order, and Gerrard prepared to carry it out immediately, though without
much hope of success. The Nawab acquiesced reluctantly in his leaving
the city for a week, but was consoled by the prospect of his finding a
noticeable improvement in the army on his return, and he calculated
that by travelling chiefly at night he could do the journey
comfortably, and secure a day or more with Charteris.

The Rani's reception of Mr Antony's messenger was much what he had
expected. She had taken up her abode in a half-ruined fort, which had
been repaired sufficiently for the purposes of defence, and was
garrisoned by a second company of Rajputs, and Gerrard was refused
admission at the closed gates. His urgent messages brought the old
scribe down to parley with him, but the reproaches he addressed to the
Rani for neglecting the monitions of her husband's chosen councillor
were met by counter-upbraidings on the score of his neglect of the
Rani's own expressed wish to be left unmolested. She would not receive
him, she would not disband her troops nor retire into British
territory, and least of all would she sign the document which was to
obtain from Sher Singh the payment of her jointure in return for her
promise to leave to him any savings of which she might die possessed.
In these circumstances, all that Gerrard could do was to leave the
paper for her consideration, with the most persuasive letter that he
and Munshi Somwar Mal could frame in collaboration, and announce that
he hoped to find her Highness in a better mind when he returned in
three or four days' time.

If his reception here was disappointing, there was nothing lacking in
the warmth of Charteris's welcome when he landed at his camp from the
undignified conveyance of a charpoy supported on _mashaks_[1]--a small
fleet of these vessels being in readiness to carry him and his train
across the river. The puppies were duly exhibited after supper, and
Gerrard made his choice, and then, though it was still early, for the
crossing had to be made by daylight, Charteris dismissed him to sleep
off his fatigues, promising that he should be called well in the middle
of the night.

"To-morrow is a blank day as far as the administration of justice is
concerned," he said. "I have threatened all my petitioners with
atrocious pains and penalties if they so much as show their noses in
camp, and you and I will go for a picnic. I know a bank where the wild
thyme don't grow, but wh