SCENE III

 

 

Bappa's cot on the hillside.
Bappa, the Captain, Coomood, decorating the cot with flowers.

BAPPA

Where was she when you had the script from her?

CAPTAIN

Singing of battle on the rocks alone

With wrestling winds in her wild hair and raiment,

A joyous Oread.

BAPPA

Said she anything?

CAPTAIN

She gave it me with glad and smiling eyes

And laughed: "This for my noble Bheel, my sovereign

Of caterans, my royal beast of prey,

These to their mighty owners."

COOMOOD CUMARY

Will you read it?

BAPPA (reads)

"Cateran, I have given thy captain letters which when thou hast read them, fail not to despatch. I have sent for teachers for thee to beat thee into modesty and lesson thee in better behaviour to a lady and princess —"
What letters has she given thee, captain? These?

CAPTAIN

To Pratap, Rao of Ichalgurh; —and one
To Toraman the Scythian.

BAPPA

Deliver them.

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Thou'lt find at Dongurh both these warlike princes.
No, I'll not read them.

Exit Captain.

COOMOOD CUMARY

Let me hear the rest.

BAPPA

"Cateran, I will show thee the sum of thy bold and flagitious offences, though I dare not to hope that it will make thee ashamed. Thou hast laid injurious hands on a royal maiden, being thyself a mere Bheel and outlaw and of no parentage; thou hast carried me most violently to this thy inconsiderable and incommodious hut, treating the body of a princess as if it were a sack of potatoes; thou hast unmercifully and feloniously stripped my body with thy own rude Bheel hands of more ornaments than thou hast seen in thy lifetime and didst hurt me most cruelly in the deed, though thou vainly deniest it; thou hast compelled and dost yet compel me, the princess of Edur, by the infamous lack of women-servants in thy hut, to minister to thee, a common Bheel, menially with my own royal hands, so that my fingers are sore with scrubbing thy rusty sword which thou hast never used yet on anything braver than a hill-jackal, and my face is still red with leaning over the fire cooking thy most unroyal meals for thee; and to top these crimes, thou hast in thy robustious robber fashion taken a kiss from my lips without troubling thyself to ask for it, and thou yet keepest it with thee. All which are high misdoings and mortal offences; yet would I have pardoned them knowing thee to be no more than a boy and a savage. But now thou darest to tell me that I, a Rajpoot maiden, am in love with thee, a Bheel, and that even if I deny it, thou carest not; for I am thine already whether I will or no, thy captive and thy slave-girl. This is not to be borne. So I have written to my noble suitors of Ichalgurh and Scythia to avenge me upon thy Bheel body; I doubt not, they will soon carry thy head to Edur in a basket, if thou hast the manners to permit them. Yet since thy followers call thee Smiter of the Forest and

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Lion of the Hills, let me see thee smite more than jackals and rend braver than flesh of mountain-deer. Cateran, when thou trundlest the Scythian down-hill like a ball, thou mayst marry me in spite of thy misdeeds, if thou darest; and when thou showest
thyself a better man than the Chouhan of Ichalgurh, which is impossible, thou mayst even keep me for thy slave-girl and I will not deny thee. Meanwhile, thou shalt give me a respite till the seventh morn of the May. Till then presume not to touch me. Thy captive, Comol Cumary."
Why, here's a warlike and most hectoring letter,
Coomood.

COOMOOD CUMARY

She pours her happy heart out so
In fantasies; I never knew her half so wayward.
The more her soul is snared between your hands,
The more her lips will chide you.

BAPPA

Can you tell
Why she has set these doughty warriors on me,
Coomood?

COOMOOD CUMARY

You cannot read a woman's mind.
It's to herself a maze inextricable
Of vagrant impulses with half-guessed tangles
Of feeling her own secret thoughts are blind to.

BAPPA

But yet?

COOMOOD CUMARY

Her sudden eager headstrong passion
Would justify its own extravagance
By proving you unparalleled. Therefore she picks
Earth's brace of warriors out for your opponents.

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BAPPA

Pratap the Chouhan, Rao of lchalgurh!
To meet him merely were a lifetime's boast;

But to cross swords with him! Oh, she has looked
Into my heart.

COOMOOD CUMARY  

You'll give her seven days ?

BAPPA

Not hours, — the dainty rebel! Great Ichalgurh
Will wing here like an eagle; soon I'll meet him
And overthrow, who feel a giant's strength,
Coomood, since yesterday. My fate mounts sunward.

COOMOOD CUMARY

Ours, Bappa, has already arrived. Our sun
Rose yesterday upon the way to Dongurh.

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