After some further talk, I asked him:  “Friend, what do you now intend to do?”

“It will be impossible,” he answered, “for me to live here if I marry her without her father’s consent; I propose, therefore, to leave the town with her this very night.”

“A clever man,” I replied, “is at home in any place.  Wherever he goes he may say this is my country.  But, in travelling, many hardships must be endured—­hunger, thirst, fatigue, and dangers from men and wild beasts;—­how will this tender girl be able to bear them?

“You seem to be wanting in wisdom and forethought in thus abandoning home and country.  Take courage! be guided by me, and you shall marry her and live comfortably here.  But first we must take her back to her father’s house.”

To this he consented without hesitation, and we set out at once.  Guided by her, we entered through the secret passage, carried off everything of value, and got away without exciting alarm.

Having hidden our booty in some old ruins, we were going home, when we fell in with some of the city guard.  Fortunately, there chanced to be an elephant tied up at the side of the road.  We quickly, therefore, unfastened the rope, mounted him, and urged him at full speed; and before the watchmen could recover from their confusion, were out of sight.  Halting the elephant close to the wall of a deserted garden, we got over it with the help of the trees growing there, escaped on the other side, and reached home undetected, where we bathed and went to bed.

The next day we walked out carefully dressed, and were amused at hearing an exaggerated account of our adventures of the preceding night, which had caused much alarm and excitement in the city.

I had hoped, by robbing the old man, to prevent the marriage of his daughter with Arthapati.  But this hope was frustrated; for the latter was not only willing to take Kulapalika without a dowry, but even made presents to her father; and it was settled that the marriage should take place at the end of a month.

Finding this to be the case, I felt that something more must be done; and having hit upon a plan which I thought would be effectual, I gave Dhanamittra directions how to act.

Accordingly, a few days afterwards, he went to the king, to whom he was previously known, and having asked for a private audience, said:  “A very wonderful thing has happened to me, of which it seems right that your majesty should be informed.  You have known me as Dhanamittra, the son of a very rich man.  During my prosperity, I was engaged to the daughter of a wealthy merchant; but when I was reduced to poverty, he refused his consent to our marriage, and is now about to give her to another.

“Driven to despair by the double loss of fortune and wife, I went into a wood near the city, intending to put an end to my wretched life.

“There, when in the act of cutting my throat, I was stopped by a very aged devotee, who asked the cause of the rash act.