sack over his back, we discharged a rifle at him. Straightway the man
stopped running, fell on his knees, and whiningly said that he had
been permitted to take what he was carrying by honourable foreign
soldiery whom he had been allowed to assist. The bundle contained only
silks and clothes; with a kick we let him go. Plainly the plot was
thickening on all sides, and it was becoming more and more dangerous
to be abroad. Seized with a new thought, I stopped the whole caravan,
and giving orders to that effect, we soon had every driver we had so
summarily impressed securely strapped to his cart with heavy rope. At
least, if we had to cut our way back I had secured that our carts
could not be stampeded with ease. The drivers would make them go on;
it would be easier to run forward than to turn back.

Then, as if we realised the danger of the road, we began driving
frantically. We wished to carry the carts into safety. It was not long
before we saw in the distance many groups of people clustering round a
big building surrounded by high walls. That made me nervous, for the
groups formed and dissolved continually, as if they were in doubt, and
seeking to gain something which was bent on resisting. But no sooner
had they seen this than my men began laughing coarsely, and exclaimed
in the vernacular that it was a pawn-shop which the common people were
trying to loot. Of course, it was certain that every pawn-shop would
go sooner or later; but the sight of an actual attack in progress
seemed strange while the populace was still so terror-stricken. To our
further surprise, on coming up we found that a number of marauders and
stragglers belonging to a variety of European corps had been halted
by this sight; and as we drew nearer we found a private of the French
Infanterie Coloniale groaning on the ground, with a ghastly wound in
his leg. No one was attending to him--they were too busy with their
own business, and had we not tied him roughly with some cloth and