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SCENE VI
Outside Bappa’s cot.
Comol Cumary alone.
COMOL CUMARY
Have I too dangerously ventured my all
Daring a blast so rude ? The Scythian roar
Appals no more the forest, nor the war-cry
Of Ichalgurh climbs mightily the hills;
The outlaws’ fierce triumphant shout is
stilled
Of their young war-god’s name. Who has won ? who fallen ?
Enter Bappa.
COMOL
CUMARY
(coming eagerly to him)
How went the fight ? You’re safe! And
Ichalgurh ?
BAPPA
Give me your hands; I’ll tell you.
COMOL
CUMARY
I see your head’s
Not in the basket.
He takes her hands and draws her
towards him.
Cateran, I forbade you
To touch me till the seventh day.
BAPPA
I touch
What is my own. To bid or to forbid
Is mine upon this hill-side where I’m sovereign.
Sit down by me.
COMOL
CUMARY
I will not be commanded.
She sits down at his feet.
Page – 802
BAPPA
Oh, you are right, love. At my feet’s more
fitting
Who am your master and monarch. Come, no rising.
Stay there, where I can watch your antelope eyes
Look up at me bright with all love’s own sunshine.
COMOL CUMARY
Oh, you provoke me. You’ve not met the
Chouhan,
Or you’ld have been much chastened.
BAPPA
I have met him.
COMOL
CUMARY
Great Ichalgurh ?
BAPPA
We soon o’ercame the Scythians.
Your lover, Comol, the great Toraman,
Was borne, a mass of terror-stricken flesh,
By faithful fugitives headlong down the hill-side.
COMOL
CUMARY
You need not triumph. These were only
Scythians.
But what of Ichalgurh ?
BAPPA
We fought. I conquered.
COMOL
CUMARY
Thou? thou? It is impossible.
BAPPA
But done.
COMOL
CUMARY
Why, you’re a boy, a child! O my bright
lion,
You are a splendid and a royal beast,
But very youthful. This was the maned monarch
Whose roar shook all the forest when he leaped
Page – 803
Upon his opposite. Then the great tusker
Went down beneath his huge and tawny front
As if it were an antelope. Him you’ve conquered ?
BAPPA
He fell and yielded.
COMOL CUMARY
You have learned romance
From the wild hill-tops and the stars at night
And take your visions for the fact.
BAPPA
Arch-infidel!
Ask Sungram.
COMOL
CUMARY
Then I understand. You won
As in your duel with me, quite unfairly.
You used your sleight of hand ?
BAPPA
Perhaps, my princess,
His foot slipped and he fell; ’twas my good fortune,
Not I that conquered him.
COMOL
CUMARY
Indeed it was
Your high resistless fortune. O my king,
My hero, thou hast o’erborne great Ichalgurh;
Then who can stand against thee ? Thou shalt conquer
More than my heart.
(Bappa takes her into his arms)
What dost thou, Bheel? Forbear!
I did but jest.
BAPPA
Do you recall your letter,
Page – 804
Comol ? I have outdone the Chouhan, girl.
COMOL CUMARY
Bheel, I wrote nothing, nothing.
BAPPA
I’ll keep you now
For my sweet slave-girl, princess ? You will not
Deny me ?
COMOL
CUMARY
‘Twas not my hand. Your Coomood forged it.
I’ll not admit it.
BAPPA
Rebel against your heart!
You’re trapped in your own springs. My antelope!
I’ve brought you to my lair; shall I not prey on you ?
Kiss me.
COMOL
CUMARY
I will not.
(Kisses him)
O not now! O give me
The memory of this May to keep with me
Till death and afterwards, a dream of greenness
With visions of the white and vermeil spring,
A prelude set to winds and waterfalls
Among the mountains of immortal Dongurh
Far from the earth, in a delightful freedom
Treading the hilltops, all the joy of life
In front of me to dream of its perfection,
Bappa.
BAPPA
When you entreat, who shall refuse you,
O lips of honey ?
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COMOL CUMARY
Till the seventh morning,
Bappa.
BAPPA
Only and, till then.
COMOL
CUMARY
That is a promise.
(escaping from him)
Which, having won, I do deny, unsay,
Wholly recant and absolutely abjure
Whatever flattery I have said or done
To win it. You are still my Bheel and Brigand,
My lawless cateran; I great Edur’s princess.
I love you! Do not dream of it. Six days!
By then my father’ll smoke you from your lair
And take me from your dreadful claws, my lion,
An antelope undevoured.
BAPPA
Have you yet thought
Of the dire punishments you’ll taste for this,
Deceiver ?
COMOL
CUMARY
Not till the seventh morning, lion.
Exit.
BAPPA
Till then, my antelope, range my hills and make them
An Eden for me with thy wondrous beauty
Moving in grace and freedom of the winds,
Sweetness of the green woodlands; for of these
Thou seem’st a part and they thy natural country.
Exit.
Curtain
Page – 806
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