Cottage Folk

								


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                          Transcriber’s Note:
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                     The Novel of the Indian Mutiny



                        -----------------------

                       On the Face of the Waters



                          BY FLORA ANNIE STEEL



      In One Volume, Crown 8vo, price 6s. Twenty-Eighth Thousand_
=The Spectator.=—“We have read Mrs. Steel’s book with ever-increasing
surprise and admiration—surprise at her insight into people with whom
she can scarcely have been intimate, admiration for the genius which has
enabled her to realize that wonderful welter of the East and West, which
Delhi must have presented just before the Mutiny. We know in literature
of few sketches better than those which reveal to us Buhadur Shah, the
last great Moghul ... or that of Zeemet Maihl, the evil Queen, ... or of
the Moulaire, who roused by his preaching the war against the English,
... or of Tiddu, the hereditary juggler-actor, ... or of Soma, the
haughty, sullen Sepoy. And the best evidence of Mrs. Steel’s genius is
that those who can scarcely conceive the society will feel certain that
it is truly drawn. There is many an officer who would give his sword to
write military history as Mrs. Steel has written the history of the
rising, the siege, and the storm. It is the most wonderful picture. We
know that none who lived through the Mutiny will lay the book down
without a gasp of admiration, and believe that the same emotion will be
felt by thousands to whom the scenes depicted are but lurid
phantasmagoria.”
=The Academy.=—“All that relates to the natives, whether to the sepoys,
or the Court, or the town, is admirable; and the sketches of British
military and civil life are absolutely convincing. Mrs. Steel sees
detail everywhere, and records it minutely; but she is full of humanity,
and can give us the mysticism of the Oriental as faithfully as the
easy-going morality of the Anglo-Indian. Each incident, almost each
chapter, is a picture by itself, revealing an extraordinary wealth of
descriptive power, and a masterly insight into character.”
=A.T.Q.C.= in =The Speaker=.—“It certainly is a remarkable book. The
native intrigues are brilliantly handled. Alice Gissing may claim to