106 AMRA. 



and the cruel policy to which he had been made an unwilling victim. 

 Then he thought of Amra, and all things connected with her chan- 

 ged their aspect. 



In another moment he was beneath the shadow of the mangoes, 

 on the river's brink. He looked round, Amra was not there: he 

 listened, there was no sound. The grass bore marks of having been 

 recently pressed, and still its perfume floated on the air. A few 

 flowers were scattered round, fresh gathered, and glittering with dew. 

 Govinda wrung his hands in despair, and flung himself upon the 

 bank, where a month before they had sat together. On the very 

 spot where Amra had reclined, he perceived a lotos leaf and a palasa 

 flower laid together. Upon the lotos leaf he could perceive written, 

 with a thorn or some sharp point, the word AMRA; and the crimson 

 palasa buds were sacred to the dead. It was sufficient: he thrust 

 the leaf and the flowers into his bosom ; and, " swift as the sparkle 

 of a glancing star/' he flew along the path which led to the garden 

 sepulchre. 



The mother of Amra had died in giving birth to her only child. 

 She was, young, beautiful and virtuous; and had lived happily with 

 her husband notwithstanding the extraordinary disparity of age. 

 The pride and stoicism of his caste would not allow him to betray 

 any violence of grief, or show his affection for the dead, otherwise 

 than by raising to her memory a beautiful tomb. It consisted of 

 four light pillars, richly and grotesquely carved, supporting a point- 

 ed cupola, beneath which was an altar for oblations : the whole was 

 overlaid with brilliant white stucco, and glittered through the gloom. 

 A flight of steps led up to this edifice : upon the highest step, and 

 at the foot of the altar, Amra was seated alone and weeping 



" Love O love ! what have I to do with thee ? How sinks the 

 heart, how trembles the hand as it approaches the forbidden theme 1 

 Of all the gifts the gods have sent upon the earth thou most precious 

 yet ever most fatal ! As serpents dwell among the odorous 

 boughs of the sandal tree, and alligators in the thrice sacred waters 

 of the Ganges, so all that is sweetest, holiest, dearest upon earth, is 

 mixed up with sin, and pain, and misery, and evil ! Thus hath it 

 been ordained from the beginning ; and the love that hath never 

 mourned, is not love." 



I low sweet, yet how terrible, were the moments that succeeded ! 

 While Govinda, with fervid eloquence, poured out his whole soul 

 at her feet, Amra alternately melted with tenderness, or shrunk with 

 sensitive alarm. When he darkly intimated the irresistible power 

 he possessed to overcome all obstacles to their union when he 



