e than that of the men. Darkness
alone put an end to the conflict.

I should mention that the poor old Rani, or Queen of Garha, Lachhmi
Kuar, came out as far as Katangi with us to take leave of my wife, to
whom she has always been attached. She had been in the habit of
spending a day with her at my house once a week; and being the only
European lady from whom she had ever received any attention, or
indeed ever been on terms of any intimacy with, she feels the more
sensible of the little offices of kindness and courtesy she has
received from her.[10] Her husband, Narhar Sa, was the last of the
long line of sixty-two sovereigns who reigned over these territories
from the year A.D. 358 to the Sagar conquest, A.D. 1781.[11] He died
a prisoner in the fortress of Kurai, in the Sagar district, in A. D.
1789, leaving two widows.[12] One burnt herself upon the funeral
pile, and the other was prevented from doing so, merely because she
was thought too young, as she was not then fifteen years of age. She
received a small pension from the Sagar Government, which was still
further reduced under the Nagpur Government which succeeded it in the
Jubbulpore district in which the pension had been assigned; and it
was not thought necessary to increase the amount of this pension when
the territory came under our dominion,[13] so that she has had barely
enough to subsist upon, about one hundred rupees a month. She is now
about sixty years of age, and still a very good-looking woman. In her
youth she must have been beautiful. She does not object to appear
unveiled before gentlemen on any particular occasion; and, when Lord
W. Bentinck was at Jubbulpore in 1833, I introduced, the old queen to
him. He seemed much interested, and ordered the old lady a pair of
shawls. None but very coarse ones were found in the store-rooms of
the Governor-General's representative, and his lordship said these
were not such as a Governor-General could present, or a queen,
however poor, receive; and as his own 'toshakhana' (wardrobe) had
gone on,[l4] he desired that a pair of the finest kind should be
purchased and presented to her in his name. The orders were given in
her presence and mine. I was obliged to return to Sagar before they
could be carried into effect; and, when I returned in 1835,[15] I
found that the _rejected_ shawls had been presented to her, and were
such coarse things that she was ashamed to wear them, as much, I
really believe, on account of th