'Hard it is to conquer nature: if a dog were made a King,
Mid the coronation trumpets, he would gnaw his sandal-string.'
And when he yells the Tigers will know him for a Jackal and fall upon him.'
'The thing befell exactly so, and the Jackal,' concluded the Minister, 'met the fate of one who leaves his proper party.'
'Still,' said the King, 'the Crow has come a long way, and we might see him, I think.'
'Admit the Parrot first, Sire,' said the Goose; 'the fort has been put in order and the spy despatched.'
"Thereupon a Court was called, and the Parrot introduced, followed by Night-cloud, the Crow. A seat was offered to the parrot, who took it, and, with his beak in the air, thus delivered his mission:—
'King Silver-sides!—My master, the King Jewel-plume, Lord of Lords, bids thee, if life and lands be dear to thee, to come and make homage at his august feet; and failing this to get thee gone from Camphor-island.'
'S'death!' exclaimed the Rajah, 'is there none that will silence this traitor?'
'Give the sign, your Majesty,' said the Crow, starting up, and I will despatch this audacious bird.'
'Sir,' said the Goose, 'be calm! and Sire, deign to listen—
'Tis no Council where no Sage is—'tis no Sage that fears not Law;
'Tis no Law which Truth confirms not—'tis no Truth which Fear can awe.'
An ambassador must speak unthreatened—
'Though base be the Herald, nor hinder nor let,
For the mouth of a king is he;
The sword may be whet, and the battle set,
But the word of his message is free.'
Thereat the Rajah and Night-cloud resumed their composure; and the Parrot took his departure, escorted by the Minister, and presented with complimentary gifts of gold and jewels. On reaching the palace of Jewel-plume, the King demanded his tidings, and inquired of the country he had visited.
'War must be prepared, may it please you,' said the Parrot: 'the country is a country of Paradise.'
'Prepare for war, then!' said the King.
'We must not enter on it in the face of destiny,' interposed the Vulture-Minister, whose title was 'Far-sight.'
'Let the Astrologer then discover a favorable conjuncture for the expedition, and let my forces be reviewed meantime,' said the King.
'We must not march without great circumspection,' observed Far-sight.
'Minister!' exclaimed the King, 'you chafe me. Say, however, with what force we should set out.'
'It should be well selected, rather than unwieldy,' replied the Vulture—
'Better few and chosen fighters than of shaven crowns a host,
For in headlong flight confounded, with the base the brave are lost.'
And its commanders must be judiciously appointed; for it is said—
'Ever absent, harsh, unjustly portioning the captured prey—
These, and cold or laggard leaders make a host to melt away.'
'Ah!' interrupted the Rajah, 'what need of so much talk? We will go, and, if Váchaspati please, we will conquer.'
Shortly afterwards the Spy returned to Camphor-island. 'King Silver-sides,' he cried, 'the Rajah, Jewel-plume, is on his way hither, and has reached the Ghauts. Let the fort be manned, for that Vulture is a great minister; and I have learned, too, that there is one among us who is in his pay.'
'King!' said the Goose, 'that must be the Crow.'
'But whence, then, did he show such willingness to punish the Parrot?' objected his Majesty. 'Besides, war was declared long after the Crow came to Court.'
'I misdoubt him,' said the Minister, 'because he is a stranger.'
'But strangers surely may be well-disposed,' replied the King. 'How say the books?—
'Kind is kin, howe'er a stranger—kin unkind is stranger shown;
Sores hurt, though the body breeds them—drugs relieve, though desert-grown.'
Have you never heard of King Sudraka and the unknown Servant, who gave his son's life for the King?
'Never,' answered the Goose.
The Story of the Faithful Rajpoot
"I will tell you the tale," said the King, "as I heard it from 'Lilyflower,' daughter of the Flamingo 'White-flag,' of whom I was once very fond:—A soldier presented himself one morning at King Sudraka's gate, and bade the porter procure an audience for 'Vira-vara, a Rajpoot,'[19] who sought employment. Being admitted to the presence, he thus addressed the King:—
'If your Highness needs an attendant, behold one!'
'What pay do you ask?' inquired the King.
'Five hundred pieces of gold a day,' said Vira-vara.
'And your accoutrements?' asked the King.
'Are these two arms, and this sabre, which serve for a third,' said Vira-vara, rolling up his sleeve.
'I cannot entertain you,' rejoined his Majesty; and thereupon the Rajpoot made salaam, and withdrew. Then said the Ministers, 'If it please your Majesty, the stipend is excessive, but give him pay for four days, and see wherein he may deserve it.' Accordingly, the Rajpoot was recalled, and received wages for four days, with the complimentary betel.—Ah! the rare betel! Truly say the wise of it—
'Betel-nut is bitter, hot, sweet, spicy, binding, alkaline—
A demulcent—an astringent—foe to evils intestine;
Giving to the breath a fragrance—to the lips a crimson red;
A detergent, and a kindler of Love's flame that lieth dead.
Praise the gods for the good Betel!—these be thirteen virtues given,
Hard to meet in one thing blended, even in their happy heaven.'
'Now the King narrowly watched the spending of Vira-vara's pay, and discovered that he bestowed half in the service of the Gods and the support of Brahmans, a fourth part in relieving the poor, and reserved a fourth for his sustenance and recreation. This daily division made, he would take his stand with his sabre at the gate of the palace; retiring only upon receiving the royal permission.
'It was on the fourteenth night of the dark half of the month that King Sudraka heard below a sound of passionate sobbing. 'Ho! there,' he cried, 'who waits at the gate?'
'I,' replied Vira-vara, 'may it please you.'
'Go and learn what means this weeping,' said the King.
'I go, your Majesty, answered the Rajpoot, and therewith departed.
'No sooner was he gone than the King repented him of sending one man alone into a night so dark that a bodkin might pierce a hole in it, and girding on his scimitar, he followed his guard beyond the city gates. When Vira-vara had gone thus far he encountered a beautiful and splendidly dressed lady who was weeping bitterly; and accosting her, he requested to know her name, and why she thus lamented.
'I am the Fortune of the King Sudraka,' answered she; 'a long while I have lived happily in the shadow of his arm; but on the third day he will die, and I must depart, and therefore lament I.'
'Can