NO. 41—1890.] REBELION DE CEYLAN. 



595 



many bad, and one loyal amid so many disloyal. He 

 informed the General of all that was passing ; and in assur- 

 ance of his fidelity offered to die fighting by his side 

 rather than to live among traitors, and to exchange for a life 

 of infamy an honourable death. It is impossible to find 

 out how this Zingala came to know of the business, and, as 

 it was the common property of all, why the knowledge of it 

 came so late to him. Even when he came to the General with 

 the news, another version was handed to him in an ola 

 written in the Zingala language, and couched in the usual 

 metaphors they make use of. As the General was dependant 

 on the Motiar who deciphered it, and as he suspected he was 

 telling lies, he took no further notice of the warning ; although 

 he knew that it was not prudent to depreciate things which 

 were in the mouths of so many. It is also said that 

 there came another ola into the hands of the General, the 

 very letter of the King of Candia to the conspirators, which 

 contained the whole plan of the plot, and when placing it 

 before his Captains, as men who from experience knew the 

 scheming and treacherous idolater, they were of opinion that 

 it was a contrivance to throw suspicion on the Zingalas, and 

 to put the General on his guard against them. By this alone, 

 after he had listened to Don Jeronimo, he came to the con- 

 clusion that his fate was sealed : then having a thousand 

 ways of intercepting it, it seemed to him as if Heaven was 

 either allowing it or doing it as a punishment for a cause 

 God alone knew. 



Don Jeronimo advised the General, before the affair got 

 known, to seize the conspirators, summoning to him on 

 some pretence or another, and then by punishing them it 

 would be easy to prevent free communication with the 

 lascarins, who were perhaps ignorant of the treachery. 



The General following his advice called a Council of all 

 the Captains, and amongst them summoned the con- 

 spirators. But either he had laid bare his heart, which 

 almost had a presentiment of the future, or their consciences 

 smote them, which were darker than that of any tyrants :. 



