You cannot
presume to ask anything even from the Deity Himself, without paying
the priest who officiates in His temples; and if you should, you
would none of you hope to get from your Deity what you asked for.'
Here the crowd laughed again, and one of them said that 'there was
this certainly to be said for our Government, that the European
gentlemen themselves never took bribes, whatever those under them
might do'.
'You must not be too sure of that, neither. Did not the Lal Bibi, the
Red Lady, get a bribe for soliciting the judge, her husband, to let
go Amir Singh, who had been confined in jail?'
'How did this take place?'
'About three years ago Amir Singh was sentenced to imprisonment, and
his friends spent a great deal of money in bribes to the native
officers of the court, but all in vain. At last they were recommended
to give a handsome present to the Red Lady. They did so, and Amir
Singh was released.'
'But did they give the present into the lady's own hand?'
'No, they gave it to one of her women.'
'And how do you know that she ever gave it to her mistress, or that
her mistress ever heard of the transaction?'
'She might certainly have been acting without her mistress'
knowledge; but the popular belief is that the Lal Bibi got the
present.
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