the command of her
contingent to Rukn-ud-din, maintaining rigid seclusion on her elephant
with one or two faithful attendants.

Thus far, then, Charteris's bold scheme was justified. Sher Singh's
power for mischief beyond his own borders was largely neutralised for
the present, and for so long as an active enemy remained in arms upon
his soil. But the march from the Habshiabad frontier to Kardi was a
matter of seven days in favourable circumstances, and this was the hot
weather, and the partially trained troops disgraced their leader by
straggling, making unauthorised expeditions for the sake of plunder,
demanding longer halts and more frequent opportunities of meeting the
foe, and all manner of other military crimes. The high officers who
accompanied them on gorgeous elephants, with long trains of attendants
and baggage-animals, were quite useless as an aid to discipline, and
Gerrard fell into the habit of issuing his orders first, and then
sending a special copy to be handed round among them. It was not at
all the fulfilment of the ideal he had set before himself, the
reformation of the army through and with the help of its leaders, but
time was pressing, and far ahead, at Kardi, Bob Charteris was looking
out for him and wondering why he did not come.

The elements seemed to combine with troublesome humanity against
Charteris at this moment. A sudden rise of the river, a week before
the usual date, flooded him out of his entrenchments and obliged him to
take up a less satisfactory position. Moreover, at the same time,
Chand Singh, the Agpur general, after some painful vacillation as to
whether he should annihilate the western or the southern intruder
first, made up his mind suddenly, and marched with quite unexpected
speed upon Kardi, driving in the Darwani raiding-parties before him.
One fortunate result of his haste was that his guns were left behind,
and he was obliged to wait for them, but his army held the whole range
of ground in front of Charteris. Charteris had requisitioned every
boat that could be found on the Darwan side, and kept them safely
guarded, but it would be quite easy to obtain others if Chand Singh
cared to try a naval action. This he would probably combine with a
frontal attack all along the line as soon as his artillery arrived,
with the result that Charteris's force must choose between destruction
and being driven into the river, unless they retreated in time. But
everything forbad