THE RAJPOOTNI BRIDE. 
155 
portion as her feelings were suppressed. She from 
this moment sought an opportunity to burst the bonds 
of restraint and escape from a tyranny which had 
become in the highest degree repulsive to her ener- 
getic soul. She passed several days in the silence of 
her chamber, from which she seldom stirred, and the 
result was a resolution to thwart the tyranny of her 
parent’s vindictive refusal, by flying to the arms of the 
man in whom she discovered a kindred spirit, and 
knew every feeling of his heart to be perfectly germane 
with her own. She accordingly sent him, by a trusty 
messenger, a picture which represented a hunter res- 
cuing a fawn from the claws of a tiger. He readily 
understood the allusion and returned to her a commu- 
nication in a similar hieroglyphical form, exhibiting 
the same hunter with the fawn nestled in his bosom 
and a dove flying over it, to denote the speed with 
which he was preparing to execute her wishes. Several 
other communications, and of a like kind, passed be- 
tween the lovers, until there was a mutual under- 
standing as to the course each should pursue. 
The father, who had one of those indomitable 
tempers which is the Hara’s boast, though he doated 
on his child as far as was compatible with his stern 
nature, had nevertheless treated her with uniform 
severity ever since she made her declaration of at- 
tachment to the Rahtore ; still he entertained not the 
slightest suspicion that she would, under any circum- 
stances, dare to compromise the dignity of his house 
by such an act of disobedience as she meditated. It 
was plain that he knew her not. He confided in her 
inflexible spirit as a safeguard against dishonour. He 
