After fierce fighting, with considerable loss on both sides, Rama and Lakshman are dangerously wounded by Indrajit, a son of Ravana; but on some wonderful herbs being applied to them by Garuda, the marvellous bird of Vishnu, they are restored. A second time they

fall, and are again restored by herbs which Hanuman fetched in an incredibly short space of time from the Himalayas. At last Rama and Ravana meet face to face. Rama's destructive arrows seem at first to have met with a foe as wonderful as themselves:

"Straight to its mark the arrow sprang,
And from the giant's body shred,
With trenchant steel, the monstrous head.
There might the triple world behold
The severed head adorned with gold.
But when all eyes were bent to view,
Swift in its stead another grew." [**]

Acting on the advice of Matali, Rama, tired of this fruitless toil, launched an arrow " whose fire was kindled by the Almighty Sire," which pierced the giant's heart and laid him dead at his feet. Hanuman is despatched to assure Sita of the death of her captor, and in a few hours she is carefully sent in a litter by Vibhishan, the brother and successor of Ravana. This litter Rama causes to be opened, that the monkeys may see his wife's face, as he says--

"A woman's guard is not her bower,
The lofty wall, the fenced tower:
Her conduct is her best defence,
And not a king's magnificence." [*+]

This speech struck terror in the hearts of all around, and Sita especially is almost heartbroken as, instead of the warm and loving welcome she had anticipated, he coolly tells her--

"Lady, at length my task is done,
And thou, the prize of war, art won.
* * * *

"If from my home my queen was reft,
This arm hath well avenged the theft;
And in the field has wiped away
The blot that on my honour lay.
* * * *
"But, lady, 'twas not love for thee
That led mine army o'er the sea.
* * * *
"I battled to avenge the cause
Of honour and insulted laws.
My love is fled, for on thy fame
Lies the dark blot of sin and shame;
And thou art hateful as the light
That flashes on the injured sight.
The world is all before thee: flee:
Go where thou wilt, but not with me.
* * * *
"For Ravan bore thee through the sky,
And fixed on thine his evil eye;
About thy waist his arms he threw,
Close to his breast his captive drew;
And kept thee, vassal of his power,
An inmate of his ladies' bower." [**]