ill of Panchala and her good king.
His body lifeless lay upon the field.

Then spake the maiden to the grateful king:--
"Thou, noble ruler of this ancient land!
Before thy sacred presence and before
All these assembled in thy royal court,
I will reveal my story, sad but true.
I am the only child of him that ruled
The neighbouring state, whose kings for centuries
In peace and friendship lived with Panchala.
Alas! the villain, whom my arrow gave
To crows and to the eagles of the air,
Usurped my father's throne, and sad to tell,
He instant orders gave to murder us.
The menials sent to do the cruel deed
Felt pity for the fallen king and me,
His only daughter, in the woods left us
And went away, reporting they had done
The deed; and there, in that deserted place,
Unknown we lived a wretched life for years.
And glad I am that death ignoble, which
The wretch deserved, has now befallen him.

"This person standing here--I now remove
The veil, and, by the mole upon his breast,
Behold in him thine own begotten son--
Was by thy orders banished from the land.
Grant that I now may plead for him, because
A woman's words can sooner soothe the heart.
I crave your Majesty to pardon him
For loving me, and take him back unto
His father's home; grant also, gracious king,
That I, a princess, may be worthy deemed
Of being wedded to thine only son."

_CHANDRA_.

A TALE OF THE FIELD OF TELLIKOTA, A.D. 1565.

At length the four great Mahometan governments, A'dil Shah, Nizam Shah,
Barid, and Kutb Shah, formed a league against Ram Raja, then ruling at
Bijayanagar. A great battle took place on the Kishna, near Talicot,
which, for the numbers engaged, the fierceness of the conflict, and the
importance of the stake, resembled those of the early Mahometan
invaders. The barbarous spirit of those days seemed also to be renewed
in it; for, on the defeat of the Hindus, their old and brave raja, being
taken prisoner, was put to death in cold blood, and his head was kept
till lately at Bijapur as a trophy.

This battle destroyed the monarchy of Bijayanagar, which at that time
comprehended almost all the South of India. But it added little to the
territories of the victors; their mutual jealousies prevented each from
much extending his frontier; and the country fell into the hands of
petty princes, or of those insurgent officers of the old government,
since so well k