“Don’t get light-headed, child,” said my spouse, sharply. “Hold the bridle for me a moment,” and when I reached forward and obeyed him, he unbuckled his sword-belt, and slipping it off, fastened it round himself and me both, so that I could not fall even though I loosed my hold. This occupied but an instant, but Mr Ranger came riding back to see what had detained us, and was very merry with Mr Fraser on his riding with his sword out, as though at a review. After this I must believe that I fell asleep in spite of the awkwardness of my position, for when the horse stopped suddenly I should have fallen off had it not been for the belt. As it was, I slipped helplessly from the beast’s back when Mr Fraser unfastened the strap, and should have fell to the ground if Mr Watts had not catched me.
“Come, madam, keep your heart up,” says the good gentleman. “We have made huge progress, and met with the most marvellous good luck throughout.”
“How, sir?” I asked him.
“Why, we have encountered no enemy nor wild beast, there’s light enough to see our way, and the rains en’t begun, as they might well be, since last year they commenced so late. Figure to yourself what our flight would have been with rain falling, and the entire country a swamp!”
“Come, my dear, you must rest while we halt here,” says Mr Fraser, while I endeavoured with my confused brain to picture the situation suggested by Mr Watts, and I resigned the attempt thankfully, lying down on the cloak my husband had spread for me on the ground, and suffering him to cover me with another. I must have fallen asleep immediately, for I dreamed that Mr Fraser came and looked at me very earnestly, but without speaking, and then went away, and waking, I found that he was gone. In the obscurity of the grove in which we were, I could discern the figures of Mr Watts and Dr Dacre, wrapped in their cloaks and stretched upon the ground; at a little distance were the syces, crouched upon their heels close to the horses, and Mirza Shaw, with his scymitar drawn, stood guarding his master with the most extreme vigilance, but my spouse and Mr Ranger were not to be seen.
“Where’s Mr Fraser?” I cried out to the Tartar, sitting up in my place, but it was Dr Dacre that answered me.
“Why, madam, your spouse believed you asleep. He’s but this moment gone forward with Mr Ranger to ascertain our position. There was some talk of a force of the Nabob’s horse encamped in the village ahead of us, and blocking our way to the river, and Mirza Shaw has wounded his foot with a thorn——”
“But you’ve sent him into the midst of the enemy? Sure they’ll murder him!” I cried, but Mr Watts, waking, silenced me roughly.
“Be quiet, madam, and pray let other people rest if you won’t do it yourself. Mr Fraser’s in no such terrible danger. If he’s the wise man I fancy him, the enemy will have no chance so much as to catch sight of him.”
Mr Watts fell asleep again at once, but I could not follow his example. The desire for sleep, which had tormented me so long, seemed to have left me, and a hundred horrid visions took its place. I saw Mr Fraser discovered, tracked, pursued, seized, tortured, slain, in all the circumstances that my apprehensive mind could suggest, and even the most ordinary sound that reached me was the signal to start a fresh train of horrors. I was a prey to the most cruel, the most poignant anxiety, and at the same moment to the liveliest remorse, and this because I had not awaked when Mr Fraser came and regarded me, thus losing what I persuaded myself was his last farewell. The shocking selfishness, which had caused me a year ago to destroy my dear Captain Colquhoun in obtaining for me the water that cost him his life, I saw repeated now in the insensibility I had shown to the presence of the person to whom I owe everything, and my heart was almost broken with the thought of such unparalleled ingratitude. Trembling all over with apprehension, I sat leaning against a tree, listening for a distant shot or shout that might confirm my worst fears. Presently Mirza Shaw, catching sight of me, limped across the glade to recommend me in a low voice to lie down.