WARDER.

If you ask my opinion, Sire, I think the hermits merely wish to take an opportunity of testifying their loyalty, and are therefore come to offer homage to your majesty.

Enter the HERMITS leading [S’]AKOONTALA, attended by GAUTAMI; and in advance of them, the CHAMBERLAIN and the DOMESTIC PRIEST.

CHAMBERLAIN.

This way, reverend Sirs, this way.

[S’]ARNGARAVA

O [S’]aradwata,

  ’Tis true the monarch lacks no royal grace,
  Nor ever swerves from justice; true, his people,
  Yea such as in life’s humblest walks are found,
  Refrain from evil courses; still to me,
  A lonely hermit reared in solitude,
  This throng appears bewildering, and I seem
  To look upon a burning house, whose inmates
  Are running to and fro in wild dismay.

[S’]ARADWATA.

It is natural that the first sight of the King’s capital should affect you in this manner; my own sensations are very similar.

As one just bathed beholds the man polluted;
As one late purified, the yet impure;
As one awake looks on the yet unawakened;
Or as the freeman gazes on the thrall,
So I regard this crowd of pleasure-seekers.

[S’]AKOONTALA.

[Feeling a quivering sensation in her right eyelid [79]_, and
suspecting a bad omen_.

Alas! what means this throbbing of my right eyelid?

GAUTAMI.

Heaven avert the evil omen, my child!  May the guardian deities of thy husband’s family convert it into a sign of good fortune!

[Walks on.

PRIEST.

[Pointing to the King.

Most reverend Sirs, there stands the protector of the four classes of the people; the guardian of the four conditions of the priesthood[80].  He has just left the judgment-seat, and is waiting for you.  Behold him!

[S’]ARNGARAVA

Great Brahman, we are happy in thinking that the King’s power is exerted for the protection of all classes of his subjects.  We have not come as petitioners—­we have the fullest confidence in the generosity of his nature.

  The loftiest trees bend humbly to the ground
  Beneath the teeming burden of their fruit;
  High in the vernal sky the pregnant clouds
  Suspend their stately course, and, hanging low,
  Scatter their sparkling treasures o’er the earth;
  And such is true benevolence; the good
  Are never rendered arrogant by riches.

 WARDER.

So please your Majesty, I judge from the placid countenance of the hermits that they have no alarming message to deliver.

KING. [Looking at [S’]AKOONTALA.

But the lady there—­

  Who can she be, whose form of matchless grace
  Is half concealed beneath her flowing veil? 
  Among the sombre hermits she appears
  Like a fresh bud ’mid sear and yellow leaves.