ins, I dashed out again. Stray
shots were fired after us. But fortunately the Sepoys were all busy
looting, most of them had laid down their muskets, and no one really
took up the pursuit. I turned off from the parade ground, dashed down
between the hedges of two compounds, and in another minute we were in
the open country.

"Fortunately, the cavalry were all down looting their own lines, or we
must have been overtaken at once. May happily had fainted as I lifted
her on to my horse--happily, because the fearful screams that we heard
from the various bungalows almost drove me mad, and would probably have
killed her, for the poor ladies were all her intimate friends.

"I rode on for some hours, till I felt quite safe from any immediate
pursuit, and then we halted in the shelter of a clump of trees.

"By this time I had heard May's story. She had felt uneasy at being
alone, but had laughed at herself for being so, until upon her speaking
to one of the servants he had answered in a tone of gross insolence,
which had astonished her. She at once guessed that there was danger,
and the moment that she was alone caught up a large, dark carriage rug,
wrapped it round her so as to conceal her white dress, and stole out
into the veranda. The night was dark, and scarcely had she left the
house than she heard a burst of firing across at the mess house. She at
once ran in among the bushes and crouched there, as she heard the rush
of men into the room she had just left. She heard them searching for
her, but they were looking for a white dress, and her dark rug saved
her. What she must have suffered in the five minutes between the firing
of the first shots and my arrival, she only knows. May had spoken but
very little since we started. I believe that she was certain that her
father was dead, although I had given an evasive answer when she asked
me; and her terrible sense of loss, added to the horror of that time
of suspense in the garden, had completely stunned her. We waited in the
tope until the afternoon, and then set out again.

"We had gone but a short distance when we saw a body of the rebel
cavalry in pursuit. They had no doubt been scouring the country
generally, and the discovery was accidental. For a short time we
kept away from them, but this could not be for long, as our horse was
carrying double. I made for a sort of ruin I saw at the foot of a
hill half a mile away. I did so with no idea of the possibility of
concealme