The Little Clay Cart Part 58

_Vasantasena._ Sir, I desire no more.

_Sharvilaka._ [_Places the veil[88] upon Vasantasena. To Charudatta._]

Sir, what shall be done for this monk?

_Charudatta._ Monk, what do you most desire?

_Monk._ When I see this example of the uncertainty of all things, I am twice content to be a monk.

P. 292.16]

_Charudatta._ His purpose is not to be changed, my friend. Let him be appointed spiritual father over all the monasteries in the land.

_Sharvilaka._ It shall be done.

_Monk._ It is all that I desire.

_Vasantasena._ Now I am indeed brought back to life.

_Sharvilaka._ What shall be done for Sthavaraka?

_Charudatta._ Let the good fellow be given his freedom. Let those headsmen be appointed chiefs of all the headsmen. Let Chandanaka be appointed chief of all the police in the land. Let the brother-in-law of the king continue to act exactly as he acted in the past.

_Sharvilaka._ It shall be done. Only _that_ man--leave him to me, and I 'll kill him.

_Charudatta._

He who seeks protection shall be safe.

The humbled foe who seeks thine aid, Thou mayst not smite with steely blade.

Be cruelty with kindness paid. (54)

_Sharvilaka._ Then tell me what I may yet do for you.

_Charudatta._ Can there be more than this?

I kept unstained my virtue's even worth, Granted my enemy his abject suit; Friend Aryaka destroyed his foeman's root, And rules a king o'er all the steadfast earth.

This dear-loved maiden is at last mine own, And you united with me as a friend.

And shall I ask for further mercies, shown To me, who cannot sound these mercies' end? 58

Fate plays with us like buckets at the well, Where one is filled, and one an empty sh.e.l.l, Where one is rising, while another falls; And shows how life is change--now heaven, now h.e.l.l. 59

Yet may the wishes of our epilogue be fulfilled.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 85: That is, the lightning.]

[Footnote 86: Rohasena is himself conceived as the receptacle of the water which a son must pour as a drink-offering to his dead father.]

[Footnote 87: The Manes or spirits of the blessed dead.]

[Footnote 88: A token of honorable marriage. Compare page 66.]