Neither his friend's pathetic loneliness, nor the inducements he so lavishly offered, would have tempted Gerrard to leave the capital had it not been that he had ascertained from the Nawab that the _jaghir_ which he had granted to Rukn-ud-din as the Rani's representative lay in the direction in which Charteris was now to be found. James Antony had replied with considerable asperity to the letter giving news of her whereabouts, as was only natural, since his agents had for a month been searching for her vainly in the neighbourhood of Benares. He sent the document which had been prepared for her signature, and directed Gerrard to use all possible means to obtain a personal interview, in which he was to assure her that no further steps would be taken to secure the payment of her jointure until she disbanded her troops and withdrew into British territory, where a suitable residence would be provided for her. This, as the natives would have phrased it, was an order, and Gerrard prepared to carry it out immediately, though without much hope of success. The Nawab acquiesced reluctantly in his leaving the city for a week, but was consoled by the prospect of his finding a noticeable improvement in the army on his return, and he calculated that by travelling chiefly at night he could do the journey comfortably, and secure a day or more with Charteris. The Rani's reception of Mr Antony's messenger was much what he had expected. She had taken up her abode in a half-ruined fort, which had been repaired sufficiently for the purposes of defence, and was garrisoned by a second company of Rajputs, and Gerrard was refused admission at the closed gates. His urgent messages brought the old scribe down to parley with him, but the reproaches he addressed to the Rani for neglecting the monitions of her husband's chosen councillor were met by counter-upbraidings on the score of his neglect of the Rani's own expressed wish to be left unmolested. She would not receive him, she would not disband her troops nor retire into British territory, and least of all would she sign the document which was to obtain from Sher Singh the payment of her jointure in return for her promise to leave to him any savings of which she might die possessed. In these circumstances, all that Gerrard could do was to leave the paper for her consideration, with the most persuasive letter that he and Munshi Somwar Mal could frame in collaboration, and announce that he hoped to find her Highness in a better mind when he returned in three or four days' time.