he Lural Az, and that, barring accident, the fleet would
be before Phutra as soon as the land forces were.

At last the great army started upon its march. There were warriors
from every one of the federated kingdoms. All were armed either with
bow and arrows or muzzle-loaders, for nearly the entire Mezop
contingent had been enlisted for this march, only sufficient having
been left aboard the feluccas to man them properly. I divided the
forces into divisions, regiments, battalions, companies, and even to
platoons and sections, appointing the full complement of officers and
noncommissioned officers. On the long march I schooled them in their
duties, and as fast as one learned I sent him among the others as a
teacher.

Each regiment was made up of about a thousand bowmen, and to each was
temporarily attached a company of Mezop musketeers and a battery of
artillery--the latter, our naval guns, mounted upon the broad backs of
the mighty lidi. There was also one full regiment of Mezop musketeers
and a regiment of primitive spearmen. The rest of the lidi that we
brought with us were used for baggage animals and to transport our
women and children, for we had brought them with us, as it was our
intention to march from one Mahar city to another until we had subdued
every Mahar nation that menaced the safety of any kingdom of the empire.

Before we reached the plain of Phutra we were discovered by a company
of Sagoths, who at first stood to give battle; but upon seeing the vast
numbers of our army they turned and fled toward Phutra. The result of
this was that when we came in sight of the hundred towers which mark
the entrances to the buried city we found a great army of Sagoths and
Mahars lined up to give us battle.

At a thousand yards we halted, and, placing our artillery upon a slight
eminence at either flank, we commenced to drop solid shot among them.
Ja, who was chief artillery officer, was in command of this branch of
the service, and he did some excellent work, for his Mezop gunners had
become rather proficient by this time. The Sagoths couldn't stand much
of this sort of warfare, so they charged us, yelling like fiends. We
let them come quite close, and then the musketeers who formed the first
line opened up on them.

The slaughter was something frightful, but still the remnants of them
kept on coming until it was a matter of hand-to-hand fighting. Here
our spearmen were of value, as were also the crude i