heart that he remained silent and moody.

His followers, however, were loud in their praises of Imoinda. They
extolled her ravishing charms even in the presence of the old king, so
that nothing else was talked of but Imoinda. Oroonoko's love rapidly
became too strong for him to control, and one night he went secretly to
the house of his beloved, and wooed her with such fervency of soul that
even she was astonished by it. It was the savage custom of his country
for a king to have a hundred wives, as his grandfather had; but Oroonoko
was an enlightened and chivalrous man.

"Never, Imoinda," he cried, "shall you have a rival. You are the only
woman I shall love, the only woman I shall marry. Come, my darling, and
let us try and raise our people up by our example."

Imoinda was naturally overjoyed to become the wife of so noble and
cultivated a prince, and she waited the next morning in a state of
delicious excitement for Oroonoko to return and claim her as his bride.
But, to her dismay and horror, four headmen with their servants came at
daybreak to her house with a royal veil. This is a rudely embroidered
cloth which the king of Coromantien sends to any lady whom he has a mind
to make his wife. After she is covered with it, the maid is secured for
the king's otan, or harem, and it is death to disobey the royal summons.

Trembling and almost fainting, Imoinda was compelled to suffer herself
to be covered and led away to the old king. His imagination had been
excited by the wild way in which the followers of his grandson had
praised the beauty of the maiden, and, carried away by unnatural
jealousy, he had resolved, in a fit of madness, to possess her at all
costs. In spite of all he had heard, he was amazed by her loveliness.