Their mud wall and their barracks were in ruins, their provisions were at the point of exhaustion, they had done all that the brave could do, they had conquered an honorable compromise,--their forces had been fearfully reduced by casualties and by disease, they were not able to continue the contest longer.

They came forth helpless but suspecting no treachery, the Nana's host closed around them, and at a signal from a trumpet the massacre began.

About two hundred women and children were spared--for the present--but all the men except three or four were killed.

Among the incidents of the massacre quoted by Sir G.O.Trevelyan, is this: "When, after the lapse of some twenty minutes, the dead began to outnumber the living;--when the fire slackened, as the marks grew few and far between; then the troopers who had been drawn up to the right of the temple plunged into the river, sabre between teeth, and pistol in hand.

Thereupon two half-caste Christian women, the wives of musicians in the band of the Fifty-sixth, witnessed a scene which should not be related at second-hand.