ed with exulting shouts into the
courtyard. Then those in front hesitated. On either hand, as far as
the doorway of the temple, extended a massive wall, eight feet high;
roughly built, certainly, but far too strong to be battered down, too
steep to be scaled. They would have retreated, but they were driven
forward by the mass which poured in through the gateway behind them;
and, seeing that their only safety was in victory, they pressed
forward again.

Not a defender showed himself, until the head of the column had
reached a point two-thirds of the distance across the courtyard. Then
suddenly, on either side, the wall was lined by the British, who at
once opened a tremendous fire on the mass below. At the same moment,
the guns were run into the doorway, and poured their contents into the
struggling mass.

Pent up between the walls, unable to return the fire poured down upon
them, with lanes torn through them by the discharge of the cannon, the
greater portion of the mass strove to turn and retire. The officer in
command, a gallant Frenchman, called upon the survivors of the fifty
French infantry, who had led the attack, to follow him; and rushed
forward upon the guns. Here, however, Charlie had posted his
Europeans, and these, swarming out from the temple, poured a volley
into the advancing French, and then charged them with the bayonet.

The pressure from behind had now ceased. Streams of boiling lead,
poured through the holes above the archway, had effectually checked
the advance; and through this molten shower, the shattered remnants of
the assaulting column now fled for their lives, leaving two hundred
and fifty of their best men dead behind them.

As the last of the column issued out, the guns of the battery again
angrily opened fire. As Charlie had anticipated, the enemy, finding
how strong were the inner defences, abandoned all further idea of
attack by the gateway; and, leaving only two guns there to prevent a
sortie, placed their whole artillery on the western side of the
pagoda, and opened fire to prepare a breach there.

For a week the siege continued, and then Charlie determined to
evacuate the place. The rajah's treasure was made up into small sacks,
which were fastened to the horses' croups. Had it not been for these
animals, he would have defended the place to the last, confident in
his power to devise fresh means to repel fresh assaults. The store of
forage, however, collected by the enemy for thei