Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

The battering train going to the siege of Seringapatam had to cross the sandy bed of a river, that resembled other rivers of the Peninsula, which have during the dry season, but a small stream of water running through them, though their beds are mostly of a considerable breadth, very heavy for draught, and abounding in quick sands. It happened that an artillery man, who was seated on the limber of one of the guns, by some accident fell off, in such a situation that in a second or two, the hind wheel must have gone over him. The elephant, which was standing behind the gun, perceiving the predicament in which the man was, instantly, without any warning from its keeper, lifted up the wheel with its trunk, and kept it suspended until the carriage had passed clear of him.
Military Adventures.