Unrivalled benders of the bow,

Kept watch and ward unwearied still

To guard the saint from scathe and ill.

'Twas now the sixth returning day,

The hour foretold had past away.

Then Ráma cried: “O Lakshmaṇ, now

Firm, watchful, resolute be thou.

The fiends as yet have kept afar

From the pure grove in which we are:

Yet waits us, ere the day shall close,