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.
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.
AN OLD SIKH.
"When I told him about it he instantly ordered a column of Sikh cavalry to cut their way into the Alumbagh, and have them telegraph that I was safe. All the morning they had been asking from the Residency, 'Has Kavanagh arrived?' The answers were unintelligible, as they knew nothing about Kavanagh; General Outram and Colonel Napier feared I had been killed, and so did the other officers who knew about my departure. All were terribly anxious, and when about eleven o'clock the semaphore spelled out, 'Kavanagh has reached Sir Colin safely,' those strong fellows cried like children, and hugged each other with joy. One of them ran to tell my wife, who rubbed her eyes in astonishment, as she supposed all the time that I was on duty in the trenches. When she knew the story she sat down and cried too."