"And Dhritarashtra hearing the ill news of the success of the Pandavas and
recollecting the resolutions of Duryodhana, Karna, and Sakuni, pondered for
a while and addressed to Sanjaya the following speech:--

'Attend, O Sanjaya, to all I am about to say, and it will not become thee
to treat me with contempt. Thou art well-versed in the shastras,
intelligent and endowed with wisdom. My inclination was never to war, not
did I delight in the destruction of my race. I made no distinction between
my own children and the children of Pandu. My own sons were prone to
wilfulness and despised me because I am old. Blind as I am, because of my
miserable plight and through paternal affection, I bore it all. I was
foolish after the thoughtless Duryodhana ever growing in folly. Having
been a spectator of the riches of the mighty sons of Pandu, my son was
derided for his awkwardness while ascending the hall. Unable to bear it
all and unable himself to overcome the sons of Pandu in the field, and
though a soldier, unwilling yet to obtain good fortune by his own exertion,
with the help of the king of Gandhara he concerted an unfair game at dice.

'Hear, O Sanjaya, all that happened thereupon and came to my knowledge.
And when thou hast heard all I say, recollecting everything as it fell out,
thou shall then know me for one with a prophetic eye. When I heard that
Arjuna, having bent the bow, had pierced the curious mark and brought it
down to the ground, and bore away in triumph the maiden Krishna, in the
sight of the assembled princes, then, O Sanjaya I had no hope of success.
When I heard that Subhadra of the race of Madhu had, after forcible
seizure been married by Arjuna in the city of Dwaraka, and that the two
heroes of the race of Vrishni (Krishna and Balarama the brothers of
Subhadra) without resenting it had entered Indraprastha as friends, then,
O Sanjaya, I had no hope of success. When I heard that Arjuna, by his
celestial arrow preventing the downpour by Indra the king of the gods, had