[110] Our Suttee. There is an admirable Hindu proverb, which says, ‘No one knows the ways of woman; she kills her husband and becomes a Sati.’
But the shaft of Fate[111] strikes down the vulture sailing above the clouds, and follows the worm into the bowels of the earth, and pierces the fish at the bottom of the ocean—how then can mortal man expect to escape it? As the robber chief, mounted upon the camel, was passing to the cross under the old householder’s windows, a fire breaking out in the women’s apartments, drove the inmates into the rooms looking upon the street.
[111] Fate and Destiny are rather Moslem than Hindu fancies.
The hum of many voices arose from the solid pavement of heads: ‘This is the thief who has been robbing the whole city; let him tremble now, for Randhir will surely crucify him!’
In beauty and bravery of bearing, as in strength and courage, no man in Chandrodaya surpassed the robber, who, being magnificently dressed, looked, despite his disgraceful cavalcade, like the son of a king. He sat with an unmoved countenance, hardly hearing in his pride the scoffs of the mob; calm and steady when the whole city was frenzied with anxiety because of him. But as he heard the word ‘tremble’ his lips quivered, his eyes flashed fire, and deep lines gathered between his eyebrows.
Shobhani started with a scream from the casement behind which she had hid herself, gazing with an intense womanly curiosity into the thoroughfare. The robber’s face was upon a level with, and not half a dozen feet from, her pale cheeks. She marked his handsome features, and his look of wrath made her quiver as if it had been a flash of lightning. Then she broke away from the fascination of his youth and beauty, and ran breathless to her father, saying:
‘Go this moment and get that thief released!’
The old housekeeper replied: ‘That thief has been pilfering and plundering the whole city, and by his means the king’s archers were defeated; why, then, at my request, should our most gracious Raja Randhir release him?’
Shobhani, almost beside herself, exclaimed: ‘If by giving up your whole property you can induce the Raja to release him, then instantly so do; if he does not come to me, I must give up my life!’