"Yes, Your Majesty! He arrived here last night. We have put him up in our guest house. We told him that he could meet you this morning. But, this morning, he suddenly became ill. So, we can get him to the palace only tomorrow" said the Minister.
"What if he is not well? He can come here, convey the message, go back to the guest house and take rest!" said the King, showing his displeasure.
"He is suffering from severe dysentery, Your Majesty" said the Minister, with embarrassment.
The emissary could not come to meet the King the next day, either. The Minister informed the King that the palace physician was treating the emissary, but that the emissary was still not cured.
"In that case, you may meet him and get the message from him" the King told the Minister.
"I tried to do so, Your Majesty. But, the emissary told me that the King of Maragatha had strictly instructed him that he should personally communicate the message to Your Majesty" replied the Minister.
"In that case, I will visit him at the guest house this evening and hear the message from him."
"Your Majesty! It may not be appropriate for you to go to the place where the emissary is staying and see him."
"There is a dispute between us and Maragatha country about the ownership of the Cardomom island. I am curious to know what message the king of Maragatha had sent to us through the emissary. I am impatient of waiting for the emissary to recover from his illness and come to meet me."
"How is your health, Emissary?" asked the King.
Meganathan, the emissary, who was lying on a cot, was momentarily startled by the King's voice and made a strong effort to get up.
"Don't strain yourself. You can convey the message to me, lying on the cot" said King Subhakeerthi, in a commanding tone.
"Your Majesty! How can I be llying down, when you are standing?"
The King sat on a seat near the bed and told Meghanathan, "Now, convey the the message to me!"
Meghanathan said something, but his voice being feeble, the King could not hear him clearly. The King bent down, kept his ear near Meghanathan's lips and listened to him.
After listening to the message conveyed by Meghanathan, the King became livid with anger. In an impulse, he almost drew out his sword to strike Meghanathan, but restrained himself and got up from the seat.
Observing the King's reaction, the Minister, who was standing nearby asked him, "What was the message conveyed by him, Your Majesty?"
"The King of Maragatha asserts that the Cardomom Island belongs to his country and demands that we immediately withdraw our troops stationed there. If we don't, he will send his warships there and decimate our troops stationed in the island! This was the message conveyed by this sick man, lying on the cot! If he had conveyed this message to me in my court, it would have caused me immense disgrace. In such a situation, I don't know what I would have done to him. Driven by an impulse, I could have even beheaded him, violating the tradition of not harming an emissary. Whether the emissary recovers from his illness or not, ensure that by the end of tomorrow, he is taken away from here and left at some place outside the border of our country."
The king left the place in anger, after instructing the minister.
When the minister looked at Loganathan's face, he discerned a faint smile at the corners of his lips.
Section 2
The Ambassadorial Mission
kadan aRindhu kAlam karudhi idan aRindhu
eNNi uraippAn thalai.
Verse 686
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