152 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
thus the breach was irremediably widened- The 
young chief considered himself now personally in- 
sulted, and nothing but the fervency of his affection 
for the daughter of the man who had so wantonly 
aggrieved him, could have saved his aggressor from 
the immediate operation of his revenge. This was for 
the moment postponed, but a personal insult is never 
either forgotten or forgiven by a Rajpoot. The me- 
mory of a wrong may slumber for years, but a time 
seldom fails to arrive when the spark ignites, and 
then the combustion is indeed fearful. 
The old Hara, in the excess of his indignation, 
accused his child of having conspired against him. 
His menaces were loud and bitter. Her haughty 
spirit was roused ; her countenance was calm and her 
tongue mute, but the blood rushed to her heart with 
a momentum that agitated every fibre within, though 
all without appeared serene and undisturbed. The 
father quitted her in anger and with a harsh threat. 
Her pure but resolute soul recoiled from this tyranny. 
She felt that she had been wrongfully accused, and 
after the first transports of her indignation had sub- 
sided, and she was in a condition to give free scope 
to reflection, she became the more invincibly per- 
suaded that she had been unjustly reproached and 
that an undue severity had been exercised by her 
parent, in endeavouring to disunite her from her 
first and only attachment. She thought that it was 
tyrannical to discourage an interchange of affection 
begun on the one part in a rescue of her life by the 
object of her heart's choice, and confirmed on the 
other by her having saved his. 
