as possible without attracting
attention.

In about half an hour the elephant was halted in the brushwood about
five hundred yards from the temple, which was not visible; but the
shouts of the fanatics were distinctly audible.

The best manner of releasing the intended victim was then discussed.
The guide was acquainted with the pagoda in which he declared the
young woman was imprisoned. Was it possible to enter by one of the
doors, when all the band of priests, etc., were wrapped in a drunken
sleep? or, should they enter through a hole in the wall? This could
only be decided when they reached the pagoda. But one thing was very
certain, and that was that the deed must be done at night, and not at
daybreak, when the victim was being led to the sacrifice. Then human
aid would be powerless to save her.

So the party waited till night. At about six o'clock in the evening it
would be dark, and then they would make a reconnaissance. The last
cries of the fakirs would by that time be hushed. The Hindoos would by
that time, according to custom, be wrapped in the intoxicating arms of
"bang"--liquid opium mixed with hemp; and it would be possible to
glide past them into the temple.

The whole party, guided by the Parsee, then advanced stealthily
through the forest. After ten minutes' creeping beneath the branches of
the trees, they reached a rivulet, whence, by the glare of the
torches, they were enabled to distinguish the funeral pyre, composed
of the fragrant sandal-wood, and already saturated with perfumed oil.
Upon this pile lay the dead body of the deceased prince, which was to
be burned with his widow. A hundred paces from the pyre was the
pagoda, the minarets of which uprose beyond the tops of the
surrounding trees.

"Come on," whispered the guide.

With increasing caution the Parsee, followed by his companions, glided
silently amongst the tall grasses. The murmur of the breeze through
the trees was the only sound that broke the silence.

The Parsee soon halted on the border of the clearing. Some torches lit
up the space. The ground was covered with groups of tipsy sleepers,
and bore a great resemblance to a battle-field strewn with dead
bodies. Men, women, and children lay all together. Some drunken
individuals still staggered about here and there. In the background
the temple loomed amid the thick trees. But greatly to the
disappointment of the guide, armed rajpoots kept watch by torchlight
upon the doors, in f