“My goot Capsicome! my dear young friend! are you all a—live? all well? Dat’s goot; thank God—thank God! I hear you vas beseiged by dis raskal dacoit; so Tupper and me, ve mount our ’orse, ride off to the tannah for de police—dey vill be here directly, tannahdar and all, little and pig. But come, tell me _vraiment_ all vat was happen—vere are dey?—who have dey kill?—vat have dey rob?—vere are dey gone?—Come tell it all, for I am dam _impashant_ to know all.” “It is soon told, Monsieur,” said Augustus. “Ramsunker and 300 of his men attacked us; we stood one assault, capitulated, and paid Rs. 300, black-mail, to get out of the scrape.” “Black male! vat de devil’s black male?—you mean, I suppose, you pay Rs. 300 to de black males—I not suppose you pay to de black females.” Augustus laughed, and explained. “Vell, vell, you did your best; de grand Napoleon himself vas obleege to yield to numbers; 300 to ten is too moch. But,” added he, “I do hope ve may yet catch dis dacoit, get de money back, and give dem goot trashing beside; dere is 100 of de police, and twenty or thirty more of us—vat say you?” “Just what I was proposing to our young friend here, as you came up; undoubtedly, let us try; but there’s no time to be lost, if we would wish to succeed, for they have already a considerable start of us.” The proposal, indeed, was generally relished; the horses were ordered to be saddled; each of us armed himself in some way or other, and in a few minutes more, the portly thannahdar, or head of the police, as burly a fellow as Shakspeare’s fat knight, mounted on a rat of a pony, made his appearance at the head of a numerous body, some 80 or 100, of the neighbouring police, drawn from several stations. Mr. Augustus intimated to the thannahdar his determination to pursue the dacoits, so soon as his followers had slightly refreshed themselves, of which, after the distance they had come, they evidently stood in need. This the thannahdar intimated to his men; some of whom began to smoke in little knots or groups, squatting on their hams; others drank water, which they drew in their brazen lotas from a neighbouring well; whilst others unfolded little stores of rice, or parched gram, tied up in corners of their vestments, and set to daintily picking and eating the same. Poor prog to fight upon, thought I, holding as I do that the stomach, and not the heart, is the seat of valour. All the above was mingled with an incessant gabble touching the recent event, with a plentiful outpouring of abuse on the female relations of the aforesaid dacoits. The police refreshed, off started our little army in pursuit of the enemy, who we calculated could not be many miles off, the four Europeans, (if Augustus may be included under that denomination) and the thannahdar—the cavalry of the division—taking the lead, whilst the police peons—the infantry—principally armed with spears and tulwars, brought up the rear.