But we shall be there in time.

From what we have heard, there has not been much fighting, yet." "No; the white barbarians are all shut up in Rangoon.

We have not attacked them in earnest, but we shall soon do so and, moreover, they will soon be all starved, for the country has been swept clear of all cattle for twenty miles round, the villages deserted, and everything laid waste; and we hear that half their number are laid up with sickness, and that a great number have died.

I wish that I were younger, that I, too, could help to destroy the insolent foes who have dared to set foot on our sacred soil." There was no need for haste, now, and they travelled by easy stages until, by the smoke rising from different parts of the forest, they knew that they were approaching the spot where the Burmese forces lay around Rangoon and, indeed, could see the great pagoda rising above the surrounding country.

They had heard, at the last villages through which they had passed, that there had been an attack made upon the pagoda on the 1st of July.