Vasavadatta

Act III

Avunthy. In the palace.

Scene I

A room in the royal apartments.

Mahasegn, Ungarica.

MAHASEGN

I conquer still though not with glorious arms.

He's seized! the young victorious Vuthsa's mine,

A prisoner in my grasp.

UNGARICA (laughing)

Thou holdst the sun

Under thy arm-pit as the tailed god did.

What wilt thou do with it?

MAHASEGN

Make him my moon

And shine by him upon the eastern night.

UNGARICA

Thou canst?

MAHASEGN

Loved sceptic of my house, I can.

What thing desired has long escaped my hands

Since out of thy dim world I dragged thee conquered

Into our sun and breeze and azure skies

By force, my fortune?

UNGARICA

Yes, by force, but this

By force thou hast not done. Wilt thou depart

From thy own nature, Chunda Mahasegn,

And hop'st for victory?

MAHASEGN

Thou wert my strength, my fortune,

But never my counsellor! My own mind's my seer.

UNGARICA

I do not counsel, but obey and watch.

That is enough for me in your strange world,

For in your light I cannot guide myself.

Man is a creature blinded by the sun

Who errs by seeing; but the world that to you

Is darkness,—they who walk there, they have sight.

Such am I, for the shades have reared my soul.

MAHASEGN

What dost thou see?

UNGARICA

That Vuthsa is too great

For thy greatness, too cunning for thy cunning. He

Will bend not to thy pressure.

MAHASEGN

Thou hast bent,

The Titaness. This is a delicate boy

Softer than summer dews or like the lily

That yields to every gentle, insistent wave.

A hero? yes: all Aryan boys are that.

UNGARICA

Thou thinkst thy daughter thy proud fortune's wave,

He its bright flower—a nursling reared by gods

Only to be thy servant?

MAHASEGN

Thou hast seen?

I kept my counsel hidden in my soul.

UNGARICA

It is good; it is the thing my heart desires.

My daughter shall have empire.

MAHASEGN

No, thy son.

UNGARICA

No matter which. The first man of the age

Will occupy her heart; the pride and love

That are her faults will both be satisfied.

She will be happy.

MAHASEGN

Call thy child, my queen.

For I will teach her what her charm must weave.

UNGARICA

Her heart's her teacher. Call here, Vullabha,

The princess.

MAHASEGN

O, the heart, it is a danger,

A madness! Let the thinking mind prevail.

UNGARICA

We are women, king.

MAHASEGN

Be princesses! My daughter

Has dignity, pride, wisdom, noble hopes;

She will not act as common natures do.

UNGARICA

Love will unseat them all and put them down

Under his flower-soft feet.

MAHASEGN

Thou hast ever loved

To oppose my thoughts!

UNGARICA

That is our poor revenge

Who in our acts must needs obey.

Vasavadutta enters.

Let now

Thy princely cunning teach a woman's brain

To use for statecraft's ends her dearest thoughts.

MAHASEGN

My daughter Vasavadutta, my delight,

Now is thy hour to pay the long dear debt

Thou ow'st thy parents by whom thou wast made.

Vuthsa, Cowsamby's king, my rival, foe,

My Fate's high stumbling-block, captive today

Is brought to Avunthy. I mean he shall become

Thy husband, Vasavadutta, and my slave.

By thee he shall become my subject king.

Then shall thy father's fate outleap all bounds,

Thy house and nation rule the prostrate world.

This is my will, my daughter; is it thine?

VASAVADUTTA

Father, thy will is mine, as it is fate's.

Thou givest me to whom thou wilt; what share

In this have I except only to obey?

MAHASEGN

A greater part which makes thee my ally

And golden instrument; for thou, my child,

Must be, who only canst, my living sceptre,

Thou my ambassador to win his mind

And thou my viceroy over his subject will.

VASAVADUTTA

Will he submit to this?

MAHASEGN

Yes, if thou choose.

VASAVADUTTA

I choose, my father, since it is thy will.

That thou shouldst rule the world, is my desire;

My nation's greatness is my dearest good.

MAHASEGN

Thou hast kept my proudest lessons; lose them not.

O, thou art not as feebler natures are!

Thou wilt not put thy own ambitions first,

Nor justify a blind and clamorous heart.

VASAVADUTTA

My duty to my country and my sire

Shall lead me.

MAHASEGN

I will not teach thy woman's brain

How thou shalt mould this youth, nor warn thy will

Against the passions of the blood. The heart

And senses over common women rule;

Thou hast a mind.

