Chapter 53: Victory

The wayleals rested and slept outstretched upon the air close to the scene of battle. Not having any weight as regarded external objects, they mutually attracted each other, and to obtain freedom and rest without being crushed together into suffocating masses of men, they were formed into companies of one hundred each, with their feet pressing against solid cylinders of spears. Mutual gravity was sufficient to hold them together, and each wayleal spread himself upon the air, as upon a bed of down, enjoying luxurious repose.

I had slept I know not how long, in company with the leaders of our army, when I was awakened by Flathootly, who informed me that a trusty messenger from Grasnagallipas, lord of invention and general of the king’s bockhockids, desired to see me as bearer of an important despatch from his master.

The messenger, saluting, handed me the following document:

“To His Excellency LEXINGTON WHITE, _Commander-in-Chief of
the Army of Queen Lyone, from Grasnagallipas, General of the
Royal Bockhockids, Greeting:_
“General Grasnagallipas begs to report that he and his
bockhockids have ever been in sympathy with the late
goddess, but were prevented from espousing her cause by the
overwhelming presence of the royal army in Calnogor. To show
his detestation of the horrible act of criminal cowardice on
the part of his majesty, he offers his sword and command of
bockhockids to the cause of the late adorable goddess and
queen of Atvatabar, and on the acceptance of such assistance
by your excellency will at once leave the ranks of the royal
army and enter that of her late majesty, to fight for the
sacred cause and assist in punishing a perfidious king.

GRASNAGALLIPAS.”

The loss attending the withdrawal of the priests and priestesses to form a guard of honor to the illustrious dead was more than compensated for by the re-enforcements under Grasnagallipas, to whom I sent a message of gracious acceptance of his services.

The army being fully aroused for conflict, had the satisfaction of welcoming re-enforcements from two opposite directions, viz., the fifty thousand bockhockids under Grasnagallipas and the terrorite battery under command of General Rackiron.

As was expected, the departure of the bravest general in the royal army was the signal for a renewal of hostilities, and Coltonobory, mad at the serious defection of his troops, at once assumed the offensive. He had received a large recruitment of wayleals, and felt as formidable as ever. His army swept down upon us with warlike music rolling like thunder, and cries of “Bhoolmakar!” The king himself, having dealt us his most terrible blow, was a witness to the onset of his hosts. He sat aloft in a golden palanquin, borne on the shoulders of his followers, with a body-guard on either side.

The advance guard of the enemy consisted of several regiments, armed with our own hand mitrailleuses, taken from prisoners. These did a terrible execution among our wayleals.

Grasnagallipas, anxious to undo the injury he inflicted on us during the first battle, and emulous of the prowess of our own forty thousand bockhockids, plunged headlong amid the foe, creating a panic wherever his gigantic birds descended. He fought like a demon, neither asking nor giving quarter.

General Rackiron, having got his terrorite battery in position, was eager to check the advance of the enemy by saluting him with a few aerial torpedoes. There was some delay incidental to the first actual operations of a hastily-constructed battery, but the daring ingenuity of the professor overcame every obstacle. Each gun, supported by fifty men, possessed a solid foundation from which to direct its operations.