An hour before daybreak they met villagers fleeing with what property they could carry, and the spies learned, to their great but carefully concealed joy, that the English were only three miles away. As day dawned they reached one of the outposts of Sikh cavalry, and were halted by an old Sikh, who took the pair to his captain. Just as the sun rose, Mr. Kavanagh, his face streaked and spotted like a coach-dog, was at the entrance of Sir Colin Campbell's tent. The old fellow gruffly demanded who he was, and what he wanted. "My name is Kavanagh," was the reply; "I left the Residency last night, and here is a letter from General Outram." General Campbell stood for a moment astonished, and then drew the counterfeit native into his tent, embraced him like a brother, and treated him as tenderly as though he had been a child. At Kavanagh's request he was given a bed, but he was so overcome by his emotions that he could not sleep, and, after tossing uneasily for an hour or more, he rose and sat down to breakfast with the general. "I had a ravenous appetite," said he; "and they had so many good things that I could not restrain my astonishment. 'Marmalade!' I said; 'have you real marmalade?' 'Where did you get your eggs? And potted meats!--what a luxury!' I went on in this way while the general was asking about the Residency, and the rebels, and the road to Lucknow; and altogether the story was a fragmentary one. Afterward we went over it better, and the general made his plans. [Illustration: MERCHANTS OF LUCKNOW.] "Officers and men wanted to see me, and I asked if I could take a stroll through the camp. 'Not without me,' said Sir Colin; 'the officers will ask all sorts of questions if you go alone, and then each one will have his plan for entering Lucknow. I propose to do my own planning, and when you go through the camp you go with me, so that no one can talk to you.' With this arrangement we went through the camp, and satisfied their curiosity to see me. "When I left the Residency it was arranged that my wife should know nothing of my departure till it was certain that I had succeeded or was dead. Three miles out on the Cawnpore road was the Alumbagh, a fortified garden, where Havelock left his heavy baggage, with a guard of a hundred men. There was a semaphore telegraph there to communicate with the Residency, and I arranged to call at the Alumbagh and have them telegraph my arrival; but I found it so closely invested by the rebels that I could not enter, and so kept straight on to General Campbell. [Illustration: AN OLD SIKH.]