Scene 10 - Page 2

ever remain hard and relentless like rock--may
my tears and prayers never move him! Let my sorrows be ever mine
only--and may his glory and victory be for ever!

SUDARSHANA. Surangama, look! A cloud of dust seems to rise over
the eastern horizon across the fields.

SURANGAMA. Yes, I see it.

SUDARSHANA. Is that not like the banner of a chariot?

SURANGAMA. Indeed, a banner it is.

SUDARSHANA. Then he is coming. He has come at last!

SURANGAMA. Who is coming?

SUDARSHANA. Our King--who else? How could he live without me?
It is a wonder how he could hold out even for these days.

SURANGAMA. No, no, this cannot be the King.

SUDARSHANA. "No," indeed! As if you know everything! Your King
is hard, stony, pitiless, isn't he? Let us see how hard he can
be. I knew from the beginning that he would come--that he would
have to rush after me. But remember, Surangama, I never for a
single moment asked him to come. You will see how I make your
King confess his defeat to me! Just go out, Surangama, and let
me know everything. [SURANGAMA goes out.] But shall I go if he
comes and asks me to return with him? Certainly not! I will not
go! Never!

[Enter SURANGAMA]

SURANGAMA. It is not the King, my Queen.

SUDARSHANA. Not the King? Are you quite sure? What! he has
not come yet?

SURANGAMA. No, my King never raises so much dust when he comes.
Nobody can know when he comes at all.

SUDARSHANA. Then this is--

SURANGAMA. The same: he is coming with the King of Kanchi.

SUDARSHANA. Do you know his name?

SURANGAMA. His name is Suvarna.

SUDARSHANA. It is he, then. I thought, "I am lying here like
waste refuse and offal, which no one cares even to touch." But
my hero is coming now to release me. Did you know Suvarna?

SURANGAMA. When I was at my father's home, in the gambling den

SUDARSHANA. No, no, I won't hear anything of him from you. He
is my own hero, my only salvation. I shall know him without your
telling stories about him. But just see, a nice man your King
is! He did not care to come to rescue me from even this
degradation. You cannot blame me after this. I could not have
waited for him all my life here, toiling ignominiously like a
bondslave. I shall never have your meekness and
submissiveness.