out of the darkness. When I could no longer make out their
faces I still struck out blindly, and heard them go down heavily upon
the pile of bodies behind which I stood entrenched. Hour after hour
that ghastly combat raged, till the corpses were thrice and four times
more numerous than those who still breathed; and at last an awful
lethargy settled down over the scene, broken only when one of the
survivors roused himself for an expiring effort that sent a quiver
through the dead and dying heap.

After that I know no more, for when the morning broke, and the
officers came to release the handful left alive, the energy that had
held me up so long forsook me, and I sank down unconscious.

CHAPTER XII

_RUPERT IN A NEW LIGHT_

When I came to my senses again I was lying on the ground under the
gallery. The door of that Gehenna was standing open, twenty paces from
me, and the stench from the corpses piled within tainted the air of
the whole court.

My first thought was of Marian. I looked round as well as I was able,
but could see no signs of her. The great weakness in which I found
myself was such as to prevent me from standing on my feet, but I
lifted myself up so far as to lean on one elbow, and in that posture
glanced round over the little group of those who survived.

I counted twenty-two in all, less than one-sixth of the number of
those who had been promised the mercy of Surajah Dowlah on the evening
of yesterday. Close beside me lay Mr. Holwell, seeming to breathe
painfully, as he laboured to gain his self-command. I heard afterwards
that this worthy gentleman had been found unconscious and almost
lifeless, on the floor; and that a lane had had to be cleared through
the dead to bring out the twenty-three of us that remained alive.

But, look where I would, Marian was not there, and my heart misgave me
that that beautiful form was lying in the loathsome charnel-house
whence I had so hardly come out. A man near me, who appeared to have
preserved his strength better than most of us, presently observing my
trouble, and guessing its cause, undertook to enlighten me.

"You look for Mistress Rising?" he said. "She was among the survivors;
I saw her brought out immediately before you. But she is not here; one
of the Moors' officers led her away out of the fort, no doubt to
bestow her in safe keeping somewhere in the town."

This intelligence served to remove my worst apprehensions, yet it left
me not a litt