CONQUEST OF SOUTH BALI

Den Pasar, shells falling on the palace and the houses of other princes, setting them on fire. This caused the civilian population to flee, leaving the Radja with only about two thousand men. Soon after the bombardment the army was reported near Den Pasar; the Radja expected that the attack would be directed against the main entrance of the palace on the south side, as their military law would require, but unexpectedly the army turned and made for the north.

Inside, the household had been worked. up to a state of frenzy, almost a trance; everything of value was destroyed and the palace was set on fire. The king, seeing his cause lost, told his followers that to defend the palace was hopeless, but anyone who wished could follow him into a puputan, a " fight to the end." The only honourable thing left for him was to die a dignified death, rather than be exiled like the Radja of Lombok, to die away from Bali, and without the proper rituals of cremation. In a moment the Radja, his Pungawas, his generals. and all his relatives, men and women, were ready, dressed in their best and wearing their finest gold krisses.

The women were even more enthusiastic than the men; they were dressed in men's clothes, short white loincloths caught between the legs, covered with jewellery, and with their hair loose. They carried krisses and spears broken in half to be used more effectively at close range. At nine in the morning the fantastic procession left the palace, with the Radja at the head, carried on the shoulders of one of his men, protected by his gold umbrellas of state, staring intently at the road in front of him, and clutching in his right hand his kris of gold and diamonds.

He was followed by silent men and entranced women, and even boys joined the procession, armed with spears and krisses. They marched on through what is today the main avenue of Den Pasar towards Kesiman, and when they turned the corner, the Dutch regiment was only three hundred yards away. The commander, astonished at the sight of the strange procession, gave orders to halt; Balinese interpreters from Buleleng spoke to the Radja and his followers, begging them anxiously to stop, but they only walked faster.

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