Page:Thirty-five years in the East.djvu/99

Rh her own husband Runjeet to be imprisoned, taking, however, advantage of that opportunity to extort money from the minister, as he was ready to ransom his lord and master at any price. The whole affair was, in fact, a plot, concocted between her and Runjeet Sing. A royal princess had died, whose fortune, according to the custom of that country, ought to have been taken possession of by Goolbegoom, as the regent princess. The inheritance, which consisted chiefly of jewels, was not sufficient to cover the deficiency of the maharaja's treasury; and the minister to whom he applied for assistance could not afford, or would not provide the sum required. In that difficulty, Runjeet Sing played the thief, and stole ( as previously arranged ) the said jewels; at which the Ranee Goolbegoom manifested such indignation, that she cast him into prison, firmly convinced that the miserly minister would no longer hesitate to procure the money required for the release of the sovereign, who was then undergoing such ignominy. Similar oriental tricks were not uncommon with Runjeet Sing, but this is not the place to enumerate them.

My return to my native country was vid Mooltan and Dhera-Ghasi-Khan, where General Ventura was then governor. As I had provided myself with vaccine matter to use for my journey, the general wished me to vaccinate his darling child. Madame Ventura was opposed to my commencing with her little daughter Victorine, so her husband ordered some poor children to be brought from the bazaar at Dhera, whom I vaccinated, and to each of them he gave a rupee, as a remuneration. On the eighth day, on which the children ought to have come to me, that I might take the vaccine matter for further use, no one appeared, and I was told that their alarmed parents had removed them from the town. The parents had heard a rumour that on the eighth day, on their re-appearance, the Feringhee (European) doctor would cut the moomiai from their arm, which operation was supposed to endanger life; but on General Ventura's threatening the kotoal (police officer) with imprisonment, one of the boys was brought to me on