In check gave them sure hopes of future peace
And future joy, and straightway they made him
Their king to guard their women and their homes,
While they their avocations of the soil
In peace pursued, and soon was raised a fort;
A stately palace too was reared within
By willing hands, and safe from dang'rous foes,
And far away from their dear native vale
Of Vijiapore they spent their peaceful days
In joy, beloved by all their loyal men.
But 'tis a saying often told in Ind,
_He hath a foe who hath a lovely wife._
Her very loveliness is reason deemed
To hate her lord, nay, murder him, and hence
Her husband's foe unconscious she becomes.
For Chandra's beauty all these evils wrought
Upon the youth, who for his country fought
So many battles, and the Moslem kept
In constant dread, and for his virtue's sake,
Though most beloved in his native land,
And dreaded most for valour by his foes,
He lived a stranger in a foreign land.
She, too, that maiden, 'twas her fate to share
Her husband's troubles for her beauty rare.
Still 'twas a little heav'n their new home where
The halcyon days of mutual love were spent.
'Tis sweet to love and sweeter to be loved;
And thus in their new home their life of joy
They spent in undisturbèd solitude;
But ah! this even was not long to be.