Extract from the statement of Gulam Muhammad, one of Skene's orderlies, on the mutiny and subsequent events before a magistrate, William G Probyn at Fatehpur on 19th November 1857.

During the Jhansi mutiny, the Queen was in the palace the whole time. Worried about the English, she sent her lawyer to my master and asked the women and children to come over to the royal palace. We were still in the bungalow then. When we left the cantonment bungalow and arrived at the fortress, she sent her lawyer again to enquire about us, accompanied by forty guards for the protection of the English. These forty men later joined the Queen to declare rebellion.

Probyn: How did you know the Queen joined the rebellion as well?

Gulam Mohammad: As soon as he was besieged in the fort, my master Skene said, 'This must be the Queen's doing. She already had this ulterior motive when she sent help.' But this Skene's opinion, I have no personal knowledge of it.