L'ore, the Slave of a Siamese Queen

ONE morning in the early part of May, 1863, I went at the usual hour to my temple school-room, and found that all my pupils had gone to the Maha P’hra Sâât to attend a religious ceremony, at which I also was requested to be present.

Following the directions of one of the flower-girls, I turned into a long, dark alley, through which I hurried, passing into another, and keeping, as I thought, in the right direction. These alleys brought me at last into one of those gloomy walled streets, into which no sunlight ever penetrated, and which are to be found only in Bangkok, the farther end of which seemed lost in mist and darkness.

Stone benches, black with moss and fungi, lined it at intervals, and a sort of pale night-grass covered the pathway. There was not a soul to be seen throughout its whole length, which appeared very natural, for it did not seem as if the street were made for any one to walk in, but as if it were intended to be kept secluded from public use. I walked on, however, looking for some opening out of it, and hoping every moment to find an exit. But I suddenly came to the end. It was a cul-de-sac, and a high brick wall barred my further progress.

In the middle of this wall was set a door of polished brass. The shadow of a tall and grotesque façade rested upon the wall and on the narrow deserted street, like an immense black pall. The solitude of the place was very strange. With that frightful din and roar of the palace life so near, the silence seemed almost supernatural. It cast a shadow of distrust over me. I almost felt as if that wall, that roof with its towering front, were built of the deaf stones spoken of in Scripture. All at once the wind rattled the dry grass on the top of the wall, making a low, soft, mournful noise. I started from my revery, hardly able to account for the feeling of dread that crept over me. Half ashamed of my idle fears, I pushed at the door with all my might. Slowly, noiselessly, the huge door swung back, and I stepped into a paved court-yard, with a garden on one side and a building suggestive of nocturnal mystery and gloom on the other.

The façade of this building was still more gloomy than that on the outside of the wall. All the windows were closed. On the upper story the shutters were like those used in prisons. No other house could be seen. The high wall ran all round and enclosed the garden. The walks were bordered with diminutive Chinese trees, planted in straight rows ; grass covered half of them, and moss the rest.

Nothing could be imagined more wild and more deserted than this house and this garden. But the object that attracted my immediate attention was a woman, the only animate being then visible to me in the apparent solitude. She was seated beside a small pond of water, and I soon discovered that she was not alone, but was nursing a naked child about four years old.

The moment the woman became conscious of my presence, she raised her head with a quick, impetuous movement, clasped her bare arms around the nude form at her breast, and stared at me with fixed and defiant eyes. Her aspect was almost terrifying. She seemed as if hewn out of stone and set there to intimidate intruders. She was large, well made, and swarthy ; her features were gaunt and fierce, but looked as if her face might once have been attractive. I relaxed my hold of the door ; it swung back with a dull, ominous thud, and I stood halt trembling beside the dark, defiant woman, whose eyes only gave any indication of vitality, hoping to prevail upon her to show me my way out of that dismal solitude.

The moment I approached her, however, I was seized with inexpressible dismay ; pity and astonishment, mingling with a sense of supreme indignation, held me speechless for a time. She was naked to the waist, and chained, — chained like a wild beast by one leg to a post driven into the ground, — and without the least shelter under that burning sky.

The chain was of cast-iron, and heavy, consisting of seven long doublelinks, attached to a ring, and fitted close to the right leg just above the ankle ; it was secured to the post by a rivet. Under her lay a tattered fragment of matting, farther on a block of wood for a pillow, and on the other side were several broken Chinese umbrellas.

Growing more and more bewildered, I sat down and looked at the woman in a sort of helpless despair. The whole scene was startlingly impressive ; the apathy, the deadness, and the barbarous cruelty of the palace life were never more strikingly brought before me face to face. Here there was no doubting, no denying, no questioning the fact that this unhappy creature was suffering under some cruel wrong, which no one cared to redress. Naked to the waist, her long filthy hair bound in dense masses around her brow, she sat calmly, uncomplainingly, under a burning tropical sun, such as we children of a more temperate clime can hardly imagine, fierce, lurid, and scorching, nursing at her breast a child full of health and begrimed with dirt, with a tenderness that would have graced the most high-born gentlewoman.

