for my
husbands. Enraged they will slay thee. Therefore, do thou not bring
destruction on thyself. Thou intendest to tread along a path that is
incapable of being trod by men. Thou, O wicked one, art even like a
foolish child that standing on one shore of the ocean intends to cross
over to the other. Even if thou enterest into the interior of the earth,
or soarest into the sky, or rushest to the other shore of the ocean,
still thou wilt have no escape from the hands of those sky-ranging
offspring of gods, capable of grinding all foes. Why dost thou today, O
Kichaka, solicit me so persistently even as a sick person wisheth for
the night that will put a stop to his existence? Why dost thou desire
me, even like an infant lying on its mother's lap wishing to catch the
moon? For thee that thus solicitest their beloved wife, there is no
refuge either on earth or in sky. O Kichaka, hast thou no sense which
leads thee to seek thy good and by which thy life may be saved?'"

SECTION XV

Vaisampayana said, "Rejected thus by the princess, Kichaka, afflicted
with maddening lust and forgetting all sense of propriety, addressed
Sudeshna saying, 'Do thou, Kekaya's daughter, so act that thy
_Sairindhri_ may come into my arms. Do thou, O Sudeshna, adopt the means
by which the damsel of the gait of an elephant may accept me; I am dying
of absorbing desire.'"

Vaisampayana continued, "Hearing his profuse lamentations, that gentle
lady, the intelligent queen of Virata, was touched with pity. And having
taken counsel with her own self and reflected on Kichaka's purpose and
on the anxiety of Krishna, Sudeshna addressed the _Suta's_ son in these
words, 'Do thou, on the occasion of some festival, procure viands and
wines for me. I shall then send my _Sairindhri_ to thee on the pretence
of bringing wine. And when she will repair thither do thou in solitude,
free from interruption, humour her as thou likest. Thus soothed, she may
incline her mind to thee.'"

Vaisampayana continued, "Thus addressed, he went out of his sister's
apartments. And he soon procured wines well-filtered and worthy of a
king. And employing skilled cooks, he prepared many and various kinds of
choice viands and delicious drinks and many and various kinds of meat of
different degrees of excellence. And when all this had been done, that
gentle lady Sudeshna, as previously counselled by Kichaka, desired her
_Sairindhri_ to repair to Kichaka's abode, saying, 'Get up, O
_S