Page:Cradle Tales of Hinduism .djvu/247

Rh suddenly became aware that the dead body of her son Duryodhana lay before her. This sight was too much for the doom-smitten woman, and all her grief burst forth afresh. She remembered her own terrible blessing, ** Victory, O my son, will follow the Right I " pronounced every morning over the head of the kneeling prince. She saw now realised that same vision that had been present with her daily, since the battle began. All these days she had been treading a path of anguish under the shadow of the coming woe. She had become as it were the companion of judgment and sorrow, and there was no room for appeal. A great queen was Gandhari, wife of Dritarashtra, sovereign of the Kuru clans, yet she was woman and mother also, and her mourning that was half wail, half prayer, rose suddenly to a new note.

" Behold, O Krishna I " she said. "Behold my son, wont in battle to be irresistible, sleeping here on the bed of heroes 1 Terrible are the changes wrought by Time I This terror of his foes, who of old walked foremost amongst crowned persons, lies now before us in the dust. He for whose pleasure the fairest of women would vie with one another, has none now to bear him company save hungry jackals. He who was proudly encircled by kings, lies slain now, and encircled by the vultures.

"Fanned now is he by noisome birds of prey,