I remained long and indignantly silent, before I could find voice for the questions that rose to my lips. But at length I inquired her name. “Pyesia” (begone), was her fierce reply.

“ Why art thou thus chained ? Wilt thou not tell me ? ” I pleaded.

“ Pye " (go), said the woman, snatching her breast impatiently from the sucking child, and at the same time turning her back upon me.

The child set up a tremendous scream, which was re-echoed through the strange place. The woman turned and took him into her arms ; and as if there were an in-dwelling persuasiveness about them, he was quieted in an instant.

Rocking him to and fro, with her face resting against his unwashed cheek, she was no longer repulsive, but glorious, clothed in the beauty and strength of a noble human love. I rose respectfully from the low wall of the pond, where I had seated myself, and took my place on the heated pavement beside the woman and her child ; then as gently and as kindly as I could I asked his name and age.

“ He is four years old,” she replied, curtly.

“ And his name ? ”

“ His name is Thook ” (Sorrow), said the woman, turning away her face.

“ And why hast thou given him such a name ? ”

“ What is that to thee, woman ? ” was the sharp rejoinder.

After this she relapsed into a grim silence, seeming to gaze intently into the empty air. But at length there came a sob, and she passed her bare arms slowly across her eyes. This served as a signal for the little fellow to begin to scream again, which he did most lustily ; the woman, after quieting him, turned to me, and to my great surprise began to talk of her own accord, with but few questions on my part.

“ Hast thou come here to seek me, lady ? Has the Naikodah, my husband, sent thee ? Tell me, is he well ? Hast thou come to buy me ? Ah ! lady ! wilt thou not buy me? Wilt thou not help me to get my pardon ? ”

“Tell me why thou art chained. What is thy crime ? ”

This seemed a terrible question for the poor woman. In vain she attempted to speak ; her lips moved, but uttered no sound, her features quivered, and with one convulsive movement she threw up her arms and burst into an agony of tears. She sobbed passionately for some time, then, passing into a quieter mood, turned to me and said, bitterly : “ Do you want to know of what crime I am accused ? It is the crime of loving my husband and seeking to be with him.”

“ But what induced you to become a slave ? ”

“ I was born a slave, lady. It was the will of Allah.”

“ You are a Mohammedan then ? ”

“ My parents were Mohammedans, slaves to she father of my mistress, Chow Chom Manda Ung. When we were yet young, my brother and I were sent as slaves to her daughter, the Princess P’hra Ong Brittry.”

“ If you can prove that your parents were Mohammedans, I can help you, I think ; because all the Mohammedans here are under British protection, and no subject of Britain can be a slave.”

“ But, lady, my parents sold themselves to my mistress’ grandfather.”

“ That was your father’s debt, which your mother and father have paid over and over again by a life of faithful servitude. You can insist upon your mistress accepting your purchase-money.”

“ Insist,” said the woman, her large, dark eyes glowing with the tears still glistening in them. “You do not know what vou say You do not know that my mistress, Chow Chom Manda Ung, is mother-in-law to the king, and that her daughter, Princess P’hra Ong Brittry, is his favorite half-sister and queen. My only hope lies in a special pardon from my mistress herself.”

“ And your friends,” said I, “ do they know nothing of your cruel captivity ? ”

“Nothing, indeed. I have no opportunity to speak even to the slavewoman whose duty it is to feed us daily. And her lot is too sad already for her to be willing to run any great risk for me. The secrecy and mystery of my sudden disappearance have been preserved so long because I am chained here. No one comes here but my mistress, and she only visits this place occasionally, with the most tried and trusted of her slave-women.”

