158 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
taking him. Vain was pursuit, for the fugitives 
were at a distance, and soon disappeared amid the 
thick recesses of the forest. 
The venerable Hara returned from the chase im- 
precating curses on his child, and vowing the most 
deadly vengeance against her audacious paramour. 
The lovers, when they thought themselves beyond 
the reach of pursuit, slackened their speed and pro- 
ceeded leisurely towards the Rahtore’s abode. Im- 
mediately upon his return, the bereaved father sum- 
moned his followers to avenge the abduction of his 
daughter. His faithful Rajpoots were ready at his 
call, and upwards of three hundred men stood before 
him to rescue his child and inflict a signal punish- 
ment upon her ravisher. The old man prepared to 
march with the dawn, every dark passion of his soul 
boiling like a lava-flood within him. All those feel- 
ings which a fierce sense of injury now wrung from 
his unrelenting nature, were concentrated into one 
absorbing impulse of revenge. He had no energy 
but for hatred and vengeance, and the sullen calm- 
ness with which he prepared to execute their ruth- 
less injunctions, at once betrayed the intensity of 
his savage purpose. With the full blight of his pas- 
sions upon him, he proceeded to the temple of his 
divinity, and laid his propitiatory sacrifice upon the 
unhallowed altar. It was an oblation too sanguinary 
to be accepted by a just and merciful God: — the 
smoke of his incense ascended not beyond the gor- 
geous dome of the desecrated sanctuary. The offi- 
ciating Brahmin, however, as the vicarious minister 
of the deity to whom the sacrifice was presented. 
