er the usually stern and haughty face a
wonderful glow of kindliness, and his voice took a softer modulation.

"However, know this, my friends, that in my zenana at Jhalnagor there
are little girls--three, and more will be welcome should the divine
Krishna send them. Three little daughters have I, all born of my wife
Lakmibai, the jewel of Jhalnagor. With sons also am I blessed--two brave
little boys, of whom I may well be proud. But I love them not more than
my daughters, nor would I change any one daughter for a son. This do I
say out of the truth of my heart, and in no wise because fortune has
been kind to me and mine, and has given us such prosperity that there is
a fit dower for each daughter without my treasury knowing the loss.

"So when the learned mullah from Stamboul denounced infanticide, I was
one with him in sympathy, for my inclination is to cherish with love and
care every female child the gods send.

"Now would you hear how a Rajput came to this manner of thinking? My
story is that of a little maid. Listen. It happened just five years gone
by.

* * * * *

"Under the firm and just rule of our master Akbar there has been peace
for many years in our part of the world. Except when, as now, I come to
Fathpur-Sikri for my yearly month of service in providing part of the
Emperor's bodyguard, I live quietly among my own people. The soil around
our villages is tilled, our shopkeepers buy and sell, we worship in our
temples, and we are happy, for no enemy comes to disturb the peace of
our beautiful little valley of Jhalnagor embosomed among the hills.

"One day it befell that I had gone on a hunting trip with a party of my
friends. In the early dawn we had descended from the fort on the hill
top which is my home and the rallying-place for my clan--a small clan,
numbering but a few thousands, but nobly born as any tribe in Rajputana,
brave and of honour unsullied, men who have never yet given a daughter
to the harem of a Moslem."

The features of the Rajput flashed with pride. His brother-at-arms, the
Afghan, met the defiant look, and said, with a quiet smile:

"There are many Rajput women wed to Moslem lords."

"Yes, but not Rajput women of Jhalnagor. They would have died
first--many of them did so prefer to die when the Moslem host first
swept over our land. In the hour of defeat, against overwhelming
numbers, within the citadel of Jhalnagor the women of my race, refusing