The Keepers of the People

957He was not long gathering up the dropped threads, and bringing himself in touch with the country from end to end; and as soon as the smooth working of the administration gave him the leisure, mindful of Prince Melinsky’s threats, he set about training and arming the little army. Then much of his day was spent in council with Colonel Sayers, the commander under him of the army of Varandaleel, a rough, hard-bitten soldier of fortune who had served, wherever blows had been going, since his boyhood — in the Crimea, the Mutiny, the Franco-German war, under Osman of Plevna. When peace reigned in Europe, he had taken service with the Rajah of Gukuwar, quarrelled with him, and while making his way to the Ameer of Afghanistan, had chanced upon Prince Ralph raiding the Goyal tribes. He had offered him his services; and Prince Ralph, thinking that a man with a full knowledge of modern warfare would be useful to him, had accepted his offer, and appointed him chief of his staff. He had proved himself useful indeed, and had been appointed second in command. He was as unscrupulous as such a life may make a man, but of an incorruptible faithfulness to the man he chanced to be serving; and his admiration of Prince Ralph, who had learned from him very quickly all he had to teach of the military art, was very near a superstition. The two of them set to work to form an army that should, if possible, be better than any European army of its size; and Prince Ralph brought to the task his further knowledge, learned in Germany and France, of the latest developments of military science. Picked regiments were armed with the new rifles he had brought with him from Europe, and the rifles they had carried were distributed among the other troops; chosen men were trained to work the new guns; and the cavalry, some two thousand in number, were brought to the highest point of discipline. He was careful that this military training should interfere as little as possible with the work or the leisure of the people; and only in the evening, on fixed days in the week, did the land ring with the clash of arms and the tramp of men. Now and again the flare of beacons in the night called the whole country to arms; and the regiments would form, each in its own district, and march for the foot of the pass, or the plain before the palace, as the order came.