Page:Cradle Tales of Hinduism .djvu/217

THB RBTUKN TO MATHURA 193 left hand only, and withdrawing backwards, stood a moment to string it, and, then — closer and closer He smilingly drew the two great ends, till snap ! went the mighty weapon, even, says the chronicler, as a stick of sugar-cane is broken in two by a maddened elephant.

Rigid with terror, every one had drawn back to see the bowstring drawn, but at the sound of its breaking the whole scene changed. Even Kansa, it is said, in his distant apartments, heard the dread echo, and, guessing its cause, hastened to despatch men to seize Him Who had thus threatened his glory with defeat. But Krishna, armed only with the two fragments of the weapon, drove back all His adversaries. Some He merely repulsed, others He slew. And thus, leaving the shattered talisman behind Him, He returned to the lists by the way He had left them, and, rejoining Bolarama, went quietly out of the hall.

But Kansa lay wakeful through all the hours of that long night, or when he slept was pursued by evil dreams. Every now and then he would see as it were himself, now without a head, and again riddled with holes. It seemed to him, too, as if he walked and left no footprint. He had shivered when he heard the sound of the breaking of the bow ; but afterwards he had spoken of it lightly amongst his friends, as an unfortunate joke played by a couple of strangers. In his secret