Page:Echoes from East and West.pdf/32

12 "Good luck! thy dear one did not ask my stripling to be slain; Ay, such a boon from such a king she doubtless could obtain!

"As in a lonesome wilderness the stouter brutes attack The helpless deer, so stronger men oppress the weak, alack!

"Yet why for nothing censure thee in many a cruel word? My luck is bad; what shall I gain by blaming thee, my lord?

"My boy forbade me for his sake his father to chastise; O wrongly have I censured thee, forgetting his advice!

"What other lady ever spake such bitter words and fell To her own lord, as I? Ah then, I have not acted well.

"I blame thee not, for this our world is led by One Most High; My luck is bad, o'er which I have no power; why blame thee? why?

"By fate ordain'd, my soothfast son all earthly joys hath left To keep thy truth, and left his home, of ev'ry pleasure reft."

Thus weeping hot, the Queen could not her sorrow's end attain; She, robb'd of wit, as in a fit, began to speak again:

"Much more than Rama I lament, I do lament this day That brother-loving Lakshman, who hath traced his brother's way.