Female Warriors, Vol. 2 (of 2): Memorials of Female Valour and Heroism, from the Mythological Ages to the Present Era.Clayton, Ellen C. (Ellen Creathorne)
History
Female Warriors, Vol. 2 (of 2): Memorials of Female Valour and Heroism, from the Mythological Ages to the Present Era.
Clayton, Ellen C. (Ellen Creathorne)
Amazons; Women -- Biography; Women soldiers
Upon her death the rebel hosts melted like snow before a sunbeam. The
British infantry speedily carried the first range of heights; and the
enemy, after losing about four hundred men, and seeing their camp in
flames, were compelled to fly. The British, after losing about fifteen
men (ten of whom died from sunstroke and fatigue), and spiking three
rebel guns, resumed their march; and the same evening rejoined Sir Hugh
Rose. The combined forces now advanced on Gwalior, routed the sepoys in
the battle of Gurrowlee, June 19th, and recaptured the city, June 20th,
when Scindiah was restored to his throne.
The death of the Ranee excited very little interest in this country.
The newspapers of the time, with but one or two exceptions, barely
chronicled the event, without making any comments; but it was
universally felt by every British soldier serving in India that, with
the death of Lukshmi Baee, we had lost the foe who was able to do us
most injury. For courage and military skill she was acknowledged to
be far superior to any of the other rebel chiefs. The message flashed
along the wires announcing that the Ranee had fallen, added that "the
deaths of Moulvie and the Ranee were more gain to us than half-a-dozen
victories."
The exact age of the "Indian Boadicea" was never accurately determined.
While one journal styles her "this girl, barely twenty years of age,"
another assumes her age to have been at least thirty. An employé of the
East India Company who visited Jhansi in 1854, and accidentally caught
a glimpse of this oriental heroine, describes her as "a woman of about
the middle size--rather stout, but not _too_ stout. Her face" he says,
"must have been very handsome when she was younger, and even now it had
many charms--though, according to my idea of beauty, it was too round.
The expression, also, was very good and very intellectual. The eyes
were particularly fine, and the nose very delicately shaped. She was
not very fair, though she was far from black. What spoilt her was her
voice, which was something between a whine and a croak."
All agreed as to the extreme licentiousness and immorality of her
habits; and the rooms in her palace are said to have been hung with
pictures "such as pleased Tiberius at Capri."
* * * * *
It was formerly the custom with many of the native princes to maintain
female warriors to guard their zenanas. The tyrant Ferokshere, who
was murdered in 1719, kept up an Amazon corps at Delhi, composed
of Abyssinians, Cashmerians, Persians--in short, drawn from every
nation whence slaves could be easily procured. They were armed with
matchlocks, bows and arrows, spears and targets, and other weapons,
according to their nationality. When the Emperor took refuge from his
assailants in the zenana, the female guards held the entrance bravely
for some time, and exchanged shots with the rebels; but they received
more wounds than they gave, and were so easily driven away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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