This submission made the king feel even more unhappy than before.  He longed to take his wife in his arms and tell her he would never let her go; and perhaps if she had looked at him then, he would have seen all her love for him in her eyes, but she remained perfectly still with bowed head, waiting to hear what her fate was to be.  Then the thought entered Vira-Bhuja’s mind:  “She is afraid to look at me:  what Ayasolekha said was true.”

1.  Can true love suspect the loved one of evil?

2.  Is true love ever jealous?

CHAPTER II

So the king summoned his guards and ordered them to take his wife to a strong prison and leave her there.  She went with them without making any resistance, only turning once to look lovingly at her husband as she was led away.  Vira-Bhuja returned to his own palace and had not been there very long when he got a message from Ayasolekha, begging him to give her an interview, for she had something of very great importance to tell him.  The king consented at once, thinking to himself, “perhaps she has found out that what she told me about my dear Guna-Vara is not true.”

Great then was his disappointment when the wicked woman told him she had discovered a plot against his life.  The son of Guna-Vara and some of the chief men of the kingdom, she said, had agreed together to kill him, so that Sringa-Bhuja might reign in his stead.  She and some of the other wives had overheard conversations between them, and were terrified lest their beloved Lord should be hurt.  The young prince, she declared, had had some trouble in persuading the nobles to help him, but he had succeeded at last.

Vira-Bhuja simply could not believe this story, for he trusted his son as much as he loved him; and he sent the mischief maker away, telling her not to dare to enter his presence again.  For all that he could not get the matter out of his head.  He had Sringa-Bhuja carefully watched; and as nothing against him was found out, he was beginning to feel more easy in his mind, and even to think of going to see Guna-Vara in her prison to ask her to confide in him, when something happened which led him to fear that after all his dear son was not true to him.  This was what made him uneasy.  He had a wonderful arrow, set with precious jewels, which had been given to him by a magician, and had the power of hitting without fail whatever it was aimed at from however great a distance.  The very day he had meant to visit his ill-treated wife, he missed this arrow from the place in which he kept it concealed.  This distressed him very much; and after seeking it in vain, he summoned all those who were employed in the palace to his presence, and asked if any of them knew anything about the arrow.  He promised that he would forgive any one who helped him to get it back, even if it were the thief himself; but added that, if it was not found in three days, he would have all the servants beaten until the one who had stolen it confessed.