Eleven o'clock boomed like a deathknell through the solitude. The woman laid herself down beside her sleeping boy to rest, apparently worn out with a sense of her misery. I placed my small umbrella over them ; and this simple act of kindness so touched the poor thing, that she started up suddenly, and, before I could prevent her, passionately kissed my soiled and dusty shoes.

I was so sorry for the unhappy creature that tears filled my eyes. “ My sister,” said I, “tell me your whole story, and I will lay it before the king.”

The woman started up and adjusted the umbrella over the sleeping child. Her eyes beamed with a fire as if from above, while with wonderful power, combined with sweetness and delicacy, she repeated her sad tale.

“ Lady, as I told you, I and my brother were born slaves ; and so faithful were we, that my brother obtained, as proof of the trust my lady reposed in him, the charge of a rice plantation at Ayudia, while I was promoted to be the chief attendant of the Princess P’hra Ong Brittry.

“ One day my mistress intrusted to my care a bag of money, to purchase some Bombay silk of the Naikodah Ibrahim. We moored our boat by the bank of the river, and made our way to the shop of the Naikodah, which my companions entered, while I sat outside on the steps until the bargain should be completed. My companions and the merchant could come to no terms. I entered with the bag of money, hoping by the sight of the silver to induce him to sell the silk for the price offered; but on entering I seemed to be dazzled by something, I knew not what. The merchant’s eyes flashed upon me, as it were, with a look of recollection, and by their expression reminded me of some face I had seen in my infancy, or, perhaps, in my dreams.

“ After a great deal of talking and bargaining about the silk, we came away without it, but the next day went again to the merchant and purchased it at his own price. I was surprised, however, to find that, when I paid him the money, he left five ticals in my hands. ‘ That is our kumrie ’ (perquisite), said the women, snatching the ticals out of my hand and pocketing them. Time after time we repeated our visits to the merchant, who was constantly kind and respectful in his manner towards me. He always left five ticals for us. My companions took the money, but I persistently refused to share in this pitiful kind of profit.

“The merchant began to observe me more closely, and, as I thought, to take an interest in me, and one day, after we had purchased some boxes of fragrant candles and wax-tapers, and I had paid him the full price for his goods, he left twenty ticals on the floor beside me. My companions called my attention to the money ; when the merchant, observing my unwillingness to receive it, took up fifteen ticals, leaving the usual kumrie of five upon the floor, which my companions picked up and appropriated.

“ We returned, as was our custom, by the river, slowly paddling our little canoe down the broad and beautiful stream, and enjoying every moment of our permitted freedom.

“ One day a slave-woman came to my mistress with some new goods from the Naikodah, and on seeing me she begged for a drink of water and some cere (betel-leaf). As I handed her the water, she said to me in a low tone: ‘ Thou art a Moslem ; free thyself from this bondage to an unbelieving race. Take from my master the price of thy freedom ; come out of this Naiwang (palace) and be restored to the true people of God.’

“ I listened in amazement, fearing to break the enchanting spell of her words, and hardly believing that I had heard aright. She quitted me suddenly, fearful of exciting suspicion, and left me in such a disturbed state of mind as I had never before experienced.

“ When I saw the woman a second time I embraced the opportunity to say to her, ‘ Sister, tell me, how shall I obtain my purchase-money? Will not thy master hold me as his slave ?’

“ ‘ He will give thee the money, and will never repent having freed a Moslem and the daughter of a believer from slavery.’

“ ‘ O thou angel of life ! ’ said I, clasping her to my throbbing heart, ‘ I am already his slave.’

“ She removed my arms from around her neck, and, taking some silver from her scarf, tied it firmly into mine without another word ; and I, fearing lest I should be discovered with so much money in my possession, came here by night and hid it under this very pavement on which we are seated.

