Chapter I: Front Matter

LACHMI BAI
Rani
of
Jhansi

MICHAEL WHITE

LACHMI BAI

Lachmi Bai
Rani
of
Jhansi

The
Jeanne D'Arc
of India

By
Michael
White

New York
J. F. Taylor & Company
1901

COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY
J. F. TAYLOR AND
COMPANY, NEW YORK

_Press of
Riggs Printing Company
Albany, N. Y._

_To
my wife_

_The_ RANI _of_ JHANSI

"Being young, vigorous, and not afraid to show herself to the multitude, she gained a great influence over the hearts of the people. It was this influence, this force of character, added to a splendid and inspiring courage, that enabled her to offer a desperate resistance to the British.... Whatever her faults in British eyes may have been, her countrymen will ever believe that she was driven by ill-treatment into rebellion; that her cause was a righteous cause. To them she will always be a heroine."

KAYE AND MALLESON,
"_History of the Indian Mutiny_."

LACHMI BAI

Within no peerless Taj Mahal her body lies,
No gilded dome, nor fairy minarets against the azure skies,
Proclaim the place, where she, called by her foes, the "bravest
and the best,"
Was laid by reverential hands to her victorious rest:
But in the eternal sanctuary of her race,
The holy river, holy Mother Ganges, that coveted embrace,
Doth hold her ashes, and for a monument to her name,
Sufficeth it, that in the people's hearts, her fame,
Doth shine immortal. For she was deeply loved, this Queen,
The beauteous, valiant Rani, India's great heroine.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. BEFORE THE STORM 1
II. THE HOUR AT HAND 18
III. BY THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE 23
IV. A STAR IN THE ASCENDENT 36
V. AHMAD RETURNS TO COURT 48
VI. THE OATH 61
VII. HOW AHMAD KEPT HIS OATH 72
VIII. THE DARBAR 85
IX. AT THE HOUSE OF AHMAD KHAN 101
X. THE WHITE TURRET 107
XI. A SHREWD DIAGNOSIS 117
XII. AHMAD AGAIN NONPLUSSED 126
XIII. WHAT BIPIN OVERHEARD 139
XIV. AT THE TOMB OF FIROZ KHAN 155
XV. IN THE COURSE OF EVENTS 172
XVI. JHANSI BESIEGED 184
XVII. WITH SWORD AND TORCH 193
XVIII. A PRINCE IN SCARLET 207
XIX. A CALL TO THE HEART 218
XX. BIPIN TAKES A PRISONER 229
XXI. THE GREAT COUP DE MAIN 237

_LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS_

"Lachmi Bai--Lachmi Bai--Rani of Jhansi"! they cried
(page 31) _Frontispiece_
PAGE

"Then will I set forth to bring this dog of a Maharaja to his
senses"? 57

"Didst thou mark that languorous glance she cast on thee"? 105

With the exception of a white turban, she was attired in a
blood-red uniform from head to foot 213

Her horse leaped forward straight for Sindhia's guns 255

"Never have I hungered for aught else but thee, fair Rani" 267

LACHMI BAI