One Maori, who was standing in an angle of the _pa_, was wounded in the head by a splinter knocked off one of the palisade-posts by a shot from an Armstrong gun. The same shell, whizzing through the _pa_, ripped a hole in Titokowaru's tent.
When night fell, no appreciable breach had been made by the shell-fire. It was now decided to storm the _pa_ at daybreak. Some of the A.C.'s crept up with their entrenching tools to within fifty yards of the stockade, and dug out shelter-trenches.
The fort was remarkably quiet during the night. It was reconnoitred when daybreak came, and found--empty. The Hauhaus had for some mysterious reason deserted it under cover of darkness, and taken to the bush. So fell to the _pakeha_ the very strong Tauranga-ika _pa_.
Bent explains this unexpected abandonment of Titokowaru's most formidable entrenchment.
The eternal feminine was at the bottom of it all.
The chief of blood and fire, with all his _mana-tapu_, was vulnerable to the artillery of a dark _wahiné's_ eyes and soft _wahiné_ blandishments. He was detected in a liaison with another man's wife. This misdemeanour was, in Maori eyes, fatal to his prestige as an _ariki_ and a war-leader. He had trampled on his _tapu_, and his Hauhau angel, who had so long successfully guided his fortunes, now deserted him. His run of luck had turned.
A council of the people was held to discuss the _cause célèbre_, and many an angry speech was made. Some of the chiefs went so far as to threaten Titokowaru with death. At length a chieftainess of considerable influence rose and quelled the storm of violent words. She appealed to the aggrieved husband's people not to attempt Titoko's life; but urged that the garrison should leave the _pa_--it would be disastrous to make a stand there after their _tohunga_, their spiritual head and their war-leader, had lost his _mana-tapu_. This met with general approval, and on the night of the attack the people packed their few belongings on their backs and struck quietly into the forest for the Waitotara. Titokowaru, with forty warriors, covered the retreat. "Afterwards," says Bent, "when we had taken safe shelter in the Upper Waitara, Titokowaru regained his _tapu_ by means of incantations and ceremonies performed by another _tohunga_. But by that time the war was over."