538 



his own return to England il became necessary for his wife to pro- 

 ceed thither to superintend the education of the children. Her 

 mother resolved to accompany her to a country in which both were 

 strangers, neither having before left the land of their nativity. 

 Her husband followed them within four years: the governor remain- 

 ing in India, there heard the melancholy news of his wife's death 

 in England. This was a stroke her fond mother was little able to 

 sustain ; a bereavement which seemed to admit of no consolation. 

 The downy wings of time, the balmy comforts of religion, aided by 

 every effort of an affectionate husband, were of no avail in extri- 

 cating her from a state of apathy and despair. 



Not long after this event, an intimate friend of the family hav- 

 ing remitted a considerable sum of money from India by bills on 

 Portugal, went to Lisbon to recover them. Walking near a prison 

 in that city, he was supplicated for charity by a voice from a sub- 

 terraneous grate; and being addressed in English made it the 

 more impressive. Not content with affording transient relief, he 

 entered into conversation with iLc prisoner, and found he was the 

 long lost son of his disconsolate mother. The intelligence was im- 

 mediately conveyed to England, and tenderly communicated to his 

 sorrowing parent, with the addition that her husband had already 

 remitted money to Lisbon, and exerted such means for his deliver- 

 ance that there could be no doubt of his speedy restoration to her 

 maternal arms. This extraordinary news did shed a momentary 

 gleam of joy on her countenance, but it was soon succeeded by re- 

 newed pangs of sorrow, and a continued exclamation of " O the 

 brahmin! the brahmin!" Her husband, by every tender assiduity, 

 endeavoured to rouse her from melancholy by assurances that 



