‘He has fainted, or is dead,’ cried the men who held him, to the
Jemadar, who was busied in heaving over another fragment of rock. ‘He
has fainted; shall we fling him over?’
‘For your lives do not!’ cried the Jemadar; ‘draw back from thence—let
us see what is the matter.’
They obeyed him, and laid Herbert down softly upon the rock, while the
Jemadar stood over him. His hand was powerless and cold, his face quite
pale, and he looked as though he were dead.
‘He has cheated us,’ said the Jemadar to those around; ‘surely he is
dead. Who prates now of the valour of the Feringhees? Even this leader
among them could not look on a few dead bodies without fainting like a
woman: Thooh! I spit on the kafirs: I marvel that the Sultaun so desires
him to enter the service, and is at such trouble about him.’
‘He will die,’ said one of the men; ‘his hand grows colder and colder.’
‘He must not die yet, Pochul,’ said Jaffar Sahib; ‘what would the
Sultaun say to us? Away! get some water; he may revive. This is only a
faint, the effect of terror; he will soon speak again.’
The man obeyed the order, and brought water. They dashed some on
Herbert’s face, and opening his lips, poured some between his tightly
closed teeth. But it was in vain; he moved not, nor showed signs of life
for a long while; and was it not that his body continued warm, they
would have thought him dead. At length he sighed, and opening his eyes,
gazed wildly around him. The effort was greeted with a shout from those
about him, which he appeared not to hear, but sank back again
insensible. Again they essayed to revive him as they best could; and
after a long time partially succeeded as before; but it was only to see
him relapse again and again. Once or twice he spoke, but incoherently.
For some hours he continued thus. At last a violent shivering commenced;
and seeing him so affected (for the Jemadar had left them for a while,
having given the men strict orders to look carefully to Herbert, and to
remove him to their guardhouse), as they were aware he was a person of
more than ordinary consequence, they used what means they could to
alleviate his sufferings. One lent him his rozaee, or quilted
counterpane; another kneaded his limbs or chafed his hands; a third
heated cloths and applied them to his back and head. But it was in vain:
the shivering continued, accompanied at times with dreadful sickness.
After being in this state for awhile, he broke into a violent heat—a
burning, exhausting heat—which excited him furiously. Now he raved
wildly: he spoke sometimes in English, sometimes in Hindostanee; and as
none of the men around him understood either, they held a hurried
consultation among themselves, and came to the resolution of selecting
one of the prisoners to remain with him, and minister to his wants. The
office was gladly accepted by the man they chose, whose name was Bolton,
and whom they fixed on because he had been seen in conversation with
Herbert more than the rest, and could speak a few words of their
language, Canarese, which he had learned where he had been last
confined.
All that night was passed by the unfortunate young man in violent
raving, the consequence of the raging fever which consumed him. He
tossed incessantly to and fro in the small corded bed upon which he had
been laid; now yelling forth, in the agony he suffered from his head,
which he held with both his hands; and now moaning piteously, so that
even the rough guards felt compassion for the young and helpless
Englishman. ‘Water!’ was the only coherent word he could utter; the rest
was a continued unintelligible muttering, in which some English words
and names were sometimes faintly discernible.
Poor Bolton did what he could, but it was in vain; and when the Jemadar
returned in the morning for the purpose of adding another victim to his
last, he found Herbert in such a state as to alarm him; for the Sultaun
had sworn he would have life for life if aught happened to him.
‘He must be removed instantly,’ he said. ‘Away, one of ye, for a dooly!
Bring it to the foot of the rock—we will carry him down thither, and he
must be removed to the town.’
In the end too he was merciful, for he took Bolton with him to attend on
Herbert while he should live; it could not be long, he thought, for he
raved incessantly, until exhaustion ensued, and he gained fresh strength
for further frantic efforts.
And they left the fatal rock soon afterwards, the only two of that
numerous company alive; nor was the fate of the rest long protracted.
They were murdered as the rest had been; and the bleached bones and
skulls, and fragments of clothes which had no shape to tell to whom they
had belonged—for they had been stripped from the dead by the beaks of
vultures and teeth of jackals—proved to those who long afterwards looked
on the place, that the tales they had heard of the horrors of that fatal
rock, and which they had in part disbelieved, were not unfounded.