VASAVADUTTA

Father, this is my pride,

That thou ennoblest me to be the engine

Of thy great fortunes; that alone I am.

MAHASEGN

Thou wilt not yield then to the heart's desire?

VASAVADUTTA

Let him desire, but I will nothing yield.

I am thy daughter; greatest kings should sue

And take my grace as an unhoped-for joy.

MAHASEGN

Thou art my pupil; statecraft was not wasted

Upon thy listening brain. Thou seest, my queen?

UNGARICA

As if this babe could understand! Go, go

And leave me with my child. I will speak to her

Another language.

MAHASEGN

Breathe no breath against

My purpose!

UNGARICA

Fearst thou that?

MAHASEGN

No; speak to her.

He goes out from the chamber.

UNGARICA (taking Vasavadutta into her arms)

Rest here, my child, to whom another bosom

Will soon be refuge. Thou hast heard the King;

Hear now thy mother. Thou wilt know, my bliss,

The fiercest sweet ordeal that can seize

A woman's heart and body. O my child,

Thou wilt house fire, thou wilt see living gods,

And all thou hast thought and known will melt away

Into a flame and be reborn. What now

I speak, thou dost not understand, but wilt

Before many nights have kept thy sleepless eyes.

My child, the flower blooms for its flowerhood only,

To fill the air with fragrance and with bloom,

And not to make its parent bed more high.

Not for thy sire thy mother brought thee forth

But thy own nature's growth and heart's delight

And for a husband and for children born.

My child, let him who clasps thee be thy god

That thou mayst be his goddess; make your wedded arms

Heaven's fences; let his will be thine and thine

Be his, his happiness thy regal throne.

O Vasavadutta, when thy heart awakes

Thou shalt obey thy sovereign heart, nor yield

Allegiance to the clear-eyed selfish gods.

Do now thy father's will, the god awake

Shall do his own. Fear not, whatever threatens.

Thy mother watches over thee, my child.

She goes out.

VASAVADUTTA

I love her best, but do not understand;

My mind can always grasp my father's thoughts.

If I must wed, it shall be one I rule.

Vuthsa! Vuthsa Udaian! I have heard

Only a far-flung name. What is the man?

A flame? a flower? High like Gopalaca

Or else some golden-fair and soft-eyed youth?

I have a fluttering in my heart to know.

Scene II

The same.

Mahasegn, Ungarica, Gopalaca, Vuthsa.

GOPALACA

King of Avunthy, see thy will performed.

The boy who rivalled thy ripe victor years,

I bring a captive to thy house.

MAHASEGN

Gopalaca,

Thou hast done well, thou art indeed my son.

Vuthsa,—

VUTHSA

Hail, monarch of the West. We have met

In equal battle; it has pleased me to approach

Thy greatness otherwise.

MAHASEGN

Pleased thee, vain boy!

No, but thy fate indignant that thou strov'st

Against heaven-chosen fortunes.

VUTHSA

Think it so.

I am here. What is thy will with me or wherefore

Hast thou by violence brought me to thy house?

MAHASEGN

To serve me as earth's sovereign and thy own

Assuming my great yoke as all have done

From Indus to the South.

VUTHSA

This is thy error.

Thou hast not great Cowsamby's monarch here,

But Vuthsa only, Suthaneka's son

Who sprang from sires divine.

MAHASEGN

And where then dwells

Cowsamby's youthful majesty, if not

In thee its golden vessel?

VUTHSA

Where my vacant throne

In high Cowsamby stands. Thou shouldst know that.

There is a kingship which exceeds the king.

For Vuthsa unworthy, Vuthsa captive, slain,

This is not captive, this cannot be slain.

It far transcends our petty human forms,

It is a nation's greatness. This, O King,

Was once Parikshith, this Urjoona's seed,

Janamejoya, this was Suthaneke,

This Vuthsa; and when Vuthsa is no more,

This shall live deathless in a hundred kings.

MAHASEGN

Thou speakest like the unripe boy thou seemst,

With thoughts high-winging. Grown minds keep to earth's

More humble sureness and prefer her touches.

I am content to have thy gracious body here,

This earth of kingship; with things sensible

I deal, for they are pertinent to our days,

And not with any high and unseen thought.

VUTHSA

My body? deal with it. It is thy slave

And captive by thy choice and by my own.

What thou canst do with Vuthsa, do, O King;

In nothing will I pledge Cowsamby's majesty,

But Vuthsa is a prisoner in thy hands.

Him I defend not from thy iron will.

