Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/339

 the same way the resolute-minded monarch rejected the petition of his citizens, and of the country-people, who assembled, and entreated him to the same effect. Accordingly, the king's body was gradually consumed by the fire of the grievous fever of love, and only his name and fame remained.* But the commander-in-chief could not bear the thought that the king's death had been brought about in this way, so he entered the fire ; for the actions of devoted followers are inexplicable.†

When the Vetála, sitting on the shoulder of king Trivikramasena, had told this wonderful tale, he again said to him, " So tell me, king, which of these two was superior in loyalty, the general or the king; and remember, the previous condition still holds." When the Vetála said this, the king broke silence, and answered him, " Of these two the king was superior in loyalty." When the Vetála heard this, he said to him reproachfully, " Tell me, king, how can you make out that the general was not his superior? For, though he knew the charm of his wife's society by long familiarity, he offered such a fascinating woman to the king out of love for him; and when the king was dead, he burnt himself ; but the king refused the offer of his wife without knowing anything about her."

When the Vetála said this to the king, the latter laughed, and said, " Admitting the truth of this, what is there astonishing in the fact, that the commander-in-chief, a man of good family, acted thus for his master's sake, out of regard for him? For servants are bound to preserve their masters even by the sacrifice of their lives. But kings are inflated with arrogance, uncontrollable as elephants, and when bent on enjoyment, they snap asunder the chain of the moral law. For their minds are overweening, and all discernment is washed out of them, when the waters of inauguration are poured over them, and is, as it were, swept away by the flood. And the breeze of the waving chowries fans away the atoms of the sense of scripture taught them by old men, as it fans away flies and mosquitoes. And the royal umbrella keeps off from them the rays of truth, as well as the rays of the sun; and their eyes, smitten by the gale of prosperity, do not see the right path. And so even kings, that have conquered the world like Nahusha and others, have had their minds bewildered by Mára, and have been brought into calamity. But this king, though his umbrella was paramount in the earth, was not fascinated by Unmádiní, fickle as the goddess of Fortune; indeed, sooner than set his foot on the wrong path, ha renounced life altogether; therefore him I consider the more self-controlled of the two."