THE RAJPOOTNI BRIDE. 
147 
pressed, and her eye flashing with a wild energy, 
she resolutely attacked the tiger with a dagger which 
she carried in her girdle, plunging it up to the very 
hilt in the animars body. The excited beast, finding 
itself thus unexpectedly assailed, and roused to tenfold 
rage by the wound she had just inflicted upon it, 
quitted the horse and turned upon the rider. Her 
danger was imminent, yet she did not quail; on 
the contrary, her resolution seemed to increase with 
her peril. It was evident, notwithstanding, that she 
could not successfully cope with an assailant so 
fearful, and her father was unfortunately at too great 
a distance to afford her aid. At this critical mo- 
ment, when with extended and foaming jaws her 
ferocious adversary was in the act of seizing her 
by the head, a young hunter darted forward on his 
well-conditioned steed with the swiftness of the blast, 
and as he shot by like a thunderbolt, with a single 
stroke of his sabre, severed the tiger’s head from its 
body. The gory trunk instantly fell to the ground, 
leaving the intrepid huntress unscathed. The van- 
quished brute in its dying agonies, short as they 
were, fixed its claws in the flanks of the poor horse, 
and lacerated them so severely that it was found ne- 
cessary to destroy it on the spot. The lady thus 
providentially rescued, looked round for her preserver, 
but he was at a distance urging his horse to its 
utmost speed ; she had, nevertheless, seen sufficient 
of his features to distinguish that he was a Rahtore ; 
for these Rajpoot tribes have always a something dis- 
criminative of their respective clans. This discovery 
was painful, as it recalled to her mind the feud which 
