THE RAJPOOTNI BRIDE. 
165 
tion. Seeing that all was lost, I saved a worthless 
life for thy sake. Open, love.” 
“ To whom ?” 
“ Thy husband.” 
“ I have none. He perished on the bloody field 
from which thou hast ignobly fled. He never would 
have returned hut with victory on his brow.” 
“ Host thou deny me, sita ? — thy bridegroom of 
yesterday — thy champion for ever !” 
“ He who called me bride, has taken his draught of 
the amreeta-cup.* He was no recreant to retire from 
the field of glory and leave the sable garland of death 
upon every head but his own. He never would have 
saved an inglorious life to skulk through the world 
with the brand of infamy upon him. My husband 
was no coward. Thou art a stranger to this deso- 
late bosom. Go from the door of the widow4)ride 
who knows the sacrifice due to one who is dead to 
her for ever.” 
The Rahtore was deeply stung with the reproof. 
It fell -like a blight upon his heart. He felt the full 
force of her calm but haughty interdiction, and quailed 
beneath that heroism , which abashed his own. He 
was repudiated by her who was the magnet to which 
all his affections clung with a tenacity that even her 
scorn could not subdue. She stigmatized him with 
the name of coward ; she refused him admittance to 
her presence j she denied that he any longer retained 
an influence over her affections ; she scorned, she 
rejected him. She had talked of a sacrifice, and the 
most fearful apprehensions began to take possession of 
* The cup of immortality. 
