A pleasant life was it to Tara. The daily stages of a large army
encumbered with heavy materiel are necessarily slow at all times, and
the country roads were not as yet dry from the recent rains, so that
the force could not hurry on. The Khan himself was in no haste. On the
arrival of the Mahratta ambassadors he had received them courteously,
and insisted upon their being the guests of the royal camp. They had
not much to say, beyond general protestations of attachment. Their
master's demands were simple, they knew; but he would treat for them
in person when he met the Khan. Meanwhile, supplies for the royal
forces were abundant; the stages they arranged were shorter perhaps
than the Khan, and especially Fazil, approved of; but they found grain
and forage provided everywhere, and the camp bazar had always the
appearance of a busy fair.
On his own part, Afzool Khan, yielding to the persuasions of Sivaji's
agents, despatched an envoy of his own, the Brahmun Punto Gopináth,
to Pertâbgurh. Their master's mind, they said, would be relieved by
it; and as Sivaji had evinced confidence in sending his own servants
unsolicited, so a similar mark of courtesy could hardly be refused.
The Khan did not object to it. The Envoy received his instructions, to
act as circumstances might require, leaving all points of detail for
future arrangement; and Bulwunt Rao was placed in command of the escort
which accompanied him. In this capacity he was safe against all local
enemies; and he went the more willingly, as he trusted, under this
opportunity, to interest the Rajah in his own affairs.
So there was no hurry, and it was a pleasant life. Every day, or
nearly so, there was a change; the force moved forward a few miles, or
it halted; tents were pitched, thrown down, moved, and again pitched
in pleasant places; perhaps in some soft grassy plain spangled with
flowers, or in a stubble field with the stacks of ripe grain standing
around them. The Khan's Durbar tent was open to all comers, where the
leaders of the various bodies of troops met every day for business or
ceremonial visits, as it might be: behind it the private tents enclosed
by a canvas wall, which afforded a large area. Before all, floated the
royal standard, and a place was cleared near it which was appropriated
for public prayer. Five times in each day, if the force halted, did the
musical chant of invitation to prayer resound from this spot; and as
often did the devout among the soldiery assemble there, and perform the
stated devotions. Every afternoon the priest and other divines preached
to the people; and it was remarked that the sermons on the holy war,
though they were continued at intervals, were of quieter character than
they used to be at first.
Perhaps the religious zeal of the Peer had relaxed since the slaughter
at Tooljapoor, and was satisfied with the fact of the idol having been
overthrown and defiled. Perhaps the Khan supposed enough had been done
to terrify the Mahratta people, and that the rest would follow upon
negotiation.
There was very little change in the daily life: the early march, the
halt for the day, the household occupations, and then the pleasant
talk with Zyna and Lurlee. Her tales of the Hindu life, and of her
home pleasures and occupations, were told again and again by Tara,
often with bitter tears, and yet told again and again, and heard by
sympathizing friends.
Two different worlds, as it were, were thus brought together. What did
the simple Brahmun girl know of the grandeur of Mahomedan nobles, of
which only a faint rumour had ever reached her? To her unclean, she
would once have shuddered at nearer contact with them, however rich
or grand they might be. Now, how different! They had respected her
honour, and they also respected her faith; and every day her little
cooking-place was arranged, with water brought by a Brahmun for her
bath and her drinking, which no one interfered with. Sometimes, Zyna
and Lurlee would look on while the little maiden dressed her simple
meal, as she had often done at home,--amused, and wondering at her
dexterity; and it was not long before the Khan himself was a petitioner
for some delicate specimen of her handiwork, which, it was remarked, he
ate with infinite relish, and pronounced better even than Kurreema's
efforts to the same end.
They procured the girl the books she loved, and eagerly, and with
infinite animation, she would read and expound sacred texts, which even
the priest admitted contained at least moral and virtuous doctrine.
Occasionally, too, he was unable to control himself, and he answered
the little preacher from his own books, hurling at her texts translated
from the Kôrán into bad Mahratta; and half angry with, and half amused
by, the seeming petulance with which she resisted conversion, allowed
her greater liberties, perhaps, than he had ever been known to submit
to before from "an infidel."
