thedral, went thither,
and even examined the vaults, when what was their horror to discover
a portion of the brass ornament of his shako and a broken sword in the
midst of several hundreds of rats, dead and dying,--the terrible remains
of a combat that must have lasted for hours. This story, for the truth
of which some persons yet living will vouch, I heard when a mere child;
and perhaps to its influence may I date a species of terror that has
always been too much for either my reason or my courage.

If I slept, then, it was more owing to my utter weariness and exhaustion
than to that languid frame of mind; and although too tired to dream, my
first waking thought was how to commence hostilities against the rats.
As to any personal hand-to-hand action, I need scarcely say I declined
engaging in such; and, my supply of gunpowder being scanty, the method
I hit upon was to make a species of grenade, by inserting a quantity
of powder with a sufficiency of broken glass into a bottle, leaving an
aperture through the cork for a fuse; then, having smeared the outside
of the bottle plentifully with oil, of which I discovered a supply in
bladders suspended from the ceiling, I retired to my berth, with the
other extremity of the fuse in my hand, ready to ignite when the moment
came.

I had not long to wait; my enemies, bold from long impunity, came
fearlessly forward, and surrounded the bottle in myriads; it became a
scene like an election row, to witness their tumbling and rolling over
each other. Nor could I bring myself to cut short the festivity, till
I began to entertain fears for the safety of the bottle, which already
seemed to be loosened from its bed of clay. Then at last I applied
a match to my cord, and almost before I could cover my head with the
blanket, the flask exploded, with a crash and a cry that showed me its
success. The battle-field was truly a terrible sight, for the wounded
were far more numerous than the dead, and I, shame to say, had neither
courage nor humanity to finish their sufferings, but lay still, while
their companions dragged them away in various stages of suffering.

I at first supposed that this was an exploit that could only succeed but
once, and that the well-known sagacity of the creatures would have
made them avoid so costly a temptation. Nothing of the kind; they were
perfect Scythians in their love of oil; and as often as I repeated my
experiment, they were ready to try their fortunes. Or