One old Johnny began his harangue by deploring their late losses, asserting that his special tribe had borne more than their share of the fighting, demanded that the retreat should be continued at once, asserted that either the angel Gabriel or a certain prophet was a humbug, that reiterating the word, “Hau Hau,” and holding out the palms of their hands had, as far as his knowledge carried him up to date, saved no one from the bullet of the white man, that dancing round the Pai Marire pole had not as yet brought them the gift of tongues, otherwise their apostle would not have received such a defeat as he had done at Tauranga-a-Hika from the hands of a mere slave of a Roman Catholic. Another then took the floor, and asserted that the late honourable member, who had wasted his breath, was quite wrong; that they had not abandoned Tauranga-a-Hika on account of their losses, but because they had no food or water, that the angel Gabriel only delayed helping them so that those weak in faith should be cut off; this being done he would come to their assistance with a legion of angels, and those white men who were not turned into stone would be driven into the sea. The next speaker, I think, must have been Titokowaru himself or his representative, as he asserted that they would fight on that spot, that the white men could not reach them for three days, and wound up by assuring them he had received a revelation that they would gain a decisive victory. The council then separated, and it required no great skill in the art of prophecy to foretell that should the coalition of the Hau Hau tribes get another good shake up they would fall asunder like a bundle of sticks when the cord binding it together is severed. Creeping back I reported to the Colonel, and rejoined the storming party to which I had been told off. The weary waiting was almost over, in another quarter of an hour the dawn of day would have given us the signal to charge, when a mounted native came out of the pah and rode towards us. Greatly surprised as we were, we lay as still as death, and he cantered right through our party without spotting one of us, only to come full butt against the main body. In a breath he slewed his horse round and galloped back, yelling as if he had the stomach-ache, and firing off a revolver. All our fine plans were knocked galley west; out rang the order to charge. We charged; crash went the fence, and head first, feet first, or landing in a sitting position, in we went, but it was too dark to see, much less to aim, and all we could hear was the yells of the astonished Hau Haus, who bolted hell for leather, without firing a single shot.