It was on a mild and balmy evening that Herbert awoke to consciousness,
about a week after he had been removed. He looked languidly around him,
for he was so weak that even the effort he made to raise himself caused
a giddy faintness; and for an instant the remembrance of his last
conscious moment upon the brink of the precipice flashed across his
mind, and he shuddered at the recollection of what he had seen. Again he
looked around, but he was not upon the rock; the fatal and wretched
abode in which he had passed five days—such days of enduring agony as he
could not have believed it possible to sustain—with its bare walls
scrawled all over with the names of its miserable inhabitants, and their
care-worn, despairing, and almost maniac faces, were around him no
longer. He lay in the open air, under the shade of a wide-spreading
peepul-tree, upon a mound of earth surrounding a tomb; which, from its
clean white-washed state, and the garlands of flowers which hung upon
it, was evidently that of a Mahomedan saint or holy martyr. At a short
distance was a small mosque, exquisitely white and clean, behind which
rose some noble tamarind-trees, and with them cocoa-nut and plantains,
which formed an appropriate background to the pureness of the building,
their foliage partly shaded and intermingled with the minarets and
ornamented pinnacles of the mosque. Before it was a little garden, where
flourished luxuriantly a pomegranate-tree or two, covered with their
bright scarlet blossoms—a few marigolds and cockscombs, intermixed with
mint and other sweet herbs, which appeared to be cultivated with care.
The space around the tomb and before the mosque, and for a considerable
extent all round, was carefully swept; and the branches of the peepul
and tamarind-trees, which met and interweaved high above, formed a cover
impenetrable by the rays of the fiercest sun at noon-day; but it was now
evening, and the red light streamed in a flood between the stems of the
trees, lighting up the gnarled branches of the peepul and the thick
foliage beyond. Innumerable parroquets and minas screamed and twittered
in the branches above him, and flew from place to place restlessly: but
the only sound of man was from one drawing water for the garden, by the
aid of the lever and bucket common to Mysore, whose monotonous yet not
unmusical song and mellow voice ceased only to allow the delicious sound
of the rush of water to reach Herbert’s ear, as the bucket was emptied
from time to time into the reservoir which supplied the garden.
He lay in a half unconscious state, in that dreamy languor, which, when
fierce fever has subsided, is almost painful from its vagueness; when
the mind, striving to recall the past, wanders away into thoughts which
have no reference to it, but which lose themselves in a maze of unreal
illusions too subtle and shifting to be followed, and yet too pleasant
to excite aught but tranquil images and soothing effects.
The sun sank in glory,—in such glory behind the mountains beyond as
Herbert had never before witnessed, save once, when he was at sea, and
the land which held him a prisoner, and was his living grave, appeared
in sight. As the evening fell, and the golden tints of the west faded,
giving place to the rich hues of crimson and purple which spread over
it, the sonorous voice of the Muezzin, from a corner of the enclosure,
proclaimed the evening worship; and in the melancholy yet melodious tone
of the invitation, called the Believers to prayer. A few devout answered
to it, and advancing from one side, performed their ablutions at a
little fountain which cast up a tiny thread of spray into the air; this
done, they entered the mosque, and, marshalled in a row, went through,
with apparent fervour, the various forms and genuflexions prescribed by
their belief.
Afterwards two advanced towards Herbert,—one, a venerable man in the
garb of a Fakeer, the other a gentleman of respectable appearance, who,
from the sword he carried under his arm, might be an officer.
Herbert heard one say, ‘Most likely he is dead now; he was dying when we
last saw him, and his attendant went with Jaffar Sahib to purchase his
winding-sheet; poor fellow, he was unwilling to go, but the Jemadar
forced him away.’
‘I have hope,’ said the old Fakeer, ‘the medicine I gave him (praised be
the power of Alla!) has rarely failed in such cases, and if the paroxysm
is past he will recover.’
Herbert heard this and strove to speak; his lips moved, but no words
followed above a whisper: he was weaker than an infant. But now the
Fakeer advanced to him and felt his hand and head; they were cool and
moist, and Herbert turned to look on them with a heart full of gratitude
at the kindness and interest which their words and looks expressed.
‘Ya Ruhman! ya Salaam! Oh he lives! he is free from the disease (blessed
be the power of Alla!)—he is once more among the living. Therefore
rejoice, O Feringhee,’ exclaimed the Fakeer, ‘and bless Alla that thou
livest! for He hath been merciful to thee. Six days hast thou lain in
yonder serai, and the breath was in thy nostrils, but it hath now
returned to thy heart, so be thankful.’
