But what could be more appalling to the stoutest heart, than the situation of Mrs. Boardman and her helpless family!  Forced to flee from her frail hut, by bullets actually whizzing through it, and to pass through the town amid the yells of an infuriated rabble, her path sometimes impeded by the dead bodies of men who had fallen in the conflict:  driven from the shelter of the government house, again to fly through the streets to the wharf-house; and there, with three or four hundred fugitives crowded together, to await death which threatened them in every form,—­hearing over their heads the rush of cannon balls, and seeing from burning buildings showers of sparks falling, one of which, if it reached the magazines under their roof, was sufficient to tear the building from its foundations and whelm them all in one common ruin,—­or if they escaped this danger, to know that hundreds of merciless barbarians with knives and cutlasses might at any moment rush into the building and destroy them;—­can the female heart, we are ready to ask, endure such fearful trial?

    “Perchance her reason stoops, or reels;
    Perchance a courage not her own
    Braces her mind to desperate tone,”

Yes, her mind was stayed by a “courage not her own,” but it was “braced” to no “desperate tone;” rather its calmness was that of a child, who, in its own utter helplessness, clings to its father’s arm, and feels secure.  Neither must we forget that a painful diversion of her thoughts from the terrors around her, was afforded by the necessities of her suffering babe, to whom the foul air of the wharf-house, and the want of all comforts, had nearly proved fatal.  It was only her sleepless, vigilant care, that, under Providence, prevented the poor child from sharing the fate of Mrs. Burney’s little infant, which did not survive the dreadful scene.

And with what transports of joy did this suffering company hail the sight of the thin blue smoke that heralded the arrival of a steamer from Maulmain!  Amid what distracting fears for her husband, left in the revolted city, her infant and herself, did Mrs. Boardman decide to go on board the steamer returning to Maulmain!  And with what gratitude and joy did she, after several days of painful suspense, welcome to the same city, her husband, and hear the tidings of the triumph of British power, and the restoration of tranquillity!  In her happiness at meeting him alive, she noticed not that his late exposure and sufferings had increased to an alarming degree the symptoms of his dreadful malady.  Inspired with something of his own enthusiasm, she saw him depart, to return to his beloved labors in Tavoy, whither she hoped and expected soon to follow him.

CHAPTER X.

MISSIONARY LABORS OF MR. BOARDMAN—­HIS ILL HEALTH.—­LETTER FROM MRS. B.—­DEATH OF A SECOND CHILD.—­LETTERS FROM MRS. B.