ime to prevent the fire from attaining the frail
wooden structure, a providential storm quenched it, and the muskets of
the Sepoys again repulsed the enemy. By this time the provisions were
all but exhausted, and there were few among even the defenders who were
not seriously ill from the alternate burning sun and drenching rain.
Death seemed hovering over the devoted wharf from every quarter; when at
last, soon after sunrise on the fifth day, the young doctor quietly
beckoned the Colonel's wife to the door that opened upon the sea, and
pointed to the horizon, where a little cloudy thread of smoke was rising.

It was the steamer bringing Colonel Burney back, in perfect ignorance of
the peril of Tavoy and of his wife! But he understood all at a glance.
The women and children were instantly transferred to the steamer, and she
was sent back to Moulmein, but Colonel Burney and the few men who came
with him landed, and restored courage and spirit to the besieged. Not
only was a breastwork thrown up to protect the wharf, but the Colonel led
a trusty little band of Sepoys to the wall where the cannon stood,
recaptured them, and had absolutely regained Tavoy before the tidings of
the insurrection had reached Moulmein. Mrs. Burney's babe died soon
after the steamer had brought the two mothers and their infants to their
refuge; but little George Boardman did not suffer any ill effects from
these dreadful days and nights, and was, in fact, the only child of his
patents who outlived infancy. Another son, born a few months afterwards,
soon ended a feeble existence, and Mrs. Boardman was ill for many months.
Her husband, delicate from the first, never entirely recovered the
sufferings at the wharf; yet in spite of an affection of the lungs, he
would often walk twenty miles a day through the Karen villages, teaching
and preaching, and at night have no food but rice, and sleep on a mat on
the floor of an open zayat.

The Moulmein station was a comparative rest, and the husband and wife
removed thither to supply the place of Judson and of the Wades, who were
making another attempt upon Burmah Proper; the Wades taking up their
residence at Rangoon, and Judson going on to Prome, the ancient capital,
where he preached in the zayats, distributed tracts, and argued with the
teachers in his old fashion; but the Ava Government had become far more
suspicious, and interfered as soon as he began to make anything like
progress, requesting the