“ Some weeks after we were sent again to the Naikodah to buy sandalwood tapers and flowers for the cremation of the young Princess P’hra Ong O’Dong. I never was so conscious of the shabbiness of my dress as when I entered the presence of the good merchant. We made our purchase, paid the money, and as I rose to depart, my friend D’hamni, the slave-woman who had been employed by the Naikodah to speak to me, beckoned me to come into an inner chamber. I was followed by her master, who addressed himself to me, and said, — I remember the words so well, — ‘ L’ore ! thou art of form so beauteous, and of spirit so guileless, thou hast awakened all my love and pitySee, here is the money thou hast just paid me ; double the price of thy freedom, and forget not thy deliverer.’

“ ‘ May Allah prosper thee ! ’ said D’hamni.

“ I was overwhelmed ; my astonishment and my gratitude at his goodness knew no bounds. Thus I lived in bondage within and bondage without. Freedom within my grasp and slavery in my heart. ‘ I am more a slave than ever,’ said I to myself ; ‘ alas ! the servitude of the heart, the sweet, feverish servitude of love, who will ransom me from this ? Who can buy me freedom from these ? Henceforth and forever I am the good merchant’s slave.’

“ One day my mistress, Chow Chom Manda Ung, was so kind and pleasant to me that I believed my opportunity had come. I seized it, threw myself at her feet, and said, ‘ Lady dear, be pitiful to thy child, hear but her prayer. It is the only desire of her heart, the dream of thy slave’s life. As the thirsty traveller beholds afar off the everlasting springs of water, as the dying man has foretastes of immortality, even so thy slave L’ore has, through thy goodness, tasted of freedom, and would more fully drink of the cup, if thou in thy bountiful goodness wouldst but let her go free. Here is the price of my freedom, dear lady ; be pitiful, and set me free.’

“ ‘ Thou wert born my slave,’ said my lady, ‘ I will take no money for thee.’

“ ‘ Take double, lady dear, but O, let me go.’

“‘If thou wishest to be married,’ said my mistress, ‘ I will find thee a good and able husband, and thou shalt bear me children, even as thy mother did before thee ; but I will not let thee go free.’

“ In my despair I prayed, I entreated, with tears blinding my eyes. I promised that my children yet unborn should be her slaves, if she would only let me go.

“ It was all in vain. I gathered up my silver and returned to my slave’s life, hopelessly defeated. I soon recovered from my disappointment, however, because I was strengthened by the determination to escape at the first opportunity that offered itself to me. This enabled me to bear my captivity bravely. My mistress distrusted me for a long time ; my companions, seeing that I had fallen into disgrace, pitied me, but I did my best to show myself willing, obedient, and cheerful, until, when nearly two whole years had passed away, my mistress gradually took me again into her confidence, and at last arranged a marriage for me with Nai Tim, one of her favorite menslaves. To all her plans I offered not a word of objection. I pretended that I was really pleased at the prospect of being free to spend six months of every year with my husband.

The day before my marriage I was sent to see Nai Tim’s mother, with a small present from my mistress. Two strong women accompanied me. Hidden in my under-skirt was my purchase-money, As soon as we entered my future mother-in-law’s house, I requested permission to speak with her alone. Supposing that I had some private communication to make to her from my mistress, she took me into the back part of the house, and I seated myself on the edge of the bamboo raft, which kept her little hut afloat on the Mèinam, rushing by so strong and swift. Without giving her time to think, I told her my whole story from beginning to end, put the money into her hands, and, before the startled woman could refuse or remonstrate, I plunged with one sudden bound into the bosom of the broad river. I heard a shriek above me as I disappeared under the waters.

“ How desperately I swam through the strong currents, coming up to the surface from time to time to draw a long breath, then diving back into its protecting shelter again ! Finding my strength failing me, I made for the opposite bank, climbed its steep sides, and dried my clothes in the soft delicious breezes that came upon me as if just let free from the highest heavens. Filled with the inspiration of freedom and of love, I had accomplished that which had been the beginning and the ending of all my thoughts for so long a time. For one moment it seemed to me an impossibility, but on the next my joy was so excessive that I stooped down and kissed the earth, and then laughed outright.

