Only, there were fewer who listened
to this second chant. Those who were near the doorway slipped outside
and joined the watching hundreds on the roofs.
For an hour the prayers continued in the stifling gloom, priest
relieving priest and chant following on chant, until the temple
was half emptied of its audience. One by one, and then by twos
and threes, the worshipers succumbed to human curiosity and crept
stealthily outside to watch.
Another messenger ran in and shouted: "They have charged! Their
cavalry have charged! They are beaten back! Their dead lie twisted
on the plain!"
At the words there was a stampede from the doorway, and half of those
who had remained rushed out. There were hundreds still there, though,
for that great gloomy pile of Kharvani's could hold an almost countless
crowd.
Within another hour the same man rushed to the door again and shouted:
"Help comes! Horsemen are coming from the north! Rajputs, riding
like leaves before the wind! Even the Mussulmans are for us!"
But the chanting never ceased.
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