From an elevated plateau on his private island, King Googagoo had
witnessed all the battle. His whole army stood around him, ready, if
need should be, to repel the enemy.
But the enemy were beaten, routed, and almost annihilated.
Harry had always been a hero with this kindly-hearted king, now he was
almost a god.
"You are a great man!" the king shouted, rushing to meet and shake him
by the hand. "Oh, brother, what should I have done but for you! Our
warriors would have been tortured, burned, slain, and our wives and
little ones dragged away into a captivity worse than death."
Harry pointed skywards.
"Yes, yes, I know," cried the king. "It was the Eye; I knew He would
give us the victory."
"Stay," said Harry, seriously, "I fear the worst fighting is still
before us. On shore I mean, for hardly will the enemy care to or dare
to attack you by water again. We must land this very evening. The foe
is now beaten and demoralised, let us follow up our success without a
moment's delay."
And so it was arranged.
The wounded were seen to, and as soon as the sun went down, which he did
in a flood of calm beauty that night, just as if no bloodshed, grief,
and murder was on the earth, the expedition started.
It started not in boats altogether, but along the strange sunken natural
roadway, where from the shore Harry had first seen the king's barge
moving apparently of its own accord. Had the enemy known of this
expedition from the hundred islands, things might have turned out
differently from what they had done.
Enough men and amazons were left to defend the island in case of a
repulse, the boats took the arms of all sorts and the provisions, the
men themselves walked through the water or swam.
By midnight the whole army to the number of nearly seven thousand, all
included, stood on the shore, and the boats were hauled up and hidden
among the trees.
Raggy had been left at home in charge of the island, and a very proud
Raggy he was in consequence.
"I nebber was a king befoh," he said to himself, as he strutted about
and gave orders to the Amazons, any one of which might have laid him
cross-knees and flogged him. "I nebber was a king befoh, and now I
means to be one king all over."
If being a king all over meant occupying Googagoo's tent, being led out
to dinner precisely as his majesty had been, and eating as much curry as
he could get down, then undoubtedly Raggy was a king all over.
Long before the dawn appeared in the east, Googagoo's army had commenced
the march towards the enemy's camp, guided by Walda.
At the king's right hand was Harry, who was generalissimo in all but
name. His majesty might fight well, but he could hardly be expected to
direct the manoeuvres of a great battle so well as a British officer.
By daybreak Harry had drawn up his men in battle array on the brow of a
hill, almost within stone's throw of the enemy's big camp beneath.
In numbers Kara-Kara's men were as three to one of Harry's army, but,
having vantage ground, the latter hoped to provoke the foe to attack.
In this they were disappointed, for although there was skirmishing, as
the day went on, between the outposts, nothing serious occurred; King
Kara-Kara made no attempt to storm and capture the hill. His motto
seemed to be "Wait."
By twelve o'clock Googagoo's patience was exhausted.
"I love to fight," he said to Harry, "but to lie idle with the spear in
my hand is not good for Googagoo. Let it be now."
Then Harry, after visiting all his lines, speaking words of
encouragement and issuing commands, gave the order to advance, he
himself leading in person, sword in hand.
Kara's army lay at arms, in vast squares or impis, along a wide and
sparsely wooded valley, Harry's hill being on the east of him, the lake
to the north, and a dense forest land behind and to the west. It was a
difficult position to attack, but they had come here to fight and must
face every odds.
It must also be to a great extent a hand-to-hand engagement.
Now unlike a battle with guns and rifles, a fight of the nature Googagoo
was now to engage in could not be of long duration. Harry knew that,
and resolved to make his onset as telling as possible. He had two
advantages over Kara: his men were well drilled, and they possessed a
most deadly weapon in the cross-bow.
At the very moment the signal of advance was given by Harry, wild
shouting arose from the ranks of the enemy, accompanied by the rattle of
tom-toms and the blaring of innumerable chanters. But the foe showed no
intention of coming on, so the Googagoo men and amazons marched steadily
to meet them.
