Katmandu, Nepal ? The crowd had been waiting for hours when the armored black Mercedes finally pulled out of the palace gates.

Suddenly three women jumped in the car’s path, forcing it to halt as they begged the driver to turn around. “King, go back,” they cried. “Don’t leave the palace!”

They were among the few who wanted to turn back time.

Nepal’s deposed King Gyanendra left his palace for good Wednesday, marking an end to the world’s last Hindu monarchy, a reign that had stretched more than two centuries.

While Gyanendra’s throne was formally abolished last month, the former king did not surrender his crown of peacock feathers, yak hair and jewels until Wednesday, leaving the palace to begin a new life as something akin to an ordinary citizen – and the troubled country to pass another milestone in its new era as a young republic.

But a remnant stayed behind: the 94-year-old mistress of the deposed monarch’s grandfather, who died more than a half-century ago.

Few Ne-palis knew of the mysterious elderly woman’s existence until authorities an-nounced Wednesday that she would be allowed to continue living in the palace. The reason: the youngest mistress of King Tribhuwan, who ruled the Himalayan kingdom from 1911 until his death in 1955, has no house to move to or relatives to take her in.

Little else will remain, however, of a dynasty that united Nepal and reigned for 239 years. The palace – a pink concrete monstrosity – will be turned into a museum. But there’s little likelihood it will celebrate a monarchy that Nepal’s new government of former communist rebels fought to overthrow.

Gyanendra and his wife, Komal, are moving to one of his former summer palaces on a forested hill on the outskirts of Katmandu. He will be protected by police but will otherwise live as any other Nepali – albeit an incredibly wealthy one.