“In answer to this, I said:  ’I am not deceiving you.  There is really such a person, a young prince, who is staying here in disguise; he saw you when you were walking in the public park, at the feast of Spring, and immediately became a mark for the arrows of Kama.  Moved by his entreaties, and seeing how suited you are to each other, I have ventured to take this means of making his passion known to you.  If you will but consent to see him, however difficult access to you may be, his courage, prudence, and ingenuity are so great, that he will certainly effect it; only say what your pleasure is.’  Then, finding her quite disposed to see you, I told her your real name and birth.  After reflecting some time, she said, ’Mother, I will not conceal from you a circumstance which his name brings to my memory.  My father was a great friend of the deposed king, and their queens were very much attached to each other.  It was settled between them, that if the one had a son, and the other a daughter, the two children should be engaged for marriage; but when the Queen Priyamvada had lost her sons, my father gave me in marriage to Vikatavarma.  This young prince was really destined to be my husband, and I ought to have had him, instead of that ugly wretch, who is stupid, ignorant of all the arts of pleasing, brutal, rebellious, cruel, boastful, false, and, above all, most insulting in his behaviour to me; only yesterday he ill-treated my favourite attendant, Pushkarika, and gathered flowers from a plant which I had especially cherished, to give to one of his paramours, a low vulgar woman, who is trying to put herself on an equality with me.  He is in every way unsuited to me, and my misery is so great, that I am ready to catch at any means of escape from it.  It was wretched enough while I thought on no one else, but now that I have heard of this charming young man, and seen his portrait, I will endure it no longer, whatever the consequences may be.  Therefore, let him come to-morrow evening to the Madhavi bower in the garden.  I am impatient to see him; even the hearing of him has filled my heart with love.’”

When the old nurse had given me this account, I determined to risk the adventure, and obtained from her a minute description of the garden, the direction of the road and paths, the exact situation of the summerhouse where I was to meet the queen, and where the guards were stationed.

Having carefully impressed all these details on my memory, I waited impatiently for the following night, and lay down to rest.  As I lay I thought on the difficulty of the enterprise, of the sin of seducing the wife of another, and of what Rajavahana and my other friends would say to such conduct.  On the other hand, I seemed to be justified by the object I had in view; the liberation of my parents.

Perplexed with these conflicting thoughts I fell asleep, and dreamed that Vishnu appeared to me, and said:  “Go on boldly, without hesitation; what you are about to do, though it may seem sinful, is approved of by me.”  Encouraged by this vision, I rose in the morning, fully confirmed in my purpose.  The tedious day came at last to an end, and darkness set in.