ting shower of great boulders came pouring over the crest of the
cliff above the pass, crushing men into unrecognisable fragments or
hurling them by hundreds over the edge of the narrow pathway. Moreover
this state of affairs prevailed not at one isolated spot only, but all
along the road, as far as it was occupied by the battalions of the
savages. There was a moment of helpless confusion, during which those
who were fortunate enough to have escaped the first effects of that
terrible shower stood, stricken motionless and dumb, gazing as in a
dream at the frightful, overwhelming destruction that had come upon them
in that awful gorge. Then blind, raging panic seized upon the
survivors, who turned and fled shrieking down the pass, intent only upon
escaping from the ceaseless pounding of that merciless hail of boulders,
madly fighting for precedence with their equally panic-stricken
comrades, savagely grappling with those who happened to be in front of
them impeding their passage, and either hurling them, or being
themselves hurled, into the ravine that gaped to receive them.

The scene was appalling beyond all possibility of description; it was
not a defeat only, it was not even merely a disastrous rout, it was
practically annihilation; for of the thousands of savages who entered
that pass--that awful death-trap--on that fatal day, only hundreds
emerged from it again; and they were so utterly demoralised and unnerved
with terror that no thought of rallying or making a stand ever entered
their minds; they simply ran blindly ahead until they fell exhausted,
and there lay, absolutely heedless of what might befall them. And as it
was with Mokatto and his legions in the one pass, so was it with the
chiefs and those who followed them in the other three passes; many of
the leaders--Mokatto himself among others--were numbered among the
slain; and there seemed to be nobody to take the lead or to assume
command. The invading armies had been practically wiped out, and the
few survivors had degenerated into a flying, panic-stricken mob
dominated only by the one idea of escape into the comparative safety of
their own land.

As for the Izreelites, infuriated at the wanton invasion of their
country, and fully realising what would have been their own fate had the
savages chanced to have been the victors, they relentlessly pursued the
flying enemy during the whole of their retreat down the passes, and
would doubtless have destroyed