And when she had recovered consciousness, rising up she went and asked her attendants, what had become of her young lord. "We do not know, lady." "He thinks," she said, "I am dead, and must in his alarm have run away." And being distressed at the thought, she returned thence to her house, and said, "Not till I have set eyes on my dear lord, will I rest upon a sumptuous couch," and she lay down upon the ground. And from that day she neither put on comely garments, nor ate more than one meal, nor affected scents and wreaths and the like. And being resolved to seek and recover her lover by every possible means, she sent for some actors and gave them a thousand pieces of money. On their asking, "What are we to do for this, lady?" She said, "There is no place that you do not visit. Go then to every village, town and city, and gathering a crowd around you, first of all sing this song in the midst of the people,"--teaching the actors the first stanza,--"And if," said she, "when you have sung this song, my husband shall be one of the crowd, he will speak to you. [62] Then you may tell him I am quite well, and bring him back with you. And should he refuse to come, send me a message."

[paragraph continues] And giving them their expenses for the journey, she sent them off. They started from Benares, and calling the people together here and there, at last arrived at a border-village. Now the robber, since his flight, was living here. And the actors gathered a crowd about them, and sang the first stanza:--

'Twas the joyous time of spring,
Bright with flowers each shrub and tree,
From her swoon awakening
Sama lives, and lives for thee.

The robber on hearing this drew nigh to the actor, and said, "You say that Sama is alive, but I do not believe it." And addressing him he repeated the second stanza:

Can fierce winds a mountain shake?
Can they make firm earth to quake?
But alive the dead to see
Marvel stranger far would be!

[63] The actor on hearing these words uttered the third stanza:

Sama surely is not dead,
Nor another lord would wed.
Fasting from all meals but one,
She loves thee and thee alone.

The robber on hearing this said, "Whether she be alive or dead, I don't want her," and with these words he repeated the fourth stanza:

Sama's fancy ever roves
From tried faith to lighter loves:
Me too Sama would betray,
Were I not to flee away.

The actors came and told Sama how he had dealt with them. And she, full of regrets, took once more to her old course of life.