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Henry Ancrum: A Tale of the Last War in New Zealand, Volume 1

Chapter I

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Chapter I.

Auckland, New Zealand! How many a heart has beat high with hope as it has sailed into your splendid harbour! How many a soul that has felt its energies cramped and confined in the old country has thought that it would find space and verge enough for their development in its adopted new one, and has considered the road to fortune well-nigh gained! Alas! though some are page 2very successful, though many do well, and more still are able to gain a livelihood, how many there are who, after a short time, look back with sad regret to all they have left behind!—to the intellectual life that throbs at the earth's great centre; to the congenial society of friends and acquaintances; and last, perhaps not least, to the solid comforts of dear Old England—comforts which are hardly attainable in a new country, where from the want of roads and means of communication, the settler in many cases can scarcely procure the necessaries of life.

On the deck of the good ship Hydaspes, which was just entering the harbour, in the beginning of the year 1863, stood a group of three persons—Mrs. Mandeville, her daughter Edith, and Henry Ancrum, a lieutenant in her Majesty's service, who was proceeding to join his regiment in New page 3Zealand. Mrs. Mandeville, though past forty, was still a young-looking woman, with a bright happy expression of face, which appeared still more happy at the time of which we are writing, as she was looking forward to rejoining her husband, to whom she was tenderly attached, and whom she had not seen for nearly a year, during which she had proceeded to England for the purpose of taking her daughter from the school where she had been educated, and returning with her to their home at the Antipodes. Mr. and Mrs. Mandeville had been engaged to one another very early in life. He was the younger son of a gentleman of landed property in England, but his income for some years did not admit of his marrying; having, however, at last been left some two thousand pounds by an uncle, he had considered himself fully entitled to wed the woman he had so

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long loved, and had proceeded to New Zealand, where he imagined he would in a very short time be able to realize a considerable fortune. Full of these hopes he arrived at his destination, and was enabled by the advice of some old settlers in the colony, to whom he had procured introductions, to purchase a property on the great south road between the town of Drury and the native village of Pokeno.

Here for many years he and his wife had resided, living a life of the greatest privation, as far as all the comforts of civilization are concerned; but still at the same time, although not realizing a fortune, yet putting by sufficient money to enable Mr. Mandeville to set up as a merchant in the town of Auckland, a few years previous to the breaking out of the Rebellion in 1863, retaining however the house and farm, which were left to the management of a steward.

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At this house Edith Mandeville was born, but she was sent to England by her parents at the early age of ten years, for the purpose of being educated. At the time of which we are writing she had completed her eighteenth year. Her figure was tall and well formed; her dark brown hair—so dark that it was considered by must persons to be black—was parted in simple braids above a forehead of dazzling whiteness; her nose was thin and aquiline; but the great charm of her face was her eyes, which were of a soft liquid hazel, into which you could not look without feeling that the lightest word of their owner might h be implicitly relied on. I am bound to confess that her mouth was just a little too large, but then it was so well formed, and when she laughed was surrounded with such lovely dimples, that it was almost impossible to find fault with it; her neck was page 6large and firmly set on a pair of beautifully moulded shoulders, which contrasted well with her small and rounded waist, and were in perfect keeping with the general contour of her figure.

I am afraid that Henry Ancrum will hardly find favour with my fair readers, for I cannot say that he was a very handsome man, or what young ladies of sixteen would call a nice young man. No, he was too massive for all this; he was about five feet ten inches in height, and strongly built, had a broad forehead, blue eyes, and curly brown hair; his nose was neither Roman nor Grecian, it was rather a common nose as noses go; and his mouth, though good-humoured-looking enough when he laughed, was so firmly set as to give him, when his countenance was in repose, an appearance of sternness. He was the eldest son of an old officer, who having retired page 7from the service had settled with his family in the neighbourhood of London; but Henry Ancrum had during his school-days generally spent the greater part of his vacations at the seat of his uncle, Sir John Ancrum, the head of the family, at Ancrum Hall, in one of the eastern counties.

It would be difficult to describe this fine old pile, as succeeding generations of Ancrums had made additions to it until it had become an immensely large building of no particular style of architecture. Still the general effect was picturesque, and the present owner had added a very handsome wing with a high tower at one end, and laid out a magnificent terrace, adorned with beautiful statues, extending along the whole front of the building. The house was situated on the gentle slope of a hill, surrounded at the back and sides by beautiful trees, whilst in front a suc-page 8cession of terraced flower-gardens descended to the park, where herds of deer could be seen grazing peacefully amidst groups of oak and Spanish chestnut trees. Beyond the park wall extended a succession of meadows, bounded by the river Gipping, here a small stream flowing slowly towards Ipswich, to which it gives its name, the original being Gippings-wich—that is, the place or town of the Gipping.

