When the King’s servants found and brought him to the Palace, the young Princess was there and then forced to marry Vickramadit, and expelled from the town with her beggar husband.
Both King and Queen expressed a hope at parting that she would soon learn the lesson, that it was all due to them alone that she had fared so well hitherto.
As Vickramadit could not travel very far owing to weakness, she took shelter in the first small hut she could find, and there stayed, trying to alleviate his sufferings.
Now, near this hut was a mound of earth in which dwelt a snake. In the evenings, as is usual in India, the snake came out of his hole and stood on the mound of earth, where he hissed violently.
The snake which lived inside Vickramadit heard the sound, and hissed in reply. Then they began a conversation.
The snake on the mound said: “You traitor! You were given permission to drink water; and this is how you treat the holy Fakir, and break your promise to return without doing him any harm! You shall now be given a certain seed to eat which will entirely destroy your body, and you will die in agonies.”
The other snake replied: “You miser! You ‘dog in the manger,’ who live over a mound beneath which lies vast treasures and priceless jewels! You know that you cannot use them yourself, and yet you will allow nobody else to touch them! Your end will be that a woman will kill you by pouring boiling milk and butter over you.”
The young wife heard these two snakes denouncing each other, and determined to act upon what she had overheard. When leaving her father’s house, she had managed to hide on her person a small pearl ring, and this she now pawned for a small sum of money, and purchased milk and butter.
Warming these to boiling point, she went over at midday and poured them into the snake’s hole in the mound.
She also sought the seed, which would kill the snake her husband had swallowed, and gave it to him to eat.