Page 205 - Malay sketches

A MALAY ROMANCE

Raja Iskander received this missive whilst yet
undecided what course to take in the untoward
disaster that had befallen him. The letter did not
greatly help him to arrive at a decision, and he was
still discussing with his chiefs who should have
the honour of pursuing and punishing the abductor
when the twenty-four hours expired.
Neither Iskander nor any of his people ever
started on that quest, and Raja Slman carried
Maimunah in safety to his own country.
The disconsolate husband, whose ideas were in
accord with a civilisation beyond the education or
sympathetic comprehension of his subjects, decided
to divorce his faithless wife and leave her lover to
marriage and the punishment of his own con-
science. It is a painful fact that this conduct
earned him not the admiration but the contempt
of his people.
Iskander had one revenge : he discovered amongst
Maimunah's women two who had carried messages
between the lovers. One was a woman of
twenty-
the other a of
five, girl fourteen, and both were in-
continently strangled.
As for Sleman and Maimunah, they were duly
married, and she bore him a daughter in all respects
like her mother, though not, the old people say, her
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