Lives of Alcyone

thought that because of its peculiar vividness it might have been
sent to him by the deity in answer to his prayer, and that at any rate
it would cost but little trouble to make the search as suggested.
He followed carefully the instructions given to him, and
discovered under the dungeon floor a magnificent treasure of golden
vessels and precious stones, which had presumably been buried by
some ancestor when some danger impended, as so often happened
in Indian history. This splendid trove put matters right for him, for its
value was more than sufficient to enable him to free his land from its
encumbrances, and to sow it and stock it; indeed it left him much
over, wherewith to build a temple and some rest-house and to
organise many processions in gratitude to the deity who had sent
him the dream.
The rest of his life passed in his native city, but never left it for
any length of time except for certain pilgrimages which he
undertook. He was always a deeply religious man, of devotional
type, kind and gentle with his family and dependants, and charitable
towards the poor. As soon as he was relieved by the finding of the
treasure of the immediate pressure of financial worries, he turned
his attention to study and devoted to it a definite portion of time each
day, and presently acquired a great reputation as a learned and holy
man. When his eldest son grew up to years of discretion and had
proved himself a wise and capable manager, Alcyone abdicated his
position and retired to spend the remainder of his days in study,
religious conversation and exercises, not in the jungle, but in a sort
of small wooden house or shed in a garden upon his own estate.
Here he died peacefully at an advanced age.
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