also armed with
clubs, and fire-brands and arrows and lances and swords and battle-axes.
And they had also _Sataghnis_[57] and stout maces steeped in wax.[58]
And at all the gates of the city were planted movable and immovable
encampments manned by large numbers of infantry supported by countless
elephants and horses. And Angada, having reached one of the gates of the
city, was made known to the Rakshasas. And he entered the town without
suspicion or fear. And surrounded by countless Rakshasas, that hero in
his beauty looked like the Sun himself in the midst of masses of clouds.
And having approached the hero of Pulastya's race in the midst of his
counsellors, the eloquent Angada saluted the king and began to deliver
Rama's message in these words, "That descendant of Raghu, O king, who
ruleth at Kosala and whose renown hath spread over the whole world,
sayeth unto thee these words suited to the occasion. Accept thou that
message and act according to it! Provinces and towns, in consequence of
their connection with sinful kings incapable of controlling their souls,
are themselves polluted and destroyed. By the violent abduction of Sita,
thou alone hast injured me! Thou, however, wilt become the cause of
death to many unoffending persons. Possessed of power and filled with
pride, thou hast, before this, slain many _Rishis_ living in the woods,
and insulted the very gods. Thou hast slain also many great kings and
many weeping women. For those transgressions of thine, retribution is
about to overtake thee! I will slay thee with thy counsellors. Fight and
show thy courage![59] O wanderer of the night, behold the power of my
bow, although I am but a man! Release Sita, the daughter of Janaka! If
thou dost not release her, I shall make the Earth divested of all
Rakshasas with my keen-edged arrows!" Hearing these defiant words of the
enemy, king Ravana bore them ill, becoming senseless with wrath. And
thereupon four Rakshasas skilled in reading every sign of their master,
seized Angada like four hawks seizing a tiger. With those Rakshasas,
however, holding him fast by his limbs, Angada leaped upwards and
alighted on the palace terrace. And as he leaped up with a great force,
those wanderers of the night fell down the earth, and bruised by the
violence of the fall, had their ribs broken. And from the golden terrace
on which he had alighted, he took a downward leap. And overleaping the
walls of Lanka, he alighted to where his comrade