vessels, took their owner bound in chains to the court. The king ordered the confiscation of the ships with their goods, and the close captivity of the merchant, who was no other than our old acquaintance, Shankha.
The prisoner was passing through the palace gate into his prison, when he saw the heir apparent with the very garland of shells that he had lost. He told the kotál who had him in charge that the royal youth was none other than his son, and that he wore round his neck what had belonged to him alone. The kotal could not maintain his gravity at what he heard, and so loud was the derision the captive's words gave rise to, that most of the nobles in the court went there to see what was the matter. Shankha, instead of being cowed down by their presence, maintained his point; and to punish his impertinence, a thousand swords were raised over his head, whereupon he cried out, "Kill me, but with my last breath I will proclaim that that boy is my son." Nobody listened to him, and he was led into the prison.
The occurrence produced a strange effect on Prince Neel's mind. He left the court in ill humour, and for three days he was distraught. He shunned appearing in public at the court, and one day calling in his friends, the prime minister's and the kotál's sons, proposed a bath in the neighbouring tank, which was near the one in which Shakti was lying engulfed. The friends could not say "no," and with them Neel went to the bathing place. The bath having refreshed him, he proposed to wait there a little while, and the three friends sat on the very stone under which the prince's mother, unknown to him, lay. The mere touch of the stone refreshed him a great deal, but a strange feeling, the nature of which he could not determine, seized him, and he fell insensible. Shakti was conscious of the nearness of her son and she said, "Who touches the stone over me? My heart is lightened. I was robbed of my darling while asleep, something tells me that I shall soon have him in my arms again." She then cried out, and her cry caught the ear of Neel's friends, who were
