adful determination, but we
had no choice.

"What of my wife?" Ragnall asked hoarsely.

"While the temple stands she must remain in the temple," replied Harut.
"But when all is lost, if I have fallen, do you, White Lord, go to the
sanctuary with those who remain and take her and the Ivory Child and
flee after the others. Only I lay this charge on you under pain of the
curse of Heaven, that you do not suffer the Ivory Child to fall into the
hands of the Black Kendah. First must you burn it with fire or grind it
to dust with stones. Moreover, I give this command to all in case of
the priests in charge of it should fail me, that they set flame to the
brushwood that is built up with the stacks of corn, so that, after all,
those of our enemies who escape may die of famine."

Instantly and without murmuring, for never did I see more perfect
discipline than that which prevailed among these poor people, the orders
given by Harut, who in addition to his office as head priest was a kind
of president of what was in fact a republic, were put in the way of
execution. Company by company the men appointed to escort the women and
children departed through the gateway of the second court, each company
turning in the gateway to salute us who remained, by raising their
spears, till all were gone. Then we, the three hundred and fifty who
were left, marshalled ourselves as the Greeks may have done in the Pass
of Thermopylae.

First stood I and my riflemen, to whom all the remaining ammunition was
served out; it amounted to eight rounds per man. Then, ranged across
the court in four lines, came the spearmen armed with lances and swords
under the immediate command of Harut. Behind these, near the gate of the
second court so that at the last they might attempt the rescue of the
priestess, were fifty picked men, captained by Ragnall, who, I forgot
to say, was wounded in two places, though not badly, having received
a spear thrust in the left shoulder and a sword cut to the left thigh
during his desperate defence of the entrenchment.

By the time that all was ready and every man had been given to drink
from the great jars of water which stood along the walls, the massive
wooden doors began to burn through, though this did not happen for quite
half an hour after the enemy had begun to attempt to fire them. They
fell at length beneath the battering of poles, leaving only the mound of
earth and stones which we had piled up in the gateway after