obtain? For the good of both, I conjure you to try to forget my companion. No doubt, you will succeed in the excitement of fight."
"Ah! whom shall I forget?" replied the Prince, his nether lip showing a smile significant of his mental disquiet, "whom shall I forget? The image of your companion has engraven itself deep on my mind at first sight; this heart can never get rid of it, without being reduced to ashes. People call me stone-hearted; you know what is engraved on stone perishes with the stone itself. What do you speak of fight, Bimale? Ever since I saw your companion, in fight only I have been engaged. Whether in the field or in camp, I have never for a moment been able to forget that countenance. When the Pathan had raised his sword to cut off my head, my first thought was that if I then fell, I should never see her again—that our first sight was destined to be our last. Bimale, where shall I go to see your companion?"
What need of further confession. Bimala said,
"My companion you will find at Garmandaran;—the lovely Tilottama, daughter of Virendra Singha."
Jagat Singha felt as if an adder had stung him. He hung down his head and supported himself on his sword.
"Your words have, after all, proved true," said he, with a sigh, after a long pause. "Tilottama is not destined to be mine. I go to the field—there to drown all hopes of my future happiness in the enemy's blood."
Bimala was touched by the Prince's grief. "If true affection met with its reward in this world, noble Prince, you certainly deserved the hand of Tilottama. And why do you at once give
