can no longer
command my ideas. I will go in, and endeavour to pacify the queen." The
queen regales Vasantaka with cakes from her own fair hands, presents him
with a dress and restores him to liberty. Susangata prays him to accept
a diamond necklace which Sagarika has left with her for presentation to
him. He declines the offer. Looking at it attentively he wonders where
she could have procured such a valuable necklace. They both go to the
king who has gone from the queen's apartments to the crystal alcove and
is lamenting thus:--"Deceitful vows, tender speeches, plausible excuses
and prostrate supplications had less effect upon the queen's anger than
her own teaks; like water upon the fire they quenched the blaze of her
indignation. I am now only anxious for Sagarika. Her form, as delicate
as the petal of the lotus, dissolving in the breath of inexperienced
passion, has found a passage through the channels by which love
penetrates, and is lodged deep in my heart. The friend to whom I could
confide my secret sorrows is the prisoner of the queen." Vasantaka now
informs the king that he has been restored to liberty. Asked about
Sagarika he hangs down his head and declares that he cannot utter such
unpleasant tidings. The king infers that Sagarika is no more and faints.
The friend says, "my friend, revive--revive! I was about to tell you,
the queen has sent her to Ougein--this I called unpleasant tidings,
Susangata told me so,--and what is more, she gave me this necklace to
bring to your Majesty." Vasantaka gives the king the necklace which he
applies to his heart to alleviate his despair. By command, the courtier
applies the ornament round the neck of the king. At this time,
Vijayavarman, the nephew of Rumanwat the general of the state, arrives
to announce:--"Glory to your Majesty! your Majesty's fortune is
propitious in the triumphs of Rumanwat. By your Majesty's auspices the
_Kosalas_ are subdued. On receiving your Majesty's commands, my uncle
soon collected a mighty army of foot, and horse, and elephants, and
marching against the king of Kosala, surrounded him in a strong position
in the Vindhya mountains. Impatient of the blockade, the _Kosala_
monarch prepared his troops for an engagement. Issuing from the heights,
the enemy's forces came down upon us in great numbers, and the points of
the horizon were crowded with the array of mighty elephants, like
another chain of mountains: they bore down our infantry beneath thei