bedside of the sleeping king, and to frighten him into compliance with his demands.  This Kamapala intends to make himself king; he poisoned your eldest brother, and only spared you in order to obtain the support of the people, knowing that the real power would remain in his own hands.  Depend on it you will not be suffered to live when you are old enough to shake off his authority.  If you wish to be safe you should get rid of him at once.’

“With these, and other similar speeches, they so prejudiced the young king against his guardian and minister, that he would gladly have got rid of him at once, but was deterred by fear of the power of his Yaksha wife.

“One day the queen, seeing the Princess Kantimati very sad, asked her the reason of her sadness, saying, ’Tell me the truth; you cannot deceive me; what is the cause of this depression?’ ’Did I ever deceive you?’ she answered; ’my friend and fellow-wife, Taravali, has taken offence at something done or said by our husband, and though we tried to soothe her, she went away, and has not returned; this is the cause of my distress.’

“The queen hearing this, immediately told her husband, ’Kamapala has quarrelled with his fairy wife, and she has left him.  There is nothing now to prevent your proceeding against him as you please.’

“Sinhaghosha, longing to be freed from restraint, caused his minister to be arrested, when he came the next day to the palace, as usual, unsuspicious of danger.  This very day he will be led round the city, be proclaimed a traitor, and have his eyes put out.

“I, having lost my only friend and protector, have no wish to live, and was fastening my sash to hang myself, when you interrupted me.”

When Purnabhadra had finished this story, I said to him, “I am that child who was exposed in the cemetery, and saved by the fairy.  My coming here is indeed opportune, and with your assistance I will engage to deliver my father.  I would boldly attack the guards as they lead him round the city, but fear, lest in the confusion he might be killed, when all my exertions would have been in vain; some other plan must therefore be thought of.”

While I was thus speaking to him a serpent put out his head from a hole near me, and, knowing how to charm serpents, I made it come forth, and secured it.

Then I said to Purnabhadra:  “O friend, this is just what I wanted.  I will mix with the crowd when my father is led round, let this serpent fall on him as if by chance, and then run up to him and say that I am skilled in charms, and can save his life.  No doubt they will allow me to try, and I will stop the effect of the poison in such a manner that he will not die, and yet remain insensible, as if dead.  Meanwhile, do you go to my mother, ask to see her in private, and tell her that the son whom she had lost is now here.  Explain to her my plan for saving my father, and say that when she hears of the death of her husband, she must go to the king as if in the greatest grief, and ask for permission to burn herself together with the dead body.  When this request is granted, as no doubt it will be, she must prepare the funeral pile, and make ready for self-immolation, laying the apparently dead body on a couch in a private room till I come, when I will tell her what is further to be done.”