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

76 infidelity ; it will prove a lasting shame to me and mine.’ He then sent for the princess, and asked her what induce- ment she had had for committing a crime of the nature that she stood charged with. ‘See,’ said he, ‘to what contempt you have brought the family which has hitherto been untarnished by even the breath of calumny.’ The princess, with tears streaming copiously from her eyes, as soon as she could find utterance, modestly replied, ‘Oh, my more than father! You feel grieved at my apparent misconduct, for real it is not. Believe me, sir, I anr not guilty of violating my husband’s bed; I have ever been a faithful wife, and trust to remain so. I beg permission to relate to you a circumstance which occurred in my father’s court, which may perhaps dispose you to credit me. At my birth my father had a very eminent astrologer brought to him, with whom he consulted as to my future destiny. In casting my nativity, the astrologer said that I would live happily till my sixteenth year (which you know I have just entered), and that then I would fall under the worst of all suspicions, unjustly though it would be, which would give me much pain, but that ultimately I should become possessed of the means of exculpating myself to the satisfac- tion of all. This suspicion has now fallen upon me : it only remains for me to prove its injustice, to do which I have not now the means, save this ring,’ and she produced the one given to her by her husband on the night of his remaining with her, ‘which was placed on my finger by my husband himself, in proof of the inno- cence of his wife as to anything that might be said regarding the condition in which I now am. I say this, sir, to you, in the hope that you will do me the justice to believe that I am not what I appear to be. In either case, however, I must abide by your decision.’ The king replied that he did not believe a word of what she had said. ‘It is ever so,’ said he ; ‘when people commit a fault they try to screen themselves by falsehood, to which they attempt to give the semblance of truth. Nothing that you have said