136 CRADLE TALES OF HINDUISM
Thus was built the bridge that spans to this
day, the straits beside the great pearl-fisheries of
Manaar. And when it was finished, the troops
were brought safely across it ; and all knew that
the very next step would be the seizing of Lanka,
the destruction of Ravana, and the release of
Sita.
All this time Mandodari, the wife of Ravana, had been imploring her husband to set his prisoner free. But he had answered only with expressions of contempt for Rama, and boasts of his own power. When the forces of the enemy had been brought across the sea, however, everything was changed. Ravana himself, it was said, had leapt to his feet in consternation when the news was heard. The hostile army was now at their very gates ; and the prospects that only the day before were still unclouded, looked very grave. For in Lanka, by this time, they judged of the power of each one of Rama's soldiery by that of Hanuman, who in a few hours had destroyed, unaided, all their orchards.
Mandodari now, therefore, was joined in her pleadings by- her husband's own brother. *•' Set the stranger free," they entreated, '^ while yet there is time to save the city 1 Rama is in the right, and fate itself must fight upon his side 1 "
To his brother, Ravana gave some curt reply, that drove him in anger out of his presence. But
