of my distress.'

"The queen hearing this, immediately told her husband, 'Kâmapâla has
quarrelled with his fairy wife, and she has left him. There is nothing
now to prevent your proceeding against him as you please.'

"Sinhaghosha, longing to be freed from restraint, caused his minister
to be arrested, when he came the next day to the palace, as usual,
unsuspicious of danger. This very day he will be led round the city,
be proclaimed a traitor, and have his eyes put out.

"I, having lost my only friend and protector, have no wish to live,
and was fastening my sash to hang myself, when you interrupted me."

When Purnabhadra had finished this story, I said to him, "I am that
child who was exposed in the cemetery, and saved by the fairy. My
coming here is indeed opportune, and with your assistance I will
engage to deliver my father. I would boldly attack the guards as they
lead him round the city, but fear, lest in the confusion he might be
killed, when all my exertions would have been in vain; some other plan
must therefore be thought of."

While I was thus speaking to him a serpent put out his head from a
hole near me, and, knowing how to charm serpents, I made it come
forth, and secured it.

Then I said to Purnabhadra: "O friend, this is just what I wanted. I
will mix with the crowd when my father is led round, let this serpent
fall on him as if by chance, and then run up to him and say that I am
skilled in charms, and can save his life. No doubt they will allow me