ent.

_Maitreya._ I will. It is but fitting.

_Judge._ My good beadle, remove this man. [_The beadle does so._]
Who is there? Let the headsmen receive their orders. [_The guardsmen
loose their hold on Charudatta, and all of them go out._]

_Beadle._ Come with me, sir.

_Charudatta._ [_Mournfully repeats the verse, page 146, beginning_ "My
friend Maitreya!" _Then, as if speaking to one not present._]

If you had proved my conduct by the fire,
By water, poison, scales, and thus had known
That I deserved that saws should bite my bone,
My Brahman's frame, more could I not desire.
You trust a foeman, slay me thus? 'T is well.
With sons, and sons' sons, now you plunge to hell! 43

I come! I come! [_Exeunt omnes._

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 83: Elephants were employed as executioners; and, according to
Lalladiksita, the horses served the same purpose.]

[Footnote 84: This refers to the fallen jewels.]

ACT THE TENTH

THE END

[_Enter Charudatta, accompanied by two headsmen._]

_Headsmen._

Then think no longer of the pain;
In just a second you 'll be slain.
We understand the fashions new
To fetter you and kill you too.
In chopping heads we never fail,
Nor when the victim we impale. 1

Out of the way, gentlemen, out of the way! This is the noble Charudatta.

The oleander on his brow,
In headsmen's hands you see him now;
Like a lamp whose oil runs nearly dry,
His light fades gently, ere it die. 2

_Charudatta._ [_Gloomily._]

My body wet by tear-drops falling, falling;
My limbs polluted by the clinging mud;
Flowers from the graveyard torn, my wreath appalling;
For ghastly sacrifice hoarse ravens calling,
And for the fragrant incense of my blood. 3

_Headsmen._ Out of the way, gentlemen, out of the way!

Why gaze upon the good man so?
The ax of death soon lays him low.
Yet good men once sought shelter free,
Like birds, upon this kindly tree. 4

Come, Charudatta, come!

_Charudatta._ Incalculable are the ways of human destiny, that I
am come to such a plight!

Red marks of hands in sandal paste
O'er all my body have been placed;
The man, with meal and powder strewn,
Is now to beast of offering grown.