‘I am grateful for thy kindness, Shah Sahib,’ said Herbert, speaking
very faintly,—for he had learned the usual appellation of all
respectable Fakeers long before—‘Alla will reward thee; I pray thee tell
me who thou art, and where I am. Methinks I was—’
‘Trouble not thyself to think on the past,’ he replied; ‘it was not
destined to be, and thy life is for the present safe; thou art in the
garden of the poor slave of Alla and the apostle, Sheikh Furreed, of
Balapoor.’
‘A worthy Fakeer, and one on whom the power to work miracles hath
descended in this degenerate time,’ said his companion; ‘one who may
well be called “Wullee,” and who will be honoured in death.’
‘I have an indifferent skill in medicine,’ said the Fakeer; ‘but to the
rest I have no pretensions, Khan Sahib; but we should not speak to the
youth; let him be quiet; the air will revive him; and when they return
he shall be carried back to the serai.’
They left him; and ere long he heard footsteps approaching; a figure was
running towards him—he could not surely be mistaken—it was an English
face: he came nearer—it was Bolton.
The poor fellow sobbed with very joy when he saw his officer released,
as it were, from the jaws of death; he hung over him, and bathed his
hand with tears; he little expected ever to have heard him speak again.
Now his officer lived, and while a load of sorrow was removed from his
heart, he blessed God that He had been so merciful.
‘I have carried you forth day by day in my arms, and laid you yonder,’
said the faithful fellow, as he lifted him up like a child: ‘they said
you would die, and I thought if you were sensible before that time came,
you would like to be in this shady cool place, where the light would not
be too strong for you, the fresh air would play over you, and you could
look around upon the green trees and gardens ere you went hence.’
Herbert could only press his hand in silence, for his heart was too full
to speak; indeed he was too weak also; for in being carried to the serai
once more, he fainted, and it was long ere he recovered. But that night
a few mouthfuls of rice-milk were given him, and he slept
peacefully,—that noiseless, almost breathless sleep, which is attendant
on extreme weakness, when dreams and pleasant phantasies flit before the
imagination like shadows chasing each other over beautiful prospects,
when the day is bright and soft. Herbert’s visions were of home, of
walks in the twilight with Amy, of her soft words, of the plashing of
the river in their well-known haunts, sacred to him by the dearest and
holiest ties,—and he woke in the morning refreshed and strengthened.
He could now speak; he could converse with the soldier who had watched
over him so devotedly, and he learned from him all that had occurred.
‘You were delirious, sir,’ he said; ‘and I was sent for from among the
rest; poor fellows! I hear they are all murdered. I thought you had been
struck by the sun, for you were bareheaded; perhaps it was so, for you
were quite mad and very violent. They brought you here in the dooly,
which was sent for by the Jemadar, and at first no one would receive
you. You lay raving in the bazaar, and people avoided you as they would
have done a devil,—they even called you one. But the good Fakeer who
lives here saw you by chance, and took you away from them, and he has
watched you and given you various medicines, which have made you, I
fear, very weak, sir; but you are better now.’
‘So they were all murdered?’ said Herbert, his thoughts reverting to the
past.
‘They were, sir; but why think of that now? it will distress you—you
should not; there are brighter things in store for you, depend on it.’
‘Alas!’ said Herbert, ‘I fear not, Bolton; but since God has spared me
from that death, and protected me through this dreadful illness, of
which I have a confused remembrance, surely it is not too much to hope.’
And he did hope, and from his soul he breathed a fervent prayer; for
through the future there appeared a glimmering ray of hope on which his
mind loved to rest, though clouds and dark vapours of doubt and
uncertainty would rise up occasionally and obscure it. Day by day,
however, he recovered strength, and the old Fakeer sate by him often,
and beguiled the time with tales and legends of the mighty of the earth
who were dead and gone. It was a dreamy existence, to live weak and
helpless among those shady groves, to lie for hours listening to the
ever-sighing trees, as the wind rustled through their thick foliage,
watching the birds of varied plumage as they flitted among their
branches, while his ear was filled with wild legends of love, of war, of
crime, or of revenge.
But this had an end—it was too bright, too peaceful to last. When a week
had elapsed, the Jemadar who had avoided him studiously during his
recovery, came to him with the Fakeer; for knowing Herbert’s detestation
of him, he had not dared to venture alone.
‘The Jemadar hath news for thee, my son,’ said the old man; ‘fear not,
he will not harm thee—I would not let him do so. He hath shown me the
Sultaun’s letter to him, which arrived a short time ago by an express.’
