of natives remained faithful, and gave their lives to save
those of our fellow-countrymen.

As we wander back through the park in the sunshine, now growing fierce
and strong, toward the Memorial Church showing above the trees, the
chief feeling is not of bitterness but of pride. That little band,
whose courage was unquenchable and untamable, were not picked men and
women, but just an ordinary crowd made up of soldiers and civilians and
their wives and children, yet not one act of selfishness or cowardice
remains to stain their record. When the last extremity came, sloth and
indifference and selfishness dropped off like sloughs and only devotion
and bravery shone out. It is grand to belong to a race which holds these
qualities as the highest good.

One incident more. When the tyrant had brought his handful of captives
up from the river he found there were a few men among them. So before he
started to massacre the women and babies he sent for the men to come
forth to instant death; he dared not leave even half a dozen men of the
untamable breed, who are "little used to lie down at the bidding of any
man," among them, even unarmed.

The men came forth, and among them was a lad of fourteen; he was only a
year older than you, but he preferred to be reckoned among the men
rather than to hide behind the women's petticoats. He chose a soldier's
death and he had it, for he fell pierced by bullets with the rest.

[Illustration: BATHING IN THE GANGES.]

CHAPTER XX

A CITY OF PRIESTS

Surely you have never before seen anything like this, there is nothing
to be seen like it anywhere else!

We are at Benares, the sacred city of the Hindus, which stands on their
sacred river, the Ganges. We have taken a boat and have floated out into
the current, and are looking up with amazement at the spectacle before
us. The city rises high on the banks, and towers and minarets and domes
of a curious long-drawn-out shape, glittering in the sun like gold,
arise out of the flat roofs. Down to the river at every opening between
the houses stretch stairways, as you know called _ghauts_, some broad
and some narrow. We judge that they are there, though we cannot see the
steps, for every inch is covered by a moving mass of people, clothed in
the colours of the rainbow. You have often turned a kaleidoscope over
and over, and watched the bits of coloured glass falling into strange
patterns. Half shut your eyes and make a tube of your hands