We were pursued by a whole troop of Sepoy cavalry, who were firing pistol shots at us.

We were not more than seventy or eighty yards in front, and they were gaining fast, just as I rode into a large deserted temple.

In the center was a huge stone figure.

I jumped off my horse with the lady, and as I did so she said, 'blow out my brains, Edward; don't let me fall into their hands.' "Instead of answering, I hurried her round behind the idol, pushed against one of the leaves of a flower in the carving, and the stone swung back, and showed a hole just large enough to get through, with a stone staircase inside the body of the idol, made, no doubt, for the priest to go up and give responses through the mouth.

I hurried the girl through, crept in after her, and closed the stone, just as our pursuers came clattering into the courtyard.