ch bordered a winding road.

The wall was about eight feet high, and enclosed a garden. Here and
there it was overhung by branches of trees, whose foliage I failed to
distinguish in the darkness, but I once or twice thought I smelt the
fragrance of lemons. Within the garden behind the wall we could hear
the tinkle of a fountain and a noise like the singing of some bird.

"What is this place?" I asked in a whisper, as I ran along by Rupert's
side.

"Hush!" he answered crossly. "We shall be overheard. This is the
Nabob's garden, where are the pavilions of his women."

We ran on in silence for some little time longer, when we arrived at
the end of the garden, and plunged into a narrow and dark lane that
led out of the town. This passage we followed till we came out upon a
deserted nook immediately under the walls of Moorshedabad, which were
here much damaged, and matted with ivy and other weeds.

"Now," said Rupert, as he flung himself panting on the ground, in a
little grassy place, "we can talk over our plans without fear of being
disturbed."

I sat down beside him, inly marvelling at that great transformation
which had so quickly converted us from deadly enemies seeking each
other's lives, into allies, if not friends. After all our hostilities
against each other in Great Yarmouth, at Gheriah, and in Calcutta, we
were now in Moorshedabad, bound together by a common purpose, and that
purpose concerned with her who had originally been the cause of our
enmity.

I have often thought since that the change which took place in my
cousin's behaviour about this time was due, not so much to any tardy
pricks of conscience, as to a sort of dizziness of mind, brought about
by the spectacle of the prodigious crimes of Surajah Dowlah. His own
spirit, however bold and wicked, was daunted in the presence of this
being who, though so much younger in years, was so greatly superior in
evil; so that he shrank back, like one brought suddenly to the edge of
a precipice. Perhaps he had a secret apprehension of his coming fate;
at all events, it is certain that for a short time he manifested a
hearty longing to return to the society of honest men.

As soon as we were seated his first act was to pluck off the turban he
wore on his head, and cast it to the ground.

"Faugh!" he exclaimed. "What an intolerable thing to wear! If it were
not for their turbans and their abstinence, I declare Mahometanism
would suit me well enough."

I gaze