Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/451

 full of troops of elephants, adorned with lines of horses, and looked like a pavilion for the Fortune of empire to rest in, when wearied with her wanderings. Wherever a man horn to prosperity may he, felicities eagerly approach him, as women do their beloved one. This accounts for the fact that the king, being an admirer of excellence, gave Naraváhanadatta his own daughter, named Bhagírathayaśas. And the prince lived happily there with her in great luxury, as if with Good Fortune created by the Disposer in flesh and blood for his delectation. One evening, when the lover of the night had arisen, raining joy into the eyes of men, looking like the full-orbed face* of the nymph of the eastern quarter, or rather the countenance of Bhagirathayaśas charming as nectar, reflected in the pure mirror of the cloudless heaven, he drank wine with that fair one at her request on the top of a palace silvered over with the elixir of moonlight. He quaffed the liquor which was adorned with the reflection of his beloved's face, and so gave pleasure to his eyes as well as to his palate. And then he considered the moon as far inferior in beauty to his charmer's face, for it wanted the intoxicating † play of the eyes and eyebrows. And after his drinking-bout was over he went inside the house, and retired to his couch with Bhagirathayaśas.

Then Naraváhanadatta awoke from sleep, while his beloved was still sleeping, and suddenly calling to mind his home, exclaimed, "Through love for Bhagirathayaśas I have, so to speak, forgotten my other wives; how can that have happened? But in this too Fate is allpowerful. Far away too are my ministers. Of them Marubhúti takes pleasure in nought but feats of prowess, and Hariśikha is exclusively devoted to policy; of those two I do not now feel the need, but it grieves me that the dexterous Gomukha, who has been my friend in all emergencies, is far away from me." While he was thus lamenting, he suddenly heard the words " Ah ! how sad !" uttered in a low soft tone, like that of a woman, and they at once banished sleep. When he heard them, he got up, and lighted a candle, and looked about, and he saw in the window a lovely female face. It seemed as if the Disposer had determined out of playfulness to show him a second but spotless moon not in the sky, as he had that night seen the spot-beflecked moon of heaven. And not being able to discern the rest of her body, but eager to behold it, his eyes being attracted by her beauty, he