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 testimony to the sagacity of her foresight. They had not gone far, when they came upon a second party of marauders. On seeing Bimala, they cried out, "A wench! a wench! a wench!"

"Mind your several affairs, comrades," said Rahim; "don't look this way."

The soldiers understood and desisted. "Rahim," said one, "you are lucky, only if the general do not wrest the dear morsel from your mouth."

Rahim and Bimala passed on. Bimala took Rahim to a room below her bed-chamber.

"This is my nether chamber," said she; "collect whatever in it you choose. Above this is my bed-chamber. I’ll go and bring thence my ornaments and such gear." Saying this, she threw him down a bunch of keys.

Finding the room loaded with articles, Rahim eagerly fell to unlocking the chests. Not a vestige of doubt now lingered in his mind as to Bimala's perfect honesty of purpose. On coming out, she fixed the fastening chain from the outside and locked the door. Rahim remained a prisoner in the room.

Bimala then ran upstairs. Tilottama's and her own apartment lay far removed in the interior of the castle, so that the plundering soldiery did not yet reach so far,—nay, it might well be doubted whether Tilottama and Jagat Singha had yet heard the din and the clamour. Instead of at once entering the chamber, impelled by curiosity, Bimala began to view the manner of the lovers through a chink in the door. Who can over-ride nature! Bimala could afford to be curious at such a terrible moment. She was rather surprised at what she saw.