MAHASEGN

My prisoner, thou shalt not so escape

My purpose.

VUTHSA

I embrace it. If escape

Were my desire, I should not now be here.

It is not bars and gates can keep me.

MAHASEGN

But I will give thee other jailors, boy,

Surer than my armed sentries, against whom

Thou dar'st not lift thy helpless hands.

VUTHSA

Find such;

I am satisfied.

MAHASEGN

Grow humbler in thy bearing.

Be Vuthsa or be great Cowsamby's king,

Know thyself only for a captive and a slave.

VUTHSA

I accept thy stern rebuke, as I accept

Whatever state the wiser gods provide

And bend my action to their mood and thought.

MAHASEGN

Thou knowst the law of the high sacrifice,

Where many kings as menials serve the one,

And this compelled have many proud lords done

Whose high beginnings disappear in time.

Now I will make my throned triumphant days

A high continual solemn sacrifice

Of kingship. There shalt thou, great Bharuth's heir,

Dwell in my house a royal servitor,

And as most fitting thy yet tender years,

My daughter's serf. She with her handmaidens

Shall be thy jailors whose firm gracious cordon

Thy strength disarmed stands helpless to transgress. To this

Thy pride must, forced, consent.

VUTHSA

Not only consent,

But welcome with a proud aspiring mind

Since to be Vasavadutta's servitor

Is honour, happiness and fortune's grace.

My greatness this shall raise, not cast it down,

King Mahasegn.

MAHASEGN

Lead now, Gopalaca,

Thy gift, her servant, to thy sister's feet.

He has a music that the gods desire,

His brush leaves Nature wondering and his song

The luminous choristers of heaven have taught.

All this is hers to please her. Boy, thou smilest?

VUTHSA

What thou hast said, is merely truth. And yet

I smiled to see how strong and arrogant minds

Think themselves masters of the things they do.

Gopalaca goes out with Vuthsa towards Vasavadutta's apartments.

MAHASEGN

This is a charming boy, Ungarica,

Who vaunts and yields!

UNGARICA

What he has shown thee, King,

Thou seest.

MAHASEGN

Wilt thou lend next this graceful child,

Almost a girl in beauty, thoughts profound

And practised subtleties? I have done well,

Was deeply inspired.

He goes out.

UNGARICA

For him and her thou hast.

Our own ends seeking, Heaven's ends are served.

Scene III

A room in Vasavadutta's apartments.

Vasavadutta, Munjoolica, Umba.

VASAVADUTTA

But hast thou seen him?

MUNJOOLICA

Yes!

VASAVADUTTA

Speak, perverse silence.

Thou canst chatter when thou wilt.

MUNJOOLICA

What shall I say

Except that thou art always fortunate.

Since first thy soft feet moved upon our earth,

O living Luxmie, beauty, wealth and joy

Run overpacked into thy days, and grandeurs

Unmeasured. Now the greatest king on earth

Becomes thy servant.

VASAVADUTTA

That's the greatest king's

Proud fortune and not mine; for nothing now

Can raise me higher than I am whose father

Is sovereign over greatest kings. Nothing are these

And what I long to know thou dost not tell.

What is he like?

MUNJOOLICA

I have seen the lord of love

Wearing a golden human body.

VASAVADUTTA (with a pleased smile)

So fair!

MUNJOOLICA

As thou art; yes, and more.

VASAVADUTTA

More!

MUNJOOLICA

Cry not out.

His eyes are proud and smiling like the god's;

His voice is like the sudden call of Spring.

VASAVADUTTA

O dear to me even as myself, wear this!

She puts her own chain round her neck.

MUNJOOLICA

That is my happiness; keep thy gifts.

VASAVADUTTA

Think them

My love around thy neck. Thou hast spoken truly,

Not woven fictions to beguile my heart?

Then tell me more, tell tell, thou dearest one.

Not that I care for these things, but would know.

MUNJOOLICA

Let thy eyes care not then, but gaze.

Gopalaca comes, bringing in Vuthsa.

VASAVADUTTA

My brother!

Long thou wast far from me.

GOPALACA

For thy sake far.

Much have I flung, my sister, at thy feet

Nor thought my gifts were worthy of thy smile,

Not even Sourashtra's captive daughter here,

The living flower and jewel of her race.

But now I give indeed. This is that famous boy,

Vuthsa Udaian, great Cowsamby's king,

Brought by my hands to serve thee in our house.

Look on him; tell me if I have deserved.

