92 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
soon became the oracle of fashion and of taste. 
Whilst she affected an extreme simplicity in her 
own dress, she attired her attendants in the richest 
tissues and brocades, making those who had attrac- 
tive persons the vehicles for setting off to advantage 
the works of her own industry. She thus amassed 
a considerable sum of money, and became more ce- 
lebrated in her obscurity than she had hitherto been 
as the wife of the most distinguished hero of his 
age. Her milder glories had been hitherto eclipsed 
by the predominancy of his. 
The accomplishments of this singular woman 
were soon carried to the ears of the emperor, who 
had probably by this time forgotten the ascendency 
which she once held over his heart. He determined 
therefore to see her in order to have ocular proof 
whether the voice of public report was a truth or an 
exaggeration. Resolving to take her by surprise, he 
unexpectedly entered her apartment, when, at the 
sight of her unrivalled beauty, all his former passion 
revived in an instant. She was reclining on a sofa 
in an undress robe of plain white muslin which exhi- 
bited her faultless shape to the best advantage, and 
became her better than the richest brocades of Bagdat, 
or the -finest embroideries of Cashmere. As soon as 
the emperor entered, the syren rose with an agitation 
that served only to heighten her charms, and fixed 
her eyes on the ground with well-dissembled confusion. 
Jehangire stood mute with amazement ; rapture 
took immediate possession of his soul ; he felt, if he 
did not utter, the sentiment of an emiment poet of his 
own religion — - 
