The queen at once went unto Bhima and told him all, and the rajah gave permission that the charioteer should be summoned. In an instant word was sent unto Nala, and soon he stood before Damayantí and gazed upon her, and was moved to anguish. The princess was clad in a robe of scarlet, and her hair was thrown into disarray and defiled with dust: she wept and trembled with emotion. At length Damayantí spoke, saying: “O Váhuka, hast thou ever heard of a noble and upright man who fled away, abandoning his sleeping wife in a forest? Innocent was she, and worn out with grief. Who was he who thus forsook his wife but the lordly Nala?... What offence did I give unto him that he should have deserted me while I slept? Was he not chosen by me as mine husband even before the gods?... How could he abandon her who loved him—the mother of his children?... Before the celestial beings he pledged his faith. How hath he kept his vow?” She spoke with broken voice, and her dark eyes were dewed by sorrow. Nala made answer, gazing upon his beloved wife, and said: “My kingdom I lost by the dice, but I was innocent of evil, because Kali possessed my soul, and by that demon was I also swayed to desert thee, O timid one! But thou didst smite him with thy curse when thou wert in the forest mourning for me, yet he remained in my body until, in the end, he was conquered by my long-suffering and devotion. Lo! now, O beauteous one, our grief is nigh to its end. The evil one hath departed, and through love of thee I come hither right speedily.... But how,” he asked sternly, “may a high-born lady choose her another husband, as thou wouldst fain do, even now, O faint heart? The heralds have gone up and down the land saying: ‘_The daughter of Bhima will hold her second swayamvara because such is her fancy._’ And for this reason Rituparna made haste to come hither.”[323] [323] According to the laws of Manu, second marriages were unlawful. Apparently, however, they were permissible at the early period of the poem, at least in some districts. Damayantí shook with emotion when these hard words were spoken, and she addressed Nala, saying: “Do not suspect me, O noble one, of such shameful guilt. It was for thee and thee alone that the Bráhmans went forth repeating the message which I addressed unto them. Lo! when I learned of the words thou didst speak unto the wise Parnada, I conceived this stratagem with purpose to bring thee hither. Faithful of heart have I remained, nor ever have I thought evil of thee. I call upon the wind to slay me now if I have sinned: on the sun I call also and on the moon, which enters into every thought of living beings. Let these three gods who govern the three worlds[324] speak now to prove my words, or else turn against me.” [324] Heaven, the earth, and the underworld.