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60 Great was his joy at what he considered to be the inspiration of Saraswati, and with a bold heart he made his appearance in court, thus addressing the king, "O blessed of the goddess Saraswati, I have a sloka for your hearing, and I crave permission to repeat it." Permission being granted, the two lines were repeated. The whole court burst into laughter, even the gravest there failing to maintain his gravity. But the king, with greater control over his feelings, soon put a check to this risibility, and with seeming approval dismissed the Brahmin with a handsome sum of money, not as a reward for his poetic genius, but as a gift in consideration of his poverty.

Inflated with pride at his achievement, the Brahmin went home, and finding his wife waiting for him in anxious expedition, lavished a thousand caresses on her as his good angel. They then passed the day in conversation as to the best way in which the money in their hands should be utilized, and the next morning the Brahmin went to the bazaar and returned with the necessary articles of consumption.

A few days after the Brahmin's visit to the king, affairs in the court took a very unpleasant turn. The heir-apparent, in conjunction with his friends, formed a plan to kill the king. None of the conspirators, however, could call up sufficient courage to do the monstrous act openly. Some suggested that the king should be quietly assassinated at night when passing into the zenana, others that he should be removed by poison. But neither of these plans was deemed sufficiently practical, for on his way into the inner apartments the king had always a guard with him, while the food that he took was always tested beforehand by a chemical examiner. At length it was proposed by the prince that the family barber should be bribed to commit the murder while shaving his Majesty; for in that case the act would be considered an accident, and no suspicion would fall on any one.

Next day the barber was called in, and after a good deal of