"See," she would cry, "Huzrut! here are God's holy words to us poor
Hindus hundreds of thousands of years old, but yours are, after all,
but a few hundreds. Surely the elder has precedence?" If she could
translate the beautiful Bhugwat Geeta to him, that book so full of
mystic religious doctrine, he could understand her better, she thought;
but she had no words that he could comprehend, in which to convey the
sense of the noble Sanscrit; and it must be confessed that her general
attempts in argument were failures.
Kind Tara! gentle Tara! was any servant ill,--and the cold air and damp
earth gave many fevers,--who so ready with knowledge of simples as the
Brahmun girl? who so watchful, who so careful? In turn she had tended
Lurlee and Zyna, who suffered at first from the change and exposure in
camp. Then Fazil grew ill too, and for several days could not ride. She
could ride: she had never travelled in a palankeen in her life--her
father could not afford one: so she gave up her litter to him, and
rode a stout ambling palfrey of the Khan's which was gentle, and a
relief on long marches from his heavier war-horse; and old Shêre Khan
and his men, her first escort from Tooljapoor, claimed the privilege
of guarding her as she rode, rapidly and fearlessly, and managed the
active horse with skill and grace.
Once Moro Trimmul saw her riding with this escort of heavily-armed men.
She was wrapped in shawls, and had twisted one round her head like a
turban, which covered her face all but her eyes. He concealed his own
face and person as she passed, but the fact that she was riding with so
noble a company to attend on her, disquieted him. "She is growing into
favour," he thought, "and is in danger. It is necessary to act before
we reach Wye."
Whether Moro Trimmul was in camp or not, she had not thought to
inquire. Fazil had told her once, with a very perceptible tone of
disappointment, that he had been released, and had gone away. He was
never seen in the camp, but, with Sivaji's envoys, put up in villages
near where the force might halt. They did not vex her with his tale of
her having been taken away under her father's sanction, which Fazil,
Lurlee, and Zyna had never believed, and by common consent the name of
the Brahmun was never mentioned among them.
Ah, yes, a pleasant time indeed! What more delicious to a young girl's
heart than the consciousness of awakening love? Could she help it?
did she desire it? Neither, perhaps; but it would come nevertheless:
and there would come too, with all the persuasive adjuncts of her own
helplessness and dependence, the sense of evident respect in which she
was held by Fazil, and his honourable reticence, even of speech with
her. So a new life, a new desire for life, was growing within her, and
increased day by day. Did she endeavour to check it? Not then; it was
too delicious.
Before it, the old home was fading away, the forms of father and
mother already becoming dim and shadowy, as belonging to the past. The
old temple occupations, the preparation for daily duty, were being
supplanted by other feelings, undecided as yet, but ineffably tender.
Did she regret that these were growing into definite form in her own
heart? Not then. She had no certainty of what she thought, and if any
one, even Zyna, had asked her to define what was passing within her,
she could not have done so.
O, the wondrous stirring of that new life, shutting out all the old!
the gentle growing of an absorbing passion. If Fazil spoke to her, she
trembled; but not in fear. She had no fear of him. No matter what he
said, she listened, and never replied. When he was ill, she took to him
the little soothing potions she had made, and, as he lay tossing with
fever, was conscious that they would relieve thirst, and would not be
forgotten. She could speak to him then, a word only, perhaps, to tell
him to be patient, that he would be relieved if he would be still. Even
this was a fearful but an exquisite pleasure.
How often Zyna spoke of her brother! How precious he was to her; how
brave he was; how beautiful! Had Tara ever seen any one like him? No;
those timid, loving eyes had never looked up to any one before, far
less to such a one as Fazil. What did she know? She could only see
that there was, in her eyes, the godlike beauty the old poets wrote of
Kāmdeo--those soft, loving eyes which sometimes earnestly looked
into hers, before which she dare not open her own. If he came into the
tent accoutred, blazing with cloth-of-gold and steel armour, she fled
at once, and from a distance watched Zyna embrace him, perhaps fasten
an amulet upon his arm, or relieve him of his heavy clothing and armour.
If Fazil were absent, Tara and Zyna would often sit and talk of him.
