enclosure has been recently purified, and looks clean and beautiful.
Ascend, Sire.

KING [_leans on the shoulders of his attendants, and ascends_].
Vetravati, what can possibly be the message that the venerable Kanwa has
sent me by these hermits?--
Perchance their sacred rites have been disturbed
By demons, or some evil has befallen
The innocent herds, their favorites, that graze
Within the precincts of the hermitage;
Or haply, through my sins, some withering blight
Has nipped the creeping plants that spread their arms
Around the hallowed grove. Such troubled thoughts
Crowd through my mind, and fill me with misgiving.

WARDER.--If you ask my opinion, Sire, I think the hermits merely wish to
take an opportunity of testifying their loyalty, and are therefore come
to offer homage to your Majesty.

_Enter the Hermits, leading Sakoontala, attended by Gautami; and, in
advance of them, the Chamberlain and the domestic Priest._

CHAMBERLAIN.--This way, reverend sirs, this way.

SARNGARAVA.--O Saradwata,
'Tis true the monarch lacks no royal grace,
Nor ever swerves from justice; true, his people,
Yea such as in life's humblest walks are found,
Refrain from evil courses; still to me,
A lonely hermit reared in solitude,
This throng appears bewildering, and methinks
I look upon a burning house, whose inmates
Are running to and fro in wild dismay.

SARADWATA.--It is natural that the first sight of the King's capital
should affect you in this manner; my own sensations are very similar.
As one just bathed beholds the man polluted;
As one late purified, the yet impure:--
As one awake looks on the yet unwakened;
Or as the freeman gazes on the thrall,
So I regard this crowd of pleasure-seekers.

SAKOONTALA [_feeling a quivering sensation in her right eyelid, and
suspecting a bad omen_],--Alas! what means this throbbing of my right
eyelid?

GAUTAMI.--Heaven avert the evil omen, my child! May the guardian deities
of thy husband's family convert it into a sign of good fortune! [_Walks
on_.

PRIEST [_pointing to the King_].--Most reverend sirs, there stands the
protector of the four classes of the people; the guardian of the four
orders of the priesthood. He has just left the judgment-seat, and is
waiting for you. Behold him!

SARNGARAVA.--Great Brahman, we are happy in thinking that the King's
power is exerted for the protection of all cl