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340
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1894.
and, in reality to his amazement, found the princess standing in all her wedding attire before him. Now, this man was the noblest of human beings and had all along perceived that Ambika had the greatest regard for a promise. His indecent demand was merely a strong test to examine her. He bowed himself at her feet, and, instead of meeting a tutor come to ravish her and make her life a burden to her, she heard a voice from the ground :
"My noble Ambika, never hereafter take me for a vile brate. My demand was only made to test your power of keeping a promise. Return home at once, and repose happily by the side of your husband. Till now you were my daughter by the rules of tutorship. From this night you are my mother."
Thus said the master, and showering his blessings on her, requested her to return in haste to the palace. Ambika, overjoyed and extremely pleased at heart at her adventure and her unsullied reputation, returned as quickly as she had left. But for all that, the time had been longer than she had expected, and her beating heart and profuse perspiration roused the suspicions of her husband. And, as usual, with young princes, he suspected her chastity at once. At their very first meeting there was a quarrel.
“Where did you go for so long?" asked he. “Only to the back of the palace," said Ambika.
“So !" said the husband. "Till I have more confidence in your chastity, I shall not sleep by your side. Sloep in a distant cot. Never approach me," roared the enraged prince.
“My lord! I am as chaste as pure milk. I have never known any one till now. If it is my fate that I should be thus suspected, I shall bear it without any murmur and wait for yonr lordship's pleasure to regain your confidence. I agree to your lordship's hard condition," replied Ambika, and calmly waited upon her husband.
The prince was unbendable. His suspicion was very strong, and it was not easily to be overcome. All Ambika's explanations were in vain. But she did not atter a syllable about her promise to her tutor, dwelling only upon her purity of conduct. There was no other place to go to; so she had to sleep apart from her husband in the same room. Thus the first night passed away; and so the second, and third - & week - A month. Every night the prince and princess retired to their bed-chamber, and slept on different beds. To the outer world they seemed very loving and affectionate to each other; but in their hearts they knew their extreme misery.
When the first month was over the prince requested his father-in-law to permit him to return to Pândiyadéśa with his wife. The lord of Akhandakâveri readily gave his consent, and sent off his son-in-law and Ambikå with suitable presents and other things becoming to the occasion, and himself accompanied the prince and his daughter for three days on their journey to Pandiyadeśa. Then the father-in-law took his leave, and bent his way back to his kingdom. The prince and Ambika, after a journey of a few more days, reached his home, and the old king gave them a suitable welcome, and all the usual festivities were conducted at Madura, the capital of the Pandiyas. Here, too, no one knew of the difference that existed between the prince and his newly married wife. Every one took them to be the happiest of newly married pairs. They slept in the same room, though not on the same cot, regularly for two full months.
During this long interval of three months and more, the prince had been closely watching Ambika. The more he tested her, the more the force of his suspicions began to decline. Her patient conduct, ber close application to her books, her profound learning and deep experience, her most correct behaviour towards himself, notwithstanding his unkindness towards her, the unabated affection she shewed him, and a thousand other little matters came before him to upbraid him for his brutal conduct towards her, till, one night, he spoke to her thus:
"Ambika, will you, now at least, tell me the truth? Tell me plainly that you are not unchaste. Whatever may have been your previous course of life, I shall gladly excuse you. Be true now, and utter no lie."
