by sending them nominally to guard
a tehseeldaree, some twenty miles off, in
which there was plenty of money. The
money, doubtless, tempted the men to their
march; for, upon reaching the Treasury, they
immediately seized the treasure, and dispersed
to join the mutineers, or to take home
their several shares of the spoil.

There remained to the Englishmen in
Puttealee, after these men had been sent off,
a resseldar and twenty men, who were
declared worthy of trust. But, in the
afternoon of the same day, an anonymous note
warned the Etah magistrate, that there were
two hundred sepoys ten miles off intending
to attack Puttealee next morning, because
they heard there was much treasure in the
place, and that the district officers were
there assembled. Our countrymen resolved,
therefore, to leave that night at
moonrise for Agra. They marched by moonlight,
and the guard of twenty sowars led the
way: a band of half-armed thakoors being
placed between them and the five Englishmen,
in order that, if they did prove treacherous
and turn upon their chief's, they would
have to pass through the intermediate body,
and so give some hint of their intentions. They
rested at dawn in a friendly fort, a few miles
from the Grand Trunk Road, and learnt
while resting, that the road in their front
was completely blocked-up by a body of
mutineers, horse and foot, on the way to
Delhi. Since any knowledge of their being
harboured in the fort would insure an
irnmediate  attack upon it, the friendly zemindarinsisted on their removal. They determined,
therefore, to retire to a small village
in their rear; and, on the way to it, fortunately
took the precaution to send on a
sowar to see whether the place was clear,
while they themselves halted in a little
grove. The scout returned with news that
the village was occupied by two hundred
mutinous sepoys,—the same party that had
proposed to itself the seizure of the district
officers in Puttealee. That was the third
hairbreadth escape.

The fugitives struck then into the jungle:
the thakoor foot-guard had been dismissed,
worn out by the night march: the sowars had
become insolent in their bearing: danger
from them was imminent. The old resseldar
was told that their services would be no
longer needed, and that he and they might
go whither they pleased. "The attitude of:
these fellows," says Mr. Edwards, "became
at this moment most threatening; they
seemed just wavering as to whether they
would charge down upon and destroy us, or
go off and leave us. They consulted together
for a moment—one of breathless suspense
to us—and then, to our great relief,
suddenly turned about and rode off. We now
went on, changing our direction as soon as
we lost sight of the sowars, with the
view of preventing their afterwards following
our movements." Fourth hair-breadth
escape.

Our hunted countrymen, attended only
by Wuzeer Singh and one or two faithful
servants, anxiously marched through the
terrific heat and dust of the day. At evening
they reached a hamlet, in which there was
an old soldier, a pensioner of the British
Government, who gave them bread and milk,
and hospitable words. To the offer of payment
he replied, "No. I have a home, while
you are wanderers in the jungle: you are
now in the most need. But if ever your rule
is restored, remember me, and the small help
I have been able to give you."

At nightfall, after twenty hours in the
saddle, the Englishmen returned into
Puttealee. There was an impression among
them that their risk was greater when they
kept together in the effort to escape. Bramley
and Phillips were left, therefore, to make
their own effort to escape to Agra; while Mr.
Edwards, who could not desert the companions
trusting in his guidance, set out before noon
on the following day with Mr. Gibson and
the two Messrs. Donald, proposing to push
back across the district of Budaon to the
hills. Their way was among crowds of men
laden with plunder of a village sacked
during the night. At the entrance of each
village through which they passed, the men
of it were gathered in a body to protect their
homes against attack and plunder. They
crowded round the Englishmen, and eagerly
asked, "When will your rule return. In
ten or fifteen days? We are worn out and
tired with this continual watching, and we
long for peace again."

At four in the afternoon, the fugitives
reached Kadir Gunge, a fort in which they had
been rested for a few hours after the Ganges
had been crossed by them two days before.
The English cause was then looking more hopeless
in that district, and their reception by the
zemindar was proportionately cold. He promised,
however, to get them back across the
river, to Budaon. But then, news came from
across the river that the villages had been
plundered and burnt, and that, in a village
immediately opposite Kadir Gunge, there was
a large body of horse engaged in the direct
search for Mr. Edwards, and, as it afterwards
appeared, watching for his landing when he
should recross the river. Sorely against the
will of their host, who gave them scarcely
any food, the fugitives remained in the fort
till the evening of the next day, when the
zemindar told his guests that he could
harbour them no longer. They must re-cross
the Ganges. They went down to the river
side; but found the boat too small
(hair-breadth escape the fifth), and returned to be
abused by their unwilling entertainer. When
they had pacified him, he advised them
strongly to abandon the design of crossing,
and make for Furruckabad, sixty miles off,
to which place the road was pretty clear,