time; and now I know that we shall live together and be happy always!' Then we talked and plotted together; and at last she hit upon this plan. She would steal me a sepoy's uniform from her husband's lines and, dressed in it, I would safely slip through the cordon which the villagers had drawn round me. This plan seemed to me excellent; but it was easier to make than to carry through. Evening after evening she came to me to say that she had failed to secure the sepoy's uniform, so striotly were strangers kept out of the lines. The bright half of Kartik came and went; then the first week of the dark half; then followed the 8th, 9th, 10th, and still the sub-inspector's wife had not brought me the sepoy's clothes. On the 11th the villagers fasted to purify themselves for my samadhi. On the 12th they broke their fast, and feasted in my honour; and I, too, had to join in their feast, although my tongue clove to my palate with fear; for, unless I escaped that night, the next day would be my last. My grave had been dug eight feet deep, a black-buck's skin had been spread over the bottom of it, and a stack of wood, the smoke of which was to stupefy me when the mouth of the grave was being closed, was piled up in a corner. Happily, the villagers did not expect gaiety from an anohorite, so after they had feasted they left me, confident that next day I should make their town holy for ever. But the sentries posted round me never relaxed their watch, and were as wakeful as ever. I could not sleep, such was my fear; always, too, I hoped against hope that the Brahman woman would come and save me. Nor did my hope prove false. Two hours after midnight I heard a voice whisper, not far from me, 'Maharaj! I have come.' I could see nothing, because, as you know, Sahib, the nights are moonless on the thirteenth of the dark half of the month. But I knew from the voice that it was the sub-inspector's wife. She had not been able to steal a sepoy's dress, so she had actually brought me her own husband's uniform covered with silver braid. I tore off my anchorite's robe, I slipped on the subinspector's uniform, and with a bold step I marched through the ring of sentries. The Brahman girl followed me, carrying my anehorite's gown tied up in a bundle. The villagers, thinking me to be the sub-inspector on his rounds, let us pass by them and out of the town. We walked as fast as we could for the rest of the night towards Bhimashankar, for I knew that the sub-inspector and the villagers would join in hunting us down. When the sun rose, I took off the uniform and, hiding it in a cavity in a dry torrent-bed, put on again my anchorite's gown. Then we hid in a little wood and rested there throughout the day. When darkness fell we set out again, and before morning we had reached the hills, and I knew that we were fairly safe. The Brahman girl had brought some food with her, and she bought some more from the hillmen's huts. Thus we had strength to make our way to one of the peaks of Bhimashankar, from which one can look down many hundred feet into the Konkan. There we made ourselves a little hut and lived together as happily as ever Rama and Sita did on the banks of the Godavari. One day, however, the Brahman girl, on going to a neighbouring village, heard that the subinspector was still searching for us, and that in a day or two he and his sepoys would beat all the jungles on Bhimashankar. I knew then that if we stayed we should be taken, and I also knew that that rakshas (devil) of a sub-inspecter would surely hand me over to the villagers of Khed to bury alive. Istormed and oursed myself for ever having left Atibaleshwar; and at last I told the Brahman girl that she must leave me and return to her husband. But truly, Sahib, I had no inkling of what was to follow. I, indeed, thought only how to save myself. She threw herself at my feet and cried and implored me not to leave her, promising me that she would save me, as she had saved me before. But when fear has hold of a man, he will not listen to reason, Losing all patience, I pushed her violently from me and went to perform my evening sandhyas (prayers); for at all times, Sahib, I have strictly observed the rites of our religion. Seeing that I would not yield, she rose to her feet and, salaaming, said bitterly, 'Farewell, then, even Maharaj. It has truly been said that a Sudra can never become & Brahman, though he bathe in the Ganges.' Then pulling her sari (mantle) forward over her head, she ran to the edge of the cliff and sprang off it into space. For some minutes I was too shocked to do anything, then I crept to the mountain's edge and looked over. At first I saw nothing; then I made out ever so far below me a red spot, which I knew to be the Brahman woman's clothes. I would have fled from the place at once, but it was growing dark and I had heard of a maneating panther in the forest. So I stayed the night in my hut, covering my head earefully with my sheet; for I feared that the bodiless spirit of the Brahman girl might enter my mouth as I slept, and possessing me, bring me to ruin. Next morning I rose and, after performing my sandhyas, orept again to the edge of the cliff and saw the red spot untouched. The jackals had not found her in the night. But as I looked, I became aware of a black speck in the sky, and then another and then another. I knew then that the vultures had seen her body, and that before evening they would have eaten it. I went back to my hut, and, picking up my small belongings, ran as fast as I could from the acoursed place. By great good fortune I escaped the toils laid for me by the sub-inspecter, and I made my way northwards to Nasik. There I met a Brahman priest, who fed and cared for me like a father; and when he died of cholera, as he did two or three months later, he left me all his small savings. After mourning for him and burning his body and throwing his bones into the Godavari, I came here to worship the Lord Krishna," "You were fortunate," I said, "in finding so kindly a priest. But I was at Nasik at the time, and I heard evil men say-for