CHAPTER II.

FEMALE

RULERS.

T is not unusual to consider Eastern women as

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a down-trodden poor-spirited race, and yet cases are numerous in which they have been the actual rulers, whilst fathers, husbands, and sons were of small account. Their masculine character has been exemplified of late in the tragedy of Jhansee, where, it may be remembered, numbers of our countrymen were slaughtered by the widow of the Raja, at whose death we took possession of the country, refusing to sanction an adopted heir, and thereby depriving her of rule and territory. This lady threw herself heart and soul into the rebellion, and died fighting against us on horseback, in the rebel ranks.

Raj Baee, the heroine of my present story, was a woman of a like masculine and determined

character. At the time of the occurrences I am about to relate, she had been regent of her country, the Principality of Wudwan, in the Guzerat peninsula, some thirty years, during which time, according to public rumour, she had made away with successively her father-in-law, husband, and a son, as each interfered with her management more than she approved. Providence had now given her-or she had recently introduced-an infant successor, of which Goelwao, the young widow of the late Raja, over whom his mother supposed herself to have the most interest, was, or was proclaimed to be, the parent; for the male species, though to Raj Baee's view entirely useless in itself, was still necessary as a means of power-a sort of constable's staff without which her jurisdiction would not have been acknowledged, but the claim of some male heir set up instead.

Having related the dark crimes attributed to the old lady-let us charitably hope without sufficient foundation-it is but justice to her to state that her country was well-governed and in a flourishing condition.

Raj Baee was now nearly seventy years old, and having latterly pondered more and more on the prospects of another world, was troubled with compunctions of conscience for her doings in this. Whereupon, after much demur, and taking ghostly counsel, she resolved to wash away her sins by a pilgrimage to a celebrated shrine at a considerable distance from the country. As this would detain her long from home, she made' arrangements for the administration by appointing Goelwao regent ad interim; after which, all being settled, and an auspicious day for departure duly calculated by the Brahmins, she set forth with a large retinue, and was for a while lost to the world.

Meanwhile, Goelwao tasted the sweets of power, and while doing so she very naturally began to reflect, that as mother of the young Raja, she had as much right to govern in his name as the grandmother. Possessing an equal share of spirit, she forthwith began a series of intrigues, tending to secure the adherence of many who were in a position to help her to retain power when her mother-in-law should again make her appearance.

Matters went forward smoothly and successfully, and when the old queen, having accomplished her pilgrimage and returned home, was desirous of entering her capital, she was quietly informed that the stars were unfavourable, and that she had better wait a little outside.

The old lady was not famed for patience; nevertheless, she waited till her small stock of it was exhausted, and then attempted to enter the town, but found the gates closed, and the guard deaf to her indignant remonstrances. A parley next took place between the two ladies, in which the older upbraided the younger with treachery, and the younger replied, that the good old lady could not do better at her time of life than continue to devote herself to spiritual affairs, that she might thereby gain the full benefit conferred by pilgrimage to the holy shrine, leaving to younger shoulders the burden of the troubled cares of this world. But Raj Baee failed to see the force of the argument; frustrated, and boiling with indignation, she bent her steps towards Rajcote, there to lay her grievances before the British authority. Being a

wealthy dame, she took care to bring with her abundance of golden reasons for propitiating all amenable to a species of logic to which, it must be confessed, our native subordinates are not more insensible than many of the electors of our own boroughs. But her utmost efforts failed to do more than induce the Political Agent, the late Sir John Pollard Willoughby, to issue an attachment upon the State, that is, to place a functionary in charge of its management until some means of adjustment could be devised between the two belligerent parties. This species of sequestration leaves everything in statu quo. Goelwao therefore being actually in power, and having possession of the young Raja, had nine parts of the law in her favour.

Every attempt to arrange the dispute by arbitration or otherwise failed, as did also the old Queen's patience, and she determined to take the law into her own hands. Whether with or without the co-operation of the native officials of the agency, she contrived to gain over the native functionary acting for the British Government at Wudwan, to

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