She ceased. The lady of the glorious eyes Rose from her couch as Manthara bade her rise; And sought the mourner's cell, in beauty's pride Sure of his love who gave and ne'er denied. There on the ground, obedient to the girl, By sparkling chain and golden ornament. Like a fair nymph upon the ground she fell; And, "Soon," she cried, "thy task will be to tell That Bharat rules as heir in Rama's stead, Or that the monarch's darling queen is dead." DASARATHA'S OATH. Unfortunately Dasaratha had once given a promise to Bharat's mother that he would grant any two boons she pleased to ask. The promise had been made in years gone by, when he had been dangerously wounded in battle, and carefully attended by this wife, Kaikeyi; and amongst Hindus a promise was irrevocable, and therefore the wretched King felt compelled to yield, although the first boon required was to banish Rama for a period of fourteen years, and the second to declare Bharat the heir-apparent." Life in Ancient India. Slow and majestic, as the Lord of Night,' So to Kaikeyi's palace, rich and vast, King Dasaratha in his glory past. There stalked flamingoes mixt with swans and cranes, 1 The moon, with the Hindus, is masculine. 2 Rahu, the ascending node, is in mythology a demon with the tail of a dragon whose head was severed from his body by Vishnu, but being immortal the head and tail retained their separate existence, and being transferred to the stellar sphere, became the authors of eclipses; the first especially by endeavouring to swallow the sun and moon, There screamed the parrot in his home of wire, Here sat a dwarf, and there a crook-backt maid Where glowed the Champac' and Asoca flower. Here cates and viands lured the dainty taste. With longing eyes the monarch looked around, But no Kaikeyi in her bower he found; Was ever there to greet him as he came. 1 A tree that bears yellow flowers of delicious fragrance: In her full lap the Champac's leaves of gold."-Lalla Rookh. 2 The Jonesia Asoca, one of the loveliest trees of India, and perhaps of the whole world. Then, moved by love and vext with anxious thought, The queen in anger to the cell has hied." As bends an elephant to heal the smart To check the flowing blood and stay her pain; So the sad husband tried each kind caress To still the fury of the queen's distress: "I know not, darling," thus he spake, with sighs, To the fair lady of the lotus eyes, 1 Indra's Paradise. |