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THE STATION. 61

The suit was dismissed, and the plaintiff never ceased to affirm that “the palm of the judge had been “greased by the Nana:’ but too much attention must not be paid to this declaration ; for, whenever a native accuses the bench of corruption, he simply means that he has lost his case. It is certain that the Maharaja kept im confinement against their will the widows of his predecessor; for whose younger daughter he planned a marriage inconsistent with the rules and traditions of the family; an act of outrageous tyranny In the estimation of High Brahmins. He wedded the eldest sister to a husband whom she was never allowed to see; and, when her death occurred after no long interval, it was whispered about the neighbourhood that there had been very foul play in every sense of the word. Those fictitious tales of vice and atrocity, with which literary hacks of the vilest class feed the corrupt imaginations of their readers, too.often find a parallel in the realities of a great oriental household. The doctrine of personal rights has no existence within the walls of a zenana. Nowhere was the mystery of iniquity deeper and darker than in the palace of Bithoor, which was indeed a worthy nest for such a vulture. There were rooms in that palace horribly unfit for any human eye, where both Huropean and native artists had done their best to gratify a master who was willing