became highly pleased.  And reflecting on Rama’s virtues, the powerful and mighty king cheerfully addressed the family priest, saying, “Blessed be thou, O Brahmana!  This night of the Pushya constellation will bring in a very auspicious conjunction.  Let, therefore, materials be collected and let Rama also be invited.  This Pushya constellation will last till tomorrow.  And Rama, therefore, should be invested by me and my ministers as prince-regent of all my subjects!”

“’Meanwhile Manthara (the maid of Kaikeyi), hearing these words of the king, went to her mistress, and spoke unto her as was suited to the occasion.  And she said, “Thy great ill-luck, O Kaikeyi, hath this day been proclaimed by the king!  O unlucky one, mayst thou be bitten by a fierce and enraged snake of virulent poison!  Kausalya, indeed, is fortunate, as it is her son that is going to be installed on the throne.  Where, indeed, is thy prosperity, when thy son obtaineth not the kingdom?”

“’Hearing these words of her maid, the slender-waisted and beautiful Kaikeyi put on all her ornaments, and sought her husband in a secluded place.  And with a joyous heart, and smiling pleasantly, she addressed these words to him with all the blandishments of love, “O king, thou art always true to thy promises.  Thou didst promise before to grant me an object of my desire.  Do thou fulfil that promise now and save thyself from the sin of unredeemed pledge!” The king replied, saying, “I will grant thee a boon.  Ask thou whatever thou wishest!  What man undeserving of death shall be slain today and who that deserves death is to be set at liberty?  Upon whom shall I bestow wealth to-day, or whose wealth shall be confiscated?  Whatever wealth there is in this world, save what belongeth to Brahmanas, is mine!  I am the king of kings in this world, and the protector of all the four classes!  Tell me quickly, O blessed lady, what that object is upon which thou hast set thy heart!” Hearing these words of the king, and tying him fast to his pledge, and conscious also of her power over him, she addressed him in these words, “I desire that Bharata be the recipient of that investiture which thou hast designed for Rama, and let Rama go into exile living in the forest of Dandaka for fourteen years as an ascetic with matted locks on head and robed in rags and deer-skins!” Hearing these disagreeable words of cruel import, the king, O chief of the Bharata race, was sorely afflicted and became utterly speechless!  But the mighty and virtuous Rama, learning that his father had been thus solicited, went into the forest so that the king’s truth might remain inviolate.  And, blessed be thou, he was followed by the auspicious Lakshmana—­that foremost of bowmen and his wife Sita, the princess of Videha and daughter of Janaka.  And after Rama had gone into the forest, king Dasaratha took leave of his body, agreeably to the eternal law of time.  And knowing that Rama not near and that the king was dead, queen Kaikeyi, causing Bharata to