The commissioner opened the sitting in a way utterly unexpected by the Hindus. It was as if a bomb-shell had fallen amongst them when Mr. Hartley, coming forward, in a clear voice requested the production in court of a widow, known by the name of Premi, whom he could prove to be an Englishwoman, Miranda Macfinnis, detained unlawfully in the fort.
Mr. Thole sternly demanded of the chief, Thákar Dás, whether he knew anything of such a person.
Thákar Dás was utterly taken aback. At first he stammered forth a flat denial that such an individual had ever been seen at Talwandi.
“Can any witnesses be produced?” asked the commissioner.
“There are two present,” was Mr. Hartley’s reply: “one, this young Brahmin, who saw the English child when she was first brought into the fort, and has had frequent opportunities of conversing with her since; the other, this lady.” He turned towards Alicia, who with a thick veil down was standing beside her husband. “Mrs. Hartley has not only seen the widow more than once, but has heard from her lips a fragment of an English hymn which could not have been learned from her Hindu companions.”
“Let this Premi be produced at once,” the commissioner said in a tone of command.
Then the wily Hindu changed his tactics, showing as little regard for consistency as he had done for truth. He declared—shedding tears to confirm his words—that the widow was to him as a daughter; she had been brought up in purdah; she would die of shame, she would kill herself, if forced to leave her seclusion.
The commissioner’s only reply to this pathetic appeal was a reiterated command to produce her. If she were not brought into court, an order to search the fort would be given.
There were murmurs of anger and looks of indignation amongst the bystanders, even low threats might be heard; but Mr. Thole was determined to carry his point, and he did so.
After tedious delay, a form, supported between two old women—for it seemed almost ready to fall—appeared in the court. The form was so entirely muffled from head to foot in a large white sheet that its shape could scarcely be defined. A silence prevailed which was broken by the commissioner’s voice: “Remove the sheet; the woman must be identified, or the case cannot proceed.”