A PICTURE OF HOVA WARFARE. 755 surround him,using theirlarge force to threaten him on both flanks and on the rear, but the French pushed steadily forward, driving off the enemy whenever theytried to close or make a stand. Thus all through the 28th there was constant skirmishing, the only result of which was to delay the marchof the invaders.

cadets stuck to their guns alittle longer;they alone of the Hovas displayed any courage. It was just what Colonel Graves's accounts of previous engagements led me to expect. The Hovas madebut a ridiculous pretenceof defence. It was a sham fight, with plenty of noise and meaningless manSuvring; but as soon as the reality approached, as soon as the defenders found themselves within range of the French shells, and even before that,they bolted to some other position, where they could make another demonstration of battle without incurring any personal risk. It was not war, and it was not magnificent.

Onthe morning of the 29th Duchesne drove the Hovas from the ridges north of the city and established his force on the high ground near Ilafy, only three miles from the northern suburbs. The only English correspondent who saw the fight was Mr. E. F. Knight, of the Times, and his graphic description is worth quoting as a picture of Hova warfare. " The French attack," he says, " was from the north and north-east,consequentlyIobtainedfrom the vice-consulate,whichstands on the north-eastern slopes of the city, the best possible view of the proceedings. At the footof these slopes stretches the belt of rice fields, here three-quarters of a mile in breadth. On the further side of the rice-fields,and skirting them,is a range of hills from 200 to 300 feetin height,on one of whose spurs are the buildings of the British Mission hospital. Beyond this range, and divided from it by a deep valley,is another range,steep and bare of trees like the first. This further range is about three miles from the city, andis visible from it through the gaps in the nearer hills. These two parallel ranges formed the last defences of the capital. The whole northern face of the city was crowded with the citizens, who had come out to see their army make its final effort to keep back the invader.

"Between 10 a.m. and 12 a.m. there was a lullin the firing, as theFrench scaledthefurther range of hills, now abandoned by the Hovas, without encountering any opposition. At midday we caught our first glimpse of the enemy for whom wehad been waitingall these months — alongdark line of infantry andbaggage mules streaming along a ridge on the sky line three miles away. From here the French shelled the Hova positions on the nearerrange of hills and soon silenced theHova guns. Someof the shells passing over the ridge burst in the rice fields beneathus, throwing up clouds of reddust and scattering the crowdsof spectators. Not a shot was fired on either side after one o'clock. For three hours we saw the French pouring along the ridge in a continuous stream. It hadbeen a fatiguing day for the troops,andhaving won the further heights they were content to rest therefor the night. Their camp was near the village of Ilafy, and was concealed from our view by a spur of the hill." "At 7 a.m. the Hovas, retiring before the French, occupied the summit of the further range— there must have been somefive thousand of them— and opened a rapid musketry fire on an enemy still invisible to us, and which, to judgefrom the sound of itsreplying cannon,was some milesoff, and far out of the range of Hova weapons. And now commenced a curious spectacle;evolutions that no one could understand were performed. Bodies of men were marched up hills and then marched down again. Isaw 1,000 Betsileo spearmen rush up a height at the back of the hospital ; having reached the summit they waved their spears and raised a great shout,and then they quietly came down again, soon torepeat the sameperformance on some other height. At 9 a.m. the French cannon sounded considerably nearer, and we saw the Hova infantry flying in panic from the further range towards the city. The artillery There had been some other fighting of a desultory kind, unseen from the city, on the flank and rear of the French advance. In the afternoon three French stragglers, two of them.

wounded, were murdered in cold bloodby the Hovas, and their heads and hands were cut off and paraded through the town. As the nearer ridgehad been reoccupied after theFrench had gone into campit wasofficially announced that the resultof the day'sfighting hadbeen a victory for the defence.

On the next day General Duchesne advanced to capture the city. During the night the nearerrange of hills had been occupiedby some 10,000 Hova troops, with several guns. A battery had been established near the British hospital, manned by the cadets of the artillery school. Further east the high hill crownedby the ruins of the Jesuit observatory was held by