onour reached Ranjitgarh, under the escort of Sir Edmund
Antony--who fell ill again the day after his arrival, and was promptly
ordered back to the hills by his doctors--she found that the general
opinion of Charteris's and Gerrard's conduct reflected his verdict
rather than hers. Charteris was the head and front of the offending,
for Gerrard's self-suppression in placing himself under his orders had
had the unlooked-for effect of concentrating attention, and blame, on
the man nominally responsible. Charteris had precipitated matters by
his hasty action, he was driving Sher Singh to revolt, he would set all
Granthistan in a blaze, and incidentally be wiped out himself--in which
case he would richly deserve his fate. The confused rumours which came
through of the skirmishes preceding the battle near Kardi created an
atmosphere highly unfavourable to a cool consideration of his reports
when they arrived. The rumours spoke of defeat, retreat, heavy
loss--the reports of positions maintained and a steady pressure on the
foe, and as such a measure of success, attained by unauthorised and
unprecedented means, was in itself most improbable, the rumours
received far greater credit. The action of Lieutenant Charteris became
a public scandal, focussing Anglo-Indian attention on Granthistan to a
highly undesirable extent. The newly arrived Governor-General, Lord
Blairgowrie, who possessed two supreme qualifications for his high
office in a total ignorance of things Indian and a splendid
self-confidence, wrote several of his well-known incisive letters to
the Antony brothers, reflecting upon the discipline of their
subordinates. Unkindest cut of all, old Sir Henry Lennox grasped
joyfully at the chance of avenging a few of the wrongs he and his
Khemistan administration had suffered at the hands of Granthistan,
and--with the readiness to submit official matters to public
arbitrament which so curiously distinguished the men of his
day--addressed to the press a series of communications reflecting with
equal severity on Charteris's moral character and his military capacity.

A copy of the Bombay paper in which these letters appeared was sent to
Sir Arthur Cinnamond by a friend who thought he ought to know what was
being said, and it fell into Honour's hands. Sir Arthur, dozing over a
cheroot in the hottest part of the day, was rudely awakened by the
apparition of the tragic figure of his daughter, holding out the
offending journa