)rnia 
 al 
 
 1
 
 THE 
 
 NABOB AT HOME; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE RETURN TO ENGLAND. 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR OF "LIFE IN INDIA." 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. L 
 
 LONDON: 
 HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, 
 
 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 
 
 1842.
 
 C. WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND.
 
 
 7\Cu 
 
 K\nH 
 
 THE 
 
 NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 \et Caledonia, dear are thy mountains, 
 Round their white summits though elements war, 
 Tho' cataracts foam, 'stead of smooth flowing- fountains, 
 I sigh for the valley of dark Loch na Garr! 
 
 Byron. 
 
 Doctor M'Alpin, like most men in India, 
 had for years after his arrival, sighed for 
 the time when he should be enabled to 
 revisit his native land — when he should be 
 enabled with honour and credit to support 
 
 vol. r. b
 
 Z THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 the dignity of his ancient house ; and like 
 many others also, he had deferred his de- 
 parture from year to year, though many a 
 year had passed since he had realized all 
 that he had originally fixed upon as the ut- 
 most extent of his wishes. 
 
 When he had the power, and could go at 
 any time, he found that " it was ridiculous 
 for a man in the meridian of life to with- 
 draw from active employment, and to sit 
 down contented with little more than the 
 patrimony of his ancestors." Then, " it was 
 unwise to resign a splendid appointment, 
 which put fortune in his power, and gave 
 him the opportunity of serving his friends." 
 The death of his father and mother de- 
 pressed his spirits, and "made him less 
 anxious about returning just so soon" — that 
 of his grandfather followed, and put him in 
 possession of Fernbraes, the estate of his 
 forefathers; more fertile in purple heath- 
 bells than golden grain. 
 
 " He was now the head of the house, and 
 consequently more was expected of him,
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 6 
 
 and since lie had staid so long, lie might 
 even stay a little longer, and go amongst his 
 own people, as the only surviving male 
 branch ought to do." 
 
 Last of all, came tidings of the death of 
 his only and much beloved sister — the com- 
 panion of his childhood — the friend of his 
 youth — one whose image never rose to his 
 mind unassociated with recollections of early 
 happiness and tender love. She had been 
 his confidant and counsellor in all his pro- 
 jects — in all his wishes. She had listened 
 with unwearying patience to his early and 
 ardent desires to see the world — she had 
 walked with him over the heath and on the 
 sea-shore — she had talked of his future 
 hopes and his future prospects a thousand 
 and a thousand times, and she, in the pride 
 and fondness of sisterly affection, had fore- 
 seen and foretold his prosperous return ; and 
 though long years had passed since, this 
 stroke brought her before him with the re- 
 newed feelings of early affection. 
 
 b2
 
 4 THE NABOB AT IIOME. 
 
 He felt her arms upon his neck — he heard 
 the blessing which came from a bursting 
 heart, when she kissed him at parting, and 
 be looked up as if he almost expected to see 
 the sister of his love, leaning over him as 
 she had done then ; but she for months had 
 lain in the dark and narrow house before 
 the information of his loss had reached him, 
 and their earthly intercourse was finally 
 closed. 
 
 " I have waited," he said, speaking to 
 himself, as was his usual custom when anv 
 tiling agitated his mind, " until one year 
 after another has taken every one from me 
 that ever I wished to see; and now," he 
 spoke in bitterness, " I'll wait no longer. 
 Am I not old, and rich, and childless, and 
 friendless, and who is to come after me in 
 Fernbraes for which I have done so much ? 
 — who is to uphold the honour of the an- 
 cient roof-tree? Much have I expended, 
 and much have I remitted for planting and 
 improving the old place, which in my day
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 5 
 
 was a thought o'er bare, though it cannot 
 be that now — but I fear the plantings will 
 never shelter me or mine." 
 
 Strange as it may seem, the doctor now 
 actually set about making the preparations 
 which he had so long talked of and delayed ; 
 and he sometimes pleased himself with 
 thinking, that in his sister's family, he 
 might still find some one to love and che- 
 rish. 
 
 But to go back to the motives which had 
 influenced his life. \The truth was, that the 
 worthy doctor, like many others, after a few 
 years' residence in the country had lost the 
 ardent desire to return to his birthplace, 
 which at first tormented himV- which he 
 always expressed, and fancied that he still 
 felt — years had brought new connexions and 
 new friendships, and though they never oc- 
 cupied in his heart the place of those he had 
 left round his father's hearth-stone, yet they 
 exercised his kindly affections, and dimi- 
 nished the feeling of loneliness and isolation 
 which every one, possessed of the least sen-
 
 6 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 sibility must experience, on making a so- 
 litary entry into life in a strange land. 
 
 Youth is slow to reason but quick to feel, 
 and he, who had been accustomed to find 
 himself a first object — a central point at 
 Fernbraes — felt wonder and mortification, 
 on his first arrival, on discovering how 
 small a space he occupied in Indian society. 
 His local consequence had quite left him — 
 he was no longer the heir apparent — " the 
 young laird" — nothing more than Mr. As- 
 sistant-surgeon M'Alpin; the peculiarity of 
 whose Gaelic idiom and national predilec- 
 tions, were his most marked claims to notice. 
 Then he sighed to return ; but time, which 
 changes all things where there is any mate- 
 rial to work upon (and, in his case, nature 
 had done her part), changed the raw High- 
 land lad into the able and experienced 
 physician; unremitting in his duty, indefa- 
 tigable in his exertions for the wellbeing 
 of those under his care, and as attentive 
 to the lowest native as to those whose 
 life was favour, and whose health was for-
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 tune to him ; and it also changed his situa- 
 tion from assistant-surgeon, tossing about 
 with a corps, to that of " residency-surgeon" 
 at Lucknow. His professional abilities pro- 
 cured him fortune— 7 his intrinsic worth se- 
 cured him friends-vacquaintance with the 
 world softened his extravagant prejudices; 
 only leaving just enough of national pecu- 
 liarity, to give some spirited touches to his 
 character, and preserve his individuality. s 
 \The kindness of his heart, and perhaps 
 some tincture of his feudal feelings, extended 
 to his numerous household ; over whomOie 
 ruled with patriarchal sway, having bond- 
 men and bondwomen born in his house. 
 His servants rarely wished to leave him, and 
 he seldom discharged them ;\o that, to use 
 their own phrase, " their children's children 
 eat of his salt, and dwelt in the shadow of 
 his protection." When delinquencies were 
 committed, they knew " that the sahib's 
 heart was tender ;" and when his anger had 
 expended itself, "sweet words," and a list 
 of those who depended upon their exertions, 
 and must suffer along with them, "would
 
 8 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 set all right;" and the good doctor, though 
 perhaps he would not like to have had any 
 one make the comparison, enjoyed some- 
 thing of the satisfaction amongst his black 
 retainers at Lucknow, which he expected 
 amongst those of his own colour at Fern- 
 braes ; and he had also the satisfaction when- 
 ever any thing went wrong, to attribute the 
 annoyance, whatever it might be, to " this 
 vile country ;" and to be certain that in his 
 own he would be exempt from it. Roguery 
 and ingratitude were never heard of there, 
 at least he never recollected to have met 
 with them. 
 
 When he indulged in such excesses of en- 
 thusiasm, which were apt to break out on 
 the receipt of letters from Europe, or of new 
 books from the " modern Athens," Colonel 
 and Mrs. Cheapstow, with whom most of his 
 evenings were passed, never omitted bring- 
 ing to his memory a little history of whisky- 
 punch, which he would rather have for- 
 gotten. 
 
 " There are many things you know, doc- 
 tor," Mrs. Cheapstow used to say, " which
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 9 
 
 are better in memory than in reality ; the 
 strength remains when the harshness is gone. 
 I used to think, from your description that 
 goat-milk cheese was a very fine thing, 
 until I saw the biting, moulded, blue reality, 
 which was sent to you from Fernbraes; 
 looking; as venerable as if it had come out of 
 Herculaneum." 
 
 " And the Highland nectar, doctor, which 
 you promised us," said the colonel ; " do you 
 recollect what execrable stuff it proved; and 
 what a headach you got by persisting to 
 drink two or three glasses of it ; and how in 
 the morning you were fairly driven to con- 
 fess, that it had not just the relish it used to 
 have at Fernbraes, and that for 'this vile 
 country,' claret when it was well cooled, 
 was a more suitable beverage ?" 
 
 " There is no use in recollecting things 
 that would be better forgotten," said the 
 doctor, laughing, " and constantly keeping 
 one in mind of one's degeneracy." 
 
 The doctor had thus staid from year to 
 year, grumbling, and increasing his fortune,
 
 10 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 until lie had passed what has been popularly 
 called middle life, that is to say fifty, or in 
 more polite phrase, that period which a French 
 courtier out of respect for the feelings of his 
 monarch, who had lived half a century, and 
 yet did not like to be thought older than 
 other people, declared to be, I age de tout 
 le monde, and he found that his hair had 
 worn high off his temples, and had changed 
 its originally yellow tint for white. The 
 change in colour, however, was not very 
 perceptible, as (in conformity to the mili- 
 tary etiquette of his day, he still continued 
 to wear powder^ His regular and well-pro- 
 portioned features had become thin and 
 pale, though his light gray eye still retained 
 some of the penetrating earnestness of former 
 years, particularly when his enthusiasm was 
 excited, or the nervous irritability which 
 
 climate had ingrafted on his naturally acute 
 
 feelings was called into action. 
 
 The world laughs at enthusiasm in any 
 
 age, though in youth it sometimes meets 
 
 with toleration, as one of the follies which
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 11 
 
 time will correct: but notwithstanding the 
 general voice against it, observation proves, 
 that it is the high spring-tide of feeling 
 which carries the mind forward over all 
 obstacles ; and, under the curb of reason, leads 
 to excellence — at least, the good doctor 
 thought so; and perfectly agreed with the 
 philosopher who has defined enthusiasm to 
 be " a transport of the mind, whereby it is 
 led to think and imagine things in a sublime, 
 surprising, and yet probable manner." His 
 thin, tall figure retained its original rectitude 
 of line, though a fall and pliancy in the 
 shoulders, showed that there also chmate 
 had done its work. 
 
 " He was," as he said himself, " com- 
 pounded of excellent bone and capital 
 muscle ; though certainly a little relaxed by 
 the fiery furnace, in which he had been tried 
 for such a length of time." 
 
 However, he trusted the good sharp 
 breezes, would set all that to rights again, 
 and make a new man of him. 
 
 When not on duty, or occasions of cere-
 
 12 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 mony, his unvarying dress was his white 
 nankeen jacket, waistcoat, and trousers, 
 shoes of the same material, and a Keht 
 broad-brimmed solar hat, covered with white 
 muslin; so that in his whole dress he had 
 not one coloured speck, and if his clothes 
 were not as remarkable for the tightness of 
 their fit as if they had been cut in Bond- 
 street, they were at least very much so for 
 the snow-like purity of their tint. The like 
 taste displayed itself through his whole 
 dwelling; for though he covered his tables 
 and couches with the books he was reading, 
 or might read, he never suffered this negli- 
 gence on his own part, to be an excuse for 
 his servants permitting the least particle of 
 dust to harbour amongst them ; and though 
 he liked his dogs to run about through his 
 apartments, it was not until his dooriah* 
 had performed their ablutions. 
 
 In this way the doctor had sailed down 
 the stream of time in all the independent 
 ease and quiet uniformity of a bachelor's 
 life at Lucknow; and had become so at- 
 
 * Dooriah — dogkeeper.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 13 
 
 tachcd to the persons and things about him, 
 that when after his departure for Europe was 
 fixed, he visited his friends for the last time, 
 he could not bring himself to say '-farewell;" 
 and left them under the idea that they 
 should see him again. Most of his servants 
 accompanied him to Calcutta, and thus con- 
 tinuing to him for a little longer, the satis- 
 faction of being surrounded by the faces he 
 was accustomed to see. , 
 
 Dr. M'Alpin, like many others when they 
 have almost attained the summit of their 
 wishes, felt rather sorrow than joy in the 
 prospect of the near accomplishment of his 
 desire. He had been in the habit for thirty 
 years of attributing every evil and annoy- 
 ance he had met with, to this " vile coun- 
 try ;" but now that he was upon the point of 
 leaving it for ever, he thought of the lono- years 
 of ease and independence he had enjoyed, 
 passed in social and friendly intercourse 
 with many whom he could never hope to 
 see again; he thought of those whom death 
 had separated from him, and retraced in his
 
 14 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 mind the lapse of years, by the number of 
 gaps it had made in the list of those who 
 had started with him in the career of for- 
 tune. This depressing state of feeling, led 
 him back to the changes which had taken 
 place in that home to which he was going. 
 
 "I wonder if they will know me," he 
 said, as he walked up and examined his 
 own face in the mirror. " I wonder if they 
 will know the rosy-cheeked, curly-headed, 
 active lad, who left them in the pride of 
 youth and expectation; in the pale face, 
 sunk eyes, and bald forehead which I see 
 before me ; and yet I fear that I am more 
 changed in mind than I am in body. I 
 cannot deny to myself, that no one can be 
 expected to have patience with my nervous 
 and irritable habits of life, but Cussim Ali, 
 who kens them so well ; but alas!" he con- 
 tinued, perusing every line of his own fea- 
 tures in the glass, as if he saw them for the' 
 first time, " Who is there to recollect me ? 
 They are all gone ! and the young ones who 
 are now in their places, are after my day.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 15 
 
 He turned his back upon the mirror, and 
 walked up and down the room ; — his eye 
 fell upon a volume of picturesque views in 
 Scotland, which had been amongst his first 
 purchases on arriving in India. " It is my 
 native land," he said aloud, " and wherever 
 a Scotchman passes his life, he ought to 
 return to lay his bones there." 
 
 " Sahib,"* said Cussim Ah, who had been 
 waiting quietly, and took the doctor's soli- 
 loquy for an order, " your slave waits, what 
 is the sahib's order?" 
 
 " I have no order, Cussim," answered his 
 master, "but do not forget that the sircarf 
 gets warm clothes, and every thing fit for 
 you to go on board ship, since you have 
 made up your mind to go with me." 
 
 " Yes, sahib, it is my nisibj to cross the 
 sea. I have eaten your salt, for many years, 
 and now that I have lost all, and that no 
 one of my house remains — not a son to lay 
 
 * Sahib — sir, gentleman. 
 \ Sircar — native accountant. J Nisib — fate.
 
 16 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 my head in the earth," and a tear strayed 
 over the old man's face, and down his white 
 beard, which he wiped away with his long 
 sleeve, " I shall go with yon, sahib, who is 
 my father and my mother; and when I die, 
 yon will put me in the ground, and not 
 leave me to have the burial of a dog." 
 
 " Make yourself easy, Cussim Ali," re- 
 plied the doctor, "if that happens, every 
 thing shall be done properly." 
 
 " Good, sahib, very good, I go with you." 
 
 Cnssim and his master had borne the 
 heat and burden of the day together, and 
 \though\varm attachment is not certainly 
 the characteristic of native character, yet it 
 is to be found; \ and amidst the general 
 apathy and heartlessness, which must be 
 more or less the consequence of servitude, 
 examples of true affection may be met 
 with. 
 
 Possibly masters in all countries are too 
 apt to forget, that the affections of the 
 human heart cannot be bought, — that sim-
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 17 
 
 pie justice cannot purchase love, and that 
 nothing short of affection can create affec- 
 tion. Mere attention, which is bestowed 
 equally upon the comfort of servants and 
 cattle, cannot excite gratitude. 
 
 i 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 18 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Five-and-twenty years ago — 
 Alas how time escapes ! 'tis even so— 
 With frequent intercourse, and always sweet 
 And always friendly we were wont to cheat 
 A tedious hour. 
 
 As some grave gentleman in Terence says, 
 ('Twas therefore much the same in ancient days) 
 " Good lack, we know not what to-morrow hrings — 
 Strantre fluctuation of all human things !" 
 
 COWPEK. 
 
 Arrived at Calcutta, Dr. M'Alpin's 
 boats anchored off the Old Fort Ghaut, just 
 behind the house of his friend Mr. Curzon, 
 with whom he meant to take up his resi- 
 dence until his departure for Europe. They 
 had arrived in the country in the same fleet, 
 and though they had not met for years, had
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 19 
 
 always maintained a friendly correspond- 
 ence. 
 
 The doctor's spirits which had been de- 
 pressed by his parting with his friends, Colo - 
 nel and Mrs. Cheapstow at Lucknow, were 
 greatly cheered by this meeting with his old 
 friend Curzon. His gray eyes twinkled as 
 he shook hands with him, and each for a 
 moment regarded the changes which time 
 had made on the other. " I have not en- 
 joyed so much satisfaction since I left Luck- 
 now," said the doctor with an affectionate 
 smile ; " the sight of a friend's countenance, 
 Curzon, is the best remedy for the evils of 
 life. Ye have done more for me in five 
 minutes, than all my reasoning and all my 
 philosophy on board the boat, was able to 
 effect in a whole fortnight." 
 
 " Our satisfaction is equal M'Alpin ; the 
 time is come when neither you nor I can set 
 about making new friends, and of conse- 
 quence, we doubly value those who are left 
 to us. Few, very few of those who came 
 out with us, are in existence now ; and the 
 
 c 2
 
 20 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 young men of the present day are of a dif- 
 ferent stamp," answered Mr. Curzon. 
 
 A composed and gentle expression sat on 
 his open brow, lie spoke in a low articulate 
 tone, which perfectly suited the general cha- 
 racter of his appearance, and his tall thin 
 figure, with long legs and hanging arms, was 
 one often seen amongst those whose nervous 
 system has been shaken by a long residence 
 in an undermining; climate. 
 
 The two friends spent the first evening of 
 their meeting in mutual questions relative to 
 their own affairs, and those who had been, 
 or still were, the friends of both parties. As 
 there was no company they dined above, in 
 the drawing-room, where the air circulated 
 more freely than on the ground-floor. 
 
 When dinner was over, they had their 
 chairs and hookahs placed in the verandah 
 which overlooked the square, and enjoyed 
 the little cool air which came off the great 
 tank in the centre, always kept fresh and full 
 by communication with the river. The 
 shrubs and flowers which bound the broad
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 21 
 
 gravel without the enclosure round the tank 
 had a pleasing effect in the light of a clear 
 sweet night. The open windows of every 
 well-lighted house round the square, added 
 much to the cheerfulness of the scene, and 
 smoking their hookahs as they sipped their 
 wine, they spoke with the unreserve of those 
 who felt that their thoughts and their feel- 
 ings were matter of interest to each other. 
 
 " You," said Mr. Curzon, " have the near 
 prospect of visiting your native land — I 
 never shall." 
 
 " And why not, what prevents ye, if ye 
 wish it?" 
 
 "Money — money, I have expended so 
 much in the prosecution of my researches in 
 Asiatic literature that I shall never be able 
 to quit the country." 
 
 " But with your allowances how is that 
 possible ?" 
 
 "You forget, the monthly expense of 
 learned natives transcribing for me, has been 
 a fortune of itself. I can show you any day
 
 22 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 you please my college in this house. You 
 know I must have them to do the drudgery 
 for me, even if our climate was a different 
 one. How many men did our English John- 
 son employ in transcribing for his great 
 work ?" 
 
 "Doubtless that is a heavy expense, but 
 your library is a mine of itself." 
 
 " Yes, if you consider the sums sunk there. 
 It was impossible for me to prosecute some 
 of my works without the purchase of an 
 immense number, sometimes of all the 
 manuscript copies of a particular author I 
 might want, at any price which might be 
 demanded for them by natives who under- 
 stand their own interest too well not to 
 make the most of it. They know that I 
 must have the thing, therefore never scruple 
 to make me pay for it. You know the un- 
 certainty of a written character in a country 
 so extensive as this, where men of learning 
 have chosen to make variations, not only in 
 the character, but in its signification, the
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 23 
 
 truth of which it is impossible to ascertain, 
 without an accurate comparison of their 
 different works." 
 
 " I know that from my own experience," 
 answered the doctor. " Though without any 
 pretensions to be a scholar, I know some- 
 thing of the Persian poets ; and I know too, 
 that book-making is not the lucrative trade 
 in this country, that it is in our own." 
 
 " Ours may be called a labour of love, as 
 it produces neither money nor fame. How 
 many men of talent in India have spent their 
 lives in the prosecution of knowledge and 
 oriental learning, and have dropped into the 
 grave without one word of record or of 
 praise! The literary labours of men in 
 Europe have little in common with us ; in 
 this distant held the pursuit of oriental litera- 
 ture cuts a man off from the correspondence 
 of the savans of our own country, as also from 
 the hope of fame or emolument. Those 
 who have laboured to clear a path through 
 the intricacies of the various languages of 
 the East, who have at an enormous sacrifice
 
 24 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 of private fortune, health and even life, toiled 
 to provide the means of profitable study, are 
 forgotten. I believe I may venture to say, 
 without fear of contradiction, that the most 
 useful works in all the different branches of 
 oriental literature, Hindoo and Mahomme- 
 dan law not excepted, are from the pens of 
 Europeans, many of them acknowledged by 
 the learned natives to excel in accuracy and 
 extent the works of their own scholars." 
 
 " It is a hard, though I fear a true state- 
 ment," answered the doctor. 
 
 " Steady prosecution of a worthy object 
 is undoubtedly a pleasure amidst all the toil 
 and discouragements, which may attend it; 
 and we have the satisfaction to think, that 
 our labours have not been in vain, in the 
 main object. We have not only laboured 
 usefully in opening their literary stores to the 
 natives themselves, but in providing tools to 
 carry on the work. We have helped them 
 to the fixed standard of a pointed language, 
 or I should rather say languages, — for, what 
 we have done in one, we have done in many
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 25 
 
 — I am not so enthusiastic as to believe, that 
 spreading knowledge over a country like 
 India can be speedily accomplished ; but we 
 have made the natives feel the superiority of 
 printed books, over their inaccurate and ex- 
 pensive manuscripts ; we have put knowledge 
 within the reach of those who are not rich, 
 we have even shown them a way to better 
 their fortunes, while they benefit their coun- 
 try; — and those whose names are unknown 
 amongst the literati of Europe, and whose 
 bones are mouldering in the dust, will yet be 
 recognised by the natives of this country, as 
 benefactors, whose deeds shall live after 
 them." 
 
 " I wish," said the doctor, warmly, " that 
 there was any one willing and able to give the 
 world a faithful record of the services of 
 those whose talents have never been esti- 
 mated but by a few literary friends, and two 
 or three well-informed natives; and I wish 
 that ye would just part with your Moonshies,* 
 * Moonsliie — Hindostanee teacher.
 
 26 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 • 
 
 and Mollahs,* and Punditsf at once, and 
 before many } r ears go about I might have the 
 satisfaction to see you in the Land o'Cakes, 
 where I think ye have not yet been." 
 
 " It will not do, my good friend, the day is 
 too far spent for me now to alter my plan ;" 
 if I did ' resolve,' it would be, but to ' re- 
 solve and die the same.' I could not remodel 
 my habits if I would. I never was fond of 
 money, perhaps I should say careful of it; 
 though at the same time I may say that I 
 have never gone beyond my allowances. I 
 have lived all my life in ease, and supported 
 the dignity of my station in the eyes of the 
 natives, which I certainly think is a duty 
 every man owes to his country as well as to 
 himself. I might, certainly, by rigid economy 
 amass a little money even now, out of my 
 ample receipts, but what would it signify? 
 With a little I could not do in Europe what 
 I have been accustomed to do here. I am 
 
 * Mollah — learned Persian, 
 f Pundit — learned Hindoo.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 27 
 
 too old to begin life anew, so shall just jog 
 on in the ease and abundance I have ever 
 enjoyed, until I quit the stage, without 
 changing the scene. If I had been fortu- 
 nately married, if I had a family to expect 
 me, I could make an exertion for them ; but 
 I have none dependant upon me, therefore 
 am at liberty to walk on my own way." 
 
 " Yes, all that may be unfortunately true 
 for you and me, still every Briton, wherever 
 he spends his life, likes to close his eyes in 
 his own land ; and though it is not the lot of 
 many, it is the prospect we all look to," 
 answered the doctor. 
 
 " And there is reason and just feeling in 
 the sentiment," said Mr. Curzon, " and had I 
 my life to go over again, I would keep it in 
 view; as it is, lam too much a citizen of the 
 world to sacrifice the comfort of the remain- 
 ing years of my life, for the satisfaction of 
 lying by my ancestors." 
 
 Mr. Curzon was in his habits of life, 
 sentiments, and feelings exactly an " Old 
 Indian" — what the youths of that time called
 
 28 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 a " regular Qui Hie." The quiet unobtru- 
 sive kindness of his manners, bore a stamp of 
 the climate by which they had been formed 
 — a climate which disposes people to think 
 and to order for the comfort of their friends, 
 rather than to make personal exertion; 
 liberal, gentlemanly, and friendly, unwilling 
 to impose restraint upon others, or to submit 
 to it himself, he received his friends into his 
 family with sincere pleasure; but did not 
 constrain them or himself by altering in the 
 smallest particular his usual habits of life. 
 He rarely made his appearance amongst 
 them, from breakfast until the hour of driving 
 in the evening; as the time not spent in 
 public business was given to his literary 
 pursuits. 
 
 Dr. M'Alpin and he sat up until the 
 extinction of the lights in the lower rooms 
 round the square, and the glimmering of the 
 night lamps in the upper chambers warned 
 them that the world had retired to rest ; a 
 fact to which the " burning out," of their 
 own cocoa-nut oil wall-shades, and the loud
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 29 
 
 snoring of their bearers waiting in the outer 
 rooms, bore testimony. 
 
 After breakfast next morning, the doctor's 
 first care was to take the necessary steps for 
 securing his passage; but after going in his 
 palanquin all over Calcutta, to the Exchange, 
 and the Cooly Bazaar, he had not been able 
 to arrange any thing to his satisfaction. 
 
 The " Lady Juliana" had very fine ac- 
 commodation, but Captain Seabreeze was 
 generally supposed " to sail too near the 
 wind," — that is to say, kept a miserable 
 table ; so that the doctor, to whom good fare 
 was not altogether indifferent, and who could 
 not have contented himself with exactly the 
 same cheer as when he came out, found it 
 needless to inquire further. Though in his 
 medical capacity he sometimes descanted 
 upon the advantage of spare living, he was 
 not over-fond of reducing the thing to prac- 
 tice, at least for four or five months upon a 
 stretch. The doctor perfectly well knew 
 the difference between prescribing and taking 
 prescriptions, — not that we wish to insinuate
 
 30 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 that our worthy friend was cither a gour- 
 mand or an epicure; nor yet that happy 
 compound of both, which men sometimes like 
 even t<> affect, as a proof that they have lived 
 where such things are to be learnt. 
 
 — The " Carlisle Castle' 1 was unexcep- 
 tionable, but she was full. A lack and 
 twenty thousand rupees in passage-money — 
 the " Patriot" was a fine ship, and had an 
 excellent table, but Captain Ropesend was a 
 tyrant, not only amongst his ship's company, 
 but his passengers; and no one would sail 
 with him, but those who could not do better. 
 
 When the doctor represented all this to 
 Mr. Curzon in the evening, as they were 
 walking in the veranda, until the phaeton 
 for their evenina: drive was brought to the 
 door, Mr. Curzon told him that he expected 
 a captain of an Indiainan to dine with him 
 that night, who could perhaps accommodate 
 him, or at all events give him useful infor- 
 mation. 
 
 " I dinna want to wait for the last ships 
 of the season," said the doctor ; " if we
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 31 
 
 have foul weather off the Cape, or a long 
 voyage, I should not be able to get to Scot- 
 land this winter, and that would not do for 
 ine, though I have written to my niece, who 
 is my name daughter, to be at Fernbraes to 
 meet me." 
 
 "I do not know when the ' Snowden' 
 sails, but Captain Landless will be able to 
 tell you. I wish, since you are to go, that 
 you may go with him. A better seaman 
 never trod the deck ; he is not one of those 
 who have two characters, one for sea, and 
 another for shore. As you see him to- 
 night, you will always find him if you sail 
 with him. Have you any objection to go 
 with me to Fort William," continued Mr. 
 Curzon. " I wish to inquire about a youth 
 who has brought me a letter of introduc- 
 tion, from England. Foolish boy, he ought 
 to have delivered it himself. Afterwards 
 I can show you some of the changes, which 
 have taken place since we landed." 
 
 " With all my heart, I desire nothing 
 better," said the doctor, who preceded his
 
 32 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 friend down stairs. When they were both 
 seated in the high phaeton, which Mr. 
 Quezon liked because it carried them out 
 of the dust, he called to his sirdar* bearer, 
 to bring the letter which he had left open 
 on his dressing-table, as there was neither 
 card or address sent with it, and he wanted 
 it for the name. They drove down " the 
 Cowtse," which, as they were out half-an- 
 hour before the usual time, was only occu- 
 pied by a battalion of bhisties,f marching 
 ten or twelve feet abreast, in the act of 
 watering it from the necks of their bhisty- 
 bags, formed of the skins of small bullocks, 
 and slung over the right shoulder, in a way 
 when filled out with water, very much to 
 resemble the animal from which they were 
 taken. 
 
 Our friends entered the fort by the Chow- 
 ringhee gateway, and drove straight through 
 it, past the European parade, and governor's 
 house, usually occupied by the adjutant- 
 general of the king's troops, to the south 
 
 * Sirdar — head bearer. f Bhisty — water-carrier.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 33 
 
 barracks, where Mr. Curzon knew lie would 
 most probably find the newly-arrived ca- 
 dets. He asked the first sentry he met, 
 for the quarters of " Cadet Morton Sahib," 
 without receiving a satisfactory answer, but 
 on making him comprehend that it was 
 one of the " little new come gentlemen" he 
 wanted, the sentry directed him to the 
 further end of the barracks, saying, " all 
 the little gentlemen are there." 
 
 Mr. Curzon threw the reins to one of his 
 sices,* and with the doctor walked up stairs 
 into a long passage which extends through 
 the centre, from one end of the barracks 
 to the other, having staircases and entrance* 
 at both ends. Into this passage all the 
 apartments on both sides open, and Mr. 
 Curzon seeing a young gentleman coming- 
 out of one of them, went forward to him, 
 and begged to be directed to that occupied 
 by Mr. Morton. 
 
 " Mr. Morton, sir !" said the youth in 
 
 * Sice — groom. 
 VOL. [. I)
 
 3 ! THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 an accent of surprise. "You do not mean 
 young Morton who came out with us ?" 
 
 " The same, sir, I suppose," answered Mr. 
 Curzon. " I seek Mr. Morton who left 
 England with the June fleet." 
 
 "He was in that room," pointing across 
 
 the passage, " but I am sorry to tell you 
 
 sir," lie went on after a little hesitation, " he 
 
 died last night, and was buried this moru- 
 la 
 
 mg. 
 
 The doctor, who had not taken part in 
 the conversation, now came anxiously for- 
 ward. 
 
 " Impossible !" answered Mr. Curzon, 
 " there must be some mistake, I had a letter 
 of introduction brought by the Morton I 
 mean, delivered this afternoon." 
 
 "I can explain that circumstance, sir, if 
 you will walk into my room." He turned 
 the lock which was in his hand, and both 
 gentlemen entered with him. The youth 
 placed two chairs, all his quarters afforded, 
 but his guests were too painfully interested 
 to occupy them.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 35 
 
 " But the letter ?" asked Mr. Curzon. 
 
 "After all was over this morning, at 
 six o'clock, poor Morton's desk was opened 
 by the barrack-master, in the presence of 
 the proper people ; a number of sealed let- 
 ters were found in it, which were sent 
 according to the addresses, and I suppose 
 sir, yours was one of the number." 
 
 " Why was it not sent before ? When did 
 you arrive ?" asked Mr. Curzon. 
 
 "We have been here a week this day," 
 returned the youth. 
 
 " How unfortunate that I did not sooner 
 receive that letter. This untimely catas- 
 trophe might have been prevented," said 
 Mr. Curzon. 
 
 " You knew the young man, sir," inquired 
 the doctor, " what was his illness, and what 
 brought it on T 
 
 " The sun they said, sir ; he had been ill 
 the whole night before any of us knew, in- 
 deed I only discovered it the day before 
 yesterday, when I went into his room by 
 chance. There was but a bearer with him 
 
 d2
 
 38 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 in the night who could not speak a word of 
 English, nor we of EGndostanee. It was the 
 
 middle of the day when I went to him, and 
 found him very ill in bed and very hot, with 
 the sun shining in upon him, which the doc- 
 tor afterwards said was bad. He complained 
 of thirst, and I gave him Madeira and water, 
 as much as he could drink. 
 
 The two gentlemen who were eagerly lis- 
 tening to this recital, exchanged a glance, but 
 it would have been cruel, because unavailing, 
 in such circumstances, to have told the 
 speaker of the mischief he had done — they 
 let him proceed. 
 
 " Though he was certainly very ill, I did 
 
 not know that there was the least danger. 
 
 i had never been with sick people, and 1 
 
 did not know that young men could die 
 
 without being long ill first." 
 " Poor boy!" said Mr. Curzon. 
 
 " Poor boy," said the doctor, " his life has 
 been the sacrifice of inexperience and want 
 of attention. But when did medical assist- 
 ance come ?"
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 37 
 
 " That I cannot precisely say, sir. I staid 
 with him until tiffin, and finding that he could 
 not eat any thing, and had become extremely 
 restless and uneasy, I was fortunate enough to 
 meet with a man who spoke a little English, 
 and directed me to the doctor's quarters. 
 When I got there I made out, as well as I 
 could understand his people, that he had 
 gone over the plain to the general hospital, 
 and I went into his house and wrote a note, 
 which I desired them to take to him as I 
 was obliged to be in town on business at a 
 precise horn-, and I never thought that there 
 was any thing more the matter with Morton 
 than a little heat from being too much in 
 the sun the day before. I was detained to 
 dinner by the captain we came out with, 
 and when I came back here at night I found 
 the garrison surgeon, but he told me that 
 there was no need for him to stay longer, 
 that he could be of no use. I was greatly 
 shocked and surprised, and I tried to per- 
 suade him to stay; but he said he had other 
 business to do, and as he could do nothing
 
 38 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 for him, there was no necessity for his stay- 
 ing to see a man die. I remained by poor 
 Morton, who was quite delirious, until he 
 breathed his Inst, and I do not think I ever 
 suffered so much in my life before." 
 
