he act, and inside it was still entirely
dark.

"Thank God, yer honor, here it is," Tim said; "and who should have
brought it, but Hossein. Shure, yer honor, we both owe our lives to
him this time, for I'm sure I should have been choked by thirst,
before morning."

Ada was now lowered to the ground and, forcing her teeth asunder, a
corner of the folded shawl was placed between her lips, and the water
allowed to trickle down. With a gasping sigh, she presently recovered.

"That is delicious," she murmured. "That is delicious."

Raising her to her feet, Charlie and Tim both sucked the dripping
shawl, until the first agonies of thirst were relieved. Then, tearing
off a portion, in case Ada should again require it, Charlie passed the
shawl to Mr. Holwell; who, after sucking it for a moment, again passed
it on to several standing round; and in this way many of those, who
would otherwise have succumbed, were enabled to hold on until morning.

Presently the first dawn of daylight appeared, giving fresh hopes to
the few survivors. There were now only some six or eight standing by
the window, and a few standing or leaning against the walls around.
The room itself was heaped high with the dead.

It was not until two hours later that the doors were opened, and the
guard entered; and it was found that, of the hundred and forty-six
Englishmen inclosed there the night before, but twenty-three still
breathed. Of these, very few retained strength to stagger out through
the door. The rest were carried out, and laid in the veranda.

When the nabob came into the fort in the morning, he ordered Mr.
Holwell to be brought before him. He was unable to walk, but was
carried to his presence. The brutal nabob expressed no regret for what
had happened, but loaded him with abuse, on account of the paucity of
the treasure, and ordered him to be placed in confinement. The other
prisoners were also confined in a cell. Ada, the only English female
who had survived the siege, was torn, weeping, from Charlie's arms,
and conveyed to the zenana, or ladies' apartments, of one of the
nabob's generals.

A few days later, the English captives were all conveyed to
Moorshedabad, where the rajah also returned, after having extorted
large sums from the French and Dutch, and confiscated the whole of the
property of the English in Bengal.

The prospect was a gloomy one for the captives. That the English
would, in time, return and extort a heavy reckoning