THE RAJPOQTNI BRIDE, 
149 
her with a scrutiny so unremitting that she could not 
evade the morbid keenness of his vigilance. She., ne- 
vertheless, contrived to employ emissaries, but in 
vain : they only returned to bring her the unwel- 
come tidings of their failure. Still disappointment 
seemed rather to add strength to than weaken her re- 
solution ; and notwithstanding the gloom occasionally 
gathering on her parent’s brow, which invariably 
darkened to a deeper shade whenever an allusion 
was made to her rescue from the tiger, her determi- 
nation had abated nothing: her indomitable spirit 
was of too high a temper to blench, though her per- 
severance had not been rewarded with success. 
At length, as she was again one day hunting with 
her father in the jungle, emerging from a tangled path 
into a narrow vista of the wood, she saw at a dis- 
tance a single horseman pressed by several assailants, 
who appeared about to overpower him. On a nearer 
approach she discovered that they were, as she had 
suspected, part of a dacoit gang attacking a Rahtore 
chief. She instantly spurred her horse forward and 
discharged an arrow at the foremost assailant, who re- 
ceived it in his right temple and dropped dead. The 
robbers fled when they perceived that others were 
coming to the rescue of their victim. Upon reaching the 
spot where the encounter between the dacoits and the 
young Rajpoot had taken place, his fair rescuer found 
him lying on the ground weltering in his blood, and 
desperately wounded. He had been cut down by a 
sabre stroke, and the wound presented a most ominous 
aspect of fatality. The brave Rajpootni instantly 
perceived that it was her late deliverer who was lying 
o 3 