 " I believe it, my young friend, I believe 
 it," said Dr. M' Alpha. " I wish I had been 
 with you four-and-twenty hours sooner, and 
 it might have been spared." 
 
 " It is doubly distressing to me," said Mr. 
 Curzon, " poor boy, he was recommended to 
 my care by an old friend, and had the letter 
 been delivered he would have been in my 
 house, and this might not have happened — 
 but why were the letters not sent ?" 
 
 " To confess the truth, sir, we all acted 
 foolishly in that respect. One of the cadets 
 who came before us, told us that it would be 
 of no use. He gave us a history of the re- 
 ceptions he had met with, and out of nineteen 
 letters which he presented, he never had 
 but one invitation to a great dinner, where 
 hardly any one spoke a word to him, or 
 took any more notice of him than if he had
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 39 
 
 not been present, — and we were foolish 
 enough, sir, to be guided by his advice, and 
 some of us tore our letters, and others re- 
 solved never to deliver them." 
 
 " And the cadet who gave you this ad- 
 vice," inquired Mr. Curzon, " may I ask 
 what sort of education and manners he 
 possesses ?" 
 
 " To say the truth, sir, not much of either. 
 He is rather a rough fellow, just from school." 
 
 " There it is," answered Mr. Curzon. " I 
 thought there must be something in himself, 
 since he met with general neglect. A youth 
 such as you describe could not be a desirable 
 addition to any family. Depend upon it, 
 that when people in this country have reason 
 to complain of hospitality, the fault is gene- 
 rally in themselves." 
 
 " Experience is a stern master, my young 
 friend," said Dr. M'Alpin, " and I hope he 
 has taught you not to set lightly by the care 
 and trouble of your kind parents another 
 time, and not to destroy, for the opinion of 
 an ignorant youngster, what has cost them,
 
 40 'mi: NAUOU AT HOME. 
 
 it mav be, trouble to procure, and what they 
 laid stress Upon as being of service to you 
 when you were out of their sight;' 
 
 The boy blushed, and the doctor continued 
 kindly, " I did not mean to scold you young 
 man, but take my advice," and he one-red 
 his hand, which the other took with cor- 
 diality, - and dinna reject acquaintance with 
 those who have more years on their shoul- 
 ders, and more experience to guide them." 
 
 " What has passed, shows me that we 
 have done wrong," said the boy with manly 
 frankness, which pleased both gentlemen, 
 well knowing the difficulty those of his age 
 usually have in confessing an error, and the 
 pride they too often feel in rather standing 
 by the consequences of their owni free-will 
 actions, than submitting to correct them by 
 the opinion of those whom they too often 
 suppose to have lost the fire of youth, and 
 the pride of independence. 
 
 " It will give me pleasure, sir," said Mr. 
 Curzon — " may I request your name ?" 
 
 " Ouseley, sir — Charles Ouseley."
 
 THE NABOB AT HUME. 41 
 
 " It will give me pleasure, Mr. Ouseley, if 
 you will make my house your home, while 
 you remain at the presidency." 
 
 " I am exceedingly obliged, sir, nothing 
 could give me greater pleasure — but I do 
 not know if I am permitted to be absent 
 from the fort." 
 
 " I shall settle all that for you. I'll put 
 you in the way of transacting the matter ac- 
 cording to rule. — Have you any convey- 
 ance i 
 
 " Yes, sir, I have a horse ; the first thing 
 I did was to buy a horse." 
 
 " Then I shall leave one of my sices to 
 conduct you to my house. Here is my card, 
 you cannot miss your way. Do you know 
 Tank Square? But stay — I had forgotten 
 your baggage." 
 
 He looked round the apartment which 
 contained a small wicker-bottomed cot 
 (without musquito curtains), furnished with 
 a mattress and pillows, covered with a 
 sheet and Madras palampore. A camp 
 table of two leaves on folding stand, on
 
 42 Tl IK NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 which was a uniform jacket, just come home 
 from t he tailor; scarlet cloth; gold epaulets ; 
 silk Btockings, which seemed to have been 
 rummaged out of their European packing 
 cases; ink in a coffee-cup, wafers in a pill- 
 box, pens and paper. Trunks placed upon 
 each other, were made to perform the office 
 of a dressing-table, by which stood a large 
 brass chillumchee,* and black earthen goglet. 
 Four chairs completed the furniture, one of 
 which was occupied by a saddle, and the 
 other by sundry pairs of boots and shoes, 
 leaving only two disposable. 
 
 A regulation sword hung- from one of 
 the nooks for wall shades on the wall; a 
 shot-bag and pistols occupied two more ; and 
 from the fourth depended a kind of flat 
 fishing-basket, out of which projected a flute 
 and some torn music. The floor was littered 
 with the usual store of useless, nameless, 
 indescribable trumpery, which is so often 
 furnished to young gentlemen as indis- 
 pensable, and which after costing a large 
 
 * Chillumchee — large basin.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 43 
 
 sum to their parents, leaves them on their 
 arrival in want of every serviceable article. 
 
 " Have you any trustworthy servant ? 
 but it is impossible you can have," said Mr. 
 Curzon, recollecting himself. ' : If you will 
 put up those things," looking at the mass 
 upon the table, " I shall order proper peo- 
 ple to be sent to carry them to my house." 
 
 " I cannot think of giving you that trouble, 
 sir ; I have a very good useful servant who 
 speaks English, and whom I can get to un- 
 derstand me — but here he is." 
 
 A dirty, disorderly-looking kitmutgar,* 
 while his master was speaking came into the 
 room with his shoes on his feet; he, how- 
 ever, instantly returned and left them at the 
 door, when he perceived that his master's 
 guests were not " new little Sahibs." He 
 had on his head a soiled pink cotton turban, 
 placed on one side ; his thick coarse black 
 hair hung from the crown of his head, and 
 was cut straight across the back of his neck ; 
 his white cotton coat and trousers, were 
 
 * Kitmutgar — servant who waits at table.
 
 44 THE NAIJOB AT HOME. 
 
 both coarse and ra<™ed, and his sash was of 
 common coarse cloth, dyed orange. His 
 large hooked-nose and thick bnshy black eye- 
 br6ws, gave Ms face altogether the appear- 
 ance Of roguery and assurance which cha- 
 racterize!? the knavish and dissipated race of 
 mussulmans, well known in Calcutta by 
 the name of " king's officer's servants;" that 
 is to say the entirely worthless part of the 
 community, who take casual service with 
 officers belonging to the ships and European 
 regiments, resolved to make the most of 
 their short time, and commonly ending by 
 robbing their masters on the eve of de- 
 parture. 
 
 t: Call my servant," said Mr. Curzon to 
 the kitmutear. 
 
 O 
 
 " It is done, sahib," and he left the room. 
 
 " That fellow would never do," continued 
 Mr. Curzon. " You would lose your bag- 
 gage, Mr. Ouscley, if you trusted it out of 
 your sight in his care." 
 
 " Your sircar furnished you with that 
 scoundrel ?" said the doctor.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 45. 
 
 " Yes, sir; but I have never had any 
 reason to complain of him." 
 
 " No ! though lie came into the room 
 where vou were with his shoes on. If he 
 had not quickly got rid of them, I should 
 have pitched him out of that window for his 
 insolence. Heard ever any body of a foot- 
 man in our country coming into a room with 
 a hat on his head, or a decent mussulman 
 with his shoes on Ins feet ?" 
 
 " It is not," said Mr. Curzon, seeing that 
 
 Mr. Ouseley did not understand, what could 
 
 so hiohlv have excited the doctors wrath, 
 
 " It is not the mere circumstance of a man's 
 
 coming into a room with his shoes on, that 
 
 is the cause of offence, but the intention with 
 
 which it is done. He knows perfectly 
 well that he is putting upon you the greatest 
 
 affront that a servant can offer to his mas- 
 ter, and taking a liberty which he dare not 
 with the lowest native. I mention this, 
 because it is proper that Europeans should 
 know what natives consider as respectful 
 and disrespectful; they seldom fail in their
 
 46 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 duties in thai way when they see that we 
 know what they ought to do; and, indeed, 
 respectable servants never do so at any 
 time." 
 
 " You will think I am giving you a hard 
 lesson, Mr. Ouseley," joined the doctor ; " but 
 in this country, when you choose a new 
 servant, always choose a clean and well- 
 dressed man. Gambling and drunkenness 
 are almost always the cause of dirt and 
 rags. A proper man has too much self- 
 respect ever to be seen without proper 
 covering." 
 
 Mr. Curzon told his new acquaintance 
 that he would expect him to dinner at half- 
 past seven, in the mean time he promised to 
 send one of his own chaprasseys* to see that 
 the baggage was properly taken care of, and 
 left him for the present. 
 
 * Chaprassey — running footman.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 47 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Alas ! how changed the times to come ! 
 Their royal name low in the dust ! 
 Their hapless race wild wandering roam 
 Though rigid law, cries out 't was just ! 
 
 When Mr. Curzon and Dr. M'Alpin were 
 reseated in the phaeton, the conversation 
 naturally turned upon the lamentable event 
 which had just come to their knowledge. 
 
 " It is much to be regretted," said Mr. 
 Curzon, " that parents at home generally 
 know little of how their sons are situated 
 when they come to this country. Here is 
 another instance amongst the many I have 
 met with, of these poor boys falling a 
 sacrifice to their own inexperience ; and the
 
 48 TUK NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 J 
 
 climate gets the whole credit, when only 
 half is due. Vet what can be done to pre- 
 vent it? A man's fate must always be in a 
 measure in his own hands, the anxiety of 
 parents, or the providence of the legislature, 
 cannot make provision against the thought- 
 less; Less and presumption of their years. It 
 i>; almost impossible to keep a great school- 
 boy, wearied with having nothing to do, and 
 often unprovided with any rational pursuit, 
 within doors for a whole long day." 
 
 " Ay, ay," answered the doctor, " people 
 at home often think that if a youth is idle 
 and expensive, and will not settle to any 
 business, he will do w r ell enough for India. 
 And if the truth w r ere known, man or woman 
 need to have industry that no longer will 
 relax, and courage that no climate will sub- 
 due, to do any good here. Oh, if they would 
 but consider what a young man is to do with 
 himself, from five in the morning, his parade 
 time, until six in the evening, when he may 
 go out with safety, or how is he to pass 
 over so many dull hot hours, in quarters by
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 49 
 
 himself, without getting into one folly or 
 another, they would take more pains than 
 they sometimes do to fit them for the scene 
 they are to act in; and instead of sending 
 those that have little education, they would 
 at least strive to give every one some fixed 
 pursuit. Health is compounded of many 
 things, and amongst them the employment 
 of the mind, Curzon, is not the least im- 
 portant." 
 
 " These ideas are too philosophic to be 
 generally acted upon, in our expensive 
 country ; friends are glad to find a situation 
 fit for a younger son, without too scrupulously 
 considering whether he be fit for it. Every 
 man sent to this country is provided for, 
 the service is sure, he rises if he fives, and if 
 he does not, he does not require it. It may 
 be, that many letters are presented which 
 are but of little use to the bearers ; but when 
 that is the case it may be traced with few 
 exceptions, I fancy, to the way in which 
 they are procured and the manners of the 
 youth who delivers them. Friends and 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 parents at home, ask letters from those with 
 ■whom they have little acquaintance, and 
 send raw, uneducated schoolboys to pre- 
 sent them, who in many cases cannot be 
 pleasant guests in any house; so that, per- 
 haps, the formal invitation to dine, which 
 young Ouseley mentioned, or the general 
 invitation to come at any time, which is only 
 understood by those acquainted with the 
 manners of the country, is all the fruit of it. 
 The climate, the occupations of the day, 
 languor of mind, the concomitant of both, 
 and the driving-hour, being generally all 
 that men in public life have for the enjoy- 
 ment of family intercourse, prevent them 
 taking the trouble of going to see how these 
 poor boys get on in the Fort, and their 
 situation is often deplorable when they are 
 left to themselves." 
 
 " Yes," said the doctor, " and like this 
 poor boy, they often make quick work of it. 
 You will find fifty, ay a hundred deaths 
 amongst the cadets, for one amongst the 
 young ladies ; and the reason is, that the last
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 51 
 
 are under the advice and direction of others, 
 while the first are left to their own. 
 They run about in the heat of the day, all 
 over the place, drink Madeira and water, 
 try their dogs and horses in the sun, and a 
 thousand follies of the same kind. A man 
 need have a constitution of iron to go 
 through with it. There is many a dear 
 bargain in this world, Curzon, but experience 
 is the dearest of all. We most of us act 
 first, and think how we ought to have done 
 afterwards; and seldom, very seldom, any 
 experience can serve us, but that which we 
 have purchased for ourselves. We may give 
 our heirs all that we possess in the world, 
 but we can never give them our experience." 
 Mr. Curzon had staid so long in the Fort, 
 that he had not time, even if he had in- 
 clination to show his friends the changes he 
 had talked of. They were both too much 
 accustomed to the striking events brought 
 forward by a resistless climate, to feel that 
 which had just passed, as they would have 
 done years before; still it was of a nature 
 
 e 2
 
 52 TUB NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 which made a solitary drive the most agree- 
 able, and tliey took the Raussipuglah road, 
 which brought a change of a different kind 
 before them. Mr. Curzon pointed out to 
 his friend several houses at no great distance 
 from each other, some of them handsome, 
 and others indifferent, the abodes of the 
 Mysore princes. 
 
 " There," he said, " dwell the family of 
 Tippoo Sultan; they have been here ever 
 since the capture of Seringapatam. At the 
 time they came, there was an allowance 
 assigned for the support of each, five thou- 
 sand rupees a month I believe, which it has 
 been the policy of the company not to in- 
 crease, with their increasing families. There 
 are now only two of Tippoo's sons in life, 
 but their descendants have multiplied to 
 such a number, that they must soon either 
 starve, or seek service in Calcutta. It is 
 difficult to find employment for Mussul- 
 mans of their rank when the sword is 
 forbidden." 
 
 " The sins of the fathers have been visited 
 upon the children here," said the doctor.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 53 
 
 If Hyder Ally usurped the throne of his 
 benefactor, they have suffered for it root and 
 branch; we might grieve for the overturn 
 of a royal house, if we did not know, that 
 some of these poor creatures are better here 
 than if their family still filled the Musnud* 
 of the Mysore. You know as well as I 
 do, that in Mussulman courts the other 
 brothers are almost always sacrificed to him 
 who by his father's caprice, or his own bold- 
 ness, is placed on the throne ; and if their eyes 
 are not put out, they are fed on opium until 
 they take their departure more quietly. I 
 know enough of those things." 
 
 " The Hindoo law of inheritance has cer- 
 tainly much the advantage over Mahomet's, 
 and does not leave a whole family at the 
 mercy of a jealous tyrant, who commonly 
 adopts the maxim, that ' his throne stands 
 most secure, when its feet are wet in 
 blood.' " 
 
 " Ay, ay," returned the doctor, " cruelty 
 and profligacy often go together. I have 
 
 * Musnud — tlirone.
 
 54 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 remarked that when pleasure is the business 
 of life, cruelty becomes its amusement. The 
 mind sunk and exhausted by excess, can 
 only be stimulated by sights of blood and 
 suffering;" 
 
 It had become almost dark before Mr. 
 Curzon turned his horses' heads to retrace 
 his steps ; when they reached his own house, 
 he found that his new acquaintance Mr. 
 Ouseley and Captain Landless were in the 
 drawing-room. After having introduced his 
 friend Dr. M'Alpin to the latter, he good- 
 naturedly entered into conversation with his 
 young guest, who in the pride and pleasure 
 of finding himself in his new uniform for the 
 first time, had already forgotten whatever 
 had distressed him. Notwithstanding the 
 mobility of his temper, Mr. Curzon agreed 
 in thought to what the doctor had already 
 observed, that " there was making in him, 
 when a few more years had gone over his 
 head." He had not then completed his six- 
 teenth year — an early age to be launched in 
 the world, left to shape his own course,
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 55 
 
 amidst pitfalls as thick as those seen by 
 Mirza, in his celebrated vision, at the en- 
 trance of the bridge of human life. 
 
 Mr. Cnrzon, in consequence of the un- 
 timely fate of the youth who had been 
 recommended to his care, felt a double 
 interest in one who seemed to be cast upon 
 his protection; and after he had seriously 
 advised him against needless exposure in 
 the sun, and inconsiderate expense, he ended 
 by saying, " Make yourself quite at home, 
 here, Mr. Ouseley. You will always find 
 breakfast on the table at seven, tiffin at one, 
 and dinner at half-past seven, whether I am 
 at home or not. My people will get you all 
 the servants you require while you are here. 
 If you wish to go out you have only to give 
 the order, and my sirdar bearer, who is 
 always in the house, will provide you with 
 conveyance." 
 
 " I really do not know, sir, how to express 
 my sense of all your goodness!" 
 
 " Well, do not try ; but show it by taking 
 care of yourself until you are sufficiently
 
 56 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 acquainted with the country to know what 
 you may, and what you may not do." 
 
 During this time, Dr. M'Alpin and 
 Captain Landless had been walking in the 
 veranda and settling their own affairs. 
 Captain Landless was stout, not tall, with 
 rather a short neck, ruddy cheerful coun- 
 tenance, and dark sharp eyes, shaded by 
 thick black eyebrows. He spoke in a loud, 
 decided, though not disagreeable tone of 
 voice, which strengthened the general im- 
 pression made by his manners that he was as 
 prompt in action as resolute in time of dan- 
 ger. Dr. M'Alpin was prepossessed in his 
 favour from the first moment of his intro- 
 duction, and was actually disposed to be 
 persuaded by Captain Landless to go home 
 with him in the SnoAvdon, though he was 
 to go " by the way of China." 
 
 "If a longer voyage does not make any 
 material difference to you, sir, I would advise 
 your going to China with me. I can give 
 you elegant accommodation. You shall have 
 the starboard side of the round house, and
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 57 
 
 as we sail directly, may probably be in 
 England as soon as the ships which leave 
 the sand-heads next month. With us you 
 will have plenty of elbow-room, and be free 
 from the noise of children, which, as you 
 have none of your own, is perhaps not a 
 pleasure to you." 
 
 "No, certainly;" answered the doctor, 
 " give me elbow-room and quiet ; but 
 your table, captain — as you have no pas- 
 sengers — how stands that ?" 
 
 " As my outward-bound voyage was for 
 Bengal and China, I was full of passengers, 
 and have abundance of stores and a good 
 milk cow." 
 
 " That being the case, I do not see why I 
 should not go with you, but here are the 
 consumah's* joined hands, to say that din- 
 ner is on the table." 
 
 Before it was finished, Dr. M'Alpin had 
 determined to take his passage in the Snow- 
 don; and that important point settled, his 
 first care in the morning was to push his 
 
 * Consumah — butler and house- steward.
 
 58 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 preparations forward with all speed. At the 
 end of a week he received a letter from 
 Lucknow which gave him serious unea- 
 siness ; his friend Colonel Cheapstow had 
 another attack of his old complaint, the 
 liver, and bitterly regretted his absence from 
 the station, and seemed to think himself not 
 at all safe in the hands of his successor. 
 
 While the doctor was vexing himself over 
 this letter, one of Mr. Curzon's chaprasseys 
 came in to tell him that a musalgic* was 
 very ill in the bottle caunah,f and that his 
 master would be glad if he could do him 
 any good. 
 
 The doctor went instantly to the poor 
 creature, and found him suifering agonies 
 from the rough treatment he had met with 
 from a native practitioner, who had given 
 his attendance while there was a rupee to 
 be got, and now that he had fleeced his poor 
 
 * Musalg-ies — servants who clean the knives and 
 forks, and run with lanterns before palanquins and car- 
 riages. 
 
 f Caunah — pantry; literally, a place to keep bottles.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 59 
 
 patient to the last anna,* left him. His 
 wrists, ankles, and temples, were strongly 
 bound with cord, " to prevent the pulse from 
 beating so fast," and his stomach miserably 
 cauterized with a hot iron " to extract the 
 heat." 
 
 Notwithstanding the state to which these 
 remedies had reduced the sufferer, he gra- 
 dually recovered under Dr. M'Alpin's care, 
 who, as he said, often found that a little 
 feeding did as much for the natives as me- 
 dicine, particularly after they had been for 
 several days submitted to the Sangrado 
 system of hot water for their only nou- 
 rishment, of which their own empirics are 
 so fond. 
 
 " These fevers are the daily fruit of the 
 grog-shops," said Mr. Curzon, when the doc- 
 tor recounted to him all that had passed. 
 " The reformers of public morals have need 
 to look to the grog-shops ; they are a 
 nuisance of our introduction. The owners 
 pay a rupee a day for permission to sell 
 
 * Anna — small coin, sixteenth part of a rupee.
 
 60 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 spirits, and if they go on to license them in 
 Calcutta, as has lately been done, we shall 
 not have a respectable servant in our houses. 
 Nothing corrupts our mussulman attendants 
 like those haunts of gambling, and schools of 
 theft. A man can procure drink for any arti- 
 cle which he chooses to take from his master's 
 house. We undo with one hand what we do 
 with the other — what signify our schools if we 
 suffer any collector to increase the revenue 
 by such detestable means. I remember the 
 time when there was no such thing. You 
 will find now all round Calcutta, that 
 wherever a gentleman's house is situated, a 
 grog-shop starts up beyond his garden-wall 
 to debauch his servants ; and when you 
 consider that a man can completely intoxi- 
 cate himself for twopence, or perhaps half 
 of it, it is easy to imagine what the trade 
 must be, which enables these wretches to 
 pay a rupee a day for their licence. I am 
 angry with them, for they have lost me as 
 good a servant as I ever had in my house. 
 A young lad who had grown up with me.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 61 
 
 I saw him change under my own eye, every 
 day becoming drier and blacker. From 
 being stout, well-dressed, respectful, and at- 
 tentive, he grew dirty and negligent. I did 
 not discover the cause, until it was too late 
 to save him; he fell a victim to opium and 
 toddy. But I had almost forgotten to ask 
 you, if you will cross the river with me 
 this afternoon. I have a little business with 
 Ascot, whom I think you knew up the 
 country." 
 
 " Yes, I remember him very well," said the 
 doctor; " we may as well cross over to his 
 place, as go any where else. He is married, 
 I believe, since I saw him, and I heard his lot 
 is not the most fortunate." 
 
 " I believe there may be something of that 
 kind," answered Mr. Curzon; " though I 
 really do not know. I have never seen 
 him since I left the upper provinces. He 
 married, I think, a country-born Dutchwo- 
 man, who, I believe, does not speak much 
 English, and, in consequence, has fallen out 
 of European society. They have just come
 
 G2 THE NABOB AT nOME. 
 
 down the country, so I do not know very 
 much about them. We may as well take 
 young Ouseley with us."
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 63 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Now Bell my wife, she loe's no strife, 
 But she would guide me e'en she can, 
 
 So to maintain an easy life, 
 
 I oft maun yield, tho' I'm g-ude man ! 
 
 Old Song. 
 
 At the usual hour in the evening the 
 three gentlemen proceeded together in their 
 palanquins to the Old Fort Ghaut, as had 
 been previously determined, where their 
 boat was in readiness. " Well, well," said 
 the doctor, looking at the new buildings 
 within the old walls, as he stood waiting for 
 the dandies* to place a plank from the steps 
 to the boat; " the ship-people will doubtless 
 
 * Dandies — boatmen.
 
 64 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 think our new customhouse a great improve- 
 ment, though the antiquarians may regret 
 the demolition of the ' Old Fort' and the 
 ' Black Hole ;' ours is the age of reason, when 
 nothing is sacrificed to memory." 
 
 " I thought with you, my friend," answer- 
 ed Mr. Curzon, " when I saw the work of 
 destruction going on; it was, perhaps, as la- 
 borious as the original construction had 
 been ; the ramparts were of immense thick- 
 ness, and so consolidated by time, that to 
 remove them seemed like quarrying the solid 
 rock. That memorial of our suffering is 
 gone from the earth with the pillar which 
 recorded it ; and I must always regret the 
 destruction of an historic monument." 
 
 The palanquins were left in waiting on 
 the opposite bank, and as the house to 
 which they were going stood close to the 
 river, they ordered the boatmen to land 
 them at Mr. Ascot's Ghaut, and walked up 
 under the shade of the bearers chattahs * 
 The first view of the mansion gave them a 
 
 * Chattah — large umbrella.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 65 
 
 perfect idea of its inhabitants. It was large 
 and would have been handsome, had it not 
 been quite surrounded and disfigured by a 
 deep chopper* veranda, closed into differ- 
 ent divisions by green cheecks,f purdahs, J and 
 matting, giving it altogether a patched and 
 ragged appearance. When they drew near 
 they were warned what sort of inmates te- 
 nanted these compartments, by the chatter- 
 ing of monkeys, screaming of paroquets, 
 boobies, minahs, &c. " Quite a native esta- 
 blishment," said Mr. Curzon. 
 
 " Hoot," said the doctor, " what could 
 tempt Ascot to such a step as this ! " 
 
 " Money — and if he has got it, dearly has 
 he gained it. The father-in-law had an 
 immense fortune, and Ascot an equally great 
 talent for spending." 
 
 By this time they had reached the front 
 veranda; the bearer drew up a cheeck to 
 admit them, and they were ushered into a 
 
 * Chopper — thatched veranda. 
 
 f Cheecks — large Winds constructed of small reeds. 
 
 ^ Purdahs — screens. 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 very large hall, which extended through the 
 centre of the house. The doors and win- 
 dows were all shut round and round, and the 
 outworks with which it was externally gar- 
 nished, rendered the apartment so dark, that 
 the visiters stood for a moment looking 
 about before they discovered Mr. Ascot 
 moving; in the gloom to welcome them. 
 
 He took the tone of an old friend, per- 
 haps charmed to see any one he had ever 
 seen before come to him in his solitude. "Ah! 
 Curzon, how do you do, and my friend from 
 Lucknow too, I did not look to see you 
 here." He bowed to the stranger whom 
 Mr. Curzon presented. 
 
 " Mrs. Ascot," he called as if speaking to 
 some one in the room, though there was no 
 body visible — " Come here, I wish to intro- 
 duce you to my friends." 
 
 No answer was returned, but they heard 
 a sort of shuffling; on the mat. 
 
 The guests had now begun to recover the 
 use of their vision, which, dazzled by the 
 external light, had left them upon coining
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 67 
 
 into this gloomy abode, and they could dis- 
 tinguish, amidst other objects, a large folding 
 screen at the further end of the apartment, 
 from which proceeded a scratching noise as 
 Mr. Ascot called upon his wife ; but no lady 
 appeared. 
 
 " My wife is no great walker," he said, 
 speaking to his visiters, " but I am sure she 
 is here, and if she will not come to us, we 
 must go to her." 
 
 He led the way, and sure enough in the in- 
 tricacies of the screen the lady was discovered 
 seated in a large wicker chair, in the midst 
 of four slave girls who squatted on the 
 floor, were at work around her. The noise 
 proceeded from the scratching together their 
 baskets and bundles, and as soon as the 
 visiters appeared they rose and decamped. 
 These poor creatures are sometimes bought 
 by country-born families, of wandering Arabs, 
 who, contrary to British law, hawk about 
 unfortunate children for sale. Foreigners 
 also, who usually prefer economy to propriety 
 in their domestic establishments, choose slaves 
 
 f2
 
 68 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 in preference to native servants, as they have 
 no caste, and are in fact servants of all work, 
 kept at the slight expense of poor food and 
 coarse clothing. Mrs. Ascot had hers in- 
 structed in needlework by her durzee,* and 
 as she never did any thing in that way her- 
 self, she had the more leisure to keep them 
 busily employed. 
 
 Mrs. Ascot seeing strangers, rose, and 
 without courtesying bent her head, which she 
 repeated again and again as her husband in- 
 troduced her visiters, much in the manner 
 of the Chinese porcelain figures, which con- 
 tinue to wave their heads backwards and 
 forwards when they are once set in motion. 
 This ceremony gave the guests time to remark 
 the figure before them, which was exceed- 
 ingly fat, and very dark. Her garb was a 
 white muslin robe, made like a very large 
 chemise, tied full round the neck, and again 
 confined by a yellow ribbon round a waist 
 of the largest size ; short tight sleeves, which 
 left the whole of the fat black arms, without 
 * Durzee — tailor.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 69 
 
 gloves, in view. Her face was a regular oval 
 in form, and on the whole, rather handsome. 
 She wore her hair divided in the centre, 
 and braided back smooth behind her ears. 
 Whimsically placed on the top of her head 
 was a silk cap, something between flesh and 
 salmon colour, stuck full of silver flowers. 
 On her feet blue silk shoes, with toes sharp 
 as needles, showing that she drew her orna- 
 mental apparel rather from her store trunks 
 than any modern repository. She carried a 
 Chinese painted fan in her hand, which she 
 waved in accordance with every movement 
 of her head. 
 
 " I never sits in that large hall, because 
 take cold without screen," said Mrs. Ascot 
 to Mr. Curzon as an apology for not coining 
 when she was called. 
 
 " Yes," joined her husband, " she sits so 
 constantly in her own rooms with those 
 slave-girls, that she thinks a breath of air is 
 to kill her." 
 
 " You loves so much airs, and so much 
 lights, and so many noise, that my poor eyes
 
 70 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 ache, and my head ache, and I altogether 
 ache." 
 
 " If the screaming of birds and beasts, and 
 the infernal chattering of slave-girls and 
 monkeys can give headachs, no one need 
 want them in this house." 
 
 " You hear for him, Mr. Curzon, how he 
 make scold to me, and all for my poor dumb 
 brutes." 
 
 Both their visiters had seen and heard 
 scenes of this kind before, therefore did not 
 waste their sympathy upon those who seem- 
 ed equally insensible of the misery or ridicule 
 of their own situation. Mr. Ouseley, to 
 whom the whole was perfectly new, gazed 
 with wonder alternately upon the interlocu- 
 tors, and the friends with whom he came. 
 
 " If all my torments deserved the title of 
 dumb brutes," said Mr. Ascot, politely, — " I 
 would have more peace in my own house. 
 You will think mine an odd complaint, doc- 
 tor — I never have company or quiet — but to 
 state the case — my wife rises at five in the 
 morning, but she is not out of her room till
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 71 
 
 twelve, and I have my solitary breakfast at 
 eight, while she is in her room airing bird 
 of paradise plumes and kincobs, and artificial 
 flowers, and a thousand other things, of 
 which she never makes any use, enough to 
 set up a shop in the China bazar, and 
 screaming with those slaves louder than the 
 loories in the veranda." 
 
 " Things I not make any use," answered 
 his lady reproachfully — " when you want 
 some cloths — when children want — I go to 
 large chest, take out — not like other ladies 
 send to bazar — buy — buy — I take good bar- 
 gain, and keep all to ready." 
 
 " Yes, for the sake of a rupee on a piece 
 of cloth, you make me carry them all over 
 the country, and make me pay ten times as 
 much as they are worth. Was I not obliged 
 to buy six more camels to carry your trum- 
 pery down here ?" 
 
 " You hear to him, Mr. Curzon — a com- 
 pany's servant speak like a little Admy. * 
 
 * Admy — being literally, a descendant of Adam.
 
 72 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 All great ladies plenty things get, and why 
 not me ?" 
 
 " Surely, Ascot," said Mr. Curzon, not 
 knowing what else to say to satisfy the ap- 
 pellant, " you cannot expect to travel so 
 lightly now as when you were a bachelor." 
 
 " No, certainly, with a wife, eight children, 
 four slaves, live ayahs, * more birds and 
 beasts than were ever in the ark, with their 
 boxes and cages, to say nothing of bandboxes, 
 patarrahs,f and lackered trunks, and camphor 
 trunks, and all sorts of trunks. My wife 
 never eats any but turkeys' eggs at breakfast, 
 and we have coops for them to lay in fas- 
 tened on the back of the camels — you may 
 say I do not travel light !" 
 
 " But though you have eight children," 
 said Mr. Curzon, going back to the first 
 articles in the list of heavy baggage, " they 
 are not all here with you, you have sent 
 the eldest home lono; a^o." 
 
 * Ayahs — waiting-women, 
 f Patarrahs — covered baskets.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 73 
 
 " And what you call home ?" inquired 
 Mrs. Ascot. " This home for me, I not part 
 with my children, not never." 
 
 " Persuade her to that if you can," an- 
 swered her husband, " I have tried to do it 
 until I am weary; she falls into fits when- 
 ever I propose it, though the creatures are 
 growing up wild — Louisa is eleven years 
 old, and can neither read nor write." 
 
 " And what signify ? you know I not 
 read — write, and you many time tell to my 
 papa, before you make marriage to me, I 
 much better than Europe's ladies, spends all 
 time to read — write." 
 
 Something like a blush passed over her 
 husband's face at this avowal. Young Ouse- 
 ley could hardly smother his inclination to 
 laughter, nor the doctor suppress his desire 
 to tell Mr. Ascot what he thought of his 
 whole conduct. 
 
 " You have more to do, I dare say, Mrs. 
 Ascot, than to have time for such things," 
 answered Mr. Curzon, willing to make an 
 effort in a way likely to affect his hearer,
 
 74 TIIE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 for the little sufferers, " but your children — 
 children of their rank are always sent to 
 England, and your boys cannot come into 
 the service unless they have been brought 
 up in Englandc" 
 
 " Very well, Mr. Ascot, send boys he 
 please, but I keep girls to rne. — Rain come ! 
 ram come ! Ascot, make for bearers shut 
 down purdahs all round ! my poor loories ! 
 my jacks !" 
 
 Mrs. Ascot got up as fast as she could 
 waddle, and followed her husband, whom 
 she sent off first as a light courier to collect 
 the servants for the protection of the chat- 
 tering multitude without, who screamed and 
 clamoured together, as the wind overturned 
 them and their dwellings. 
 
