The Maharajah was bowed down with grief, and cried: “Oh! forgive me, Kausalya, because my heart is breaking while I mourn for my beloved son. Oh! do not wound me again, I pray thee.” Kausalya wept and said: “Alas! my grief hath made me speak cruelly to thee.” In the middle of the second night after Rama had departed, Dasaratha awoke and cried: “O Kausalya, I am dying with grief. Mine eyes have grown blind with weeping. Take my hand in thine and speak unto me. Oh! bitterly I grieve now that I cannot look upon Rama ere I die. Happy are they whose eyes behold him.... My heart beats feebly”.... When he had spoken thus, Dasaratha fell back and was silent. Kausalya, mother of Rama, and Sumitra, mother of Lakshmana, knelt beside him, and they swooned when his spirit fled. In the morning messengers were sent speedily to Bharata, who sojourned in the kingdom of the Kaikeyas with his mother's sire, the rajah Aswapati, bidding him to return without delay. Seven nights passed while the prince journeyed towards Ayodhya. He knew not that Dasaratha had died until he reached the palace. Then Kaikeyi, his mother, informed him without tears. Bharata wept, and flung himself down upon the floor and cried aloud. Kaikeyi said: “Thou shouldst not thus give way to grief, my son.” Said Bharata: “If the Maharajah were alive, he would have embraced and kissed me on my return. But where is Rama, who is now as a sire unto me?” Then Kaikeyi told him all that had taken place, and said: “For thy sake, my son, I have accomplished this. Sorrow not, because thou wilt be installed as ruler here.” Said Bharata: “I have lost my father and my elder brother. Of what good is a kingdom unto me now? O evil-hearted woman, thou hast bereft this house of all joy; thou hast slain my sire and banished Rama.... But I will bring my brother back from the jungle; he shall be seated on the throne.” Satrughna sorrowed like Bharata, and when he beheld the wicked hunchback Manthara he threw her down and dragged her across the floor, saying: “This hateful creature is the cause of our calamities. I will slay her.” Kaikeyi flew away in terror, and Bharata said: “Slay her not, because she is a woman. I would have killed my wicked mother, but, had I done so, Rama would ne'er have forgiven me nor have spoken to me again. Spare this wretch, O Satrughna, lest Rama should be angry with thee.” Kausalya, mother of Rama, then approached Bharata and said: “The raj is now thine, O ambitious one. Thy mother hath secured it for thee.” Bharata fell at her feet and vowed that he would never sit on the throne, but would hasten after Rama to entreat him to return. Then Kausalya wept and embraced him because that he was loyal to his elder brother. When Bharata had performed the funeral rites for the Maharajah, he left Ayodhya with a strong army to search for Rama. The two brothers met in the jungle of Chitra-kuta, and they embraced one another and wept for their dead sire.