For the last six months
she had been specially unhappy, for when Seringapatam had been
besieged she had hoped that, when it was captured, her countrymen
would search the Palace and see that, this time, no English captive
remained behind. Her disappointment, then, when she heard that peace
had been made, and that the English army was to march away, without
even an attempt to see that the condition for the release of captives
was faithfully carried out, had for a time completely crushed her, and
all hope had forsaken her.
Thus, then, while she had been, for a moment, overwhelmed at finding
that her preserver from the tiger was a countryman in disguise, and
that he was willing to make an attempt to rescue her; yet in a few
minutes she stifled her sobs, hastily thrust back the hair that had
fallen over her face, uncoiled herself from her crouching position in
the angle of the divan, and rose to her feet.
"I can hardly believe it to be true," she said, in a low voice. "Oh,
Sahib, do you really mean what you say? And are you willing to run the
risk of taking me away with you?"
"Of course I am," Dick said heartily. "You don't suppose that an
Englishman would be so base as to leave a young countrywoman in the
hands of these wretches? I do not think that there is much risk in it.
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