Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/437

 When the girl had said this in our hearing and before our eyes, she made a noose by fastening her upper garment to a peg, and put it round her neck. And my friend said to me, " Go and shew yourself to her, and take the noose from her neck; so I immediately went towards her. And I said to her with a voice faltering from excess of joy, " Do not act rashly, my beloved; see, here is your slave in front of you, bought by you with the risk of your life, in whom affection has been produced by your utterance in the moment of your grief;" and with these words I removed the noose from the neck of that fair one. She immediately looked at me, and remained for a moment divided between joy and terror, and then my friend said quickly to me, " As this is a dimly lighted hour owing to the waning of the day, I will go out dressed in Madirávatí's garments with her attendants. And do you go out by the second door, taking with you this bride wrapped up in our upper garments. And make for whatever foreign country you please, during the night, when you will be able to avoid detection. And do not be anxious about me. Fate will bestow on me prosperity." When my friend had said this, he put on Madirávatí's dress, and went out, and left that temple in the darkness, surrounded by her attendants.

And I slipped out by another door with Madirávatí, who wore a necklace of priceless jewels, and went three yojanas in the night. In the morning I took food, and slowly travelling on, I reached in the course of some days, with my beloved, a city named Achalapura. There a certain Bráhman shewed himself my friend, and gave me a house, and there I quickly married Madirávatí.

So I have been living there in happiness, having obtained my desire, and my only anxiety has been as to what could have become of my friend. And in course of time I came here to bathe in the Ganges, on this day which is the festival of the summer solstice, and lo ! I found here this man who without cause shewed himself my friend. And full of embarrassment I folded him in along embrace, and at last made him sit down and asked him to tell me his adventures, and at that moment your Highness came up. Know, son of the king of Vatsa, that this other Bráhman at my side is my true friend in calamity, to whom I owe my life and my wife.

When one Bráhman had told his story in these words, Naraváhanadatta said to the other Bráhman, " I am much pleased; now tell me, how did you escape from so great a danger? For men like yourself, who disregard their lives for the sake of their friends, are hard to find." When the second Bráhman heard this speech of the sou of the king of Vatsa, he also began to tell his adventures.