Not all of the excited crowd were permitted to enter the court-yard of the fort; and of those who pressed in, but few were suffered to pass the second door, which led to the women’s apartments, which formed the most private part of the building. To this part Thákar Dás resolved to take his prisoner, woman’s entreaties13, reproaches, and curses being, he thought, more likely to be effectual in shaking the convert’s resolution than the threats and even the violence of man.
Kripá Dé, after being rudely pushed up the steep dark stair, had on the upper platform to face the anger and the insults of the women, as well as to answer the stern interrogations of the chief of the fort.
“With friends,” replied Kripá Dé, as soon as he was able to speak.
“Friends! beef-eaters! slayers of the sacred cow! Hast thou eaten with them, vile15 wretch16? Hast thou blackened the faces of thy family, hast thou disgraced thy dead mother, and cast dust on the grave of thy father, by eating with the impure17?”
Kripá Dé did not deny the charge, and his silence brought on him a furious volley of abuse from Darobti and the other women, who assailed18 the convert with epithets19 too vile for repetition here. At a pause, however, Thákar Dás commanded silence by a wave of his hand. The chief had loved and been proud of the beautiful boy whom his wife had adopted, and the Hindu had not given up all hope of winning Kripá Dé back to the faith of his fathers. The path of return is not so much blocked up now as it was once against the return of those who have forsaken20 the Hindu religion.
“Hear me, O son of Shiv Prasád!” exclaimed Thákar Dás. “Thou hast been bewitched by English sorceries, and hast cast away like a madman the privileges of thy high birth. But the gods may yet be propitiated21 and the Brahmins appeased22. The holy waters of the Ganges, the swallowing the five sacred products of the cow, with large offerings which I will make for thee at many temples, thine own pilgrimages, fastings, and ablutions, may yet restore thee to the high position from which thou hast fallen, if thou swear by the holy gods to abjure23 the faith of the Christians24.”
“I would rather part with my life than my faith!” cried the young Kashmiri, his fair cheek flushing and his lip quivering as he made the reply.
This declaration renewed the pelting25 of the pitiless storm of abuse and invectives. Darobti pulled off her slipper26, and with it struck the youth on the face.
“Why do you treat me thus?” exclaimed Kripá Dé. “I have done wrong to no man, I have injured none, I am of an age to choose my own religion. The English Sircar [Government] will protect me.”
“You are a child; you are under fourteen,” cried Chand Kor, with the unblushing effrontery27 often shown in such cases. “I can swear that ten years ago thou wert an infant in arms.”
“We can bring a dozen witnesses!” exclaimed Thákar Dás. “We will do so if the case be brought into court.”
“The Sahib has my janam-patri,” said the young Brahmin.
This renewed the tempest of abuse.
Kripá Dé was about to say “No;” for to have given his thread to an eater of beef would have been in the eyes of the family a crime like parricide29 in enormity. But the lad remembered what Robin30 had said about falsehood; so he pressed his lips together to keep in the word, and by silence signified assent31. Again Darobti struck him on the face, and Jai Dé spat32 at the Brahmin.
About an hour passed thus, a terrible hour, during which Kripá Dé was the butt33 of the coarsest abuse. Then Thákar Dás and his few attendants withdrew from the women’s part of the building, carefully fastening behind them the door on the upper part of the stair—the door of communication between the zenana and the lower part of the fort, and the two courts which have been repeatedly mentioned. The weather being warm, most of the women then went by an outer stair to the upper terrace, which was also comprised in their allotted34 quarters. There, sitting in the sunshine, the bibis span at their wheels, or prepared vegetables for the evening meal, which they had not yet begun to cook. Chand Kor alone remained near Kripá Dé, big tears of mingled35 anger and sorrow now and then dropping from her eyes, and such words as these from her mouth:—“Hac! hac! would that thou hadst died ere thy lips could speak! would that the destroyer had strangled thee in thy infancy36! Thou art dead now, cut off! Thou art like a dead dog, a crushed worm; thou art lower than the dust of the earth!”
“O my Lord, Thou didst bear shame and reproach for me!” thought the poor convert; “shall the disciple37 not suffer like the Master?”
Hours passed, miserable38 hours; the heat was oppressive; Kripá Dé’s mouth was parched39 with feverish40 excitement, and he longed intensely to quench41 his thirst. The youth moved towards a brass42 vessel43 which he knew contained water, and was about to pour some into his hand, when Chand Kor, starting up angrily, overturned the vessel and emptied it of its contents.
“Who would drink anything out of a vessel polluted by thy vile touch?” she exclaimed.
“O mother, mother! have you no compassion44?” exclaimed Kripá Dé, addressing Chand Kor by that most tender of names, in order to touch her heart. “Do you mean to let the only child of the sister whom you loved die of thirst in the midst of abundance?”[8] Kripá knew that the time for the evening meal had arrived.
Chand Kor looked at her nephew sternly and steadily45 for some moments, and then said: “No! Mihtab Kor’s son shall not die of hunger or thirst. I will send thee food and water, but by the hand of a mitráni [sweeper, one of very low caste]. Eat, drink, and be doubly defiled46!”
