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

160 begged to be allowed an interview. The attendant reported the matter to the king, who was pleased to grant the request of the poor fisherman. The attendant led the way into an inner apartment, and he followed. Being come before the king, the fisherman respectfully saluted his majesty, who asked him what he had brought. 'May it please your majesty,' said the wily fisherman, 'I am an inhabitant of this city, where, by severe losses and misfortunes, I have been reduced to the greatest straits. I have been compelled to part with every valuable article that was bequeathed to me by my ancestors, to provide food for myself and family. This diamond (at the same time presenting the plate to his majesty) is all I have now left. I thought it best to show it to your majesty before I offered it for sale elsewhere.' The diamond was one of a rare kind and of great size: it shone like a bright meteor, dazzling all who beheld it. The king was himself no less surprised than the rest. After admiring it for awhile, he took it in his hand, and, in a transport of joy, exclaimed, 'You a poor man!—even I, who am a king, and the possessor of many jewels, have never yet seen a stone of such beauty and dazzling brightness.' The king sent for his jewellers to value it, and they too were amazed at the beauty and size of the precious stone. After turning it over and examining it for a long time, they pro- nounced the diamond invaluable. The king immediately ordered his treasurer to give the owner of the diamond as much money as he should require, and to preserve the stone in his royal treasury; in short, he became the pur- chaser. “As the king handed it to the treasurer, he observed that the stone was set in gold, and had evidently formed part of a lady's neck ornament. He concluded, too, that the person who had worn it must have been a creature of rare perfec- tion and beauty. This idea worked in his mind to such a degree, that he called his prime minister, and made him acquainted with the fact of his being desperately enamoured of this unknown lady; ordering him, at the same time, to