pressed,
His mother's look he could not meet.
He saw them with their weary feet,
Who, used to bliss, in cars should ride,
Who ne'er by sorrow should be tried,
And, as one mournful look he cast,
"Drive on," he cried, "Sumantra, fast."
As when the driver's torturing hook
Goads on an elephant, the look
Of sire and mother in despair
Was more than Rama's heart could bear.
As mother kine to stalls return
Which hold the calves for whom they yearn,
So to the car she tried to run
As a cow seeks her little one.
Once and again the hero's eyes
Looked on his mother, as with cries
Of woe she called and gestures wild,
"O Sita, Lakshman, O my child!"
"Stay," cried the king, "thy chariot stay:"
"On, on," cried Rama, "speed away."
As one between two hosts, inclined
To neither was Sumantra's mind.
But Rama spake these words again:
"A lengthened woe is bitterest pain.
On, on; and if his wrath grow hot,
Thine answer be, 'I heard thee not.' "
Sumantra, at the chief's behest,
Dismissed the crowd that toward him pressed,
And, as he bade, to swiftest speed
Urged on his way each willing steed.
The king's attendants parted thence,
And paid him heart-felt reverence:
In mind, and with the tears he wept,
Each still his place near Rama kept.
As swift away the horses sped,
His lords to Dasaratha said:
"To follow him whom thou again
Wouldst see returning home is vain."
With failing limb and drooping mien
He heard their counsel wise:
Still on their son the king and queen
Kept fast their lingering eyes.(314)

Canto XLI. The Citizens' Lament.

The lion chief with hands upraised
Was born from eyes that fondly gazed.
But then the ladies' bower was rent
With cries of weeping and lament:
"Where goes he now, our lord, the sure
Protector of the friendless poor,
In whom the wretched and the weak
Defence and aid were wont to seek?
All words of wrath he turned aside,
And ne'er, when cursed, in ire replied.
He shared his people's woe, and stilled
The troubled breast which rage had filled.
Our chief, on lofty thoughts intent,
In glorious fame preeminent:
As on his own dear mother, thus
He ever looked on each of us.
Where goes he now? His sire's behest,
By Queen Kaikeyi's guile distressed,
Has banished to the forest hence
Him who was all the world's defence.
Ah, senseless King, to drive away
The hope of men, their guard and stay,
To banish to the distant wood
Rama the duteous, true, and good!"
The royal dames, like