the throats of as many of
these hell-hounds as possible!"

He fetched a slash at the man who lay whining at our feet that nearly
severed his head from his trunk.

"Now we must save ourselves if we can!" he muttered. And indeed it was
time. The screams of the eunuch overhead had brought the whole place
about our ears. As we stepped out of the pavilion again, we saw lights
glittering through the trees all round us, and heard shouting and the
running of feet. Our friendly eunuch had taken to flight, and we were
left to extricate ourselves as best we could.

"We must not stay here or we shall be surrounded," cried Rupert.
"Which way is the gate?"

I strove to recollect, and then, taking what I thought to be the
direction, we started off at a run.

Instantly that fiend who had betrayed us, leaning further out of the
window to discover which way we fled, redoubled his cries. Looking
back for a moment as we ran, I saw him pointing, and at the same time
there was a movement of one of the other lattices, and I caught a
glimpse of a white face and two hands thrust out with a despairing
gesture, and knew that Marian was aware of our enterprise and that we
had failed. Then the clamour on all sides grew louder, and men bearing
lanterns and armed with swords and matchlocks burst out from the trees
around the pavilion, and ran hither and thither, some towards the
building, others searching for our track.

We ran like deer, bending down so as not to be seen, and dodging in
among the trees and bushes. By this means we preserved ourselves from
immediate capture, but soon missed our way, and found ourselves
wandering about in the garden, stealing from one patch of cover to
another; while every now and then a party of our pursuers would go
past, so close that we could hear them speak, and see the sparks of
lantern-light drip off the naked blades of their weapons as they
thrust them into the bushes.

After several close escapes of this kind, when we at last stumbled on
the postern, more by luck than skill, we found it barred and locked,
and the key removed. Before we could decide what next to do, on a
sudden a party of four gigantic blacks burst out upon us, brandishing
their weapons at our heads and calling on us, by all manner of filthy
names, to surrender. I believe they expected us to prove an easy prey,
but I was now grown desperate, and rushed so fiercely on him that came
first and carried a lantern, that I fairly bore him t