In The Evening The Pages Came To Ask
Me If I Would Like To Shoot Kites In The Palace With
Their king;
but I declined shooting anything less than elephants, rhinoceros,
or buffaloes; and even for these I would not
Go out unless the
king went with me; - a dodge I conceived would tend more than any
other to bring us together, and so break through those ceremonial
restraints of the court, which at present were stopping all pans
of progression.
25th. - The king invited me to shoot with him - really buffaloes -
close to the palace; but as the pages had been sent off in a
hurry, without being fully instructed, I declined, on the plea
that I had always been gulled and kept waiting or treated with
incivility, for hours before I obtained an interview; and as I
did not wish to have any more ruptures in the palace, I proposed
Bombay should go to make proper arrangements for my reception on
the morrow - as anyhow, at present I felt indisposed. The pages
dreaded their master's wrath, departed for a while, and then sent
another lad to tell me he was sorry to hear I felt unwell, but he
hoped I would come if only for a minute, bringing my medicines
with me, for he himself felt pain. That this second message was
a forged one I had no doubt, for the boys had not been long
enough gone; still, I packed up my medicines and went, leaving
the onus, should any accident happen, upon the mischievous story-
bearers.
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