Page:The Katha Sarit Sagara.djvu/88

 horse of his died before, and whence his wife was carried off. And there he saw near* him a hunter coming towards him, and when lie saw him he asked him for news of that gazelle-eyed lady. Then the hunter asked him "Are you Śridatta?" and he sighing replied "I am that unfortunate man." Then that hunter said, "Listen, friend, I have somewhat to tell you. I saw that wife of yours wandering hither and thither lamenting your absence, and having asked her her story, and consoled her, moved with compassion I took her out of this wood to my own village. But when I saw the young Pulindas † there, I was afraid, and I took her to a village named Nágasthala near Mathurá. And then I placed her in the house of an old Bráhman named 'Viśvadatta commending her with all due respect to his care. And thence I came here having learnt your name from her lips. Therefore you had better go quickly to Nágasthala to search for her." When the hunter had told him this, Śrídatta quickly set out, and he reached Nágasthala in the evening of the second day. Then he entered the house of Viśvadatta and when he saw him said, " Give me my wife who was placed here by the hunter." Viśvadatta when he heard that, answered him, "I have a friend in Mathurá a Bráhman, dear to all virtuous men, the spiritual preceptor and minister of the king Śúrasena. In his care I placed your wife. For this village is an out-of-the-way place and would not afford her protection. So go to that city to-morrow morning, but to-day rest here." When Viśvadatta said this, he spent that night there, and the next morning he set off, and reached Mathurá on the second day. Being weary and dusty with the long journey, he bathed outside that city in the pellucid water of a lake. And he drew out of the middle of the lake a garment placed there by some robbers, not suspecting any harm. But in one corner of the garment, which was knotted up, a necklace was concealed. ‡ Then Śrídatta took that garment, and in his eagerness to meet his wife did not notice the necklace, and so entered the city of Mathurá. Then the city police recognized the garment, and finding the necklace, arrested Śrídatta as a thief, and carried him off, and brought him before the chief magistrate exactly as he was found, with the garment in his possession; by him he was handed up to the king, and the king ordered him to be put to death.

Then, as he was being led off to the place of execution with the drum being beaten behind him,§ his wife Mrigánkavati saw him in the distance. She went in a state of the utmost distraction and said to the chief minister, in whose house she was residing, "Yonder is my husband being led off