 " How unlucky this is !" said Mr. Curzon, 
 as soon as Mr. and Mrs. Ascot were out of 
 hearing, "here we shall be detained for 
 another hour at least, it is impossible to 
 cross the river in such weather." 
 
 " I would rather be wet to the skin, than 
 in the hearing of such outrageous folly,"
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 75 
 
 answered the doctor, " in a place without 
 air or light — but I will let in both, come of 
 it what will." He opened the northern 
 doors, and in an instant effected his purpose, 
 the north-wester circulating a new atmo- 
 sphere. 
 
 While he was standing at the door to 
 enjoy it, a child's carriage of very large 
 dimensions, drawn by two immense red 
 Guzerat bullocks (with large black humps 
 and tails), trotted up to the door, and six 
 of the beforementioned eight children (with 
 two or three ayahs), got out of it, and 
 rushed into the hall, followed by two well- 
 grown boys, who had dismounted from their 
 ponies at the same time. 
 
 The single article of dress worn by the 
 girls was exactly in form and'shape like their 
 mother's nondescript robe, with the excep- 
 tion of its only having one fastening, at the 
 neck, from which it flowed loose. Their 
 dingy feet without stockings were thrust 
 into red, yellow, and green slippers of 
 " Chinamans' " manufacture. The boys also 
 had a single article of clothing, which con-
 
 76 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 sisted of trousers and body in one piece, 
 without sleeves.. 
 
 When they had reconnoitred the stran- 
 gers, and made a great many remarks on 
 them in Ilindostanee (though no entreaty 
 of either Mr. Curzon or Dr. M'Alpin, 
 could induce them to advance, or answer 
 the questions which they were asked), they 
 set upon Mr. Ouseley, whom they called 
 " the little sahib," and very soon possessed 
 themselves of his sword and sash. In the 
 midst of the uproar their father returned, 
 and laughed immoderately at seeing his 
 eldest boy buckle the sword-belt round his 
 waist, and drag the sword after him along 
 the floor, while one of his sisters equipped 
 in the sash, marched by his side. It was in 
 vain that Mr. Ouseley attempted to speak to 
 them, they did not understand one word of 
 English. 
 
 " You will stay dinner with us ?" said 
 Mr. Ascot. 
 
 Mr. Curzon made an excuse. " We have 
 a positive engagement." 
 
 " It is impossible to keep it — you cannot
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 77 
 
 cross in such, weather. It is now late and 
 dinner is just coming on the table." 
 
 Mr. Curzon, in pity to the family whom 
 he saw growing up perfect natives, took the 
 opportunity of their mother's absence to 
 urge the necessity of sending them to Eu- 
 rope. 
 
 Mr. Ascot pleaded the impossibility of 
 obtaining; her consent. 
 
 " If that is the case, do not ask it ; take 
 their passage, and when the deed is done, 
 necessity will reconcile her. You are sacri- 
 ficing their wellbeing, body and mind, in 
 every sense of the word, by keeping them 
 here." 
 
 Mr. Ascot promised ; whether he would 
 hold that promise was another affair. He 
 was a good-natured, indolent, unthinking 
 man, whose first effort was to please a per- 
 son whom it was impossible to please, and 
 whose caprices and exactions only multi- 
 plied by indulgence, and whose yoke he 
 would have thrown off, unless indolence had 
 prevented him. He therefore took the mid-
 
 78 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 die course and grumbled and obeyed, always 
 complaining of the thraldom which he had 
 not energy or perseverance to break. 
 
 They heard the twang of a Javanese 
 harp, and the beating of a tomtom* from 
 Mrs. Ascot's side of the house. 
 
 " There she is," said her husband, " en- 
 joying all the amusement she ever has any 
 pleasure in, with the exception of the pup- 
 pet-shows she often gets for the children, 
 and delights in as much as they do. Those 
 slaves make music enough to scare me out 
 of the house, but their mistress has no 
 greater enjoyment when she is resting on 
 her couch (for she never goes out), than to 
 hear them, unless it may be to listen to the 
 stories they tell." 
 
 The doctor watched the weather, but there 
 seemed no prospect of the rain abating. 
 " Saw ye ever the like of this?" he said to 
 Ouseley, who had joined him in the veran- 
 da. " Here is a specimen of what a man 
 
 * Tomtom — drum.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 79 
 
 may bring himself to, that I dare say ye 
 little dreamed of." 
 
 " Never saw any thing like it before ; but 
 why does the man suffer it ?" 
 
 " Because he cannot help it. What could 
 alter that woman? She has brought him 
 an immense fortune, and has a right to dis- 
 pose of some of it according to her own 
 taste. Her father, as she told us, never 
 taught her to read or write, so that in mind 
 she is just on a par with her slaves, in whose 
 company she seems so much to delight. I 
 have seen in my life many a modification of 
 her character, though not just so bad, be- 
 cause she seems, in addition to her want of 
 education, naturally stupid; and though edu- 
 cation does do a good deal, nature must have 
 her part." 
 
 The servants had, by this time, lighted the 
 lamps ; the rain still fell in torrents, and the 
 weather-bound visiters saw no alternative 
 from the discomfort of the offered dinner. 
 The consumah entered at one door to an-
 
 80 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 nouncc it, and Mrs. Ascot at another. Mr. 
 Curzon gave liis hand to the lady of the 
 mansion, and conducted her to table exactly 
 in the same costume as he had first the ho- 
 nour to see her, with the addition, however, 
 of two rows of splendid pearls round her 
 neck, diamond earrings in her ears, a variety 
 of bracelets on her wrists, and rings on her 
 fingers. 
 
 The children who had followed their mo- 
 ther from her apartment, advanced before 
 the company into the dining-room, making 
 a critical survey of every dish upon the 
 table. One of them carried a silver hand- 
 basin, into which one of the little boys 
 poured the contents of a large rose-water 
 bottle, chased in beautiful gold filigree- 
 work. 
 
 " Oh, you rogue ! my rosewater for spoil," 
 cried his mother, not displeased that her 
 guests should have an opportunity of seeing 
 some of her fine possessions. 
 
 The boy paid no attention to her admo-
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 81 
 
 nitions in English or Hindostanee, but say- 
 ing lie was a bhisty continued to sprinkle 
 the rose-water all round the room. 
 
 " Louisa, Louisa ! " she called to the eldest 
 girl; " you make stop your brother !" — The 
 young lady was otherwise engaged, and took 
 no notice of the direction. 
 
 At length, when they were seated at ta- 
 ble, Mr. Curzon prepared to carve the roast 
 turkey, to which Mrs. Ascot desired to be 
 helped, as she said, " she not any soup eat 
 but mullagatanee ;" but before he could put 
 his fork into the bird, Miss Louisa, who had 
 been hovering about, and watching her op- 
 portunity, seized it by the neck, and, as she 
 said, made it jump over Mr. Curzon's arm, 
 to the infinite delight of her brothers and 
 sisters. 
 
 Their reasonable mother threw herself 
 back in her chair in a convulsion of laugh- 
 ter, and Mr. Ouseley, encouraged by her ex- 
 ample, gave vent to the like inclination, 
 which he had been almost dying to indulge 
 ever since he entered the house. 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 " The most extraordinary thing I ever saw 
 in my life !" said the doctor. 
 
 " Your young lady has an active spirit, 
 Ascot ; she has not lost in that way by re- 
 maining so long in the country," said Mr. 
 Curzon. 
 
 Mr. Ascot at first broke out in a tone of 
 indignation, but seeing his son and heir 
 making faces over Mr. Curzon's shoulder, 
 his short-lived anger died away in a burst of 
 laughter. 
 
 The servants in waiting clapped their 
 hands on their mouths to prevent an un- 
 timely explosion of their merriment, and 
 knocked their heads together in their hurry 
 to escape out into the veranda, where they 
 could indulge it without offence ; even the 
 old bearer, pulling the punkah, was obliged 
 to let the rope out of his hand with a 
 jerk as he followed the infectious ex- 
 ample. 
 
 The children, no doubt, greatly edified by 
 the general mirth which they had excited, 
 as soon as it was a little appeased, retired
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 88, 
 
 in whispering consultation to plan another 
 attack. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, Curzon," said Mr. 
 Ascot; " I am really sorry, M'Alpin, that the 
 bird you intended to be helped to should 
 have flown away ; but when I saw the faces 
 that fellow was making, it was impossible 
 for me to be angry; after all, it was but a 
 funny trick, though we are the sufferers. 
 Let me recommend this pillaw to you— we 
 are famous for Hindostanee dishes in this 
 house." 
 
 " My Louisa so droll girl — you laugh all 
 day, Mr. Curzon, you see her tricks," said 
 Mrs. Ascot, as the tears ran down her cheeks 
 from the exertions she had just been 
 making. 
 
 Mr. Ouseley's unfeigned participation with 
 her, had recommended him very much to 
 Mrs. Ascot's notice, and she turned to ask 
 him what her funny children had done with 
 his sword and sash. 
 
 " Taken them to play with, madam, I 
 suppose." 
 
 g2
 
 pi THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 " Oh, not sword ! not sword ! I so fear for 
 sword!" and looking round the dreaded wea- 
 pon was discovered lying harmless on a side 
 table where the little pickle had thrown it, 
 to leave him in liberty for the intended fe- 
 lony; "Oh, there I see them," cried the 
 provident mother — she gave the order in 
 Hindostanee to a servant, " Take away 
 Ouseley Sahib's sword and hide it, until the 
 children are gone to bed.'* 
 
 The order was no sooner executed, and 
 the sword and sash had been made over to 
 Mr.Curzon's chaprassey,who deposited them 
 with the palanquins, which he had sent a 
 boatman to get for his master and his guests, 
 than the unruly troop returned to the di- 
 ning-room in quest of the missing articles. 
 Perceiving that they were not to be found, 
 they made a second attack upon the owner. 
 Had he understood Master William's reite- 
 rated questions, " Where is your sword ?" 
 " Where have you put your sword ?" he 
 could not have given a satisfactory answer, 
 as their removal had passed between Mrs.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 85 
 
 Ascot and her servants. The boy then 
 asked his father, his mother, and all the ser- 
 vants in turn, from whom he received the 
 same answer — " I don't know, who knows? 
 Perhaps some jackal has run away with it." 
 
 Fatigued with finding his efforts ineffec- 
 tual, he returned to Mr. Ouseley with no 
 better success than at first — exasperated by 
 such unusual contradiction to his wishes, 
 the well-bred young heir walked round to 
 the opposite side of the table, and slily 
 putting his hand into a dish full of gravy, 
 he seized one half of a dressed lamb's head, 
 and threw it with such force at Mr. Ouseley, 
 that it hit him a blow on the breast, and 
 covered his new uniform-jacket with gravy. 
 Exulting in the mischief he had committed 
 and the revenge he had taken, he fled with 
 all speed. 
 
 Poor Mr. Ouseley coloured redder than his 
 coat, but lie suppressed his anger, and 
 bowing to Mrs. Ascot, he begged she would 
 excuse his rising from table, while he called 
 the assistance of the servants in the hall.
 
 86 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 Mr. Ascot who felt that this was too 
 clumsy a joke, burst forth in violent 
 anger. 
 
 " This is all your doing, Mrs. Ascot — this 
 is your education — this is your bringing up 
 of my children. That boy is worse than 
 your Jacko — all your favourites become 
 equally insupportable!" 
 
 " Who make noise now, Mr. Ascot ? and 
 all for poor senseless child's play. What 
 he know of spoil coat ? if coat spoil I 
 scarlet cloth got, new coat can make for 
 Ouseley Sahib." 
 
 This proposal was too much for the doc- 
 tor — he could not help laughing in the midst 
 of his wrath. Fortunately the youth for 
 whose benefit it was made was out of hear- 
 ins;. 
 
 " You are enough to drive a man mad," 
 said her husband, half rising from his chair, 
 and sitting down again in the same instant; 
 " but it is my fault and not yours, else you 
 would not have the power to expose yourself 
 and me in this manner. I do not know
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 87 
 
 what apology to make to you for the oc- 
 currences of this evening," he continued, 
 addressing his visiters; "but you see the 
 misery I have heaped upon my own head, 
 and I hope will excuse them." 
 
 "Transport the culprits — send them to 
 England," said the doctor, " and think no 
 more about it. As Ouseley is beginning his 
 military life he must expect harder knocks 
 yet." 
 
 The lady, who had not the slightest idea 
 that any thing had taken place out of the 
 common rules of society wished to explain 
 to Mr. Curzon all about the scarlet cloth, of 
 which she had talked. 
 
 He saw that with her ideas upon " chutta 
 sahibs," little gentlemen, and "burrow sa- 
 hibs," great gentlemen, it would be utterly 
 impossible to make her comprehend reason 
 upon the subject, and he had no alternative 
 but to tell her, that Ouseley was the son of 
 a burrow sahib, and the coat was of no 
 consequence. 
 
 Satisfied upon this point, all the rest ap-
 
 88 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 peared to her of not the least importance, 
 and she was quite assured that her guests 
 -would find the spirit of her children as en- 
 tertaining as she did. 
 
 The doctor when he saw that Mr. Ascot 
 actually suffered from the effects of his own 
 foll) r , let pity overcome his anger, and talked 
 with him on other subjects, for the time 
 which civility obliged them to remain toge- 
 ther. 
 
 As soon as it was possible after dinner, 
 Mr. Curzon called for the palanquins, and 
 took his departure; not, however, before 
 Mrs. Ascot with many bends of the head, 
 " hoped he would soon return to spend such 
 another agreeable day;" and finding that 
 the doctor had succeeded in smoothing down 
 her ruffled husband, she extended the same 
 invitation to him, judiciously observing, 
 
 " Another time you come, teach me, doc- 
 tor, how make Mr. Ascot well when he is 
 nraggra,* and I not have no more lambs' 
 heads when Mr. Ouseley come." 
 
 * Muggra — sulky.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 89 
 
 " Incorrigible fool!" muttered her husband, 
 as he walked into the veranda, calling for 
 musalgies and lanterns. 
 
 Both the gentlemen, on parting with him, 
 repeated their advice not to lose time in 
 sending home his children. 
 
 When they were seated before their boat, 
 Mr. Curzon said to his young friend, " I 
 would have regretted having brought you 
 here to-night and subjecting you to such 
 impertinence, if I did not think it might be 
 a serviceable lesson to you in your progress 
 through life. I knew the man whose house 
 we have just left, a gentlemanly, good kind 
 of fellow, but idle and expensive. The con- 
 sequence is what you see — he married that 
 animal for her father's money — she has been 
 the means of driving European society from 
 his house ; and instead of raising her, he has 
 sunk to her level. In this country, where 
 the climate disposes to indolence, the most 
 deteriorating principle of our nature, which, 
 like a cankerworm, eats to the root of every 
 excellence in human character, a man had
 
 DO THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 need to seek all helps and appliances to boot 
 to raise himself and to stimulate energy, rather 
 than suffer himself, as poor Ascot has done, 
 to fall into the dust." 
 
 " If I thought I could save those young 
 creatures," said the doctor, " though I doubt 
 with some of them it is too late, I would 
 even bear the folly and vulgarity of that in- 
 tolerable woman, and come back another 
 day to see if Ascot has really kept his pro- 
 mise. "What preserves our superiority of 
 character and feeling in India, but that we 
 are all brought up Britons ? It is our proud 
 boast, that wherever our children are born, 
 we send them home to be educated ; we give 
 them the sentiments, and the pride, and the 
 independence of our natural character. 
 Whereas in all the Dutch, French, Portu- 
 guese, and other foreign settlements, they 
 keep their children with them, and in two 
 generations they are natives in their minds, 
 if not in colour. We make healthy, vigo- 
 rous settlements in India, carrying along 
 with us the refinement, knowledge, and im-
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 91 
 
 provements of our mother-country; they 
 establish colonies and dwindle into na- 
 tives. You may well laugh at the idea, 
 Ouseley, but when we took Java from the 
 Dutch, our officers gave a ball at which the 
 Dutch ladies appeared adorned in splendid 
 jewels, without stockings; and a slave-girl 
 stood behind the chair of each in the ball- 
 room, for fear that their diamonds should be 
 stolen out of their hair." 
 
 " A friend of mine," said Mr. Curzon, 
 " who was present at the aforesaid ball, and 
 who likes a joke, told me that perceiving 
 three of the ancient circular mammas (who 
 were quite weary of the unsubstantial en- 
 tertainment of seeing their daughters dance) 
 leave the ball-room and make their way into 
 the supper-room to see what hope there was 
 for them there, followed, and calling for a 
 bottle of brandy, helped them to a glass 
 each, by which they were so much refreshed 
 as to be able to wait in patience for the 
 next act." 
 
 "And at an entertainment of the same
 
 92 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 kind in tlie Isle of France, after we took it 
 from the French," rejoined the doctor, " the 
 ladies emptied the contents of the dishes 
 after supper into their pocket-handkerchiefs, 
 and carried them home in their pockets 
 because — they liked bonbons — I mention 
 that to you, Ouseley, as a proof of what a 
 colony becomes. Do not fancy, though, that 
 every woman who has the misfortune to be 
 brought up in India is exactly upon a par 
 with the specimen we had to-day ; it must 
 be confessed that she is something beyond 
 the common ride. We keep up our inter- 
 course with home by as regular an inter- 
 change of persons and things as is carried 
 on by the coaches to and from the metro- 
 polis of Britain to the outskirts of the king- 
 dom. There's not a book printed in our 
 country that we have not here five months 
 after it comes from the press ; whereas 
 amongst foreigners they know no more of 
 what is doing in France or Holland, than 
 the inhabitants of the South Seas ; unless 
 it may be when a new functionary arrives
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 93 
 
 amongst them once in ten years, — to open 
 their mouths in gaping wonder at the great 
 tilings that have come to pass since they 
 were last there."
 
 04 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Few moments are more pleasing; than those in which 
 the mind is concerting measures for a new undertaking*. 
 
 Johnson. 
 
 The doctor's preparations for his voyage 
 were now almost completed ; his sea furni- 
 ture was made, his trunks nearly packed, 
 and the shawls and presents he intended for 
 his friends at home, carefully soldered down 
 in their tin boxes. He was seated in the 
 midst of them, surrounded by bearers in the 
 act of packing ; his hookah in his hand, 
 from which he drew long whiffs as he poised 
 his chair on the back legs, his own set out 
 on a high morah,* a large table before him 
 
 * Morah — footstool.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 95 
 
 covered with bills, accounts current, Europe 
 letters, &c, amongst which his sircar was 
 rummaeinff for something which he at length 
 drew out and began to read : " One list of 
 master's necessities for Europe ship, and 
 Sangar passage-boat. — All things for eat and 
 drink master must take for passage-boat?" 
 inquired the sircar. 
 
 An affirmative nod of the head desired 
 him to go on. 
 
 " And how many servants master want for 
 boat ? Consumah — kitmutgar — bo wberj ee* 
 — his mate — musalgie — bhisty — bearers ?" 
 
 " Only the sirdar and his mate." 
 
 « Yery well, sahib, I pay to rest, and let 
 go — dobeef — istrie-wallah, J master not 
 want — horses not want to boat, I think ?" 
 
 " No, certainly." 
 
 " Hookahbardar§ must go to Sangar, mas- 
 ter can't do without," he made a mark op- 
 posite to the man's name ; " all other ser- 
 
 * Bowberjee — cook. f Dobeo — washerman. 
 
 ^ Istrie-wallah — Iron-man. 
 
 § Ilookahbardar — man who dresses the hookah.
 
 1)6 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 vants I think master pay up, and leave to 
 Lueknow ?" 
 
 Another affirmative nod. 
 
 The sircar prided himself not a little on 
 his perfect knowledge of English, which he 
 always said, "he could speak, write, like 
 any sahib," and he stood with his ink-horn 
 hanging from his sash, and his reed-pen 
 sticking behind his ear, from under his 
 turban. 
 
 " Then master please, I read to list for 
 ship," he said. 
 
 " ' One milk goat, will soon give kittens. 
 
 " ' To one jar of sable fishes for Kedgeree, 
 to master's breakfast. 
 
 " ' To five hundred of pickled mangoe's 
 fish roes. 
 
 " 'To six dozen of long gentleman's stock- 
 ings. 
 
 " ' To Hoff 's and Co.'s, humps pickled. 
 
 " ' To one dozen of short gentleman's 
 gloves. 
 
 " To making eight dozen fine-ruffled gen- 
 tleman's shirts.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 97 
 
 " ' To making; eight dozen gulla-bands* 
 for dit — dit — dit. 
 
 " c To goose's puppies smoked.' ' 
 
 The Durwan'sf bell rung, the gate opened, 
 a carriage entered and rolled under the 
 portico. Two chaprasseys with silver 
 sticks were upon the back of it ; the well- 
 known crimson and gold liveries, attracted 
 the notice of the doctor's servants. " Our 
 Colonel Sahib! Chipto Sahib!" screamed 
 the whole party in concert, fluttering to the 
 door, and salaaming to the floor before 
 Colonel Cheapstow as he entered. 
 
 The doctor threw down his hookah, and 
 rose to greet his friend. After mutual in- 
 quiries had passed, Colonel Cheapstow said,. 
 " You had no sooner left us at Lucknow, 
 doctor, than I had such a smart attack of 
 the enemy here," pressing his hand on his 
 right side, " that Mrs. Cheapstow advised 
 me not to lose an hour in taking my depar- 
 ture for Europe. You know we had in- 
 
 * Gulla— throat. Gulla-bands — neckcloths. 
 j" Dunvaa — porter. 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 tended to have done so next year ; our pre- 
 parations were in part made. I pressed 
 the rest, and we arrived in Calcutta with 
 the ebb-tide." 
 
 11 To take such accommodations as I can 
 give you I hope," said Mr. Curzon, who 
 caught the last sentence as he entered the 
 room. 
 
 " With pleasure, Curzon, nothing can give 
 me more pleasure than to spend the little 
 time I have to be in India, under your roof. 
 I have left Mrs. Cheapstow on board our 
 boat, where she wishes to stay until the cool 
 of the evening. At sunset I shall have 
 the satisfaction of introducing her to you. 
 I think we have not met since I became 
 benedict." 
 
 " It is even so, Cheapstow ; you may de- 
 pend upon my doing all in my power to 
 make your stay in Calcutta agreeable to 
 your lady." 
 
 Satisfied from Colonel Cheapstow that 
 he had benefited by the air of the river, 
 Mr. Curzon left his friends, as business called
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 99 
 
 him, tellinff the doctor to take care of the 
 colonel, and saying to her husband that he 
 hoped for the honour of Mrs. Cheapstow's 
 company at dinner. 
 
 " I see you are far advanced," said Co- 
 lonel Cheapstow, looking at the figure of 
 the doctors cabin, which was in exact form 
 and dimensions chalked upon the floor, and 
 in which was placed his sea furniture made 
 to his own orders, every article precisely to 
 fit the space for which it was intended. 
 
 " Yes, I think I shall not be ill off — walk 
 into my cabin, colonel; here is my couch, 
 and here is my post just by it, and here are 
 my stern windows. Ye see I am well aired 
 and well lighted." 
 
 " I wish we could go with you — what 
 ship do you sail in ?" 
 
 " The Snowdon — and if it is possible for 
 you to be ready, it's a thing worth think- 
 ing about. By good luck the captain is to 
 call this morning; at this very hour," taking 
 out his watch. " And you can settle with 
 
 2 H
 
 100 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 him about accommodation, without loss of 
 time." 
 
 Captain Landless kept his appointment, 
 and Colonel Cheapstow's wish to be under 
 the care of his trusty friend Dr. M'Alpin, 
 triumphed over all minor considerations, 
 even the destination to China — and the bu- 
 siness was soon settled to the satisfaction of 
 both parties. He agreed to give ten 
 thousand rupees for the other half of the 
 round-house next the doctor's, and a small 
 cabin for the colonel's dressing-room. 
 
 "We have abundance of Patna sheep, 
 and Chittagong fowls on board, fine pigs, 
 ducks, geese, turkeys, and guinea-fowls; so 
 that," said Captain Landless, " though we 
 are not a large party, we shall not want for 
 any thing." 
 
 " Excuse my sending some things on board, 
 captain. I am an invalid," answered Co- 
 lonel Cheapstow. 
 
 "Certainly, sir, you can send whatever 
 you choose, but permit me to say, that it is 
 useless your taking the trouble. You will
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 101 
 
 find that we are provided with every thing 
 you can possibly want." 
 
 Captain Landless took leave, promising to 
 send his carpenter to take Colonel Cheap- 
 stow's orders about the fixtures he might 
 want on board. 
 
 The colonel inspected the doctor's cabin 
 again, as his own was its counterpart, — 
 and when the carpenter came gave orders 
 to have it covered with Persian carpeting, 
 which he would send from his boat, to have 
 lamps hung, and additional mirrors put 
 up. 
 
 Dr. M'Alpin knew his friend's foible, 
 and took no notice of those orders, though 
 the carpenter bluntly observed, "that the 
 round-house of the Snowdon, was as hand- 
 some as ever a ship in the company's ser- 
 vice, and that nailed down carpets would 
 be no great improvement if they should 
 happen to poop a green sea off the Cape. 
 
 " My hookah, doctor — what am I to do 
 about my hookah ?" inquired the colonel ;
 
 102 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 " do you take yours ? you cannot do with- 
 out, nor can I neither." 
 
 "I take it certainly, because I shall want 
 it at Fernbraes, and Cussim Ali has learned 
 to dress it as well as any hookahbardar in 
 Hindostan, but I will not use it on board, 
 knowing that to be dangerous and against 
 orders. I will have my callean* tho'." 
 
 " I shall follow your example, and do the 
 same thing, for I should be miserable with- 
 out the one or the other." 
 
 The morning ran on in these prepara- 
 tions, and at the usual hour the two gentle- 
 men tiffed with Mr. Ouseley ; Mr. Curzon 
 did not again make his appearance. When 
 the sun began to decline Colonel Cheapstow 
 set forth through the Chitpore bazar, with 
 his silver sticks on the back of his carriage 
 as before. His sices brandished their silver 
 handled chowriesf and screamed to the 
 mob as they passed to clear the way, — 
 
 * Callean — a small portable hookah. 
 
 | Chowries — white cow tails to drive away flies.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 103 
 
 orders, however, which were much less likely 
 to be attended to in the crowded bazar of Cal- 
 cutta, than in the neighbourhood of the 
 residency, and they were stopped in the 
 quarter of the bazar occupied by the pro- 
 fessors of Tubal Cain's craft amidst piles of 
 brazen pots and pans, for full five minutes, 
 a thing which the chaprasseys declared had 
 never happened to their master in the whole 
 course of his life. 
 
 They made their way, however, through 
 the silk-dyers, artificial flower-makers, cot- 
 ton-carders, and manufacturers of Hindoo- 
 stanee sweatmeats, until they reached the 
 Ghaut, where they stopped amidst a crowd 
 of the colonel's servants busily occupied in 
 landing his things. After giving his orders 
 to the head servants of the different depart- 
 ments, he went on board to inform his wife 
 of all he had done in town. 
 
 Mrs. Cheapstow was a sensible and ex- 
 cellent woman, though somewhat eccentric, 
 and disposed to speak her mind very freely. 
 She was several years younger than her
 
 104 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 husband, and though sincerely attached to 
 him, still liked a little of her own way, and 
 was apt to think that she knew fully as much 
 of the ordinary affairs of life as the colonel. 
 lie, amidst many good qualities, had two 
 little foibles, which were sometimes teasing, 
 as they were in exact opposition to the 
 feelings of his wife — his hiah sense of his own 
 dignity, and his love of good eating. Her 
 frank and open nature was above all the 
 little ostentations, which long residence at a 
 pompous and luxurious court had in a man- 
 ner rendered second nature to her husband, 
 and she hated the epicurianism to which she 
 traced the severe fits of illness by which he 
 had been lately attacked. 
 
 After he had given a full detail of all the 
 particulars, he went on, 
 
 " It is an unusual thing, my dear, our 
 going home by the way of China, but the 
 Snowdon is a magnificent ship, and I can 
 never be so well any where as under M'Al- 
 pin's care. People might think," he con- 
 tinued, with an air of importance, " such a
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 105 
 
 step strange upon my part, unless my rea- 
 sons were known." 
 
 " If it suits us it is enough," answered 
 his wife ; " people will never trouble them- 
 selves about it." 
 
 " You mistake, Mrs. Cheapstow, the de- 
 parture of a man of my standing is of some 
 consequence." 
 
 " Yes; certainly to those who are to suc- 
 ceed us in the appointment. Do you know, 
 I heard, at Berhampore, that there are four- 
 and-twenty applications already gone in to 
 his lordship for it." 
 
 " I have almost a mind to withdraw 
 my application for leave, and go back to 
 punish such indecorous haste," said the 
 colonel, turning his back, and walking off in 
 a contrary direction. 
 
 " We shall be the parties punished, my 
 dear, if Dr. M' Alpin sails before us. If you 
 stay to die here, you will have all these 
 people visiting you in great anxiety to see 
 how you get on, or rather when you are
 
 106 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 likely to go off, that they may come in after 
 you." 
 
 " They shall do nothing of the kind," 
 answered the colonel, returning. " But how 
 is it possible that we should have any thing 
 in proper condition on board that vessel in 
 such a short time?" 
 
 " Oh, we shall just do as others do in that 
 respect." 
 
 " It is strange, Mrs. Cheapstow, that you 
 should not consider that more is required for 
 you than for others — my situation entitles 
 you to it." 
 
 " Oh, I know that your kindness would 
 do a great deal for me, but if you will not 
 fatigue yourself about those things, and make 
 yourself ill again, I will get our excellent 
 friend the doctor to settle it all to your 
 satisfaction." 
 
 " The captain is a gentlemanly sort of 
 fellow," said the colonel, thoughtfully, " and 
 they say knows something of a table, but I 
 should like before going on board to know
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 107 
 
 exactly what sort of a cook lie lias. In 
 matters of importance a man likes to go on 
 sure ground. I shall ask Captain Landless 
 to let him come up to Curzon's, and show us 
 what he can do. Our bowberjee can give him 
 some instruction in Hindoostanee cooking, 
 which will be valuable; and his wines I 
 should like to know if they are drinkable; 
 but the most certain way will be to send my 
 own; it is impossible that he can have any 
 thing like them. It is a serious considera- 
 tion, my dear, one's comfort at sea for five 
 months, and must be properly attended to." 
 
 " You forget, I think, Cheapstow, that 
 you are on a regimen, and that the doctor 
 will be there to see it enforced." 
 
 " My first care to-morrow morning shall 
 be to look over the list of our wines," 
 answered the colonel, without attending to 
 an observation which he was willing to 
 think superfluous. " Now, let us go." 
 
 The colonel talked all the way back to 
 Mr. Curzon's house, on the various schemes 
 for the comfort of his voyage. " You see
 
 108 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 what a fortunate tiling it was, that I had 
 that set of silver saucepans and spirit of 
 wine lamps made. It would have been im- 
 possible to taste coffee or chocolate of their 
 making. What we are to do for butter for 
 breakfast, after the first week, is more than 
 I can devise, unless indeed I can get the 
 captain to give house-room to one of my 
 cows, and then Myrza can make it every 
 morning in the little glass churn as usual — I 
 shall not lose an hour in putting all this in 
 train." 
 
 The carriage stopped, and Mr. Curzon 
 came out to hand his new guest into his 
 house, followed by the doctor, whom Mrs. 
 Cheapstow was delighted to see. 
 
 Mr. Curzon continued talking with Mrs. 
 Cheapstow, while her husband went over 
 the whole of his intended arrangements with 
 the doctor. Before he could get half through 
 he was obliged to go down to dinner, but 
 he had no sooner taken his seat at table 
 than he began again. 
 
 " I have just been telling the doctor, Cur-
 
 THE NABOB AT PIOME. 109 
 
 zon," lie said, " that I mean to ask Captain 
 Landless to let his cook come here one of 
 these nights, if you will permit me." 
 
 " Mr. Curzon will neither permit or en- 
 courage any thing of the kind," said Mrs. 
 Cheapstow, answering for their host. 
 
 " Nor I, neither," joined the doctor, 
 " though I have a high opinion of your 
 bowberjee's talents, colonel. I think, as Mrs. 
 Cheapstow has no objection, we had better 
 leave them behind us at present." 
 
 " He knows some things, though," said the 
 colonel, " which are not known to all the 
 world — for instance, Curzon, he would have 
 boiled this capital ham in champagne, and 
 it would have been delicious ;" helping him- 
 self to a second slice. " Allow me, Mr. 
 Ouseley, to recommend it to you." 
 
 " I am so little of a connoisseur in the 
 art, that you must make allowance for what- 
 ever you find out of rule here," answered 
 Mr. Curzon. 
 
 " It is fortunate for you, Mr. Curzon," 
 said Mrs. Cheapstow, " very fortunate, when
 
 110 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 men have neither more nor less talents than 
 their situation requires. Now Cheapstow 
 has talents which can never be called into 
 full exertion. Had he been a cook, instead 
 of a colonel, he would have been an extra- 
 ordinary traiteur, instead of an ordinary 
 diplomatist." 
 
 " Whatever you may think of it, my 
 dear," answered her husband, whose self- 
 love felt the compliment on a favourite pur- 
 suit, and made allowance for his wife's way 
 of expressing it, " there is often more nicety 
 and precision and judgment required for the 
 one than the other; to say nothing of ex- 
 quisite taste, which is a gift from nature. 
 Do not think that I will be laughed out of 
 my opinion. What marks the advancement 
 civilized life so much as this art ? When 
 was it ever found amongst savages, or men 
 in a barbarous state ? It has always flour- 
 ished in the most refined and enlightened 
 state of human society, and its progress is a 
 just criterion to judge by." 
 
 " Of refinement, I grant you," replied Mrs.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. Ill 
 
 Cheapstow, " if the word mean a perfect 
 knowledge of the art of ministering to cor- 
 poreal wants, which I fancy is the most 
 generally received sense (though schoolmen 
 may give other definitions), for we are too 
 far advanced to go back to the old stoical or 
 brahminical notion, ' that he is the greatest, 
 who has the fewest wants.' 
 
 " An idea fit for a North American In- 
 dian," said the colonel ; " but utterly dis- 
 carded by every polished people. Consider 
 the ancient Greeks and Romans in the 
 meridian of their refinement." 
 
