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Vak. The indignant sage rushed into the audience-chamber unushered and exclaimed in a voice of thunder: From this day forth let destruction mark thee for her own. I abandon thee and thine, thou hapless king! The gloomy frown and the ominous words of the sage paled the boldest brows and deep and sudden silence came into that royal hail!

Asur. And then, my lord?

Vak. Our gracious sovereign spoke with humble and troubled accents and said: How have I sinned before thee, I father, that thou shouldst so cruelly destroy me and mine—thou, that art our sole refuge, our only preserver?

Asur. What said the sage to this, my lord?

Vak. He said—Thou, king, art the mighty lord of myriads of warlike Asuras, the dreaded foes even of the immortal gods themselves: and I—I'm but a poor Bramin! How can I be thy refuge, thy preserver?

Asur. Anger, I see, had made Ms reverence both bitter as well as satirical! Proceed, I pray you, my lord!

Vak. Our royal lord threw himself at the feet of the Priest and piteously besought him to explain the cause of his displeasure. The sage raised the king from the ground, and when he had ended the tale of the wrong done to his daughter, sternly demanded that our sweet Sermistá should serve Devayáni as her—slave!

Asur. Ha? and then, my lord?

Vak. The illustrious lord of the Asuras looked at the sage like a man who had heard the awful voice of doom! O, what unuttered agony writhed his royal brow! But this seemed to re-kindle the fiercest flames anger in the sage's heart and he exclaimed: Let me begone, and perish thou with thy wicked and arrogant daughter!

Asur. Merciful God!—And then, my lord?

Vak. The Minister rose and said to his Majesty: When a merchant, noble Sovereign, sails on the pathless Deep with