest that they
could stay and rest men and horse at Cheneni. The
Cheneni chief was a Mian Dogra of the same clan as
himself, and his word would be taken that they would
be peaceful visitors. Cheneni was two marches on
across the Chenab. Thither Yar Khan proposed,
therefore, to go. Allahdad should then take the
begums from thence to the Lady Nur Jan's own home
in Chibland. David proposed to reorganize his own
rissalah with as many as would follow him, while Yar
Khan intended to return to Kabul with any men who
would go there. David, balked of the career that had
seemed to open for him in Kashmir, would take his
rissalah and offer it to the British Government as he
had learned that James Skinner had already done,
and if not, he would ride through again to Central
India. The Abbe, much shaken by all that he had
gone through, would at any rate stay with them for a
while.
So, through to Cheneni they marched, and the chief
there, after hearing their story from Nihal Singh, put
338 A FBEELANCE IN KASHMIR
a commodious old serai at their disposal, and sent out
tents of all kinds for the accommodation of the ladies.
For a whole month in great peace they rested, during
which time Mary recovered wholly from her shock,
while the tired horses improved daily on the sweet
upland grass. After five or six days, the begums
moved away with Allahdad and four of his men through
Poonch to their destination, leaving Mary and David
with many tears and protests. The remaining Chibs
elected to stay with David. Yar Khan at the last
moment had promised to turn squire of dames and to
come and take the Alana Bibi away to her own home
among the Mooltanis. He then stayed a week more to
rest his horse, and rode off at last with twenty men
and many protests of affection. Miriam even went so
far as to prophesy that he would marry Alana Bibi
and go manage her estates, at which they both
laughed heartily.
For three weeks more David and Mary his wife lived
alone in intense happiness in the comfortable tents
that the Cheneni chief had lent them. Habib Ullah
had declared his intention of staying with David as
second in command of his rissalah.
David still had left, fortunately, one of the Begum
Somru's original hundis, and was able to obtain from
a banker in Cheneni enough money to maintain his
men at any rate for two or three months. It would
be necessary to repay that lady later, since the cata-
clysm in Kashmir had put it out of his power to serve
her interests there, but that must wait ; the means of
existence were the first consideration.
The Abbe lay in a tent close by, devotedly nursed by
the faithful Tone, who had constituted himself the old
priest's henchman, and gradually regained the use of
the injured arm. One day David came back from a
demonstration against a recalcitrant vassal of the
THE PAX BEITANNICA 389
Cheneni Kajah to find Mary much distressed. With
her sat the Abbe.
" David, the padrd is going away, going back to
Kashmir."
" What is this, Padrd? You are surely not going
away from us after all you've done for us."
" My son ! Children ! Thanks to this dear lady's
care I am now restored. I must about my work. Can
I idle my life through ? Would that be right for a
priest of the Society of Jesus? Bather must I be
doing at once. I am going back to Kashmir, children.
There cholera is raging, and the people will look for my
remedies, poor though they be. Besides, it is all
selfishness. Work I must do and preach the faith in
due season. Where better than in that beautiful
valley which I love so well, despite the troubles we've
just come through. All my connection with the world
lies in you two, or in old unhappy far-off things. I see
you happy and safe, and my Mary here in good hands,
so back I will go to my cure, and you would not hinder
me."
It was true enough, they could all see it. The
yjadrd must to his preaching as the shoemaker to his
last, and where could he preach better or to more
need?
" Your riverence, I will come back too," cried Tone,
who had come to the tent door as the Abbe" was
speaking.
" You, my son. Why ? "
" For why ? First, because I am not going to
leave you, and secondly, because I know that Altamish
will give me service. He will trust me. All Hindostan
knows that the soldier of fortune is true to his salt."
Lucius Tone might also have added that he mourned
also for that beautiful inlaid cannon the " Iqd-i-Gul "
which called him back, and was keeping a niche for
840
him in the artillery service of Altamish, newly-made
Governor of Kashmir. The gunners, too, whom he
had trained with such care were there also. Like
the cat, he was faithful to the house and not to the
master. Where gunners were wanted, there would
he be. It was by no means certain that David could
employ him in the future.
" Very well, my son, it will be much joy to me to
have you in Kashmir. If you march back with me, so
much the added pleasure."
And so it was all fixed. The Abbe was right.
Miriam was absolutely and entirely happy with her
man, studying so far as any one could help her, the
spirit of her new religion, and the ways of thought of
the English. Their tents were homelike, for a few
of the bright dyed saris from the bazaar had changed
the bare tents to cheerful bowers, and the Abbe was
well content to leave her thus. During the few days
he was to remain, the old man would sit for hours
with his convert regaining strength, teaching her and
talking of La Belle France, and all the memories he
held dear. Each day David drilled and redrilled the
rissalah to a pitch that he hoped would attract Lord
Lake's immediate attention. Several young Mians
of Nihal Singh's clan had joined and were shaping
into first-class troopers. Ganesha Singh made them
his special charge, and as that old man's fire had all
returned with rest and satisfaction at rejoining his
Sahib after the debacle in the hamlet of Feroz
Tuglak, so the Hindu troopers were all in good
form too.
David had asked nothing better than that the
padre should amuse Miriam the long mornings when
he was away with his men, or making expeditions
on behalf of the Eajah, and it was with regret that
he saw the time for his departure draw nigh. But
THE PAX BEITANNICA 841
the old man was not to be persuaded to stay longer.