 " Or we might say, their corruption" — 
 interrupted the doctor. 
 
 The colonel went on ; " to what a height 
 they carried the gastronomic art. And our 
 accomplished neighbours, the French, our 
 masters in art and invention, — have they 
 not arrived at a very elevated pitch? to 
 which I must confess for our credit we are 
 fast hastening." 
 
 " Forbid it," said the doctor, " that we 
 should sink into a nation of cooks : not that
 
 112 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 I mean to take from the profession in its 
 proper place, but forgive me colonel; I 
 never wish to see it up stairs." 
 
 " We live in a period of discovery and 
 invention," said Mrs. Cheapstow, " and so 
 many conveniences have been sought out — 
 so many delights have been supplied, that 
 any man, who would discover means to 
 enable the refined part of the world to con- 
 sume twice as much of its good things as 
 they can possibly do at present, would be 
 entitled to a statue of gold ; a reward greater 
 than the King of Ethiopia offered for a new 
 pleasure." 
 
 " Practical philosophy," said the colonel, 
 " is always confined to a certain sphere in 
 life ; for when necessity gives the command, 
 it is very well to give philosophy the credit." 
 
 " But," answered Mrs. Cheapstow, " the 
 beautiful dreams of speculative philosophy 
 are more attractive and suitable for those 
 who have not to do with life's stern reali- 
 ties." 
 
 " I have heard the proposal for increasing
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 113 
 
 the wants of the natives of this country as 
 the most certain means of introducing im- 
 provement amongst them. If, for instance, 
 we could establish a Hindoo gastronomic 
 academy, would not the advance be ob- 
 vious ?" said Mr. Curzon, laughing. 
 
 " Yes, certainly, and they had reason on 
 their side who made the proposal," answered 
 the colonel. 
 
 " If we could once get the Hindoos above 
 the savage barbarity of resting satisfied with 
 boiled rice and water, we might hope to see 
 greater exertions made amongst them, to 
 procure the comforts of life." 
 
 " The comforts of life, colonel, are after 
 all but a vague expression," answered the 
 doctor. " At least there is no idea that we 
 have of them, that could indemnify a native 
 for the interruption of his quiet — we must 
 seek something else for those who think that 
 it is better to sit than to stand — to lie than 
 to sit — to sleep than to wake, and that to die 
 is best of all." 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Even Nature lives by toil : 
 
 Beast, bird, air, fire, the heavens, and rolling worlds, 
 All live by action. Man is born to care ; 
 Fashion'd, improved by labour. Hence utility 
 Through all conditions : hence the joys of health ; 
 Hence strength of arm and clear judicious thoughts. 
 
 Dyer. 
 
 " I wish, doctor, that you would go out 
 with me this morning, to pay a visit to my 
 old friend Mrs. Harvey, if you have nothing 
 else to do," said Mrs. Cheapstow to Dr. 
 M'Alpin, as they remained at the breakfast- 
 table after the rest of the party had left it. 
 " You know I cannot very well leave Cal- 
 cutta without visiting her, since Cheapstow 
 cannot do it for me. I dread to let him run
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 115 
 
 about in the sun, more than is indispens- 
 able." 
 
 " Right," answered the doctor. 
 
 " Cheapstow must wait on the ' Lord 
 Sahib,' and I hate going out alone." 
 
 "I am at your service. How do you go, 
 and when ?" 
 
 "The sooner the better; will you order 
 the palanquins directly. Cheapstow takes 
 the carriage for his visit of ceremony, and 
 though I detest jogging so far in a palan- 
 quin, it will be better if I am admitted, than 
 keeping Curzons horses in the sun. Tell 
 my ayah, that I am going out," she con- 
 tinued, addressing one of the servants in 
 waiting. 
 
 ■' The order is given," answered the man, 
 as he went out with his message. 
 
 In a few minutes he returned with a silver 
 tray in his hand, on which was a fan, smell- 
 ing-bottle, card-case, and pocket-handker- 
 chief, which he carried down stairs before 
 his mistress, and deposited in her chair 
 palanquin. 
 
 i 2
 
 116 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 " And there is another visit also, we 
 should pay," said Mrs. Cheapstow, before 
 getting in. " A Major Middleton of the 
 company's service, has married the daughter 
 of a particular friend of mine in England, 
 and brought her out with him. I should 
 like to see her if I knew where to find 
 her." 
 
 " Curzon has a chaprassey, who makes a 
 point of knowing where every body that 
 comes to Calcutta is to be found. He can 
 help us — but I hope it's not the Middleton 
 that I knew at Benares, else, poor girl, she 
 is not to be envied." 
 
 When they arrived at Mrs. Harvey's gate 
 in Park-street, Chowringhee, the durwan 
 only opened the wicket to see who came, 
 and finding visiters said, " His beebee sahib 
 (mistress) was not at home." 
 
 Oh this is her old way," said Mrs. Cheap- 
 stow to the doctor, " a relapse of her vale- 
 tudinarian habits; but after coming so far, I 
 will not go back without an effort to get in." 
 
 "Is your mistress really not at home,"
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 117 
 
 demanded the doctor, addressing the dur- 
 wan, " or is she ill, and does not see visi- 
 ters ?" 
 
 " The beebee sahib is in the house, sahib, 
 and as well as is her custom, but there are 
 no orders to let any stranger in." 
 
 " Send my card up to your mistress,'' 
 ordered Mrs. Cheapstow. " I know," she 
 said to the doctor, " when she sees it I shall 
 be admitted." 
 
 The durwan did as he was bid, and sent 
 up a chaprassey with the card, though he 
 said his mistress never saw a strange face or 
 heard a strange word. Contrary to his pre- 
 diction, however, the chaprassey returned, 
 begging Mrs. Cheapstow to walk up. The 
 gates opened and the palanquins entered the 
 spacious compound* of a very handsome 
 
 house. 
 
 The doctor, giving his arm to Mrs. Cheap- 
 stow, was in the act of accompanying her up 
 stairs, when another servant begged in a 
 low voice that he would remain below, and 
 
 * Compound — enclosure within a high wall.
 
 118 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 ushered him into the billiard-room with as 
 little noise, as if there had been some one 
 seriously ill in the house. 
 
 The doctor looked about for something to 
 occupy the time he was thus forced to spend 
 in waiting, and finding nothing else within 
 his reach, took up a cue, and began to push 
 about the billiard-balls. 
 
 " Don't do that, sahib," said a bearer re- 
 spectfully, joining his hands as he spoke. 
 " My mistress does not want the least noise, 
 even to hear a crow speak as he flies in the 
 air ; we have a watchman with his bow and 
 arrows to shoot every one that comes near 
 this house." 
 
 " What is the matter ?" inquired the 
 doctor. 
 
 " What do I know, sahib," answered the 
 bearer, with a shrug of his shoulders. " It is 
 the beebee sahib's pleasure not to have a 
 sound outside or inside this house. She 
 turns off every servant who treads heavier 
 than a grasshopper, or speaks louder than a 
 mouse."
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 119 
 
 Iii these circumstances the doctor ordered 
 the bearer to brim* him a book, with which 
 he would endeavour to pass the time until 
 Mrs. Cheapstow's return, and was very 
 much provoked when the bearer returned 
 with the Civil and Military List, which he 
 considered must, from its frequent require- 
 ment, be the most interesting. The " Neel 
 Ivittabee," Blue Book, the name they give it, 
 from its being always bound in paper of 
 that colour, is perhaps the only work which 
 every servant in India knows by name. 
 
 On following her conductor up stairs, 
 Mrs. Cheapstow found Mrs. Harvey ex- 
 tended upon a couch under the punkah, in 
 the middle of the centre drawing-room. All 
 the windows shut, and all the doors open to 
 circulate a draft. 
 
 " How kind it is of you, my dear Mrs. 
 Cheapstow" she said, half-raising herself from 
 her pillows, " to come and see a poor invalid!" 
 
 " I am truly sorry to find you in such a 
 sad state," answered Mrs. Cheapstow, and she 
 added with her customary frankness, tt I was
 
 120 TIIE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 in hopes that you were not worse than 
 usual."' 
 
 " But I am usually so ill — I have such 
 nerves — the least noise or motion distracts 
 me." 
 
 " No wonder, if you keep yourself in this 
 kind of dead silence, every noise becomes 
 alarming; but I am happy, notwithstanding, 
 to see you look better than I could have ex- 
 pected — you drive out in the evening, I 
 suppose ?" 
 
 " Never — it would be utterly impossible 
 for me to sustain all that bustle and fatigue." 
 
 " But you could be carried down stairs 
 you know." 
 
 " I used to be so, but the exertion agitated 
 my poor frame so much, and I was so afraid 
 that the bearers would let me fall (though I 
 had a most commodious chair made for the 
 very purpose), that I was obliged to give 
 it up." 
 
 " And do you live then without air and 
 exercise? How do you contrive to sleep at 
 night?"
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 121 
 
 " Oil! I have such horrible nights — if it 
 were not for the little sleep I have here 
 during the day, I do not know how I should 
 get through them, though I have the punkah 
 going in my bedroom the whole night." 
 
 " It is not every one of us certainly," 
 answered Mrs. Cheapstow, " who has the 
 native faculty of sleeping eighteen or nineteen 
 hours out of the four-and-twenty." 
 
 " Unfortunately that is just my case," 
 answered the invalid, who in her earnestness 
 to prove her unfitness for any exertion, sa^ 
 upright on her couch, and spoke with great 
 animation — " and my appetite is so miserable 
 too — if I had not something every three 
 hours, I should die of pure inanition. No 
 one can have the most distant idea of what 
 I suffer — if it were not that this is the coolest 
 room in the house, I would never venture to 
 quit my own apartment" — she looked round 
 on the splendid and silent suite of rooms — 
 " the doctor always says my life is a standing 
 miracle."
 
 122 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 " Finding how you do live, Mrs. Harvey, 
 I should quite agree with him." 
 
 From the time Mrs. Cheapstow had come 
 into the room, Mrs. Harvey's day ayah, had 
 sat quietly squatted at the end of her mis- 
 tresses couch, holding upon her thumb the 
 loop of a silk cord, which extended to the 
 landing-place. This cord was now gently 
 twitched, the ayah got up, and treading 
 softly as if she feared to wake the echoes, 
 went out of the room, and after whispering 
 for a moment returned followed by a kit- 
 mutgar, who with the same noiseless step, 
 set a tripod near Mrs. Harvey's couch, upon 
 which, having first spread a table napkin, he 
 placed a silver hot-water covered plate, knife, 
 fork, and bread. 
 
 " Will you eat a nice juicy mutton-chop, 
 Mrs. Cheapstow?" inquired the invalid, as 
 the kitmurgar uncovered her own. 
 
 " Nothing is so good for those who are not 
 strong; — a mutton-chop at this hour the 
 doctor tells me, is the most nourishing thing
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 123 
 
 in the world — I take soups and jellies in the 
 evening — may I order it ?" 
 
 " Thank you, it is too soon after breakfast 
 for me, and, in fact, I never touch any thing 
 between meals." 
 
 " How fortunate you are to be able to do 
 without — I must even have something in the 
 middle of the night." 
 
 She held up her finger over her shoulder 
 to the servant, who with crossed arms 
 watched behind her couch. He went out 
 on tiptoe, and returned with Madeira which 
 misted the glass like ice as he poured it out 
 to his mistress. 
 
 When she had finished the whole of her 
 substantial refreshment, the things were re- 
 moved with as little noise as they had been 
 brought. The ayah again took her loop 
 upon her thumb, and stationing herself on 
 the floor as before, the same profound tran- 
 quillity was restored. 
 
 " Do you not pity me," said Mrs. Harvey, 
 laying herself languidly back upon her pil-
 
 124 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 lows — " Do you not pity me Mrs. Cheapstow 
 being obliged to lead such a life ?" 
 
 " I never saw any person in my life whom 
 I pity more ; and is this your day ?" 
 
 " Yes! and I may almost say my night 
 also, with the difference of my being in my 
 bedroom; I do not know that there is any 
 other." 
 
 " But how do you do with your people? 
 how are they able to stand it ?" 
 
 " Oh! I have another set for the night — 
 you know that the natives have no feeling 
 to enable them to sit up with a poor invalid 
 like me." 
 
 " But you do not mean, Mrs. Harvey to 
 say, that you always lead this life? — you do 
 not mean to say that you never go out, and 
 take your meals at table like other people?" 
 
 " Yes, indeed I do. Unfortunately I grow 
 every day worse and worse instead of 
 better." 
 
 " And what does Mr. Harvey do? all this 
 is doubtless very distressing to him, and he
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 125 
 
 must feel very lonely, if lie lias not company 
 with him when he dines at home." 
 
 " Oh! he is very good, he just dines up 
 here, because I like to see him ; he has his 
 dinner in the quiet way you saw me take my 
 morsel just now." 
 
 " That is really being good," answered 
 Mrs. Cheapstow, laughing — " and have you 
 got his friends to be as good also?" 
 
 " No ; but I have got him to give up ever 
 asking any of them here — you are the only 
 stranger who has been within these doors 
 time out of memory." 
 
 " I am sorry to hear it ; for living in this 
 way alone, is, at least, half the cause of your 
 illness." 
 
 " I have not spirits to see any one, talk- 
 ing quite exhausts me ; though I confess, my 
 dear Mrs. Cheapstow, that I have been 
 benefited by seeing you this morning." 
 
 " Why do you not go home ? a cold cli 
 mate would set all to rights." 
 
 " That is what Harvey says, but a ship 
 would make me miserable, I should be with-
 
 126 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 out my comforts, and without niy attendants; 
 the noise would distract me ; the trouble 
 would kill me. I am altogether so differently 
 constructed from other people." 
 
 Mrs. Clieapstow felt that any thing she 
 could say on this subject would be perfectly 
 unavailing, and therefore abstained from 
 pressing it, she saw with pity the effect of 
 climate and indulgence upon a weak mind, 
 and rose to take her leave fully convinced of 
 the hopelessness of the case. 
 
 The ayah in turn twitched the cord, and 
 a chaprassey in waiting showed himself at 
 the door, to conduct the guest down stairs 
 with the same silence as before. Mrs. 
 Cheapstow remarked that the dumb attend- 
 ants had looked with wonder at hearing 
 her address their mistress in an ordinary 
 voice, never being accustomed to hear any 
 one, even her husband, speak to her in a 
 tone above a whisper. 
 
 Mrs. Cheapstow on reaching the hall, 
 found her worthy friend the doctor's 
 patience almost expended, as the "Neel
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 127 
 
 Kittabee" did not contain anything very new, 
 and was more interesting- to those who were 
 entering than to those who were quitting 
 the service. 
 
 " One would think," he said, as he handed 
 Mrs. Cheapstow into her palanquin, " one 
 would think that my excellent friends were 
 in league to reconcile me to my bachelor 
 condition. You have shown me this morn- 
 ning, that I might be worse off, and Curzon 
 did the same the other night." 
 
 " Yes, yes, doctor, if you begin to grumble 
 on that score I shall be tempted to make 
 some more visits for your conviction, though 
 I am so fatigued with this I have made, 
 that I shall be glad to get home. I am 
 quite overcome with pity for poor Harvey — 
 think of a man going up and down stairs on 
 tiptoe all his life, and speaking in whispers, 
 and being served by signs, and as effectually 
 cut off from society as if he were on a 
 desert island !" 
 
 " Ay," answered the doctor, " he is to be 
 pitied, when the mind is entirely neglected 
 the body takes up all our attention ; that's
 
 128 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 of all diseases the most incurable — but you 
 foreet Mrs. Middleton : if she has married 
 the man I suppose, it will be an act of charity 
 to visit her." 
 
 " This visit had almost put every thing 
 else out of my head ; but can you direct 
 my people ?" 
 
 The doctor gave the necessary address, 
 and they took their way through the Durum- 
 tollah, into the Circular Road ; where, after 
 a good deal of searching, they were carried 
 into the compound of a small "lower-roomed" 
 house, daubed on the outside with yellow 
 ochre ; standing upon the bank of a little 
 stagnate tank, or rather muddy pool, which 
 had been scooped out as the clay was wanted 
 for building the native huts in the neigh- 
 bourhood ; it was covered with decayed 
 vegetation, and overhung by tall melancholy 
 cocoa-nuts, which looked more solitary in 
 proportion to the numbers got together ; no 
 green thing grows under them, and their 
 tall branchless trunks give them a funeral 
 appearance. 
 
 "This can never be Middleton's place,"
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 129 
 
 said the doctor, " it must be some country- 
 born Portuguese writer's." 
 
 "What gentleman's house?" demanded 
 Mrs. Cheapstow's chaprassey, of a half- 
 naked bearer who was sleeping in the veran- 
 da, and who started up rubbing his eyes, 
 when the chaprassey pulled him by the foot, 
 and shook him by the shoulders to obtain 
 an answer. 
 
 " Major Middleton Sahib's house." 
 " Is the 'beebee sahib' at home?" 
 « Me — what do I know ?" said the bearer, 
 still rubbing his eyes, and making a few 
 steps towards the hall, and then returning as 
 if uncertain what was to be done. 
 
 The chaprassey who was accustomed to 
 more alacrity in the service of his mistress, 
 ran forward and announced " Beebee Chip- 
 tow, and Dr. Al-pin Sahib," at the pitch of 
 his voice, and returned to open the palan- 
 quin-door, saying " the lady was at home." 
 
 Mrs. Cheapstow got out in a veranda, 
 littered with straw, packing-cases, and 
 empty bottles, &c, the doctor conducted her 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 into the small hall, miserably furnished 
 without mat, the want of that necessary 
 article vv'as supplied by a common settringee 
 under the feet of the table in the middle of 
 the floor. The whole house consisted of 
 this hall on the one side, and two small 
 apartments off it at the other. 
 
 "A place for a native," muttered the 
 doctor, as he crossed the threshold and 
 entered the little comfortless abode, from 
 which even a breatli of air was excluded by 
 the tall trees which run up above the back 
 windows. The mark of green damp on 
 the walls added to the idea which Mrs. 
 Cheapstow conceived at first sight, that it 
 was just a place to catch fever and ague. 
 
 They found Mrs. Middleton seated before 
 the table on which she was writino;. She 
 rose timidly, and made several ineffectual 
 efforts to make her solitary attendant un- 
 derstand that she wanted more chairs, Mrs. 
 Cheapstow's chaprassey, however, alertly 
 saved her any further trouble on that score, 
 by placing those required.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. Vol 
 
 Mrs. Cheapstow after introducing herself 
 and the doctor, and inquiring for Mrs. Mid- 
 diet on's friends at home, expressed the 
 pleasure she would have had in being intro- 
 duced to her husband. 
 
 " I regret he is absent," answered his 
 wife ; " and I am certain he will himself 
 regret missing the pleasure of seeing you, 
 Mrs. Cheapstow, but he is never at home." 
 
 "How!" said the doctor; "he does not 
 leave you here all day by yourself?" 
 
 " Yes — indeed he does ; he has so many 
 friends in Calcutta, and I am a perfect 
 stranger." 
 
 "And when he is absent, how do you 
 do with the servants ? Ye have not been 
 here long enough to make yourself well un- 
 derstood ?" asked the doctor. 
 
 " Oh no — only a fortnight, and I cannot 
 call for any thing, but must be contented 
 with what they please to give me. Yester- 
 day I had no dinner — there was none 
 brought, and I could not order it." 
 
 k2
 
 132 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 The doctor looked at Mrs. Cheapstow, as 
 if he would say, "that is just the man — 
 selfish and inconsiderate as usual." 
 
 " Do you," inquired Mrs. Cheapstow, " not 
 tire, Mrs. Middleton, living here by yourself 
 — you must be very dull ?" 
 
 " Yes ; but I hope we shall soon leave the 
 Presidency, and then, Major Middleton tells 
 me, it will be more cheerful: he has no 
 conveyance but his palanquin, and cannot 
 take me out." 
 
 The doctor was tempted to say, "then 
 he ought to stay at home himself;" but 
 the ungracious observation did not pass his 
 
 lips. 
 
 " You go out," he said, " to drive in the 
 evening certainly, "at least with some of 
 your friends ?" 
 
 " No, indeed I do not. I do not know a 
 single creature in the place — Mrs. Cheap- 
 stow and yourself are the first who have 
 had the kindness to inquire for me ; and I 
 find living in India entirely different to what
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 133 
 
 I expected — every article of food is so bad, 
 and every thing so uncomfortable, that I 
 sincerely wish myself back in England." 
 
 "You must not be discouraged," said 
 Mrs. Cheapstow, " by the unfavourable 
 specimen you have had. When you know 
 the country, you will find it entirely dif- 
 ferent." 
 
 " Oh, I am certain I shall never be recon- 
 ciled to it. Last night I was so frightened! 
 an enormous bat flew into the room while 
 I was sitting here in the dark, for they for- 
 got to light the lamps as well as to give me 
 any dinner, and the creature made such a 
 horrid squeaking, that I was almost terrified 
 to death." 
 
 Mrs. Cheapstow felt sincerely for a poor 
 young creature, left in such a forlorn situa- 
 tion, and denied the common comforts of 
 existence, by the selfish carelessness of one 
 who had taken her so far from the bosom of 
 her family. She made Mrs. Middleton pro- 
 mise to spend a day with her at Mr. Cur- 
 zon's, and offered to send the carriage to
 
 134 TIIE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 convey her. She then took leave, and they 
 had hardly gained the veranda before the 
 doctor began expressing his regret at leaving 
 such a pretty young creature, in such mise- 
 rable circumstances. 
 
 " Middleton is just the same man I find," 
 he said, when they were out of hearing; 
 " he guides this wife just as he did the first. 
 I remember when she was djung, he dined 
 out every night all over cantonments." 
 
 " It is a cruel thing, doctor, to take an 
 amiable girl from her family, where she has 
 been loved and cherished, and bring her 
 out here to die of neglect and unkindness." 
 
 "He would have sought long in this 
 country, I promise him, before he would 
 have got such a wife — his character is too 
 well known ; but in England, where nobody 
 knows any thing about him, or his beha- 
 viour to his poor first wife, he has had 
 better success." 
 
 " I am sorry for her, poor thing — hers is 
 a melancholy prospect — she little knows the 
 fatigues and sufferings of following such a
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 135 
 
 man in a country like this. He is not one 
 of the men, doctor, to use an expression of 
 yours, that a woman would go through fire 
 and water for; but fortunately it is a case 
 that we do not often meet." 
 
 " That's true ; prodigality, and not penury, 
 is the habit of the country ; and if we do 
 meet with the griping hands, it must be so 
 much nature with them, that it seldom 
 keeps bounds. I have seen in the course 
 of my life one or two rare examples, even 
 here." 
 
 "At home, if a woman has the misfortune 
 to marry a negligent, selfish man, as this 
 seems to be, wholly devoted to his own 
 comfort and pleasure, she has, if not the 
 satisfaction of her friend's society, at least 
 the attendance of her own women. The 
 circumstances are so different, that the cases 
 hardly admit of a parallel. Here, a wo- 
 man's life is in the hands of her husband — 
 if he neglects her, every servant in the 
 house docs the same."
 
 136 THE NABOB AT H(»IE. 
 
 " Middleton, is one of the ' Company's 
 hard bargains,' he would never willingly do 
 any thing for them, but receive his pay. 
 He turns his duty over to any one that will 
 do it for him, and has always been sick 
 when his corps is to go on service; and 
 never cooks a dinner in his own house, 
 when he can get it elsewhere. He likes 
 every part of good eating, but its cost; and 
 it is nothing to him that his poor wife, is 
 dining upon a starved bazar chicken, dried 
 in the cinders, while he is in the fort, in the 
 * Buildings,' and the race-stand, and at the 
 town-hall with the 'Lunatic Club.'* He 
 knows that Gunterf dresses things more to 
 his taste, than he is likely to get them in the 
 miserable hole in which he has stowed his 
 pretty wife, poor thing !" 
 
 Mrs. Cheapstow and Dr. M'Alpin reached 
 home in time for tiffin, and found the man, 
 
 * Lunatic club, so called from the meeting's being 
 held at the new and full of the moon, 
 f Gunter, a celebrated traiteur.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 137 
 
 whose house they had just left, talking with 
 Mr. Ouseley in the drawing-room. 
 
 " We have just come from your house," 
 said the doctor, after having introduced 
 Major Middleton to Mrs. Cheapstow. 
 
 " You did not find any one at home ?" he 
 said. " How unfortunate I should happen to 
 be out when you did us the honour to call, 
 Mrs. Cheapstow !" 
 
 " We were more successful," replied the 
 doctor — " finding 1 that Mrs. Middleton was 
 not from home, we made good our entry, 
 though the only one of your people we saw 
 wished to keep us out." 
 
 " I am quite ashamed Mrs. Cheapstow," 
 said Major Middleton, with an air of embar- 
 rassment, " that you should have the trouble 
 of going to such a place, which in fact I 
 intend to quit as soon as possible — the truth 
 is, before landing from the ship, I employed 
 a sircar to take a house for me, and he put 
 us into that miserable out-of-the-way corner ; 
 but I have been out every day since we 
 came, to seek for a proper place."
 
 138 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 " And not found a house in the fifteen 
 days, that your wife tells me, you have been 
 here, Middleton ?" said the doctor, " I'll en- 
 gage to provide you with a comfortable 
 abode before sunset this evening. There's 
 no lack of them in Calcutta. Will you, 
 Ouseley, as you pass the Tennis Court, step 
 in and inquire — " 
 
 " Not for the world I" interrupted Mr. 
 Middleton, hastily, " I could not think, Mr. 
 Ouseley. of letting you take such trouble 
 — my dear M'Alpin, this is really too 
 kind." 
 
 " The kindness is not intended for you 
 Middleton, so do not distress yourself about 
 it. It is for your wife's sake that I am 
 anxious you should be out of that pestilen- 
 tial neighbourhood. As a medical man I 
 have a right to direct it, and I tell you that 
 I'll get a good house, in a proper situation, 
 before sunset. It does not do for a young 
 girl just come from Europe to breathe the 
 infectious air of your place." 
 
 " You shall not positively take any trou-
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 139 
 
 ble on the score, M'Alpin — I heard to clay 
 of a house which I think will suit us." 
 
 " Get into it then, rny friend, or never let 
 me see your face again. The doctor's ad- 
 vice is not to be slighted with impunity — 
 and get a carriage to give your wife a 
 mouthful of fresh air too," said the doctor in 
 a tone between jest and earnest — " I pre- 
 scribe according to the circumstances of my 
 patients." 
 
 " I wish you would prescribe a buggy for 
 me, doctor," said Mr. Ouseley, laughing, " I 
 would get it directly if you would only au- 
 thorize me to write home to my father, and 
 say the doctor ordered it." 
 
 " Fair and softly my friend, content your- 
 self with your horse until you have a wife 
 to drive, or a majority to support it." 
 
 " Our friend, the doctor, Mrs. Cheapstow," 
 said Major Middleton, with the air of plau- 
 sibility and easy assurance, which often passes 
 current for agreeable manners and knowledge 
 of the world, " our excellent friend in his old
 
 140 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 way avails himself of all his privileges — but 
 here is the consumah — allow me to have the 
 honour of conducting you to table." 
 
 " Mrs. Cheapstow will never be answer- 
 able for the sin of keeping you from your 
 wife, Middleton." 
 
 Major Middleton saw the intention, but 
 was resolved to stand his ground, as was his 
 custom, against all rebuffs — " Mrs. Middleton 
 is one of the most domestic creatures in the 
 world," he said to Mrs. Cheapstow in going 
 down stairs, " there is no getting her to go 
 out — and I regret exceedingly being obliged 
 to leave her so much alone. You know my 
 duty must be attended to, and I am forced 
 to run from one public office to another, all 
 round Calcutta — I am obliged to go to the 
 Adjutant-general's directly after tiffin, and I 
 took the only spare minute I could com- 
 mand, Mrs. Cheapstow, to have the honour 
 of waiting upon you, whom I have often 
 heard Mrs. Middleton's friends at home speak 
 of with the utmost respect and affection."
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 141 
 
 " Middleton knows to choose the hour 
 well for his spare moments," whispered the 
 doctor to Mr. Ouseley as they followed down 
 stairs — " if he would only put the talents 
 that nature has bestowed upon him, to airy 
 creditable purpose, he might make a respect- 
 able figure in the world, instead of shaping 
 himself into a poor parasite, whose whole 
 value is in his banker's hands. Was it ever 
 heard of, that a man in his situation in life — 
 in the situation of a gentleman, should tell 
 the lies that he has done within the last half- 
 hour? The thought of seeking for a house never 
 entered into his head, any more than going 
 to England in a balloon entered into mine. 
 He will not rest now until he has hooked 
 himself upon Curzon for a visiter after I am 
 out of the way — I know that fellow so 
 well." 
 
 Mr. Ouseley laughed immoderately at what 
 he considered the doctor's odd ways, and 
 they just reached the table in time to hear 
 Major Middleton say to Mrs. Cheapstow,
 
 142 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 " and am I not to have the honour of being 
 introduced to Colonel Cheapstow, to- 
 day ?" 
 
 "He went out early this morning," an- 
 swered his wife, " and has not yet returned. 
 A thing very unusual with him I can assure 
 you ; but here he comes to speak for him- 
 self" — as Colonel Cheapstow's chaprasseys 
 entered, one carrying his hat, and another 
 his sword, while their master followed. 
 
 The major was introduced, and Colonel 
 Cheapstow received his compliments with 
 dignified gravity. 
 
 Middleton was not so much his equal as 
 to be received upon a perfect footing of 
 equality, and yet too near it to be treated 
 with the unceremonious kindness, which 
 Colonel Cheapstow extended to young 
 Ouseley, and all those whose situation made 
 them receive as a favour, what they could 
 not claim as a right. 
 
 " And what, my dear, has detained you 
 so long ?" inquired his wife.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 143 
 
 " His lordship was so happy to see me, 
 that I found it impossible to get away; and 
 he insisted upon my going up to visit his 
 lady, who inquired most kindly and parti- 
 cularly after you, my dear," answered the 
 colonel, who seemed highly gratified with 
 the attention he had received. " His lord- 
 ship is a man of sound sense and great pene- 
 tration and discernment ; he is quite pleased 
 with all I have done. I have promised, my 
 dear, that you will dine at government- 
 house to-morrow night." 
 
 " It is unfortunate ; for Curzon has been 
 kind enough to ask friends here on purpose 
 to meet us." 
 
 " The Governor-general's invitation is a 
 command," said the doctor, " and all other 
 engagements must give way. Though I 
 have been engaged to a friend for the last 
 week, I must dine there to-night — I wish it 
 had been to-morrow." 
 
 " And when his lordship has made the 
 evening for you, my dear," said Colonel
 
 144 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 Cheapstow to his wife, " it must be taken as 
 a compliment." 
 
 "I have understood from one who is 
 much about the house," said Major Mid- 
 dleton, " that his lordship had expressed a 
 great desire to see you, Colonel Cheap- 
 stow." 
 
 "Do you hear that?" said the doctor 
 aside to Ouseley ; " if Curzon had been 
 here, his lordship would perhaps have been 
 talking, too, of Persian and Ilindostanee 
 works." 
 
 Colonel Cheapstow was, however, a per- 
 fect stranger to Major Middleton, and re- 
 ceived his gratuitous information in quite a 
 different spirit. 
 
 " Allow me," he said, " the pleasure to 
 take wine with you, Major Middleton. I 
 thought, my dear," addressing his wife, 
 " that I was received with more than usual 
 satisfaction." 
 
 After tiffin, Major Middleton took his de- 
 parture, but not before he had declared his
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 145 
 
 intention to Mrs. Cheapstow, of returning 
 the first evening lie could possibly command, 
 as that was the only time he could hope to 
 find Mr. Curzon in his own house. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 14G THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Their stately ship sail'd gallantly, 
 
 Furrowing the dark sea foam, 
 But many a prow has left the strand 
 
 That never reach'd her home ! 
 
 Old Ballad. 
 
 Colonel Cheapstow's numerous pur- 
 chases were completed, his comforts pro- 
 vided, and his cabins furnished with every 
 convenience that could render a voyage de- 
 lightful, by the time the Snowdon was in 
 readiness to sail from Sangor Island. 
 
 Mr. Curzon who saw the departure of his 
 highly-valued friend, Dr. M'Alpin with 
 great regret, as there was no chance of their 
 ever meeting again, resolved to accompany
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 147 
 
 the party going from his own house down 
 to the ship. Colonel and Mrs. Cheapstow 
 occupied one Sangor passage-boat, Dr. M' Al- 
 pin and Mr. Curzon another. 
 
 Mr. Curzon parted from his friends the 
 night they reached the vessel, as she was to 
 sail at daybreak. 
 
 " Could I but hope to see you, Curzon," 
 said the doctor, as he wrung the hand of his 
 his friend — " could I but hope to see you in 
 my own house !" 
 
 " It cannot be, M'Alpin. God bless you, 
 my friend. Farewell !" 
 
 The doctor felt when Mr. Curzon was 
 over the ship's side, as if his last regret at 
 leaving India was passed; his kind heart 
 had suffered by the clamorous leave-taking 
 of his own servants before he came into the 
 ship ; some had prostrated themselves on the 
 ground and embraced his feet, while others 
 had lifted up their voices and wept aloud, 
 and he could not see those who had been 
 about him for so many years for the last 
 time, with indifference. 
 
 l2
 
 148 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 Cussim Ali was now all that remained 
 to him of his numerous household, and 
 the poor creature seemed overcome with 
 trouble at parting with his own people 
 and his own land, and finding himself 
 in a situation so new; but whatever his 
 thoughts might be, he gave them no tongue, 
 having practical philosophy enough to un- 
 derstand, that they could be of no interest 
 to any one there, except his master, whom 
 he felt to be too much above his sphere to 
 be troubled with " such words." 
 
 At daybreak the anchor was up, and the 
 Snowdon stood down the bay; there was 
 only one passenger on board for China be- 
 sides our friends already mentioned, and a 
 detachment of European troops with their 
 wives and children for one of the islands. 
 Before the party assembled at dinner, 
 they had lost sight of the flat shores of 
 Bengal, and a thick fog came on, though 
 the little wind they had continued fair. 
 
