(3) At the end of the move, if there are men of the side that has just moved in contact with any men of the other side, they constitute a melee.  All the men in contact, and any other men within six inches of the men in contact, measuring from any point of their persons, weapons, or horses, are supposed to take part in the melee.  At the end of the move the two players examine the melee and dispose of the men concerned according to the following rules:—­

Either the numbers taking part in the melee on each side are equal or unequal.

(a) If they are equal, all the men on both sides are killed.

(b) If they are unequal, then the inferior force is either isolated or (measuring from the points of contact) not isolated.

(i) If it is isolated (see (1) above), then as many men become prisoners as the inferior force is less in numbers than the superior force, and the rest kill each a man and are killed.  Thus nine against eleven have two taken prisoners, and each side seven men dead.  Four of the eleven remain with two prisoners.  One may put this in another way by saying that the two forces kill each other off, man for man, until one force is double the other, which is then taken prisoner.  Seven men kill seven men, and then four are left with two.

(ii) But if the inferior force is not isolated (see (1) above), then each man of the inferior force kills a man of the superior force and is himself killed.

And the player who has just completed the move, the one who has charged, decides, when there is any choice, which men in the melee, both of his own and of his antagonist, shall die and which shall be prisoners or captors.

All these arrangements are made after the move is over, in the interval between the moves, and the time taken for the adjustment does not count as part of the usual interval for consideration.  It is extra time.

The player next moving may, if he has taken prisoners, move these prisoners.  Prisoners may be sent under escort to the rear or wherever the capturer directs, and one man within six inches of any number of prisoners up to seven can escort these prisoners and go with them.  Prisoners are liberated by the death of any escort there may be within six inches of them, but they may not be moved by the player of their own side until the move following that in which the escort is killed.  Directly prisoners are taken they are supposed to be disarmed, and if they are liberated they cannot fight until they are rearmed.  In order to be rearmed they must return to the back line of their own side.  An escort having conducted prisoners to the back line, and so beyond the reach of liberation, may then return into the fighting line.