ly purified, and looks clean and
beautiful. Ascend, Sire.

KING. [Leans on the shoulders of his attendants and ascends_.

Vetravati, what can possibly be the message that the venerable
Kanwa has sent me by these hermits?

Perchance their sacred rites have been disturbed
By demons, or some evil has befallen
The innocent herds, their favourites, that graze
Within the precincts of the hermitage,
Or haply, through my sins, some withering blight
Has nipped the creeping plants that spread their arms
Around the hallowed grove. Such troubled thoughts
Crowd through my mind, and fill me with misgiving.

WARDER.

If you ask my opinion, Sire, I think the hermits merely wish to
take an opportunity of testifying their loyalty, and are
therefore come to offer homage to your majesty.

_Enter the_ HERMITS _leading_ [S']AKOONTALA, _attended by_ GAUTAMI;
_and in advance of them, the_ CHAMBERLAIN _and the_ DOMESTIC
PRIEST.

CHAMBERLAIN.

This way, reverend Sirs, this way.

[S']ARNGARAVA

O [S']aradwata,

'Tis true the monarch lacks no royal grace,
Nor ever swerves from justice; true, his people,
Yea such as in life's humblest walks are found,
Refrain from evil courses; still to me,
A lonely hermit reared in solitude,
This throng appears bewildering, and I seem
To look upon a burning house, whose inmates
Are running to and fro in wild dismay.

[S']ARADWATA.

It is natural that the first sight of the King's capital should
affect you in this manner; my own sensations are very similar.

As one just bathed beholds the man polluted;
As one late purified, the yet impure;
As one awake looks on the yet unawakened;
Or as the freeman gazes on the thrall,
So I regard this crowd of pleasure-seekers.

[S']AKOONTALA.

[_Feeling a quivering sensation in her right eyelid_ [79]_, and
suspecting a bad omen_.

Alas! what means this throbbing of my right eyelid?

GAUTAMI.

Heaven avert the evil omen, my child! May the guardian deities of
thy husband's family convert it into a sign of good fortune!

[_Walks on_.

PRIEST.

[_Pointing to the King_.

Most reverend Sirs, there stands the protector of the four
classes of the people; the guardian of the four conditions of the
priesthood[80]. He has just left the judgment-seat, and is
waiting for you. Behold him!

[S']ARNGARAVA

Great Brahman, we are happy in thinking that the King's power i