 The following morning the mist still re- 
 mained so thick that they could not get an ob-
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 149 
 
 servation ; towards evening the wind sunk to 
 a perfect calm, and they felt themselves to be 
 under the influence of the currents which 
 run with great force in the Bay of Bengal — 
 a situation the more hazardous, as ^he wea- 
 ther for several days continued equally 
 thick, and they were consequently unable to 
 judge of their course. 
 
 On the evening of the third day, when 
 Mr. Clairville, the passenger already men- 
 tioned, was walking the deck with Captain 
 Landless, and occasionally leaning over the 
 lee-gangway to observe the fog which was 
 slowly dispersing, he asked the captain, 
 " What can that be which I see white, on 
 our lee-bow?" 
 
 " White ? where ? the moonshine on the 
 water, I suppose ; pass the word for my night 
 telescope there," answered the captain. 
 " Ay, ay, sir." 
 
 " Down helm, and about ship !" thun- 
 dered the captain. 
 
 " Breakers on our lee-bow ! Breakers
 
 150 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 ahead ! Breakers astern !" sung out the 
 man on the foretop. 
 
 In an instant all was in motion, the alarm- 
 ing intelligence had brought every one 
 within hearing of it on deck. The ship 
 under the influence of strong currents, and 
 without wind to fill her backed sails, refused 
 to obey the helm, and in a few minutes, not- 
 withstanding every exertion, struck with a 
 shock which brought the masts over her 
 side. She made a plunge under the falling 
 mass. 
 
 " Cut the riggings !" shouted the captain. 
 
 The ready carpenters obeyed the prompt 
 order; the severed masts floated under the 
 prow. When the ship struck, a shriek rose 
 from the lower decks, capable of striking 
 terror into any heart, less tried in danger 
 than those of the brave seamen, whose 
 energies seemed roused by such a call. 
 Those who had been in bed came rushing 
 upon deck to ascertain their fate, the wo- 
 men and children, many of whom had 
 been dashed from their cots by the shock,
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 151 
 
 heightened the alarm and confusion by 
 their presence and their screams. 
 
 " Peace, for an instant, I command you !" 
 said Captain Landless, darting into the midst 
 of the terrified group, and waving his arm 
 with an ah" of authority. " Peace, on your 
 lives, and hear me. We have struck on a 
 sunken rock, and may yet have time to save 
 ourselves in the boats." 
 
 He had no sooner spoken the words than 
 there was a rush towards them. 
 
 " Hear, boatswain !" he cried, " with the 
 quartermasters, guard the boats, and cut 
 down the first living creature who dares to 
 touch them without orders." The frightened 
 multitude stood still. " Gentlemen, exert 
 the authority which God has given you. 
 Command your families, and all will be 
 well." 
 
 The steadiness of one man in authority, 
 produced a kind of order out of confusion. 
 The seamen, accustomed to hear and obey 
 his voice in danger, stood ready to do his 
 bidding, and the gentlemen and passengers,
 
 152 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 aware of the necessity of subordination and 
 co-operation, exerted an effectual authority 
 as soon as their respective children were 
 gathered round their distracted mothers. 
 The captain seeing in an instant what was 
 to be done for the salvation of those under 
 his care, ordered the boats to be lowered, 
 and the lead to be flung, for the purpose of 
 taking soundings. 
 
 The fall of the masts was a fortunate cir- 
 cumstance; as soon as they were cut away, 
 the ship was lightened, and perhaps by that 
 means prevented from further motion, which 
 must have been instantly fatal. She had 
 struck on the sharp point of a rock under 
 water, which entering through the bottom, 
 held her in equal balance, and prevented her 
 from sinking, though the water rose in the 
 orlop and even gun deck, to a level with the 
 sea. The moment of striking was an- 
 nounced by a general and wild shriek of 
 unearthly energy, and followed by the con- 
 tinued gurgling of the water, increasing in 
 loudness as it increased in quantity, and
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 153 
 
 forced its way through all opposition into 
 every crevice and opening of the ship. The 
 women, frantic with terror, rushed about 
 screaming for their children. 
 
 " It is all over," said Colonel Cheapstow, 
 who met one of these poor creatures at his 
 cabin-door. " Those who have children, 
 are equal with those who have none ; but I 
 shall do what I can for you, though it is but 
 for a moment. 1 ' 
 
 As he spoke, a swell upon which the 
 vessel could not rise, broke over her, and 
 again the same dread shriek sounded, though 
 hoarser and deeper, as if almost suffocated 
 with the weight of the water. The vessel 
 stood firm, and though many persons were 
 thrown down and severely hurt, none were 
 washed overboard, as uninjured by the 
 storm the bulwarks retained their position. 
 
 " We may stand until the next tide," said 
 the captain, " therefore until the boats are in 
 readiness, let the women and children be 
 taken into the cabins that are not under 
 water, it is useless to expose any one here,
 
 154 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 who is not on duty, to be mutilated by the 
 swells which must break over us." 
 
 " Let us take wine in the boat for these 
 poor creatures," said Dr. M'Alpin. 
 
 He went into his cabin for the purpose of 
 getting it, and Mrs. Cheapstow also passed 
 out the few bottles which her husband 
 always kept at hand, which were all that 
 could be found, as the rest of the vessel was 
 now under water. 
 
 As soon as the long boat was lowered 
 into the sea, Mrs. Cheapstow and the sol- 
 diers' wives and children were safely placed 
 in it. 
 
 " Dr. M'Alpin will go in that boat, where 
 his assistance may be so much wanted," 
 said Captain Landless. 
 
 " Willingly," answered the doctor, " but I 
 must take Cussim Ali with me." 
 
 " Impossible !" said the officer in com- 
 mand of the boat, " there is but room for 
 one person." 
 
 " And who," demanded the captain 
 sternly, " is this Cussim Ali ?"
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 155 
 
 " My servant," answered the doctor, "who 
 is under my protection, and who has left 
 kindred and country to follow me, and 
 whom I will never leave in a situation of 
 danger while the breath is in my body." 
 
 " Let him go Manning," said the captain, 
 " his weight cannot much affect you." 
 
 The doctor got into the long boat, and 
 received his half-dead domestic from the 
 hands of the stout seamen, who lowered him 
 down, benumbed by cold and wet. 
 
 The boat pushed off. " We are too 
 heavy," said the officer, " too deep in the 
 water," as drawn by the currents they 
 passed close under the bow of the ship. 
 
 A native Portuguese, in an agony of fear, 
 caught a rope, and threw himself with it 
 from the bowsprit in hopes of attaining the 
 boat. The rowers made every effort to 
 shoot ahead, but he swam stoutly, and had 
 just attained his object, and laid his right 
 hand on the side of the boat, which his 
 weight brought to a level with the water.
 
 156 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 " We are gone !" shouted the helmsman 
 with a fearful oath. 
 
 The officer in command of the boat 
 snatched an oar, and with a tremendous 
 blow broke the clinging arms of the swim- 
 mer, who fell off with a look on the face of 
 the officer which curdled the blood of those 
 avIio beheld it. The women covered their 
 eyes, the boat righted, and the sufferer, with 
 one strong convulsive gasp, sunk like a stone, 
 and was seen no more. For an instant the 
 whirling waters eddied round in the spot 
 where he disappeared, and then a bubble 
 broke, as the breath of life, over which they 
 closed, rose to the surface. 
 
 " An unblessed deed !" said the doctor. 
 " I would not' have the expression of those 
 eyes turned upon me for all the sun looks 
 down upon." 
 
 " I have done my duty," said Manning, 
 resting upon the oar he had just used. 
 " The lives of all here were intrusted to my 
 care, and if it had been my own brother I
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 157 
 
 must have done the same; another instant 
 would have sent every soul to the bottom." 
 
 " A}*, ay, sir," answered the weather- 
 beaten helmsman, "a seaman's duty is some- 
 times harder than a landsman dreams of." 
 
 " As God knows this night can testify," 
 said the doctor, whose strongly agitated 
 countenance showed the agony which was 
 within. 
 
 Mrs. Cheapstow continued to rest her 
 head on her hand, while her fingers covered 
 her eyes. Manning in the stern, conscious 
 that he had done his duty, attended only to 
 the movements of the boat under his care. 
 A clear morning began to dawn, and he 
 found that drawn by the currents, they were 
 within a short distance of a little rocky 
 island which seemed to be thickly wooded. 
 They were obliged to coast the whole side 
 of the island nearest to them before they 
 could find a landing-place; at length they 
 fortunately discovered a small sandy bay, on 
 one side of which a flat ledge of rock ran 
 into the sea like a natural pier, and as the
 
 158 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 water was deep enough to admit the boat's 
 coming quite close, the women and chil- 
 dren were landed without difficulty. Man- 
 ning superintended the whole operation, and 
 gave the most active assistance, though 
 Mrs. Cheapstow almost shrunk from his 
 offered help. 
 
 Cussim Ali, who was the last of the pas- 
 sengers to quit the boat, and who had not 
 altogether recovered from his cold and sick- 
 ness, in endeavouring to reach from the side 
 to the shore, where his master extended a 
 hand to assist him, lost his footing, fell be- 
 tween the boat and the rock, and was out of 
 sis;ht in an instant. 
 
 " Let go the cable !" cried Manning to 
 the men who held the vessel in shore, by a 
 rope from her bow, while stripping off his 
 jacket and throwing it on the beach, as he 
 spoke, he jumped into the water. 
 
 The boat drifted from the shore, and 
 neither Cussim Ali or Manning were visible 
 to the anxious spectators. In a few seconds 
 however, the latter rose to the surface, with
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 159 
 
 what appeared to be the drowned body of 
 the poor native in his left hand, which he 
 had strongly clenched in the Mussulman's 
 sash. He swam with him towards the boat 
 which pulled to meet him, and a seaman 
 with powerful arm at once lifted him in. 
 Maiming turned, and soon reached the shore, 
 where in another instant he was assisting; the 
 men to hawl in the boat, which was no 
 sooner effected than Cussim Ali was de- 
 livered to his master, not drowned, but so 
 near it, that it required some exertion of the 
 doctor's art to restore him to life. 
 
 When the doctor was quite satisfied of his 
 poor follower's recovery, he remembered his 
 deliverer. 
 
 " Sir," he said going up to Manning, who, 
 as soon as he saw that Cussim was out of 
 danger, only thought of wringing the water 
 from his clothes. " What can I do, to show 
 my sense of what you have this day done — 
 you have preserved a life that though of but 
 little worth to others, is much to me." 
 
 " I have done but my duty," answered the
 
 1G0 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 officer with the utmost unconcern. " I would 
 deserve to be blamed if I had done other- 
 wise." 
 
 " You risked your life to save that poor 
 creature, who would have been drowned, 
 had it not been for you," said the doctor. 
 
 " The boat, and every one in it, was put 
 under my care, by my captain, and I hope I 
 know my duty as a seaman better than to let 
 life, or any tiling else come between me and 
 its execution." 
 
 " Nobly answered !" said the doctor, " and 
 I hope yell forgive what I said in a moment 
 when I could not so well judge of your sen- 
 timents." 
 
 " Freely," returned the officer, — " I did my 
 duty then, and I did no more now. It 
 cannot be expected that a landsman should 
 enter into a seaman's feelings — though you 
 too, doctor, have perhaps witnessed a regi- 
 mental flogging, and in the discharge of your 
 duty, let the drummers lay in, while the 
 man was able to bear another lash, and you 
 may have used the knife and lopped the
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 161 
 
 limb, when it was necessary for the preser- 
 vation of the body. But the tide is now 
 upon the turn, and we must take advantage 
 of it, to get back to the ship." 
 
 After Manning had left him, the doctor 
 stood for a few minutes musing upon a leaf 
 in the human heart, which had not yet fallen 
 under his observation. " Here is a heart of 
 iron," he said, " in a breast of steel, as his 
 messmates will say, but the more flinty the 
 duties are which strike upon it, the brighter 
 will the sparkles from it be; and I almost 
 believe he has as much satisfaction in the 
 one duty this day performed, as in the other; 
 the single circumstance of its being duty, 
 hallows it in his eyes. When I saw a sup- 
 plicant wretch clinging for life, he only saw 
 an imminent danger to those under his care, 
 and his only thought was to save them ; and 
 when it was done, 1 can never forget the 
 look of those eyes ; he neither saw, nor heard, 
 nor thought of any thing but the vessel under 
 his command, as she righted, and he thinks 
 as little of having risked his life to save my 
 
 VOL. i. M
 
 162 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 poor Cussim; but whatever he may think of 
 it, I'll never forget it, and it will go hard with 
 me, but it will meet him yet." 
 
 With this resolution the doctor rejoined 
 Mrs. Cheapstow, whom he found with the 
 soldier's wives and children, — " Do you see 
 any thing of the Colonel," she said, " doctor? 
 surely the second boat, in which he and the 
 men w r ere to come, might be here by this 
 time." 
 
 " That's impossible, with such currents, 
 and the tide too against them," answered the 
 doctor, " so we need not expect them yet for 
 an hour or more — and in the mean time, 
 while I go and look for a better place, stay 
 you here in the shelter of the rocks." 
 
 " I will go with you, doctor," said Mrs. 
 Cheapstow. " I have no children to detain 
 me, and I will take this mug, which some- 
 body has fortunately brought on shore, and 
 endeavour to find water for the poor infants 
 who are dying with thirst. The little wine 
 which we took with us is all expended, and
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 163 
 
 it seems rather to have increased the evil 
 than done any good." 
 
 " Keep your children in the shadow of 
 the rocks,'' said the doctor to the women who 
 were anxiously thronging round to hear 
 what was determined upon. " Try to amuse 
 them, and keep them from crying, which 
 makes them but the more thirsty, and we 
 will return as soon as we have found any 
 thing eatable or drinkable." 
 
 The doctor had providently brought his 
 gun, and made himself almost certain of 
 meeting; with birds of some kind. " I cannot 
 speak to you of what has passed this day," 
 said Mrs. Cheapstow to the doctor as soon as 
 they were alone — " Let us rather think and 
 speak of what we have to do; I trust the 
 other boats will soon arrive; I am miserable 
 about Cheapstow, who I know cannot and 
 will not leave the vessel until the soldiers 
 are out of it." 
 
 " If we could but discover fruit or water, we 
 might do until the other boats come, for they 
 will certainly bring us something else, we shall 
 
 m 2
 
 1G4 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 be in a fearful condition with these famishing 
 bairns, and their miserable mothers ; but let 
 us hope the best, and try what we can do." 
 
 Cussim Ali recovered from the effects of a 
 plunge, which had nearly cost him his life, 
 followed his master, and earnestly sought for 
 the two necessaries of which they were so 
 much in want. Finding that their little island 
 was altogether flat, he mounted into the top 
 of a tall tree, and from that height perceived 
 a pool of water, through a small opening in 
 the wood — Cussim had a considerable por- 
 tion of the activity and intelligence which 
 is oftener found in Hindostan among- old 
 men than young; though he had certainly 
 passed his youth, he had not attained the 
 years which his white beard might seem to 
 indicate. When from the top of the tree he 
 had announced his joyful discovery (and the 
 inordinate quantity of salt water he had taken 
 made him doubly rejoice in the sight of fresh), 
 his master and Mrs. Cheapstow went to the 
 spot, and had the satisfaction to find that it 
 was better than could have been expected.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 165 
 
 " I have my gun, you see, Mrs. Cheap- 
 stow," said the doctor, " so do not be afraid 
 of wild animals ; but it is better to try and 
 find whether they haunt here, before we 
 bring these poor creatures and their little 
 ones." 
 
 After the narrowest inspection of the 
 pool and its neighbourhood, Cassim Ali 
 gave it as his opinion that there were no 
 beasts of any land there; and on such a 
 subject his was a high authority, as he had 
 all his life been a kind of sportsman in his 
 leisure hours, and been accustomed to pro- 
 vide something for his own curry, and, to use 
 his own phrase, " knew that work well." 
 
 " There are no beasts here, sahib," he 
 said, " not even deer ; you see that the moss 
 on the trees is untouched, and even the long 
 tender shoots from the root, which deer like 
 best ; your own eyes see that, sahib, and if 
 there are no deer there can be no tigers ; 
 what Avould they eat in such a place as 
 this?" 
 
 Relieved from apprehension on this score,
 
 16G THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 the doctor and Mrs. Cheapstow returned to 
 the spot where they left their fellow-sufferers 
 with the good news of their discovery. On 
 reaching the beach, they had the satisfaction 
 to see another boat from the ship so near, 
 that they could distinguish Colonel Cheap- 
 stow and Mr. Clairville, amongst the sol- 
 diers with whom it was filled. 
 
 Mrs. Cheapstow went forward on the 
 rocks to meet her husband, who vainly 
 begged she would not expose herself in the 
 sun, and when the first pleasure of seeing 
 him safely landed, had subsided, she per- 
 ceived that he was followed by his Portu- 
 guese servant Mirza, carrying a well-stuffed 
 bag over his shoulder. 
 
 " What have you brought, Cheapstow ?" 
 demanded his wife. " Provisions I trust, 
 for we have not been able to find any eat- 
 able thing in this uninhabited place." 
 
 " How unfortunate," said the colonel, " I 
 never for an instant doubted of your finding 
 plenty of game, and have even made Mirza 
 bring a lamp and some sauce that we might
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 167 
 
 do them justice. However, we shall certainly 
 find fish, and the sauce will not be alto- 
 gether useless." 
 
 " But that is not all your bag contains — 
 what else have you ?" 
 
 " A change of clothes for you, my dear, 
 and your jewel-box, which I saved from the 
 hands of one of the men, who was in the 
 act of breaking up your trunks, after the 
 first boat had left the vessel ; and I have 
 also taken my own boat cloak and M' Alpha's, 
 which by your account of the place, are 
 more likely to be useful than the first-men- 
 tioned articles ; since there are no lives lost, 
 nor I hope likely to be, (for I think the 
 captain and the whole of the seamen will 
 be here in a few hours,) the worst part of 
 our disaster, is falling on a desert island." 
 
 " The longboat then, which brought us 
 here, had not reached the ship before you 
 left it, Cheapstow ?" demanded his wife. 
 
 " No, nor was she within hail of us — we 
 saw her at a distance, taking advantage of 
 the currents which set outwards, while we
 
 168 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 were obliged to do just the contrary. But 
 the captain when he returns in her, will not 
 omit to bring provisions of all sorts, and 
 shooting and fishing materials. There must 
 be something on the island:' 
 
 " I fear that with so many we shall be 
 dreadfully off,*' answered Mrs. Cheapstow; 
 " but I am very much obliged to you for 
 thinking of my comfort in such circum- 
 stances." 
 
 The seamen who had brought this last 
 boat were so much fatigued with the hard 
 labour they had had in pulling against the 
 currents and ebb tide, that they declared 
 themselves utterly unable to go off again 
 until the afternoon. It was in vain that 
 Colonel Cheapstow and Dr. M'Alpin urged 
 them by every argument they could think of 
 to make a strenuous exertion, where time 
 was so precious, the heat of the sun and in- 
 tense thirst had quite exhausted them, and 
 they with the rest took their way to the 
 water which had just been discovered ; 
 there, having satisfied their thirst they
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 169 
 
 threw themselves to sleep in the shade of 
 the trees. Some of the soldiers had fortu- 
 nately taken a few biscuits in their pockets, 
 which soaked in the water, served for a 
 time to allay the hunger of the children ; 
 others had loaded themselves, as far as they 
 could do it, without being perceived, with 
 things of more value and less utility. 
 
 " This is dreadful, M'Alpin !*' said the 
 colonel. " What can be done for ourselves, 
 and these unhappy infants, who must perish 
 if relief is not speedily procured ?" 
 
 " This island," answered the doctor, " has 
 every appearance of being utterly unin- 
 habited by either man or beast — still we are 
 not altogether sure — my advice is, that we 
 keep ourselves quiet until the sun is a little 
 lower (for it would be making bad worse to 
 bring illness amongst us), and then make 
 the circuit of the place." 
 
 " I quite agree with you, M'Alpin," an- 
 swered Col. Chcapstow, " and then let us 
 divide into separate parties, and coast the
 
 170 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 island in opposite directions, some within 
 and some without the rocks, as at low water 
 we may possibly find turtle or fish of some 
 kind, and we shall at once ascertain whether 
 it contains animals, fowls, fruit, or any thing 
 eatable, without wasting our strength in 
 useless anticipations." 
 
 The plan of operation once fixed, the 
 parties waited more particularly for the hour 
 when they could put it into execution. Dr. 
 M'Alpin tried to persuade Col. Cheapstow, 
 whose health was but partially re-establish- 
 ed, to leave him, Mr. Clairville, and the 
 men to undertake this fatiguing research; 
 he, however, in his character as command- 
 ing officer, was by no means to be dissuaded 
 from undertaking what he conceived to be a 
 duty upon him, and he set out on the cir- 
 cuit of discovery in one direction with some 
 of the men, while Dr. M'Alpin and Mr. 
 Clairville took another. Mrs. Cheapstow, 
 with the rest of the party, remained near 
 the landing-place, in case the boat should 
 arrive in their absence.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 171 
 
 After a long and fatiguing walk over sharp 
 and slippery coral rocks, Colonel Cheapstow 
 and his friend Dr. M'Alpin met on the other 
 side of the island, without having discovered 
 any thing but a few shellfish left among 
 the rocks bv the ebb, and a few sea cocoa- 
 nuts above the water-mark, which seemed 
 rather to have been thrown on the beach by 
 the tide, than to be the produce of the 
 island. Weary and dispirited they were 
 joined by Mr. Clairville and the others, who 
 had explored the interior with as little suc- 
 cess. Some large rats, making their way to 
 the sea-shore, to feed upon what the ebb 
 might have left them, were the only living 
 creatures they had seen. 
 
 " If there were monkeys," said Cussim 
 Ali, " we would have been sure of fruit, 
 and if there were birds we should find grain ; 
 but there is neither the one nor the other: 
 in this bad place there is nothing but water 
 to fill our stomachs." 
 
 " It's but too true, Cussim," said his mas-
 
 172 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 tcr; " but if there's nothing to benefit us, 
 there's nothing to hurt us, so we must 
 just go back again and wait till the boats 
 come."
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 173 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 'Tis not for mortals always to be bless'd ; 
 But him the least the chill or painful hours 
 Of life oppress, whom sober sense conducts, 
 And virtue through tins labyrinth we tread. 
 
 Armstrong. 
 
 From the moment the ship struck, Cap- 
 tain Landless had only thought of saving 
 the lives of those under his command, as it 
 was plain that in such a situation the vessel 
 could not very long hold together. To send 
 off the boats with as many as they could 
 contain was therefore his first object; "II" 
 we can land the people," he said to Man- 
 ning, " we shall be able to get provisions
 
 174 THE NABOB AT IIOME. 
 
 afterwards, and if we cannot do both, at all 
 events let us save the lives first." 
 
 Unfortunately, in getting the boats into 
 the water, some neglect occurred in the 
 darkness and confusion, by which two of 
 them were staved against the ship's side, so 
 that two only remained for the present ser- 
 vice. The longboat, under Manning's skil- 
 ful direction, after having landed her pas- 
 sengers, reached the wreck just as the tide 
 began to make, and the swell agitated 
 the ship so much that the captain almost 
 feared that she would have floated from her 
 present position, when she must inevitably 
 go down. 
 
 After the two boats containing all the 
 passengers, and a few of the ship's company 
 had left him, Captain Landless found, that 
 by the flow of the tide, he and the seamen 
 would be obliged to betake themselves to 
 the maintop, the only part of the rigging 
 which yet remained standing, and which 
 they had reason to he thankful had not 
 been cut away with the rest. The water
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 105 
 
 now rose over the maindeck, and from its 
 weight and pressure on the vessel widened 
 the opening below, so that she commenced 
 to rock and plunge a little head and stern. 
 
 " We shall stand out this tide, I think," 
 said the captain. 
 
 "If it does not come on to blow," an- 
 swered the boatswain ; " and for the present 
 it looks well to windward. We shall stand 
 this tide, though our seams begin to open." 
 
 " Mr. Manning must soon be here with the 
 longboat," said the captain. " She will be 
 enough for all the hands we have now ; and 
 when the jolly-boat returns, she will be able, 
 by the ebb, to get some spirits, rice, and 
 hams." 
 
 These being the stores most at hand, and 
 least likely to suffer from the water, which 
 had drowned the whole of the live -stock in 
 the commencement, and washed them over- 
 board very soon after. 
 
 From the maintop, Captain Landless 
 watched the return of his boats, and saw 
 with his telescope that Mr. Manning had
 
 176 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 pushed off from the island with the first of 
 the ebb, though the currents ran with such 
 violence that he seemed to make but little 
 progress, and he perceived with infinite anx- 
 iety, that what the boat gained in two hours 
 hard pulling was more than once lost in a 
 fourth of the time, and that almost within 
 hail of the ship she was drawn back again 
 by opposing currents. It was evident that 
 the men were almost exhausted from such 
 a continuance of exertion, and when the 
 flood-tide began to make against them, 
 though they were then within two miles 
 of the ship, it seemed as if they should 
 be obliged to relinquish the attempt as 
 fruitless. 
 
 Confined by a number of small islands 
 which could be plainly distinguished at no 
 great distance from each other, the tides 
 and currents ran amongst them, with almost 
 resistless force; and the tide, as has been 
 already mentioned, was again on the turn, 
 before those on board the boat, though 
 they strained every muscle, could succeed in
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 177 
 
 reaching the Snowdon. When they did 
 come along side, no time was lost in quit- 
 ting a vessel, which threatened almost every 
 moment to fall asunder. At high water 
 her hull had been completely submerged ; 
 the ebb was proportionably rapid ; and as 
 it left the vessel, the water poured out from 
 her sides by a thousand chinks and openings, 
 splashing into the sea around her, and 
 covering her from stem to stern with a 
 multitude of little rills, like the commence- 
 ment of a heavy thaw after frost. 
 
 When the ships company had got into 
 the boat it was discovered that the purser 
 was not amongst them. " Where is the 
 purser !" shouted the captain. " Hollo 
 there ! The boat is just going off." 
 
 " Looking after his gold, I'll warrant 
 him," answered a gruff voice, " though it 
 will not buy much where we are going." 
 
 The captain's calls brought the purser on 
 deck, buttoning up his coat, and holding his 
 hands on his pockets ; his foot slid on the 
 slippery boards as he drew near the gang- 
 
 VOL I. n
 
 178 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 Way. He staggered, and in his endeavour 
 to save himself from falling, removed his 
 hands from his pockets to catch a rope, and 
 by so doing let some of his treasure escape, 
 which rolled towards the scupper at the 
 gangway. He made a hurried effort to 
 overtake the rolling money, lost his balance, 
 and falling headlong overboard between the 
 boat and the ship's side, went down like a 
 stone." 
 
 " Ay, there he and his gold go to the 
 bottom together," said the same voice. The 
 captain looked at Manning, who ouly an- 
 swered, "No power on earth can save a 
 man with that weight in his pockets. A 
 sixteen pounder could not do the thing 
 more effectually." 
 
 " He is gone ! poor fellow," answered the 
 captain. "We can do nothing for him, 
 and our time is precious. We have so little 
 room for provision in this boat, that it is 
 indispensable that we should get the other 
 before the Snowdon goes to pieces. Push 
 off."
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 179 
 
 The command was instantly obeyed, and 
 they got clear of the rocks notwithstanding 
 the dangerous surf which broke upon them. 
 They had not got very far when a human 
 creature seemed to start up from the deep, 
 and borne by the tide came floating towards 
 them (the head and shoulders out of water), 
 with a sort of dancing motion turning first 
 on the one side, and then on the other, 
 according to the movement of the waves. 
 
 "And who is that?" demanded the cap- 
 tain. " I did not know that we had lost 
 any of our people." 
 
 " A native Portuguese, who would have 
 sunk us all this morning, in his endeavours 
 to get into the boat, had I not struck him 
 off," answered Manning. 
 
 " You did well and wisely, Manning ; the 
 loss of this boat, would have been the loss 
 of every soul belonging to the Snowdon." 
 
 " Ay, ay, sir," answered the helmsman. 
 " without that, we would all have been, 
 where our poor purser is now." 
 
 Captain Landless gave his officer the 
 
 n2
 
 180 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 praise which lie thought due, to an act 
 which had not only saved the passengers in 
 the "boat, but perhaps the ship's company, 
 though he deeply felt the cruelty of the 
 circumstances which had made such a sacrifice 
 necessary ; and as he looked on the un- 
 closed eyes, and dangling arms, floated by 
 the undulation of the waves, of the awful 
 spectacle before him, gratitude for the pre- 
 servation of so many lives, could alone re- 
 concile his mind to the price paid. Man- 
 ning, in the steady consciousness of duty, 
 looked on the fearful object but as the 
 seal of its performance. The seamen, ac- 
 customed to the Hoogly, were too much fa- 
 miliarized with scenes of the kind to let this 
 make any impression, some of them even 
 passed coarse jokes on the subject, the colour 
 of the skin, causing them to regard the suf- 
 ferer with as much indifference as if he had 
 been an animal instead of a human creature. 
 Those who were most superstitious, regarded 
 his appearance at that moment as an un- 
 lucky omen for them, and in a voice not to
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 181 
 
 be heard by their officers, related their own 
 experience upon such subjects. 
 
 They reached the island, however, in 
 safety, though not until they had seen their 
 deserted vessel go down at one plunge ; the 
 wind had risen and caused a greater swell 
 over the rocks, which lifted her from her 
 resting-point, and finished the catastrophe. 
 Ah hope of further aid was now at an end, 
 and Captain Landless was doubly provoked 
 with the conduct of the crew of the jolly- 
 boat, who had not come to his assistance 
 when they were most wanted. 
 
 It was dark long before they reached 
 their little landing-place, to which they 
 were directed by a fire made of dry brush- 
 wood, kindled by those on shore, who had 
 anxiously looked out for their approach. 
 
 " Where is the jolly-boat and her crew ?" 
 demanded the captain, as soon as he came 
 within hail of those on shore. 
 
 " Left the island an hour before dark," 
 answered Dr. M'Alpin, " neither bribe
 
 182 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 nor entreaty of ours could make them go 
 sooner." 
 
 " The Snowdon has gone to the bottom, 
 and their departure now can be but of 
 little use ; they are more likely to lose the 
 boat and their own lives, than be of any 
 service to us," answered Captain Landless. 
 
 " That creature did not come out of the 
 water for nothing," whispered one of the 
 sailors to his next neighbour. 
 
 " Let the fire be kept up all night," said 
 the captain, " to guide them to the landing- 
 place." 
 
 The captain as soon as he set his foot on 
 shore, ordered a general survey of what- 
 ever had been brought from the ship, and 
 saw with vexation and anger, the large 
 quantity of useless articles (at least, useless 
 in their present circumstances), which had 
 been taken in place of provisions and fish- 
 ing-tackle. 
 
 In the confusion which had attended 
 their embarkation, many had seized upon 
 articles of their own particular calling; and
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 183 
 
 it was but iii the solitary instance of the 
 cook, who had not forgotten his largest 
 kettle, and perhaps the butcher who had 
 taken his knife and hatchet with him, that 
 such an instinct proved useful. Mrs. Cheap-) 
 stow's ayah had seized upon her mistress's 
 dressing-glass, which she had brought tied 
 up in her chudder,* and Mirza had got his 
 master's boot-jacks stuck into his sash. 
 Cussim Ali's inability to take any thing, had 
 perhaps been the means of preserving unim- 
 paired his claims to superior thought and 
 consideration. The soldiers and their wives 
 had also brought a variety of odd articles, 
 little available to their present wants. 
 
 " What have we here," said the captain, 
 examining a heterogeneous mass of things 
 which could scarcely have been expected 
 to be found on a desert island. " Who has 
 brought all tins trumpery, and occupied 
 space which should have been put to better 
 purpose ?" 
 
 " The native servants," answered the cap- 
 
 * Chudder — drapery for the head.
 
 184 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 tain's servant, " when once they got a 
 thing in their grasp, there was no making 
 them quit hold, and I doubt there is plunder 
 from between decks amongst the soldiers 
 and their wives, which is of as little use. 
 I have brought your boat-cloak, sir, and 
 your gun — your powder and shot, your 
 shark-hooks and fishing-lines, sir." 
 
 " That's a good fellow," answered his mas- 
 ter, " these are the things we want. Now, 
 steward, see that our provisions are stowed 
 in one place, and a strict watch kept over 
 them; and in the mean time serve out a 
 small proportion for supper, for those who 
 have had no other food this day." 
 
 Cussim Ali guessed the subject of conver- 
 sation, and hastened to inform his master in 
 Hindostanee, that he had observed a large 
 hole in the rocks, quite dry, and above the 
 water-mark, which would serve the captain 
 sahib for a godown* to keep the " dinner 
 things" from rain if any came. 
 
 " A good thought, my black friend," said 
 
 * Godown — storehouse.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 185 
 
 the captain, when the information was 
 translated to him. "Here, my lads, take 
 torches, examine the cavern, and if it be, 
 what he says, let the provisions be stowed 
 there instantly ;'" and he added in a low 
 voice to the doctor, " and it will be easier to 
 keep them there, too, from light fingers." 
 
 All hands set to work, the cavern was 
 found as Cussim had described it, and the 
 things were removed; the cook proceeded 
 to prepare supper, Avhich consisted of a 
 large kettle of boiled rice, with a few slices 
 of fat ham cut down into it, to give it a 
 relish. 
 
 Contrary to his usual habits, Colonel 
 Cheapstow found his supper better than any 
 thing he had tasted for a great many months. 
 The provision was served out to every indi- 
 vidual in exact measure, allowing half as 
 much for the children as for the grown per- 
 sons; and afterwards a small portion of 
 brandy-and-water was in like manner distri- 
 buted.
 
 186 THE NABOB AT IIOME. 
 
 This sustenance, slender as it was, served 
 to raise the drooping spirits of the poor 
 islanders, and having lighted several fires 
 to counteract as much as possible the effects 
 of the night air, they prepared to sleep. 
 Dr. M'Alpin and Colonel Cheapstow had, 
 while daylight lasted, collected a quantity 
 of dry grass, and made a kind of couch for 
 Mrs. Cheapstow, who overcome with fatigue 
 and the agitation she had suffered, was no 
 longer able to sit up. 
 
