विक्रम चरित (उज्जैन सम्राट् विक्रमादित्य - पराक्रम, न्याय एवं ३२ पुतलियों की कथा सटीक)

91 which I am far from thinking it can be. The public credit, however, will be lost, whatever semblance of it may be preserved in the presence of power and authority.' The king was in a good humour, and she took advantage of it. He smiled at her freedom of speech, and in the most complacent manner replied, 'Do not be vexed; compose yourself and go home. I will positively be with you this night.' The actress retired, and as evening drew on, the king again, after the labours of the day, bent his steps towards the actress' house. On his way his mind was occupied with nothing but the pleasurable moments he should enjoy with the handsome creature he was about to visit, whom he never for a moment suspected to be his mother. As he was thus wending his way, regardless of all external objects, he trod accidentally on the tail of a calf that was lying in his way, who, on being hurt, set up a roaring noise. The mother, who was hard by, was alarmed at the cry, and said fiercely, in articulate sounds, 'Silence, my child! the hurt you have now received proceeds from the indifference produced by the intoxicating passion of lust. The king, with blind fatality, and overcome by an inhuman passion, is thus rushing on his own destruction: he is now going to meet his own mother, with unworthy and criminal intentions! Is it to be wondered at, then, that he should in this mad adventure be regardless of those he may injure in his wild precipitancy?' The king trembled like an aspen on hearing these words proceed from a dumb animal. He pondered long on their import. 'During the last two days,' thought he 'I found the bird Pingla obstruct- ing my way with its discordant chirpings, and to-day has happened what is in itself a miracle—a dumb animal speaking! Surely there must be some mystery involved in all this!' He for a moment suspended, by an herculean effort, all the workings of his passionate heart, and was gradually led into thinking in the light of a mother of the woman he was going to meet, as the cow had in a most convincing manner pronounced her to be. He was deter-