Confessions of a Thug. Taylor Meadows

Pundit was then a young man; but he was looked up to with much respect by all who had any dealings with him. He was considered just, and one who patiently listened to both sides of a question before he gave his decision. But our bitter enemy Brij Lall was his confidential mootsuddee, and conducted himself in so plausible a manner, that his tyrannies were never discovered.

      "Brij Lall made his accusation against my father. He said that, by the laws of the kingdom, accounts of the effects of sahoukars and other wealthy persons ought to be furnished to the government when they died without male children. That it was well known that Jeysookhdas was wealthy; that he had two or three daughters, but no sons; and that they had no right to have touched a rupee of the property until the accounts of the government had been settled. Again, that my father was not the rightful patel of Boree, and that the person who was descended from the original possessors claimed the office and the lands which were then in my father's possession. Brij Lall concluded his representation by saying to the Pundit, 'I will refrain from dwelling, oh incarnation of Brahma! on the usage I have met with at this man's hands. Twice did I visit his village, and twice was I received with such indignity that my blood boils at the recollection. My intentions in going there were solely for the good of the government; and had I but then complained, the wrath of my lord would have descended on this man's head, and annihilated him and his family. But I devoured my grief; and it was not until provoked by his repeated refusals to come to the presence, and his contempt of the messages sent to him about the effects of Jeysookhdas, that I became aware that the dignity of the government was set at nought, and I ordered his arrest and imprisonment.'

      "'Ya Alla! Alla!' cried my father; 'my lord, it is all a lie. I call Alla to witness that I never disobeyed any order of the government when sent to me in a proper form. Have I not eaten the salt of the government before that pitiful wretch was born? and who is he that my lord should suffer him to abuse so old a servant of the state in his presence? If I have permission I will represent to my lord that I am not in fault, but that this devil ought to be severely punished for the treatment he has subjected your slave to.'

      "'We will hear you to-morrow,' said the Pundit, 'and in the mean time it will be proper for you to draw up a statement of what you have to say in your defence, in order that its relation may be more succinct and more readily comprehended.'

      "My father then begged not to be confined like a thief, and offered the two sahoukars as his securities to appear whenever he might be called on. This was admitted, in spite of Brij Lall's protestations that no securities would bind us, and we walked away in company with our friends; my father, as he passed him, twirling his mustachios and looking askance at him, with many a muttered Inshalla and Mashalla, all of which Brij Lall answered with looks of the most deadly spite and hatred.

      "In the course of the evening an account was drawn up, in Persian, of the whole of Brij Lall's conduct, from first to last; and we took it to the durbar in every expectation of seeing him disgraced before our eyes, for his unwarrantable treatment of us. But we were doomed to 'eat disappointment.' The petition was read by Narayun Pundit, and he proceeded to pass judgment in the case, which was, that Brij Lall had much exceeded his authority in imprisoning my father, that he had acted wrongly in persecuting Jeysookhdas and his family, for that on an examination of the accounts there did not appear to be any claim against him.

      "On the other hand, that my father had behaved ill to Brij Lall, in having had him turned out of the village; disrespectfully to the state, in not readily giving the accounts demanded to an agent who was known to have the power to ask for them, and in resisting for so long a time his repeated orders.

      "My father was going to reply, when, his friend the Sahoukar stopped him. 'Better,' said he, 'is it to come out of a battle with half your life than with no life at all. Be quiet: consider that you have escaped, which is what very few do, from the net which was thrown round you by that low rascal, and be thankful.'

      "My father had only to pay a small fine for what he had done to Brij Lall. He considered that he had obtained a victory, and so the matter ended.

      "I never shall forget the advice which the old Sahoukar gave my father, when, after some days' sojourn with him, and being entertained at his expense, we were about to set out for our village.

      "'Pateljee!' said he, 'I know that Brij Lall well; he will never give up his revenge; you have seen that he behaves like a cow before his patron, but absent from him he is a tiger in heart and in manners; and such is the influence he has obtained, that no one dares to oppose him. You have indeed got well out of his clutches; but had not your affairs been taken up by our Séth, you would have remained in your miserable prison until his hate had been satisfied by your death, from the constant torment and ill-usage he would have subjected you to.'

      "'Shookur Alla!' said my father, 'I am at least safe now.'

      "'Not without great caution,' said the Sahoukar; 'his emissaries will beset you wherever you go, and it will require your utmost vigilance and wariness to avoid them. By your soul, O Patel, I beseech you not to disregard what I say, or you will repent it.'

      "'I will not,' said my father; 'your words are friendly, and I drink them in as grateful sherbet. But this Brij Lall must have long arms and powerful if he can reach Mahommedjee Patel.'

      "In a very few days after, we took our leave and returned home; but, as had been predicted, in a few months strange men began to be seen about the village; and my father, strange to say, disregarded all our prayers to stay at home, especially after dusk; he would not listen to us, called the men we had seen travellers, and staid from home late of nights out of bravado. However, my mother grew at last so anxious and so alarmed about these repeated visits of unknown people, that she begged of me never to leave my father's side by day, and always to bring him home with me from the fields in the evening. This I did for a long time; but one night, one cursed night—would that I had never seen the dawn of the day preceding it!—having been delayed in a field of sugar-cane to arrange about the cutting of it the following day, we were late in returning home: we were accompanied part of the way by some men of a neighbouring village, but they separated from us about half a coss from ours; and the remainder of the way (if we followed the straight road) was one which was not thought safe, and by which no one went after nightfall if he could help it. I attempted to take another; but the old man observed it, and said sharply, 'That is not the way—that road will keep us out an hour longer.' I had no reason to give to dissuade him from the road I wished to avoid, though an ill-defined feeling that there was danger in the one before us had led me to endeavour to take the other. But, my friends, who can avoid his fate? If it is the will of Alla that one is to die, of what use is human foresight? We went on, and soon reached the inclosed fields, between the high milk-bush hedges of which the path wound. It was scarcely light enough for us to see our way, but we knew every foot of the road. All at once, as we proceeded, I thought I saw in a hedge which crossed the road a glimmer, as if of the match of a gun.

      "'Look!' said I to my father, 'we are waylaid, there are people behind the hedge; look, there are three lighted matches!'

      "'You are a fool,' cried he, 'they are fire-flies: are you afraid? has my son become a coward?'

      "The words were hardly out of his mouth, when there were three sharp cracks close to us. My father fell on his face without uttering a sound, and I felt a coldness and numbness all down my back, with a sharp pain, and the same feeling in my leg. I became sick, staggered a few paces, and then fell; but I was not insensible. Three men rushed out from the hedge, and ran towards us with drawn swords. Seeing that neither of us moved, one of them turned me over on my back, and looked into my face. I shut my eyes, for I knew if they were open I should not live an instant.

      "'This is not the man,' said the fellow standing over me; 'we have missed them.'

      "Another came up.

      "'It is nearly as good,' said he, 'it is the young devil, the son: the father, depend upon it, is the other; come and see.' And they left me.

      "They went to where my poor father lay, but I could not see what they did. I suppose they examined him, for one cried, 'Alhumd-ul-illah! we have been successful; our faces will be bright in our employer's sight for this. And only think, to have succeeded so easily