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The news of their Bafe arrival and entertainment at the court of Chola reached the ears of Surasena and excited in his mind many a doubt and fear of a future invasion. These fears and doubts were aggravated by the thought of his own tyranny and by the knowledge he had of the conspiracy of his friend Nayavachana with some of the lords of the locality to undermine his sovereignty. Surasena, now resolved that, should Satguna and Wirendra invade his conquered dominion, he would cause the Prince in durance to be murdered. - * -
Happily, of this his secret resolve his dear daughter Rupawati had an inkling, and she at once hastened to the rescue of her lover from the impending doom. She wrote to her lover Sundarananda acquainting him with her father's murderous resolution and with the possible means of effecting his escape and, enclosing the key of the secret way in it, threw it at midnight into her lover's cell. Sundarananda, busy with the thoughts of his dear parents in exile and giddy with the new-sprung love that had kept him sleepless, heard a rustle about the balcony and hastened to it. He picked up the letter and lighted a lamp, and read it over and over, but he could not make out from whom it had come. [Here is a string of very fine arguments and conjectures as to the source of the latter.] At lash, by a process of intellectual elimination, he discovered that it had come from Rupayati and prepared himself to meet her the ensuing night at the time and place mentioned in the letter. When the iron hand of Time tolled twelve, Sundarananda came out of his cell and stood waiting on tip-toe for Rupawati. The lather, true to her appointment, stole from her bed-chamber and appeared in male attire before her lover and argued with him as to the expediency of their instant escape. Her arguments had the desired effect. The Prince yielded, and the lovers left the metropolis. Fre day-break, they arrived at the hermitage of Jnanadipa, who had given shelter to the Prince's parents on their way to Chola's court. Here the lovers assumed the names Sundara and Surupa, and were comfortably accommodated. Their weary journey gave them sound sleep, and the incognitos, waking, quit the hermikage under the escort of the disciple for the palace of Chola, which was the asylum of Sundarananda's parents.
At the dawn of day, the gaolers opened the gaol, but Sandarananda was not there. His absence non-plussed them, and they were afraid of Suraseta's punishment. They, therefore, concocted a story that they murdered the Prince in the act of self-defence, when he leaped over the prison-walls, and begged of the king pardon for their act without his sanction. Surasena easily allowed the bait and forgavé them. Inwardly glad of their wicked deed, repaired to the haremo communicate the glad hidings to his wité,
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t e tyra - - - - - -- - w. -
ម៉ែ soit qui mai y pense, the nëws of Rupayati's disappearance from her bed-chamber fell on his ears like a knell. At once he despatched messengers to all corners of the earth to trace out his Missing Daughter, but none brought
