this retreat, let the horses be watered and dressed.
Char. Be it as you direct! [He goes out.
Dushm. [Walking round and looking.] Now then I enter the sanctuary.—[He enters the grove.]—Oh! this place must be holy, my right arm throbs.—[Pausing and considering.]—What new acquisition does this omen promise in a sequestered grove? But the gates of predestined events are in all places open.
[Behind the scenes.] Come hither, my beloved companions; oh! come either.
Dushm. [Listening.] Hah! I hear female voices to the right of yon arbour. I am resolved to know who are conversing.—[He walks round and looks.]—There are some damsels, I see, belonging to the hermit's family who carry water-pots of different sizes proportioned to their strength, and are going to water the delicate plants. Oh! how charmingly they look! If the beauty of maids who dwell in woodland retreats cannot easily be found in the recesses of a palace, the garden flowers must make room for the blossoms of the forest, which excel them in colour and fragrance. (He stands gazing at them.
Enter—Sacontalá, Anusúyá, and Priyamvadá.
Anu. O my Sacontalá, it is in thy society that the trees of our father Canna seem to me delightful; it well becomes thee, who art soft as the fresh-blown Mallicà, to fill with water the canals which have been dug round these tender shrubs.
