Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/286

 And when he had entered, he beheld another splendid city, which seemed like a garden where nil the enjoyments of the world had agreed to meet. In it Sattvaśila saw that maiden sitting on a couch studded with gems, and he went up to her, and sat down by her side. And he remained with his eyes fixed on her face, like a man in a painting, expressing his passion by his trembling limbs, the hairs on which stood erect. And when she saw that he was enamoured of her, she looked at the faces of her attendants, and then they, understanding the expression of her face, said to him, " You have arrived here as a guest, so enjoy the hospitality provided by our mistress, rise up, bathe, and then take food." When he heard that, he entertained some hope, and he rose up, though not without a struggle, and he went to a tank in the garden which they shewed him. And the moment that he plunged into it, he rose up, to his astonishment, in the middle of a tank in the garden of king Chandasinha in Támraliptí.* And seeing himself suddenly arrived there, he said to himself, " Alas ! what is the meaning of this? Now I am in this garden, and a moment ago I was in that splendid city; I have exchanged in an instant the nectarous vision of that fair one for the grievous poison of separation from her. But it was not a dream, for I saw it all clearly in a waking state. It is clear that I was beguiled like a fool by those maidens of Pátála." Thus reflecting, he wandered about in that garden like a madman, being deprived of that maiden, and wept in the anguish of disappointed passion. And the gardeners, when they beheld him in that state, with body covered with the yellow pollen of flowers wafted by the wind, as if with the fires of separation, went and told king Chandasinha, and he, being bewildered, came himself and saw him ; and after calming him, he said to him, " Tell me, my friend; what is the meaning of all this? You set out for one place and reached another, your arrows have not struck the mark at which they were aimed." When Sattvaśila heard that, he told the king all his adventures, and he, when he heard them, said to himself, " Strange to say, though this man is a hero, he has, happily for me,† been beguiled by love, and I now have it in my power to discharge my debt of gratitude to him." So the brave king said to him, " Abandon now your needless grief, for I will conduct you by the same course into the presence of that beloved Asura maiden." With these words the king comforted him, and refreshed him with a bath and other restoratives.

The next day the king entrusted the kingdom to his ministers, and embarking on a ship, set out on the sea with Sattvaśila, who shewed him