Blank pages have been removed, and if in the pagination, the pagenumbers skipped in order to retain the original pagination fornavigation.
Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Pleasesee the transcriber’s note at the end of this textfor details regarding the handling of any textual issues encounteredduring its preparation.
Any corrections are indicated using an underlinehighlight. Placing the cursor over the correction will produce theoriginal text in a small popup.
Any corrections are indicated as hyperlinks, which will navigate thereader to the corresponding entry in the corrections table in thenote at the end of the text.
The Spectator.—“We have read Mrs. Steel’s book with ever-increasingsurprise and admiration—surprise at her insight into people with whomshe can scarcely have been intimate, admiration for the genius which hasenabled her to realize that wonderful welter of the East and West, whichDelhi must have presented just before the Mutiny. We know in literatureof few sketches better than those which reveal to us Buhadur Shah, thelast great Moghul ... or that of Zeemet Maihl, the evil Queen, ... orof the Moulaire, who roused by his preaching the war against the English,... or of Tiddu, the hereditary juggler-actor, ... or of Soma, thehaughty, sullen Sepoy. And the best evidence of Mrs. Steel’s genius isthat those who can scarcely conceive the society will feel certain that it istruly drawn. There is many an officer who would give his sword to writemilitary history as Mrs. Steel has written the history of the rising, the siege,and the storm. It is the most wonderful picture. We know that none wholived through the Mutiny will lay the book down without a gasp of admiration,and believe that the same emotion will be felt by thousands to whomthe scenes depicted are but lurid phantasmagoria.”
The Academy.—“All that relates to the natives, whether to the sepoys,or the Court, or the town, is admirable; and the sketches of Britishmilitary and civil life are absolutely convincing. Mrs. Steel sees detaileverywhere, and records it minutely; but she is full of humanity, and cangive us the mysticism of the Oriental as faithfully as the easy-going moralityof the Anglo-Indian. Each incident, almost each chapter, is a picture byitself, revealing an extraordinary wealth of descriptive power, and a masterlyinsight into character.”
A.T.Q.C. in The Speaker.—“It certainly is a remarkable book. Thenative intrigues are brilliantly handled. Alice Gissing may claim to standbeside the really great women of fiction. The whole book has the highseriousness which, until quite recently, few people dreamed of as possiblein an Anglo-Indian novel.”
The Saturday Review.—“M