This left us about sixteen hundred able-bodied men or many more than we could employ with effect in that narrow place.  Therefore we determined to act upon a plan which we had already designed in case such an emergency as ours should arise.  About three hundred and fifty of the best men were to remain to defend the temple till all were slain.  The rest, to the number of over a thousand, were to withdraw through the second court and the gates beyond to the camp of the women and children.  These they were to conduct by secret paths that were known to them to where the camels were kraaled, and mounting as many as possible of them on the camels to fly whither they could.  Our hope was that the victorious Black Kendah would be too exhausted to follow them across the plain to the distant mountains.  It was a dreadful determination, but we had no choice.

“What of my wife?” Ragnall asked hoarsely.

“While the temple stands she must remain in the temple,” replied Harut.  “But when all is lost, if I have fallen, do you, White Lord, go to the sanctuary with those who remain and take her and the Ivory Child and flee after the others.  Only I lay this charge on you under pain of the curse of Heaven, that you do not suffer the Ivory Child to fall into the hands of the Black Kendah.  First must you burn it with fire or grind it to dust with stones.  Moreover, I give this command to all in case of the priests in charge of it should fail me, that they set flame to the brushwood that is built up with the stacks of corn, so that, after all, those of our enemies who escape may die of famine.”

Instantly and without murmuring, for never did I see more perfect discipline than that which prevailed among these poor people, the orders given by Harut, who in addition to his office as head priest was a kind of president of what was in fact a republic, were put in the way of execution.  Company by company the men appointed to escort the women and children departed through the gateway of the second court, each company turning in the gateway to salute us who remained, by raising their spears, till all were gone.  Then we, the three hundred and fifty who were left, marshalled ourselves as the Greeks may have done in the Pass of Thermopylae.

First stood I and my riflemen, to whom all the remaining ammunition was served out; it amounted to eight rounds per man.  Then, ranged across the court in four lines, came the spearmen armed with lances and swords under the immediate command of Harut.  Behind these, near the gate of the second court so that at the last they might attempt the rescue of the priestess, were fifty picked men, captained by Ragnall, who, I forgot to say, was wounded in two places, though not badly, having received a spear thrust in the left shoulder and a sword cut to the left thigh during his desperate defence of the entrenchment.