"I have some business."
He, then, spurred his horse and galloped away.
Pratap's smile made Ramananda Swami extremely anxious and uneasy. He said to Chandra Shekhar,
"You go home with Shaibalini. I shall go to perform an ablutionary rite in the sacred waters of the holy Ganges. I shall come back and meet you in a couple of days."
Chandra Shekhar said, "I am awfully anxious for Pratap."
"I will bring you news about him," replied Ramananda Swami.
The Swami then gave Chandra Shekhar and Shaibalini leave to go and himself proceeded towards the battle-field. In that bloody field, enveloped with an endless volume of smoke and filled with the heart-rending groans of the dying and wounded, Ramananda Swami began to move about, in search of Pratap. Here and there, he saw hundreds of human bodies, lying in heaps—some without life, some almost lifeless and others profusely bleeding from torn limbs and wounded breasts; some crying out, in a most piteous manner, for a drop of water to quench their unbearable
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