noon
Nana Sahib would , it was said , meet them at Futtehpore , a place forty-eight miles from Cawnpore , and seventy-five from Allahabad . As yet , however , none of his troops had reached Futtehpore , which was fortunate , for the main road ran through that place , which was but twenty miles from the point where they had crossed the Ganges ; and although they would keep by a road near the river , and so avoid the town , the Nana 's troops would be sure to be scouring the country . This news decided them not to accept the zemindar 's invitation to stay the night and start the next morning early . It was still but little past noon , and they might do many miles before darkness . Before they halted the party had made fifteen miles , and in passing through a village learned the welcome news that a small English force had advanced to Synee , some ten miles only beyond Futtehpore . This force had , it was said , met with little resistance as yet , and the country people were full of stories of the manner in which the Sepoys and others who had been engaged with them were , as soon as captured , hung up in numbers . Already , in the minds of the peasantry , the idea that the British would be the final conquerors in the strife was gaining ground ; and as the whole country had suffered from the exactions and insolence of the triumphant Sepoys , and life and property were no longer safe for a moment , the secret sympathy of all those who had anything to lose was with the advancing British force .