Thus our wishes were gratified, and we enjoyed uninterrupted intercourse with each other.  But more was yet to be done, and when the time was nearly arrived at which it had been arranged between me and the old brahman that he was to come to fetch me, I said to my darling:  “To-morrow, as you know, there will be a procession to a certain holy place near the river; you and your attendants will join in it and have an opportunity of bathing there.  While we are in the water, I will scream out, as if drowning, and, diving underneath the surface, will come up among the bushes a long way off, without being seen.  Do you appear greatly distressed at my death; but fear nothing, I shall soon come to you again.”

Accordingly, the next day, while bathing in the Ganges, I made it appear as if I were accidentally carried out of my depth and drawn in by one of the eddies of the river, and screamed out loudly for help.  My cries and screams and subsequent disappearance caused a great commotion, and long search was made for my body; but of course in vain, for I had dived under, and come to the surface unobserved among the thick bushes at the place which had been agreed upon.  There, having gone on shore, I soon found the old brahman, who was waiting for me with a suit of men’s clothes, and, putting them on, I walked quietly with him into the town.

The next day, as if he had heard nothing of the loss of his pretended daughter, he went to the king, accompanied by me, and said “My lord, I have returned from Oujein, and have brought with me this young man, the intended husband of my daughter, with whom I am much pleased, and whom I can confidently recommend to your favour, for I have heard an exceedingly good report of him there.  He is not only very learned in the vedas and commentaries, advanced in science and arts, well instructed in politics and history, clever in reciting stories and poetry, but is a bold and skilful rider, a good archer and swordsman.  There is scarcely anything that a young man should know, with which he is not familiar; and, with all this, he is free from conceit, good-tempered, gentle, and kind; in short, he seems to me almost perfect, and more fit to marry a princess than the daughter of such a man as I am.  When I have seen my child happily married to him, I shall not trouble them with my society, but withdraw from the world, and end my days in a hermitage.  I have now come to take back my daughter, with the most humble and heartfelt gratitude for the gracious protection which you have so kindly afforded her.”  With these words he bowed himself to the ground in humble obeisance.

On hearing this the king was greatly perplexed, and obliged to admit that the girl had been drowned while bathing, and that her body had not been found.

Then the old man began to tear his hair, beat his breast, and show signs of the most extravagant grief, calling on the king to restore his dear daughter, and reproaching him with having caused her death.  In vain did the king make him large offers of compensation; he refused them all, declaring it to be his firm intention to put himself to death at the gate of the palace, and so cause the sin to fall on the king’s head.[9]