252 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
him, in terms of earnest supplication, to relax from 
the fierce severity of his determination, promising 
to repair immediately to the presidency with his 
daughter, and give her a lawful and inalienable 
claim to his protection by making her his wife. The 
parent heard him with a grim smile, and, instead 
of answering, desired his companions to seize and 
bind him ; at the same time protesting that he should 
not only visit his daughter with the punishment of 
death, but that her seducer should partake of her 
doom. Expostulation was useless ; the unhappy 
lover was in the power of his enemy, and incapable 
of resistance. 
His arms were now secured by strong cords ; he 
was thrust into that compartment of the tomb which 
he had lately occupied, and the next day was fixed 
upon for the execution of the unhappy lovers. 
The morning was dull and overcast, and the time 
appointed for the awful sacrifice to the indignation of 
an inexorable parent was just before the sun should 
descend behind the distant horizon. Towards the 
afternoon, fitful gusts announced the approach of a 
tempest. 
“ Bright Indra’s bow appears : the genial rains 
From the full clouds descend and drench the plains. 
Quick lightnings flash along the troubled sky, 
Pierce the fresh moistened earth and parch it dry. 
Like curling dust the distant showers appear. 
And the swan flies before the watery year.”* 
The thunder muttered, and there were occasional 
showers : still, the necessary preparations for the exe- 
* Specimens of Hindoo Poetry. 
