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Having taken refuge under the tree and performed his evening devotions, that foremost of those capable of charming others, Rama, addressed Lakshmana, saying,—’To day is the first night (which we must spend) outside the inhabited tracts without the company of Sumantra. Thou ought not to suffer thy mind to be uneasy on that score. From to night forth, we shall have to guard her vigilantly ; for,O Lakshmana, the preservation of what she has as well as the securing unto her of what she has not, rests with us. We will, O son of Sumitr’, anyhow pass the night; Jet us ourselves procuring (leaves) and spreading them on the ground, anyhow lie down on it.” Saying this, Rama lying down on the ground although worthy of a costly bed, spoke these excellent words unto Sumitra’s son,—‘‘O Lakshmana, surely the king sleeps uneasily to day, and Kaikeyi having attained her end ought to be satisfied. Will not that revered lady, for the purpose of having Bharata established in the kingdom, take the king’s life, when she shall see Bharata arrived ? Forlérn and old and deprived of me, Ido not know what he wil do, his soul possessed by desire, and having come under the influence of Kaikeyi. Viewing this calamity (that has overtaken us) and the disorder that has * Varieties of deer.—T.

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taken place in the senses of the monarch, I deem even lust as more potent than either virtue or interest. O Lakshmana, what man is there ignorant though he be, who for the sake of a female forsaketh as my father has done me, his son following his foot-steps? Ah! Kaikeyi’s son Bharata with his wife is really happy—he that enjoys the sole sovereignity of the delighted Kogalas. Now that our father has grown old and I have taken refuge in the forest, he will alone experience the supreme felicity in the kingdom. He that renouncing interest and virtue, followes lust, speedily gets himself involved in troubles even like king Dogaratha. O amiable one, I think that Kaikeyi has been born for making an end of Dagaratha, sending me into exile, and conferring the kingdom on Bharata. At- present for imparting me pain, Kaikeyi intoxicated by the tide of good fortune, will afflict Kaugaly4 and Sumitra. Thy mother, the revered Sumitra, will be smitten with grief on our account. Do thou, Lakshmana, tomorrow morning repair unto Ayodhya: I alone will go unto Dandaka along with Sita. Thou wilt be the protector of the helpless Kaucalya. Kaikeyi is surely mean-minded, she perpetrates wrongs from malice. O thou cognizant of virtue, she may administer poison unto my mother. Surely, O child, ina former birth, women were bereft of their sons by my mother, O son of Sumitr&; and it is for this that this misfortune has befallen her. Having been brought up and reared with great pains by Kaugalya, I have left her at the time when her labors ought to have borne fruit. Fie on me! Let no woman, O son of Sumitr&, give birth unto a son like me who have imparted such infinite pain unto my mother. O Lakshmana, I consider my mother's female parrot as more sharing her affection, since she is heard to say, ‘O Suka, do you bite the foot of the foe ? What am I, O repressor of foes, now to do for her, bewailing, of slender fortune,—she that hath not profitted in the least by her son, and who stands in no further need of his good offices? Surely my unfortunate mother, Kaugalya,

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bereft of me, lies down on the ground, overwhelmed with woe, and plunged in an ocean of grief. O Lakshmana, enraged, I alone, without doubt, can rid Ayodhya—the Earth herself—by means of my arrows. But improper is the display of prowess forno reason. O sinless one, I am afraid of unrighteousness and of the next life; and for this it is that, O Lakshmana, I do not install myself-in the kingdom.” Having in solitude for a long while piteously bewailed thus ‘and in other ways, Rama sat silent in the night with tears in his eyes. Thereupon Lakshmana consoled Rama spent with lamentation, like unto fire deprived of its radience or the ocean of its tide. ‘Surely, O Rama, O foremost of warriors, on your having come out, the city of Ayodhya is shorn of its splendour like the night deprived of the moon. This is not fit that you should grieve; for thereby, O foremost of men, you make both Sita and myself grieve. O Raghava, deprived of you neither Sita nor I can live for a moment, like fish taken out of water : without you, O repressor of foes, I wish to see neither my father, nor Satrughna, nor Sumitr&, nor heaven itself.” Then viewing from where they sat at ease their well-laid bed under the banian, those virtuous ones (RAma and Sit&) went to it. Hearing Lakshmana’s excellent and appropriate words with which he gladly assumed a life in the woods, that subduer of foes, Raghava, in the name of righteousness, at once fully granted him the permission to dwell with him for the entire fourteen years. Then like unto a couple of lions dwelling on a mountain-summit, at that lone spot of the extensive forest, those powerful perpetuators of the Raghu race, began to dwell without fear.