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Updated: May 2, 2025
At one side was his hookah, at the other a two-edged sword and an unsheathed dagger. Below the dais on either hand two fierce-visaged Marathas stood, their heads and shoulders covered with a helmet, their bodies cased in a quilted vest, each holding a straight two-edged sword. Between Angria and the idol two fan bearers lightly swept the air above their lord's head with broad fans of palm leaves.
But the balance is adjusting itself, and in a little I will begin." Through the farther gate came the warder. Desmond and his companions were the last with whom he had to deal. His keys jangling, he advanced slowly between two Marathas armed with matchlocks and two-edged swords. The Babu had his back against the shed, the others were grouped about him, and at his left there was a vacant space.
The French stormed it at three o'clock in the morning, but found that the Marathas, who had carefully avoided the breach, had swarmed the walls, where there was no one to oppose them, and were carrying off the plunder.
He supposed that the man had gone in to report that he had arrived with the captain's answer. The note still remained with him; the Marathas apparently knew that it was to be delivered personally; yet he was left at the door, and his guide stood by in an attitude that suggested he was on guard. How long was he to be kept waiting? he wondered.
The tide was on the ebb; and, when they at length struck the jetty, it was at a point some twenty yards from its shoreward end. Groping beneath it they halted for a moment, then the two Marathas separated themselves from the rest and, with a whispered word of farewell, disappeared like shadows into the blackness. The sea was not for them, they would take their chance on land.
M. Tavernier asserts that it was the largest piece of crystal ever discovered, and that it was without a flaw. It was shattered by the barbarians during the invasion of the Marathas in 1789. But the peacock throne, which stood in the room I have just described, was even more wonderful, and stands as the most extraordinary example of extravagance on record.
The Hindu, even more than the average human being elsewhere, is inclined to attach importance to might and bulk even to mere fat. If he sounded the Marathas, and, their fear of the Gujarati outweighing their inevitable distrust of him as a Firangi, they betrayed him to curry a little favor, there was no doubt that the fate both of himself and the Babu would instantly be decided.
When the sentry peered in, the two performing Marathas were sitting up; the rest were lying prone, to all appearance soothed to sleep. "Verily thou wilt rap a hole in the tom tom," said the sentry with a grin. "Better save a little of it for tomorrow." "Sleep is far from my eyes," replied the man. "My comrades are all at rest; if it does not offend thee " "No. Tap till it burst, for me.
In Southern India the English and French had been constantly at war whenever there was war in Europe, but in Bengal the strength of the Government, the terror of the Marathas, and the general weakness of the Europeans had contrived to enforce a neutrality.
There was dead silence in the shed: it seemed that every man was afraid to speak. Then one of the Marathas said in a whisper: "What do you mean, sahib?" "What do I mean? Surely it must be clear to any man. Have we not sat long enough on the carpet of patience?" Again the silence remained for a space unbroken.
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