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OR, THE FATAL RING.
43

in the same groves with my beloved, and whose eyes derive lustre from hers?

Mádh. [Looking stedfastly at the king.] What scheme is your royal mind contriving? I have been crying, I find, in a wilderness.

Dushm. I think of nothing but the gratification of my old friend's wishes.

Mádh. [Joyfully.] Then may the king live long!

[Rising, but counterfeiting feebleness.

Dushm. Stay; and listen to me attentively.

Mádh. Let the king command.

Dushm. When you have taken repose, I shall want your assistance in another business, that will give you no fatigue.

Mádh. Oh! what can that be, unless it be eating rice-pudding?

Dushm. You shall know in due time.

Mádh. I shall be delighted to hear it.

Dushm. Hola! who is there?

The Chamberlain enters.

Cham. Let my sovereign command me.

Dushm. Raivataca, bid the General attend.

Cham. I obey.—[He goes out, and returns with the General.]—Come quickly, Sir, the king stands expecting you.

Gen. [Aside, looking at Dushmanta.] How comes it that hunting, which moralists reckon a vice, should be a virtue in the eyes of a king? Thence it is, no doubt, that our emperor, occupied in perpetual toil, and inured to constant heat, is become so lean, that the sunbeams hardly