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

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for the purpose." The daring effrontery of the woman
utterly confounded and disgusted the merchant. He kept
his temper nevertheless, as he knew he was now in the
power of this unprincipled creature, so he asked her to
name what she wanted' and to go her way, and never more
to cross his threshold. With a smile of derision, and in
tones of cutting sarcasm, she replied that her greatest
ambition was to become the possessor of the parrot, owned
by the merchant, who had but a short time ago exposed
her to the ridicule of the whole court, and a very large
audience besides. This request afflicted the merchant
extremely, as the nature of his oath left him no way of
escape from the obligation he had so unwisely entered into.
Conscious of his error, he bitterly lamented the circum-
stances which had led him into it. 'Alas!' thought he,
'how injudiciously have I not behaved!—not only shall
I now be deprived of my best and wisest counsellor, but
oh! horror!—must I also endanger his life?' for he well
knew the object of the woman in desiring so anxiously to
become possessed of the bird. 'Ah me! what incalculable
injury have I brought on myself!—can no means be devised
whereby to preserve my beloved bird?' He tried to remon-
strate with the actress, but she was inexorable. In this
wretched state of mind he approached the tiny parrot,
ensconced in his pretty cage in a corner of the house, and
revealed to him the sad dilemma in which he was placed,
and which he said was all the more to be deplored as
it originated in his own inexcusable imprudence. "I am
certainly undone, as well as Dushruth and Rookmangud,
who ensnared themselves by their promise," said he, "and
have brought this dire misfortune on you." He spoke with
such vehemence, and was so truly affected, that he fell
down beside the parrot's cage in an agony of grief. When
he came to himself, the parrot, pitying his distress, told
him to deliver him up to the woman without hesitation, and
rather let him (the parrot) run the risk of losing his life
than that the merchant should violate his oath. "An