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your fixed attention; but I value it as a gift from the king.

Pri. Then you ought not, sir, to part with it. Her debt is from this moment discharged on your word only.

[She returns the ring.

Anu. You are now released, Sacontalá, by this benevolent lord,—or favoured, perhaps, by a monarch himself. To what place will you now retire?

Sac. [aside] Must I not wonder at all this if I preserve my senses?

Pri. Are not you going, Sacontalá?

Sac. Am I your subject? I shall go when it pleases me.

Dushm. [Aside, looking at Sacontala] Either she is affected towards me, as I am towards her, or I am distracted with joy. She mingles not her discourse with mine; yet, when I speak, she listens attentively. She commands not her actions in my presence; and her eyes are engaged on me alone.

Behind the scenes] Oh pious hermits, preserve the animals of this hallowed forest! The king Dushmanta is hunting in it. The dust raised by the hoofs of his horses, which pound the pebbles ruddy as early dawn, falls like a swarm of blighting insects on the consecrated boughs which sustain your mantles of woven bark, moist with the water of the stream in which you have bathed.

Dushm. [Aside.] Alas! my officers, who are searching for me, have indiscreetly disturbed this holy retreat.