“’Twas to secure your intercession with the General on behalf of their zenanas, so he said. But can you believe a word they’d say?”
“But I thought they had their zenanas with them?”
“Their wives and mothers and aunts and daughters and sisters—every conceivable sort of female relative—but not the slave-girls. The place wouldn’t hold ’em.”
“And they are allowed go back to their friends? That was one of the things made Ferrers angry. He said the General let the women stay in the Fort for days after the surrender, and there were hundreds of armed men there as well, and they plundered nearly all the treasure.”
“Well, what would y’have the poor old boy do? The armed men were there to guard the zenana, and Bayard and all the old Indians were dinning it into his ears that at the first sign of an attempt to expel ’em, they’d cut all the women’s throats and fight their way out of the city. They had to be got out of the Fort somehow, or there would have been no room for a garrison; and besides, it was not safe to leave ’em there uncontrolled. So he gave ’em three days, while he was collecting camels and palanquins to carry the women to the other palaces outside the city. He knew the ladies would get their fingers into the treasury, but he thought ’twas only fair they would have something to support themselves, as the Khans ain’t likely to be able to keep up such an establishment in future, and what d’ye think we find now they have walked off with? Two millions out of the three the Prize Agents saw in the treasury the first day!”
“No wonder the Khans are well off!” said Eveleen.
“Ah, it’s not all got to them, by any manner of means. Case of finding and keeping, I’d say. But it did sicken me to hear Bayard, when he was starting off down the river after the hoisting of the flag on the Fort, saying to the General, ‘Remember the Khans’ honour is bound up in their womenfolk. Indulge their prejudices, I entreat you. Their wives and daughters are as dear to them as yours to you.’ Half the army believes that Bayard was bribed by the Khans, I may tell you, because of all the delays he brought about. Of course we know that’s great nonsense, but if I’d been the General I’d have knocked him in the river for daring to mention those females in the same breath with little Sally and her sister!”
CHAPTER XVIII.
PLUCK AND LUCK.
Nearly a month after the battle of Mahighar part of the load was lifted from Sir Henry’s burdened mind by the Governor-General’s ordering the annexation of Khemistan and the deportation of the Khans to Bombay. Lord Maryport had not yet heard of the battle, but the shuffling of the Khans over the treaty, and the attack on the Agency, had convinced him that further delay was useless, and his action came in time to diminish the General’s anxieties by allowing him to get rid of his prisoners without fulfilling his threat to put them in irons. There was a slight difference of opinion over their departure. The Khans declared loudly that the Governor-General’s permission to take with them into exile their families and servants included the thousands of women for whom it had not been possible to find room in the garden-palace. The ladies, on the other hand, having enquired whether it was true that slavery was abolished under British rule, flatly refused to go, and the General declined to compel them. Eveleen triumphed ungenerously over Richard on the occasion.
“Didn’t I tell you the creatures were carried away to the Fort against their wills? and you declaring they liked it, and were provided for for life!”