all
the late combatants were more or less wounded--many very severely so--
the building was more like a hospital than anything else, and no one was
particularly sorry when the great doors were opened in the morning, and
an announcement was made by the officer on guard that all must leave the
place to obtain food, and that the Holy Three would sit in judgment upon
the prisoners at high noon that very day.

This judgment was a very impressive affair, and was held in the public
hall. In two long lines sat the combatants of the previous day, facing
one another on opposite sides of a square, and all closely guarded by
the Mormon host. At the head of the room sat the Ancient Prophet,
supported by two other very venerable-looking men--these three being the
accredited representatives in Africa of the Mormon Holy Three--whilst at
the lower end of the square, huddled together like frightened sheep,
were the women and children of Equatoria, who knew not what to expect
from the stern judges, whose iron code of laws was, they were well
aware, as unchanging as the laws of the Medes and Persians.

Kenyon, who was, of course, by profession, a physiognomist, completely
forgot all his own personal danger in the absorbing interest which he
took in the varied and changing expressions of the anxious faces which
surrounded him on every hand.

The fallen and discomfited slavers looked what they were--partly sullen,
partly indifferent, and wholly despairing, for well they knew that no
mercy could be expected at the hands of the tribunal into whose clutches
they had fallen; Zero, utterly mad with rage, and sulky as a bear;
whilst it almost made the beholder laugh to notice the striking faces of
Amaxosa the Zulu, and Barad, the Chieftain of the Stick. The eyes of
these men were positively like coals of fire, and were absolutely
riveted on the hated countenance of the slaver-chief, who seemed almost
uneasy under the burning intensity of their threatening gaze.

Grenville, chivalrous as ever, was busily endeavouring to infuse hope
and comfort into the heart of poor Lady Drelincourt, who was the only
person in the assembly allowed to sit in the presence of the judges.

When perfect silence had been obtained, the old Prophet rose to his feet
and commenced a direct and startling indictment of Zero and his band of
ruffians, who had, he said, robbed and pillaged the fraternity of the
Elect in the most impudent and bare-faced manner, and had, mor