the commanding officer paced
his tent, and composed fresh messages to the Maharajah, while
Lieutenant Pink wondered in noble disgust whether the expedition
was going to end in moonshine after all, and Thomas Jones,
sergeant, remarked hourly to his fellow-privates, 'The 17th 'aint
come two 'undred miles for this kind of a joke. The bloomin'
Maharajer 'ull think we've got a funk on.'

But neither Colonel Starr nor Thomas Jones was acquainted with the
reason of the remarkable attitude of Lalpore.

A week before, when the news reached him that the Viceroy was
sending three hundred men and two guns to remonstrate with him for
his treatment of Dr. Roberts, the Maharajah smiled, thinking of the
bravery of his Chitans, the strength of his fortifications, the
depth of his walls, and the wheat stored in his city granaries.
No one had ever taken Lalpore since the Chitans took it--in all
Rajputana there were none so cunning and so brave as the Chitans.
As to bravery, greater than Rajput bravery simply did not exist.
The Maharajah held a council, and they all sported with the idea of
English soldiers coming to Lalpore. Maun Rao begged to go out and
meet them to avenge the insult.

'Maharajah,' said he, 'the Chitans are sufficient against the
world; why should we speak of three hundred monkeys' grandsons? If
the sky fell, our heads would be pillars to protect you!'

And after a long discussion the Maharajah agreed to Maun Rao's
proposal. The English could come only one way. A day's march from
Lalpore they would be compelled to ford a stream. There the
Maharajah's army would meet them, ready, as Maun Rao said in the
council, to play at ball with their outcast heads. There was a
feast afterwards, and everybody had twice as much opium as usual.
In the midst of the revelry they made a great calculation of
resources. The Maharajah smiled again as he thought of the
temerity of the English in connection with the ten thousand rounds
of ammunition that had just come to him on camel back through
Afghanistan from Russia--it was a lucky and timely purchase. Surji
Rao, Minister of the Treasury, when this was mentioned, did not
smile. Surji Rao had bought the cartridges at a very large
discount, which did not appear in the bill, and he knew that not
even Chitan valour could make more than one in ten of them go off.
Therefore, when the Maharajah congratulated Surji Rao upon his
foresight in urging the replenishment of the arsenal at