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

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you, for your looks and dignified demeanour won my affec- tion. Being now old and -infirm, and without an heir to succeed me, I feel great pleasure and gratification in offering you the crown. I have now only one daughter left to be the solace of my declining years: her beauty and accom- plishments are like those of her departed sister, and worthy of a prince or of a person of your exalted qualifications and worth. Instead of leaving me, then, stay and receive her hand and the crown which I now offer to you. It is time for me to rest from the labour of ruling these dominions. I have borne it long enough; and nothing could give me greater satisfaction, under the circumstances, than to entrust the well-being of my people to your hands, and to see you ruling in my stead, for I am satisfied that you are worthy in every respect of so responsible a trust. If you refuse, dear Charoo, to comply with my request, it will grieve me nearly as much as did the loss of my beloved daughter Chitrangee, and I cannot but sink under the double stroke, if I may so call it. Decide at once,— whether you will doom me to death, or, by your aid and solace, in some degree assuage the violence of my grief.' Charoo felt much afflicted at the sad situation of the aged monarch, but he had at the same time fully made up his mind to visit the hermit, and, by unbosoming his sorrows to him, seek consolation from his learned counsel. He felt as though nothing short of the advice of such a man could tranquillise his mind; he patiently listened, however, to all the king had to say, and then addressed him in these words:—'Sire, in the first place I am under a deep debt of gratitude to you for all you have done—for the immense favors and honors you have conferred on me. I thank you most sincerely and from the depth of my heart, and will not fail to implore heaven to return to you a thousand-fold the wealth and honor you have lavished on me,—that every species of blessing may attend you throughout life,—that your enemies may be confounded,—and that a long and prosperous life may be allotted to you. I am too deeply