broke out between the Company and some of the native powers. He was
present at a great battle in which the English were defeated. She could
trace him by his letters and by other circumstances thus far, but here
the thread was discontinued, and no means which she employed could
procure any tidings of him. Whether he was captive, or dead, continued,
for several years, to be merely matter of conjecture.

On my return to Dublin, I found my patroness engaged in conversation
with a stranger. She introduced us to each other in a manner that
indicated the respect which she entertained for us both. I surveyed and
listened to him with considerable attention. His aspect was noble and
ingenuous, but his sunburnt and rugged features bespoke a various and
boisterous pilgrimage. The furrows of his brow were the products of
vicissitude and hardship, rather than of age. His accents were fiery and
energetic, and the impassioned boldness of his address, as well as the
tenor of his discourse, full of allusions to the past, and regrets that
the course of events had not been different, made me suspect something
extraordinary in his character.

As soon as he left us, my lady explained who he was. He was no other
than the object of her youthful attachment, who had, a few days before,
dropped among us as from the skies. He had a long and various story to
tell. He had accounted for his silence by enumerating the incidents of
his life. He had escaped from the prisons of Hyder, had wandered on
foot, and under various disguises, through the northern district of
Hindostan. He was sometimes a scholar of Benares, and sometimes a
disciple of the Mosque. According to the exigencies of the times, he was
a pilgrim to Mecca or to Juggernaut. By a long, circuitous, and perilous
route, he at length arrived at the Turkish capital. Here he resided for
several years, deriving a precarious subsistence from the profession of