68 EASTERN H I N D O O S T A N. 



lonel Maxivell, about eleven at night. In an inftant the whole 

 Blue Lights, environs were illuminated by the blue lights fufpended from 

 the rampartf, as cuftomary with the Indians. The material 

 ufed by them is no other than the antient Naptha^ remarkable 

 for its extreme inflammability. The antients had two forts, the 

 white and the black -•■•, both liquid, and were ufed in lamps. 

 Everv fortified place in Hindoojian has its walls befet with 

 branched irons ready to receive the pendent lights, which give 

 an uncommon degree of fplendor. They might ferve to illumi- 

 nate the infernal council-chamber, or to facilitate a midnight 

 llaughter. How completely does the efFe6l anfwer to the fine 

 defcription given by Milton of the iHumination of the Pandemo- 

 nium, to which the horrors of the night of alTault might, by 

 the caufe, give to the fimile greater aptnefs. 



From the high walls> 

 Pendent by fubtile magic, many a row 

 Of flarry lamps and blazing crefTets, fed 

 With Naptba and AfphaUus, yielding light 

 As from a fky ! 



The thunder of the artillery, the noife of the mnfquetry, 

 the fanguinary fliouts of the afTailants, and the groans and 

 fhrieks of the dying, added horrors to the terrible fcene. The 

 garrifon fled from the mercilefs foldiery, and part choaking up 

 the pafTagc of the oppofite gate, left multitudes like a herd of 

 timorous goats or flocks expofed to reliftlefs carnage. The 



• Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 1078. Alfo Plin. Nat. Hill, lib, ii. c. 105. 



veteran 