 Captain Landless, fertile in expedients, 
 ordered the men to bring up the mainsail 
 and oars from the longboat, with which he 
 constructed a sort of tent to shield her from 
 the weather. Mrs. Cheapstow and her ayah 
 occupied one end of the frail dwelling, Co- 
 lonel Cheapstow and the doctor the other; 
 while Cussim Ali and Mirza, like mice, hid 
 themselves in the folds of the sail which 
 hung on the ground. The colonel and Dr. 
 M'Alpin, as soon as they found that they 
 were to be lodged in the tent, made over
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 187 
 
 their boat-cloaks for the use of the women 
 and children, who had no other canopy than 
 the cope of heaven. 
 
 Captain Landless and his officers, accus- 
 tomed to change of place and climate, took 
 upon themselves the duty of sentries, and 
 stretched themselves down, all round the 
 tent. 
 
 Nothing occurred to disturb their repose ; 
 no noise was heard but the rushing of the 
 waves on the rocky shore, and though Cap- 
 tain Landless often in the course of the 
 night, looked out on the moonlit sea, no 
 trace of the missing boat was to be seen. 
 The beacon-fire had been carefully attended 
 to, and kept burning all night, and when 
 morning dawned without any appearance of 
 the boat, Captain Landless gave it as his 
 opinion, that she must either have struck 
 upon some sunken rock, and gone to the 
 bottom in the dark, or gained one of the 
 other islands. 
 
 As soon as dawn commenced, every one 
 was on foot to endeavour to provide, as
 
 188 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 much as the nature of their circumstances 
 permitted, for their daily wants. 
 
 Captain Landless had determined from 
 the low state of his provisions, to issue but 
 one spare meal a day, and every one's in- 
 genuity was called into exertion, to supply 
 the rest. Some of the men ranged along 
 the shore in quest of what the tide might 
 have tin-own up, and were actually so 
 happy as to find a barrel of salt beef, floated 
 from the wreck. This discovery gave them 
 spirits to go through with the fatigues of 
 their search, though the rocks were so 
 sharp, that many had their shoes cut 
 through — a miserable prognostic of what 
 was to come. 
 
 Captain Landless had in the mean time 
 employed several of the men to fell a tall 
 tree, which they set up, on the highest 
 point of the island as a flag-staff, and tying 
 all the neckcloths and pocket-handkerchiefs 
 together, fastened their flag thus formed to 
 their mast in hopes of attracting the notice 
 of some vessel at sea.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 189 
 
 While this was going forward, and the 
 men occupied in different directions, the 
 Lascars* took the opportunity of jumping 
 into the longboat, when there was none by 
 to prevent them, cutting her cable and 
 pulling out to sea, in hopes of gaining some 
 other land. 
 
 Manning was the first, as he returned to 
 the landing-place, to discover the theft; and 
 he snatched the gun out of Dr. M' Alpha's 
 hand, who accompanied him, with the in- 
 tention of firing on the serang.-j* The Las- 
 cars, aware of their danger, pulled with all 
 their strength, and were out of his reach, 
 before he could bring the gun to bear on 
 them. 
 
 " The Lascars are of the caste of rogues," 
 said Cussim, who was following his master. 
 " When was it that they ever lost an oppor- 
 tunity to run away and leave their masters 
 in danger ?" 
 
 " Our rascally Lascars," cried Manning, 
 
 * Lascars — native seamen. 
 
 f Serang — chief of the Lascars.
 
 190 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 running with the unwelcome intelligence 
 to Captain Landless, " have made their 
 escape, and carried away our longboat." 
 
 "Impossible!" said the captain; "they 
 dare not be guilty of such an action!" 
 
 " Look there then, captain, and satisfy 
 yourself; there they are pulling with force 
 that nothing but a knavish action would 
 ever make them exert." 
 
 The captain looked through the telescope, 
 which he never quitted, and was satisfied 
 that Manning's information was correct, by 
 perceiving that there was not a European 
 amongst them. 
 
 " We should have known them better, 
 Manning," he said, "than to have put it in 
 their power to serve us a trick of the kind. 
 They have taken from us the only means we 
 had of seeking for an inhabited place, or of 
 procuring iish to eke out our spare provi- 
 sions. They have, I trust not, got the 
 mainsail." 
 
 " No," said Manning ; " cowardly knaves ; 
 they were afraid to touch that, I suppose,
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 191 
 
 though there were only the women there 
 at the time." 
 
 " At all events," said the doctor, who by 
 this time joined them, "let us take the com- 
 fort our situation will admit : by their de- 
 parture we have fewer mouths to feed, and 
 the soldiers have lighted on a prize on the 
 shore — a cask of salt provisions." 
 
 " That's lucky," said the captain ; " we 
 must keep a good look out, Manning, per- 
 haps the next flood may bring us something 
 of the same kind." 
 
 Towards evening a sail was seen on the 
 horizon; but notwithstanding the signals 
 from the flag-staff, and all the smoke they 
 could raise, the strange sail stood on without 
 taking any notice of their endeavours. 
 
 " At any rate, we are not out of the 
 course of ships," said the doctor. " Let us 
 take comfort from that, Captain Landless; 
 to-morrow, who knows but what we may 
 be more fortunate ?" 
 
 In the evening the daily meal was again 
 cooked, and dispositions made for passing
 
 192 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 the night as before. Cussim Ali, fortu- 
 nately, found a small fish in a pool, which 
 he broiled on the coals for himself; being 
 too good a Mussulman to allow hunger even 
 to be the cause of his eating rice, that had 
 been polluted by the forbidden ham. Mrs. 
 Cheapstow's ayah was not so scrupulous, 
 though she declared her intention of ab- 
 solving herself from the crime, and buying 
 back her caste, if ever she lived to return to 
 Bengal. 
 
 The next day, and several following, past 
 in the same manner. Many sails were seen, 
 but one after another passed without taking 
 the slightest notice of their repeated signals, 
 probably thinking that the smoke which they 
 sent up, was only made by fishermen cook- 
 ing on the shore. 
 
 Their shoes in a short time were cut to 
 pieces by the sharpness of the coral rocks, 
 and their feet so lacerated and swelled, that 
 dispirited by repeated disappointments, 
 when a ship was seen, very few had spirits 
 to climb to the flag-staff to make the requi-
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 193 
 
 site signals. Even fishing, more necessary 
 as it was every day, by the consumption of 
 their provisions, became an insupportable 
 task, and nothing but Captain Landless's 
 threat to cut off the allowance of those who 
 did not make the exertion, induced many to 
 bear the torment of the salt water on their 
 excoriated feet. 
 
 Their prospects every day became darker 
 and more hopeless, and they began to dread 
 that fear of the currents running amongst 
 those islands, would for ever prevent ships 
 from approaching them. Mrs. Cheapstow 
 had, in the commencement, consoled herself 
 by observing, that her husband's health was 
 visibly amended, and the hope that their re- 
 sidence on the island would not be of very 
 long continuance. Many were of opinion that 
 the lascars, who were well acquainted with 
 the bay, would make the mainland, and by 
 mvina; information of the wreck of the Snow- 
 don, be the means of sending some vessel to 
 the assistance of her crew, but as day after 
 day passed, the expectation died away. Each 
 
 vol. i. o
 
 194 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 tried to conceal his apprehension from the 
 other, and to talk of hopes which were no 
 longer felt. 
 
 Three weeks of torturing suspense had 
 now passed away, and their scanty provisions 
 were almost expended, when one evening, 
 after having made several signals which they 
 believed to have passed without notice, they 
 were surprised by the welcome appearance 
 of a boat pulling round the wooded corner 
 of their island to their little landing-place. 
 
 " Thank God!" said Colonel and Mrs. 
 Cheapstow in a breath. 
 
 " God be praised !" exclaimed the doctor. 
 
 Every one crowded down to the pier to 
 greet the new arrivals. They found that 
 the boat was commanded by a European 
 lad, and manned by lascars, and that she 
 belonged to a " country ship," one of the 
 trading vessels between Gangam and Acheen. 
 " Captain Hawser," he said, " had seen their 
 flag, and knowing that the island was unin- 
 habited, had sent him to bring off as many 
 as their boat could contain, and thinking
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME- 195 
 
 that they might be in want he had also sent 
 rice and brandy." 
 
 " Let the women and children go first, as 
 before," said Captain Landless, " with Colo- 
 nel Cheapstow, Dr. M'Alpin, and their ser- 
 vants — and I will thank you, young man, to 
 make Captain Landless's compliments, of the 
 Honourable Company's late ship, Snowdon, 
 to Captain Hawser, and say how much I am 
 indebted to his humane attention, and I trust 
 he will make our distresses known to the 
 proper authorities in the first port he may 
 reach." 
 
 " Depend upon us for that," said Colonel 
 Cheapstow and the doctor, both speaking 
 together — " if money can procure a vessel, 
 she shall be sent without losing an hour." 
 
 " We shall do what we can to get the 
 boat sent back for you, sir, when we reach 
 the ship," said the lad. 
 
 " Thank you, my good friend," answered 
 Captain Landless — " I shall be glad to send 
 off several of my people who have suffered 
 in their feet ; but it is impossible for me to 
 
 o2
 
 196 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 leave the island while a man remains upon 
 it. 
 
 " Farewell, my brave friend," said the 
 doctor, shaking hands with Captain Land- 
 less, " I trust we shall yet meet in the land 
 o' cakes. Fare ye well, Manning, and if 
 government has not a ship to send for you, 
 I will hire one and send it myself, I give 
 you my word." 
 
 Fellowship in suffering had made Colonel 
 Cheapstow and Dr. M'Alpin personally ac- 
 quainted with every man on the island, and 
 they both deposited orders on Calcutta to a 
 considerable amount in the hands of Captain 
 Landless, for the use of his ship's company, 
 who greeted the departure of the boats with 
 loud cheers, waving their hats, and wishing 
 a prosperous voyage to those on board. 
 
 When those who were thus unexpectedly 
 released from their almost hopeless captivity 
 had reached the " Eastern Star," and that 
 Captain Hawser was made acquainted with 
 the necessities of those on shore, though his 
 small vessel did not admit of his receiving many
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 197 
 
 more passengers, lie generously freighted the 
 boat and sent her to the island a second 
 time, with rice, sail-cloth, hatchets, saws, 
 hammers, nails, and a part of his own little 
 provisions, that they might be enabled to 
 construct a hut to shelter them from the 
 weather. Fortunately no rain had fallen 
 during their stay on the island; but such 
 drought could not be expected much 
 longer. 
 
 The Eastern Star was laid-to, so near the 
 island, that her boat went and returned in a 
 fourth part of the time which had been con- 
 sumed by those from the unfortunate Snow- 
 don ; on her second return she brought Mr. 
 Clairville, and a few of the men whose feet 
 were in a deplorable condition. Captain 
 Hawser gave up his own cabin to Mrs. 
 Cheapstow, and did every thing which cir- 
 cumstances would permit during the three 
 days they were in reaching Gangam, for the 
 comfort of his half-famished passengers. 
 
 There was no other vessel fit for sea at 
 the time the Eastern Star reached the port;
 
 198 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 but Colonel Cheapstow represented the ur- 
 gent necessity of those he had left on the 
 island, with such force, that she was taken 
 up on account of government for this service, 
 and Captain Hawser employed men to work 
 night and day in unloading her and getting 
 the stores on board requisite for so many 
 Europeans. The good doctor, in conformity 
 to his promise, spared neither trouble nor 
 expense in procuring whatever could be 
 useful. Mrs. Cheapstow employed all the 
 durzies at the place in making up as much 
 linen as the time would admit, and every 
 British resident made a contribution from 
 their wardrobes for the use of those who 
 were literally in rags. It was determined 
 that the Eastern Star should take the 
 islanders back to Calcutta, and that as soon 
 as another vessel could be got ready for 
 their transport, the soldiers' wives and chil- 
 dren should be sent there also. 
 
 When all these arrangements were ef- 
 fected, Colonel and Mrs. Cheapstow, and 
 the doctor, had leisure to think of them-
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 199 
 
 selves and their own wants. They had been, 
 the moment their distressed situation was 
 known, most kindly received into the 
 house of an old resident at Gangam, where 
 they only proposed to remain long enough 
 to recover their fatigues, recruit their wasted 
 strength, and get what was indispensably 
 necessary before they proceeded dawk* 
 along the coast to Madras, as the season was 
 so far advanced, that they preferred sailing 
 from that port to Europe, to returning 
 asain to Calcutta. 
 
 Both the doctor and Colonel Cheapstow 
 left substantial tokens of their gratitude with 
 Captain Hawser at parting. He was the 
 bearer of letters from them to Captain Land- 
 less, announcing the arrangements which 
 had been made, and repeating their feelings 
 of gratitude to him, and friendly interest in 
 their fellow-sufferers. Dr. M' Alpin, in Avriting 
 to Mr. Manning, begged that he would draw 
 whatever money he required while in Cal- 
 cutta out of the hands of his agent, whose 
 
 * Dawk — post.
 
 200 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 address lie enclosed ; and at the end of three 
 days from that on which they entered the 
 port, they had the satisfaction to see the 
 Eastern Star weigh anchor and depart, better 
 provided with food and wearables, than could 
 possibly have been expected in so short a 
 time. 
 
 Having such a long land journey to per- 
 form, Dr. M'Alpin judged it prudent for 
 Colonel Cheapstow to keep perfectly quiet; 
 and having taken upon himself to make the 
 requisite preparations, he trusted that his 
 friend would be able to undergo the fatigue 
 without material injury. Several days must 
 elapse before the dawk could be laid, and in 
 the mean time he resolved to gratify himself 
 by paying a visit to the celebrated temple of 
 Jaghurnaut.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 201 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Th' ascending pile 
 
 Stood fixt her stately height : and strait the doors 
 
 Op'ning their brazen folds, discover wide 
 
 Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth 
 
 And level pavement : from the arched roof, 
 
 Pendent by subtle magic, many a row 
 
 Of starry lamps, and blazing cressets, fed 
 
 With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light 
 
 As from a sky. 
 
 Milton. 
 
 When Dr. M'Alpin arrived at the 
 temple famous over India for its antiquity 
 and unrivalled splendour, he stood dumb 
 with wonder on beholding such an extra- 
 ordinary structure, and looked from the roof 
 to the base, as if he almost doubted that
 
 202 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 man's labour was capable of accomplishing 
 such a work. 
 
 The temple, enclosed by two courts of 
 surprising extent, surrounded by high walls, 
 and pillared verandas round their interior, 
 stands on an immense platform of solid 
 rock : an enormous mass of granite has been, 
 by incredible labour, cut down to an exact 
 level a few feet above the ground for the 
 foundation of this gigantic work. The great 
 pyramid, in stupendous altitude, rears itself 
 gray with the tints of time, in the midst of 
 this enclosure. The centre pyramid over 
 the grand entrance, and the whole face of 
 the temple, is wrought in endless sculpture 
 as far as the eye can reach. 
 
 It is impossible by words to give an idea 
 of the imposing magnitude of this mass 
 of building; to show how inadequate de- 
 scription must be, it is sufficient to mention 
 that at a hundred and fifty feet from the 
 ground, the greatest height to which mea- 
 surement has yet extended, each single stone 
 used in the building has been found to con-
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 203 
 
 sist of granite blocks of a thousand square 
 feet. The riches of this temple which are 
 reputed to be incalculable, have never been 
 exposed to European eyes, since a French- 
 man in the disguise of a native performing 
 penance, contrived to effect an entrance into 
 the temple, and in the night stole a ruby of 
 immense value, one of the eyes of the idol. 
 
 Nothing can be more hideous than this 
 frightfully misshapen image of Jaghurnaut, 
 which from superstitious reasons was hewn 
 entire out of a log of wood, which the Brah- 
 mins reported to have been by miraculous 
 means landed on their coast. 
 
 The doctor, in surveying the place, recog- 
 nised at a little distance a Brahmin whom 
 he had formerly known at Benares. The 
 regular and finely-proportioned features of 
 this man's face had altogether a lofty and 
 contemplative character, which accorded 
 well with the dignified carriage of his body ; 
 his age might be about thirty-six. His fore- 
 head and nose were marked down the centre
 
 204 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 with nicely-drawn lines of yellow paint, 
 which denoted the caste to which he 
 belonged ; his bosom was marked with the 
 same sign, and round his neck hung his 
 brahminee beads, and a small linked gold 
 chain. His dress consisted merely of a 
 piece of white cotton with red ends, passed 
 two or three times round his waist, and 
 hanging down to the knee ; with a muslin 
 jacket tight to his shape, and a snow-white 
 turban of the same material. 
 
 When Dr. M'Alpin approached, he bent 
 his head in two or three respectful salaams. 
 " The sahib is welcome," he said, speaking 
 in Hindostanee. "We are happy to see him 
 in this place." 
 
 The doctor raised his hat after the man- 
 ner of European salutation ; a compliment 
 to which natives acquainted with European 
 manners, are generally very sensible. 
 
 "I am happy to see you in health, 
 Krishen," he said ; " and much as I have 
 seen of your building in this country, I
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 205 
 
 never have seen any thing like this — the 
 interior must be equal to the exterior of 
 such a place." 
 
 " The sahib would think so, if he could 
 see its splendour with his own eyes — the 
 gold and the silver and the jewels making the 
 night seem like day; and the golden lamps 
 like the stars in the firmament, and the 
 smoke of incense like the clouds of heaven. 
 But the sahib has come in a good time, for 
 to-morrow is the beginning of our great 
 days — the pilgrims will come in, and Jaghur- 
 naut will ride out in his car." 
 
 " If to-morrow is the great procession of 
 the pilgrims, Krishen, you could perhaps 
 contrive to let me see the temple. I know 
 that it is not permitted for any one but a 
 Hindoo, by your laws to enter there; still, 
 I know that you are above the belief in all 
 the rules which have been made for the 
 vulgar." 
 
 " I would do it for the sahib," answered 
 the Hindoo, " knowing that he has the 
 wisdom and learning of a Brahmin, but my
 
 206 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 brothers would look upon mo with, evil 
 eyes." 
 
 " You do not believe that the log of wood 
 set up by man's hands is God?" said the 
 doctor. " I am well enough acquainted 
 with your Shasters to know that they say 
 ' God has no likeness." 
 
 " They are the words of truth," answered 
 the Brahmin, " and were written for our 
 caste ; but the ignorant who cannot imagine 
 what their eyes have not seen, must have a 
 form to look upon." 
 
 The doctor felt the uselessness of arguing 
 with a Brahmin on such a subject ; he knew 
 that the man before him considered his 
 own soul, as well as all those of his privi- 
 leged caste, so many sparks of the divine 
 essence, to be " reabsorbed into the ocean of 
 eternal rest," when they had merited bliss 
 by their lives, or by many transmigrations 
 been cleansed from the sins they had con- 
 tracted in their mortal pilgrimage. 
 
 Dr. M'Alpin could not look upon the 
 surprising effects of man's patient industry
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 207 
 
 now before him, without something of the 
 overwhelming impression, which overpowers 
 the mind in the contemplation of the 
 grand features of nature. Its magnitude, 
 its elevation, its durability, all joined 
 to heighten the eifect, and disposed his 
 mind to consider the might which is in the 
 arm of fallen man, under the direction of 
 his reasoning and inventive faculties, to pro- 
 duce a work so far beyond his apparent 
 strength and duration on earth. A monu- 
 ment reared by the children of a day, 
 which seemed destined to last to the 
 end of time! — if his heart for a moment 
 swelled with a proud thought on the power 
 of the spirit of man, it died within him, 
 and his head sunk on his breast, when the 
 object for which such a temple had been 
 reared, presented itself to his mind. Can 
 man imagine such lofty devices for such an 
 end ? Can he whose thoughts seem ready 
 to aspire to heaven — who works not for an 
 hour or for a day, but who lays a foundation, 
 solid as the mountains — broad as their base — 
 and who rears a structure upon it, like them,
 
 208 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 capable of defying all changes of weather, 
 and to stand against time, bow down before 
 an idol of his own formation ? 
 
 The doctor turned from the temple to 
 consider a pyramid near it, not less impres- 
 sive, entirely formed of the skulls of pilgrims, 
 who, worn out with fatigue, and reduced to 
 the last degree of misery and poverty, had 
 breathed their last there. This ghastly wea- 
 ther-bleached heap rose in white contrast 
 to the dark mass by which it was caused. 
 " Would that these dry bones could speak," 
 said the doctor; "would that these tenant- 
 less jaws had a tongue to warn the infatuated 
 benighted multitude from their way !" 
 
 " It is a fine sight," said the Brahmin, 
 looking at the bare pyramid of what had 
 once been human heads. " All these chil- 
 dren of Adam died here for the honour of 
 Jaghurnaut." 
 
 The doctor turned to regard the speaker 
 as if he was looking on him for the first 
 time, surprised that two human creatures 
 could think and feel so differently on the
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 209 
 
 same subject. He eyed him for a moment 
 as if his glance would say — " Are you not 
 flesh — are you not blood — are you not sen- 
 sible of human misery, and degradation, and 
 suffering ? But it was but for the first moment 
 of lacerated feeling that such thoughts occu- 
 pied his mind. He well knew that the ma- 
 gic wand of the bloody monster Superstition 
 had changed the most revolting scenes into 
 offerings of pride and pleasure in the eyes 
 of millions of his race. Beyond the spot 
 where they stood, extended a valley, filled 
 with uncollected fragments of what had 
 been lately, living, moving, sentient crea- 
 tures, amongst which jackals glided even 
 in the light of the sun, and birds of prey 
 fought. 
 
 "What is that?" said the doctor, listen- 
 ing; to what seemed to him like a faint 
 shriek. 
 
 " Nothing," said the Brahmin. " Some 
 bird attacking a man before he is dead." 
 
 " God be merciful to us !" exclaimed the 
 doctor, rushing forward, for his perfect ac- 
 
 VOL. I. p
 
 210 TIIE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 quaintance with native apathy rather heigh- 
 tened than subdued his irritable feelings. At 
 no great distance he discovered a miserable 
 native (lying on the ground where he had 
 been abandoned to die) making feeble 
 efforts to keep off the vultures who gathered 
 round him, and bleeding from the wound 
 which had caused his shriek. At the ap- 
 pearance of a living man, the sullen troop 
 rose, heavily napping their black wings, 
 and again alighted on a rock at a little dis- 
 tance, where they remained in watchful ex- 
 pectation, stretching their red, bare necks. 
 
 Dr. M'Alpin to his great surprise found, 
 that the wretched sufferer, was no other 
 than his own mate bearer, from whom he 
 had parted at Sangor ; his present extreme 
 weakness he found proceeded more from 
 exhaustion than illness, and he was anxious 
 to make an effort for him which he hoped 
 might be successful. The doctor knew that 
 it was vain to expect that the bearers who 
 had brought him to Jaghurnaut would 
 lose their caste by rendering assistance to
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 211 
 
 any one in such circumstances. While he 
 was considering in great anxiety what it 
 was possible for him to do, some pariahs* 
 arrived to deposit the body of a man al- 
 ready dead, and money easily engaged them 
 in the service of the living. He made 
 them carry the poor creature into the 
 nearest shady spot, as it was not possible 
 to take him into a house, for no native would 
 pollute his dwelling by suffering such a guest 
 to enter it. 
 
 Fortunately the doctor found Cussim Ali, 
 with, his palanquin-bearers, who knowing 
 his master's ways, was willing enough to 
 assist him in any thing that would not 
 endanger his caste, and at his bidding ran 
 to procure food for Manoorut, There were 
 abundance of stalls at no great distance, 
 where provisions might be obtained for those 
 who had money to purchase it; but the 
 owners, hardened to the fearful spectacle of 
 human misery because they were accus- 
 
 * Pariahs — outcasts employed in the most menial, 
 offices. 
 
 p 2
 
 212 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 tomed to it at the time of pilgrimage, would 
 not give to any one, without first receiving 
 its full value, a single, grain of rice. 
 
 The doctor took the food from the hands 
 of Cussim Ali, and with his own, gave it 
 in the proportion he deemed expedient to 
 the sufferer, who, considering the place 
 from which he had been taken, and the 
 hands which had carried him there, had no 
 right to reject food even from a European. 
 
 Manoorut opened his eyes and seemed to 
 recognise his master as he put a particle 
 into his mouth ; but though unable to speak, 
 he swallowed his food. 
 
 A week before the poor bearer would 
 have died any death that could have been 
 offered to him rather than to have defiled him- 
 self by receiving food from a hand of lower 
 caste; though his master was in all other 
 respects, in his eyes, an object to be honoured 
 and almost worshipped, (for he had often 
 called him " His God,") yet in this one 
 particular he considered him as on a level 
 with dogs, and had his "caste not been
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 213 
 
 gone," by his misfortunes, he would have 
 shut his teeth against the offered suste- 
 nance. 
 
 The doctor knew the feelings of those who 
 were about him, and told them " that in his 
 profession, he had a right to give medicine 
 even with his own hand, and that many 
 men of the first caste, might take what he 
 had touched." The Brahmin remained at a 
 distance sufficient to prevent his hearing 
 what was said, — he would not even run the 
 risk of respiring the air polluted by a crea- 
 ture in Manoorut's circumstances. Cussim 
 Ali, who hated the whole of his race with 
 genuine Mussulman hatred, did not lose so 
 good an opportunity of declaring his opinion 
 very freely upon the proceedings of the 
 class to which he belonged. 
 
 " This is the work of the Brahmins, sahib ; 
 tins is their good work. I know that though 
 Manoorut left his money with his family, 
 when we came down the river, he had
 
 214 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 enough to bring him here, if they had not 
 robbed him. Every pilgrim before he comes 
 into the town of Jaghurnaut must pay a tax, 
 and another to the Brahmins before they can 
 enter the temple. You know, sahib, if many 
 of the poor Hindoos, who come from the 
 farthest end of India, can bear that, after 
 they have eaten all their money on the road. 
 Nine days after, when this uproar is passed, 
 there will be more dead round this pagoda 
 than if a battle had been fought on the 
 ground." 
 
 " I know," answered his master, " that for 
 time immemorial, every pilgrim entering the 
 town of Jaghurnaut paid a tax to the 
 Rajah," and he continued speaking to him- 
 self as he often did, in English, " which I 
 fear is continued by our government, I have 
 heard people say, for the intention of de- 
 creasing the influx of pilgrims. — And what 
 better," he said, turning to Cussim Ali, and 
 again speaking in Hindostanee, " is your
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 215 
 
 great festival in honour of Hassan and 
 Hussein, when you go about beating your 
 breasts for three nights, and scaring sleep 
 from the world? Are not you as glad to 
 draw blood, and to mark your road with 
 dead, in honour of them, as the Hindoos can 
 be for Jashurnaut ?" 
 
 " Oh, there is a great difference, sahib," 
 said the Mussulman, earnestly though re- 
 spectfully: " Hassan and Hussein were the 
 grandsons of our prophet, and great warriors, 
 and fought many a battle, and it is well that 
 their name should be kept up, and it is 
 honourable that men should die for them, 
 but for that log of wood, Jaghurnaut ? — the 
 Hindoos are fools, and of the caste of fools, 
 to believe that any man can get good by 
 dying here — but for us — who die fighting 
 with our swords in our hands — Mahomet 
 has said, that the gates of Paradise are open." 
 
 Dr. M'Alpin found that his bearer was 
 not at that time likely to increase the num.-
 
 216 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 ber of victims; he had regained so much 
 of the use of speech as to utter a few words 
 of thanks to his master, who bribed people 
 to carry him to the house of an acquaintance, 
 Lieutenant Armstrong, whom he found was 
 in command of the guard, sent to preserve 
 order during the time of pilgrimage. 
 
 At his house the doctor resolved to pass 
 the night, as he would never again have an 
 opportunity of witnessing the tremendous 
 scene which was next day to be enacted, 
 and in the morning his friend accompanied 
 him upon his elephant, taking care to keep 
 clear of the living stream, which with almost 
 as much fury as the Ganges when it has 
 burst its banks, poured into the grand portal 
 of the vast enclosure. Many of those whom 
 long travel and famine had exhausted, borne 
 down by the crowd, were crushed to atoms 
 under the regardless feet of the thronging 
 multitude, all struggling forward as earnestly 
 as if eternity hung upon a point of time.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 217 
 
 From a hundred and fifty to two hundred 
 thousand persons were there — all animated 
 by the same desire — all rushing forward to 
 the same object, many of them having come 
 from distant provinces, having borne hunger 
 and thirst, fatigue and exposure in their 
 fiercest extremes, and many too, having 
 added to those natural evils, instruments of 
 torture and varieties of penance, which only 
 Hindoos could devise. 
 
 It was impossible to distinguish particular 
 sounds, but the aggregate mass of sound, if 
 it is allowable to use such an expression, 
 the voice of this mighty congregation swelled 
 like the chafing of ocean, and rose and fell 
 with the undulation of the atmosphere, the 
 tread of their feet forming a deep, r dow, hol- 
 low accompaniment resembling the long roll 
 of distant thunder. That temple, like the 
 grave, to which it conducted so many, swal- 
 lowed up the living stream. There they 
 were lost to the eye, and there too, like the
 
 218 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 grave, all were equal; from the moment 
 they had passed under the portal, there was 
 no distinction of caste or of rank, the prince 
 and the beggar, the Brahmin and the pariah, 
 were equal. Let sages say how it is that 
 man, in the lowest depths of his degradation, 
 or in the utmost height of his pride's inflation, 
 still feels that there is a natural equality 
 which circumstances cannot alter, and that 
 miserable and erroneous as his ideas are, he 
 no sooner realizes to himself a supreme pre- 
 sence, than he falls even in his own eyes to 
 the level of his fellows. 
 
 " This is no pleasant duty," said Mr. Arm- 
 strong, " particularly when the idol com- 
 mences his procession. It has now been my 
 lot to be here twice, and I hope it may never 
 occur again." 
 
 " The scene is horrid, in every sense of the 
 word," replied Dr. M'Alpin; " yet being on 
 the spot one feels curious to see even such 
 an enormity."
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 219 
 
 When the stupendous car, on which the 
 idol was placed, issued from the massy por- 
 tal, a shout burst from the eager multitude, 
 loud, deep, and reiterated. Dragged by a 
 thousand ready hands, the ponderous ma- 
 chine slowly moved on amidst the triumphant 
 shouts of frantic worshippers, and the deeper 
 clamour of cymbals, conches, and tom-toms.* 
 The car was constructed upon an enormous 
 framework of strong beams, firmly fastened 
 upon a number of broad low wheels. On 
 this foundation five stages rose in regular 
 succession — these stages, which were covered 
 with coloured silk, gilding, and foil, were de- 
 corated with talc chattas, flags, chouries, and 
 flowers, and appropriated to the musicians 
 and dancers, who to the number of several 
 hundreds loaded the car, making the greatest 
 noise which their voices and instruments 
 could possibly effect. 
 
 On the pinnacle of the car, or rather pyra- 
 
 * Tom-toms — drums.
 
 220 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 mid, was placed the hideous misshapen figure 
 of Jaghurnaut, radiant with jewels, which, 
 under the rays of a bright sun, dazzled the 
 eyes of his fanatic worshippers. The shout- 
 ing of the multitude, and the creeking of the 
 wheels, stifled the groans and shrieks, if 
 there were any, uttered by those whom acci- 
 dent, design, or zeal, had thrown under the 
 wheels of the weighty machine, and it 
 was not until the procession, and the train 
 which followed it, had rolled on, that it was 
 possible to distinguish that it had left frag- 
 ments on the red earth, which did not belong- 
 to it, and which none regarded. 
 
 This then was idolatry in its visible form, 
 and these were its real fruits, and this was 
 the appalling worship upheld by those who 
 desired to give the people something tangible 
 and visible within their grasp, conceiving it 
 impossible for them to comprehend infinity. 
 
 It was not until the crowd had in some 
 degree given way, that Dr. M'Alpin and
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 221 
 
 his friend could move from the spot, where 
 they had first posted themselves to witness 
 this extraordinary scene, which the con- 
 tinued noise in the distance warned them 
 was still going forward in all its vigour. 
 The doctor begged Mr. Armstrong to per- 
 mit his poor Manoorut to stay with his 
 bearers until he should be sufficiently re- 
 covered to return to his own home, and he 
 took care before quitting Mr. Armstrong's 
 house the next day, to leave money sufficient 
 for that purpose. 
 
 When Dr. M'Alpin rejoined Colonel and 
 Mrs. Cheapstow at Gangam, he found that 
 the dawk was laid, and every thing in rea- 
 diness for their commencing their journey 
 next evening. Their cavalcade would be 
 large, as they had no other means of con- 
 veying Cussim Ali, Mirza, and the ayah, 
 but by dawk also. A few indispensable 
 requisites constituted all their baggage,
 
 222 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 which also they were obliged to transport 
 by relays of bangy-wallahs.* 
 
 * Bangy-wallahs — those who run post with light bag- 
 gage suspended from their shoulders.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 223 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The quality of mercy is not strained : 
 It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
 Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed : 
 It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes. 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 The bearers had been regularly laid, and 
 our friends arrived at Madras without inter- 
 ruption, though greatly fatigued with so 
 long and rapid a journey. They went 
 straight to the house of Colonel Marsden on 
 Choultry plain, who being an old friend of 
 Colonel Cheapstow's, upon hearing of his 
 distress, had written to Gangam to say, that
 
 224 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 his house at Madras was very much at 
 Colonel and Mrs. Cheapstow's service, 
 though, he regretted that duty obliged him 
 to be absent at the time. This Mrs. Cheap - 
 stow would have been sorry for in other 
 circumstances ; but at present, when she had 
 every thing to get for such a voyage, and 
 Colonel Cheapstow was so unequal to any 
 exertion, she felt she would be more at 
 liberty without even the company of their 
 host. He had kindly left his carriage for 
 her use, so that she could commence ope- 
 rations without loss of time. 
 
