विक्रम चरित (उज्जैन सम्राट् विक्रमादित्य - पराक्रम, न्याय एवं ३२ पुतलियों की कथा सटीक)

91
which I am far from thinking it can be. The public credit,
however, will be lost, whatever semblance of it may be
preserved in the presence of power and authority.' The
king was in a good humour, and she took advantage of it.
He smiled at her freedom of speech, and in the most
complacent manner replied, 'Do not be vexed; compose
yourself and go home. I will positively be with you this
night.' The actress retired, and as evening drew on, the
king again, after the labours of the day, bent his steps
towards the actress' house. On his way his mind was
occupied with nothing but the pleasurable moments he
should enjoy with the handsome creature he was about to
visit, whom he never for a moment suspected to be his
mother. As he was thus wending his way, regardless of
all external objects, he trod accidentally on the tail of a
calf that was lying in his way, who, on being hurt, set up a
roaring noise. The mother, who was hard by, was alarmed
at the cry, and said fiercely, in articulate sounds, 'Silence,
my child! the hurt you have now received proceeds from
the indifference produced by the intoxicating passion of
lust. The king, with blind fatality, and overcome by an
inhuman passion, is thus rushing on his own destruction:
he is now going to meet his own mother, with unworthy and
criminal intentions! Is it to be wondered at, then, that he
should in this mad adventure be regardless of those he may
injure in his wild precipitancy?' The king trembled like
an aspen on hearing these words proceed from a dumb
animal. He pondered long on their import. 'During the
last two days,' thought he 'I found the bird Pingla obstruct-
ing my way with its discordant chirpings, and to-day has
happened what is in itself a miracle—a dumb animal
speaking! Surely there must be some mystery involved
in all this!' He for a moment suspended, by an herculean
effort, all the workings of his passionate heart, and was
gradually led into thinking in the light of a mother of the
woman he was going to meet, as the cow had in a most
convincing manner pronounced her to be. He was deter-