156 SECOND DURBAR 



The Durbar was then closed with a blare of 

 trumpets and a salute of thirty-one guns. 



After the Durbar, and with the concurrence of 

 my colleagues on the Council, I decided that the 

 procession should return as had been arranged, 

 passing through any native street which might 

 lay on the route, and especially through the 

 Chandni Chowk, the actual scene of the outrage. 



Besides Lady Hardinge, only one other woman 

 rode in the procession Lady O' Moore Creagh. 

 When the explosion occurred she remained on the 

 elephant beside her husband, the Commander-in- 

 Chief, entirely unaffected by it, and as cool and as 

 collected as though nothing had happened. When 

 Lady Hardinge left it would have been quite in the 

 nature of things for her to have left also, but she 

 declined to get out of the howdah, and sat through 

 the long and trying march to the Fort, cheerful 

 and smiling throughout, although, for all we knew, 

 we might at any moment be treated to a shower 

 of bombs. Her pluck has been greatly talked 

 of amongst the Indian troops. 



When the procession was about to start on the 

 return journey, Lady Creagh was urged to drive 

 straight home in her motor. She turned to me 

 and said, "What do you say?" I replied, "Un- 

 less you are too tired I should get into the howdah 

 again and show them what an Englishwoman is 

 like." " That is just what I shall do," she said 

 and did. 



I confess that as we went past balcony after 

 balcony full of, in many cases, rather low-class 

 Indians, I could not help looking up at them and 

 being rilled with anxiety, not indeed on my own 



