Then Ahmed dismissed Lal Singh and the past from his thoughts, after the philosophical manner of the Asiatic, and turned to the more vital affairs under hand.
At Ramabai's house there was a happy reunion; and on her knees Pundita confessed to her lord how near she had been to Christian damnation.
She had fallen from grace; she had reverted to the old customs of her race, to whom suicide was no sin, Ramabai took her in his arms and touched the forehead with his lips.
"And now," said the colonel, "the king!" Ramabai's head sank.
"What is the matter?
Is he dead ?" "If I knew that," answered Ramabai, "I would rest content." "But you searched the royal prison ?" "And found nothing, nothing!" "What do you believe ?" "I believe that either the council or Umballa has forestalled us.

We shall visit the council at once, They are prisoners.

If they have had no hand in the disappearance of the king then we are facing a stone wall over which we can not leap.

For Umballa has fled, whither no one knows, and with him has gone the secret.

Come; we shall go at once to the palace prison." The council which had ruled so long in Allaha was very humble indeed.
They had imprisoned the king because he had given many evidences of mental unbalance.