up their ground in the very middle of the open square or tank,
round which the bungalows were built!

"'Ho, warder!' shouted I (while the frightened and trembling
Belinda clung closer to my side, and pressed the stalwart arm that
encircled her waist), 'down with the drawbridge! see that your
masolgees' (small tumbrels which are used in place of large
artillery) 'be well loaded: you, sepoys, hasten and man the
ravelin! you, choprasees, put out the lights in the embrasures! we
shall have warm work of it to-night, or my name is not Goliah
Gahagan.'

"The ladies, the guests (to the number of eighty-three), the
sepoys, choprasees, masolgees, and so on, had all crowded on the
platform at the sound of my shouting, and dreadful was the
consternation, shrill the screaming, occasioned by my words. The
men stood irresolute and mute with terror; the women, trembling,
knew scarcely whither to fly for refuge. 'Who are yonder
ruffians?' said I. A hundred voices yelped in reply--some said the
Pindarees, some said the Mahrattas, some vowed it was Scindiah, and
others declared it was Holkar--no one knew.

"'Is there any one here,' said I, 'who will venture to reconnoitre
yonder troops?' There was a dead pause.

"'A thousand tomauns to the man who will bring me news of yonder
army!' again I repeated. Still a dead silence. The fact was that
Scindiah and Holkar both were so notorious for their cruelty, that
no one dared venture to face the danger. 'Oh for fifty of my brave
Ahmednuggarees!' thought I.