Poor little heart! how it fluttered then. She could not tell his sister
what rose to her lips, but, as her heart swelled, she felt as if she
could do some great thing for him or for Zyna--defend them, or avert
evil from them--even if she died herself, it would be welcome. Yes, the
old story--the old story!--the telling of which, in all its wondrous
forms, will never finish here, or finish, but to be renewed hereafter!
Did Fazil perceive this? Not yet. He had a true gentleman's best
safeguard against presumption, an innate modesty in regard to women,
which prevented it; and yet ... how often he watched the lithe and
graceful figure as it passed from his presence on some trifling errand,
or the glowing intellectual face as it quivered under the excitement of
explaining any portion of one of her old-world books which interested
her,--or the quiet, demure expression which gathered over it, as she
sometimes brought--for she would allow no-one else to touch the vessels
she cooked it in--her little daily contribution to his father's
dinner, and waited apart with folded arms till he had told her, with a
pleasant smile or joke, how much he liked it!
"Ah!" said Shêre Khan, after Fazil's first journey in the palankeen,
and as he lay, languid and weakened by his fever, in the outer tent
where his retainers could attend on him--"whom hast thou sent us, Meah?
They tell of Chandnee Bégum of the Nizam Shahee's, but who, after
all, was one of our royal race,--that she rode with her army of true
believers, and fought with her enemies. By Alla! this girl rides so
that it is hard to follow her; and we all say, there is that in her
eyes which, had she a sword in her hand, nay, without it, would lead
us, as only thou, or the Khan could lead us, Meah. Yes, she is a jewel
of great price."
And Fazil liked to hear this; he liked to hear old Goolab exhaust her
vocabulary of endearment upon Tara, as she sat by him, rubbing his
feet when the fever oppressed him; and when, in those feverish dreams
which are part of the disorder, strange fancies beset him, the Brahmun
girl often became a prominent actor in those unreal scenes of his
imagination.
So it grew on. The habits of Eastern people do not admit of those
demonstrations and protestations of love which form part of our social
habits. But we have no warrant for saying that their feelings are the
less ardent or permanent. We think not; and that there, as elsewhere,
they progress silently, and are afterwards called into active exercise
by occasion and opportunity, and with possibly more energy and passion
than among ourselves.
When Lurlee had rallied the Brahmun girl sometimes upon her attachment
to her old faith, now, she said, hopeless,--and Zyna, throwing her
arms round her as they sat together in the twilight after evening
prayer, besought her to give it up--to come to them as a sister, as
a daughter,--and pleaded hard for this,--Tara was sorely tried. Whom
had she now to look to? whither was she going? If there were some
of her mother's relatives at Wye,--and all she knew of them was the
surname,--what was she to do? Even were they there, what was she to
do? Against her, ever rose up the hard cruel wall of Hindu widowhood;
the servitude, the nearly inevitable dishonour among strangers, of her
own faith, the hopeless weariness of an unloved and uncared-for life;
and so, better death. All this had passed through her mind before, at
Tooljapoor, and then there was no alternative. Now?
O, how hard the new young life pleaded--as these thoughts passed
through her mind--the certainty of love on the one hand, even as a
friend or dependant, and of respect and protection from all evil, even
though to minister to the old Khan should be her only occupation.
This, and to see Fazil daily--to see Zyna--to be held to that rough
old Lurlee's heart--to be the child, for so they called her, of all
the servants,--what had the other life to compare with this? Even if
she found her people, what had they to offer her but misery? for so it
seemed.
And when, one day (Wye was now only a few stages distant), Zyna told
her what they wished--what they all spoke of among themselves--what
Fazil had proposed to his father,--and how the old Khan had at first
gently resisted it, desiring a high connection for his son, and yet had
conceded in the end;--when Lurlee came and pleaded too, and told her,
and proved to her by the planets and the elements, that she would be
fortunate to the house and to Fazil--a loved and honoured wife,--what
could she say? The new life now rose up within her vigorous and
defiant against all other thoughts; and its blessed shape--definite,
honourable, irresistible, and delicious to contemplate--would not be
repelled.
