it. Oh, my poor mother!" added the gallant youth, as sighing, yet
fearless, he retired to his post.

I gave one thought to my blessed, my beautiful Belinda, and then,
stepping into the front, took down one of the swivels;--a shower of
matchlock balls came whizzing round my head. I did not heed them.

I took the swivel, and aimed coolly. Loll Mahommed, his palanquin, and
his men, were now not above two hundred yards from the fort. Loll
was straight before me, gesticulating and shouting to his men. I
fired--bang! ! !

I aimed so true, that one hundred and seventeen best Spanish olives were
lodged in a lump in the face of the unhappy Loll Mahommed. The wretch,
uttering a yell the most hideous and unearthly I ever heard, fell back
dead; the frightened bearers flung down the palanquin and ran--the whole
host ran as one man: their screams might be heard for leagues. "Tomasha,
tomasha," they cried, "it is enchantment!" Away they fled, and the
victory a third time was ours. Soon as the fight was done, I flew back
to my Belinda. We had eaten nothing for twenty-four hours, but I forgot
hunger in the thought of once more beholding HER!

The sweet soul turned towards me with a sickly smile as I entered, and
almost fainted in my arms; but alas! it was not love which caused in her
bosom an emotion so strong--it was hunger! "Oh! my Goliah," whispered
she, "for three days I have not tasted food--I could not eat that horrid
elephant yesterday; but now--oh! heaven! . . . ." She could say no
more, but sank almost lifeless on my shoulder. I administered to her a
trifling dram of rum, which revived her for a moment, and then rushed
down stairs, determined that if it were a piece of my own leg, she
should still have something to satisfy her hunger. Luckily I remembered
that three or four elephants were still lying in the field, having been
killed by us in the first action, two days before. Necessity, thought
I, has no law; my adorable girl must eat elephant, until she can get
something better.

I rushed into the court where the men were, for the most part,
assembled. "Men," said I, "our larder is empty; we must fill it as we
did the day before yesterday. Who will follow Gahagan on a foraging
party?" I expected that, as on former occasions, every man would offer
to accompany me.

To my astonishment, not a soul moved--a murmur arose among the troops;
and at last one of the oldest and bravest came forward.

"Captain," he said, "it is of