, Dussasana's son, though he himself had a
hair-breadth escape, succeeded, as chance would have it, in making
Abhimanyu, meet with his end. As regards Abhimanyu, he, having slain many
thousands of men and steeds and elephants, and eight thousand cars, and
once more nine hundred elephants, two thousand princes, and a large
number of heroic warriors unknown to fame, and despatching in that battle
king Vrihadvala also to heaven, at last, through ill luck, met with his
own death. Thus hath occurred this event that so enhances our grief! That
tiger among men hath even thus ascended to heaven!" Hearing these words
uttered by king Yudhishthira, Arjuna, saying--Oh son!--and breathing a
deep sigh, fell down on the earth in great pain. Then all the warriors of
the Pandavas, surrounding Dhananjaya with cheerless faces began, filled
with grief, to look at one another with winkless eyes. Recovering
consciousness then, Vasava's son became furious with rage. He seemed to
be in a feverish tremor, and sighed frequently. Squeezing his hands,
drawing deep breaths, with eyes bathed in tears, and casting his glances
like a mad man, he said these words.'

"'Arjuna said,--"Truly do I swear that tomorrow I will slay Jayadratha!
If from fear of death, he doth not forsake the Dhritarashtras, or implore
our protection, or the protection of Krishna that foremost of men or of
thine, O king, I shall assuredly slay him tomorrow! Forgetting his
friendship for me, engaged in doing what is agreeable to Dhritarashtra's
son, that wretch is the cause of the child's slaughter! Tomorrow I will
slay him! Whoever they may be that will encounter me in battle tomorrow
for protecting him, be it Drona, or Kripa, O king, I will cover them all
with my arrow! Ye bulls among men, if I do not achieve even this in
(tomorrow's) battle, let me not attain the region reserved for the
righteous, ye foremost of heroes! Those regions that are for them that
slay their mothers, or for them that slay their fathers, or them that
violate their preceptor's beds, or them that are vile and wicked, or them
that cherish envy against the righteous, or them that speak ill of others
or them that appropriate the wealth confidingly deposited with them by
others, or them that are betrayers of trusts, or them that speak ill of
wives enjoyed by them before, or them that have slain Brahmanas, or them
that have killed kine, or them that eat sugared milk and rice, or food
prepared of barley, or pot