we all came down, and have remained here ever since. Twelve years have
now passed, and the king seems to have forgotten us. I must tell you
also that the princess, though destined by her grandfather for
Darpasâra, was originally intended for you; for her mother, while the
child was as yet unborn, promised that her daughter should become the
wife of the son of Kantimati if he should ever return. Look on her,
therefore, as your intended, and do what is best for us."

Having received this account from the old woman, I told her to have no
fear on the princess's account, but to trust entirely in me, and that
I would soon liberate them from their long and tedious imprisonment.

She then took a lamp and showed me the steps leading to the trap-door,
which I forced open, and soon found my way into the king's bed-room.
There, before he was sufficiently awake to call for help, I seized,
gagged, and bound him, and dragging him along, as an ichneumon drags a
serpent, past the astonished women and through the tunnel which I had
made, I brought him, trembling with fear and bowed down by shame, to
my father's house, and showed him to my parents, telling them how I
had captured him, and how I had discovered the princess in the
subterranean palace.

When the seizure of the king was known, those who were previously
well-disposed to my father immediately joined us, and all opposition
ceased.

Soon afterwards I married the princess, who looked on me as her
deliverer from the dungeon; Sinhaghosha was deposed; and I, having
double claim to the throne, was acknowledged king in his stead.