[_Sakoontala trembles with fear_.

SARNGARAVA.--Sakoontala!
If thou art really what the King proclaims thee,
How can thy father e'er receive thee back
Into his house and home? but, if thy conscience
Be witness to thy purity of soul,
E'en should thy husband to a handmaid's lot
Condemn thee, thou may'st cheerfully endure it,
When ranked among the number of his household.

Thy duty, therefore, is to stay. As for us, we must return immediately.

KING.--Deceive not the lady, my good hermit, by any such expectations.
The moon expands the lotus of the night,
The rising sun awakes the lily; each
Is with his own contented. Even so
The virtuous man is master of his passions,
And from another's wife averts his gaze.

SARNGARAVA.--Since thy union with another woman has rendered thee
oblivious of thy marriage with Sakoontala, whence this fear of losing
thy character for constancy and virtue?

KING [_to the Priest_],--You must counsel me, revered sir, as to my
course of action. Which of the two evils involves the greater or less
sin?
Whether by some dark veil my mind be clouded,
Or this designing woman speak untruly,
I know not. Tell me, must I rather be
The base disowner of my wedded wife,
Or the defiling and defiled adulterer?

PRIEST [_after deliberation_].--You must take an intermediate course.

KING.--What course, revered sir? Tell me at once.

PRIEST.--I will provide an asylum for the lady in my own house until the
birth of her child; and my reason, if you ask me, is this. Soothsayers
have predicted that your first-born will have universal dominion. Now,
if the hermit's daughter bring forth a son with the discus or mark of
empire in the lines of his hand, you must admit her immediately into
your royal apartments with great rejoicings; if not, then determine to
send her back as soon as possible to her father.

KING.--I bow to the decision of my spiritual adviser.

PRIEST.--Daughter, follow me.

SAKOONTALA.--O divine earth, open and receive me into thy bosom!

[_Exit Sakoontala weeping, with the Priest and the Hermits. The King
remains absorbed in thinking of her, though the curse still clouds his
recollection_.

A VOICE [_behind the scenes_].--A miracle! a miracle!

KING [_listening_].--What has happened now?

PRIEST [_entering with an air of astonishment_].--Great Prince, a
stupendous prodigy has just occurred!

KING.--What i