Page:The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (1884).djvu/474

employed in a certain place in measuring the depth of a river. The design that the wicked Duryo-dhana had formed had been through his spies known to Vidura of great intelligence, and, therefore, he now sent that prudent person unto the Pandavas. Sent by Vidura unto them he showed the Pandavas on the sacred banks of the Ganges a boat with engines and flags, constructed by trusted artificers and capable of withstanding winds and waves and endued with the speed of the wind or of the mind. He then addressed the Pandavas in these words to show that he was really sent by Vidura. 'O Yudhish-thira,' he said, 'Listen to these words that the learned Vidura had said (unto thee) as a proof of the fact that I come from him!—Neither the consumer of straw and wood, nor the drier of the dew ever burneth the inmates of a hole in the forest. He escapeth from death who protecteth himself knowing this.—By these credentials know me to have been truly sent by Vidura and to be also his trusted agent. Vidura conversant with everything hath again said,—O son of Kunti, thou shalt surely defeat in battle Karna and Duryo-dhana with his brothers and Sakuni.—The boat is ready on the waters. It will glide pleasantly thereon, and shall certainly carry ye all from these regions.'

"Then beholding those foremost of men along with their mother pensive and sad, he caused them to go into the boat that was on the Ganges and accompanied them himself. Addressing them again, he said, 'Vidura having scented your heads and embracing ye (mentally), hath said it again that in commencing your auspicious journey and going along ye should never be careless.'

"Saying these words unto those heroic princes, the person sent by Vidura took those bulls among men to the other side of the Ganges on his boat. And having taken them over the water and seeing them all safe on the opposite bank he uttered the word Jaya to their success and then left them and returned to the place whence he came.

"The illustrious Pandavas also, transmitting through that person some message to Vidura, began, after having crossed the Ganges, to proceed with haste and in great secrecy."