CHAPTER II


So the king summoned his guards and ordered them to take his wife
to a strong prison and leave her there. She went with them without
making any resistance, only turning once to look lovingly at her
husband as she was led away. Vira-Bhuja returned to his own palace and
had not been there very long when he got a message from Ayasolekha,
begging him to give her an interview, for she had something of very
great importance to tell him. The king consented at once, thinking
to himself, "perhaps she has found out that what she told me about
my dear Guna-Vara is not true."

Great then was his disappointment when the wicked woman told him she
had discovered a plot against his life. The son of Guna-Vara and some
of the chief men of the kingdom, she said, had agreed together to kill
him, so that Sringa-Bhuja might reign in his stead. She and some of
the other wives had overheard conversations between them, and were
terrified lest their beloved Lord should be hurt. The young prince,
she declared, had had some trouble in persuading the nobles to help
him, but he had succeeded at last.

Vira-Bhuja simply could not believe this story, for he trusted his
son as much as he loved him; and he sent the mischief maker away,
telling her not to dare to enter his presence again. For all that
he could not get the matter out of his head. He had Sringa-Bhuja
carefully watched; and as nothing against him was found out, he
was beginning to feel more easy in his mind, and even to think of
going to see Guna-Vara in her prison to ask her to confide in him,