Through the ignorance of the Princess regarding it, she told that
old woman that his life is in the sword. Well then, the old woman
from that day, having said that it was for putting in the hearth on
rainy days, sought for firewood and heaped it up. When the old woman
is going to sleep, every day having built a bon-fire she goes to sleep.
One day during the day time, having been [there] at the time when
the Prince is not there, she looked where the sword is. Thereupon,
at night a rain began. Having said, "To-day there is rain," she
strengthened the bon-fire. After the Princess and the Prince went to
sleep she brought the sword and put it in the bon-fire.
Having arisen in the morning, when she looked the Prince having died
the Princess began to lament. The old woman also falsely lamented. The
two persons having been lamenting and lamenting a little time, the
old woman, calling the Princess, went to obtain shelter at another
place. Having gone there, and handed over the Princess to the King
of that country, taking the presents also, the old woman went home.
At that time the King told the Princess to take that Prince in
marriage. Thereupon the Princess said, "My Prince is now dead only
two or three days. Because of it I want time for a month." Having
found an upper-story house very near there, he sent the Princess to
stay in the upper-story house in that street.
Having seen that the flowers of the flower trees of the younger
brothers of that Prince had faded, [his brothers] began to seek
him. Seeking him, they went to the place where the Prince is
dead. Having gone, these six persons together said, "Where is the
sword?" and began to seek it. When seeking it, the sword having been
in a heap of ashes they took it. Thereafter having taken the sword to
the river, they cleaned it; at that time life was [re-]established for
that Prince. Then the Prince having arisen spoke to those Princes, and
having said, "Now then, go you to each of the places where you were,"
he did that cultivation work, and remained obtaining a livelihood
[thus].
This one got news that that old woman having taken the Princess
and given her to the King, received for herself presents and
distinctions. At that time sorrow having gone to the Prince he went
to seek the Princess. When [he was] going walking in the street in
which is the Princess, the Princess saw that this one is going. The
Prince did not see her.
At that time the Princess began to write a letter. Having written
the letter, the Princess remained in expectation of the time when
the Prince is coming. The Prince, through news that she is in that
very street, came back. At that time the Princess, having seen that
the Prince is coming, taking the letter dropped it [so as] to fall
in front of him. The Prince having taken the letter, when he looked
at it and read it there was written, "That old woman who stayed near
us having deceived us and having brought and given me to the King,
received for herself presents and distinctions. The King said to me
that he must marry and give me to the King's Prince. Thereupon I said,
'My Prince is not dead a month now.' Because of it, asking for time for
a month, I am staying in another house," there was written. "I said
so through the thought that I shall obtain my Prince again. In three
days more we are going to the church (palliya) to marry. Because of
it, having got a horse carriage should you come on that day to the
church we can escape and go off," there was written.
Thereupon the Prince on the day she told him having got a horse
carriage also, went near the church in the disguise of a horse-keeper,
and halting the carriage, remained [there].
On the wedding day the King, the Prince, the Princess, the whole
of the party, went in a horse carriage. The Princess saw that that
Prince is staying like the horse-keeper, holding the horse. But when
the Princess looking [at him] went into the church, the horse-keeper
[Prince] having remained standing, becoming sleepy reclined a
little. Then the Prince went to sleep.
That Princess having got married and come, and having ascended into
the carriage which the Prince brought, not knowing that the Prince was
asleep struck the horse, and making it bound went off as though she
flew. The other people who were there, not observing the quarter to
which the Princess went, went away. The King and the married Prince
after that sought her; they did not meet with her. The sleeping
horse-keeper Prince having ascertained that the carriage was not
[there], weeping and weeping began to go along the path on which that
Princess went.
When the Princess was going in the midst of a forest wilderness,
Vaeddas having been there came and watched in order to seize
her. Having watched, they said to the Princess, "If thou come not
with us we will shoot and kill thee."
Thereupon the Princess asked, "I can come with one of you. How shall
I come with four or five persons?"