‘Listen, Feringhee!’ said Jaffar Sahib; ‘the Shah Sahib will bear me
witness that there is no wrong intended thee; my royal master doth but
seek his own, and still asketh thee for the treasure.’
‘Shah Sahib,’ said Herbert, ‘hear me say, and be witness, that as Alla,
whom we both worship, sees my heart, that it is pure of deceit,—I know
nought of it. Unlike those who loaded themselves with money, and
plundered the treasury at Bednore, I and a few others never touched it.
Canst thou not believe that, to save my life, I would have told if I had
known aught of it?’
‘I believe that thou wouldst, my son, but—’
‘There must have been lakhs of money and jewels buried there or
destroyed,’ said the Jemadar; ‘else, where is the treasure? Every one
was searched, and yet not half was found that I myself saw there
before—’
‘Before what?’ asked the Fakeer, whose curiosity was raised.
‘Let him tell his own tale of shame if he can,’ said Herbert; ‘I would
not so humble him, though he is my enemy, for some reason that I know
not of.’
‘Thou knowest well I have cause to be so,’ said the Jemadar, with bitter
rancour in his tone; ‘but this is foolishness; here is the Sultaun’s
letter; thou must either tell of the treasure, or go again into
confinement;—tell of it, and thou wilt be freed and sent on an embassy
to thine own people,—refuse, and the alternative is thy doom. Choose
then—in this at least there is no tyranny.’
‘Alas! I am but mocked,’ said Herbert sadly; ‘I have given thee my
answer so many times, that this is but torment, exciting hope that makes
me dream of joy I can never realise. My own people—alas! to them I am
dead long ago, and— But why speculate? I tell thee, before this holy
witness, my kind and benevolent friend, that I have no other reply to
give than that thou knowest.’
‘It is well, Sahib,—thy fate is cast; the old prison at Bangalore awaits
thee, where, if Alla give thee long life, thou art fortunate, but where
speedy death will be thy most probable fate.’
‘It will be welcome,’ said Herbert; ‘but while I have life, I will
remember thee, O Fakeer, who hast been to me a friend in bitter
adversity, when to all others I was accursed. When am I to travel?’
‘To-morrow,’ replied the Jemadar; ‘the letter is peremptory, if thou art
strong enough to bear the journey.’
‘He is not,’ said the Fakeer, ‘he is still weak. On my head be the blame
of his remaining longer.’
‘No,’ said Herbert, ‘I am feeble, it is true, but let it be as the
Sultaun wills. I am too long accustomed to hardship to resist or object,
and thou, my friend, wouldst only bring down his wrath upon thee by
keeping me here: yet think, when I am gone, from this our short
acquaintance, that our race can be grateful, and when thou hearest us
reviled, say that we are not as our slanderers speak of us. For myself,
while I have life, I will remember thee as a kind and dear friend; and
if Alla wills it, we may meet again.’
‘If Alla wills it?—Ya Moojeeb![35] ya Kubeer![36] ya Moota-alee![37]
grant that it may be that we may meet again.’
-----
Footnote 35:
O answerer of prayer!
Footnote 36:
O Lord of power!
Footnote 37:
O most sublime!
-----
And, full of regret, of pain at parting with his old and true
friend,—even shedding tears, for he was weak in body and in mind, as he
left those quiet, peaceful groves and green shades,—with the memory of
his fearful illness, his kind nursing, and the devotion of their
possessor fresh and vivid in his thoughts,—Herbert left the place the
next day, accompanied by his comrade in captivity, whose only hope now
was, that they should never again be separated. In the secrecy of
friendship, he had procured a pen and paper from the old Fakeer, and had
written a few lines to the Governor of Madras, stating who he was, and
that he still lived; this the old man promised to send whenever an
opportunity occurred; but he was over-cautious, Herbert thought, and
there was but little hope that it would ever reach its destination.
The journey did not fatigue him as he had expected; in contrast to the
hurried travel in coming, they returned to Bangalore in three days, and
Herbert was even stronger and better for the exertion. He expected once
more his old cell, and the company of books, even sometimes a word with
his kind friend the Killadar; but there was another trial in store for
him, of which he could have had no idea—it was terrible in
contemplation.
