his hosts. He sat aloft in a golden palanquin, borne on the shoulders
of his followers, with a body-guard on either side.

The advance guard of the enemy consisted of several regiments, armed
with our own hand mitrailleuses, taken from prisoners. These did a
terrible execution among our wayleals.

Grasnagallipas, anxious to undo the injury he inflicted on us during
the first battle, and emulous of the prowess of our own forty thousand
bockhockids, plunged headlong amid the foe, creating a panic wherever
his gigantic birds descended. He fought like a demon, neither asking
nor giving quarter.

General Rackiron, having got his terrorite battery in position, was
eager to check the advance of the enemy by saluting him with a few
aerial torpedoes. There was some delay incidental to the first actual
operations of a hastily-constructed battery, but the daring ingenuity
of the professor overcame every obstacle. Each gun, supported by fifty
men, possessed a solid foundation from which to direct its operations.

The enemy, though harassed by our bockhockids, had worked into the
centre of our army by sheer weight of numbers. Our wayleals, having
exhausted their ammunition, had to fall back on their electric spears,
and at times were obliged to retire in confusion. At this juncture a
shell of terrorite exploded among the foe with thrilling effect,
destroying at least two hundred bockhockids.

Coltonobory, who evidently attributed the disaster to an explosion of
gunpowder in his own ranks, closed up the broken columns and renewed
the attack.

[Illustration: AT THIS JUNCTURE, A SHELL OF TERRORITE EXPLODED AMONG
THE FOE WITH THRILLING EFFECT, DESTROYING AT LEAST TWO HUNDRED
BOCKHOCKIDS.]

Three explosions in rapid succession, right in the centre of the
enemy, caused the greatest consternation, and produced a frightful
gap, where but a moment before the air was thick with an armed host.

Generals Yermoul, Gerolio, Ladalmir and Grasnagallipas plunged with
their bockhockids into the living cavern produced by the torpedoes,
and with their spears mowed down thousands of the panic-stricken
wayleals.

Another terrorite shell, thrown in the direction of the king,
destroyed a few hundred of his protectors and induced his majesty to
seek safety in immediate flight.

Not wishing to lose so important an enemy, I ordered General
Flathootly and the second legion of fletyemings to start in hot
pursuit of the royal party and bring me ba