_Charud._ Seek now thy kinsmen. Happiness be thine!
_Aryaka._ Ah, I have found thee, blessèd kinsman mine!
_Charud._ Remember me, when thou hast cause to speak.
_Aryaka._ Thy name, and not mine own, my words shall seek.
_Charud._ May the immortal gods protect thy ways!
_Aryaka._ Thou didst protect me, in most perilous days.
_Charud._ Nay, it was fate that sweet protection lent.
_Aryaka._ But thou wast chosen as fate's instrument. 7
_Charudatta._ King Palaka is aroused, and protection will prove difficult. You must depart at once.
_Aryaka._ Until we meet again, farewell. [_Exit._
From royal wrath I now have much to fear; It were unwise for me to linger here. Then throw the fetters in the well; for spies Serve to their king as keen, far-seeing eyes. 8
[_His left eye twitches._] Maitreya, my friend, I long to see Vasantasena. For now, because
I have not seen whom I love best, My left eye twitches; and my breast Is causeless-anxious and distressed. 9
Come, let us go. [_He walks about._] See! a Buddhist monk approaches, and the sight bodes ill. [_Reflecting._] Let him enter by that path, while we depart by this. [_Exit._
[Footnote 71: Lalladiksita says that these are signs of royalty.]
[_Enter a monk, with a wet garment in his hand._]
Ye ignorant, lay by a store of virtue! Restrain the belly; watch eternally, Heeding the beat of contemplation's[72] drum, For else the senses--fearful thieves they be-- Will steal away all virtue's hoarded sum. 1
And further: I have seen that all things are transitory, so that now I am become the abode of virtues alone.
Who slays the Five Men,[73] and the Female Bane,[74] By whom protection to the Town[75] is given, By whom the Outcaste[76] impotent is slain, He cannot fail to enter into heaven. 2
Though head be shorn and face be shorn, The heart unshorn, why should man shave him? But he whose inmost heart is shorn Needs not the shaven head to save him. 3
I have dyed this robe of mine yellow. And now I will go into the garden of the king's brother-in-law, wash it in the pond, and go away as soon as I can. [_He walks about and washes the robe._]
_A voice behind the scenes._ Shtop, you confounded monk, shtop!
_Monk._ [_Discovers the speaker. Fearfully._ ] Heaven help me! Here is the king's brother-in-law, Sansthanaka. Just because one monk committed an offense, now, wherever he sees a monk, whether it is the same one or not, he bores a hole in his nose and drives him around like a bullock. Where shall a defenseless man find a defender? But after all, the blessèd Lord Buddha is my defender.