LAST MOMENTS

Since the King had so often fainted and recovered, his death was not immediately noticed by Kausalya or Sumitra. They were

weary, too, with grief and watching, and fell into a sleep of fatigue in a comer of the apartment. At dawn, the musicians and singers, whose duty it was to rouse the King from slumber, came to his bedchamber and played on instruments and sang the usual hymns.

But they saw no sign of the King waking. The royal servants who attended to the King's morning needs waited long and wondered why he slept till so late. Then they made bold to enter the apartment and saw him lying dead.

Soon the news spread and filled the palace with grief. The widows of the great Dasaratha cried like orphaned children, embracing one another in unavailing lamentation.

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