My son [S']árngarava, see! [S']akoontalá is following us, and with tears implores us not to leave her. Alas! poor child, what will she do here with a cruel husband who casts her from him?
Wilful woman, dost thou seek to be independent of thy lord?
If thou art really what the King proclaims thee, How can thy father e'er receive thee back Into his house and home? but if thy conscience Be witness to thy purity of soul, E'en should thy husband to a handmaid's lot Condemn thee, thou may'st cheerfully endure it. When ranked among the number of his household.
Thy duty therefore is to stay. As for us, we must return immediately.
Deceive not this lady, my good hermit, by any such expectations.
The moon expands the lotus of the night, The rising sun awakes the lily; each Is with his own contented. Even so The virtuous man is master of his passions, And from another's wife averts his gaze[120].
Since thy union with another woman has rendered thee oblivious of thy marriage with [S']akoontalá, whence this fear of losing thy character for constancy and virtue?
You must counsel me, revered Sir, as to my course of action. Which of the two evils involves the greater or less sin?
Whether by some dark veil my mind be clouded. Or this designing woman speak untruly, I know not. Tell me, must I rather be The base disowner of my wedded wife, Or the defiling and defiled adulterer?
What course, revered Sir? Tell me at once.
I will provide an asylum for the lady in my own house until the birth of her child; and my reason, if you ask me, is this: Soothsayers have predicted that your first-born will have universal dominion. Now, if the hermit's daughter bring forth a son with the discus or mark of empire in the lines of his hand[84], you must admit her immediately into your royal apartments with great rejoicings; if not, then determine to send her back as soon as possible to her father.
KING. I bow to the decision of my spiritual advisor.
O divine earth, open and receive me into thy bosom!
[_Exit_ [S']AKOONTALÁ _weeping, with the_ PRIEST _and the_ HERMITS. _The_ KING _remains absorbed in thinking of her, though the curse still clouds his recollection_.
PRIEST. [_Entering with an air of astonishment_.
Great Prince, a stupendous prodigy has just occurred.