“Not by the hand of a mitráni!” exclaimed the Brahmin, as his aunt went away to mount the stair to the upper gallery, from which a savoury scent47 of curry48 was now proceeding49.
“By a mitráni,” repeated Chand Kor, turning round to give a look of contempt. “Thou art only fit to herd50 with mihtars.”
The English reader will hardly understand the utter disgust with which the high-caste Hindu looks down on the mihtar. Forced to make use of his services—for the mihtar is the scavenger51 of the house—he is deemed unclean like the vulture. Food touched by the mihtar would be thrown away; some Brahmins would rather die than eat it. Kripá Dé had not yet lost all the prejudices of his caste; like some native Christians even of some standing52 in the Church, he shrank with repulsion from any contact with one of the mihtar class.
8. It was believed that a convert who disappeared had been quietly starved to death in his home.
“But is it Christ-like to despise any human being whom God has made?” reflected Kripá Dé when left alone. “Did not the Sahib tell me that Peter was forbidden to call any one common or unclean? Is it not true that the Lord died for mihtars as well as for Brahmins? It cannot really pollute me to take water from a mitráni when I am dying of thirst. I will drink it, and thank God for the draught53.”
It seemed to poor Kripá Dé that the longed-for water never would come, he had to wait so long, whilst eating and drinking were going on above; and now and then women and girls looked down on the prisoner, and laughingly asked him if he were ready for food.
The sun had by this time set, and one faint little star after another appeared in the sky. Then a low-caste woman, as Chand Kor had threatened, holding in one dirty hand a chapattie (unleavened cake), and in the other an earthen vessel, came down the outer steps, and without speaking put down what she had brought, then instantly quitted the spot. The mitráni was never suffered to sleep in the town, far less in the fort; but Thákar Dás having shut up the only door of communication with the lower stair, the sweeper had been thus accidentally detained a kind of prisoner in a place where she would not be allowed to cook her food, far less to eat it.
“I could not touch that chapattie—I am too miserable to be hungry,” thought Kripá Dé; “but, oh, the water! the water!”
The thirsty captive eagerly caught up the earthen vessel, and was about to drain it, when he caught sight of a face, pale with terror, the eyes dilated54 with fear, on the terrace above him, and heard a voice, the voice of Premi, exclaiming in a loud warning tone, “Do not drink! the water is poisoned!”
Kripá Dé sprang to his feet, and flung the vessel and its contents over the low parapet beside him into the court below. He did not doubt for an instant the truth of the warning; the playmate of his childhood would never deceive him, and it was only too probable that his family would prevent the disgrace of his baptism by a deed of secret murder.[9] But how was Kripá Dé to escape the double danger of dying of thirst or by poison? The poor youth rushed to the door at the head of the inner stairs, with a wild hope to find it unfastened, or to break it open by a desperate effort. Alas55! it was fast shut, and its strength defied any human effort to force it. Only one desperate course remained, and the convert took it. He sprang over the parapet down into the court—a formidable leap, which no one had calculated on his attempting. It seemed to Kripá Dé that it was by miracle that he alighted on the ground unhurt, but he had not a moment for reflection. In an instant he dashed into the outer court. He made no attempt to open the door which led out of the fort; young, active, and desperate, Kripá Dé took a shorter way of escape by springing over the wall. He knew well that he would be pursued; he could hear the shrill56 call of the women on the roof who had seen his escape, and who gave an instant alarm. From the part of the building where men were eating and smoking rushed forth57 fierce pursuers. But Kripá Dé was fleeing for his life, terror lent him speed, and, unlike Alicia, the convert knew well the way to the mission bungalow58; he could have reached it blindfold59.
9. The authoress has had personal acquaintance with three natives on whom (two of them after recent baptism) such attempts have been made to destroy intellect, if not life.
The family in the bungalow, tired out by a day of such unusual excitement, Robin feverish from his wound, and Alicia from the fatigue60 and exposure which she had so lately undergone had resolved to retire very early to rest. Previous to so doing, they met to unite in evening devotions.
“We will not forget to pray for our poor Kripá Dé,” said Robin, as he was about to kneel down. The name was yet on his lips when the convert himself, pale and panting, rushed into the room and sank down at his feet.
“Lock the door! bar it! he is sure to be pursued!” exclaimed Mr. Hartley; and in two seconds Harold had closed the door and locked it.
“Water!” cried the convert faintly. The hand of Alicia quickly supplied the fugitive’s need.
“They are after me!” cried Kripá Dé, when he had drained the glass. “They tried to poison me; Premi saved me. I fear that she will have to pay dear for giving me warning.”
“She will not be long in the enemy’s hands, I trust,” said Harold.
As he spoke61, loud angry voices from without and violent shaking of the door, followed by furious blows, showed that the pursuers had arrived.
“The door is not strong enough to stand much of this!” cried Robin; and snatching up a stick which was at hand, he looked ready for another battle with the foe62.
