assented to deposition and resigned himself a captive to our hands, he stipulated as a condition that his faithful followers should be cared for.

He surrendered in 1818 to Sir John Malcolm, who, to the astonishment of all acquainted with Indian affairs, guaranteed him an annual pension of eight lakhs of rupees or £80,000 per annum. Having no children, Bajee Rao II. adopted a son who was to succeed to his vast wealth, but not to the pension or title of Peishwa. This young man, described at the time of Bajee Rao's death as "quiet and unostentatious, not at all addicted to any extravagant habits, and invariably showing a ready disposition to attend to the advice of the British Commissioner," was none other than the infamous Dundoo Punt, better known as Nana Sahib. Resentment against the British Government, for disallowing his claim to succeed to the Peishwa's titles and pension as well as to his private fortune, amounting to £280,000, seems to have inspired him with a revengeful bitterness that only bided its time to blaze forth in unrelenting fury, and when the annexation of Oude under Lord Dalhousie gave a plausible pretext for resentment, it is said that princes and native chiefs, who had hitherto held back, now responded to his appeals, and swore to further him in his projects of revenge.*

The history of the Indian Mutiny needs no repetition here. The Nana was proclaimed Peishwa by the rebel Gwalior contingent and others. After passing through many vicissitudes and losing every battle, the bloodstained and perjured slaughterer of innocent women and * Sir John Kaye's "History of the Sepoy War." Meadows Taylor's "Manual of Indian History."

children fled to Bithoor, attended by a few horsemen, "and as he rode through Cawnpore his horse flecked with foam, he might have met the public criers proclaiming that the Feringhees had been well nigh exterminated, and offering rewards for the heads of the few who were still left upon the face of the earth. But the lie had exploded, and his one thought of that moment was escape from the pursuing Englishman. Arrived at Bithoor, he saw clearly that the game was up, his followers were fast deserting him. Many it is said reproached him for his failure. All, we may be sure, clamoured for pay. His terror-stricken imagination pictured a vast avenging army on his track; and the great instinct of self-preservation prompted him to gather up the women of his family, to embark by night in a boat, to ascend the Ganges to Futtehgurh, and to give out that he was preparing himself for self-immolation. He was to consign himself to the sacred waters of the Ganges, which had been the grave of so many of his victims. There was to be a given signal through the darkness of the early night, which was to mark the moment of the Ex-Peishwa's suicidal immersion. But

he had no thought of dying. The signal light was extinguished, and a cry arose from the religious mendicants who were assembled on the Cawnpore bank of the river, and who believed that the Nana was dead. But covered by the darkness, he emerged upon the Oude side of the Ganges, and his escape was safely accomplished."* The holy men proceeded without delay to plunder the palace of their quondam benefactor.

Thus vanished from the scene, like a baneful meteor, the guilty shadow of the once renowned and imperial Peishwas. * Kaye's "Sepoy War."

CHAPTER XI.

THE REMARKABLE WOMEN OF INDIA.

Princess of Scinde-Beautiful Sultana Rezia of Delhi-Hindoo Queen of Gurrah-A Sultana Regent-Mother of Sivajee.

BEFORE describing the origin and progress of British rule in India, a few words on the women of that country who, by their beauty, ability, and courage, have powerfully affected its history, may not be uninteresting.

Accustomed as we have been to regard all Eastern women as both mentally and morally inferior, and accepting broadly the fact of their imperfect education, subordinate position and secluded lives, it is with a feeling of surprise akin to admiration that we recognise the startling influence exercised by women on the fate of the Eastern world, an influence not to be attributed to mere personal charms alone, nor to the infatuation of a besotted passion, which any given sovereign may have felt for this or that favourite of the harem, but conspicuously due (in combination with beauty) to ability, energy, craft, perseverance and ambition on the part of those who have come prominently to the front in the history of India. The seclusion of high-caste Hindoo women was probably not so strict in earlier ages as at present, but that their separation from the outer world was considered both desirable and expedient there can be no doubt. The wife was enjoined to give her entire devotion and obedience to her husband; she was to lead

a life of seclusion, and to keep herself from contact with the world. Men were told to honour the women of their family lest "it wholly perish;" and it is added that whereas, in families where the women are not held in honour, "all religious acts become fruitless," in those, on the other hand, "where a husband is contented with his wife, and she with her husband, "will fortune assuredly be permanent."*

It would almost seem as though the general subjection of women had been more than counterbalanced by their individual supremacy in those countries where the very title of "Sultana" sounds, in Western ears, nearly synonymous with that of a toy; a beautiful, soul-less, graceful creature, helpless and useless, meant to be, and sent to be, simply and solely, "a moment's ornament. Too childish for companionship, too ignorant for opposition, too helpless for self-dependence, the Moslem faith instils the inferiority of the female sex as an article of religion. "Women," it says, "are only superior in craft and cunning." They are not allowed to read the holy books-they are not permitted to eat with their husbands -they are debarred from inheriting paternal property. Seclusion is their portion and ignorance their fate.

The history of the remarkable women of India has yet to be written, but a brief glance at some of the more prominent female figures who have illustrated Eastern story by their charms, courage and devotion may not be without interest to the reader. It will, at any rate, go far to show that the "coming woman," the capable, enduring, heroic, high-souled woman, determined, skilful,

Colebrooke's Asiatic Researches.

dominant and predominating is not so entirely a product of the West, or a dream of the future, as some of the subjugators of the sex would have us believe.

The Princess of Scinde.-Of the extraordinary resolution shown by Indian women, we have a striking example as early as 711 A.D., in the conquest of Scinde by the Arabs.

Amongst the numerous female captives of Scinde were two beautiful princesses, who were reserved for the harem of the Commander of the Faithful, Walid, the sixth caliph of the house of Ommeia. When the elder was introduced to her future lord, she burst into a flood of tears, and declared that she was now unworthy of his notice, having been already dishonoured by his nephew' Casim, before she was sent out of her country. Enraged at the insult offered to him by his inferior, and inflamed

the sight of her beauty and distress, the caliph sent orders that Casim should be sewed up in a raw hide and sent to Damascus. When he produced the body to the princess, she was so overjoyed at the sight, that she exultingly declared Casim had been innocent, but that she had now avenged her father's death and the ruin of her family! This heroic lady and her sister met with a cruel and ignominious death.*

The beautiful Sultana Rezia ascended the Imperial musnud at Delhi on the deposition of her brother in 1236. "Rezia Begum," says Ferishta, "was endowed with every princely virtue, and those who scrutinize her actions most severely, will find it to be in her no fault that she was a woman."†

Briggs' Ferishta; Pottinger's "Travels." + Briggs' Ferishta.