38 SANSKRIT STUDIES not knowing what it might be and marvelling at the sport of fate as it seemed to him, resolved to go and report the whole matter to Kāmandakī. She and her friends, disgusted with the turn which affairs had taken in spite of their best efforts, had meanwhile repaired to the same wood, there to fall from some precipice and kill themselves. As Makaranda was relating to them what had happened, there was an unexpected flash of splendour and Madhava appeared with Malatī restored to him, thus preventing the wholesale tragedy that would otherwise have been enacted there that day. Saudāmanī also had accompanied Mālati and Madhava; but, hearing on her way that Bhūrivasu, grieving over the loss of his daughter, was about to end his life, had gone thither to prevent that calamity. She had succeeded in turning back the sorrowing minister from his resolve by communi- cating to him in time the happy news of his daughter's safety. She soon returned to where Kamandaki and the others were with a letter from the king, written in the presence of Nandana. The king, when apprised of everything, had written to Mādhava graciously approving of not only his marriage with Malati but also that of Makaranda with Madayantikā. Fate proved to be friendly to the two couples in the end,; and Love, though it had taken a chequered course, was triumphant at last.
