like a charm. The idea of avenging myself on the author
of all my calamities, infused new life into my exhausted frame, and from
the moment that I determined to pursue him, I felt like another man.

"You must not, however, suppose that I even then entertained the purpose
of taking away my enemy's life. No, I could not bring my mind exactly to
that; but I had a vague, undefined hope, that if we met, some new
provocation on his part would afford me just occasion for avenging
myself on all; so ingenious, my dear friend, is the sophistry of
the passions.

"I lost no time in setting out on the track of Balty Mahu, and, ere many
days, overtook him at a small town which he had left just as I entered
it, but not before he had received, through his servant, notice of my
arrival. My wary enemy, who had little expected to see me here, and who
had travelled as much to keep out of my way as to see the country,
conjectured my purpose, from the consciousness of what he had done to
provoke it. Thus, while we both appeared to others to be merely making a
tour of Hindostan, it was soon known to both of us, that my chief
purpose was to pursue him, and his to elude my pursuit. In the ardour,
as well as exercise of the chase, my health mended rapidly, but I was no
nearer the object of my pursuit; for, although I travelled somewhat
faster than Bally Mahu, as he wished to avoid the appearance of flying
from me, he sometimes contrived to put me on a wrong track. In this way
I was once led to travel towards the coast, while he proceeded in an
opposite direction to Benares, where he considered he would be most safe
from my vengeance, and where the restraints both of religion and law
would be more likely to operate on me than in a foreign district.

"My usual practice, on arriving at any town, was to endeavour to learn
if Balty Mahu had passed through it; if so, when and in what direction;
and to get the information, if possible, without seeming to seek it. On
one of these occasions, I heard from a party of merchants that the Omrah
Addaway, whose health had been declining for some time, had gone to
Benares, for the benefit of medical advice; that his disease, however,
had become more serious; and that it was generally thought it would soon
occasion his death. What a train of new thoughts, hopes, and desires,
did this intelligence excite in me! At first, influenced by the custom
of my country, which prohibits widows from marrying again, I though