DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5828#0152
A HINDOO LEGEND.
123
was now daily and nightly haunted by the image
of his late victim, and this additional accession of
unhappiness only rendered him the more tyrannical
at home, and arrogant abroad. The day after his
return to the palace, as he was entering by the
garden-gate, the same apparition, which had so ter-
rified him on the previous morning, again appeared
before him. Rushing into the house, he alarmed
the queen with the portentous loudness of his cries.
All thought him mad. He foamed at the mouth,
struck down an attendant who attempted to hold a
bottle of perfume under his nose, and became so
violent, that it was thought necessary to strap him
down to a bed. He was outrageous at this pre-
sumption ; and his apparent frenzy was aggravated,
when he heard the queen order her domestics, who
had thus secured him, to tighten the straps if he
showed symptoms of increasing violence. He was
thus soon tamed by the severity of the discipline to
which his attendants subjected him, and which, after
a few hours' endurance, had become so intolerable,
that he begged most piteously to be released. For
some time no attention was paid to his applications,
until the kind-hearted Maldavee, being at length
moved at witnessing his sufferings, ordered him to
be unstrapped. When the bands were removed from
Youghal's limbs, his whole body was so stiff, that he
could scarcely stir a muscle; but, after a little ex-
ercise, the power of motion returned, though the
stiffness continued for several days.
The quondam slave did not regain his mental
equanimity with his bodily ease. The indignity to
g 2
123
was now daily and nightly haunted by the image
of his late victim, and this additional accession of
unhappiness only rendered him the more tyrannical
at home, and arrogant abroad. The day after his
return to the palace, as he was entering by the
garden-gate, the same apparition, which had so ter-
rified him on the previous morning, again appeared
before him. Rushing into the house, he alarmed
the queen with the portentous loudness of his cries.
All thought him mad. He foamed at the mouth,
struck down an attendant who attempted to hold a
bottle of perfume under his nose, and became so
violent, that it was thought necessary to strap him
down to a bed. He was outrageous at this pre-
sumption ; and his apparent frenzy was aggravated,
when he heard the queen order her domestics, who
had thus secured him, to tighten the straps if he
showed symptoms of increasing violence. He was
thus soon tamed by the severity of the discipline to
which his attendants subjected him, and which, after
a few hours' endurance, had become so intolerable,
that he begged most piteously to be released. For
some time no attention was paid to his applications,
until the kind-hearted Maldavee, being at length
moved at witnessing his sufferings, ordered him to
be unstrapped. When the bands were removed from
Youghal's limbs, his whole body was so stiff, that he
could scarcely stir a muscle; but, after a little ex-
ercise, the power of motion returned, though the
stiffness continued for several days.
The quondam slave did not regain his mental
equanimity with his bodily ease. The indignity to
g 2