“After mutual congratulations and embraces, she told me her story as follows:  ’After we were parted, I was wounded by the robbers, lost the child, and was found wandering about by one of the foresters, who took care of me, and afterwards wished to make me his wife.  I was too much disgusted with him and his way of life to consent; and, after many threats, he would at last have killed me, but for the opportune arrival of a young man who happened to be passing, and rescued me from his hands.  That young man has since become my husband.  We have been searching for you, and have now happily found you.’

“I asked who the man was.  He answered:  ’I am a servant of the King of Mithila, to whom I am now going.’  Then we all three went to Mithila, and told the king and queen the sad news of the loss of their children.

“The war was still going on, and at last the king was overcome and imprisoned, together with his queen, by his wicked nephew.

“Since then I have been living as a mendicant.  My daughter, whose husband was killed in the war, being destitute like myself, has entered the service of Kalpasundari, queen of the usurper.  Ah! if those princes had lived, they would have rescued their father from such degradation.”

She began then to weep and lament; but I comforted her, and said:  “Do you not remember speaking to a certain muni, and telling him of the loss of the child?  That boy was found by him.  I am he, and I will contrive some means for killing that wicked usurper, and setting my parents free.  No one can recognise me here, not even my own mother, were she to see me; therefore I shall be able at my leisure to consider what is best to be done.”

Exceedingly delighted at hearing this, she kissed me again and again, and said, with tears of joy:  “O, darling! a glorious fortune is before you.  Now you are here, all will be well; you will soon lift up your parents from the sea of sorrow which has engulfed them.  Happy is Queen Priyamvada in having such a son!”

Then she gave me such food as she had, and I stayed with her, and passed the night in that temple.

As I lay awake, I turned over in my mind every plan that suggested itself to me for the accomplishment of my purpose.  Knowing how ready-witted women are in general, and their fondness for tricks and intrigues, it occurred to me that my foster-sister, from her position near the queen, might be able to give me material assistance.

In the morning, after worshipping the gods, I began to question the old woman as to her knowledge of the interior of the palace, and asked whether she had frequent opportunities of seeing her daughter.  Scarcely had she begun to answer my questions when I saw some one coming towards us, and she exclaimed:  “O, Pushkarika, behold our master’s son; that dear child whom I so carelessly lost in the forest was found and preserved, and is now restored to us.”

Great was the daughter’s delight at seeing me; and, when her agitation had subsided, her mother said to her:  “I was just beginning to tell my dear son something of the arrangement of the palace, and the habits of the inmates; but you can give him the required information much better than I can.”