With returning strength came returning zeal, and
there was little enough reason to attempt to detain
him. He was a wanderer on the face of the earth,
busy only in his Master's business. He must do some-
where in India that which he had done in Kashmir, and
where could he more fitly work than in that beautiful
snow-girt valley ? As the loadstone points to the
northward, so pointed duty and the Holy City to
Armande du Plessis.
Since the Abbe would go, go he should in comfort,
and a litter would take him over the pass with a riding
mule led behind. Tone would have a suitable
horse from the troop, and one of the men had offered
to go back too, as orderly. The night before they
set out the Abbe supped with them, and sat long
watching the happy pair starting on their life together.
Ah well, it had pleased God to send him to another
life, and he prayed always that he might do his work
in the place to which he had been called, till La pous-
siere retourne a la terre d'ou on Va tire. But all the man
within cried aloud in sympathy to that happy, con-
tented scene in the muslin-hung tent in Cheneni.
Miriam, beaming with happiness, looked radiantly
beautiful, there was no doubt about that, beautiful
as " The face that launched a hundred ships and burnt
the topmost towers of Ilium." May peace and happi-
ness ever be theirs, prayed the old man, and he remem-
bered the passages from Ecclesiastes that Daoud Shah
had once quoted so glibly
" Jouis de la vie avec la femme que tu aimes, pendant
tons les jours de ta vie de vanite que Dieu fa donne sous
lasoleil"
Was Elohim right in calling it all vanity ? Surely,
thought the Abbe, these two, this boy and the maid,
may live a life that is not to be vain. Then as the
342 A FREELANCE IN KASHMIR
evening slipped away and Tone came in to sit with
them too, it soon grew late and the old man with-
drew with the Latin blessing for the last time, Bene-
dicat vos, Omnipotens Deus, Pater, Filius et Spiritus
Sanctus. Amen." The next morning they made an early
start with not only David and Mary, but the whole
of the rissalah there to do them honour, and every
man insisted on placing his hands in those of the Abbe,
after which they watched the small cavalcade wind
away up the hillside for several miles.
So Armande du Plessis passed away out of their
sight and for three weeks more the happy couple
remained in that upland paradise, and it was a very
polished squadron that marched away down to the
plains. The heat, however, grew considerable, and
at Jaminu David accepted an offer of a cantonment
at Udarnpur till the rains were over, coupled with
free grass for his horses in return for keeping off
certain hill raiders. Early in September he started
down through the Punjab once again strong enough to
go unquestioned along the great highway till at last
he heard that the British were camped a march away.
With them was the great Cornmander-in- Chief himself,
Lord Lake of Laswarie, still fighting for the peace of
the countryside against all the disintegrated forces
that survived from the Great Anarchy. There for
ihe first time David saw a regiment of British Light
Dragoons fresh from the famous pursuit of Holkar,
and now bent on hustling the raiding Sikhs north
once more, and with them regiments of irregular
horse, row on row of serried battalions and a horsed
artillery.
Straight into the camp rode David, demanding
audience of the Chief himself, which he promptly
got. He at once asked for service and asked leave
to parade his rissalah for inspection. The general
THE PAX BBITANNICA 348
taken with the young man's face and bearing and his
history of events in Kashmir, calling on James Skinner
his prince of irregulars to come too, rode out then and
there, to see David's men on parade. A right good
show they made, and he offered to take the lad on and
put him and his horse in charge of a district till he
learnt the Governor-General's pleasure.
So David and his wife marched away to take over
the administration of a province that was to be
managed and pacified after the manner of the English.
Before long there came an order from the Governor-
General authorizing him to raise his horse to three
hundred troopers and confirming him in the position
of a permanent officer of local irregulars, concerned
especially in spreading peace in the land.
How David squared accounts with the Begum
Somru and repaid her loan, and how that lady offered
to marry him and wipe it all out, and how the indignant
Miriam sold her own Kashmir sapphires to enable
him to repay it forthwith, need not be told here. Nor
how Yar Khan, the scorner of women, did actually,
as Miriam had prophesied, marry the Alana Bibi,
acquiring incidentally her estates thereby. Nor again
how the British pacified all Northern India except
the Punjab, and bowed out or took into their service
all the freelances, for that is another story too long to
tell here. This story as it stands, has but told how
one young freelance, taking fortune by the hand,
sallied forth to carve a career. How finding his way
over the snows to Kashmir, there met his lady-love,
as many have done since, fought for her and bore her
off in triumph from that strange wanderer in the guise
of the Ben-i-Israel, who had been the stormy petrel
of the waning anarchy till it faded into the Pax Brit-
annica and the ever reddening map. That map the
Ferassa Eissalah helped to redden for over half a
344 A FEEELANCE IN KASHMIR
century. Then there blew the Great Wind, which
swept away in a night half the old army of John
Company, regular and irregular, and incidentally the
glory of a hundred years and the Ferassa Eissalali.
To its eternal honour and that of Crawford Chamberlain
its commandant, the parent rissalah of old James
Skinner remained, a monument of faithfulness and a
memory of the Freelance.
THE END
PRISTKD BY WILLIAM CLOWES AXD SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES.
UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
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