Page 190 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES

evil with which he seemed to be troubled,
spirit,
had its will of so that all men said the King
him,
must die.
During an interval of temporary return to con-
sciousness, when for a few hours the patient
seemed to have a rest from the attacks of the
tormentor, he ordered that a young nephew should
be sent also a divorced wife of his own, and a
for,
the earnest wishes of both
priest. Then, against
he insisted these
parties, upon young people being
married in his presence, and shortly after relapsed
into his former state.
After weeks of torment, when every day seemed
certain to be his last, the iron constitution prevailed,
and the King recovered. In the first days of his
convalescence I went to see him, and found him
lying on his bed, in his eyes the light of conscious-
and
ness and intelligence, sitting by him the wife,
Raja Sarefa.
He was weak, spoke slowly and in a small voice,
but said that by God's grace he only wanted time
to regain his strength. After expressing my thank-
fulness at seeing him so well on the way to
recovery, I said that I had often been over to see
him when he was ill, and that the Raja Sarefa had
tended him with extraordinary devotion, never
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