VASAVADUTTA (looking covertly at Vuthsa)

Much love, dear brother; not that any prize

I value as of worth for such as we,

But thy love gives it price.

GOPALACA

My love for both.

My gift is precious to me, for my heart

Possessed him long before my hands have seized.

Then love him well, for so thou lov'st me twice.

VASAVADUTTA

Dear then and prized although a slave.

GOPALACA

Are we not all

Thy servants? The wide costly world is less,

My sister, than thy noble charm and grace

And beauty and the sweetness of thy soul

Deserve, O Vasavadutta.

VASAVADUTTA (smiling, pleased)

Is it so?

GOPALACA

My sister, thou wast born from Luxmie's heart,

And we, thy brothers, feel in thee, not us,

Our father's fate inherited; our warrings

Seek for thy girdle all the conquered earth.

VASAVADUTTA

I know it, brother.

GOPALACA

From thy childhood, yes,

Thou seem'dst to know, ruling with queenly eyes.

But since thou knowest, queen, assume thy fiefs

Cowsamby and Ayodhya for our house!

VASAVADUTTA (glancing at Vuthsa, then avoiding his eyes)

Since he's my slave, they are already mine.

GOPALACA

No; understand me, sister; make them thine.

Thou, Vuthsa, serve thy mistress and obey.

He goes out.

VASAVADUTTA

He is a boy, a marvellous golden boy.

I am surely older! I can play with him.

There is no fear, no difficulty at all.

(to Vuthsa)

What is thy name? I'll hear it from thy lips.

VUTHSA

Vuthsa.

VASAVADUTTA

Thou tremblest, Vuthsa; dost thou fear?

VUTHSA

Perhaps. There is a fear in too much joy.

VASAVADUTTA (smiling)

I did not hear. My brother loves thee well.

Take comfort. If thou serve me faithfully,

Thou hast no cause for any grief at all.

Thou art Cowsamby's king—

VUTHSA

Men call me so.

VASAVADUTTA

And now my servant.

VUTHSA

That my heart repeats.

VASAVADUTTA (smiling)

I did not hear. Cowsamby's king, my slave,

What canst thou do to please me?

VUTHSA

Dost thou choose

To know the songs that shake the tranquil gods

Or hear on earth the harps of heaven? dost thou

Desire such lines and hues of living truth

As make earth's shadows pale? or wilt thou have

The infinite abysmal silences

Made vocal, clothed with form? These things at birth

The Kinnarie, Vidyadhur and Gundhurva

Around me crowding on Himaloy dumb

Gave to the silent god that lived in me

Before my outer mind held thought. All these

I can make thine.

VASAVADUTTA

Vuthsa, I take all these,

All thy life's ornaments that thou wearst, for mine

And am not satisfied.

VUTHSA

Dost thou desire

The earth made thine by my victorious bow?

Send me then forth to battle; earth is thine.

VASAVADUTTA

I take the earth and am not satisfied.

VUTHSA

Say then what thing shall please thee in thy slave,

What thou desir'st from Vuthsa.

VASAVADUTTA

Do I know?

Not less than all thou canst and all thou hast,—

(hesitating a little)

And all thou art.

VUTHSA

All's thine.

VASAVADUTTA

I speak and hear

And know not what I say, nor what thou meanst.

VUTHSA

The deepest things are those thought seizes not;

Our spirits live their hidden meaning out.

VASAVADUTTA (after a troubled silence in which she tries to recover herself)

I know not how we passed into this strain.

Such words are troubling to the mind and heart;

Leave them.

VUTHSA

They have been spoken.

VASAVADUTTA

Let them rest.

Vuthsa, my slave who promisest me much,

Great things thou offerest, small things I'll demand

From thee, yet hard. Since he's my prisoner,

Munjoolica and Umba, guard this boy;

You are his jailors. When I need him near me

Bring him to me. Go, Vuthsa, to thy room.

Vuthsa falls at her feet which he touches.

What dost thou? It is not permitted thee.

VUTHSA

Not this? That's hard.

VASAVADUTTA (troubled and feigning anger)

Thou art too bold a slave.

VUTHSA

Let me be earth beneath thy tread at least.

VASAVADUTTA

O, take him from me; I have enough of him.

Thou, Umba, see he bribes thee not or worse.

UMBA

I will be bribed to make thee smart for that.

Where shall we put him? In the turret rooms

Beside the terrace where thou walkst when moonlight

Sleeps on the sward?

VASAVADUTTA

There; it is nearest.

UMBA (taking Vuthsa's hand)

Come.

They go out, leaving Vasavadutta alone.

