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

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go to, without the means of supplying herself and the infant
with nourishment, and, more than all, without any apparent
means of regaining her dominions and avenging the injury
offered to her, she was indeed wretched in the extreme.
Still, onward she went, remedying as much as in her lay
these great evils, though, indeed, such remedies cannot be
said to have by any means brought her the slightest relief.
For a time she subsisted by parting one by one with the
ornaments and jewels she had on when she fled from the
palace : when these were all gone, alas ! her condition was
miserable indeed. How many a day did, this fond mother
deprive herself of food, that a sufficiency might be afforded
her child ! But this could not last long ; nature would not
permit it. Without food she must sink. She was in the
very last stage of weakness : a feather's weight might have
sealed her fate. The cravings of hunger she tried to appease
by partaking of the wild fruits of the forest, and this but
added to her sufferings. In this state, between hope (faint
though it was) and despair, she thought of a brother she
had, also a king, who was immensely rich and very power-
ful. This idea, as it crossed her mind, cheered the dreari-
ness with which she was enveloped, and raised her sinking
heart. Towards him, therefore, she turned her steps. He
was reigning in a city far from where she then was ; and the
condition in which she arrived there may therefore be better
conceived than described. No sooner did she present
herself before the king her brother than he was struck dumb
with the woeful picture of want and misery his sister
presented. He received her with open arms, and soothed
her grief with many words of consolation and the promise
of seeing her righted, if possible. After hearing her rela-
tion of all the sufferings she had undergone, and the cruel
usage she had endured from the invader of her husband's
dominions, he addressed her thus : ' Let me entreat you,
dear sister, great as are the wrongs which have been heaped
upon you, not to give way. Be assured that the Almighty
never wills a thing without a good design. Though the