हम्मीर महाकाव्यम् (रणथम्भौर चौहान वीरगाथा एवं इतिहास)

31 Dharmasingh was also superseded in the command of the army by Bhoja Deva, a natural brother of the Rája, and a sentence of banishment was passed upon him, but, at Bhoja's intercession, it was not carried out. Dharmasingh, thus mutilated and disgraced, was bitterly mortified at the treatment he had received at the king's hands, and resolved to be avenged. In pursuance of his determination, he contracted an intimate friendship with one Râdhâ Dévî, a courtesan, who was a great favourite at court. Râdhâ Dévî kept her blind friend well acquainted every day as to what was passing at court. One day it so happened that Râdhâ Dévî returned home quite cross and dejected, and when her blind friend asked her the cause of her low spirits, she answered that the king had lost that day many horses of the celha disease, and consequently paid little attention to her dancing and singing, and that this state of things, in all probability, was likely to continue long. The blind man bade her be of good cheer, as he would see ere long that all was right again. She was only to take the opportunity of insinuating to the king that Dhar- masingh, if restored to his former post, would present the king with twice the number of horses that had lately died. Râ- dhâ Dévî played her part well, and the king, yielding to avarice, restored Dharmasingh to his former post. Dharmasingh thus restored, only thought of revenge. He pandered to the king's avarice, and by his oppression and exactions reduced the rayats to a miserable condition and made them detest their monarch. He spared no one from whom anything could be got—horses, money, anything worth having. The king, whose treasury he thus replenished, was much pleased with his blind minister, who, flushed with success, now called on Bhoja to render an account of his department. Bhoja knew the blind man grudged him his office, and going to the king he in- formed him of all Dharmasingh's schemes, and applied