“Allah! and the Prophet pardon a miserable wretch for having forgotten it,” exclaimed Prabu, adding very truly, “but we must have lost our reckoning of time in the wilds, for I thought it wanted two more days to it. But Allah be thanked that we are yet in time for the festival.”
“My elder brother,” replied the head-man, “has committed no sin, for the day has only come, not passed; but,” he added, “let my brother attire himself fittingly, and accompany my party to Marang, for the day will be a great one, greater than usual, to do honor to the newly-arrived envoy from the unbelieving Dutch chief at Batavia.”
“When, O my elder brother, did this Dutch envoy arrive in Marang?” asked Prabu, with evident vexation, if not fear, depicted upon his countenance.
“Three days since. It is believed that it was to receive this Hollander, his highness the Pangeran left Pugar, and came to his great palace of Marang.”
“Will the Hollander attend the ceremonies at the palace?” asked Prabu.
“It is not known, but if my elder brother and his two friends will join our party they will see,” replied the head-man, and then again he offered to lend us the holiday attire of villagers that we might make an appropriate appearance, and to don these we went into his house.
“I say, Prabu,” said Martin while we were attiring ourselves, “isn’t it a little foolhardy for us, and you especially, to venture too near this Dutchman; won’t it be to walk into the lion’s mouth?”
“Not so, sahib; he will not recognize us, even if he has ever seen us before, for he cannot dream that we are in this part of the island.”
“But why go at all into the city until this envoy has quitted it, if there be any danger?” I asked.
“Because, Sahib Claud,” replied Prabu, sternly, “there is treachery at work in a quarter where I least expected to find it, and I must scent it out; still, if the sahibs fear, they can remain here.”