“What are they?”
“That you will give me your daughter in marriage.”
“Had I twenty daughters I should not think it too great a reward for so signal a service. Destroy the tyrant who has led his troops before our walls, and I pledge myself to give you my daughter with an ample dowry.”
“I promise, at least, to attempt his death, and nothing but my own will secure his safety.”
“I need not tell you that you are believed to have deserted to the enemy from an impulse of revenge towards me. When once an impression of this kind is excited in the breasts of brave and honourable men, it is no easy thing to remove it. If you can accomplish what you propose you will be immediately restored to the good opinion which, so far as now appears, you have justly forfeited.”
The Rajpoot was sufficiently satisfied with his reception, but, when he desired to see the object of his attachment, her father replied:—
“No. You are still under the imputation of treachery; that imputation must be removed before you can have any intercourse with my daughter.”
“Do you suspect my integrity?”
“I have no warranty for your honesty, and therefore till you show that your absence from the city was not dishonourable to you, I can look upon you in no other light than that of a traitor.”
“Treat me as a traitor then, and order me to be flung from yonder battlements.”