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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(NAS, 1894.
"And you have agreed to it, I suppose !" asked the girl eagerly.
"No," replied the father." In truth, I gave him no answer at all, either in the atlirmutive or negative."
"Oh, low silly it was of yon," said the girl. “Shonld the king happen to send for you again and touch upon the subject, tell him you are willing to give me in marriage to his son."
The parillan was quite surprised to hear his daughter talk in that way, and did not under. stand what to make of it. However, he promised to give an auswer in the ntfirmative, if the king should send for him and moot the subject.
The following day, being worried by the young king to be told the result of his interview with the parihan, the old king sent for the purdhur. When the pardhan came the old king asked him if he had considered over their conversation of the previous dny, and what answer he was prepared to give, and added, by the way, his hope that the answer would be in the affirmative. The parihan, though with some hesitation, gave a reply satisfactory to the old king, who fixed a day for the celebration of the marriage.
In the meanwhile the young king ordered the construction, in the neighbourhood of the old palace, of a new one, seven storeys ligh, and in tlie seventh storey he stored ichni onough to last for twelve years. This new palace was intended for the imprisonment of the parellan's danghter, with the view of making her eat náchni for twelve years, as he had already told her. Such was the impatience of the young king to see the palace (or rather the prison) ready, that he engaged thousands of workmen, and a work that would ordinarily bave taken years to finish he got completed in a few days.
Preparations, on a grand scale, were, also, made on both sides. Nothing was spared to lend to the occasion a grandeur befitting a royal wedding. Time flitted by rapidly and the day appointed for the marriage came. At last the auspicious occasion was solemnized with great pomp, and the feasting extended over several days.
A few days more passed, and the pardhan's daughter, now the queen, was duly transplanted to the new palace which had been expressly built for her. In the wholo of the palace could he seon nothing save, perhaps, one bedstead and a chair, and plenty of náchni, which would serve her as food for twelve long years, during which she was to be imprisoned, all alone. The panthan's daughter was not, however, to be outdone. She had taken the precaution of carry. ing with her a few rats, which were at once set to make a subterraneous passage. In a few days' timo n passage was made, which, by a strange coincidence, linppened to lead into another prince in a neighbouring village. In this second palace there were no human beings, but in it were stored the best sorts of provisions, confectionery, sweatments, and, in fact, everything one could desire. Here she took up ler abode, which would be for twelve years, for she knew ton well that her husband would not open her prison gatos, much less seu her, during that period. She did not also forget her rats, whom she fed every time she took her meals, and these rats wore her only companions in her solitude.
She thus lived happily for several years. One day her husband happened to take & ride through this village, and chanced to see her at one of the windows of the palace. The kiny did not recognise her, and how could he ? What reason had he to believe that he saw his wife? Had he not imprisoned her safely in the new palace, where no one saw her, and from which she had no means to escape? And he was greatly enamoured of her beauty. The pardhan's daughter, however, recognised him at the first glance, but feigned ignorance; yet for all that she thought this the best opportunity to accomplish her object, and so accepted his advances. T'ine king soon begun to love her very passionately, and visited her every day. At the end of sis or soven months she became pregnant, and in di: uime gave birth to a son, in every respect the type of his father. Some time after this occurrence, the king gave her to understand that ho was, for some reason or other, obliged to discontinue his visits to her. She,
