time of it.

"All we have to hope for is that the capture of Rangoon, by our
fleet, may lower their pride and bring them to treat for terms. It
sailed nearly six weeks ago from Calcutta, and was to have been
joined by one from Madras and, allowing for delays, it ought to
have been at Rangoon a fortnight since, and would certainly capture
the place without any difficulty. So possibly by the time we reach
Ava we shall find that peace has been made.

"Still, the Burmese may not consider the loss of Rangoon to be
important, and may even try to recapture it--which you may be sure
they won't do, for I heard at Chittagong that there were some
twenty thousand troops coming; which would be quite enough, if
there were but good roads and plenty of transport for them, to
march through Burma from end to end."

In the evening food was brought to the prisoners and, talking with
some of the Burmese who came up to look at them, Stanley learned
that Bandoola himself had not accompanied the force across the
Naaf, and that it was commanded by the rajahs who ruled the four
provinces of Aracan. Upon the following morning the prisoners were
marched away, under a strong guard. Six days later they reached the
camp of Bandoola. They were drawn up at a distance from the great
man's tent. He came down, accompanied by a party of officers, to
look at them. He beckoned to Stanley.

Stanley is brought before Bandoola, the Burmese general.

"Ask him if he is an officer," he said to an interpreter, standing
by his side.

The man put the question in Hindustani. Stanley replied, in
Burmese:

"I am an officer, your lordship, but a temporary one, only. I
served in the Mug levy, and was appointed for my knowledge of their
tongue."

"How is it that you come to speak our language?" Bandoola asked, in
surprise.

"I am a trader, your lordship, but when our trade was put an end
to, by the outbreak of the war, I entered the army to serve until
peace was made. I learned the language from a servant in the
service of my uncle, whose assistant I was."

The Burmese general was capable of acts of great cruelty, when he
considered it necessary; but at other times was kindly and good
natured.

"He is but a lad," he said to one of his officers, "and he seems a
bold young fellow. He would be useful as an interpreter to me, for
we shall want to question his countrymen when we make them all
prisoners. However, we must send him with the others to Ava, as he
i