“ From day to day my soul had been slowly withering away, now it blossomed forth afresh as if it had never known a moment of sorrow. My glad laughter came back to me, and in very truth, lady, I shall never again rejoice and sing in the desert places of my heart, or in the solitary places of my native land, as I did on that day.

“ I had been dazzled with the idea of liberty, I had thought only of getting free. But now came the questions, Where shall I go ? Who will employ me ? And the answer was clear to me. There was no one in all this vast city to whom I could turn but the merchant and his slave-woman D’hamni, and to them I went. It was evening when I entered the hut of the slave D’hamni, footsore, hungry, and weary. D’hamni was overjoyed to see me ; she gave me food and shelter and her best robe.

“ Some days after the good merchant came to visit me. I felt dimly that the hardness of my heart would be complete if I resisted his kindness. To his celestial tenderness I opposed no word of doubt, yet I could not believe that the rich merchant would marry an outcast slave like me.

“ One morning I found robes of pure white in my humble shed, in which D’hamni proceeded to array me. After which she brought me into the presence of the Moolah (Mohammedan priest), the merchant, and a few trusty friends.

“The Moolah quietly laid down his pipe, stood up, and putting his hands before his face uttered a short prayer. After this he took the end of my scarf and bound it securely to the end of the merchant’s coat, gave us water in which had been dipped the myrtle and jessamine flower, placed a ring of gold on my finger, blessed us, and departed. That was our marriage ceremony.

“ One day, about three or four months after my marriage, as I was seated on the steps of my home, I thought I heard a voice whisper in my ear. I had hardly time to turn when I was seized, gagged, bound hand and foot, and brought back to this place. As soon as I was taken into her presence, my mistress had me chained to this post, but caused me to be released when my time of delivery approached. A month after his birth,” pointing to the sleeping boy, “ I was chained here again, and my child was brought to me to nurse ; this was done until he could come to me alone. But they are not unkind ; when it is very wet the slavewoman takes him to sleep under the shelter of her little shed.

“ I could free myself from these chains it I would promise never to quit the palace. That I will never do.” She said this in a feeble and almost inarticulate voice. It was her last effort to speak. Her head drooped upon her breast as if an invisible power had overwhelmed her at a blow ; she fell exhausted upon the stones, her hands clasped, her face buried in the dust

It was a strange sight, and possible only in Siam. Certainly great misfortunes as well as great affections develop the intelligence, else how had this slave-woman reached the elevation to which she had evidently attained ?

But excess of sorrow had made her almost visionary. When I tried to comfort her, she turned her haggard face with its worn-out, weary look upon me, and asked if she had been dreaming. Her brain seemed to be in such an abnormal yet frightfully calm condition, that she half believed she was in a dream, and that her life was not a frightful reality. It was out of my power to comfort her, but I left her with a hope that grew brighter as I retraced my steps out of that weird place.

After some tiresome wanderings I found my way out of the place at last. When I reached the school-room it was twelve o’clock, and my pupils were waiting.

In the afternoon of the same day I went to the house of the Naikodah Ibrahim, and told him that I had seen his wife and child. He was much affected when he heard they were still alive, and was moved to tears when I told him of their sad condition.

That night a deputation of Mohammedans, headed by the Moolah Hâdjee Bâbâ, waited upon me ; we drew up a petition to the king, after which I retired, thankful that I was not a Siamese subject.

On the second day after, I received the following little note from the king, in his own English : —

LADY LEONOWENS : — I have liberty to do an inquiry for the matter complained, to hear from the Princess P’hra Ong Brittry, the daughter of the Chow Chom Manda Ung, who is now absent from hence. The princess said that she knows nothing about the wife of Naikodah, but that certain children were sent her from her grandfather maternal, that they are the offspring of his maid-servant, and that these children shall be in her employment. So I ought to see the Chow Chom Manda Ung, and inquire from herself.

S. P. P. MAHA MONGKUT, RX.

His Majesty was as good as his word, and when the Chow Chom Manda Ung returned, he ordered the chief of the female judges of the palace, her ladyship Khoon Thow App, to investigate the matter.

