This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
178
IN TIMES OF PERIL.

kerchief, a lock of hair, a child's sock sprinkled with blood—and kept them, to steel their hearts to all thoughts of mercy; and that, after this, they went into battle crying to each other:

"Remember the ladies!" "Remember the babies!" "Think of Cawnpore!" Henceforth, to the end of the war no quarter was ever shown to a Sepoy.

One of the first impulses of the Warreners when the tents were pitched in the old cantonments, and the troops were dismissed, was to ride with their father to the house of the ranee. It was found to be abandoned—as indeed was the greater part of the town—and an old servant who alone remained said that two days previously the ranee had left for her country abode. Major Warrener at once drew out a paper, saying that the owner of this house had shown hospitality and kindness to English fugitives, and that it was therefore to be preserved from all harm or plunder, and having obtained the signature of the quartermaster-general in addition to his own, he affixed the paper to the door of the dwelling. The nest day he rode out with his sons and twenty of his men to the house where the boys had first been sheltered. The gates were opened at his sumomns by some trembling retainers, who hastened to assure them that the ranee, their mistress, was friendly to the English.

"Will you tell her that there is no cause for alarm, but that we desire an interview with her?" the major said, dismounting.

In a minute the servant returned, and begged the major to follow him, which he did, accompanied by his sons. They were shown into a grand reception room, where the ranee, thickly veiled, was sitting on a couch, surrounded by her attendants, Ahrab standing beside her.