ted that two of his menservants should accompany me that day's march
at least. I had no fears, nor much to lose beside my life, and for some
time resisted the offer, but without avail. The men therefore accompanied
me, and after six hours' walk, I prevailed on them to take refreshment and
rest at the serai of the village, through which we had to pass, with leave
to retrace their way home afterwards with my duty to their master.

'Released from their guardianship, I felt my own independence revive, and
bounded on as lively as the antelope, full of hope that I might yet reach
the Rajah's territory by nightfall, who, I had heard, was willing to give
employment to the enterprising youth of Loodeeanah, in the army he was
then raising. I must have walked since the morning near twenty koss (forty
miles) without food or water; but I neither felt hunger nor fatigue, so
deeply was my heart engaged in the prospect of a military life. At length
hunger awakened me to a sense of my forlorn condition, for I had left home
without a coin in my possession; and although I passed through many
inhabited villages where relief would have been gladly tendered, if I had
only applied for it, yet my pride forbade the humble words of supplicating
for a meal; hungry as I was, death even would have been preferable at that
time to breathing out a want amongst strangers.

'I was overjoyed on approaching a cultivated tract of country to find a
field of wheat, ripe for the harvest, evincing the great Creator's
bountiful hand, and hesitated not, without a scruple, to possess myself of
an occasional handful as I passed along, rubbing the ears and eating as I
went, to save that time I deemed so precious; for my anxiety to reach the
Rajah and employment, increased as the day advanced. I had traversed near
thirty koss on foot, scarcely having halted since the dawning day; this to
a young man who had been through life indulged by the luxury of a horse
for exercise, whilst under the parental roof, may be imagined to have been
no trifling undertaking. But buoyant youth, filled with hopes of honour
and preferment is regardless of those difficulties which must subdue the
indolent or less aspiring spirit.

'At the extremity of a large field through which I had to pass, my eye
rested on a man with two oxen, certain indications, I imagined, of a well
of water being adjacent for the purpose of irrigation, towards whom I
approached sufficiently near to inquire if a dr