We need not relate how the hunchback was washed clean from his sins,
how he and his companion entertained those who came to them that
night, nor how he resisted their temptations to stay and sing to
others, who, they told him, would load him with gold. Those he was
taking to his master were more precious than gold; and the same anxiety
to present them to him in safety, was shared equally by Fazil and by
Tara while awaiting their arrival.
Five days,--two to go and three to return--perhaps more; never had
time appeared so interminable to those who remained at Kurrar: never
had journey appeared so wearisome to the Shastree. The spirit within
him was strong and earnest, but he had suffered much; and, till roused
by the hunchback's tidings, Anunda and Radha feared that he had sunk
into that lethargic apathy which often precedes death. He could not be
awakened from it. Had Tara died a Sutee, it might have been endured.
Excitement and religious enthusiasm, even the glory of the voluntary
sacrifice, would have deadened nature for a while, at least, in both
her parents; but the attack upon the sacred procession, though but
one had died in it, by, as they supposed, lawless robbers--and the
subsequent murder, as they believed, of their child--had produced a
revulsion which, to the Shastree, had wellnigh proved fatal, and for
many days those about him gave up hope of life. The remains, as they
supposed, of Tara had, as we know, been brought in, and burned by the
river-side with all due ceremony; and after the period of mourning and
impurity had passed, the Shastree and his wives were to have set out on
their return home. Still, however, they lingered; for the climate had
not agreed with Anunda, who had, in her turn, fallen ill with fever,
and they could not travel.
During this period, they had heard from friends much of what had
befallen Tara: and yet not all of Moro Trimmul's share in her
misfortunes. The only person who could have told them truly was Gunga,
and she was dead. Radha had her own suspicions of her brother; but
beyond his wild attempt on the day of the Sutee, to induce her to put
Tara into his power, she had not seen him; and his violent death, while
it affected her mournfully, ended her anxieties ere the murder of Gunga
was discovered.
It was with difficulty that the impatience of the Shastree and Anunda
could be restrained. They reached and passed Sattara the first day,
and would fain have travelled by relays of men without resting, but
the hunchback and Bulwunt Rao, when they joined him, would not hear of
increased exertion. "I will write by a speedy messenger that you are
safe," he said; "but if I do not bring you in well to them, my lord
will be angry, therefore submit yourselves to necessity,"--as, indeed,
they were obliged to do.
Of his master's intentions, the hunchback had said nothing. Who was he,
to know anything about them? The lady Tara was in honour as a guest;
that was all he knew. Yes, his master had carried her off. Could he
know that one who had been his guest, and had truly eaten of his salt,
was to be burned alive, and not make an effort to save her? and she was
still a Brahmun, and had Brahmun women attending upon her.
But Bulwunt Rao, who waited their coming at a village on the road with
an escort of the Paigah, had no such discretion, and told what he
believed--that Fazil and Tara had been privately betrothed. The lady
Lurlee, he said, had one day distributed sugar-candy and pân to all the
household, and to the mosque and other holy places in the town: and
some had been sent to him on a silver salver covered with a cloth of
brocade. What did that mean? And when the Shastree remonstrated, with
a natural horror, at the idea of a Brahmun girl marrying a Mussulman,
Bulwunt Rao replied curtly--
"What could you do with her, Shastree, if you had her? You see she is
no longer a Brahmun, but an outcast. You could not even give her water;
and the two old Brahmun women who attended her in her illness, and
the one who now waits on her, will have to be purified with plenty of
ceremonies--and plenty to pay for them, too, will be needed; but do not
care for that, Shastree, my lord is very wealthy. So, you see, we must
give her up as a Hindu, and even let her go into the other faith."
The Shastree would groan at these home truths, but could reply nothing.
As to his wife, she rejoiced heartily, and had no misgiving. The
expression of a mother's nature would not be denied to Anunda; for
there is no mother with the experience of a life's love grown into her
heart, who does not rejoice in the thought of a wife's useful happiness
to her daughter, and in the expectation of its fruits! All that had
been done to soothe Tara, to distract her mind, to fill up the vacant
place there with other interests--learning, religious exercise, and
devotion to the service of the goddess--had been tried in turn, and
were, as Anunda felt, but a mockery.
