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

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words that was directed against him; at the same time pro-
claiming his innocence with a loud voice, and protesting
against the whole proceeding as being illegal and informal,
as well as unjust and tyrannical. He then sent for his
cashier, and ordered the amount to be brought into court.
While, however, Dushwant was in the act of making over
the money, it occurred to him that he had not consulted
once, throughout the whole of this proceeding, his invaluable
and bosom friend, the parrot; he thought that by repre-
senting the injustice of the case to him, the good sense and
intelligence which the bird displayed on every occasion of
emergency might perchance enable him to devise some
means to extricate him from the dilemma in which he found
himself placed; so he solicited the king to allow him time
to send for the parrot, before paying down the money.
Having obtained the king's consent to this step, a messen-
ger was immediately despatched, and the bird brought into
the presence of the king and the assembled courtiers. He
was placed in an elevated position, and made acquainted
with all the details of the occurrence. The parrot seemed
much surprised at the revelations made to him, and still
more so at the daring act of injustice on the part of the
king, of whom he enquired, and of his councillors, how they
could possibly be so blind as not to see through the guile
of the girl, and the unworthy motives which led her into
such an act. He begged the king to countermand
the order for the fine, and then, in an address fraught
with much politeness and good sense, entreated that his
majesty would not permit himself to be thus hood-
winked by a mercenary woman. So saying, the parrot
desired that a large looking-glass, of which there were
many in the palace, might be brought to him; when
the domestic came forward with the glass, the parrot ordered
the amount of the fine levied by the king to be placed
in front of it, which having been done, he spoke in this
wise, addressing himself in the first instance to the com-
plainant in the case:—"Is it true, then, as you have