ened.

They returned to their seats, and drank, and talked--of the weaknesses
of the king, the vices of the princes, the temper of the queen, the
desperate straits of the English at Lucknow, the glorious future before
them when the English had been annihilated. Ahmed wondered whether all
the risks he had dared were to be rewarded with no better
pribble-prabble than this. But by and by the Mirza Mogul was announced,
and a few minutes after him Khuda Baksh Khan, one of the chief sirdars
of the rebel forces, and then the conversation took a turn which engaged
the listener's attention to the uttermost.

At first he had difficulty in making it out. The speakers referred to
matters which had previously been discussed at the king's palace. But
gradually he was able to piece things together; allusions became clear;
he grasped the whole. That very night, a brigade of four thousand men,
horse, foot and artillery, was to march out secretly, slip by the right
of the British position, and move on to the village of Alipur, several
miles in the rear. The villagers had proved loyal to the British; they
constantly supplied the camp with provisions; and General Barnard had
recently established there a small post of some sixty Sikhs. The first
object of the proposed night attack was to destroy the village with its
guard, and carry off a great amount of stores which was believed to be
there.

But it had a second object. While the attention of the British was
diverted to this movement, twenty thousand men were to parade under arms
at dawn near the mosque, in readiness for a sortie. Bakht Khan meant to
signalize his elevation to the post of commander-in-chief by a
tremendous stroke against the besiegers. The men would issue in two
great columns from the Kashmir and Lahore gates. Outnumbering their
enemy by nearly four to one, they would overwhelm them.

This was the general scheme. About the details the officers proceeded to
wrangle. Mirza Mogul resented the promotion of a mere artillery officer
to the chief command, and had innumerable objections to urge against the
views of Bakht Khan. Minghal sided with his superior; Khuda Baksh with
the prince. Ahmed could not forbear smiling as he listened. What would
all their boasts of a glorious victory come to, if they were thus
disunited? He felt a certain respect for Bakht Khan, the sturdy
plain-spoken warrior who believed in drill; for the prince, who had
bragged for a month of what he meant