that he may be ashamed into abandoning his polygamous tendency.

The king and the Vidushaka seek the garden, where it is now moon-light.
Mrigankavali and her friend Vilakshana also come thither, and the lovers
meet: this interview is broken off by a cry that the queen is coming,
and they all separate abruptly.

At dawn, Charayana's wife is asleep. In her sleep, however, she is very
communicative, and repeats a supposed dialogue between the queen and the
Raja, in which the former urges the latter to marry Mrigankavali, the
sister of the supposed Mrigankavarma, come on a visit, it is pretended,
to her brother--this being a plot of the queen's to cheat the king into
a sham marriage, by espousing him to one she believes to be a boy.

The Vidushaka suspects the trick, however, and wakes his wife, who rises
and goes to the queen. The Vidushaka joins his master. The king, who is
already the husband of the princesses of Magadha, Malava, Panchala,
Avanti, Jalandhara and Kerala, is wedded to Mrigankavali. As soon as the
ceremony is gone through, a messenger from the court of Chandraverma
arrives to announce:--

"O queen! His Majesty Chandravarma wishes it to be known that
Mrigankavarma is not his son but his daughter. In the absence of a son
he dressed her as such to satisfy his desire for a son. Now that a son
has been born to him, it is not necessary to keep up the pretence. The
king requests you to settle a suitable marriage for her. The sages have
prophesied paramount sovereignty for her husband."

The queen becomes stunned and soliloquises:--