Vikram and the Vampire | Page 9

either his neighbours' neighbours, or his own neighbours, that is to say,
his friends or his foes.
This important duty finished he supped, and at the end of the third
watch he retired to sleep, which was not allowed to last beyond three
hours. In the sixth watch he arose and purified himself. The seventh
was devoted to holding private consultations with his ministers, and to
furnishing the officers of government with requisite instructions. The
eighth or last watch was spent with the Purohita or priest, and with
Brahmans, hailing the dawn with its appropriate rites; he then bathed,
made the customary offerings, and prayed in some unfrequented place
near pure water.
And throughout these occupations he bore in mind the duty of kings,
namely--to pursue every object till it be accomplished; to succour all
dependents, and hospitably to receive guests, however numerous. He
was generous to his subjects respecting taxes, and kind of speech; yet
he was inexorable as death in the punishment of offenses. He rarely
hunted, and he visited his pleasure gardens only on stated days. He
acted in his own dominions with justice; he chastised foreign foes with
rigour; he behaved generously to Brahmans, and he avoided
favouritism amongst his friends. In war he never slew a suppliant, a
spectator, a person asleep or undressed, or anyone that showed fear.

Whatever country he conquered, offerings were presented to its gods,
and effects and money were given to the reverends. But what benefited
him most was his attention to the creature comforts of the nine Gems of
Science: those eminent men ate and drank themselves into fits of
enthusiasm, and ended by immortalizing their patron's name.
Become Vikram the Great he established his court at a delightful and
beautiful location rich in the best of water. The country was difficult of
access, and artificially made incapable of supporting a host of invaders,
but four great roads met near the city. The capital was surrounded with
durable ramparts, having gates of defence, and near it was a mountain
fortress, under the especial charge of a great captain.
The metropolis was well garrisoned and provisioned, and it surrounded
the royal palace, a noble building without as well as within. Grandeur
seemed embodied there, and Prosperity had made it her own. The
nearer ground, viewed from the terraces and pleasure pavilions, was a
lovely mingling of rock and mountain, plain and valley, field and
fallow, crystal lake and glittering stream. The banks of the winding
Lavana were fringed with meads whose herbage, pearly with morning
dew, afforded choicest grazing for the sacred cow, and were dotted
with perfumed clumps of Bo-trees, tamarinds, and holy figs: in one
place Vikram planted 100,000 in a single orchard and gave them to his
spiritual advisers. The river valley separated the stream from a belt of
forest growth which extended to a hill range, dark with impervious
jungle, and cleared here and there for the cultivator's village. Behind it,
rose another sub-range, wooded with a lower bush and already blue
with air, whilst in the background towered range upon range, here
rising abruptly into points and peaks, there ramp-shaped or wall-
formed, with sheer descents, and all of light azure hue adorned with
glories of silver and gold.
After reigning for some years, Vikram the Brave found himself at the
age of thirty, a staid and sober middle-aged man, He had several
sons--daughters are naught in India--by his several wives, and he had
some paternal affection for nearly all--except of course, for his eldest
son, a youth who seemed to conduct himself as though he had a claim
to the succession. In fact, the king seemed to have taken up his abode
for life at Ujjayani, when suddenly he bethought himself, "I must visit
those countries of whose names I am ever hearing." The fact is, he had

determined to spy out in disguise the lands of all his foes, and to find
the best means of bringing against them his formidable army.
* * * * * *
We now learn how Bhartari Raja becomes Regent of Ujjayani.
Having thus resolved, Vikram the Brave gave the government into the
charge of a younger brother, Bhartari Raja, and in the garb of a
religious mendicant, accompanied by Dharma Dhwaj, his second son, a
youth bordering on the age of puberty, he began to travel from city to
city, and from forest to forest.
The Regent was of a settled melancholic turn of mind, having lost in
early youth a very peculiar wife. One day, whilst out hunting, he
happened to pass a funeral pyre, upon which a Brahman's widow had
just become Sati (a holy woman) with the greatest fortitude. On his
return home he related the adventure to Sita Rani, his spouse, and she
at