She approached him; and Akbar having placed her on his right hand, bade her play; at the same time watching her with so keen a survey, that the Rajpootni began to fear she was detected. With an unruffled brow, however, she commenced tuning her vina, which is the Hindoo lute, and played an air with considerable skill. The sovereign was gratified. She played several airs with great taste and feeling. The enthusiasm of the performer was at length communicated to the Emperor; and in the excess of his gratification, he was thrown off his guard. Seizing a favourable moment, when his eyes were withdrawn from her, she drew a very small taper dagger; but before she could plunge it into the body of her intended victim, he had seized her wrist, and forced the instrument from her grasp. “A very happy close to thy minstrelsy,” said Akbar, with a severe smile. “I have failed,” said the heroic woman, undauntedly, “and am prepared for the issue. Give your orders, king, I am prepared to die. I did not make this attempt without weighing the penalty. I care not for the mode: you will see that I can defy your tortures; and, to give you some idea of the spirit of that foe which you seek to overcome, take the solemn assurance of a doomed woman, that there is not a living soul behind yonder battlements that would not brave death in any shape to be avenged upon the despisers of their gods.” Akbar made no reply, but, ordering her to be placed under a strong guard in a vacant tent, on the following morning sent her with an escort to the gate of Chittore, telling her, as she quitted his camp, that the Emperor of the Moguls warred not with women. The haughty Rajpootni was deeply moved at her failure and the Mogul’s magnanimity. It, however, did not alter her determination to accomplish his death, though at the expense of her own life. She felt no longer surprised that his troops were invincible, and himself so renowned; and her hopes of forcing him to raise the siege began, from this moment, to decline. She discovered in Akbar the virtues of bravery, and a contempt of death to a degree that would have done honour to a Rajpoot; and besides those virtues, which he possessed common to all brave men, she could not but perceive that he was endowed with some peculiarly his own. She expressed her fears to Jugmul, that under such a leader the enemy must eventually prevail. “But we can die,” she said, with energy, “fighting on our ramparts; and their success, whenever it comes, will be recorded in characters of blood.” “Wife!” said the governor, “we have no reason to despair yet. The garrison is still strong and resolute; we have provisions for at least five months’ consumption, and long before that period it must be decided whether the Moslems or Hindoos are to be masters of Chittore.”