IN THE POWER OF THE ASHANTEE.S. 13 
passed on to the fight, not one being allowed to lag be- 
hind. 
From a field of maize we watched the hurrying, clamour- 
ing crowd, occasionally catching the sound of distant 
firing. Suddenly a crash was heard close by, a whiz of 
muskets, and a cry of war, causing us to bend before the 
whistling bullets. We soon, however, saw that this was 
simply a clever trick of our own company, an artful de- 
vice to deceive the enemy who were in conflict in the far 
distance ; and when it was over they again drove us from 
our resting-place. Our aching limbs would scarcely move^ 
but remonstrance was useless ; they were in haste to 
reach the camp, and in silence, almost in despair, we pur- 
sued our miserable way, feehng that death itself could 
bring us nothing worse. Sometimes we were staggering 
through tangled grass ten feet in height, then over a 
boggy plain lay our painful journey, our distress increas- 
ing by falling rain, and still more by compassion for the 
miserable creatures whose corpses or wounded bodies la}^ 
in our path. 
Insulted and abused by the soldiers, who threatened to 
eat us when we reached Coomassie, our miseries intensi- 
fied, until night closed upon us, and we ended another 
day of bittet suffering in a village where we were per- 
mitted to halt. It was a horrible resting-place, full of 
slain, so that we had to pick our way over the gory earth ; 
and when my wife stumbled from weakness, her dress 
was covered with stains. The soldiers were hastening to 
inter the mangled corpses, and from every house around 
us sounded the doleful lament of the women. It was 
evident the Ashantees had been sorely discomfited, and 
we feared the consequences, but were sustained by re- 
membering that the very hairs of our head were all 
numbered. 