Sir John Ancrum, the uncle of our hero, had married early in life, and it was about this period that he had made the additions we have mentioned to the family mansion. The marriage was a happy one, but no children had blessed the union, and when his wife died—a few years before the commencement of our history—he felt himself, from increasing age and infirmity, less willing to go into general society than formerly: indeed, although all the old page 9servants were kept on, yet so enamoured had the old gentleman become of quiet, that when no guests were staying in the house, and he was perfectly alone, he preferred being waited on at his meals by a parlour-maid to employing a man-servant, as he said a woman could be seen without being heard, and never disturbed your reflections by making a noise. Henry Ancrum, as has been previously mentioned, generally spent the greater part of his vacations at Ancrum Hall, and on one of these occasions, when he was about sixteen years of age, his uncle questioned him as to what profession he would prefer. Henry answered that he had long wished to go into the army; and his uncle replied that if no objections were raised by Henry's father, he would purchase him a commission, and send him in the meantime to a military school to fit himself for the profession be wished to page 10adopt. As may easily be supposed, the old officer did not raise any objections to these liberal offers, and in consequence, at the age of eighteen—about five years before the commencement of our story—Henry Ancrum obtained an ensigncy in the —— Regiment of Foot, and proceeded to join the depôt of that corps, then stationed in Ireland.

Three years passed away; at the end of which Ensign Ancrum became a lieutenant by purchase. During this period he had of course paid frequent visits both to his father's house and Ancrum Hall. On one of these occasions, as Henry and his uncle were quite alone, there being no other visitors besides himself at the Hall, they dined in the small dining-room, and Henry was perfectly astonished at the dazzling beauty of the girl who waited at table. His uncle saw his surprise; and when the wine had been page 11placed, and the maid had withdrawn, gave him the following sad account of her history.

Gertrude Chesney was the only daughter of a farmer, a tenant of his own, who had once been in opulent circumstances, but whose affairs, in consequence of several unsuccessful speculations, had become so much involved, that at his death, which had occurred a short time before, it was found that his debts far exceeded the amount which could be realized from the property he had possessed. His sons, four in number, were forced to obtain subsistence as farm labourers, and Gertrude wished to support herself also; but the question was, how? Like many farmers' daughters she had lived in great comfort, we may say luxury, but she had never been forced to learn anything beyond the mere rudiments of education. She was therefore unfit to be a page 12governess; and the only alternative, as it seemed to her, was to go into service. Having heard therefore that the situation of parlour-maid at Sir John Ancrum's house had become vacant, she had applied for and obtained it.

The above conversation took place in the month, of August, and by the first of September the house was full of company, attracted by the charms of partridge shooting, and Henry Ancrum lost sight of the beautiful parlour-maid for some time. Amongst the guests who arrived came Malcolm Butler, a first cousin of Henry's, a personage of whom, as he will be often mentioned in this veracious history, it is now necessary that we should say something.

Malcolm Butler's father was a Scotchman and a doctor, in the city of London, who had succeeded in captivating the affec-page 13tions of Miss Dorothea Ancrum, a sister of Sir John and the Colonel, a spinster, who was certainly more than of age at the period, and who having a small property of her own, and being determined to carry her point, succeeded in marrying the doctor in spite of the resistance of all her existing relations. From this union sprang three children: the eldest son, who became a farmer in Scotland; a daughter, who through the interest of some relations of her father's obtained a situation at the Court of a German prince, where she played her cards so well, that she was afterwards able to be of great assistance to her youngest brother; and the said youngest brother, Malcolm Butler.

Malcolm Butler had always had a desire to enter the army: not that he had any wish to run into any danger that he could possibly avoid, but he thought that page 14by exercising the cunning of his character, he might push himself on in the service; and, moreover, he had the greatest detestation of all work; and as to following the business of his father, the idea was abhorrent to him.

The difficulty was, however, how to get into the army; his father could not afford to purchase for him, and to obtain a commission without purchase, except from the Royal Military College of Sandhurst, was at the time of which we are writing almost an impossibility. Under these circumstances Malcom Butler was forced to content himself with a commission in a Scotch Militia regiment, which was obtained for him by the relations of his father.

At this period, however, a great piece of luck happened to him. The Crimean War broke out, and Government being speedily page 15in want of recruits to fill up the ranks shattered by death and disease, offered a free commission to all officers of Militia who could induce fifty men to enlist. Through the interest of his Scotch relations, Malcolm Butler was able to raise the required number of men; and consequently, one fine day, saw himself gazetted to an ensigncy in the Line.

Here was the first step gained; a very small step to most men, but as we have hinted, Malcolm Butler's sister possessed influence at a foreign Court; the Court in question possessed interest in England, and it was to this interest the young ensign trusted in a great measure for his future advancement.

The regiment to which Malcolm Butler was appointed was stationed abroad, but the depot was of course at home, and our young ensign proceeded to join it, and page 16remained in England until the year 1857, when the mutiny having broken out in India, he was ordered to join his regiment, which was serving in that country.