GENERAL ALLARD. 311 lated that when Ventura was absent in France for two years (1838-1840), his family, together with forty or fifty female slaves, lived during the whole period in this mosque without once moving out of doors. General Ventura was a high-minded and honourable soldier, much respected by the Sikhs, and also by all the English officers with whom he was brought in contact. He eventually retired from the Panjab in 1843, possessed of an ample fortune, and passed the remainder of his life at Paris, where he lived in very good style. II. GENERAL ALLARD. The second of Maharaja Ranjit Singh's foreign generals was Jean François Allard, born at Saint Tropez, a small seaport on the Mediterranean coast of France, on March 8, 1785. Allard joined the French army on December 6, 1803, his first regiment being the 23rd Dragoons, in which he passed through the various grades to the rank of squadron quartermaster-sergeant. Allard served in Italy during the years 1804 to 1806, and was transferred in the latter year to the royal guard of the army of the kingdom of Naples. In February 1807 he became quartermaster of the Neapolitan regiment of light cavalry, and towards the end of the following year accompanied that corps to the theatre of war in Spain. Allard became sub-lieutenant on the 15th June 1809, and lieutenant on the 10th July 1810. On the 31st July 1813 he received two sword - cuts in the skirmish of Aleazar, near Alcala, and a year later was transferred to the 2nd regiment of dragoons of the Imperial Guard of France. In July 1814 he was again transferred to the 2nd Hussars, and on 28th April 1815 he was promoted captain in the 7th Hussars. His services had been rewarded with the crosses of the Royal Spanish Order and of the Legion of Honour, and he held the appointment of aide-de-camp to Maréchal Brune. Fortune appeared, therefore, to smile on the young soldier, and a successful career in the military service of France seemed fairly within his reach. The fatal day of Waterloo, and the murder of his patron, Maréchal Brune, dashed his hopes to the earth, and after four years of hesitation and of half-hearted attempts to make a fresh start in the royal army, Allard decided to seek his fortune abroad. His first intention was to visit the United States, but a communication from his friend Colonel Ventura caused him to change his plans and accompany the latter to Persia, where they entered the service of Abbas Mirza, the heir-apparent. Here the friends were treated with kindness and respect, but their aspirations in the matter of salary were very far from satisfied; so in the fulness of time they took leave of Abbas Mirza and passed through Afghanistan into the Panjab. Their early troubles in this kingdom have been related in the account of Ventura, and on that subject it need only be stated that at the same time that Ventura received command of a body of infantry, Allard was commissioned to raise a corps of dragoons, who were to be armed and disciplined like the cavalry of European armies. Into this task Allard entered with unbounded enthusiasm, and with a considerable amount of success. GENERAL ALLARD. 313 Lieutenant William Barr, of the Bengal Horse Artillery, who accompanied Sir Claude Wade in his successful operations in the Khaibar Pass, gives an excellent description of the Sikh cavalry at the time of Allard's death. After an unfavourable review of the artillery (who were, however, much better than they looked), Barr writes: "We then reached the cavalry, the dragoons occupying the left. These were well mounted, and form a fine body of men and horses. On their right were two regiments. of Allard's cuirassiers, the most noble - looking troops on parade. The men and horses were all picked, and amongst the former are to be seen many stalwart fellows, who appear to advantage under their cuirasses and steel casques. Particular attention seems to have been paid to setting them well up, and their accoutrements are kept in the highest order. Many of the officers wear brass cuirasses, and their commandant is perhaps the finest man of the whole body, and looks extremely well in front of his superb regiment. . . . It used to be poor Allard's pride and amusement to review these men, and their present martial appearance is no doubt owing to that officer's constant care and superintendence." Barr goes on to say that in marching past, the regularity and order of the cuirassiers could scarcely be exceeded by the Company's cavalry. Barr and his companions had previously been much struck by the excellent way in which Allard's dragoons were mounted. This was the corps mentioned above as taking the left of the line of cavalry. The dress of these dragoons consisted of a jacket of a dull red with broad facings of buff, crossed in front by a pair of black belts, one of which supported a pouch and the other a bayonet, -genuine dragoon equipment, in which the Sikh cavalry fought, as the old quip has it, indifferently on horseback or on foot. Round the waist the dragoons wore a cummerbund, partially concealed by a sword-belt, from which hung a sabre with a brass hilt and leathern scabbard. The carbine was so attached as to give it the appearance of being slung across the back of the dragoon, but rested, in fact, in a bucket fastened to the saddle. The trousers were of dark-blue cloth with a red stripe, and the turbans of crimson silk, brought somewhat into a peak in front, and ornamented in the centre with a small brass halfmoon, from which sprang a glittering sprig about two inches in height. The officers were attired from top to toe in bright crimson silk, and were armed with a sabre only. Like General Ventura, Allard took part in all the campaigns of the Sikh army from the date of his arrival in the Panjab. It is related that very soon after Allard had begun to form his regular cavalry Ranjit Singh ordered his Ghorcharas, or irregular cavalry, to cross the Indus. The order was immediately obeyed, but no discipline was observed and no precautions were taken. No less than 500 men are said to have been swept away by the torrent and drowned. Allard then mounted an elephant, and directed his cavalry by trumpet-sounds, and moving them in a suitable formation, succeeded in conveying them across the Indus without loss. Allard was immediately given the rank of general, and received the same pay as Ventura-viz., £3000 per annum. General Allard, like his friend Ventura, was a man of high character, of polished manners, and of a most amiable disposition. Frequent mention is made of him in the GENERAL ALLARD. 315 writings of travellers in the Panjab, and, almost without exception, he is spoken of in terms of respect and liking. He showed a princely hospitality to Europeans of all ranks, and a gentleness to the natives of India which earned him the contempt of Avitabile-a fact on which he is surely to be congratulated. Ranjit Singh seems to have felt a genuine affection for Allard, and it is even said that the Maharaja's death was hastened by the loss of his friend. General Allard's death occurred at Peshawar on January 23, 1839, and his body was taken to Lahore for burial: the cause of death was heart disease. The Maharaja was in bad health, and his attendants were long afraid to tell him of Allard's death. General Allard was nearly fiftyfour years old, and left a wife and large family, to whom he was greatly attached. He was perhaps the most amiable and attractive of soldiers of fortune. It is worth mentioning that Allard, together with Ventura, Avitabile, and Court, received from King Louis Philippe the rank of general in the French army and the Cross of the Legion of Honour. Allard was also appointed Political Agent of the French Government at the Court of Lahore. In appearance he was said to have been a handsome man, of a benevolent cast of countenance; and Miss Eden amusingly describes the impression made on her by his remarkable beard. "Allard," she writes in a letter from Calcutta dated December 5, 1836, "wears an immensely long beard that he is always stroking and making much of; and I was dead absent all the time he was there because his wings are beautiful white hair, and his moustachios and the middle of his beard quite black. He looks like a piebald horse." |