f the Stranglers, who would follow you hither to revenge the death of
their chiefs, Providence having chosen you to deliver those three great
criminals to justice. Heaven will bless you!--Go and wait for me at the
door of the governor's house; I will introduce you. The matter is so
important that I do not hesitate to disturb him thus late in the night.
Go quickly!--I will follow on my side."

The steps of Mahal were distinctly audible, as he withdrew precipitately,
and then silence reigned once more in the house. Joshua returned to his
desk, and hastily added these words to the despatch, which he had before
commenced:

"Whatever may now happen, it will be impossible for Djalma to leave
Batavia at present. You may rest quite satisfied; he will not be at Paris
by the 13th of next February. As I foresaw, I shall have to be up all
night.--I am just going to the governor's. To-morrow I will add a few
lines to this long statement, which the steamship 'Ruyter' will convey to
Europe."

Having locked up his papers, Joshua rang the bell loudly, and, to the
great astonishment of his servants, not accustomed to see him leave home
in the middle of the night, went in all haste to the residence of the
governor of the island.

We now conduct the reader to the ruins of Tchandi.

[5] This report is extracted from Count Edward de Warren's excellent work,
"British India in 1831."--E. S.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE RUINS OF TCHANDI.

To the storm in the middle of the day, the approach of which so well
served the Strangler's designs upon Djalma, has succeeded a calm and
serene night. The disk of the moon rises slowly behind a mass of lofty
ruins, situated on a hill, in the midst of a thick wood, about three
leagues from Batavia.

Long ranges of stone, high walls of brick, fretted away by time,
porticoes covered with parasitical vegetation, stand out boldly from the
sheet of silver light which blends the horizon with the limpid blue of
the heavens. Some rays of the moon, gliding through the opening on one of
these porticoes, fall upon two colossal statues at the foot of an immense
staircase, the loose stones of which are almost entirely concealed by
grass, moss, and brambles.

The fragments of one of these statues, broken in the middle, lie strewed
upon the ground; the other, which remains whole and standing, is
frightful to behold. It represents a man of gigantic proportions, with a
head three feet high; the expression of the count