Page:Lachmi Bai Rani of Jhansi.djvu/30

 Vane glanced contemptuously at an obsequious aged servant who had come forth to receive them, and round upon the drowsy appearance of the buildings.

"Conspiracy ! Uprising of the people ! Nonsense " ! he ejaculated. " Hawksley's imagination has gone wan- dering. I'd wager six months' pay the girl is trembling at the bare idea of our visit."

As the request for an audience had been made upon the spur of the moment, the Commissioner regarded it as a favorable sign that the Rani consented to receive them without delay.

They .were ushered through an inner courtyard sur- rounded by cloisters, in the shade of which a few Natives awoke to salute the Foreign Sahibs as they passed. Thence through dark halls and ante-chambers, in which the echo of their footsteps alone broke the profound si- lence that had descended on the palace. At last they crossed the threshold of the Darbar hall.

'At the further end of the noble chamber, where for centuries it had been the custom of the Princes of Jhansi to dispense justice, she, from whom justice had been withheld, stood to receive her visitors. In the sight of the two officers as they gazed down a nave of pillars supporting the ornately decorated roof, she appeared as the statue of some divinity in the far perspective of an ancient temple a youthful, white robed, graceful figure, brought into strong relief by a dark background of gold embroidered arras. As if to emphasize the powerless condition to which IO