It would seem as if the capricious mind of the Sultaun was never settled
to one point about Herbert; order after order was revoked, and others
substituted; the last, which met him at Bangalore, was that Herbert
should be taken to a solitary mountain fortress beyond Mysore, in a
region which was known to be inclement, and from whence tidings of his
existence could never find their way. He had been passive in the hands
of his captors now for years, and this fresh mark of tyranny was nothing
new, nor the changes in the Sultaun’s designs for him to be wondered at.
A few days’ delay occurred at Bangalore, where some suits of coarse but
thickly quilted clothes were given to him, two or three blankets, a
counterpane, and a few other necessaries; and he once more journeyed
onwards. A bitter pang to him was the loss of his faithful friend and
attendant Bolton, who was not permitted to accompany him. They separated
in sorrow, but they exchanged written memoranda of each other’s history,
to be made known to their countrymen in case either had ever an
opportunity.
Herbert travelled many days; following at first the road to
Seringapatam, the party struck off to the left when near the city; there
he was rid of the hateful presence of the Jemadar, who to the last urged
him to confess the existence of the treasure, and repeated his offers of
conniving at his flight, should he disclose it.
At length a blue wall of mountains appeared in the far distance; their
bases were wreathed with vapours, which rolled along their sides but
never appeared to reach the summit. Day after day, as they approached
them nearer, their giant forms displayed themselves in grander and more
majestic beauty. What had appeared chasms and rents in their sides, when
the light rested on them, now revealed valleys and thickly wooded glens,
into which imagination strove to penetrate, in speculation of their real
loveliness.
At length they reached the pass, which from the table-land of Mysore
descends into the plain of Coimbatoor; and from thence the boundless
prospect which met Herbert’s eye filled his mind with delight and
rapture. The blue distance melted into the sky, by a succession of the
tenderest tints: away through the plains rolled the Bhowanee, a silver
thread glittering amidst the most exquisite colours. The huge mountains
were on his right,—blue and vast—their rugged sides, here hewn into deep
chasms, and again clothed with woods of a luxuriance which he had never
before seen equalled. In the distance of the lofty chain, one mountain
of peculiar form, whose sides were naked precipices, stood out boldly
against the blue plain. The soldiers pointed to it exultingly, and when
he asked them the reason, he was told that it was his destination.
They descended; everywhere the same noble views, the same glory of the
works of Heaven, which Herbert worshipped in his heart, met his gaze.
Having passed along the foot of the mountains for two days, and
approached them nearer and nearer, they began to ascend. Below the
rugged pass, the mighty forests, the huge bamboos, the giant creepers,
and their lovely flowers, had filled Herbert’s mind with wonder and awe;
as he ascended, this gave place to feelings of delight. The path was
rugged and stony, and the pony he rode (for which the dooly had been
exchanged beneath the pass) climbed but slowly, and he was obliged to
rest him occasionally, while he turned round to enjoy the mighty
prospect. How grand it was to see the high table-land of Mysore breaking
into the plain in mountains of four thousand feet high, of every
conceivable form, and bathed in the bright light of an Indian sun, while
the boundless plains stretched away from their feet!
As he ascended, the air blew cooler and cooler, and plants and beautiful
flowers new to him grew profusely by the wayside; at last he saw—he
could not be mistaken—some fern! How his heart bounded as he plucked it,
and kissed its well-remembered form. A little higher there was a bed of
blue flowers peering from among the luxuriant shrubs; they had familiar
faces,—he stopped, and dismounting ran to them. They were violets,—the
same as those with which he had a thousand times filled his Amy’s lap in
summer time, when they were children;—how full his heart was!
Further on, a brake of brambles met his eye; the ripe black fruit was a
luxury to him, such as he had not dreamed of; and below them a bed of
wild strawberries, the same as they had grown in the Beechwood groves
and round the Hermitage. He was now near the summit; the air was cold
and fresh like that of England, the sky was bluer than below, and a few
light fleecy clouds floated about the mountain-top, veiling its beauty.
They still advanced, and he was in rapture: he could not speak, his
thoughts could only find vent in thanksgiving. A familiar flower caught
his eye in a bush above his head; it was woodbine—the same, and as
fragrant, as in England. Herbert’s heart was already full to
overflowing, and thoughts of the past increased by these simple objects
were too powerful for him to bear calmly; he could resist nature’s best
relief no longer, and wept—tears which soothed him as they flowed; and
while he sate down, and with dim and streaming eyes gazed over the
almost boundless prospect, he felt that if he could have passed away to
another existence with those feelings, it would have been bliss.
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