 The doctor's first object was to secure 
 their passage in the Kuthven Castle, a fine 
 new ship then lying in the roads, which his 
 agent had particularly recommended, and 
 he was fortunate enough to procure exactly 
 the same accommodation as they had for- 
 merly had in the Snowdon. He doubly 
 rejoiced in this circumstance, as the prospect
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 225 
 
 of being obliged to put up with a secondary 
 cabin, while those of less standing might be 
 in the first, had in the morning harassed 
 Colonel Cheapstow. Now the certainty that 
 he would not only be comfortably accom- 
 modated, but according to his rank, the 
 good doctor hoped would produce a very 
 favourable effect, and he hastened back with 
 the satisfactory intelligence. 
 
 On the island the colonel had valiantly 
 endured every privation without murmur or 
 complaint, and at Ganjam he had shown 
 himself only anxious to promote the comfort 
 of those who had been his brethren in mis- 
 fortune. Now the case was different; there 
 were no longer urgent claims upon the gene- 
 rosity of his heart, he was going amongst 
 strangers, and few things could have re- 
 conciled him to occupying a secondary 
 place where he felt himself entitled to the 
 first. 
 
 Luckily the vessel was not to sail for ten 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 THE NABOB AT nOME. 
 
 or fourteen days, so that there would be 
 time to replace some of their losses upon the 
 Andamans, and their wants were no sooner 
 known at Madras than the house was filled 
 with native merchants, bringing bales of 
 goods of every description, even of precious 
 stones, which they spread out on the floor 
 in glittering array, whilst they squatted 
 themselves in the midst of their treasures, 
 holding them up and chattering like mon- 
 keys. > Those accustomed to see the natives 
 of Hindustan, could not help being struck 
 with the feeble and diminutive appearance 
 of the people of the coast; their heads, the 
 craniologists remark, have a greater re- 
 semblance in conformation to that of the 
 monkey than any others of the human race./ 
 
 " Have you got fine sewing cotton ?" 
 demanded Mrs. Cheapstow, of a pedler who 
 was eagerly displaying his small wares. 
 
 " Fine sewing cotton not got, but best 
 shoe-blacking got," answered the man, at
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 227 
 
 the same time holding up a cake, as if he 
 thought it a perfect substitute for the article 
 required. " Best Europe writing-paper got 
 — carpenter's rulers got — best ' Eau de luce,' 
 got — Hervey's sauce got — all gentlemens 
 take for beef-estake — Smyth and Nephew's 
 lavender-water got — best book-muslin got. — 
 Take, ma'am, take — something take !" he 
 continued earnestly, stretching out the mus- 
 lin, and canooino- forward on his heels with- 
 out getting up. " Good muslin, ma'am, 
 fine muslin, ma'am ; I cheap price sell, — 
 take — " 
 
 " And what is the price of this ?" said 
 Mrs. Cheapstow, examining the muslin 
 which she held in her hand. 
 
 The native as usual demanded three times 
 as much as he intended to take; wisely con- 
 sidering that as Mrs. Cheapstow was in 
 haste, she would not have much time to 
 waste in making a reasonable purchase. 
 
 Q2
 
 228 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 " All, you great rogue," said Mrs. Cheap- 
 stow, dropping the muslin. 
 
 " No, ma'am, I not one great rogue ; what 
 ma'am give, that I take," said he, with an 
 expression which would indicate that he 
 thought himself wise in taking advantage of 
 the folly of those with whom he had to 
 deal. " Take muslin, ma'am, take !" 
 
 " But it is not worked," said Mrs. Cheap- 
 stow. 
 
 " Take, ma'am, take — so good muslin — 
 can get work at Lower Orphan's school." 
 
 " He is right, my dear," said Colonel 
 Cheapstow. " I have heard that they do 
 that sort of work beautifully; and since I 
 cannot go with you, I am sure M'Alpin will 
 accompany you this evening. I am afraid 
 of your going by yourself, the Madras horses 
 are not nearly so well broken in as ours in 
 Bengal." 
 
 The muslin was purchased, to the great
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 229 
 
 delight of the pedler, who received about 
 twice as much for it as it was worth, and 
 in the evening, after the sea-breeze had set in, 
 Dr. M'Alpin accompanied Mrs. Cheapstow 
 to the Lower Orphan school, where she 
 wished to have this muslin worked. 
 
 When they arrived at the house, they 
 were shown into a laro;e hall where a num- 
 ber of girls were at work under the super- 
 intendence of the matron Mrs. Patch. Mrs. 
 Cheapstow stated her wishes, and the mis- 
 tress called up several of the girls, one after 
 another to show the works they had in hand. 
 They were all country -born, the children of 
 soldiers and sailors, who having lost their 
 parents, and being without provision or 
 friends, were maintained in this institu- 
 tion until they could be married or other- 
 wise provided for. 
 
 Mrs. Cheapstow spoke to many of the 
 girls, but with few exceptions found them 
 perfectly ignorant, and in many cases hardly
 
 230 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 able to return an intelligible answer in Eng- 
 lish. " You have an immense establishment 
 here," she observed, addressing the school- 
 mistress, " what do vou do with all these 
 girls ?" 
 
 " Oh, madam, we marry them, and some- 
 times when European ladies require it, we 
 let them go out as ayahs, though it is not 
 always that that answers well, either for 
 the mistress or the servant." 
 
 " But who do you marry them to ?" asked 
 Mrs. Cheapstow. 
 
 " Sometimes, madam, to soldiers of the 
 Eurojoean regiments, and sometimes to coun- 
 try-born men in the bazar. 
 
 " But how have they an opportunity of 
 becoming acquainted with such people?" 
 
 " Oh, madam, much acquaintance is not 
 necessary. When a man has declared his 
 intention to take a wife, the governors 
 permit him to come here, and choose in my 
 presence, and if the girl does not object.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 231 
 
 which is not very common, they are married 
 directly." 
 
 "Eleonora," said Mrs. Patch, calling to a 
 girl, who sat with her back to Mrs. Cheap- 
 stow, " bring your work here, and show it 
 to this lady." 
 
 The girl rose to do as she was bid, and 
 Mrs. Cheapstow saw with surprise, a fair 
 and beautiful European, though extremely 
 pale. She coloured as she drew near, and 
 handed her work for the stranger's inspec- 
 tion. 
 
 " How long have you been here ?," in- 
 quired Mrs. Cheapstow. 
 
 " Fourteen years, madam." 
 
 " And what is your name?" 
 
 " Eleonora, madam." 
 
 " Yes, that is your christian name, but 
 what is your surname ? Eleonora what ? 
 
 " I do not know," answered the girl, co- 
 louring more deeply. " I never had another 
 name."
 
 232 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 Mrs. Patch was occupied in giving orders, 
 and despatching messengers to other parts of 
 the house for patterns and work, so that 
 Mrs. Cheapstow continued her questions 
 without interruption. 
 
 " That is extraordinary ; and you speak 
 English so well." 
 
 " I think, madam, I spoke English when 1 
 came here, and I have always liked to learn 
 it." 
 
 " But do you then know any thing of 
 your parents? Do you know why you came 
 here ?" 
 
 "I have been told, madam, that I was 
 brought here from the barrack-room of a 
 European soldier who died in the fort." 
 
 " Was he your father ? 
 
 " I do not know madam, but I think not." 
 
 " What reason have you to think so ? Do 
 not be afraid — tell me all you know," said 
 Mrs. Cheapstow, kindly ; " Perhaps I can 
 serve you."
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 233 
 
 The girl looked round as if to ascertain 
 that there was no one belonging to the 
 house within hearing, and then said, " 1 
 think, madam, I recollect a gentleman whom 
 I used to call papa, and a lady who was my 
 mamma, and I think the lady died. I have 
 some recollection of seeing her He quite still, 
 and that I cried very bitterly, and some one 
 took me away, but I do not know how ; and 
 there was some one too, whom I used to 
 call Joe, but I do not know any thing more. 
 Mrs. Patch used to be angry, when I said 
 any thing about it ; and so now I have given 
 up speaking, though I cannot help thinking; 
 and she calls me proud, and all the girls call 
 me proud, and they used to say that Joe was 
 my father's name, but I do not think so." 
 
 " And are you happy here ?" asked Mrs. 
 Cheapstow, who felt herself deeply inte- 
 rested in so singular a situation. 
 
 " Oh no, madam, I am very miserable." 
 " How ? What makes you so ? You have
 
 234 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 always been brought up here ever since you 
 can recollect, and you have all you can 
 want. What makes you unhappy ?" 
 
 " I dare not tell you, madam," said Eleo- 
 nora, glancing timidly towards Dr. M'Alpin, 
 who had listened attentively to all she had 
 been saying. 
 
 " I like your work very much," said Mrs. 
 Cheapstow ; " stay with it here, while I 
 speak to your mistress." 
 
 Mrs. Cheapstow before proceeding further 
 was resolved to have a litte conversation 
 with Mrs. Patch, and she left Eleonora with 
 the doctor, who continued to talk with her, 
 and who was greatly pleased with the good 
 sense of her answers, and the simplicity of 
 her manners. 
 
 " That is a European girl," said Mrs. 
 Cheapstow to the schoolmistress. 
 
 " Yes, poor thing," was the answer. 
 
 " She seems a sensible, good, well-behaved 
 young creature."
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 235 
 
 " Yes, poor thing," was again the an- 
 swer. 
 
 " That being the case, why do you speak 
 of her with pity ?" 
 
 " Because, madam, her lot in life has not 
 been the most fortunate, and is not likely to 
 be so." 
 
 " Not by any fault of hers ?" said Mrs. 
 Cheapstow. 
 
 " No, certainly, poor thing, far from it ; un- 
 less, indeed, pride in her situation is a fault, 
 and I do all I can to cure her of it, though 
 I am free to confess that it is only in one 
 way that it has ever been troublesome to 
 me." 
 
 " I am interested about the girl, and I shall 
 be obliged to you, Mrs. Patch, if you will 
 tell me frankly all you know relative to 
 her." 
 
 " It's soon done, madam, for I know but 
 little, though I was in the house when she 
 came into it, and from that day to this no
 
 236 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 one has ever asked about her, except in the 
 way of curiosity, as you are doing now, 
 madam." 
 
 " How strange that such a child should 
 have been so abandoned ! But how did she 
 come here ?" 
 
 " Fourteen years ago, the child was 
 brought to this house out of the barrack- 
 room of a European soldier who died in 
 Fort St. George, and nobody could tell any 
 thing about him, for the king's regiment to 
 which the man belonged had sailed out of 
 Madras roads for Europe, the very day 
 before this happened. It was conjectured 
 that he brought on the illness which caused 
 his death by hard travelling from some 
 other place, to join the regiment for which 
 he was one day too late. He was found 
 dead in the barracks, and this poor thing- 
 sound asleep on a little mat by him. She 
 was sent here as a soldier's orphan, and a 
 pretty sweet little creature she was then, as
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 237 
 
 she is now. She was, I fancy, between two 
 and three years old, and could not speak 
 plain. I asked her what was her name, 
 and she told me, ' Good little Eleonora.' 
 I tried to find out if she knew what was 
 her fathers name, but though she spoke of 
 her ' papa,' she did not seem to know any 
 other name. From the child's ways, I do 
 not think the soldier was her father. She 
 had a habit of calling for ' Joe,' as if she \ 
 was calling a servant ; but I kept all that ^ 
 to myself, for the governors said, that she 
 was certainly the man's child; though, as she 
 was very pretty, she had been perhaps 
 much noticed and indulged in the regiment ; 
 and though her clothes were fine, they were 
 certainly torn and soiled ; and they said 
 they might have been given to her, — and at 
 any rate you know, madam, that the sol- 
 diers' wives in this country generally dress 
 their children much beyond their station. 
 But let that be as it will, she has always
 
 238 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 had manners different from the other girls, 
 and lately I came to the truth of the 
 matter."' 
 
 " A European tailor, who came here for 
 work, saw her, and wanted to marry her ; 
 the man never spoke to her, but he told 
 me, and it would have been a good mar- 
 riage for any girl in this house ; — but when 
 I proposed it to her, she was ready to go 
 distracted ; and I found then that she 
 thinks, and has all along thought that she 
 is a gentleman's daughter. I tried to put 
 the notion out of her head, for as I have 
 already told you, madam, nobody has ever 
 inquired after her ; and at all events if she is 
 a gentleman's child, herf ather is dead, or does 
 not want to claim her, and then it is just the 
 same to her, as if she was not ; and I have 
 tried much lately to put notions out of her 
 head, which can do no good, but only 
 hinder her establishment in life. Whenever 
 there is any chance of any one coming
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 239 
 
 here, she pretends to be sick, and tries to 
 keep her bed; that she may not be seen, but 
 we have found out the trick now, and it 
 will not do any longer. I should be sorry 
 to see her unsuitably matched, but to refuse 
 respectable Europeans is nonsense, in her 
 situation. She is a good handy girl, and 
 will be a loss to me, for she has learnt to 
 write for me all the letters that I must 
 write to the governors, and to keep my 
 accounts about the work ; — but it is thought 
 that I do not do my duty, when I do not 
 provide for the young people, as they grow 
 up, but keep them to be burdensome on the 
 establishment." 
 
 " Her situation is much to be pitied," said 
 Mrs. Cheapstow. " I feel greatly interested 
 for her, and I should like to take her with me 
 to Europe. I know that European ladi escan 
 take girls into their service from this school, 
 giving proper certificates for the purpose. 
 Will you let her go with me this evening,
 
 240 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 and I will take care that she comes back to 
 you at ten o'clock. I should like to see 
 something more of her, before I come to a 
 final resolution." 
 
 Mrs. Patch, on this assurance, agreed to 
 the proposal, and also engaged to have the 
 work Mrs. Cheapstow required, finished 
 for her without loss of time. 
 
 Mrs. Cheapstow made a sign to the doc- 
 tor, to whom she commuicated her inten- 
 tions regarding Eleonora, and having; done 
 so, left him to hear the history at his leisure 
 from Mrs. Patch, while she called Eleonora, 
 who had again taken up her work, and 
 asked her, if she would like to go to Eu- 
 rope. 
 
 " I should like it better than any thing 
 upon earth, madam." 
 
 " Then you shall go with me, Eleonora, 
 and I am sure I shall have no reason to re 
 pent the step I am taking." 
 
 Eleonora stood looking at Mrs. Cheap-
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 241 
 
 stow while slie was speaking, as if unable 
 to credit what she heard. Expressions of 
 kindness or interest were new to her ; many 
 ladies who had come to see the work, had 
 noticed her European complexion amongst 
 so many others of a different hue ; — but, 
 " Poor creature, what will become of her !" 
 " I should not like to be troubled with such 
 an attendant who would require all sorts 
 of European accommodation." " I prefer 
 an ayah who wants nothing of the kind." 
 " Poor creature what is she to do I" — were 
 the remarks which she was on such occa- 
 sions accustomed to hear. 
 
 Mrs. Cheapstow enjoyed her unaffected 
 surprise, merely because it was natural. 
 " Eleonora," she said with a smile, " what 
 are you thinking of? — tell me." 
 
 " You are not jesting with me, madam ? 
 you are not laughing at me ?" said Eleonora, 
 bursting into tears. 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 "No, my poor child, no certainly," said 
 Mrs. Cheapstow, kindly taking her hand. 
 " I mean exactly what I say." 
 
 Eleonora kissed the hand which she 
 held, without speaking, and her benefactress, 
 that she might have time to recover the 
 agitation of her spirits, turned to speak with 
 the doctor, who told her that he was more 
 interested in that poor young creature's for- 
 lorn situation than ever he had been in his 
 life. " As to her birth," he said, " there is 
 no doubt of it — she carries the stamp of it 
 in her face and in her sentiments, and with 
 your leave, I would like to make a provision 
 for her, that I do not doubt but she is en- 
 titled to." 
 
 "My , worthy friend," answered Mrs. 
 Cheapstow, " we will talk of all that after- 
 wards ; in the mean time I am happy that 
 your sentiments coincide with mine, because 
 I know they will have great weight with 
 Cheapstow. I was in duty bound, you know,
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 243 
 
 to ask his opinion before I took this step, 
 but we have so little time, that I must even 
 run the risk." 
 
 Mrs. Cheapstow then said aloud to Mrs. 
 Patch, who came forward with many curt- 
 sies to make her parting compliments : " I 
 shall let Eleonora come back to you as I 
 have promised at night, and stay until we 
 have settled every thing for her remaining 
 with me altogether. Now will you have the 
 goodness to call her." 
 
 Eleonora made her appearance at that 
 moment, and Dr. M'Alpin handed Mrs. 
 Cheapstow into the carriage, and the de- 
 lighted girl after her, and then seated himself 
 opposite to them with great satisfaction, re- 
 volving; in his own mind, what he would do, 
 for a creature who seemed cast upon the pro- 
 tection of strangers. Her presence prevented 
 him from speaking more with Mrs. Cheap- 
 stow on this subject, but the more he saw 
 
 r2
 
 244 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 and heard lier, the more anxious he felt for 
 her future welfare. 
 
 Mrs. Chcapstow, who often acted more 
 from the feelings of her heart than the dic- 
 tates of her head, was happy to find from the 
 little conversation she had with Eleonora, 
 that there was every probability that what 
 she had determined upon so hastily, might 
 turn out to her wishes. She thought she 
 discovered a remarkable degree of truth and 
 simplicity in the answers Eleonora made 
 to all her questions, and was glad to find, be- 
 cause the character accorded with her own, 
 that her disposition seemed candid and con- 
 fiding. " Since I have never had a child of 
 my own," thought Mrs. Cheapstow, " I shall 
 have pleasure in improving a creature like 
 this ; she seems to possess a degree of right 
 feeling which will be sure to repay the 
 labour." 
 
 When they arrived at Colonel Marsden's
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 245 
 
 house, on Choultry Plain, their present home, 
 the first thing Mrs. Cheapstow did, was to go 
 in quest of her husband, and tell him what 
 she had done. She recounted all she had 
 seen, and all Mrs. Patch had told her, and 
 ended by saying — " I took such an unac- 
 countable fancy to the girl, from the moment 
 I saw her, and felt such pity for her situation, 
 when I heard from the mistress of the house, 
 how she was circumstanced, that to save her 
 all future trouble and vexation, I fixed the 
 matter at once, and determined to take her 
 to England with us." 
 
 " As your attendant you mean, no doubt?" 
 " I did at first, when the thought came 
 into my head mean that, but after hearing all 
 that I have just told you, and talking a little 
 with herself, I changed my mind ; and 
 thought as we have no children of our own, 
 Cheapstow, we might as well adopt this girl, 
 who is one of the sweetest creatures I ever 
 saw."
 
 246 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 / 
 
 " A soldier's daughter, Mrs. Cheapstow! 
 a common soldier's daughter! do you pro- 
 pose that I should adopt a private soldier's 
 child as mine, or suffer you to put her on an 
 equality with yourself? What would the 
 world think, Mrs. Cheapstow?" J^ 
 
 " That you are as liberal and beneficent as 
 you have always been." 
 
 "Be as beneficent and liberal-minded as 
 you please," answered her husband, hastily 
 interrupting her; " but do not propose to 
 bring the child of such a person into our 
 society, and to our table." 
 <Q' But you are going upon the supposition 
 that this girl is a soldier's child — I am confi- 
 dent that she is not — when you have seen 
 her, I am certain you will be of my opinion. 
 You know you have always said that you 
 could distinguish birth and blood in what- 
 ever disguise you met them." 
 
 " So I have," answered the Colonel, " and 
 I was never yet deceived, though it is
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 247 
 
 not every pretty face which bears that 
 stamp." 
 
 " I know your tact that way," answered 
 his wife, " and am willing to stand by it." 
 
 Thus challenged, Colonel Cheapstow, who 
 prided himself upon his knowledge in what 
 constituted gentility, independently of fashion 
 or external decoration, gave his arm to his 
 wife and conducted her into the hall where 
 Eleonora was sitting- alone. Her dress was 
 plain white cotton without any ornament 
 whatsoever; her bright golden hair parted 
 in the centre, was braided over her finely- 
 formed forehead, and fastened behind in a 
 plait. She rose as Mrs. Cheapstow entered, 
 and courtesying modestly, but without em- 
 barrassment, remained standing. 
 
 " This is Colonel Cheapstow, Eleonora," 
 said his wife. 
 
 Eleonora made a lower courtesy, with the 
 same simplicity as before, and still continued 
 standing. There was in her whole figure
 
 248 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 and maimer mi air of resignation, which to 
 those who knew her story had the appear- 
 ance of dignified submission, particularly as 
 the extreme paleness of her remarkably clear 
 complexion heightened the general impres- 
 sion of melancholy, the action of her body, 
 and the sound of her voice were calculated 
 to convey. 
 
 Colonel Cheapstow desired her to be 
 seated, in the tone of courteous civility natu- 
 ral to him at all times when he did not feel 
 his own dignity encroached upon, and his 
 wife clearly perceived that before he had 
 spoken a quarter of an hour with her 
 new favourite, all his scruples had vanished. 
 She sent Eleonora to her own apartment on 
 pretence of looking for something she wanted, 
 and when she had left the room asked her 
 husband, " what he thought now?" 
 
 " That she is a gentleman's child, cer- 
 tainly ; there cannot be a doubt of it. There 
 is a carriage of the body, and an expression
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 249 
 
 ' of countenance which never sprung from 
 low birth. You observe that this girl has 
 been out of the way of learning any of those 
 things which she possesses in such a conspi- 
 cuous degree, therefore they must be inhe- 
 rent : her manners have the unpretending 
 simplicity of childhood, and though full of 
 diffidence and respect, there is an innate pro- 
 priety which flows from birth." 
 
 " Now, Cheapstow, you go beyond me; 
 the moment I cast my eyes upon her I saw 
 that she was superior and lady-like, and so 
 did M'Alpin — still I could not be quite cer- 
 tain — I might have been deceived." 
 
 " You might have been deceived in beauty 
 and you might have been deceived in shining 
 pretensions, or in great natural endowments 
 of any kind ; — but with her, in the midst of 
 very engaging humility, there is a feeling of 
 self-respect, which comes from an internal 
 conviction, though subdued by circumstances. 
 I think, as you say my dear, as we have no
 
 250 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 children of our own, it will be as well to 
 restore an officer's child to her own situation 
 in society." 
 
 " Then it is a thing settled," said Mrs. 
 Cheapstow, " to your satisfaction, to mine, — 
 to the poor girls', and to our excellent friend 
 the doctor's. Did I tell you that he is as 
 much interested about Eleonora as either of 
 us, and wished to make her independent, 
 by settling a sum for her use. " 
 
 " That is quite unnecessary my dear — this 
 young person is under our protection now, 
 and you can do what you choose for her, 
 though it was certainly very kind of 
 M'Alpin." 
 
 Yes, and it was done when she was 
 without friends. I have not spoken to him 
 about taking her into our own family — I 
 wished to have your opinion first." 
 
 " I shall write to the governors of the or- 
 phan school, and signify my wishes to them 
 on this subject, in the mean time you can
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 251 
 
 make what arrangements you please, as 
 there is no doubt of their granting a ready 
 assent." 
 
 Mrs. Cheapstow was as active in carrying 
 her wishes into execution, as she had been 
 prompt in forming them, and spent the rest 
 of the day with Eleonora in getting what 
 was requisite for her proper appearance in 
 her new situation, put into train, but with 
 the assistance of a dozen additional durzees, 
 she hoped to be able to accomplish it all 
 before the Ruthven Castle was ready for 
 sea.
 
 252 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Eventful day ! how hast thou changed my state, 
 Once on the cold and wintry shaded side 
 Of a bleak hill, mischance had rooted me 
 Never to thrive, child of another soil. 
 Transplanted now to the gay sunny vale, 
 Like the green thorn of May my fortune flowers. 
 
 Home. 
 
 Mrs. Cheapstow saw with pleasure, that 
 though her new protegee had received but 
 little education, she had the capacity and 
 disposition which made that little much to 
 her. Eleonoras acquirements were confined 
 to reading and writing, and the knowledge 
 of arithmetic, which enabled her to keep the 
 school-mistress's accounts of work done in
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 253 
 
 the house. In common with the other girls, 
 she was perfect mistress of all the mysteries 
 of embroidering, which was a considerable 
 source of emolument to the school. Her se- 
 date and contemplative turn of mind found 
 pleasure in reading, and though she had but 
 few books within her reach, she had bestowed 
 more attention upon them than perhaps 
 might have been done by many who enjoy 
 a wider range and greater advantages. 
 
 The feeling that she was born in a differ- 
 ent sphere, influenced her mind from a very 
 early period, and at an age when other girls 
 are only occupied about the passing hour, 
 she endeavoured to fit herself for the society 
 she thought she had a right to, and which 
 the sanguine spirit of youthful hope pro- 
 mised she should one day enjoy. Her hours 
 of labour had been more, and of recreation 
 fewer than those of any one within the walls. 
 From the time she could read without spelling, 
 an acquirement very rarely made by an)' of
 
 254 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 the other girls, Mrs. Patch employed her in 
 teaching the younger children — in reading 
 aloud upon Sundays, as they had no chap- 
 lain, and were too far from church to walk 
 there in the sun; in writing her letters, and 
 in keeping her accounts, and slender as such 
 means of improvement were, Eleonora had 
 profited by them, and early taught by hard 
 necessity, acquired more practical knowledge 
 of self-government than she might have done 
 in a seemingly more favourable soil. 
 
 The little knowledge with which every 
 school-girl is acquainted, had been entirely 
 out of her reach — she had lived as much se- 
 cluded as if she had been in a convent; of 
 ' the usages of society, and the habits of the 
 world she was utterly ignorant, but her 
 sweetness of temper, and benevolence of mind, 
 produced in her untaught manners the reality 
 of politeness, and her native dignity of feeling 
 and rectitude of intention, supplied, in mate- 
 rial circumstances, the deficiency of experi-
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 255 
 
 ence, at least in the opinion of those who 
 could feel propriety as well as understand it. 
 The head, or where no head is, acquaintance 
 with established rules, will prescribe what is 
 fit to be done on ordinary occasions, but the 
 heart only can dictate what is " virtuousest, 
 discreetest, best," and Eleonora had, by her 
 undisguised manners and singleness of heart, 
 before the day was done, convinced Mrs. 
 Cheapstow that her efforts for the improve- 
 ment of her protegee would at least be met 
 half way by the grateful endeavours of an 
 affectionate heart. 
 
 The dread of being compelled to some 
 marriage, which she could not think of with- 
 out terror, had lately preyed upon Eleon- 
 ora's spirits, assisted by climate which lends 
 a tooth to every suffering, and given her 
 mind a tone of melancholy, which it would 
 require time to shake off. " Sorrow is wis- 
 dom," or often the shortest road, if not the 
 only one to its attainment, and the humiliat-
 
 256 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 ing proposal of the tailor, which had been 
 made some time ago, had first opened 
 Eleonora's eyes to what she could not help 
 considering as the degradation of her situa- 
 tion, though she tried sometimes to recollect 
 that she should be grateful for the protection 
 afforded her, when she remembered the 
 circumstances in which she had been brought 
 to the asylum, but her religious instruction 
 was not sufficient to make such truths clear 
 to her mind, and mere human reason, even in 
 the most enlightened minds, is more disposed 
 to feel gratitude to the instruments by which 
 God dispenses his gifts, than to the Almighty 
 giver. 
 
 On the day of Eleonora's being brought to 
 the Orphan's Asylum, Mrs. Patch had 
 questioned the child in hopes of being able 
 to discover something of her parentage, but 
 from that time she had been treated upon an 
 exact footing with the other girls, and no 
 more notice taken of her, until her little ac-
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 257 
 
 quirements began to make her useful to her 
 mistress. There she got more work to do, 
 and had more intercourse with her, without 
 however any increase of kindness on the 
 part of Mrs. Patch, or consequently of af- 
 fection on that of Eleonora. 
 
 Mrs. Patch was an ordinary person in 
 every sense of the word, and did her 
 ordinary duties in the most ordinary way; 
 she did not wish to take more trouble than 
 she could help, and therefore turned over as 
 much of it as she could to those about her, 
 always endeavouring at the same time to 
 convince them that she meant them a 
 favour by accepting their services. When 
 Eleonora returned to her at night, she 
 easily drew from the happy girl an account 
 of all that had passed, and the things which 
 Mrs. Cheapstow had ordered for her. She 
 had knowledge enough of the world to be 
 certain as soon as she heard Eleonora's 
 description of what her dresses were to be, 
 
 vol. r. s
 
 258 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 that Mrs. Cheapstow intended to introduce 
 her into society. 
 
 " You are a lucky girl," she said, " to 
 meet with such friends, and to have such 
 fine things, as a body may say, thrown at you. 
 /have wrought here, and toiled late and early 
 for these five-and-twenty years, and brought 
 up one race of children after another, and 
 seen them go out of this house, and nobody 
 ever so much as thought of giving a new 
 gown to me, for all my care and all my 
 attention." 
 
 " Yes," said Eleonora, untying a parcel 
 which she had in her hand, " one person did 
 think of it, and here it is, and I hope you 
 will like it, Mrs. Patch." 
 
 " Who would not like such a beautiful 
 Europe silk?" said the gratified mistress, 
 holding it up in a full light. " But where 
 did you get it, Eleonora, my dear ?" 
 
 " A man from the bazar came with a 
 great many things to Mrs. Cheapstow, and
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 259 
 
 this amongst them, and I happened without 
 thinking to say, how much you would like 
 this silk, and Dr. M'Alpin — you remember 
 the gentleman who was here this morning 
 with Mrs. Cheapstow — said it was a good 
 thought, and desired the man to lay this 
 piece aside, and told me that I might take 
 it you at night ; and I was so much obliged 
 to him IV 
 
 " It was really very handsome of him," 
 said Mrs. Patch, still examining her present, 
 " and very like a gentleman, and I am sure I 
 am most excessively obliged to him, and I'll 
 tell him so the first time I see him; and to 
 you too, Eleonora, for perhaps if you had 
 not mentioned me just then, he might not 
 have thought of it — I always told you it was 
 well to be thoughtful and attentive, and you 
 see what comes of it," she said, folding up 
 her silk; "and your new friends, too, will 
 think the more of you, for not forgetting the 
 old. I dare say such a genteel, gentlemanly 
 
 s 2
 
 260 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 man as the doctor, thought a great deal 
 more of you, when he heard you speak of 
 me, who have always been so kind to you." 
 
 Eleonora went to bed, to think over all 
 the last day had produced for her ; and when 
 she found herself alone, surrounded by the 
 objects she had known from infancy, could 
 hardly persuade herself that it was not all a 
 dream, and many times during the night she 
 awaked with a start, and asked herself if it 
 were indeed true, that she was to leave India 
 and actually embark upon the blue sea she 
 had so earnestly desired to cross, when she had 
 heard Europeans talk of England, and call 
 it " Home." She felt proud that she two 
 was entitled to call it by that name, — it was 
 the land which had given birth to her 
 parents, and she taxed her memory to recall 
 all she had ever read or heard, of a country 
 which in her mind was the soil of every 
 thing great or good. 
 
 The morning brought with it a thousand
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 261 
 
 new and anxious wishes; expectations had 
 never before disturbed the monotonous 
 round of her life, now her first hope was to 
 see or hear from Mrs. Cheapstow, but the 
 day passed without either message or visit, 
 and another, and another after it. No time 
 in her whole life had ever appeared of such 
 an insupportable length. She thought when 
 the sun rose, that he was going to remain 
 for ever above the horizon, and when he set 
 that he would never return acrain. The 
 novelty of her hopes made their disap- 
 pointment more bitter, particularly as Mrs. 
 Patch had in a manner released her from 
 her usual occupations, and left her at liberty 
 to watch every hour on the clock, and to 
 listen to every carriage which passed the 
 road. 
 
 At length the almost despaired-of mes- 
 sage did arrive, in the form of a note to 
 Mrs. Patch, telling her that Colonel Cheap- 
 stow had settled every thing with the di-
 
 262 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 rectors, of which she should have official 
 intimation, and that Mrs. Cheapstow would 
 come at sunset to take her young charge 
 away. There was also a note enclosed for 
 Eleonora, and a change of clothes was sent, 
 which Mrs. Cheapstow desired she would 
 put on and distribute whatever she possessed 
 among her companions. 
 
 Eleonora's slender possessions were soon 
 disposed of; there was nothing she wished 
 to retain, but the little frock in which she 
 was brought to school, and which, when she 
 put on the dress of the house, Mrs. Patch 
 had laid aside, in hopes that if any inquiry 
 was ever made after her, it might be of 
 service. She also wished to keep a few of 
 her best patterns for embroidery, as she told 
 Mrs. Patch now she would have nothing 
 else to do but to work for Mrs. Cheapstow 
 all day long. She took a kind farewell of 
 those with whom she had so long eaten of 
 the same bread, and drank of the same cup.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 263 
 
 promising to write from England, and to 
 send remembrances to every one of them. 
 She dressed herself in the apparel which 
 had been sent, and then sat down at the 
 window which commanded the best view of 
 the public road, to watch for Mrs. Cheap- 
 stow's arrival, but she was so much before 
 the time, that after listening and waiting for 
 a whole hour, she mounted to the top of the 
 house, whence she actually discovered a car- 
 riage, which she easily recognised to be the 
 one for which she was so anxiously looking. 
 Mrs. Cheapstow had brought with her a 
 quantity of toys and little trinkets, which 
 she gave to Eleonora to bestow among her 
 young companions, who were perfectly 
 transported with such marks of notice as 
 no one had ever bestowed upon them 
 before ; while she settled all with Mrs. Patch, 
 and paid for the work done, at the same 
 time making a present to her on Eleonora's 
 account, which disposed the schoolmistress
 
 264 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 very much to rejoice in the good fortune of 
 one whom she said she always thought 
 would come to something. 
 
 Human happiness even when it has 
 attained its utmost terrestrial perfection, 
 is more like sorrow than joy, 
 
 In both we lose the balmy bliss of sleep, 
 
 In both we fever, and in both we weep : 
 
 In this alone the likeness disappears — 
 
 That joy's for moments, and that grief's for years. 
 