VASAVADUTTA

Will he charm me from my purpose with a smile?

How beautiful he is, how beautiful!

There is a fear, there is a happy fear.

But he is mine, his eyes confessed my yoke.

Surely I shall do all my will with him.

I sent him from me, his words troubled me

And yet delighted. They have a witchery,—

No, not his words, but voice. 'Tis not his voice,

Nor yet his face, his smile, his flower-soft eyes,

And yet it is all these and something more.

(shaking her head)

I fear it will be difficult after all.

Scene IV

The tower-room beside the terrace.

Vuthsa on a couch.

VUTHSA

All that I dreamed or heard of her, her charm

Exceeds. She's mine! she has shuddered at my touch;

Thrice her eyes faltered as they gazed in mine.

He lies back with closed eyes; Munjoolica enters and contemplates him.

MUNJOOLICA

O golden Love! thou art not of this earth.

He too is Vasavadutta's! All is hers,

As I am now and one day all the earth.

Vuthsa, thou sleepst not, then.

VUTHSA

Sleep jealous waits

Finding another image in my eyes.

MUNJOOLICA

Thou art disobedient. Wast thou not commanded

To sleep at once?

VUTHSA

Sleep disobeys, not I.

But thou too wakest, yet no thoughts should have

To keep thy lids apart.

MUNJOOLICA

How knowst thou that?

I am thy jailor and I walk my rounds.

VUTHSA

Bright jailor, thou art jealous without cause.

Who would escape from heaven's golden bars?

Thy name's Munjoolica? So is thy form

A bower of the graceful things of earth.

MUNJOOLICA

I had another name but it has ceased,

Forgotten.

VUTHSA

Thou wast then Sourashtra's child?

MUNJOOLICA

I am still that royalty clouded, even as thou

Captive Cowsamby. Me Gopalaca

In battle seized, brought a disdainful gift

To Vasavadutta.

VUTHSA

Since our fates are one,

Should we not be allies?

MUNJOOLICA

For what bold purpose?

VUTHSA

How knowest thou I have one?

MUNJOOLICA

Were I a man!

VUTHSA

Wouldst thou have freedom? wilt thou give me help?

MUNJOOLICA

In nothing against her I love and serve.

VUTHSA

No, but conspire to serve and love her best

And make her queen of all the Aryan earth.

MUNJOOLICA

My payment?

VUTHSA

Name it thyself, when all is ours.

MUNJOOLICA

Content; it will be large.

VUTHSA

However large.

MUNJOOLICA

Now shall I be avenged upon my fate!

What thy heart asks I know; too openly

Thou carriest the yearning in thy eyes.

Vuthsa, she loves thee as the half-closed bud

Thrills to the advent of a wonderful dawn

And like a dreamer half-awake perceives

The faint beginnings of a sunlit world.

Doubt not success more than that dawn must break;

For she is thine.

VUTHSA

Take my heart's gratitude

For the sweet assurance.

MUNJOOLICA

I am greedy. Only

Thy gratitude?

VUTHSA

What wouldst thou have?

MUNJOOLICA

The ring

Upon thy finger, Vuthsa, for my own.

VUTHSA (putting it on her finger)

It shall live happier on a fairer hand.

MUNJOOLICA

Since thou hast paid me instantly and well,

I will be zealous, Vuthsa, in thy cause.

But my great bribe is in the future still.

VUTHSA

Claim it in our Cowsamby.

MUNJOOLICA

There indeed.

Sleep now.

VUTHSA

By thy good help I now shall sleep.

Munjoolica goes out.

Music is sweet; to rule the heart's rich chords

Of human lyres much sweeter. Art's sublime

But to combine great ends more sovereign still,

Accepting danger and difficulty to break

Through proud and violent opposites to our will.

Song is divine, but more divine is love.

Scene V

A room in Vasavadutta's apartments.

VASAVADUTTA

I govern no longer what I speak and do.

Is this the fire my mother spoke of? Oh,

It is sweet, is sweet. But I will not be mastered

By any equal creature. Let him serve

Obediently and I will load his lovely head

With costliest favours. He's my own, my own,

My slave, my toy to play with as I choose,

And shall not dare to play with me. I think he dares;

I do not know, I think he would presume.

He's gentle, brilliant, bold and beautiful.

I'll send for him and chide and put him down;

I'll chide him harshly; he must not presume.

O, I have forgotten almost my father's will;

Yet it was mine. Before I lose it quite,

I will compel a promise from the boy.

Will it be hard when he is all my own?

