“Be still,” said Koree, “or give us your help, instead of your fears.” It was resolved at last, as they could neither retreat nor stand still, to go forward; and they determined to await an opportunity to make an assault. And now dread Terror brooded over the hosts of men, causing hearts to flutter and visions of death to rush on the soul. Night and Blood and Pain visited many in dreams, while to some Glory appeared, walking over a vanquished foe. As Koree slept he thought he saw Sosee coming to him in beauty with a branch of evergreen oak, and promise that he should rule over a new race, while she should sit by his side as queen to receive the admiration of all men. The Apes also quaked, and the convulsions which had just thrown up the Alps were trifling compared with the tremors that shook the breasts of the embattled hosts that night. The morrow was to witness a conflict that would decide whether the human race was to remain on earth or go out of history in its infancy. CHAPTER XXVI. [Illustration] Aurora now appeared in the east starting the sleepers from their dreams, and advanced so bright that the terrified Ammi thought the Fire-monster had seized the sky, and was spreading his wings over the whole world, portending death to mortals. First she tinted the new-born Alps with gold, then chased the mists from the valleys, and at last spread the whole earth with day. The courage of the hosts now returned, which had left them during the reign of the night-monsters in their dreams. With the coming of the light the Ammi marched boldly up to the Lali, while the latter, thrown first into confusion, ran about in a panic, and then, gathering themselves into a body, offered defiance to the intruders. As when a storm, rushing from the north, suddenly strikes the sea, rolling the waves in mountain ridges along the main, which again, breaking, rush back and fall like cliffs into the deep, stirring the great cauldron of waters to its bottom, and then spread out again into a calm, so the Apes, mightily stirred at the approach of stern War, and driven by their fears, rushed hither and thither over the plain, mounting the trees and scattering to places of safety, and then, as the storm of terror passed on its way regained composure and settled down on the field of battle ready for action. First advanced from the ranks of the Ammi the mighty Pounder, impatient for battle, and, surveying the plain which lay between the Men and the Apes, he grinned a challenge to the whole Lali. Him seeing from afar the mighty Scratch-for-Fleas, starting up from the hosts of the Lali and shaking himself, (at which the earth trembled as when Jupiter shook Olympus with a nod), advanced to him, saying: “For what purpose come you to the shores of the Lali? Have the cocoanuts failed beyond the Swamp, or do you come for our women? We will defend our own, be they cocoanuts or girls. Go back, or taste the wrath of the Monkeys.”