50. 'Death is an invariable necessity for all creatures. For this reason I am not afraid of it, nor have I anything to fear, when I recollect my own behaviour. 51. 'But it was for your sake, that you should not suffer by injuring Righteousness, the source of happiness, that I praised forbearance to you as the fit instrument for attaining salvation. 52. 'Since it is a mine of virtues and an armour against vices, I gladly praise Forbearance, for it is an excellent boon, I offer you.' But the king disdained these gentle flowers of speech which the Muni offered him. Scornfully he said to that foremost of _Ri_shis: 'Let us now see your attachment to forbearance,' and so speaking, he directed his sharp sword to the right hand of the Muni, which was a little extended towards him, with a prohibitive gesture, having its very fine and long fingers upward, and severed it from his arm like a lotus from its stalk. 53. Yet the Bodhisattva did not feel so much pain, even after his hand had been cut off--so steadfast was he in keeping his vow of forbearance--as sorrow concerning the cutter, whose future misfortune he saw, which was to fall terrible and irremediable upon that person hitherto accustomed to pleasures. And thinking within himself: 'Alas! he has transgressed the boundary of his good, he has ceased to be a person worth admonishing[198],' and commiserating him, as he would do a sick man given up by the doctors, he kept silent. But the king continued to speak threatening words to him. [198] Cp. Story VII, stanzas 20-26. 54. 'And in this manner your body shall be cut to pieces until death. Desist from your hypocritical penance, and leave that villainous forgery.' The Bodhisattva made no answer. He understood him to be deaf to admonition and had learnt his obstinacy. Then the king successively and in the same way cut off the other hand of the High-minded One, both his arms, his ears and nose, and his feet. 55. Yet that foremost of Munis did not feel sorrow or anger, when the sharp sword fell down on his body. His knowledge that the machinery of his body must eventually come to an end, and his habitual practice of forbearance against everybody made him so strong. 56. In consequence of its habitual friendliness, the mind of that virtuous one was inaccessible to the sense of sorrow on account of himself. Even while he saw his limbs being cut off, his forbearance remained unshaken, but that he saw the king fallen from Righteousness, made him sore with grief. 57. Verily, the compassionate who are great in retaining their tranquillity throughout are not so much afflicted by pain arising in themselves, as they grieve on account of the suffering of others. 58. But the king, after performing that cruel deed, was anon caught by a fire-like fever, and when he went out of the gardens, earth on a sudden opened and swallowed him.