‘Well, here is the bag!’ cried Edward, taking it from the servant, who just then entered. ‘Now we shall see!’ and he opened it. ‘What! only one?—that is a disappointment! It is for you, father.’
‘Ah, from my agents I see; perhaps the letters have not been delivered; but we shall hear all about it.’ They crowded round him, but poor Amy’s heart sunk within her; she almost sickened lest there should be no news of Herbert.
‘Dear Sir,’ read Mr. Compton, ‘we are sorry to inform you that there were no letters for you or for Miss Hayward, per Ocean from Bombay, and we are sorry to add that the general news is not so favourable as we could wish—’
‘Look to Amy! look to Amy!’ cried Mrs. Compton, suddenly and anxiously.
It was indeed necessary,—for she had fainted. It was long ere she recovered; she had naturally a powerful mind, but it had been suddenly, perhaps unadvisedly, excited; and when such disappointment ensued, she had not been able to bear up against it, the more so as this was the second she had experienced within a short time, and there was no doubt from the previous public information, that severe fighting had been apprehended, in which Herbert’s regiment must take a part.
In vain was it that Mr. and Mrs. Hayward tried to console her,—they had felt the disappointment as keenly as Amy; for the time, therefore, all were sad, and the evening which had begun so cheerfully, was concluded in painful and almost silent apprehension; nor did the accounts which appeared in the newspapers some days afterwards convey to them any alleviation of their fears.
CHAPTER XII.
It is now necessary to revisit Abdool Rhyman Khan and his party, whom we left at a small village in the pass leading behind Pencondah, and in their company to travel awhile through those districts which lay between them and the city whither they were bound.
There were no dangers now in their path, no attacks from the Mahrattas to be apprehended, nor was there the irksome heat which oppressed and wearied them before. A few showers had already fallen, the earth had put on its verdant covering, and travelling was now a pleasure more than a fatigue. The Khan had intended proceeding by easy stages, but the news he had heard of rumours of fresh wars, of the personal activity of Tippoo among the army, which was always the forerunner of some campaign, made him more than usually solicitous to press forward.