Sharpe's Fortress Part 18

"Two walls?" Wallace asked.

"Set on a steep hill," Sevajee said, nodding.

"You must fight uphill across both walls. There is an entrance, but it's like the Inner Fort's entrance: a series of gates with a narrow pa.s.sage leading from one to the other, and men above you on both sides hurling down rocks and round shot."

"And once we've captured the Outer Fort," Wellesley asked, 'what then?"

Sevajee offered a wolfish smile.

"Then your troubles are just beginning, Sir Arthur." He scuffed out the diagram he had made in the dust and scratched another, this one showing two circles, one large and one small, with a s.p.a.ce between them.

"The two forts are not connected. They are separated here' he tapped the s.p.a.ce between the circles with his tulwar - 'and that is a ravine. A deep ravine. So once you have the Outer Fort, you still have to a.s.sault the Inner Fort, and its de fences will be untouched. It has a wall which stands at the top of the ravine's cliff, and that is where your enemy will be taking refuge; inside the wall of the Inner Fort. My father reckoned no enemy could ever capture Gawilghur's Inner Fort. If all India should fall, he said, then its heart would still beat at Gawilghur."

Wellesley walked a few paces north to stare at the high promontory.

"How big is the garrison?"

"Normally," Sevajee said, 'about a thousand men, but now? It could be six or seven times that many. There is room inside for a whole army."

And if the fort did not fall, Wellesley thought, then the Mahrattas would take heart. They would gather a new army and, in the new year, raid southwards again. There would be no peace in western India till Gawilghur fell.

"Major Blackiston?"

"Sir?"

"You'll make an exploration of the plateau." The General turned to

Sevajee.

"Will you escort Major Blackiston up into the hills? I want sketches, Blackiston, of the neck of land leading to the main entrance. I want you to tell me where we can place breaching batteries. I need to know how we can get guns up to the tops of the hills, and I need to know it all within two days."

"Two days?" Blackiston sounded appalled.

"We don't want the rascals to take root up there, do we? Speed, Blackiston, speed! Can you leave now?" This question was directed at Sevajee.

"I can," Sevajee answered.

Wellesley waved Blackiston on his way.

"Two days, Major! I want you back tomorrow evening!"

Colonel b.u.t.ters frowned at the far hills.

"You're taking the army to the top?"

"Half the army," Wellesley said, 'the other half will stay on the plain."

He would need to hold Gawilghur between his redcoats like a nut, and hope that when he squeezed it was the nut, and not the nutcracker, that broke. He pulled himself back into the saddle, then waited as the other officers mounted. Then he turned his mare and started back towards the camp.

"It'll be up to the engineers to get us onto the heights," he said, 'then a week's hard carrying to lift the ammunition to the batteries." The thought of that job made the General frown.

"What's the problem with the bullock train?" he demanded of b.u.t.ters.

"I'm hearing complaints.

Over two thousand muskets stolen from convoys, and Huddlestone tells me there are no spare horseshoes; that can't be right!"

"Torrance says that bandits have been active, sir," b.u.t.ters said.

"And I gather there have bepn accidents," he added lamely.

"Who's Torrance?" Wellesley asked.

"Company man, sir, a captain. He took over poor Mackay's duties."

"I could surmise all that for myself," the General said acidly.

"Who is he?"

b.u.t.ters blushed at the reproof.

"His father's a canon at Wells, I think.

Or maybe Salisbury? But more to the point, sir, he has an uncle in Leadenhall Street."

Wellesley grunted. An uncle in Leadenhall Street meant that Torrance had a patron who was senior in the East India Company, someone to wield the influence that a clergyman father might not have.

"Is he as good as Mackay?"

b.u.t.ters, a heavy-set man who rode his horse badly, shrugged.

"He was recommended by Huddlestone."

"Which means Huddlestone wanted to be rid of him," Wellesley snapped.

"I'm sure he's doing his best," b.u.t.ters said defensively.

"Though he did ask me for an a.s.sistant, but I had to turn him down. I've no one to spare. I'm short of engineers already, sir, as you well know."

"I've sent for more," Wellesley said.

Wallace intervened.

"I gave Torrance one of my ensigns, Sir Arthur."

"You can spare an ensign, Wallace?"

"Sharpe, sir."