245
followed some untoward events : the accident in
which his arm was broken—the first signal of
calamity, and then Lady Hydari's prolonged
decline, which .nothing could arrest. I saw her
sometimes at His Exalted Highness's dinner parties
in one of the places of honour, but her face had no
light in it; it was a pathetic protest against
cumbersome dignity ; a sad comment on the fleet-
ing vanities of life.
Lady Hydari's illness and Hydari's nervous
breakdown under strain, and his high blood
pressure which resulted in his.collapse at Delhi
are sad events still fresh in my memory. And
that last solemn scene—the saddest and most
impressive of all, —his remains being borne up the
steps of the Khairatabad mosque through a crowd
of well-wishers and ill-wishers, bestowers of loud
praise and of whispered blame,—what a lurid
light it throws upon the path he had been so
eager to pursue—that of glory which led to
the grave ! ~
" Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of Death ? "
Bitter to me was the thought of the utter
vanity of all that glitter which had lured him on
to this end. He was one of my old and esteemed
friends whose career in Hyderabad I had watched
for over thirty years, and I had lived to see the
climax of it as a mournf ul elegy;
" Sic transit gloria mundi 1 "