Possibly, most probably, indeed, under other circumstances, Tara's pure
mind would eventually have taken refuge in asceticism, and those severe
penances, in which the woman who had persecuted her at Pertâbgurh, had
grown to take delight; but, knowing the too frequent condition of the
indulgence of lawless love by women situated like her daughter, and
exposed to the same temptations, Anunda had often trembled for her
safety; and yet owned to herself that, to doubt her, was profanation.
No, she could not object. Had she been simply asked the question
previously, as a proud Brahmun woman, she must have refused. Now,
circumstances had put that far beyond her reach. To object, would not
retard the final issue, or influence it in any way; but to consent
joyfully, would add so much, and so supremely to Tara's happiness, that
opposition quickly grew to be an impossibility in the good lady's
mind: and before she came to the end of the first day's journey, Fazil
himself could not have desired a warmer advocate.
A good deal of this fell out from being left to herself. Palankeens
had been hired; and as the three travellers were carried on singly
for hours together, each had fallen into the train of thought most
congenial. Radha had certainly no voice in the matter, but was
delighted. Anunda, between joy for her recovered child, and her new
prospects of an honourable life, had been wellnigh beside herself at
first, and the quiet soothing motion of the litter was of all things
the best, perhaps, to calm her, and bring her practical mind into
perception of the true realities of the position. "We have mourned her
as dead," she said to herself, "we have performed all the ceremonies,
and distributed all the charities necessary for the occasion; now she
is alive after all, and born again into a new faith; so the death which
we believed in, was a type of what was to be fulfilled. I see it all
now," she said to herself, "and so it has been ordered for her without
the pain of burning. Strange, my husband does not see this, but I will
tell it to him when we arrive."
And so she did. Radha, too, caught up this tone of argument as best
suited to her husband's mind, and the two women agreeing, left him
little to say. It did not appear he had anything to urge or to object.
"This is some punishment for her sins in an earlier life," he said to
Anunda; "and 'tis well it is no worse."
Anunda and Radha could not see the punishment, except that Tara would
have to eat unclean things; otherwise, what was left to be desired?
If this was their deliberate opinion at the close of the first day's
march,--the second day, and the quiet jogging motion of the litters,
the change of air and scene, and the peace which had settled gradually
into their hearts, had much more than confirmed it. Whatever there was
of objection, was dealt with on the first evening; and on the second,
as they rested for the night, impatience to see their child once more,
an irrepressible yearning to place her happiness beyond doubt, or
chance of mishap, had driven out all other feeling. So, on the third
morning, as they entered their litters for the day's journey, and knew
they would reach Kurrar before sunset, Anunda, who laughed and cried by
turns in a strange manner, as she dressed their morning meal herself
before they set out, saw, with a thankful heart, that the heavy care
which had sat on her husband's spirit for so long had passed away, and
his old placid, benign expression, had taken its place.
That afternoon, as the sun's rays lengthened, and were filled with
that golden radiance which clothed the meanest objects with glory,
and lighted up the town and fort, and the camp beyond,--the little
procession of the three palankeens, and the small body of horsemen,
approached the town gate. Bulwunt Rao had timed their arrival to suit
the lady Lurlee's desire, for the astrological tables had been once
more consulted, and the Moollas of several mosques had been obliged
to declare the most fortunate hour for the entry of the party into
the town. Messengers, too, had met them, enjoining care in this
respect; and Bulwunt Rao and the hunchback were both relieved by the
appearance of a last emissary at the gate to express approval of their
arrangements and to urge them on.
No need of hastening now. The bearers themselves were in hurry enough;
for Bulwunt Rao's promise had been liberal, and they had kept the
horsemen at a brisk canter for the last few miles of the journey. Now,
therefore, shouting and hallooing to each other, the men who carried
the litters, rushed through the gate of the town, and up the main
street at their utmost speed; and there was a race between the three
sets, in which Anunda's were victorious, and clamoured for largesse
as they set down her palankeen before the door of the kind merchant's
house where Tara still was. Much the good lady had deliberated in her
mind whether she could ever be touched by Tara without pollution, and
whether it could be avoided; and we believe we are correct in saying
that she had determined, if it were to cost her half, or all the money
she had left in the banker's hands at Tooljapoor, she did not care, but
she must hold her child once more to her heart.
