The death of the Ranee excited very little interest in this country. The newspapers of the time, with but one or two exceptions, barely chronicled the event, without making any comments; but it was universally felt by every British soldier serving in India that, with the death of Lukshmi Baee, we had lost the foe who was able to do us most injury. For courage and military skill she was acknowledged to be far superior to any of the other rebel chiefs. The message flashed along the wires announcing that the Ranee had fallen, added that "the deaths of Moulvie and the Ranee were more gain to us than half-a-dozen victories."
The exact age of the "Indian Boadicea" was never accurately determined. While one journal styles her "this girl, barely twenty years of age," another assumes her age to have been at least thirty. An employé of the East India Company who visited Jhansi in 1854, and accidentally caught a glimpse of this oriental heroine, describes her as "a woman of about the middle size--rather stout, but not _too_ stout. Her face" he says, "must have been very handsome when she was younger, and even now it had many charms--though, according to my idea of beauty, it was too round. The expression, also, was very good and very intellectual. The eyes were particularly fine, and the nose very delicately shaped. She was not very fair, though she was far from black. What spoilt her was her voice, which was something between a whine and a croak."
All agreed as to the extreme licentiousness and immorality of her habits; and the rooms in her palace are said to have been hung with pictures "such as pleased Tiberius at Capri."
It was formerly the custom with many of the native princes to maintain female warriors to guard their zenanas. The tyrant Ferokshere, who was murdered in 1719, kept up an Amazon corps at Delhi, composed of Abyssinians, Cashmerians, Persians--in short, drawn from every nation whence slaves could be easily procured. They were armed with matchlocks, bows and arrows, spears and targets, and other weapons, according to their nationality. When the Emperor took refuge from his assailants in the zenana, the female guards held the entrance bravely for some time, and exchanged shots with the rebels; but they received more wounds than they gave, and were so easily driven away.