exposure, and fatigue; her life was for a time in danger, and it was a month before she had fully recovered. The King was extremely angry at this event, and, having called together his Council, it was resolved that redress should be sought with the sword. The people approved of this. "It is not to be endured," they said, "that the highways of the world should be infested by savages so very brutal that they not only attack peaceful travellers, but murder them in the moment of their distress, when common humanity would have rendered aid. This outrage had no excuse whatever,”—so said the people; and it was generally understood among them that the wretches of Bithar meant to seize their lovely princess as a prize for their prince. While this was being said in one region, a scene was occurring at Bithar. The family, one of whose ancestors was represented by the cut tree, healed up the wound of the evergreen with tenderest care, and rewarded the guardian who had saved it from destruction. They then gathered all their connections together, and held a thanksgiving-day in the chief temple, in honour of the rescue of the soul of their ancestor from death at the hands of barbarians. Some of the citizens of Bithar thought that the party driven off must have been ghouls in human guise, hungry for their dead friends, and unable to reach them except by cutting down their evergreens. They set a larger guard among the trees. "It is not to be endured," said they, "that our highways should be infested by savages so very brutal that they seek to destroy the very souls of our departed relatives. This outrage had no excuse whatever," so said the people of Bithar. The story of a generation may be summed in a sentence. There followed thirty years of skirmishes and struggles, ending in the great siege of Bithar, which effaced it from the earth, and scattered through many lands all who survived of its half-million inhabitants. |