g, as I have
said, the musnuds or general officers were seated), and I arrived within
speaking-distance of Holkar, who instantly asked me the success of
my mission. The impetuous old man thereon poured out a multitude of
questions: "How many men are there in the fort?" said he; "how many
women? Is it victualled? Have they ammunition? Did you see Gahagan
Sahib, the commander? did you kill him?"

All these questions Jeswunt Row Holkar puffed out with so many whiffs of
tobacco.

Taking a chillum myself, and raising about me such a cloud that, upon
my honor as a gentleman, no man at three yards' distance could perceive
anything of me except the pillar of smoke in which I was encompassed, I
told Holkar, in Oriental language of course, the best tale I could with
regard to the fort.

"Sir" said I, "to answer your last question first--that dreadful Gujputi
I have seen--and he is alive: he is eight feet, nearly, in height; he
can eat a bullock daily (of which he has seven hundred at present in the
compound, and swears that during the siege he will content himself with
only three a week): he has lost in battle his left eye; and what is
the consequence? O Ram Gunge" (O thou-with-the-eye-as-bright-as-morning
and-with-beard-as-black-as-night), "Goliah Gujputi--NEVER SLEEPS!"

"Ah, you Ghorumsaug (you thief of the world)," said the Prince Vizier,
Saadut Alee Beg Bimbukchee--"it's joking you are;"--and there was a
universal buzz through the room at the announcement of this bouncer.

"By the hundred and eleven incarnations of Vishnu," said I, solemnly,
(an oath which no Indian was ever known to break,) "I swear that so it
is: so at least he told me, and I have good cause to know his power.
Gujputi is an enchanter: he is leagued with devils; he is invulnerable.
Look," said I, unsheathing my dagger--and every eye turned instantly
towards me--"thrice did I stab him with this steel--in the back,
once--twice right through the heart; but he only laughed me to scorn,
and bade me tell Holkar that the steel was not yet forged which was to
inflict an injury upon him."

I never saw a man in such a rage as Holkar was when I gave him this
somewhat imprudent message.

"Ah, lily-livered rogue!" shouted he out to me, "milk-blooded
unbeliever! pale-faced miscreant! lives he after insulting thy master
in thy presence! In the name of the prophet, I spit on thee, defy thee,
abhor thee, degrade thee! Take that, thou liar of the universe! and
that-