to fight, and that
your way of having only a few men, well taught and knowing exactly
what they have to do, is better than ours of having great numbers,
and letting everyone fight as he pleases. It is bad, every way. The
brave men get to the front, and are killed; and then the others run
away.

"You were right. We shall never turn you out of Rangoon, till
Bandoola comes. He has all our best troops with him, and he has
never been beaten. All the troops know him, and will fight for him
as they will not fight for these princes--who know nothing of war,
and are chosen only because they are the king's brothers. When he
comes, you will see."

"No doubt we shall, Meinik; and you will see that, although they
may make a better fight of it than they have done tonight, it will
be just the same, in the end."

For the next two months the time passed slowly. No attacks were
made by the enemy, after the defeat of the assault upon the pagoda.
Peasants and deserters who came in reported that there was profound
depression among the Burmese troops. Great numbers had left the
colours, and there was no talk of another attack.

The troops being, therefore, relieved of much of their arduous
night duty, the English took the offensive. The stockades on the
Dalla river, and those upon the Panlang branch--the principal
passage into the main stream of the Irrawaddy--were attacked and
carried, the enemy suffering heavily, and many pieces of artillery
being captured.

The rains continued almost unceasingly, and the troops suffered
terribly in health. Scarce three thousand remained fit for duty,
and the greater portion of these were so emaciated and exhausted,
by the effects of the climate, that they were altogether unfit for
active operations.

Three weeks after the fight at the pagoda a vessel came up the
river, with a letter from the officer in command of the troops
assembled to bar the advance of Bandoola against Chittagong, saying
that the Burmese army had mysteriously disappeared. It had gone off
at night, so quietly and silently that our outposts, which were but
a short distance from it, heard no sign or movement, whatever. The
Burmese had taken with them their sick, tents, and stores; and
nothing but a large quantity of grain had been found in their
deserted stockades.

The news was received with satisfaction by the troops. There was
little doubt that the court of Ava--finding that their generals had
all failed in making the slig