Praise be to Alla! it yielded to my great exertion, and we were on equal terms. I have before told you of my skill as a swordsman, but I had met my match in the Rokurrea: he, though all his men were lying around him save one,--who, having sorely wounded my poor attendant, was now closely pressed by Peer Khan and another,--was as cool and wary as myself. We fought well, and for a long time the contest was equal; we were both out of breath, and our shields hacked with the repeated blows we had each caught on them; at last, as my foot slipped on a stone, he made a stroke at my head: the blow was weak from his exhausted state, or it would have ended me: it cut through my turban and slightly wounded my head. I did not fall, though I was somewhat stunned by the stroke; he might have taken advantage of the moment, yet he neglected it. Maddened by the thought of defeat, I rushed on him, and by the violence of my attack forced him backward: at last, he too slipped as he retreated, and lost his balance; he raised his sword wildly in the air to recover himself, but I did not lose my opportunity as he had done; my blow descended with its full force, increased by a sudden leap I made towards him, and he fell to the earth cloven through the neck and shoulder--he was dead almost ere he fell. A moment I gazed on the features of the brave Rajpoot, and then sought my poor lad, from whom the life-blood was fast ebbing away; his wound was also in the neck, and the blood rushing into his throat, was choking him. I tried to stanch it with my waistband, but ineffectually; it relieved him for a moment, and he asked for water. A leathern bag containing some had been tied to the camel by one of the men, and I put the mouth of it to his lips; he drank a little, and sat up, supported by Goordut. "I am killed," said he; "Jemadar--I die--my own blood chokes me: I cannot recover. Do not leave my body to be eaten by the beasts, but bury it. That fellow," continued he, after a short interval, and pointing to one of the dead, "that fellow's sword killed me. I cut the hind sinews of the camel's leg, and it fell; I thought they would both be stunned, but he got up and attacked me, and I was no match for him. All the rest of you were engaged, or you would have helped me. But it was my fate to die and I felt it yesterday; the bitterness of death then passed over me, but now I am content: the pain will soon be over." Here he sunk insensible, and we stood around him weeping; for he was an affectionate lad, and we all loved him as a brother. But he recovered again slightly, though the rattle was in his throat, and the blood hardly allowed him to speak. "My mother!" he said, faintly. "Jemadar, my mother!--you know her, and my little sister. They will starve now;--but you will protect them for poor Junglee's sake?" And he strove to bend his head on my hand, as though to supplicate my assistance for them.