Page:Tales from the Indian Epics.djvu/70

64 interview of you. What answer shall I give them?" But the king, possessed by Kali, answered never a word. Then Damayanti, ashamed again to see the ministers, went to her own room and there sent for her charioteer Varshanaya. When he had come she said, "O Varshanaya, the king has always treated you with kindness and honour. Now do you in return shew kindness to me. Harness a chariot and a team of swift horses, and take my son Indrasena and my daughter Indrasena to the palace of my father Bhima, King of Vidarbha. For King Nala has lost his reason, and his gaming will surely bring ruin on himself and all his house." Varshanaya obeyed the queen's commands and bore away the young prince and princess to their grandfather's palace. But day after day Nala lost stake after stake to his brother Pushkara. At last Nala, who had lost all the wealth of his treasury, staked first his army and then his kingdom and lost them both. Then Pushkara said with a sneer, "My lord king, you have but one possession left to dice with. Stake Queen Damayanti and perhaps you may yet win back what you have lost to me." But King Nala would not stake the lovely queen, who for his sake had slighted the Immortals. Rising from his seat he took off his rich robes and flung them at Pushkara's feet. Then with only a single piece of cloth to cover him he walked out of the city. Damayanti saw what he did from the palace window. She too cast aside her royal robes and, clad only in a single piece of cloth, she walked out of the palace gates and followed the king. Pushkara, fearing that the subjects would take Nala's part and restore him to his lost throne, proclaimed that he would put to death anyone, no matter what his rank, who showed any pity to the fallen king. The subjects,