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SACONTALA;

cares, and gives me rapture even in my present uneasy situation.

Pri. [Aside to Anusúyá.] A remedy for her, my friend, will scarce be attainable. Exert all the powers of your mind; for her illness admits of no delay.

Anu. [Aside to Priyamvadá.] By what expedient can her cure be both accelerated and kept secret?

Pri. [As before.] Oh! to keep it secret will be easy; but to attain it soon, almost insuperably difficult.

Anu. [As before.] How so?

Pri. The young king seemed, I admit, by his tender glances, to be enamoured of her at first sight; and he has been observed, within these few days, to be pale and thin, as if his passion had kept him long awake.

Dushm. [Aside.] So it has—This golden bracelet, sullied by the flame which preys on me, and which no dew mitigates, but the tears gushing nightly from these eyes, has fallen again and again on my wrist, and has been replaced on my emaciated arm.

Pri. [Aloud.] I have a thought, Anusúyá—Let us write a love letter, which I will conceal in a flower, and, under the pretext of making a respectful offering, deliver it myself into the king's hand.

Anu. An excellent contrivance! It pleases me highly; but what says our beloved Sacontalá?