(she calls)

Umba! Bring Vuthsa to me from his tower.

His music is a voice that cries to me,

His songs are chains he hangs around my heart.

I must not hear them often; I forget

That I am Vasavadutta, that he is

My house's foe and only Vuthsa feel,

Think Vuthsa only, while my captive heart

Beats in world-Vuthsa and on Vuthsa throbs.

This must not be.

Umba brings in Vuthsa and retires.

Go, Umba. Vuthsa, stand

Before me.

VUTHSA

It is my sovereign's voice that speaks.

VASAVADUTTA

Be silent! Lower thy eyes; they are too bold

To gaze on me, my slave.

VUTHSA

Blame not my eyes;

They follow the dumb motion of a heart

Uplifted to adore thee.

VASAVADUTTA (with a shaken voice)

Dost thou really

Adore me, Vuthsa?

VUTHSA

Earth's one goddess, yes.

VASAVADUTTA (mildly)

But, Vuthsa, men adore with humble eyes

Upon their deity's feet.

VUTHSA

Oh, let me so

Adore thee then, thus humble at thy feet,

Their sleeping moonbeams in my eyes, and place

My hands in Paradise beneath these flowers

That bless too oft the chill unheeding earth.

Let this not be forbidden to thy slave.

So let me worship and the carolling of thy speech

So listen.

VASAVADUTTA

Vuthsa, thou must not presume.

VUTHSA

O even when faint thy voice, thy every word

Reaches my soul.

VASAVADUTTA

Wilt thou not let me free?

VUTHSA

Yes, if thou bid; but do not.

VASAVADUTTA (bending down to caress his hair)

If really

And as my slave thou adorest, nothing more,

I will not bid.

VUTHSA

What more, when this means all?

VASAVADUTTA

But if thou art such, is not all thou hast

Mine, mine? Why dost thou, Vuthsa, keep from me

My own?

VUTHSA

Take all; claim all.

VASAVADUTTA (collecting herself)

Cowsamby first.

VUTHSA

It shall be thine, a jewel for thy feet.

VASAVADUTTA

Thy kingdom, Vuthsa, for my will to rule.

VUTHSA

It shall be thine, the garden of thy pomp.

VASAVADUTTA

Shall?

VUTHSA

Is it not far? We must go there, my queen,

Thou to receive and I to give.

VASAVADUTTA

I wish

To be there. But, Udaian, thou must vow,

And the word bind thee, that none else shall be

Cowsamby's queen and thou my servant live

Vowed to obedience underneath my throne.

VUTHSA

Thou only shalt be over my heart a queen,

Yes, if thou wilt, the despot of my thoughts,

My hopes, my aims, but I will not obey

If thou command disloyalty to thee,

My sweet, sole sovereign.

VASAVADUTTA (smiling)

This reserve I yield.

(hesitatingly)

But Vuthsa, if as subject of my sire,

High Chunda Mahasegn, I bid thee rule?

VUTHSA

My queen, it will be void.

VASAVADUTTA

Void? And thy vow?

VUTHSA

Would it not be disloyalty in me,

To serve another sovereign?

VASAVADUTTA (vexed, yet pleased)

O, thou playst with me.

VUTHSA

No, queen. What's wholly mine, that wholly take.

But this belongs to many other souls.

VASAVADUTTA

To whom?

VUTHSA

Their names are endless. Bharuth first,

Who ruled the Aryan earth that bears his name,

And great Dushyanta and Pururavus'

Famed warlike son and all their peerless line,

Urjoona and Parikshith and his sons

Whom God descended to enthrone, and all

Who shall come after us, my heirs and thine

Who choosest me, and a great nation's multitudes,

And the Kuru ancestors and long posterity

Who all must give consent.

VASAVADUTTA

Thy thoughts are high.

But if thy life must fade a prisoner here?

My father is inflexible and stern.

VUTHSA

Dost thou desire this really in thy heart?

Vuthsa degraded, art thou not degraded too?

VASAVADUTTA

My rule thou hast vowed?

VUTHSA

To obey thee in all things

Throned in Cowsamby, not as here I must,

Thy father's captive. There I shall be thine.

VASAVADUTTA

Leave, Vuthsa, leave me. Take him, Umba, from me.

UMBA (entering, in Vasavadutta's ear)

Who now is bribed? We are all traitors now.

She goes out with Vuthsa.

VASAVADUTTA

O joy, if he and all were only mine.

O greatness, to be queen of him and earth.

I grow a rebel to my father's house.