neral.

Tu Kiu, undismayed, and brave as became the son and heir of the mighty
Emperor Choo Hoo, made the greatest efforts to get them into some kind
of array and order. Most fell into rank of their own accord from long
use and habit, but the misfortune was that no sooner had one regiment
formed than fresh arrivals coming up threw all into disorder again. The
crowd, the countless multitude overwhelmed itself; the air was filled,
the earth covered, they struck against each other, and Tu Kiu, hoarse
with shouting, was borne down, and the branch of ash upon which he
stood broken with the weight of his own men. He struggled, he called, he
cried; his voice was lost in the din and clangour.

Ah Kurroo Khan, soaring with Kapchack, while the legions deployed,
marked the immense confusion of the enemy's centre. He seized the
moment, gave the command, and in one grand charge the whole army bore
swiftly down upon Tu Kiu. Kapchack himself could scarce keep pace with
the increasing velocity of the charge; he was wrapped, as it were,
around with the dense and serried ranks, and found himself hurled in a
moment into the heart of the fight. Fight, indeed, it could not be
called.

The solid phalanx of the rooks swept through the confused multitude
before them, by their mere momentum cutting it completely in two, and
crushing innumerable combatants underneath. In a minute, in less than a
minute, the mighty host of Tu Kiu, the flower of Choo Hoo's army, was
swept from the earth. He himself, wounded and half-stunned by the shock,
was assisted from the scene by the unwearied efforts of his personal
attendants.

Each tried to save himself regardless of the rest; the oldest veteran,
appalled by such utter defeat, could not force himself to turn again and
gather about the leaders. One mass of fugitives filled the air; the
slopes of the hills were covered with them. Still the solid phalanx of
Kapchack pressed their rear, pushing them before it.

Tu Kiu, who, weary and faint, had alighted for a moment upon an ancient
grass-grown earthwork--a memorial of former wars--which crowned a hill,
found it necessary to again flee with his utmost speed, lest he should
be taken captive.

It was now that the genius of Ah Kurroo Khan showed itself in its most
brilliant aspect. Kapchack, intoxicated with battle, hurried the legions
on to the slaughter--it was only by personal interference that the Khan
could restrain the excited king. Ah Kurroo, calm an