Khoon Thow App was a tall, stout, dark woman, with soft eyes, but rather a heavy face, her only beauty being in her hands and arms, which were remarkably well formed. She was religious and scrupulously just, and had a serious and concentrated bearing. Everything she said or did was studied, not for effect, but from discretion. A certain air of preoccupation was natural to her. She knew everything that took place in the harem, and concealed everything within her own breast. By dint of attention and penetration she had attained to her high office, and she retained it by virtue of her supreme but unassuming fitness for the position. She was like a deaf person whose sight is quickened, and like one blind whose sense of hearing is intensified. That hideous symbolical Sphinx, with a sword drawn through her mouth, babbled all her secrets and sorrows in her ear. She inspired confidence, and she never decided a case in private. She lived alone, in a small house at the end of the street, with only four faithful female slaves. The rest she had freed. It was before this woman that, by order of the king, I brought my complaint in behalf of L’ore ; she raised her eyes from her book, or rather roll, and said, “ Ah ! it is you, mam. I wish to speak to you.”

“ And for my part,” said I, with a boldness at which I was myself astonished, “ I have something to say to your ladyship.”

“ O, I know that you have a communication to make, which has already been laid before, his Majesty. Your petition is granted.”

“ How ! ” said I, “is L’ore really free to leave the palace ? ”

“ O no ; but his Majesty’s letter is of such a character that we have the power to proceed in this matter against the Chow Chom Manda Ung. Though we are said to have the right to compel any woman in the palace to come before us, these great ladies will not appear personally, but send all manner of frivolous excuses, unless summoned by a royal mandate such as this.”

After a delay of nearly two hours, Chow Chom Manda Ung and her daughter, the Princess P’hra Ong Brittry, made their appearance, accompanied by an immense retinue of female slaves, bearing a host of luxurious appendages for their royal mistresses’ comfort during the trial, with the sheriff bending low, and following this grand procession at a respectful distance.

The great ladies took their places on the velvet cushions placed for them by their slaves, with an air of authority and rebellion combined, as if to say, “ Who is there here to constrain us ? ”

The chief judge adjusted her spectacles, and as she looked fixedly at the great ladies she asked, “ Where is the slave-woman L’ore ? ”

The old dowager cast a malicious glance at the judge ; but there was still the same silence, the same air of defiance of authority.

Round the open sala, or hall, was collected a ragged rabble of slave women and children, crouching in all sorts of attitudes and all sorts of costumes, but with eyes fixed on the chief judge in startled astonishment and wonder at her calm, unmovable countenance. Superciliousness and apparent contempt prevailed among the great ladies, yet in the midst of all the consciousness of an austere and august presence was evident; and not one of those slave-women, lowly, untaught, and half clad as they were, but felt that in the heart of that dark, stern woman before them there was as great a respect for the rights of the meanest among them as for those of the queen dowager herself.

The chief judge then read aloud in a clear voice the letter she had received from the king, and, when it was finished, the dowager and her daughter saluted the letter by prostrating themselves three times before it.

Then the judge inquired if the august ladies had aught to say why the slavewoman L’ore should not have been emancipated when she offered to pay the full price of her freedom.

The attention of all was excited to the highest degree ; every eye was turned upon the queen dowager.

She spoke with difficulty, and answered with some embarrassment, but from head to foot her whole person defied the judge.

“ And what if every slave in my service should bring me the price of her freedom ? ”

All eyes turned again to the judge, seated so calmly there on her little strip of matting ; every ear was strained to catch her reply.

“ Then, lady, thou wouldst be bound to free ever one of them.”

“ And serve myself? ”

“ Even so, my august mistress,” said the judge, bowing low.

The dowager turned very pale and trembled slightly as the judge declared that L’ore was no longer the slave of the Chow Chom Manda Ung, but the property of the Crue Yai (royal teacher).

“ Let her purchase-money be paid down,” said the dowager, angrily, “and she is freed forever from my service.”