There was no racing or shouting. To have run would have meant to lose
wind, and Harry knew well the value of breath in a hand-to-hand fight.
A movement was first made towards the south with the view of
out-flanking the enemy. This had the desired effect, and Kara's swarms
now came on in that direction.
Harry threw his archery-men out in skirmishing order now, in two lines,
and the orders were to advance steadily to within a hundred yards of the
enemy, then commence firing, one line supporting the other, but the
whole army falling back towards the hills as the foe advanced.
This was to prevent the latter closing, when of course the cross-bows
would be of no more use.
The battle began, and for a time raged on two sides, the amazons having
partially out-flanked the foe. The army as at present might be
represented by the capital letter L, the short limb being the side
facing southwards and fronting the terrible amazons, the long limb the
main body of Kara's army driving back--as they thought--Googagoo's
archers towards the hills.
But while this driving back process was taking place, Harry's side was
not losing a man, while the field was soon strewn with the dead and
wounded of the enemy.
The latter began to stop short and waver, the arrows poured in upon them
in clouds, and for a time victory appeared to be inclining towards the
side of the island king.
Soon, however, Kara-Kara himself was seen running along behind his lines
and shouting wild words of command to his men.
Their charge was now redoubled in fury as well as in speed, and it
became at once evident to Harry that the cross-bows would in a few
minutes more become useless in line, and his ranks be broken by the
enemy through force of numbers.
He quickly, therefore, formed up into two English squares with the
Scottish triangle in the centre, both he and the king being inside the
latter.
Hardly had he done so, ere the impis of the savage foe closed on them,
those on the outsides of each phalanx receiving the shock at spear's
point, while archers from the interior poured in a steady fire from
their murderous cross-bows.
The Karaites fell back after a time, defeated and foiled, and Harry's
triangle then charged into their very midst, delivering by far and away
the most furious and successful charge of the day.
For a time now it seemed to be a drawn battle.
It might have been well, now for Harry had he retreated farther, and
probably gained the eastern hills, for, excited by fighting, Kara's army
would undoubtedly have followed them.
He did not, however, and in less than an hour he lost all opportunity of
fever being able to do so.
On came the enemy once again, and this time they managed completely to
surround Googagoo's army.
Not his amazons, though; these fought with spear and axe in the rear of
the enemy, and it is quite impossible to describe the terrible fury of
each of their onsets.
For three long hours the battle raged.
The sun was now beginning to decline. The enemy seemed as determined as
ferocious, and as numerous as before, while Googagoo's ranks were sadly
thinned.
They still kept their stand, however, against all the odds that Kara
could fling in front of them.
Fight they must.
It was victory or death with them.
For defeat meant annihilation, it meant that not one man or amazon would
ever return to the islands to tell the terrible tale, and that the
islands themselves would soon have to capitulate, and come under the
sway of the cruel King Kara-Kara.
The sun began to decline towards the western woods, but still the battle
raged on. The words of Scott came into Harry's head even now as he saw
his brave fellows falling on all sides.
"What 'vails the vain knight-errand's brand?
Oh! Douglas, for thy leading wand!
Fierce Randolph for thy speed!
Oh! for one hour of Wallace wight,
Or well-skilled Bruce to rule the fight,
And cry Saint Andrew and our right."
The battle raged on.
One of Harry's squares had already been broken, and it being impossible
to re-form again, the men had fought their way through the cloud of
savages around them and joined the ranks of the amazons.
Hope was beginning to fade even from Harry's heart.
He could not bear to hear the plaint of poor King Googagoo.
"Where is He who fights for the right?" he was saying.
"Where is the Eye who beholds all things?"
Where is the Eye? Look. Whither shall we look? Look far away towards
the western horizon yonder. Are those the crimson clouds that herald
the sunset? No, they are too low down on the plain, and a rolling
canopy of blue is rising up and meeting the sun.