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

39 for the purpose." The daring effrontery of the woman utterly confounded and disgusted the merchant. He kept his temper nevertheless, as he knew he was now in the power of this unprincipled creature, so he asked her to name what she wanted' and to go her way, and never more to cross his threshold. With a smile of derision, and in tones of cutting sarcasm, she replied that her greatest ambition was to become the possessor of the parrot, owned by the merchant, who had but a short time ago exposed her to the ridicule of the whole court, and a very large audience besides. This request afflicted the merchant extremely, as the nature of his oath left him no way of escape from the obligation he had so unwisely entered into. Conscious of his error, he bitterly lamented the circum- stances which had led him into it. 'Alas!' thought he, 'how injudiciously have I not behaved!—not only shall I now be deprived of my best and wisest counsellor, but oh! horror!—must I also endanger his life?' for he well knew the object of the woman in desiring so anxiously to become possessed of the bird. 'Ah me! what incalculable injury have I brought on myself!—can no means be devised whereby to preserve my beloved bird?' He tried to remon- strate with the actress, but she was inexorable. In this wretched state of mind he approached the tiny parrot, ensconced in his pretty cage in a corner of the house, and revealed to him the sad dilemma in which he was placed, and which he said was all the more to be deplored as it originated in his own inexcusable imprudence. "I am certainly undone, as well as Dushruth and Rookmangud, who ensnared themselves by their promise," said he, "and have brought this dire misfortune on you." He spoke with such vehemence, and was so truly affected, that he fell down beside the parrot's cage in an agony of grief. When he came to himself, the parrot, pitying his distress, told him to deliver him up to the woman without hesitation, and rather let him (the parrot) run the risk of losing his life than that the merchant should violate his oath. "An