The ranee gave a little cry of pleasure on recognizing the boys, and Ahrab instantly signed to the other attendants to retire. Then the ranee unveiled, and the major, who had remained near the entrance until the attendants had left, came forward, the boys kissing the hands that the ranee held out to them.
"I have mourned for you as dead," she said. "When the news of that horrible treachery came, and I thought that I had let you go to death, my heart turned to water."
"This is our father, dear lady," Ned said; "he has come to thank you himself for having saved and sheltered us."
The interview lasted for half an hour; refreshment being served, Ned recounted the particulars of their escape. Major Warrener on leaving handed the ranee a protection order signed by the general to show to any British troops who might be passing, and told her that her name would be sent in with the list of those who had acted kindly to British fugitives, all of whom afterward received honors and rewards in the shape of the lands of those who had joined the mutineers. Then, with many expressions of good-will on both sides, the major and his sons took their leave, and joining the troops below, rode back to Cawnpore.
For three days after his arrival at Cawnpore, General Havelock rested his troops, and occupied himself with restoring order in the town. Numbers of Sepoys were found in hiding, and these were, as soon as identified, all hung at once. On the third day Brigadier-General Neil arrived with the two hundred and twenty men of the Eighty-fourth, who had been hurried forward—a most welcome reinforcement, for Havelock's force was sadly weakened by loss in battle, sunstroke and disease. On the 20th the army marched against Bithoor, every
