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

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respective owners, and they complained to Chitrangee. They had seen who did the mischief, though powerless to prevent it; they accordingly told Chitrangee that a certain young man had been there who had confused and mixed their goods, and had even wantonly destroyed some property, and they appealed to her for justice. She smiled, and advised them to divide their goods equally, instead of disputing or quarrelling about them, and thus she brought the matter to an amicable settlement. Chitrangee knew very well that it was Charoo who had done it, as he was the only one who had visited her dominions during her absence. “When the funeral obsequies of Chitrangee were over, Charoo gave himself up to uncontrollable grief. Every object in his apartment reminded him of her whom he adored. He sighed as often as he beheld them, and amid a flood of tears gave vent to his feelings in the following and similar words, uttered in a thrilling and heartrending tone:—‘Oh my beloved princess! my charming angel! my ever dear and chaste wife!—why leave me thus lonely and desolate in the midst of wealth and splendour? How unaccountable to me is your sudden transition! I am left to deplore your loss, without a single source of consolation —without one ray of hope!’ He frequently fell into long swoons, and on recovering from one of these, for about the twentieth time, he thought within himself how useless and even painful it would be for him to remain there any longer, now that he was bereft of his greatest stay in life—his beloved and unequalled consort. He showed daily the most unequivocal signs of a broken and bleeding heart, and at last he determined to visit the friendly hermit, and to acquaint him with the affliction with which he had been visited. He accordingly applied to the king his father-in- law for permission to depart, who was struck with the worn- out and dismal aspect he presented. ‘Alas, dear Charoo!’ said the afflicted monarch, ‘I am sorry to learn your deter- mination to leave me in my affliction. From the moment I first beheld you I was disposed to esteem and respect