At this moment Night-cloud, the Crow, made his appearance. 'Deign me one regard, Sire,' said he, 'the insolent enemy is at our gates; let your Majesty give the word, and I will go forth and show my valor and devotion to your Crown.'
'It were better to keep our cover,' said the Goose. 'Wherefore else builded we this fortalice? Is it not said?—
'Hold thy vantage!—alligators on the land make none afraid;
And the lion's but a jackal that hath left his forest-shade.'
But go, your Majesty, and encourage our warriors." Thereupon they repaired to the Gateway of the Fort, and all day the battle raged there.
It was the morning after, when King Jewel-plume spake thus to his Minister the Vulture—'Good sir, shall thy promise be kept to us?'
'It shall be kept, your Majesty,' replied the Vulture; 'storm the fort!'
'We will storm it!' said the Peacock-king. The sun was not well-risen accordingly when the attack was made, and there arose hot fighting at all the four gates. It was then that the traitorous Crows, headed by their Monarch, Night-cloud, put fire to every dwelling in the citadel, and raised a shout of 'The Fort is taken! it is taken!' At this terrible sound the soldiers of the Swan-king forsook their posts, and plunged into the pool.
Not thus King Silver-sides:—retiring coolly before the foe, with his General the Paddy-bird, he was cut off and encircled by the troopers of King Jewel-plume, under the command of his Marshal, the Cock.
'My General,' said the King, 'thou shalt not perish for me. Fly! I can go no farther. Fly! I bid thee, and take counsel with the Goose that Crest-jewel, my son, be named King!'
'Good my Lord,' replied the Paddy-bird, 'speak not thus! Let your Majesty reign victorious while the sun and moon endure. I am governor of your Majesty's fortress, and if the enemy enter it he shall but do so over my body; let me die for thee, my Master!—
'Gentle, generous, and discerning; such a Prince the Gods do give!'
'That shalt thou not,' replied the Rajah—
'Skilful, honest, and true-hearted; where doth such a Vassal live?'
'Nay! my royal Lord, escape!' cried the Paddy-bird; a king's life is the life of his people—
'The people are the lotus-leaves, their monarch is the sun—
When he doth sink beneath the waves they vanish every one.
When he doth rise they rise again with bud and blossom rife,
To bask awhile in his warm smile, who is their lord and life.'
'Think no more of me.' At this instant the Cock rushing forward, inflicted a wound with his sharp spurs on the person of the King; but the Paddy-bird sprang in front of him, and receiving on his body the blows designed for the Rajah, forced him away into the pool. Then turning upon the Cock, he despatched him with a shower of blows from his long bill; and finally succumbed, fighting in the midst of his enemies. Thus the King of the Peacocks captured the fortress; and marched home with all the treasure in it, amid songs of victory.
Then spake the Princes: "In that army of the Swans there was no soldier like the Paddy-bird, who gave his own life for the King's."
"There be nowhere many such," replied Vishnu-Sarman; "for
'All the cows bring forth are cattle—only now and then is born
An authentic lord of pastures, with his shoulder-scratching horn.'[20]
"It is well spoken," said the Princes.
"But for him that dares to die so," added the Sage, "may an eternal heaven be reserved, and may the lustrous Angels of Paradise, the Apsaras, conduct him thither! Is it not so declared, indeed?—
'When the soldier in the battle lays his life down for his king,
Unto Swerga's perfect glory such a deed his soul shall bring.'
"It is so declared," said the Rajah's sons.
"And now, my Princes," concluded Vishnu-Sarman, "you have listened to 'War.'"
"We have listened, and are gratified," replied the sons of the King.
"Let me end then," said their Preceptor, "with this—
'If the clouds of Battle lower
When ye come into your power,
Durga grant the foes that dare you
Bring no elephants to scare you;
Nor the thunderous rush of horses,
Nor the footmen's steel-fringed forces:
But overblown by Policy's strong breath,
Hide they in caverns from the avenging death.'
PEACE
When the time came for resuming instruction, the King's sons said to Vishnu-Sarman, "Master, we have heard of War, we would now learn somewhat of the treaties which follow war." "It is well asked," replied the Sage; "listen therefore to 'Peace,' which hath this commencement—
'When those great Kings their weary war did cease,
The Vulture and the Goose concluded Peace.'
'How came that?' asked the Princes.
Vishnu-Sarman related:—
The Treaty Between the Peacocks and the Swans
"So soon as King Jewel-plume had retreated, the first care of King Silver-sides was the discovery of the treason that had cost him the fort.
'Goose,' he said to his Minister, 'who put the fire to our citadel, think you? Was it an enemy or an inmate?'
'Sire,' replied the Goose, 'Night-cloud and his followers are nowhere to be seen—it must needs be his work.'
'It must needs be,' sighed the King, after a pause; 'but what ill-fortune!'
'If it please your Majesty, no,' replied the Minister; 'it is written—
"'Tis the fool who, meeting trouble, straightway destiny reviles;
Knowing not his own misdoing brought his own mischance the whiles."
You have forgotten the saying—
'Who listens not, when true friends counsel well,
Must fall, as once the foolish Tortoise fell.'
'I never heard it,' said the King. 'How was that?' The Goose related—
The Story of the Tortoise and the Geese
"There is a pool in South Behar called the 'Pool of the Blue Lotus,' and two Geese had for a long time lived there. They had a friend in the pool who was a Tortoise, and he was known as 'Shelly-neck,' It chanced one evening that the Tortoise overheard some fishermen talking by the water. 'We will stop here to-night,' they said, 'and in the morning we will catch the fish, the tortoises, and such like.' Extremely alarmed at this, the Tortoise repaired to his friends the Geese, and reported the conversation.
'What ever am I to do, Gossips?' he asked.
'The first thing is to be assured of the danger,'