care
Of near-approaching death.
I go to-day to meet a dastard's ending,
A victim, at the fatal altar bending. (21)

[_He looks about. Aside._]

Their faces with their garments' hem now hiding,
They stand afar, whom once I counted friends:
Even foes have smiles (16)

P. 264.7]

_Maitreya._ My good men, let my dear friend Charudatta go free,
and kill me instead.

_Charudatta._ Heaven forbid! [_He looks about. Aside._] Now I understand.

for men with Fortune biding;
But friends prove faithless when good fortune ends. (16)

[_Aloud._]

These women, in their palaces who stay,
From half-shut windows peering, thus lament,
"Alas for Charudatta! Woe the day!"
And pity-streaming eyes on me are bent. (11)

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

Why gaze upon the good man so,
When shame his living hope lays low?
The cord was broken at the well,
And down the golden pitcher fell. 24

_Charudatta._ [_Mournfully._]

From thy dear lips, that vied with coral's red,
Betraying teeth more bright than moonbeams fair,
My soul with heaven's nectar once was fed.
How can I, helpless, taste that poison dread,
To drink shame's poisoned cup how can I bear? (13)

_Ahinta._ Proclaim the sentence again, man. [_Goha does so._]

_Charud._

So lowly fallen! till shame my virtues blur,
Till such an ending seem not loss, but gain!
Yet o'er my heart there creeps a saddening pain,
To hear them cry abroad "_You_ murdered _her_!" 25

[162.18. S.

[_Enter Sthavaraka, fettered, in the palace tower._]

_Sthavaraka._ [_After listening to the proclamation. In distress._]
What! the innocent Charudatta is being put to death? And my
master has thrown me into chains! Well, I must shout to them.--Listen,
good gentlemen, listen! It was I, wretch that I am, who
carried Vasantasena to the old garden Pushpakaranda, because
she mistook my bullock-cart for another. And then my master,
Sansthanaka, found that she would not love him, and it was he,
not this gentleman, who murdered her by strangling.--But they
are so far away that no one hears me. What shall I do? Shall I cast
myself down? [_He reflects._] If I do, then the noble Charudatta
will not be put to d