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ministers, said this to them: Come, come! bring some poor leper, afflicted with disease, and very wretched, as a fit bridegroom for my daughter, in order that this Madanamanjarí may be given to him, so that she may reap the fruit of her own actions.' When they heard this speech of the king's, they all searched all over the city for such a bridegroom. At this moment her mother, hearing from people what had happened, came into the audience-hall, and said to Madanamanjarí: 'My dear child, what have you said to your father?' The daughter said: 'I did not say what was false, since all people reap the reward of their own actions.' Her mother said: So far, no irreparable harm has been done; obey the command of the king.' The daughter said: Even if the world comes to an end, I will not say what is false.' Then those servants of the king, roaming about in the city, saw, in a place where four roads meet, that very being, who had assumed the form of a leper. They said to one another: This is exactly the sort of man the king ordered to be brought; no one more wretched than he has been born, so let us go to the king with him.' Having thus deliberated, they said to him: 'Leper, rise up; the king summons you!' Then that leper said I was before mocked by fate. It is not becoming on your part to mock me further. Is there no other bridegroom fit for the princess?' The king's servants said:
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Come, rise up; we' are merely carrying out the king's orders; but about this matter our master knows-we do not know.' When they had said this, they all dragged him up, and took him to the king. Then the ministers took their hands off the leper, and said to the king: Your majesty, this man has been brought by your orders.' Then the king gave his daughter to that leper. Then the leper said to the king: 'My lord, it is not proper to give your daughter to a sick man, whose family you do not know. Moreover, it is not fitting for me to marry her. Is it becoming for a crow to marry a female swan ?' Though the leper expressed his unwillingness in these and similar words, the king made him marry his daughter, and dis
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