240 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
with scorn. In consequence of my rejection, he has 
poisoned your mind, and cast a stigma upon my inno- 
cence which I will now efface, or perish/’ 
The brow of her husband darkened as she spoke ; 
— he did not utter a word. His breast heaved be- 
neath the quilted tunic which covered it ; but his com- 
pressed lips showed that his belief in his wife’s guilt 
was not in the slightest degree abated. 
“ Tell me,” she said, elevating her voice sufficiently 
to waken the mountain echoes, “ do you still believe 
me guilty ?” 
“ I do !” he cried vehemently, at the same time 
stamping his foot so fiercely upon the rock which 
frowned over the deep hollow beneath, that it seemed 
for an instant to vibrate under the stroke. 
“ Then you shall be avenged !” said the heroic 
woman, and instantly sprang over the precipice. 
The husband started with horror as he heard her 
body crash on the rocks below. The light of con- 
viction passed in a moment through his brain with 
the vehemence of a whirlwind, and he felt too late 
that his unhappy wife had fallen a sacrifice to his 
unjust suspicions. Not a syllable escaped his lips; 
but the settled determination of vengeance suddenly 
swelled his heart, which beat with so fierce a pul- 
sation, that the bosom seemed too narrow to con- 
tain it. His eye glared with smothered fury. He 
saw with the clearness of conviction that the villain 
who had attempted the seduction of a virtuous matron, 
had wantonly rendered her the victim of a jealous 
husband’s suspicions, and he determined that such a 
wretch should pay the just forfeit of his infamy. He 
