THE RAJPOOT. 
135 
three of them dead at his feet, and though reeking 
with blood, which poured in streams from his wounds,, 
he still continued to make such a desperate resistance, 
that the three surviving robbers at length quitted him, 
leaving him undisputed master of the field. Although 
desperately wounded, he eventually recovered. This 
happened not long after the birth of his first-born 
child, whose destruction he had so unfeelingly ordered 
the mother to perpetrate. In spite, however, of his 
unyielding temper, he was a kind husband, — at least, 
kind for one among a class who hold women to be 
creatures born solely for subserviency, and unworthy 
of that freedom which their haughty tyrants main- 
tain to be man’s natural inheritance. 
About two years after the Rajpoot’s marriage a 
son was born to him. This was an event which he 
was proud to commemorate by assembling to a ban- 
quet a number of his tribe, who congratulated him 
at his own expense upon the birth of a male offspring, 
held among Rajpoots as one of the most signal bless- 
ings which the Deity can confer. Within the year 
after its birth this child died, and the wretched father 
was left without an object on whom he could ex- 
haust the outpourings of paternal love. There was at 
once a chasm in his heart not to be filled up. He 
was deeply grieved at this bereavement ; and though 
he did not murmur at so unlooked-for a visitation, 
it soon became but too evident that it left a strong 
impression upon his mind. 
One morning, having quitted his house and returned 
unexpectedly, he was met at the door by a beauti- 
ful little girl, which smiled in his face as he entered. 
