And 'twas with impatience they waited
the next opportunity of going to the otan.
The wars came on, the time of taking the field approached; and 'twas
impossible for the prince to delay his going at the head of his army
to encounter the enemy; so that every day seemed a tedious year,
till he saw his Imoinda: for he believed he could not live if he
were forced away without being so happy. 'Twas with impatience,
therefore, that he expected the next visit the king would make; and
according to his wish it was not long.
The parley of the eyes of these two lovers had not passed so
secretly but an old jealous lover could spy it; or rather, he wanted
not flatterers who told him they observed it: so that the prince was
hastened to the camp, and this was the last visit he found he should
make to the otan; he therefore urged Aboan to make the best of this
last effort, and to explain himself so to Onahal that she, deferring
her enjoyment of her young lover no longer, might make way for the
prince to speak to Imoinda.
The whole affair being agreed on between the prince and Aboan,
they attended the king, as the custom was, to the otan; where, while
the whole company was taken up in beholding the dancing, and antic
postures the woman-royal made, to divert the kind, Onahal singled
out Aboan, whom she found most pliable to her wish. When she had him
where she believed she could not be heard, she sighed to him, and
softly cried, "Ah, Aboan! when will you be sensible of my passion? I
confess it with my mouth, because I would not give my eyes the lie;
and you have but too much already perceived they have confessed my
flame: nor would I have you believe that, because I am the abandoned
mistress of a king, I esteem myself altogether divested of charms.
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