102 AMRA. 



word of the Great King pledged to me ? Has he not sworn to 

 refuse me nothing ? All that is most precious between earth and 

 heaven, from the mountains to the sea, lies at my choice ! One word, 

 and she is mine ! and I hesitate ! Fool ! she shall be mine ! " 



He looked up towards heaven, and marked the places of the stars. 

 " It is the appointed hour," he muttered, and cautiously his eye 

 glanced around, and he listened ; but all was solitary and silent. 

 He then stole along the path, which led through a thick grove of 

 Cadam trees, intermingled with the tall points of the Cusa grass, 

 that shielded him from all observation. He came at last to a little 

 promontory, where the river we have mentioned threw itself into the 

 Ganges. He had not been there above a minute, when a low whistle, 

 like the note of the Chacora, was heard. A small boat rowed to the 

 shore, and Sahib stood before him. Quick of eye and apprehension, 

 the mute perceived instantly, that something unusual had occurred. 

 He pointed to the skiff; but Govinda shook his head, and made 

 signs for a light and the writing implements. They were quickly 

 brought, and while Sahib held the lamp so that its light was invisible 

 to the opposite shore, Govinda wrote, in the peculiar cipher they 

 had framed for that purpose, a few words to his brother, sufficiently 

 intelligible in their import, though dictated by the impassioned and 

 tumultuous feelings of the moment. When lie had finished, he 

 gave the letter to Sahib, who concealed it carefully in the folds of 

 his turban, and then, holding up the fingers of both hum Is thrice 

 over, to intimate, that in thirty days he would bring the answer, he 

 sprang into the boat, and was soon lost under the mighty shadow 

 of the trees, which stretched their huge boughs over the stream. 



Govinda slowly returned; but he saw Amn\ no more that night. 

 They met the next day, and the next; but Amra, was no longer the 

 same: she was silent, pensive ; and when pressed or rebuked, she 

 became tearful and even sullen. She was always seen with her 

 faithful Gautami, upon whose arm she leaned droopingly and hung 

 her head like her own neglected flowers. Govinda was almost dis- 

 tracted : in vain he watched for a moment to speak to Amra alone ; 

 the vigilant Gautami seemed resolved, that they should never meet 

 out of her sight. Sometimes he would raise his eyes to her as she 

 passed, with such a look of tender and sorrowful reproach, that 

 Amru would turn away her face and weep : but still she spoke not; 

 and never returned his respectful salutation farther than by inclin- 

 ing her head. 



The old Brahman perceived this change in his beloved daughter ; 

 but not for some time: and it is probable, that, being absorbed in 