 And poor Eleonora's, as was natural, was 
 a mingled feeling, and her tears fell fast at 
 the final adieu, as she felt that she was leaving 
 the only abode she had ever known ; but 
 such is the inconsistency of even allowable 
 human feelings, that they would have fallen 
 still faster had she been told to remain. 
 
 When they were seated in the carriage, 
 Mrs. Cheapstow questioned Eleonora, as to 
 what she had been doing during the last 
 three days. 
 
 She blushed deeply, and answered, " No-
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 265 
 
 thing ; for indeed I was afraid, madam, that 
 you had forgotten me, or repented of what 
 you had done, and I never was so miserable 
 in my whole life." 
 
 " No ?" not when they were going to 
 make you marry the tailor ?" 
 
 " No, I think not ; for then I had no hopes 
 to be disappointed, and I resolved, if they 
 should kill me, not to comply." 
 
 " I did not know that you could make 
 such strong resolutions." 
 
 " Nor did I until that time," answered she 
 with the utmost simplicity. 
 
 " Well then, we shall let the subject rest; 
 and since it is so disagreeable to you, let it 
 never be mentioned again. But while I 
 recollect it, there is another thing I have to 
 say to you — it is the custom in Europe for 
 every one to have a surname, and I intend to 
 call you Eleonora Cheapstow, and strangers 
 in place of calling you Eleonora, will call 
 you, Miss Cheapstow."
 
 266 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 "I shall like that very much, madam. 
 I know, at least I have heard, that every 
 body in England has two names ; but a 
 great many of the girls in our house, have 
 only one." 
 
 Mrs. Cheapstow was delighted to ob- 
 serve, the first time that she produced her 
 protegee amongst strangers, that she acquitted 
 herself with great propriety. Eleonora had 
 been accustomed to retirement, but not to 
 solitude ; therefore felt no sort of awkward 
 ness in being amongst those with whom she 
 was unacquainted, particularly as she was 
 without a tincture of the vanity, which 
 could make her suppose for a moment that 
 she was an object of attention to them. 
 She answered the questions which were 
 addressed to her, with the open simplicity 
 of childhood. 
 
 " The creature is so guileless," thought 
 Mrs. Cheapstow as she watched her words 
 and actions, " that it will be easy to make
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 267 
 
 her every thing, that others would wish to 
 appear." 
 
 Dr. M'Alpin had, as he declared, liked 
 her bonny face and sweet manners, from the 
 first moment he set eyes upon her ; and every 
 day as he had an opportunity of becoming 
 better acquainted with her, but increased 
 the predilection. 
 
 Colonel Cheapstow's health was often so 
 uncertain, as to keep him for days together 
 almost entirely on his couch ; and when he 
 was not too ill to be incapable of any 
 alleviation, he usually occupied a sofa in 
 the room where Mrs. Cheapstow and Eleo- 
 nora superintended the durzees, whose ut- 
 most diligence was hardly sufficient to get 
 all the additional work that was required 
 of them, ready before the sailing of the 
 ships. 
 
 Eleonora read to him when he could 
 bear it, or did any thing she could think of 
 to amuse him, and while away the hours
 
 268 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 of pain and suffering, as it was impossible 
 for his wife who had so many things indis- 
 pensable for his comfort to procure, to be 
 as much with him as she could have wished, 
 and would have been in other circumstances. 
 
 Eleonora had, almost from the hour she 
 came into his family, attached herself to 
 his service with the attention of a dutiful 
 child, conduct which, as it proceeded from 
 the feelings of the heart, greatly endeared 
 her to the friends by whom it was wit- 
 nessed. 
 
 Before leaving Madras, both the doctor 
 and Colonel Cheapstow had the satisfaction 
 to receive letters from Captain Landless and 
 Lieutenant Manning from Calcutta ; where 
 Captain Landless informed them they had 
 safely arrived after a tedious passage against 
 the monsoon, having only lost five men 
 from sickness, — a thing, he said, unheard of 
 after such sufferings ; and they were now 
 on the point of embarkation in the first
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 269 
 
 ships for Europe. He concluded by hoping 
 to have the pleasure of meeting them all in 
 London, at no very distant date. 
 
 Manning wrote to thank Dr. M'Alpin for 
 the order upon his agents, which the doctor 
 had sent him ; declining at the same time to 
 make use of it, as he informed Dr. M'Alpin 
 that upon his arrival in Calcutta he found 
 he had more money of his own in his agent's 
 hands than was sufficient for his present pur- 
 poses. These letters were followed by one 
 from Mr. Curzon, who sincerely sympathized 
 in the dang-ers and losses of the friends in 
 whom he was so much interested — Captain 
 Landless had dined with him, and given 
 him a particular account of all their suffer- 
 ings — Major Middleton was in the habit 
 of coming almost every evening to dine 
 with him, and hear what intelligence he 
 had received of "his good friend the doc- 
 tor." Young Ouseley, he told them, had 
 Left him to join his corps in the upper
 
 270 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 provinces — Mrs. Harvey was still reposing 
 on her couch, and Mr. Ascot's eight chil- 
 dren running about wild just as usual. 
 
 " I hae gotten a house for you, Eleonora," 
 said the doctor, one day when he returned 
 home to tiffin, " which will serve ye for the 
 next four months ; and I hope that ye are 
 ready to take possession, and that your 
 trunks are packed, for to-morrow morning 
 the Ruthven Castle's anchor will be up." 
 
 " To-morrow morning ! Dr. M'Alpin, is 
 it possible — am I really to leave India ? — 
 how curious, that to-morrow night I shall 
 sleep upon the sea." 
 
 "What cabin have you got, doctor?" 
 inquired Mrs. Cheapstow. 
 
 " One of the booby hatches, just opposite 
 to yours. I have told them to make it 
 comfortable for our little lassie, and I just 
 stepped into a cabinet-maker's, as I came 
 through the Black Town, to order what 
 was wanted, and I got a nice little hanging-
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 271 
 
 bookshelf with doors to keep your books 
 from rolling about, Eleonora; and I got 
 some books too for you to read, ye ken 
 ye mustna be idle." 
 
 " And did you take all that trouble for 
 me, Dr. M'Alpin? I should like to read 
 night and day, that I might learn something 
 of what every other person knows." 
 
 The morning came and Eleonora saw the 
 time of embarkation to which she had look- 
 ed as the commencement of a brighter era 
 in her life at length arrive, and for the first 
 time she actually stood on the very brink of 
 that sea, which she had often feared would 
 be to her for ever an impassable barrier, and 
 she listened with dread to the hoarse mur- 
 murs of the formidable surf which ran along 
 the shore, breaking in deafening clamours 
 on the beach, and casting up all it encoun- 
 tered on its way " high and dry," as the sea- 
 men expressed it.
 
 272 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 Going through the surf, which for several 
 hundred miles runs along the Madras coast, 
 is, even to those best acquainted with it, 
 always an operation of danger, and to 
 strangers, an exceedingly formidable under- 
 taking, particularly in going out to the ships 
 in the roads; as, in consequence of the vio- 
 lence with which it breaks, they cannot lie 
 near the shore, and no boats, but the frail 
 craft of the country, constructed of bark 
 sewed together, which yields in a manner 
 to the weight of the water, have ever been 
 able to weather the surf. Possibly something 
 may also be due to the boatmen, who, bred 
 from infancy to the profession, know the ex- 
 act place and moment when the swell will 
 break. Every ship's boat which has tried 
 it has been swamped in the experiment, and 
 many experienced seamen lost, notwith- 
 standing the catamarans which follow every 
 boat that crosses the surf, to be at hand to
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 273 
 
 pick up the passengers should the boat go 
 down, an accident, which the slightest ne- 
 glect or oversight invariably occasions. 
 
 These catamarans are nothing more than 
 two boards lashed together, and rowed by 
 two men with short paddles, which they 
 move alternately, first on the one side and 
 then on the other, so as to produce a very 
 droll effect, $wmns all the time. 
 
 It is difficult to conceive a more busy and 
 noisy scene than Madras roads, when there 
 are many ships at anchor, from the immense 
 number of these small craft, mounting, like 
 cockle-shells, on the foaming surfs, which in 
 regular succession break along the shore. 
 The men who navigate them are the letter- 
 carriers and messengers between the ships and 
 the town, and often go backwards and for- 
 wards when nothing larger dare venture 
 through the surf. When a wave washes these 
 " catamaran -jacks," as the sailors have named 
 them, from their seats on their skiffs, they yield 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 to the fury of the water, and, as soon as it 
 has passed, like ducks who have dived for a 
 moment, leap upon their catamarans and 
 recommence singing their own song, which 
 is peculiar to the whole amphibious race, 
 with perfect composure, until the next wave 
 washes them off. 
 
 The accommodation-boats, intended for 
 the conveyance of ladies, get their name 
 from their having a seat at one end covered 
 with an awning, and a board to keep the 
 feet out of the water, which leaks into these 
 spongy vessels so as to require incessant 
 baling. That for our friends was in readi- 
 ness upon the beach above the high water 
 mark, wherein they soon seated themselves, 
 and were waiting for the boatmen, who were 
 slowly sauntering along the beech, " Look at 
 those fellows," said the doctor, " I cannot 
 help laughing when I mind what happened 
 on that very spot when I arrived here a
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 275 
 
 griffin* thirty years ago. Two of my coun- 
 trymen belonging to a Scotch regiment had 
 just landed, a highland and a lowland officer, 
 and I overheard the highlander ask his 
 friend, pointing to a turtle which happened 
 to be lying on his back and napping his fins 
 in the sun, ' What na kind o' a bird ca' ye 
 he ?' — ' I dinna ken,' answered the low- 
 lander, ' but he maun be a pet for his wings 
 are clippit.' I never laughed more in my 
 life ; but here our fellows come at last." 
 
 The crew seized the boat by the prow 
 and dragged her with great rapidity down 
 the steep bank over the sand into the water, 
 and then jumping in themselves, without 
 losing an instant, seized the oars, and all 
 shoutino- together, " Ullah ! Ullah ! Ullah ! 
 Ullah!" rowed with their utmost energy, 
 and shot through the first surf. When it 
 had passed under them they lay-to for a few 
 
 * A term applied to those who have not been a day 
 or a year in this country. 
 
 T 2 
 
 t
 
 2 70 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 minutes in the hollow of the sea, chanting a 
 few notes as if to keep them in time, but all 
 the while keeping a watchful eye upon the 
 second surf, and as soon as the favourable 
 moment presented itself a second dart was 
 made, and they cleared it, and the catamaran- 
 jacks who had been washed from their seats, 
 regained their rafts which were dancing 
 about in the swell. 
 
 " There's a fine fellow," said the doctor, 
 observing one of them who seized his va- 
 grant catamaran and jumped into his seat as 
 easily as a dragoon would have done into 
 his saddle. " There's a fine fellow, and well 
 worthy of the medals he wears." 
 
 " Yes," answered the head boatman, who 
 spoke a little English ; " he has done a great 
 deal of work in his life : every medal round 
 his neck was given to him for a life saved 
 in the surf." 
 
 " Cut he'll no go without his reward," 
 said the doctor, " when we reach the ship."
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 277 
 
 Another roll carried them clear off the 
 surf without accident, and the boatmen 
 took up their monotonous song, which they 
 chanted without further interruption. When 
 they reached the ship, both gentlemen took 
 care that all those who had followed them 
 through the surf should be liberally reward- 
 ed, as an encouragement to them to attend 
 upon other boats, where their assistance 
 might be really requisite. 
 
 Colonel Cheapstow, ill as he was before 
 he left Madras, had still taken care to re- 
 place the comforts which had gone to the 
 bottom of the Andaman's, and after he had 
 been a few weeks at sea, gradually recovered 
 the health he had lost upon that unfortunate 
 occasion, and before they had rounded the 
 Cape, had gained as much in appearance as 
 he had in strength. 
 
 Dr. M'Alpin's principal pleasure on board 
 ship had been to assist Eleonora in her read- 
 ing; he had, as he told her before they came
 
 278 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 on board, purchased several books expressly 
 for her use, and had infinite satisfaction in 
 instructing her in history and geography — 
 knowledge which had not before come with- 
 in her reach, and which to a mind like hers 
 was as interesting as it was new. 
 
 " Good sense and right feeling," he used to 
 say to Mrs. Cheapstow, " are worth all the 
 accomplishments in the world. Let Eleo- 
 nora just cultivate the powers of mind, 
 which nature has given her, and obtain 
 worthy objects to exercise her thoughts 
 and reasoning faculties, and she will be 
 worth a bushel of those who pride them- 
 selves upon what they call their accom- 
 plishments — not that I am an enemy to ac- 
 complishments neither, but in our day too 
 much is sacrificed to them." 
 
 "You must not forget," answered Mrs. 
 Cheapstow, " that Eleonora is now our child, 
 and that both Cheapstow and I love her as 
 if she really were so, and that we would wish
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 279 
 
 that she should make the appearance in 
 society which is indispensable, and I must 
 certainly, as soon as we are in London, give 
 her masters." 
 
 " But dinna forget that Eleonora is now 
 passed the age when these things are begun, 
 and it would be a great pity to lose the time 
 which at present she can put to much better 
 purpose ; at all events, if she were mine I 
 would n. ,t try to teach her any of these 
 things unless she showed a very particular 
 inclination for them ; genius, as people call 
 it." 
 
 " But it will be expected," joined the 
 colonel, " that Miss Cheapstow should have 
 a more elegant education, more suitable to 
 her situation in life." 
 
 " There is nothing so suitable for every 
 body's situation in life, as to know how to 
 conduct themselves rightly in it, and I will 
 just go back to what I first said, — if ye had 
 got Eleonora when she was little, there is no
 
 280 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 reason why you should not have taught her 
 whatever you liked ; but now it would be 
 wasting her precious time, to begin with 
 such tilings ; and she has a mind, that wil) 
 do honour to any situation, and procure 
 more respect for her, than all the shining 
 acquirements in the world." 
 
 " That would be the case, my excellent 
 friend," replied Mrs. Cheapstow, "if the 
 world were half as good or as wise as you 
 are ; but that not being the case, we must, if 
 we would keep our situation in it, sacrifice 
 something for the taste of the times ; — now 
 I agree with you in thinking that it will be 
 better not to plague Eleonora with accom- 
 plishments, unless, as you say, she should 
 show a genius for them." 
 
 " Eleonora is a good, dutiful girl," said the 
 colonel, " and I am perfectly pleased with 
 her as she is; but I would wish at the same 
 time that she knew those things which would 
 place her upon a proper footing in the
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 281 
 
 opinion of others — however, do as you please 
 my dear, you are a better judge of what is 
 fit for girls." 
 
 " And I will in the mean time keep her at 
 work just as usual," said the doctor. " Her 
 improvement is a pleasure to me, and some- 
 times brings back to my mind what my sister 
 was at her age. With the exception of a 
 sweet voice which could sing our ain bonny 
 Scotch songs well, she had no more accom- 
 plishments than this poor lassie, though she 
 had more book-learning." 
 
 " Having no children I have never per- 
 haps bestowed the attention upon things of 
 the kind that I might otherwise have done," 
 said Mrs. Cheapstow, " so follow your own 
 plan, doctor." 
 
 Eleonora's days and weeks passed with 
 pleasure and improvement, and in proportion 
 as her mind opened to receive new ideas, she 
 became more cheerful. Brought up in cir- 
 cumstances to force care even on childish
 
 282 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 vivacity, and in a climate unfavourable to 
 the flow of animal spirits, which is in young 
 and active minds the almost constant con- 
 comitant of unimpaired health, melancholy 
 had become in a manner the habit of her 
 mind; and the good doctor, conscious, as he 
 said, that there was " a time for all things," 
 laboured to dispel a feeling which he re- 
 garded as injurious and premature. 
 
 " Let her have a fresh flow of ideas," he 
 said to Mrs. Cheapstow ; " let her read and 
 know something of what has been done in 
 the world, and the dark fogs, which till this 
 time have bounded her horizon, will disap- 
 pear. I like cheerfulness in young creatures, 
 as much as the sun in spring. Melancholy 
 is the rust of the mind, and poisons the 
 springs of health ; — there are shadows 
 enough to every scene in this world, without 
 dwelling on them at her years."
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 283 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 How welcome from the dizzy mast, 
 The watchful seaman's stand, 
 Sounds o'er the billow and the blast 
 The joyful cry of " Land"— 
 Which veiled within a misty shroud, 
 Lifts o'er the wave its peak of cloud ! 
 
 J. Malcolm. 
 
 "You have never seen a mountain, Eleo- 
 nora," said Dr. M'Alpin as soon as he heard 
 that land was in sight, " come with me on 
 deck and I will show you one." 
 
 " That is a cloud," said Eleonora, strain- 
 ing her eyes in the direction he pointed out 
 to her.
 
 284 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 " Look again," he said, " through this 
 telescope and tell me now what you see." 
 
 " An immense dark mass appearing above 
 the clouds." 
 
 " Ay," answered the doctor. " Those are 
 the mountains, then, of St. Helena." 
 
 Every moment as the vessel held on her 
 swift and steady way the features of the 
 island became more visible — the outlines 
 more distinct — the lights and shadows more 
 defined, and the peaks separated from each 
 other, showing range within range, while 
 Eleonora beheld with wonder nearly ap- 
 proaching to awe, the extraordinary pro- 
 ductions of nature, which, from the rapidity 
 of the vessel's motion, seemed almost to 
 start out of the water before her. 
 
 Neither verdure softened, or herbage 
 shaded the bare bald forehead of these stu- 
 pendous rocks, where they rose in barren 
 nakedness and freshness as if recently torn 
 asunder by giant power and exposed in
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 285 
 
 all their inaccessibility to the war of the 
 elements and force of the ocean. In vain 
 the waves rolled in ceaseless succession on 
 their immovable base, and broke in white 
 spray on their rugged face, filling their flinty 
 fissures with myriads of trickling streams, 
 there was but one spot in the whole circuit 
 of that stone-bound island where any com- 
 munication could take place between the 
 sea and the shore, and that spot was the 
 little bay joining the narrow valley in 
 which James Town lies. 
 
 When the Ruthven Castle came within 
 gunshot of the formidable batteries which 
 crown every point to which the labour of 
 man has sculptured a path, a gun pealed 
 over their heads like a messenger from a 
 higher sphere commanding them to bring 
 to, until it was ascertained that there was 
 no disorder on board to prevent their ap- 
 proach. When this necessary ceremonial 
 was passed, they stood in shore, and soon
 
 28G TI1E NABCm AT HOME. 
 
 came to anchor in face of the town which 
 lay in a long straggling slip up the narrow 
 valley at the head of the bay, the entrance 
 guarded by strong fortifications and guns 
 of heavy* metal. Ladder hill, which takes 
 its name from the zigzag route, which in- 
 credible industry, has graven on its other- 
 wise inaccessible sides, stands sentinel on 
 the. right of the landing, wreathed with can- 
 non, sufficient to blow any ship out of the 
 water, which dared to approach without 
 permission given. The left of the little 
 h arbour is also defended by the same for- 
 midable artillery. Imagination cannot pic- 
 ture any thing more imposing than the 
 appearance of these rocky mountains, their 
 rugged feet washed by the open ocean, and 
 their bare summits crowned by the engines 
 of death, able to discharge their shafts 
 like the bolts of heaven, from an eleva- 
 tion which makes retaliation or resistance 
 equally hopeless.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 287 
 
 Eleonora could not define lier feelings as 
 she gazed upon this scene. It suggested 
 ideas new, and delightful, and with the 
 earnest anticipation of unbroken hope, she 
 longed for a nearer examination of a place, 
 which had attracted more of her attention 
 than any other had ever done. Her mind 
 had lately opened to the reception of ideas 
 whose novelty deepened their impression ; 
 she felt the world to be full of beauty, and 
 magnificence, and grandeur, and she be- 
 lieved that if she could inspect it more 
 minutely, she would find it more lovely. 
 Dr. M' Alpin had, perhaps without intending 
 it, brought forward this 'latent feeling ; for 
 enthusiasm naturally elicits a corresponding 
 emotion in those minds where nature has 
 placed it, dormant though it may have re- 
 mained. His poetic taste had not, in his 
 ordinary intercourse with the world, found 
 much room for indulgence ; his excellent 
 friends, Colonel and Mrs. Cheapstow, with
 
 288 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 whom so many years of his life had been 
 passed, laughed at this as one of his little 
 weaknesses. 
 
 Though both good people in their own 
 separate way, the beau-ideal, natural or 
 moral, made no part of their speculations ; 
 consequently the worthy doctor was much 
 delighted to find that in Eleonora he had a 
 pupil who would hear all his opinions 
 without criticism, and take pleasure in his 
 readings and recitations, and listen with 
 unwearying attention to his descriptions of 
 the beauties of his own country, which he 
 promised himself great pleasure some day in 
 showing her. To those who have no expe- 
 rience of how the doctor's life had passed at 
 a distance from his own family, and from 
 the society of young people in general, it 
 may seem strange, that at his years, he 
 should feel such a lively interest, without 
 any selfish motive, in a creature of Eleo- 
 nora's age, or at least that he should choose
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 289 
 
 her as the participator of his favourite 
 fancies, but so it was ; and Mrs. Cheapstow 
 often laughingly declared to her adopted 
 daughter that she would be jealous of her 
 regard for Dr. M'Alpin. 
 
 As soon as the vessel was at anchor, the 
 passengers prepared to go on shore ; for- 
 tunately for the lovers of the picturesque, 
 they had a general officer amongst the num- 
 ber, who landing in full uniform was re- 
 ceived with the salute due to his rank; 
 the guns boomed overhead, and wreaths of 
 white smoke and multiplied echoes ran 
 round the mountains. They landed on a 
 little quay cut out of the rock, the steps of 
 which are wet and slippery from the con- 
 tinual breaking of the surf. On the left of 
 this landing-place a large cave hollowed out 
 of the rock which towers above, and bedded 
 by hard white sand, affords the only 
 bathing-place on the island. 
 
 Landed on the beach our party stopped 
 
 vol. i. u
 
 290 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 for a moment to regard the formidable line 
 of cannon extending across this single inlet. 
 It was impossible not to admire the curious 
 mixture of rural quiet and military strength 
 joined to the most remarkable neatness and 
 economy of space. Where a habitation 
 could be planted, or a garden excavated, 
 the encroachment has been made, and they 
 hang over each other in terraces covered 
 with trailing plants. In all other places, 
 nature seems freely to have afforded surface 
 for the habitation of man ; in St. Helena, 
 alone, he seems to be an unwelcome in- 
 truder upon her particular domain. 
 
 Colonel Cheaj)stow, with his family, 
 walked up to one of the principal boarding- 
 houses, and soon secured accommodation for 
 the time they were to remain on shore. In 
 a place like James Town the arrival of 
 Indiamen, either from England or India, is 
 too important an event not to be generally 
 known, and Colonel Cheapstow and Dr.
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 291 
 
 M'Alpin had not been an hour in their 
 new lodging, before they received visits from 
 the principal officers in the garrison, and 
 numerous hospitable invitations. 
 
 Amongst these visitants was a handsome 
 young man in a naval uniform, who as soon 
 as the ceremonies of introduction were over, 
 addressed the doctor: 
 
 " I was in hopes, sir, when I heard your 
 name, that you were from Bengal, but I find 
 your ship is from Madras." 
 
 " We are last from Madras, but who of 
 my name do you inquire for in Bengal?" 
 answered the doctor, earnestly gazing upon 
 the open and expressive countenance before 
 him. " I think I should know your fea- 
 tures," he said with some emotion, "but who 
 do you inquire for ?" 
 
 " Dr. James M'Alpin, the brother of my 
 mother." 
 
 The doctor rose, and folded the young 
 man in his arms. " And is it even so ?" he
 
 292 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 said. " I could not be mistaken in the fea- 
 tures of my sister's son ; this is a happiness I 
 little expected. And what am I to call you ? 
 Are ye Hugh, the eldest ?" 
 
 " No, my dear uncle," answered his ne- 
 phew, warmly returning the doctor's cordial 
 grasp. " I have not that good fortune. I 
 am but the laird's brother, plain Malcolm 
 Sinclair, or if you like it better, Lieutenant 
 Sinclair of his Majesty's ship Sea-flower." 
 
 " Mrs. Cheapstow, Miss Cheapstow," said 
 the doctor, turning to the ladies, who had 
 quietly enjoyed this mutual recognition; "Al- 
 low me to present to you my sister's son, 
 my nephew, Lieutenant Sinclair." 
 
 Mrs. Cheapstow felicitated both uncle and 
 nephew on their fortunate meeting. Eleo- 
 nora courtesied to the stranger, and told the 
 doctor in a low voice how happy she was 
 in an event which would give him so much 
 pleasure. Colonel Cheapstow shook hands 
 with Mr. Sinclair, whom he said he could
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 293 
 
 not consider as a stranger, being so nearly 
 connected with one of his oldest, and 
 dearest friends. 
 
 The young man, happy in the discovery 
 he had just made, received the kindness of 
 his new friends with the open frankness of 
 an affectionate heart, and the gentlemanly 
 ease of an independent character. 
 
 Mrs. Cheapstow, who was an attentive 
 observer of what had passed, saw at once 
 that the doctor had not only found his sis- 
 ter's son whom, if he had been different to 
 what he appeared to be, he would rejoice to 
 find, because he could call him by that epi- 
 thet, — but a nephew who was worthy of 
 affection for his own sake, and whose manners 
 and appearance were equally prepossessing. 
 Mrs. Cheapstow had remarked the expres- 
 sion of his countenance, and the tone of his 
 voice when he spoke of his mother, and 
 heard her mentioned by his uncle, and she 
 felt convinced, that at that moment his heart
 
 204 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 rejoiced in seeing the brother of his beloved 
 parent, whom he was prepared to love and 
 respect. 
 
 " In this youth, at least," she thought, 
 " he will have one relative who will see 
 more merit in him than his immense fortune, 
 and I am happy to think, that there is at 
 least one in his family who resembles him- 
 self. If we had the good fortune, Cheap- 
 stow," she said, " to have such a son as that 
 to meet us, how different would be our return 
 to our native land !" 
 
 The doctor and his nephew had retired to 
 give and receive intelligence of domestic 
 concerns, and did not again make their ap- 
 pearance until the hour of dinner, when the 
 doctor as usual handed Mrs. Cheapstow to 
 table, leaving Eleonora to the care of his 
 nephew. They dined at the table d'hote of 
 their own house, where there were several 
 strangers, Colonel Cheapstow taking his
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 295 
 
 place as lie always did between the ladies of 
 liis own party. 
 
 Dr. M'Alpin, as soon as lie was seated, 
 began speaking to Mrs. Clieapstow of his 
 nephew, in whom he seemed to fancy he had 
 recovered his lost sister. 
 
 " Would yon believe it, Mrs. Clieapstow," 
 he said, " I had not been half an hour with 
 that boy, before I began speaking to him, as I 
 used to do to his mother? I could not help 
 thinking that my own dear Marian was come 
 back to me. His sentiments and his expres- 
 sions are just hers ; he is something older, to be 
 sure, than she was when we parted, but the 
 likeness is wonderful — he has her generosity 
 of feeling, and warmth of heart, and he seems 
 too, to have steadiness and judgement above 
 his years, though we must not altogether 
 look for an old head upon young shoulders." 
 
 " Nothing," replied Mrs. Clieapstow, " for 
 a long time has given me greater pleasure 
 than this meeting, doctor. Clieapstow
 
 296 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 agrees with me in thinking that in this 
 young man your sister has left you a valu- 
 able legacy." 
 
 The doctor regretted the impossibility of 
 his nephew's accompanying him to England, 
 as he belonged to one of the ships on duty in 
 the roads, but which was soon expected to be 
 relieved, when it was probable she would 
 return to Britain. 
 
 Malcolm Sinclair had in the mean time 
 been entertaining Eleonora with an account 
 of all that was to be seen in the island. — 
 " You must visit Longwood, Miss Cheap- 
 stow," he said, " and make a pilgrimage to 
 Napoleon's grave." 
 
 " I hope we shall," answered Eleanora, 
 " your uncle talked of it before we landed." 
 
 " Oh, if it depends on him," said Malcolm," 
 " it will soon be settled, I shall not let him 
 forget it. What do you do to-morrow ?" 
 
 " Go to the governor's,! believe, for "there 
 is an invitation for us." 
 
 " I know General and Mrs. Monkland,
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 297 
 
 perfectly well, and I have a general in- 
 vitation to the house," replied Malcolm, 
 " therefore I shall have the pleasure to at- 
 tend you ; and next day, if there is nothing 
 better to be done, we must beat up the island 
 for conveyances, and set forth on our ex- 
 cursion. I assure you it will repay you for 
 your trouble." 
 
 " I have not the least doubt of it," an- 
 swered Eleonora, who found herself talking 
 with as much freedom to the doctor's nephew 
 as she had been in the habit of doing lately 
 with himself. " I have earnestly wished to 
 see this island, since Dr. M'Alpin described 
 it to me, and have been delighted with it 
 from the first moment we came in sight of 
 its rocky shores. These are the first moun- 
 tains I have ever [seen, and yet, when I did 
 see them, they brought back something to 
 my mind like a dream, as if I had known 
 such things before." 
 
 " Some minds are made to receive power- 
 
 vol. i. x
 
 298 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 ful impressions of the great beauties of 
 nature, and give back the reflection like a 
 mirror. I suppose Miss Cheapstow, that is 
 the case with you ?" 
 
 " I wish it may be so," answered Eleo- 
 nora, unconscious of the implied compliment, 
 " for then in this beautiful world I shall 
 have pleasure without end." 
 
 The air with which Eleanora spoke, had 
 the stamp of such perfect sincerity that her 
 auditor could not help wondering where she 
 had lived, to have such expectations. He 
 was accustomed to the frankness and sim- 
 plicity of many of his own countrywomen, 
 who in the retirement of their straitened 
 domestic circle, rarely imagine any thing but 
 the beau-ideal of human nature — but such 
 entire want of knowledge of the world he 
 had never before met with. 
 
 " You must have seen a great deal of 
 India, Miss Cheapstow ?" he inquired. 
 
 ' No; since I can remember, literally
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 299 
 
 nothing;. I do not know that twice in 
 my life I was ever ont of the compound of 
 our house at Madras. I saw the sea from 
 the top of the house, and oh, how often and 
 how earnestly I have wished to be a bird, 
 and to fly over it, and see what was on the 
 other side ; or to be in one of the ships that 
 ran along so beautifully !" 
 
 Malcolm's curiosity was greatly excited 
 by this account of absolute seclusion, but he 
 felt it would be taking an ungenerous ad- 
 vantage to satisfy the desire he had by ask- 
 ing further questions, and he resolved to re- 
 strain it, until he had an opportunity of 
 talking with his uncle. 
 
 When that was the case, in the course of 
 the evening, he received a full detail of al 
 the particulars known and conjectured, re 
 garding poor Eleonora's mysterious fate, 
 and Avith the spirit of his years, was highly 
 delighted with the part Mrs. Cheapstow 
 and his uncle had acted in the first instance,
 
 300 THE NABOB AT HOME. 
 
 and Colonel Cheapstow in the second. The 
 idea of her marrying in such circumstances, 
 was sacrilege in his eyes, and he was almost 
 disposed to quarrel with any one for repeat- 
 ing such a presumptuous absurdity. This 
 history lost nothing by being told by the 
 doctor, nor did he forget to recount the 
 amiable traits he had observed in Eleonora's 
 character, in support of his opinion that 
 she was by birth a gentlewoman, and he 
 concluded by saying, " .There is a purity in 
 her mind which is not often found in any 
 situation, and is least of all to' be looked 
 for where she came from ; but it just teaches 
 us, Malcolm, that nature will not be at all 
 times broken down, or rooted up by circum- 
 stances. She sees every thing in the pure 
 light of her own guileless disposition, and 
 expects all things to be without spot." 
 
 " I think," answered Malcolm, " that our 
 dispositions form a kind of medium of 
 vision, if we may use the phrase, through
 
 THE NABOB AT HOME. 301 
 
 which we see the world, and every thing in 
 
 it the different lights within, colour the 
 
 objects without." 
 
 " There is no doubt of it, Malcolm, and 
 it is only experience which undeceives us." 
 
 Next morning, the governor, according 
 to his promise, politely sent one of his 
 carriages to convey his expected guests to 
 his seat, at some miles distance from the 
 capital of his sea-girt isle. Eleonora had 
 been up at an early hour to mark the sin- 
 gular appearance of the rising sun, which 
 Mr. Sinclair had described to her. The 
 valley, or rather ravine, in which James 
 Town stands, is so narrow and deep, that 
 the bright rays of the morning sun gilt the 
 mountain-tops overhead, while it was night 
 in the town below, — a peculiar and pic- 
 turesque effect, which is perhaps only to be 
 witnessed in St. Helena. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 VOL. I. Y
 
 TO BE IIAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. 
 
 INTERESTING NEW WORKS ON INDIA. 
 
 JUST PUBLISHED BY 
 
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 TRAVELS IN KASHMERE, 
 
 LADAK, ISK.ARDO, THE COUNTRIES ADJOINING THE MOUNTAIN 
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 HIMALAYA, NORTH OF THE PUNJAB, 
 
 With observations on the late and now passing Events in 
 
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 2 vols., 8vo., with a valuable Map and 22 Illustrations. 
 
 " Highly interesting and well- written volumes." — Times. 
 
 FIVE YEARS IN INDIA. 
 
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 THE LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF 
 SIR THOMAS MUNRO, Bart., K.C.B., 
 
 LATE GOVERNOR OF MADRAS. 
 
 By the REV. G. R. GLEIG. 
 
 Second Edition, with considerable additions. 2 vols. 8vo. 
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 SOCIETY IN INDIA. 
 
 By an INDIAN OFFICER. 
 
 Forming a most amusing and useful guide for persons visiting 
 
 that country. 2 vols, small 8vo. 
 
 Mrs. Col. ELWOOD ; S NARRATIVE OF A 
 
 JOURNEY OVERLAND TO INDIA, 
 
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 2 vols. 8vo, with Plates. 
 
 The Hon. Major KEPPEL'S PERSONAL NARRATIVE 
 of an OVERLAND JOURNEY from 
 
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 PIAN SEA, ASTRACHAN, MOROCCO, AND ST. PETERS- 
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