S. I am serious and I will do it. I swore an oath, and Issara will help me to keep it. Now go to the captain of the guards and do as I bid you.
Exit. The Minister alone.
V. Oh! What a chance for me! Siddhattha will flee, if he be not prevented; he will be disinherited. Rahula is a babe, and it will take twenty years before he grows up to manhood.—[He muses.] I may proceed on different lines, and one of them must certainly lead to success. I may marry the Princess and become the stepfather of the heir apparent, his guardian, the man who has him in his power—Hm! Hm! I need not plan too far ahead. And if that plan did not work, the King of Magadha would make me raja of the Sakyas, if I would recognize him as my liege.
The full moon rises and the scene becomes gradually brighter. Visakha knocks at the gate.
Who is on guard?
Officer comes out.
D. I am, my Lord, 'tis Captain Devala.
V. 'Tis well. King Suddhodana requests you to double your guard to-night, for he has reasons. Further he wants you to remove the corpse of Udayin, the gardener who died to-day of an infectious disease. Be on your guard, for where a dead body lies there are ghosts—and [in a half whisper] when you see demons or gods, keep yourselves, you and your men, locked up in the guard house, and the spook will pass without harm.
D. Your order shall be punctiliously obeyed.
Pays his military salute and returns to the guard house.