Setup: one of the main characters, who I should not name because it's a spoiler for those who haven't finished reading the first book in the series, has just engineered and then scuttled (by means of homemade phosphorus grenades) an ambush by the Marathas in Hindoostan. They fight using elephants...
"One of the elephants made known his intention to turn around and go back. [Unnamed Character] could not discern, from this range, whether his driver was of the same mind, or not; but it did not matter, for the elephant was leaving. And perhaps he was some sort of a leader among pachyderms, for the idea spread to the others fast and unquenchable as phosphorus-fire. When several elephants with razor-sharp blades all over their tusks decide to pirouette in the midst of a tightly packed mob, there is apt to be disorder, and such was the case now; [Unnamed Character] could not really see through the arch of radiance, but could infer as much from the vocalizations of the Marathas, which sounded like every Italian opera ever written being sung at once."
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