Invoking the sacred fire...

Chapter 8The Long Year
The Begum of Oudh
अवध की बेगम
Begum Hazrat Mahal — former dancing-girl, now regent — crowns her eleven-year-old son Birjis Qadr king of Oudh and rules from the Chattar Manzil for ten months. She refuses three offers of British pardon. She walks out the back gate of Lucknow into exile in Nepal and never returns.