DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5828#0090
66
THE ROYAL DEVOTEE
the bare possibility of such a mischance. If you
only suspect him to have been murdered, I am still
disposed to hope that your suspicions may prove
unfounded."
The features of the mock-sovereign seemed to
relax; the corners of his mouth assumed, for a
moment, a less decided curve downwards, and his
eyes began to twinkle ; but, looking on the nobles
who stood around him, his countenance resumed its
sternness ; his brow lowered ; the point of his nose
became gradually elongated; his teeth gnashed, and
he cried vehemently—•
" There stands the murderess of my faithful slave
Youghal." Then turning to those persons who had
brought her from the hamlet, he exclaimed with
truculent ferocity of aspect—" Take her to the
cavern in the jungle, and let her behold the mangled
remains of that worthy man."
Mariataly was confounded at hearing such a direct
confirmation of Youghal's death from the lips of his
master, and the more so at an imputation so unequi-
vocal of her having murdered him. She was borne
rudely from the presence of her royal judge, placed
again upon the back of a dromedary, and hurried to
the late scene of pious penance and mysterious
evocation, with the same painful dispatch with which
she had been forced from her home on the preceding
day.
Her journey from and to her home was one of no
little peril. Some of the passes of her native hills
were of the most fearful description. She was often
obliged to descend from her dromedary, where the
THE ROYAL DEVOTEE
the bare possibility of such a mischance. If you
only suspect him to have been murdered, I am still
disposed to hope that your suspicions may prove
unfounded."
The features of the mock-sovereign seemed to
relax; the corners of his mouth assumed, for a
moment, a less decided curve downwards, and his
eyes began to twinkle ; but, looking on the nobles
who stood around him, his countenance resumed its
sternness ; his brow lowered ; the point of his nose
became gradually elongated; his teeth gnashed, and
he cried vehemently—•
" There stands the murderess of my faithful slave
Youghal." Then turning to those persons who had
brought her from the hamlet, he exclaimed with
truculent ferocity of aspect—" Take her to the
cavern in the jungle, and let her behold the mangled
remains of that worthy man."
Mariataly was confounded at hearing such a direct
confirmation of Youghal's death from the lips of his
master, and the more so at an imputation so unequi-
vocal of her having murdered him. She was borne
rudely from the presence of her royal judge, placed
again upon the back of a dromedary, and hurried to
the late scene of pious penance and mysterious
evocation, with the same painful dispatch with which
she had been forced from her home on the preceding
day.
Her journey from and to her home was one of no
little peril. Some of the passes of her native hills
were of the most fearful description. She was often
obliged to descend from her dromedary, where the