'Mrs Merrydale went off with Lieutenant Maxwell, leaving her children under the care of the servants, until her husband came to take them away. Mrs Hastings, who used to bore us about the duties of a wife, carried off that silly boy Stammersleigh. These elopements led to two actions in H.M. Supreme Court of Calcutta...' Born in Australia in 1816, John Lang-novelist, newspaper editor and barrister, now best known for having defended the Rani of Jhansi in court against the British East India Company-spent a large part of his life in India, and died in Mussoorie in 1864. A keen traveller and...