Screened behind each of the three fires was a cannon.

He figured that there were more than a hundred rifles in that silent cordon of men.

What was there on the opposite side of the temple?
He turned with the old woman and joined the throng that was seething about the temple doors.

There were women, children and old men, crushing and crowding, fighting with panic-stricken fierceness for admittance to the thick log walls.

Through the doors there came the low thunder of countless voices pierced by the shrill cries of little children.