elephant. I had not time to lift the rifle to fire, I had barely time to
cock it, and run sideways and backward, when he was on to me. Crash! he
came, striking the tree full with his forehead. It snapped like a carrot
about forty inches from the ground. Fortunately I was clear of the
trunk, but one of the dead branches struck me on the chest as it went
down and swept me to the ground. I fell upon my back, and the elephant
blundered past me as I lay. More by instinct than anything else I lifted
the rifle with one hand and pulled the trigger. It exploded, and, as I
discovered afterwards, the bullet struck him in the ribs. But the recoil
of the heavy rifle held thus was very severe; it bent my arm up, and
sent the butt with a thud against the top of my shoulder and the side of
my neck, for the moment quite paralyzing me, and causing the weapon to
jump from my grasp. Meanwhile the bull was rushing on. He travelled for
some twenty paces, and then suddenly he stopped. Faintly I reflected
that he was coming back to finish me, but even the prospect of imminent
and dreadful death could not rouse me into action. I was utterly spent;
I could not move.

"Idly, almost indifferently, I watched his movements. For a moment
he stood still, next he trumpeted till the welkin rang, and then very
slowly, and with great dignity, he knelt down. At this point I swooned
away.

"When I came to myself again I saw from the moon that I must have been
insensible for quite two hours. I was drenched with dew, and shivering
all over. At first I could not think where I was, when, on lifting
my head, I saw the outline of the one-tusked bull still kneeling some
five-and-twenty paces from me. Then I remembered. Slowly I raised
myself, and was instantly taken with a violent sickness, the result
of over-exertion, after which I very nearly fainted a second time.