15. Lord! may thy realm be never detached, which is bound fastly by thy arms, as a cow is tied to a tree or post; but hear me relate to you something, which requires your consideration. (The word go--Gr. ge.--Pers. gao--cow, means both the earth and a cow and hence their mutual simile). 16. Thy chieftain in the east is snatched away from his post, by the relentless hand of a fever where upon he seems to have gone to the regions of death, to conquer as it were, the god Yama at thy behest. 17. Then as thy chief on the south, proceeded to quell the borderers thereabouts; he was attacked by hostile forces who poured upon him from the east and west, and killed by the enemy. 18. Upon his death as the chieftain of the west, proceeded with his army to wrest those provinces (from the hands of the enemy). 19. He was met on his way, by the combined forces of the inimical princes of the east and south, who put him to death in his half way journey to the spot. 20. Vasishtha continued:--As he was relating in this wise, another emissary driven by his haste, entered the court-hall with as great a rush, as a current of the deluging flood. 21. He represented, saying:--O lord, the general of thy forces on the north, is overpowered by a stronger enemy, and is routed from his post, like an embankment broken down and borne away by the rushing waters. 22. Hearing so, the king thought it useless to waste time, and issuing out of his royal apartment, he bade as follows. 23. Summon the princes and chiefs and the generals and ministers, to appear here forthwith in their full armour; and lay open the arsenal, and get out the horrible weapons (of destruction). 24. Put on your bodies your armours of mail, and set the infantry on foot; number the regiments, and select the best warriors. 25. Appoint the leaders of the forces, and send the heralds all around; thus said the king in haste, and such was the royal behest. 26. When the warder appeared before him, and lowly bending down his head, he sorrowfully expressed: “Lord, the chieftain of the north is waiting at the gate, and expects like the lotus to come to thy sunlike sight”. 27. The king answered:--Go thou quickly there, and get him to my presence; that I may learn from his report the sterling events of that quarter. 28. Thus ordered, the warder introduced the northern chief to the royal presence; where he bent himself down before his royal lord, who beheld the chieftain in the following plight. 29. His whole body and every part and member of it, was full of wounds and scars; it breathed hard and spouted out blood, and supported itself with difficulty. 30. While he with due obeisance, and faltering breath and voice, and contortion of his limbs, delivered this hasty message to his sovereign.