"Only give me time," she cried, hiding her burning face in Zyna's
bosom--"only give me time! It is so sudden--so unlooked-for." Then she
added, after a pause, and looking up sadly, "I am his captive and his
slave; not of your people, lady, but a stranger, and an infidel, as the
priest says; impure among my own sect, and of no account but for shame
and dishonour. As such, I cannot come to a noble house. Ah, do not mock
me!"
"They say," returned Zyna, "that the Emperors of Delhi sought brides
from among the Rajpoots, and esteemed them as honourable and as noble
as themselves; and thou art a Brahmun, Tara, far purer and nobler than
they. But no matter: thou art our own Tara, whom Alla hath sent to us,
and whom we have received thankfully, for him whose heart no one as
yet has touched. Let it be as we all will;" and Tara, at last, said it
should be so.
Was she grateful or happy, this desolate girl? O, far beyond either!
All those dreamy imaginings which at home, among her books and flowers,
had taken no definite shape, now assumed a palpable reality. In her
eyes glorious, in her heart Fazil was supremely glorious also. She
dared not look at him now, even by stealth; but there was ever a
sweet assurance of his presence--of his care--of his thought, which
produced a kind of ecstasy, filling her mind with a sublime devotion
and innocent passion: often filling her eyes, too, causing a strangely
tight feeling at her heart as if she could not breathe, and then a deep
sigh as her tears welled over; and she hoped, with an almost delirious
joy, that she was to belong to him by-and-by: no matter how far distant
it might be,--only to belong to him, and be for ever with him.
And so the time passed to them all. A pleasant life which, day by day,
grew to be more absorbing to Tara, and caused indifference to outward
occurrences. But had her enemy been idle?
The force marched late one day. Moro Trimmul had ascertained that
the litters and followers generally, would not arrive in camp before
nightfall. It was dark, for there was no moon; and he laid his plans
accordingly. Day and night, he and Gunga, in various disguises, had
watched about the Khan's tents, and had tried to get speech of the
servants. He dare not come openly, except to the Khan's Durbar, where
he heard nothing. He was nearly hopeless of success, when he understood
casually that the evening march was determined upon. All the force was
not to move; but some only with the Khan, for the sake of convenience
of supplies and water. It was a short stage--only four or five miles,
and the Khan's tents were to precede the force. He and his family were
to remain in a village for the night, and several houses had been
cleared for him. Thus much had Gunga picked up, and for once, fortune
seemed to favour their designs.
Fazil had recovered, and again rode with his men. Tara, therefore, once
more occupied the litter, which was closed, and carried with those
of Lurlee and Zyna. Had she continued to ride as she wished, nothing
could have happened. As it grew dark Moro Trimmul--with a small body
of horsemen which he had detached from the Envoy's and kept about his
own person--followed Tara's litter at a distance, and yet so as not to
interfere with it. As it grew dark, and they neared the place where
they were to stop for the night, he observed that Tara's palankeen was
the last: he knew it from the white devices sewn on the red cover;
and he dexterously, yet apparently unpremeditatedly, pushed his
horsemen between it and the others, in a narrow lane, in which litters,
horsemen, and soldiers were much crowded together. Then he stopped his
men, pretending there was obstruction in front; and so the litters of
Lurlee and Zyna, which were surrounded by footguards and guides as
usual, went on for some distance, never missing the one behind.
Moro Trimmul was exultant. At the next turn in the road, his own
servants, who had been instructed beforehand, went to the bearers of
Tara's litter, pretending to have been seeking them, and, abusing
them roundly for their carelessness in remaining behind, bade them
come on rapidly. The men followed blindly; they knew they were to go
to a village, and here was one; and, pressing forward, they presently
reached a house to which they were directed.
"Put down the palankeen. Gosha! Gosha! Murdana! Murdana!" was cried
by several voices; and a screen of cloth being stretched, as usual,
from the palankeen to the entrance of the court, and the door of the
litter opened, Tara emerged from it unsuspiciously: then the door was
instantly closed behind her, a thick shawl was thrown round her head
which almost stifled her, and she felt herself taken up by powerful
arms, and carried rapidly onwards. She struggled violently, but a voice
she knew but too well, hissed into her ear through the shawl, "Be
quiet, else I will kill you;" and for a moment she lost consciousness.