Through the palm stems we saw the roofs of the palace,
and the piazza with the bamboo pillars. The line of the bodyguard was
squatted on the piazza, with their spears upright before them.
Everything was still.
Then we heard a cry behind us, and looked, and saw Jessamine and
Breen, but no others with them, running through the village towards
us. They came up to us, and said they had been in the woods hunting
for the villagers who had run away, but found none. We sat down not
far from the wounded man. Jessamine had his arm in a sling, and he
told what had happened, so far as he made it out.
"It was the way I fancied," he says; "J. R. wasn't so solid with his
army as he thought, except the bodyguard, but I'd no idea they'd go
off like a bunch of fireworks. The old fat one sent messengers around
in the afternoon, and at night we went with him over back of that
hill, and met a crowd who had a few torches, but it was pretty dark,
and I couldn't see how many there were along the hillside. I made
them a speech: how J. R. had run away from his land, and was ruling
them here when he had no right, and they oughtn't to stand it; but I
don't know that the fat one interpreted it.
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