At the Point of the Bayonet: A Tale of the Mahratta War

MP3 Audio CD. At the Point of the Bayonet: A Tale of the Mahratta War

Chapter 1: A Faithful Nurse.


On a swell of ground, in the wild country extending from Bombay to
the foot of the Ghauts, stood a small camp. In the centre was a
large pavilion; the residence, for the time, of Major Lindsay, an
officer whose charge was to keep the peace in the district. It was
no easy matter. The inhabitants, wild and lawless, lived in small
villages scattered about the rough country, for the most part
covered with forest, and subject to depredations by the robber
bands who had their strongholds among the hills. Major Lindsay had
with him a party of twenty troopers, not for defence--there was
little fear of attack by the natives of the Concan--but to add to
his authority, to aid in the collection of the small tax paid by
each community, and to deter the mountain robbers from descending
on to the plain. He generally spent the cool season in going his
rounds while, during the hot weather, his headquarters were at
Bombay.

He had with him his wife and infant child. The child was some three
months old, and was looked after by an ayah, who had been in Major
Lindsay's service ten years; for three elder children had been born
to him--all, however, dying from the effects of the climate before
reaching the age of five. The ayah had nursed each, in succession,
and had become greatly attached to the family, especially to her
youngest charge. She had come to speak English well; but with the
child she always talked in her native tongue, as the major saw the
advantage it would prove to the boy, when he grew up, to be able to
speak fluently one, at least, of the native languages.

The nurse was a Mahratta. She had been in the service of the
British Resident at Poona and, when he was recalled, had entered