s the only officer that we have taken; but I will send a message
to some of my friends, at the court, asking them to represent that
I consider he will be useful to me; and praying that he may be kept
for a time and treated well, and may be forwarded to me, again,
when I make my next move against the English."

The following day the prisoners started under the escort of twenty
soldiers, commanded by an officer of some rank, who was specially
charged to take them safely to Ava. It was a fortnight's march to
the Irrawaddy. Until they neared the river the country was very
thinly populated but, when they approached its banks, the villages
were comparatively thick, standing for the most part in clearings
in a great forest. On the march the Burmese officer frequently
talked with Stanley, asked many questions about England and India;
and was evidently surprised, and somewhat sceptical, as to the
account the lad gave him of the fighting strength of the country.
He treated him with considerable indulgence, and sent him dishes
from his own table.

When not talking with him, Stanley marched at the head of the
little party of prisoners--all of whom were sepoys, no quarter
having been given to the native levies. Of an evening, Stanley
endeavoured to keep up the sepoys' spirits by telling them that
probably, by this time, the British expedition had arrived at
Rangoon, and captured it; and that peace would most likely follow,
and they might be exchanged for any Burmese who fell into the hands
of the English.

When they reached a village on the banks of the river the
population, on seeing them, came round and would have maltreated
them; had not the officer interfered, and said he had Bandoola's
orders to carry them safely to the court, and that anyone
interfering with them would be severely punished. The head man of
the village bent low, on hearing the general's name.

"I ask your pardon, my lord. The prisoners shall not be touched.
But have you heard the news?"

"I have heard no news," the officer said.

"It arrived here yesterday, my lord. The barbarians have had the
audacity to sail up, with a great fleet of ships, to Rangoon. They
had vessels of war with them and, though our forts fired upon them,
they had so many cannon that we could not resist them, and they
have captured the town. This happened a fortnight since."

The officer stood thunderstruck at what appeared, to him, to be an
act of audacious insolence. However, af