he charioteer of his adversary. And the horses then
dragged away the empty chariot into the city. And Ravana then beheld that
car without his son on it. And hearing that his son had been slain,
Ravana suffered his heart to be overpowered with grief. And under the
influence of extreme grief and affliction, the king of the Rakshasas
suddenly cherished the desire of killing the princess of Mithila. And
seizing a sword, the wicked Rakshasa hastily ran towards that lady
staying within the Asoka wood longing to behold her lord. Then Avindhya
beholding that sinful purpose of the wicked wretch, appeased his fury.
Listen, O Yudhishthira, to the reasons urged by Avindhya! That wise
Rakshasa said, 'Placed as thou art on the blazing throne of an empire, it
behoveth thee not to slay a woman! Besides, this woman is already slain,
considering that she is a captive in thy power! I think, she would not be
slain if only her body were destroyed. Slay thou her husband! He being
slain, she will be slain too! Indeed, not even he of an hundred
sacrifices (Indra) is thy equal in prowess! The gods with Indra at their
head, had repeatedly been affrighted by thee in battle!' With these and
many other words of the same import, Avindhya succeeded in appeasing
Ravana. And the latter did, indeed, listen to his counsellor's speech.
And that wanderer of the night, then, resolved to give battle himself
sheathed his sword, and issued orders for preparing his chariot.'"

SECTION CCLXXXVIII

"Markandeya said, The Ten-necked (Ravana), excited to fury at the death
of his beloved son, ascended his car decked with gold and gems. And
surrounded by terrible Rakshasas with various kinds of weapons in their
hands, Ravana rushed towards Rama, fighting with numerous monkey-chief.
And beholding him rushing in wrath towards the monkey army, Mainda and
Nila and Nala and Angada, and Hanuman and Jamvuman, surrounded him with
all their troops. And those foremost of monkeys and bears began to
exterminate with trunks of trees, the soldiers of the Ten-necked
(Ravana), in his every sight. And beholding the enemy slaughtering his
troops, the Rakshasa king, Ravana, possessed of great powers of illusion,
began to put them forth. And forth from his body began to spring hundreds
and thousands of Rakshasas armed with arrows and lances and double-edged
swords in hand. Rama, however, with a celestial weapon slew all those
Rakshasas. The king of the Rakshasas then once more put fo