540 



entered into his soul!" " lie had ate no pleasant bread, neither flesh 

 nor wine came into his mouth, nor had he anointed himself with 

 oil; his comeliness was turned into corruption, and he retained 

 no strength!" The sudden transition from hopeless despair in the 

 dungeon's gloom to the sight of the sun, the fanning of the breeze, 

 and the sympathy of friendship, were too much for his emaciated 

 frame. He faintly uttered the effusions of a grateful heart, and 

 expired! 



Thus was the brahmin's prediction to his mother, uttered full 

 thirty years before, completely fulfilled! 



The last anecdote which I shall relate respecting this extraordi- 

 nary man, is very short. Some months previous to my first leaving 

 India, a gentleman and his wife arrived from England at Bombay. 

 He having been appointed to a lucrative situation atSurat, proceeded 

 thither by an early opportunity, leaving his wife in a friend's family 

 until he should have procured a house, and made suitable provision 

 for her reception at Surat. They were both young, and had an only 

 child. In a few weeks she followed him to Surat. The evening 

 before she embarked, sitting in a mixed circle of gentlemen and 

 ladies, anticipating her approaching happiness, the same brahmin 

 came into the veranda with the gentleman of the house, who was 

 high in station at Bombay. He introduced him to the company, 

 and in a sort of jest asked him to tell the desliny of the happy fair- 

 one lately arrived from Europe. To the surprise of the whole 

 company, and particularly so to the object of inquiry, he gave her 

 a penetrating and compassionate look ; and, after a solemn pause, 

 said to the gentlemen in the Hindoo language, " her cup of feli- 

 city is full, but evanescent] a bitter potion awaits her ; for which 



