684 
The resident, jealous, or at least suspicious, 
of his giddy wife—at least not well pleased 
with her levities—had provoked her, by 
some very reasonable expostulations, to fly 
into the arms of West, her old shipmate, 
who unluckily happened to come in the 
way, and in a manner forced the poor man 
to take her with him. The astounded Cor- 
nuto sunk under the shock, and the fury of 
his feelings, and the fervours of the climate, 
conspire in a few days to send him to the 
grave. Fortescue was ordered to take his 
duties. 
But Mrs. Marriot’s violence produces 
more miserable consequences, and some 
which eventually pressed heavily upon her 
friends. West had the charge of some 
treasure for the Nepaulese army, and through 
her waywardness he neglects to keep a good 
look out; and Omeer Sing, a celebrated 
Pindaree, surprises the party, and gets pos- 
session of the rupees. In despair West 
blows out his brains, and for some time 
Mrs. Marriot is heard of no more. Omeer 
Sing must be pursued; and Major Mel- 
ville, unluckily—nobody else being at hand 
—though an employment somewhat below 
his rank—is despatched for the purpose of 
overtaking the plunderer, and is thus sepa- 
rated from his newly-married lady. Omeer 
Sing is like an eel, perpetually slipping 
from the Major’s grasp, and at length com- 
pletely baffles his pursuer. Extraordinary 
exertions soon affect the Major’s health, and 
he is taken seriously ill, but getting a little 
better, he hastens to return to his wife. On 
the road he relapses, and the miserable wife, 
alarmed by the delay, sets out to ascertain 
the cause, and meets him within a day or 
two’s march, just in time to receive his last 
breath. The attendants of both were all 
Hindoos, and of course fly from the pollu- 
tion of death; and the poor forlorn lady is 
left to dig with her own hands a hole in the 
sands, and bury the body. In a state of 
raving insanity she is at length found by a 
neighbouring indigo-planter, and by dint of 
kindness and good nursing is brought back 
by degrees to her senses; and in the same 
house finds the now miserable Mrs. Marriot, 
to whom she endeavours zealously to mi- 
nister relief, physical and spiritual ; but she 
is still self-willed, and, in an act of violence, 
bursts a liver abscess, and dies. 
In the meanwhile, Captain Bently is 
commanded to supply the place of Major 
Melville, and, if possible, seize Omeer Sing; 
and nearly a whole volume is occupied in 
Monthly Review of Literature. 
[Dec. 
threading the shifts and mancuvyes of that 
very subtle and illusive person, who t last 
after. the most miraculous escapes, at the 
great fair of Hurdwawe, in the vicinity of 
Delhi, gets pistolled, as well as his coal- 
black steed—another Pegasus—in a con- 
flict, and thus restores Captain Bently to 
his bride. By this time, Fortescue’s myste- 
ries began to clear away. An uncle of his 
had insisted, on his death bed, on a pledge 
to marry his daughter ; and whichever re- 
fused to complete the contract, was to forfeit 
the very ample fortune he bequeathed. Till 
Fortescue saw Charlotte Percy, he had no 
desire but to marry his cousin, though he 
had not seen her since she was eight years 
of age, and she was now eighteen, the very 
age fixed upon for the marriage. The cou- 
sin had been too young to have a will of her 
own—had acquiesced in the arrangement, 
and was now on her way to India to com- 
plete it. By relinquishing the ‘property, 
Fortescue might have released himself, but 
the lady was coming, and he was of course 
too delicate to hurt her delicacy, though 
dying with love for Charlotte Percy, and 
she, indeed, though he could only guess at 
that, for him. By the greatest good luck in 
the world, when the young lady came to 
Calcutta, Fortescue was at Cawnpore, and 
before he could return, she found time to 
like somebody else; and promptly taking 
her own measures, she wrote to her cousin, 
and frankly telling him she liked another, 
resigned her claims to him and the pro- 
perty. This was a charming solution of all 
embarrassments ; he flies to Charlotte, ex- 
plains, and is accepted on the spot. Caps 
tain Bently returns from his irksome ser- 
vice; and Mrs. Melville has a charming 
with every body else connected with them= 
as happy as a residence in India—in the 
Upper Provinces—remote from. European 
society—with the augmenting uncertainties 
and vicissitudes of such a country— can 
suffer them to be. siden kaa 
Though understanding, no doubt, the 
country, and the scenes, and the society, 
which the writer undertakes to describe, it 
is scarcely possible for any thing in the 
shape of a story to be less fixing. Never- 
theless, more is to be learnt of the domestic 
condition of Anglo-Indians in this way, 
than by a score of books of travels, and for 
such a purpose, it is well worth a perusal, 
Omeer Sing occupies too much of the tale. 
little boy, which gives her something to 5 
love, and she is comparatively happy—along 7 
* 
