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

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respective owners, and they complained to Chitrangee.
They had seen who did the mischief, though powerless to
prevent it; they accordingly told Chitrangee that a certain
young man had been there who had confused and mixed
their goods, and had even wantonly destroyed some
property, and they appealed to her for justice. She smiled,
and advised them to divide their goods equally, instead of
disputing or quarrelling about them, and thus she brought
the matter to an amicable settlement. Chitrangee knew
very well that it was Charoo who had done it, as he was the
only one who had visited her dominions during her absence.
“When the funeral obsequies of Chitrangee were over,
Charoo gave himself up to uncontrollable grief. Every
object in his apartment reminded him of her whom he
adored. He sighed as often as he beheld them, and amid
a flood of tears gave vent to his feelings in the following
and similar words, uttered in a thrilling and heartrending
tone:—‘Oh my beloved princess! my charming angel!
my ever dear and chaste wife!—why leave me thus lonely
and desolate in the midst of wealth and splendour? How
unaccountable to me is your sudden transition! I am left
to deplore your loss, without a single source of consolation
—without one ray of hope!’ He frequently fell into long
swoons, and on recovering from one of these, for about the
twentieth time, he thought within himself how useless and
even painful it would be for him to remain there any longer,
now that he was bereft of his greatest stay in life—his
beloved and unequalled consort. He showed daily the most
unequivocal signs of a broken and bleeding heart, and at
last he determined to visit the friendly hermit, and to
acquaint him with the affliction with which he had been
visited. He accordingly applied to the king his father-in-
law for permission to depart, who was struck with the worn-
out and dismal aspect he presented. ‘Alas, dear Charoo!’
said the afflicted monarch, ‘I am sorry to learn your deter-
mination to leave me in my affliction. From the moment
I first beheld you I was disposed to esteem and respect