Could she have repressed it? Ah no! a very outcast in shame, in misery,
in misfortune--no matter had it been so--the loving mother's heart
would still have been open, as her arms, to receive her child; but in
Tara's renewed life, as it were, in joy and in honour, what signified
the temporary impurity of contact with one only impure by the hard
rules of their sect? Anunda trembled very much, and scarcely knew how
she got out of the litter; but as she emerged, a figure she could
hardly see for the tears which blurred her sight, and which seemed to
swim before her, bowed down and kissed her feet, was raised up, and,
failing on her neck, wept aloud. Then it was strained to her heart with
a face buried in her bosom which dare not look up, till her father
and Radha entered, and Tara, prostrating herself before him, clung to
his knees sobbing. With him, too, some scruple about touching her had
remained; but his emotion on sight of her could not be resisted, and
he raised her up and blessed her as of old. I do not think any of them
could speak, and if they did say anything, it was not intelligible
enough to be recorded, and is better imagined.
Then Anunda sat down, for she was very dizzy: and Tara saw the loving
arms stretched out, and went and lay down in them on the soft bosom in
her old place, and hid her face there, and felt her mother's tears fall
hot and fast upon it, while her own were wiped away by the dear bands
that had often wiped them before. By-and-by she looked up, and her
mother saw in the clear soft eye, in the ineffable expression of her
countenance, that all trouble and anxiety was past. No more excitement
now, false and mocking, even though sustained by religious fervour; and
the peaceful calm which had grown upon the face since her recovery, was
a new expression to her mother, which she felt could not change again.
Then Lurlee came with Zyna presently, when the Shastree had been sent
away, and, putting Tara aside, Anunda arose and bowed before her,
kissing her feet, and embracing her knees. "She is thy child now,
lady," she said; "take a mother's thanks and gratitude for her honour
and her life. In our simple Hindu fashion, we know no other salutation,
else it would be given."
"Nay, not to me, but to Alla, who hath preserved her--not we," replied
Lurlee. "Noble ye are, though of another faith. Let us embrace as
sisters, to whom our mutual God hath given one daughter."
"It must be done, sooner or later," said Anunda to herself, as she
withdrew from Lurlee's arms, "and better at once. Come hither, Tara:
see how soon I give thee away, my child, after I have recovered thee.
Wilt thou forgive me? Take her, lady," she continued, putting Tara into
Lurlee's arms; "thou art more her mother now, than I. She hath been
born to thee in a new life; be it as thou wilt unto her."
"I take her," replied Lurlee, "as she is given, freely and truly. I
had no child, lady, and often had prayed for one, and Alla and the
Prophet gave her to me long ago, before all this misery, and when my
lord lived, who would have rejoiced with us to see this day had he been
spared. Yes, believing you dead, we took her to be our child, he and I.
Now you have given her to me, and the gift is precious and is accepted:
but I will not take it yet; we are proceeding home, and you will come
with us,--we will travel together. When we arrive, I will receive her;
till then, let her remain with you; as yet she is pure from us----"
"Yes, mother, I am pure, I have transgressed nothing," said Tara
gently. "I know," she continued, interrupting Anunda, "I am not as
before; but you can give me what I need till--till ... and there is no
help for it now." Anunda and the Shastree did not object, and so it was
settled among them.
How much they had to learn of each other's acts! Nor was it till Tara
told all, and they understood what the infamy of Moro Trimmul's conduct
had been, that they felt the true honour of Fazil's character, or the
deep loving kindness of the lady Lurlee and his sister. A grateful
subject was this, now that she could speak unreservedly with Radha and
her mother, and Tara had to repeat her tale again and again to willing
ears. Sometimes her father, too, listened wonderingly; and there was no
part of it upon which he dwelt with more pride, even to rapture, than
Tara's simple relation of the ordeal, and her devotion of herself to a
cruel death rather than to dishonour.
"A true Brahmun thou," he would say, passing his hand over her head as
she read him the old lessons, "and thou wilt not forget these, nor the
Mother. If thou hadst failed, even to death, she had not released thee
from thy vow. As it is, see, she would not be denied a life! He used to
scoff at her, and she drank his blood--not thine, my faithful child,
not thine--and gave thee a new life, which will be happy. Yes, the
Khánum's skill in astrology is good, for my own calculations confirm
her results, and, comparing his scheme of nativity with thine, Tara,
there is no discordance." But, nevertheless, the fact of Fazil's being
born a Moslem and Tara a Hindu, often puzzled Vyas Shastree more than
his science could explain, or than he cared to acknowledge.