[Looking at the CHILD.  In great distress.

Alas! alas!  I do not see the amulet on his wrist.

KING.

Don’t distress yourself.  Here it is.  It fell off while he was struggling with the young lion.

[Stoops to pick it up.

BOTH ATTENDANTS.

Hold! hold!  Touch it not, for your life.  How marvellous!  He has actually taken it up without the slightest hesitation.

[Both raise their hands to their breasts and look at each other
in astonishment.

KING.

Why did you try to prevent my touching it?

FIRST ATTENDANT.

Listen, great Monarch.  This amulet, known as ‘The Invincible,’ was given to the boy by the divine son of Marichi, soon after his birth, when the natal ceremony was performed.  Its peculiar virtue is, that when it falls on the ground, no one except the father or mother of the child can touch it unhurt.

KING.

And suppose another person touches it?

FIRST ATTENDANT.

Then it instantly becomes a serpent, and bites him.

KING.

Have you ever witnessed the transformation with your own eyes?

BOTH ATTENDANTS.

Over and over again.

KING. [With rapture.  Aside.

Joy! joy!  Are then my dearest hopes to be fulfilled?

[Embraces the CHILD.

SECOND ATTENDANT.

Come, my dear Suvrata, we must inform [S’]akoontala immediately of this wonderful event, though we have to interrupt her in the performance of her religious vows.

[Exeunt.

CHILD. [To the KING.

Don’t hold me.  I want to go to my mother.

KING.

We will go to her together, and give her joy, my son.

CHILD.

Dushyanta is my father, not you.

KING. [Smiling.

His contradiction only convinces me the more.

Enter [S’]AKOONTALA, in widow’s apparel, with her long hair twisted into a single braid.

[S’]AKOONTALA. [Aside.

I have just heard that Sarva-damana’s amulet has retained its form, though a stranger raised it from the ground.  I can hardly believe in my good fortune.  Yet why should not Sanumati’s prediction be verified?

KING.

Alas! can this indeed be my [S’]akoontala?

  Clad in the weeds of widowhood, her face
  Emaciate with fasting, her long hair
  Twined in a single braid[121], her whole demeanour
  Expressive of her purity of soul;
  With patient constancy she thus prolongs
  The vow to which my cruelty condemned her.

[S’]AKOONTALA. [Gazing at the KING, who is pale with remorse.