this, befall'n!"
Others answered in their misery--reft of kindred and of wealth,
"Who is that ill-omened woman--that with maniac-staring eyes,
Joined our host, misshaped in aspect--and with scarcely human form?
Surely all this wicked witchcraft--by her evil power is wrought;
Witch or sorceress she, or daemon--fatal cause of all our fears,
Hers is all the guilt, the misery--who such damning proof may doubt?
Could we but behold that false one--murtheress, bane of all our host,
With the clods, the dust, the bamboos--with our staves, or with our hands,
We would slay her on the instant--of our caravan the fate."
But no sooner Damayanti--their appalling words had heard,
In her shame and in her terror--to the forest shade she fled.
And that guilt imputed dreading--thus her fate began to wail:
"Woe is me, still o'er me hovers--the terrific wrath of fate;
No good fortune e'er attends me--of what guilt is this the doom?
Not a sin can I remember--not the least to living man.
Or in deed, or thought, or language--of what guilt is this the doom?
In some former life committed[97]--expiate I now the sin.
To this infinite misfortune--hence by penal justice doomed?
Lost my husband, lost my kingdom--from my kindred separate;
Separate from noble Nala--from my children far away,
Widowed of my rightful guardian--in the serpent-haunted wood."
Of that caravan at morning--then the sad surviving few,
Setting forth from that dread region--o'er that hideous carnage grieve;
Each a brother mourns, or father--or a son, or dearest friend,
Still Vidarbha's princess uttered--"What the sin that I have done?
Scarcely in this desert forest--had I met this host of men,
By the elephants they perish--this is through my luckless fate;
A still lengthening life of sorrow--I henceforth must sadly lead.
Ere his destined day none dieth--this of aged seers the lore;
Therefore am not I too trampled--by this herd of furious beasts.
Every deed of living mortal--by over-ruling fate is done.
Yet no sin have I committed--in my blameless infancy,
To deserve this dire disaster--or in word, or deed, or thought.
For the choosing of my husband--are the guardians of the world,
Angry are the gods, rejected--for the noble Nala's sake?
From my lord this long divorcement--through their power do I endure."
Thus the noblest of all wome