And the nights went by and the days, and the time came that no longer
could they hold Chitor, and all hope was dead.
On a certain day the Rana and the Rani stood for the last time in her
bower, and looked down into the city; and in the streets were gathered
in a very wonderful procession the women of Chitor; and not one was
veiled. Flowers that had bloomed in the inner chambers, great ladies
jewelled for a festival, young brides, aged mothers, and girl children
clinging to the robes of their mothers who held their babes, crowded the
ways. Even the low-caste women walked with measured steps and proudly,
decked in what they had of best, their eyes lengthened with soorma, and
flowers in the darkness of their hair.
The Queen was clothed in a gold robe of rejoicing, her bodice latticed
with diamonds and great gems, and upon her bosom the necklace of table
emeralds, alight with green fire, which is the jewel of the Queens of
Chitor. So she stood radiant as a vision of Shri, and it appeared that
rays encircled her person.
And the Rana, unarmed save for his sword, had the saffron dress of a
bridegroom and the jeweled cap of the Rajput Kings, and below in the
hall were the Princes and Chiefs, clad even as he.