539 



every difficulty was removed, that the Almighty having in infinite 

 wisdom thought proper to deprive her of one child, had mercifully 

 restored another in this unexpected manner, whom she had long- 

 considered dead. All seemed to produce no effect, even on a reli- 

 gious mind, of which resignation and indifference seemed to have 

 taken mingled possession. Every prospect set before her of future 

 joy and comfort only produced a monotonous repetition of "The 

 brahmin! the brahmin!" 



The friend at Lisbon, when all was happily accomplished, lost 

 no time in communicating to her son that his mother lived,, was 

 married to a gentleman of fortune and respectability, and both 

 were waiting to welcome him to their parental roof; — that their 

 interest and liberality had procured his liberty, which he was the 

 happy instrument of effecting, and w T as then come to conduct him 

 from a scene of misery to life, and light, and joy! Although the 

 communication was made in the most considerate manner, the 

 sudden transition, seemed too much for human nature. Like the 

 venerable patriarch, his spirit fainled, for he believed it not! or 

 scarcely believed the reality of his emancipation from those dreary 

 walls where he had for years been excluded from the light of the 

 sun and fresh air ; or, to use the pathetic language of Sterne, " in 

 all that long and dismal period the western breeze had not once 

 fanned his blood ; he had seen no sun, no moon, in all that time; 

 nor had the voice of friend or kinsman breathed through his lat- 

 tice!" The spirit of Jacob revived; he lived to see his long-lost 

 son riding in the second chariot of Egypt, and next to Pharaoh in 

 royal splendour. Not so the liberated captive from the dungeons in 

 Portugal ; " hope deferred had made his heart sick," " the iron had 



