ceremony and was scarcely conscious.

The Rajah's army was drawn up in line fronting the altar, but some distance
away from it. Two old muzzle-loading nine-pounder guns, their teams of
powerful bullocks lying contentedly behind on the grass, formed the right
of the line. Then came the cavalry, consisting of twenty _sowars_ on
squealing white stallions with long tails dyed red. Left of them was the
infantry, two hundred sepoys in shakoes, red coatees, white trousers, and
bare feet, leaning on long percussion-capped muskets with triangular
bayonets.

Shortly after the Europeans had arrived and their elephants taken up their
position on one side of the ground, cheering announced the coming of the
Rajah. The cannons were discharged by slow matches and the infantrymen,
raising their muskets, fired a ragged volley into the air. Then towards the
altar of Kali the Rajah was seen approaching in a long gilded car shaded by
a canopy of cloth-of-gold and drawn by an enormous elephant, richly
caparisoned. Two gold-laced, scarlet-clad servants were perched on the back
of the car, waving large peacock-feather fans over their monarch. A line of
carriages followed, conveying the _Dewan_, the Durbar officials, the
Ministers of the State and the leading nobles of Lalpuri. After the first
volley, which scattered the horses of the cavalry, the artillery and
infantry loaded and fired independently as fast as their antiquated weapons
permitted, until the air was filled with smoke and the acrid smell of
gunpowder.

The Rajah, hemmed in by spearmen with levelled points and followed by all
his suite with drawn swords, timidly approached the bull, _tulwar_ in hand.
The animal was too dazed to lift its head. The Rajah raised his gleaming
blade and struck at the nape of its neck, and at the same moment two
swordsmen hamstrung it. Immediately the _Dewan_, Ministers, and nobles
crowded in and hacked at the wretched beast as it lurched and fell heavily
to the ground. The warm blood spurted out in jets and covered the officials
and nobles as they cut savagely at the feebly struggling carcase, and the
red liquid splashed the Rajah as he stood gloating over the gaping wounds
and the sufferings of the poor sacrifice, his heavy face lit up by a
ghastly grin of delight.

The horrible spectacle shocked and disgusted the European spectators. Ida
nearly fainted, and Mrs. Rice turned green. Noreen shuddered at
Chunerbutty's fiendish and bestial expression, a