e friends stood about
crying, sobbing, tearing their hair, covering their heads
with dust, striking their breasts, and uttering wild cries.
The prince, again calling his coachman to witness this
painful scene, exclaimed, "Oh! woe to youth, which must be
destroyed by old age! Woe to health, which must be destroyed
by so many diseases! Woe to this life, where a man remains
so short a time! If there were no old age, no disease, no
death; if these could be made captive for ever!" Then
betraying for the first time his intentions, the young
prince said, "Let us turn back, I must think how to
accomplish deliverance."

'A last meeting put an end to his hesitation. He drove
through the northern gate on the way to his pleasure
gardens, when he saw a mendicant who appeared outwardly
calm, subdued, looking downwards, wearing with an air of
dignity his religious vestment, and carrying an alms-bowl.

'"Who is this man?" asked the prince.

'"Sir," replied the coachman, "this man is one of those who
are called bhikshus, or mendicants. He has renounced all
pleasures, all desires, and leads a life of austerity. He
tries to conquer himself. He has become a devotee. Without
passion, without envy, he walks about asking for alms."

'"This is good and well said," replied the prince. "The life
of a devotee has always been praised by the wise. It will be
my refuge, and the refuge of other creatures; it will lead
us to a real life, to happiness and immortality."

'With these words the young prince turned his chariot and
returned to the city.'

* * * * *

After having declared to his father and his wife his intention of
retiring from the world, Buddha left his palace one night when all the
guards that were to have watched him, were asleep. After travelling
the whole night, he gave his horse and his ornaments to his groom, and
sent him back to Kapilavastu. 'A monument,' remarks the author of the
Lalita-Vistara (p. 270), 'is still to be seen on the spot where the
coachman turned back,' Hiouen-Thsang (II. 330) saw the same monument
at the edge of a large forest, on his road to Ku_s_inagara, a city now
in ruins, and situated about fifty miles E.S.E. from Gorakpur.[59]

[Footnote 59: The geography of India at the time of Buddha, and later
at the time of Fahian and Hiouen-T