[note *:  Afterwards, as I have heard, the wife of Milne of
  Milneford.  She lived till nearly a hundred.]

“‘So the Lord did lead him; and there was no strange god with them.’”

“Ay, but there was a God before him, lad.”

“What mean you, Janet?”

“Do you not recollect of Brahma?”

“Do not mention that strange figure, Janet.  My blood runs cold.”

Janet laughed.

“Runs cold, lad, at what?  Brahma was just one of the Nawab’s great men, whom he sent over here to watch the fate of his daughter.  Why, man, he lodged next door to you, with Mrs. Lyon at the Scouring Burn.”

“The black man the boys used to run after?”

“The very same.  He returned with Ady, and was at the court of the Nawab and told all, ay, and more than we knew—­that Fletcher would be obliged to visit Bombay again ere long after.  He had got this from some of the authorities in England.  For many a day did the prince weep for his Kalee; for many a day did he watch for the murderer’s arrival, ay, as a tiger of his jungles watches in the night with fiery eyes for a beast even more cruel than himself.  He had even all the coast of Coromandel, I think they call it, to give intelligence of the vessel.  The very name of the vessel was known; the very paint of its sides, and the flag it bore—­so well had he kept up his knowledge of what was going on in England.”

“Wonderful!” cried Aminadab. “’And the fowler that did slay, falleth into his own net.’”

“And a terrible net, with meshes of sharp steel to hold and cut.”

“Ah!” cried Aminadab, as he rubbed his hands, and chuckled like a big boy who sees the porridge boiling.

“You may well be anxious, lad; but you’ll have more than you want.”

“No, unless he is put into a fiery pit and burnt to a cinder, or into a den of tigers, or a nest of hooded snakes, or—­”

“Peace, lad; better than all.  But surely we are forgetting that we are Christians, that we have seen the new light of grace, Aminadab.”

“Ay, true.  Mercy pertaineth to the Lord.  We belong to the furnace which trieth gold; not to the refining-pot of the Old Church, which is for silver.”

“Ah, well!  God’s judgment was soon executed.  The ship was recognised and hailed long before she arrived at Bombay.  A crowd of black devils boarded her, seized Fletcher, and dragged him on shore.  Not an instant was lost.  Trial was a laughter.  They danced round in joy, making the very Brahma hear their orgies.  Four horses, ropes, victim between two and two, whip, yell, and Fletcher is in four quarters.

“Nor did they end here.  They had forgotten the white wife.  She too—­justice demanded it.  They did not ask why; but the sailors had suspected what was going on; and when they saw the devils coming back, they put Mrs. Fletcher into a big basket, and hoisted her to the top-mast.  The poor woman could see from that height the mangled remains of her husband; but she was an extraordinary woman.  She kept her place composedly as she heard the yells of the demons.  They could not find her, and went away like wild animals deprived of their bloody prey.  The ship went on.  Mrs. Fletcher returned safe to Scotland, where she was known as the heroine who had gone through so much for the love of a villain.”