Heard once again the counsel of his wife: "O king! sell __me__! nor let the fiery curse Dissolve thy being!" Urged repeatedly, The king at length replied: "Most loving one! What the most wicked man could hardly do, That same will I:--and I will sell my wife. Alas! that I should utter such a word!" And going with his wife into the town-- Eyes dimmed with tears, voice choked with grief--he cried: "Come hither, townsmen! hearken unto me! A wretch! inhuman! savage as a fiend! I offer here my wife for sale, and yet I live! Here is a female slave! Who buys? Make haste and speak." "The female slave is mine!" (So spake an ancient Brâhman to the king.) "Money I have in heaps, and I will pay You well for her. My wife is delicate; Her household duties are beyond her strength; I want a slave, and therefore I will give A price proportioned to the woman's skill And temper; nor will I o'erlook her youth And beauty. What you think is fair and right, That will I pay." Struck dumb with grief, the king Stood mute, nor answered aught. And then the priest, Tying the price in the king's garment-hem-- His bark-cloth garment--roughly grasped the queen, And dragged her off. But when the loving child Beheld his mother led away, he seized Her by her garment. And the queen exclaimed: "If only for a moment, noble sir! Oh! let me go! that I may gaze once more Upon my child, whom I shall never see, And never touch again! My child, behold Thy mother, now a slave! And thou--a prince! Oh, touch me not! My lot of servitude Forbids that thou should'st touch me." But the child, His eyes bedewed with tears, ran after her, Calling her "Mother!" As the boy came near, The Brâhman spurned him with his foot; but he Still following close would not be torn from her, Calling her "Mother!" "Oh, my lord! I pray, Be gracious to me!" said the queen. "Oh, buy My son with me; divide us not! For I Without him shall be nought of use to you. Be gracious, O my lord!" Then said the priest: "Here! take the money! give the boy to me! The saints, who know the scriptures, have ordained The right and lawful sum. Take it!" He tied The money in the king's bark dress, and led Them both away--the mother and the child-- Together bound. But when the king beheld Himself bereft of both his wife and son, He burst forth: "Ah! my wife! whom neither sun, Nor moon, nor air have ever seen I who hast Been kept from vulgar gaze! Alas I a slave Hast thou become! Alas! thou, too, my son!-- A scion of the noble dynasty, Sprung from the sun! disgrace has seized on thee, And--shame upon me!--thou too art a slave! Ye have become a sacrifice; ye, through my fault, Have fallen. Would that I were dead!" Thus spoke The king. Meanwhile the Brâhman hastily Entered the grove wherein his dwelling stood, And vanished with his slaves. Then met the king The Brâhman Višvâmitra.