He went there fettered by no prejudices--he was more Mussulman
than the Mussulmen themselves--a deeper, darker traitor. And it was to
hide such crimes as these--to interpose the great peacemaker Death
between him and the Government which was resolved upon punishing him--to
save the honour, the fortune of my son, and the children who were to
come after him, the name of a noble race, a name that was ever stainless
until he defiled it--it was for this great end I took steps to hide that
feeble, useless life of his from the world he had offended; it was for
this end that I caused a peasant to be buried in the vault of the
Maulevriers, with all the pomp and ceremony that befits the funeral of
one of England's oldest earls. I screened him from his enemies--I saved
him from the ignominy of a public trial--from the execration of his
countrymen. His only punishment was to eat his heart under this roof, in
luxurious seclusion, his comfort studied, his whims gratified so far as
they could be by the most faithful of servants. A light penance for the
dark infamies of his life in India, I think.
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