The judge then turned to me, and said, “ You are now the mistress of L’ore. I will have the papers made out. Bring hither the money, forty ticals, and all shall be settled.”

I thanked the judge, bowed to the great ladies, who simply ignored my existence, and returned perfectly happy for once in my life to my home in Bangkok. Next day, after school, I presented myself at the court-house. Only three of the female judges were present, with some of the p’ha khooms (sheriffs). Khoon Thow App handed me the dekah, or free paper, and bade one of the p’ha khooms go with me to see the money paid and L’ore liberated.

Never did my feet move so swiftly as when I threaded once more the narrow alley, and my heart beat quickly as I pushed open the ponderous brass door.

There was L’ore chained as before. In the piazza sat the Princess P'hra Ong Brittry and her mother, surrounded by their sympathizing women.

The p’ha khoom was so timid and hesitating, that I advanced and laid the money before the great ladies.

The queen dowager dashed the money away and sent it rolling hither and thither on the pavement, but gave orders at the same time to release L’ore and let her go.

This was done by a female blacksmith, a dark, heavy, ponderous-looking woman, who filed the rivet asunder.

In the mean time a crowd had collected in this solitary place, chiefly ladies of the harem, with some few slaves.

So L’ore was free at last ; but what was my amazement to find that she refused to move ; she persistently folded her hands and remained prostrate before her royal persecutors as if rooted to the spot. I was troubled. I turned to consult the p’ha khoom, but she did not dare to advise me, when one of the ladies — a mother, with a babe in her arms — whispered in my ear, “ They have taken away the child.”

Alas ! I had forgotten the child.

The faces of the crowd were marked with sympathy and sadness ; they exchanged glances, and the same woman whispered to me, “ Go back, go back, and demand to buy the child.” I turned away sorrowfully, hastened to Khoon Thow App, and stated my case. She opened a box, drew out a dark roll, and set out with me.

The scene was just as I had left it. There sat the august ladies, holding small jewelled hand-mirrors, and creaming their lips with the most sublime air of indifference. L’ore still lay prostrate before them, her face hidden on the pavement. The crowd of women pressed anxiously in, and all eyes were strained towards the judge. She bowed before the ladies, opened the dark roll, and read the law : “If any woman have children during her bondage, they shall be slaves also, and she is bound to pay for their freedom as well as her own. The price of an infant in arms is one tical, and for every year of his or her life shall be paid one tical.” This declaration in terms so precise appeared to produce a strong impression on the crowd, and none whatever on the royal ladies. Ever so many betel-boxes were opened, and the price of the child pressed upon me.

I took four ticals and laid them down before the ladies. The judge, seeing that nothing was done to bring the child to the prostrate mother, despatched one of the p’ha khooms for the boy. In half an hour he was in his mother’s arms. She did not start with surprise or joy, but turned up to heaven a face that was joy itselt. Both mother and child bowed before the great ladies. Then L’ore made strenuous efforts to stand up and walk, and, failing, began to laugh at her own awkwardness, as she limped and hobbled along, borne away by the exulting crowd, headed by the judge. Even this did not diminish her happiness. With her face pressed close to her boy’s, she continued to talk to herself and to him.

The keepers of the gates handed flowers to the boy, saying, “ P’hoodh thŏ, dee chai nak nah, dee chai nak nah ” (pitiful Buddha ! we are very glad at heart, very, very glad).

The news had spread, and, before we reached the river, hosts of Malays, Mohammedans, and Siamese, with some few Chinese, had loosened their cumberbunds (scarfs) and converted them into flags.

Thus, with the many-colored flags flying, the men, women, and children running and shouting along the banks of the Mèinam, and spectators crowding into the fronts of their floating houses, L’ore and her boy sailed down the river and reached their home.

The next day her husband, Naikodah Ibrahim, refunded the money paid for his wife and child, whose name was changed from Thook (Sorrow) to Urbanâ (the Free).

Mrs. Leonowens.