Harold went up to the closed door, and his voice rang out in clear tones, which were heard above the battering63 and the furious demands for admittance.
“Back with you all!” he cried.—“Thákar Dás, it is no light matter to break into an Englishman’s home!”
“Give up Kripá Dé! give up the wretch, the apostate64!” yelled the Hindus. Then a brief lull65 of silence ensued, that the reply might be heard.
“We will never give him up but with our lives,” said Harold firmly. “If you think that you have a right to imprison66 and poison him, bring your case into court; we expect the commissioner67 here to-morrow.”
This announcement was startling to the Hindus, who had a wholesome68 dread69 of bringing on themselves the wrath70 of the Sircar. Thákar Dás and his followers71 knew that the two attacks on the dwelling72 of one of the ruling race would be likely to expose them to serious consequences, which they had no wish to meet. Heartily73 glad were the Hartleys that the letter to Mr. Thole had been so promptly74 penned, so quickly despatched.
“Will you not tell them, my Harold,” said Alicia, “that we have proofs that Premi is of English birth?”
“No!” cried both the brothers almost in a breath; and the elder added: “If the Hindus knew that this second charge—that of imprisoning75 our countrywoman—could be brought against them, poor Premi would be only too likely to disappear mysteriously before we could claim her.”
“Can the Hindus have gone away?” cried Alicia; “a wonderful stillness has succeeded to that terrible noise.”
“They are going away like baffled hounds,” said Robin, who was making a survey.
“We were about to kneel down to pray,” observed Mr. Hartley; “let us do so now, and join our praises to our prayers. This has been a day of wonderful mercies.”
Very fervent were the thanksgivings which rose from the missionaries’ home.
After all had risen from their knees, Robin observed, “I will sit up to-night; these jackals may return for their prey.”
“You sit up, looking like a ghost as you do!” exclaimed Harold. “You have played your part bravely to-day, old boy, and have left your elder brother nothing but the office of a chankidar [watchman]. We must all remain in the house to-night; but to prevent semi-suffocation the doors must be open. I give you my word that I will not sleep on my post.”
Harold kept his word, watching till morning; but the attack on the bungalow was not repeated.
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1
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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resounded
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| v.（指声音等）回荡于某处( resound的过去式和过去分词 )；产生回响；（指某处）回荡着声音 | |
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3
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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fanatics
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| 狂热者，入迷者( fanatic的名词复数 ) | |
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prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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7
persecuted
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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ordeal
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| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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fervent
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| adj.热的，热烈的，热情的 | |
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supplication
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| n.恳求，祈愿，哀求 | |
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13
entreaties
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| n.恳求，乞求( entreaty的名词复数 ) | |
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14
pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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impure
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| adj.不纯净的，不洁的；不道德的，下流的 | |
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assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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epithets
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| n.（表示性质、特征等的）词语( epithet的名词复数 ) | |
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Forsaken
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| adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词 | |
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21
propitiated
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| v.劝解，抚慰，使息怒( propitiate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22
appeased
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| 安抚，抚慰( appease的过去式和过去分词 )； 绥靖（满足另一国的要求以避免战争） | |
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23
abjure
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| v.发誓放弃 | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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pelting
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| 微不足道的，无价值的，盛怒的 | |
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slipper
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| n.拖鞋 | |
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effrontery
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| n.厚颜无耻 | |
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shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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parricide
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| n.杀父母；杀亲罪 | |
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robin
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| n.知更鸟，红襟鸟 | |
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assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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spat
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| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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allotted
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| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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disciple
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| n.信徒，门徒，追随者 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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parched
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| adj.焦干的；极渴的；v.（使）焦干 | |
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feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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41
quench
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| vt.熄灭，扑灭；压制 | |
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42
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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43
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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44
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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45
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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46
defiled
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| v.玷污( defile的过去式和过去分词 )；污染；弄脏；纵列行进 | |
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47
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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48
curry
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| n.咖哩粉，咖哩饭菜；v.用咖哩粉调味，用马栉梳，制革 | |
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49
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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50
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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51
scavenger
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| n.以腐尸为食的动物，清扫工 | |
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52
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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53
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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54
dilated
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| adj.加宽的，扩大的v.（使某物）扩大，膨胀，张大( dilate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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56
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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bungalow
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| n.平房，周围有阳台的木造小平房 | |
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blindfold
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| vt.蒙住…的眼睛；adj.盲目的；adv.盲目地；n.蒙眼的绷带[布等]； 障眼物，蒙蔽人的事物 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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61
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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62
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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63
battering
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| n.用坏，损坏v.连续猛击( batter的现在分词 ) | |
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apostate
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| n.背叛者，变节者 | |
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lull
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| v.使安静，使入睡，缓和，哄骗；n.暂停，间歇 | |
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66
imprison
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| vt.监禁，关押，限制，束缚 | |
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67
commissioner
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| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
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68
wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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69
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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70
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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71
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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72
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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73
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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74
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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75
imprisoning
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| v.下狱，监禁( imprison的现在分词 ) | |
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