"Many of them were married women, obliged to quit the ranks for a month or two at a time, occasionally. They retained their places, however, as long as possible.... Of these female sepoys there were in all two companies of the usual strength, or weakness, if the reader will have it so. Once, during my residence at Lucknow, they were employed by the king against his own mother." This act of Nussir was rendered all the worse, because many years before, when Ghazi-u-deen, the late King of Oude, wished to disinherit his son and put him to death, the Begum armed her retainers, and fought for Nussir with the courage of a lion. After many had fallen on each side, the British resident interfered, and put an end to the contest. Nussir, after he became king, wished to act towards his son as Ghazi would have done towards him; but the old Begum now fought as stoutly for her grandson as she did previously for her son. The King sent his female sepoys to turn her out of her palace, but she armed her servants, fought the sepoys, and put them to flight. Fifteen or sixteen of the Begum's adherents were left dead on the field. The resident again interfered, and guaranteed the life and succession of the child. But Nussir succeeded in cheating his mother after all, by declaring the boy illegitimate. In vain the old Begum, after the death of Nussir, surrounded the British Residency with her troops; the Englishman was not to be intimidated. Troops were ordered up from the cantonments, and a few discharges of grape quickly dispersed the Begum's adherents. One of Nussir's uncles was then placed on the throne, and the brave old Begum was compelled to submit. There is a similar guard of female warriors in the Palace of the King of Siam, at Bangkok; and the Paris papers of September, 1866, speak of a regiment of female Zouaves, armed with rifles, which was then being raised in the first-named city.