A little later, in groups and scattered fours, and one by one, his
heavy-breathing troopers followed, cursing the order that had sent them
abroad with-out their horses, damning--as none but a dismounted
cavalryman can damn--the earth's unevenness, their swords, their
luck, their priests, the night, their boots, and Jaimihr. Forewarned,
Alwa held on down the pitch-dark side street, into whose steep-sided
chasm the moon's rays would not reach for an hour or two to come, and
once again he led his party in a sweeping, wide-swung circle,
loose-reined and swifter than the silent night wind--this time for
Howrah's palace. There was his given word, plighted to Mahommed Gunga,
to redeem.
CHAPTER XX
Ha! my purse may be lean, but my 'scutcheon is clean,
And I'm backed by a dozen true men;
I've a sword to my name, and a wrist for the same;
Can a king frown fear into me, then?
IT is the privilege of emperors, and kings and princes, that--however
little real authority they have, or however much their power is
undermined by men behind the throne--they must be accorded dignity.
They must be, on the face of things, obeyed.
Inspection of the treasure finished and an hour-long mummery of rites
performed, the thirty wound their way, chanting, in single file back
again.
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