1 '230 THE LORDS OF THE HILLS ; —
2 of the driest materials procurable, opposite and close to the
3 spot where her husband's corpse was now entombed in the
4 pillar. Every thing having been thus privately got in
5 order, she warned her brothers to secrete themselves for some
6 short period near the pile, while she with her female com-
7 panion departed, under pretence of ablution at some holy
8 stream or fountain in the vicinity. She thus left her brothers
9 in charge of the pile, while she by some wily policy and
10 under some proper guise, contrived to be introduced to
11 the presence, and in no small degree to attract the attention,
12 of the licentious and unwary Shureeff. The fascinating, win-
13 ning, yet simple and graceful part which she acted, aided
14 by personal charms and attractions proverbial even to this day,
15 and all set of by a well-assumed female hauteur, a particular
16 reserved, lofty air, seen only in females of the highest rank,
17 gained so far on the unworthy Shureeff that even on their
18 first and introductory acquaintance, a private interview was
19 appointed ; and on the night of the second day after the
20 death of Sooruj Dehu, Shureeff Khan proceeded, unattended as
21 agreed on, to meet the unknown fair one. The heroic Neila,
22 anxiously yet coolly watching her opportunity, soon found
23 means to consummate the bloody deed on which she had re-
24 solved by plunging deep in the heart of her enemy a Katar
25 which she had procured and kept concealed for the purpose.
26 So mortal and true was the heroine's blow that Shureeff Khan
27 never rose or even made any resistance to his fair murderess,
28 who actually leaving the Katar (a curious kind of native
29 poignard) deep sunk in his heart, instantly, with more than
30 even a masculine intrepidity and coolness, severed the head
31 from the body, and quickly yet silently issuing forth, flung it
32 at the feet of her murdered lord. She then with blood-stained
33 hands and covered with gore, the marks of victory and suc-
34 cess, quickly repaired to her brothers at the pile, where now