rent way with Gautamí—Dushmanta stands meditating on the beauty of Sacontalá; but the imprecation still clouds his memory.]
Behind the scenes. Oh! miraculous event!
Dushm. [Listening.] What can have happened?
The Priest re-enters.
Priest. Hear, O king, the stupendous event. When Canna's pupils had departed, Sacontalá, bewailing her adverse fortune, extended her arms and wept; when———
Dushm. What then?
Priest. A body of light, in a female shape, descended near Apsarastírt'ha, where the nymphs of heaven are worshipped; and having caught her hastily in her bosom, disappeared.
Dushm. I suspected from the beginning some work of sorcery.—The business is over; and it is needless to reason more on it.—Let thy mind Sómaráta be at rest.
Priest. May the king be victorious!
Dushm. Chamberlain, I have been greatly harassed: and thou, Warder, go before me to a place of repose.
Ward. This way; Let the king come this way.
Dushm. [Advancing, aside.] I cannot with all my efforts recollect my nuptials with the daughter of the hermit; yet so agitated is my heart, that it almost induces me to believe her story.
