hroats to fall upon us, and treat us
as they do all unarmed men."

"His Highness the Maharajah gives you his word that your lives will be
spared."

"And if we refuse to surrender, what then?"

"Your bodies will be given to the crows and vultures," said the officer.
"For by sundown nothing of you will be left alive."

"Look here, sir," said the colonel; "have you ever read the Bible?"

"No; I read the Koran," said the native officer, whose haughty,
overbearing way seemed to be humbled before the stern Englishman who
addressed him.

"Read in the Bible, too, and you will find there about how one Rabshakeh
came summoning a people to surrender. He boasted, and so do you."

"Do you surrender?" said the officer, with an attempt to resume his
haughty tone of supremacy.

"No. Go and tell your mutinous master that we are ready to meet and
punish him and his treacherous following of traitors, who are false to
the queen they swore to serve. Tell him that if he will lay down his
arms, and surrender to her Majesty's and the great Company's troops, he
will have justice done, and to send no more messages here. They are
insults to honourable gentlemen and their followers."

"Then you refuse his highness's mercy?" said the officer, haughtily.

"Back, sir, and deliver your message," cried the colonel; "and tell his
highness that if he dares to send any of his insolent mutinous
scoundrels here again, I shall fire upon them. A flag of truce is not
to protect traitors."

The man scowled, and seemed to writhe at the contemptuous manner in
which he had been treated. Then, in obedience to long habit, he saluted
and rode back with his men.

"Yes, we must act at once," said the colonel; "and take the initiative."

"In, quick!" I shouted, as I caught sight of a movement in front; and
so cleverly and quickly was the manoeuvre carried out, that as the three
officers passed between the guns, a column of mounted men came tearing
along the street.

But I was ready, and one gun thundered out its defiance, the shot
sending the column into confusion; but they dashed on, and were within
forty yards of us when the second gun bellowed with such dire effect
that the foremost men turned and fled, throwing those who still advanced
into confusion, and giving our men time to reload; while the infantry
commenced firing from the windows on either side, and a company waiting
a hundred yards away in reserve came up at the double, and, with fix