"Our master will, I am sure, gladly receive you." He showed Harry into a large room where, a few minutes later, the zemindar joined him.
"Peace be with you, sahib! I am rejoiced to see you in safety; for I heard, at Delhi, that you had not returned, and there were fears that ill had befallen you and your escort." "My escort were killed, and I myself carried a prisoner to the rajah's hill fort; and I have owed my escape to the faithfulness of my servant, who got away when the others were massacred and, disguising himself, got into the fort and contrived my escape." "All honour be to him!" the zemindar said.

"Then you have walked all night ?" "Yes; we went ten miles to the north first, knowing that we should be pursued; for we heard the alarm given, just after we started.

We have walked fifty miles and, when I say that I have eaten nothing since yesterday morning, you may be sure that we are sorely in need of refreshment." "It shall be got ready, at once, sahib; and, while it is being prepared, you can take a bath and a change of garments." "I need the bath almost as much as I need a feed," Harry laughed.
"I have just been looking into the glass, and I see that I am well-nigh as dark as when I came to you, nine or ten days ago." His host led him to a room containing a bath, which was soon filled by the servants, one of whom brought in a handsome suit of the zemindar's clothes.

It was more than half an hour before he went down again.

As soon as he entered the room, a servant brought in a meal; consisting of slices of meat on a skewer, and a pillau of chicken.
The zemindar sat by while he ate his meal, and Harry gave him a short account of the manner in which he had effected his escape.
The former, in turn, related the events of the siege; adding that spies had brought in the news, late in the afternoon, that Holkar would march away in the morning, as he had heard that the English army was but two days distant.
"Was he going to meet the English, or to retire towards Malwar ?" "That I cannot say, sahib, for the spies could not tell us.
Doubtless he and his army are much dispirited, at their failure to take the city.