An hour after leaving the village, as they were passing through a thick
grove of trees some figures rose as from the ground. Ned was knocked off
his horse by a blow with the butt-end of a gun; and Dick, before he had
time to shout or make a movement in his defense, was dragged from his
horse, his head wrapped in a thick cloth, and his arms bound. Then he
could feel himself lifted up and rapidly carried off. After a time he was
put on his legs and the covering of his head removed. He found Ned beside
him; and a word of congratulation that both were alive was exchanged. Then
a rope was placed round each of their necks, and surrounded by their
captors, two of whom rode their horses, they were started at a run, with
admonitions from those around them that any attempt to escape or to shout
would be punished with instant death.

For full two hours they were hurried along, and then the party halted at
the edge of a thick jungle, lighted a fire, and began to cook. The
prisoners were allowed to sit down with their captors. These were
matchlock-men, on their way to join the forces besieging the Residency at
Cawnpore, toward which town they had been making their way, as the boom of
the guns sounded sharper and clearer every mile that they traveled. Ned
gathered from the talk that their capture was the effect of pure accident.
The party had sat down in the wood to eat, when they heard a troop of
horsemen passing. A word or two spoken in English as the leaders came
along sufficed to show the nationality of the troop, and the band lay
quiet in the bushes until, as they supposed, all had passed. They had
risen to leave when the two last horsemen came in view, and these they
determined to capture and carry off, if possible, hoping to get a
considerable reward from Nan a Sahib on their arrival at Cawnpore.

Nana Sahib's name had not as yet that terrible history attached to it
which rendered it execrated wherever the English tongue is spoken; but the