"The King, addressing Harisarman, said:
"'If thou canst tell me what this vessel contains all honours shall be paid to thee, if not, thou shalt be put to death for having dared to deceive me!'
"Harisarman now gave himself up for lost. Memories, as vivid as lightning-flashes, passed through his mind. He remembered his happy childhood, and his kind father, and how the latter had a pet-name for him, and often would call him "little Frog!" and, not thinking of what he was saying, but speaking to himself (with sufficient distinctness, however, to be heard), he exclaimed:
"'Alas! alas!... this pot has caught thee, little Frog! Once thou wert free and happy, but now, how wilt thou escape?'
"All those who stood by and heard him supposed that his words were addressed to the frog in the basin.
"The test seemed conclusive.
"From that day the King honoured Harisarman, loaded him with benefits, and made him a Prince....
"This," said the Hermit, "is a story that shows how there is no justice in the world, and that we should be glad to leave it and seek a better one—even at the price of one's existence!"
"Oh, Holy Man," said Parvati, "the history of Harisarman is not finished; and who knows what may have happened to him afterwards? Perhaps he may have experienced a punishment all the more severe from having been delayed. And then he must have suffered from knowing himself to be other than he seemed! from knowing himself to be a liar and a thief, while he was saluted as a scholar and an honest man.... It seems to me that in this world we are always punished for our faults. Behold, what has happened to us to-day! Iravata, the wisest of elephants, for the first time acted without his usual prudence; he went too far into the forest, and I, instead of restraining him, was delighted with the adventure, and encouraged Him to go still further. We have both come near to losing our lives; then the storm overwhelmed us, and here we are, at the dead hour of the night, in the midst of this forest, fearfully far from the palace of Golconda—where, no doubt, my dear parents, distracted with anxiety, are lamenting the absence of their disobedient daughter!"
In saying this Parvati's beautiful eyes were full of tears, and as I listened I bent my head in shame, and wept, too.