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

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can exculpate you. I should this moment have sacrificed
you, but consideration for the innocent fruit of your base
crime withheld me. Go, then, from my presence, and
with tears of repentance wash out the foul stain you have
cast on the hitherto untarnished name of Bhudrasain!' The
king ordered his minister to see her taken to some deserted
and lonely part of the forest, and there left to shift for
herself. On this the princess again addressed the king in
moving terms, and appealed directly to his heart as to a
father. 'I am, sir,' said she, 'though shrouded in mystery
as to my present condition, still an honest and virtuous
woman; and my misfortune, not my crime, has brought me
to this pass,—to fall under your well-meant but unjust
displeasure. I submit to it; but remember,—oh, remem-
ber!—if I should afterwards appear innocent in your eyes,
what will be the feelings that will then agitate the heart of
one so good as you are? Think of that, sir, if you cannot
be induced to have any consideration for me.' The king
turned a deaf ear to all her entreaties, fully believing in her
perfidy. The minister, according to the orders he had
received, prepared a mare for her conveyance, and a horse
for himself. When all was ready, he informed the princess,
telling her to make haste, and that he would take her to
her father's city, where she would doubtless find sufficient
opportunity for assuaging her grief. Before she left the
palace of her husband's father, she again protested in
respectful terms against the violence that was being offered
to her; she reiterated that she was virtuous, and that on
that account God would not forsake her. She then kissed
the feet of her husband's parents, nothing else being vouch-
safed to her, and set out with the minister. At daybreak
they found they had penetrated into a wood, and the
princess becoming exceedingly thirsty and fatigued, was
unable to prosecute her journey. She requested the minister
to procure some water for her use; he accordingly went in
search of it. Having reached a rivulet, and the heat
becoming oppressive, she alighted from her mare, and