hings going
against us, may kill me: they have attempted it once before."

Reginald accordingly agreed to remain; while Burnett, at the head of
three hundred horsemen, set off to make a wide circuit round the hills,
in the hope of reaching the rear of the fort. In the meantime the
attack in front was carried on with the same want of success as before,
resulting only in the destruction of still more of the rajah's troops.

Night was approaching, and at length the attempt was abandoned. The
order was given to encamp in the only spot where this could be done with
any degree of safety. A small tent had been brought for the rajah, who
invited Reginald, attended by Faithful and Dick Thuddichum, to remain
with him. The rest of the force, officers as well as men, lay down with
their horses picketed near them. But the night air in that elevated
region was very cold, and all complained greatly. The rajah's tent had
been fixed amid the ruins of a small temple, built by the former
possessors of the country, as the present inhabitants had neither
temples nor priests. Sentinels were posted round the camp; but they
were ill-fitted for the duty, having been engaged during the whole day
in attempting to storm the fort, while they were suffering, moreover,
from the cold. The rest of the army lay down to sleep. Reginald, with
Faithful, occupied the further end of the tent.

It wanted an hour or two to dawn, when Reginald, he knew not from what
cause, awoke. As he looked up, for a moment forgetting where he was, he
saw, by the light of a lamp burning in the centre of the tent, the
curtain at the entrance noiselessly drawn aside, and three men appear,
who, by their dresses, he knew were persons of rank, each holding a
drawn sword in his hand. What their intention was, he had no doubt; and
shouting to awake the rajah, he sprang to his feet, grasping his own
sword and pistols. His shouts awakened Dick Thuddichum, who,
sailor-like, was asleep with one eye open just outside the tent.
Faithful, at the same time, started to her feet, and at a glance took in
the situation of affairs. The assassins, if such they were, seemed not
to have known of her presence. Before the rajah could rise and grasp
his scimitar, however, the leading assassin was close upon him, about to
plunge his weapon in his breast,--when Faithful, bounding across the
tent, grasped the traitor in her huge jaws. Reginald attacked the
second man, who was advancing t