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

104 go to, without the means of supplying herself and the infant with nourishment, and, more than all, without any apparent means of regaining her dominions and avenging the injury offered to her, she was indeed wretched in the extreme. Still, onward she went, remedying as much as in her lay these great evils, though, indeed, such remedies cannot be said to have by any means brought her the slightest relief. For a time she subsisted by parting one by one with the ornaments and jewels she had on when she fled from the palace : when these were all gone, alas ! her condition was miserable indeed. How many a day did, this fond mother deprive herself of food, that a sufficiency might be afforded her child ! But this could not last long ; nature would not permit it. Without food she must sink. She was in the very last stage of weakness : a feather's weight might have sealed her fate. The cravings of hunger she tried to appease by partaking of the wild fruits of the forest, and this but added to her sufferings. In this state, between hope (faint though it was) and despair, she thought of a brother she had, also a king, who was immensely rich and very power- ful. This idea, as it crossed her mind, cheered the dreari- ness with which she was enveloped, and raised her sinking heart. Towards him, therefore, she turned her steps. He was reigning in a city far from where she then was ; and the condition in which she arrived there may therefore be better conceived than described. No sooner did she present herself before the king her brother than he was struck dumb with the woeful picture of want and misery his sister presented. He received her with open arms, and soothed her grief with many words of consolation and the promise of seeing her righted, if possible. After hearing her rela- tion of all the sufferings she had undergone, and the cruel usage she had endured from the invader of her husband's dominions, he addressed her thus : ' Let me entreat you, dear sister, great as are the wrongs which have been heaped upon you, not to give way. Be assured that the Almighty never wills a thing without a good design. Though the