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

77 can exculpate you. I should this moment have sacrificed you, but consideration for the innocent fruit of your base crime withheld me. Go, then, from my presence, and with tears of repentance wash out the foul stain you have cast on the hitherto untarnished name of Bhudrasain!' The king ordered his minister to see her taken to some deserted and lonely part of the forest, and there left to shift for herself. On this the princess again addressed the king in moving terms, and appealed directly to his heart as to a father. 'I am, sir,' said she, 'though shrouded in mystery as to my present condition, still an honest and virtuous woman; and my misfortune, not my crime, has brought me to this pass,—to fall under your well-meant but unjust displeasure. I submit to it; but remember,—oh, remem- ber!—if I should afterwards appear innocent in your eyes, what will be the feelings that will then agitate the heart of one so good as you are? Think of that, sir, if you cannot be induced to have any consideration for me.' The king turned a deaf ear to all her entreaties, fully believing in her perfidy. The minister, according to the orders he had received, prepared a mare for her conveyance, and a horse for himself. When all was ready, he informed the princess, telling her to make haste, and that he would take her to her father's city, where she would doubtless find sufficient opportunity for assuaging her grief. Before she left the palace of her husband's father, she again protested in respectful terms against the violence that was being offered to her; she reiterated that she was virtuous, and that on that account God would not forsake her. She then kissed the feet of her husband's parents, nothing else being vouch- safed to her, and set out with the minister. At daybreak they found they had penetrated into a wood, and the princess becoming exceedingly thirsty and fatigued, was unable to prosecute her journey. She requested the minister to procure some water for her use; he accordingly went in search of it. Having reached a rivulet, and the heat becoming oppressive, she alighted from her mare, and