there are evil men even in so holy a place as Nasik-that the old priest did not die of cholera, but because he ate arsenic by mistake." In sheer malice I had drawn a bow at a venture. It oertainly seemed as if my random shaft hit the mark. All the good humour left the anchorite's face. He sprang to his feet, seized his iron-shod staff, and for a moment I thought he would have struck me with it. "Nay, Bhatji," I spoke soothingly to him, "be not angry. I did but jest." But he was not to be cajoled. The pleasant garrulity had gone not to return. Just then he spied another likely boatload of pilgrims orossing the Bhima. He picked up his begging bowl, threw away his cigar-end, and growling under his breath, "Aanakhi gappa marayala mala kahi vel nahi" (I have no more time to waste gossiping here), he strode off towards his predestined prey. A minute or two later I heard his voice raised as before, half threatening, half whining "Alms, alms! In the name of God, give me alms!” BEFORE THE UNION: GRATTAN'S PARLIAMENT. BY J. A. STRAHAN. The Irish Parliament was the mere phantom of a living Parliament. Collectively, it had no control over the administration of the country, though individually its members, as local magistrates and grand jurors, had a great deal too much. The Parliament of Great Britain was entitled, under the Declaratory Act, to legislate for Ireland without its consent; and it, by Poynings Act, was not entitled to do so without the consent of the English Privy Council. It did not wield the power of the purse, since the hereditary revenues of the Crown were more, and, if they had been honestly collected, much more than enough to provide for all the needs of the Government. The Judges did not hold their seats at its will, but at the will of the Crown; and the Army was not subject to its Mutiny Act, but to the Mutiny Act of the British Parliament. BEFORE the rise of Grattan's so busy draining the rest of Parliament the administration the country." of Ireland was controlled from England. Owing to the frequent absence of the Lord Lieutenant, usually it was in the hands of the Lords Justices, who commonly were the Archbishop of Armagh, the Lord Chancellor, and the Speaker of the House of Commons, who ran it largely for their own benefit. The English authorities intervened chiefly to make raids for their followers on the Irish treasury, or to fill up Irish appointments with English derelicts. Many of the Judges were Englishmen whose chief qualifications for the seat of justice were their families or their follies: it was a Bar saying about one of them that he was of so kindly a disposition that he never passed sentence on a prisoner without "a drop in his eye." Many of the Bishops were Englishmen who by character or intelleot were better fitted for bagnios or Bedlam than bishoprios. As for the Lord Lieutenants, what the publie thought of them may be gathered from Sir Hercules Langrishe's reply to one who asked why his predecessors had never drained a swamp in Phoenix Park: "Well, ye see, " replied Sir Hercules, they hadn't time; they were Probably, however, it possessed just as much authority as its constitution entitled it to claim. The House of Lords was dominated by the Bishops, all, of course, nominees of the Crown. The House of Commons consisted of three hundred members, all supposed to be elected by the people. At the utmost stretch not more than eighty of them could be said to be so elected: that is, the sixty-four members representing the thirty-two counties, the fourteen representing the seven cities, and the two representing the University. The two hundred and twenty remaining were returned by one hundred and ten small boroughs, twenty-five of which contained less than ten electors each.1 Grattan, when he turned reformer, declared truthfully enough that two-thirds of the representation in the country was private property, and treated as such by the owners of the land on which the boroughs were situate. It was openly and freely sold when the owner had no relative or friend whom he wished to nominate. Nevertheless there were two parties in this phantom Parliament-the Government and the Patriot. The Patriot party no doubt objected to many laws and proceedings which harassed the Protestant interest in the country: nobody, of course, ever thought of the Catholics, who were the vast bulk of the nation. They objected to the trammels imposed on trade, the perversion of Irish revenue for English pensions, and above all, to the most profitable places in Ireland being filled from England. But still, for practical purposes, the chief difference between the parties was this, that the Government party were the party who had the jobs and the Patriot party were the party that wanted them. When a Patriot got a job he changed his party. That is what their brilliant leader, Henry Flood, did. But it mattered little what the objects of the Patriot party were: they could accomplish nothing. They had nothing whatever behind them neither the support of physical force nor that of popular opinion. All of a sudden a change foreseen by none gave them both. The American Colonies were in revolt against English rule, and France had come to the aid of the Colonists—a suicidal policy on the part of the Freneh monarchy, much like the recent policy of the Russian autocracy in joining the free English and French in the overthrow of the fellow-autooracy in Germany. England, sorely pressed as she was, withdrew all her soldiers from Ireland for service in the war. Then, to the consternation of the Government, Paul Jones appeared in Belfast Lough, sank the solitary guardship there, and threatened to raid Belfast. As the Government could not protect them, the Ulstermen, as their custom is, resolved to protect themselves. Thus originated the first Ulster Volunteers. The Scottish were the first 1 Even boroughs of reasonable size had no real share in electing their members. Belfast's M. P.'s, when there were 15,000 inhabitants in the borough, were elected by twelve persons under the direction of the Marquis of Donegall. |