Not looking back,--nay, not for Bhima's sake,--
But walking with his face set for the Mount;
And the hound followed him,--only the hound.

After the deathly sands, the Mount! and lo!
Sakra shone forth,--the God,--filling the earth
And Heavens with the thunders of his chariot wheels.
"Ascend," he said, "with me, Pritha's great son!"
But Yudhi-sthira answered, sore at heart
For those his kinsfolk, fallen on the way:
"O Thousand-eyed, O Lord of all the gods,
Give that my brothers come with me, who fell!
Not without them is Swarga sweet to me.
She too, the dear and kind and queenly,--she
Whose perfect virtue Paradise must crown,--
Grant her to come with us! Dost thou grant this?"

The God replied: "In Heaven thou shalt see
Thy kinsmen and the Queen--these will attain--
And Krishna. Grieve no longer for thy dead,
Thou chief of men! their mortal coverings stripped,
These have their places; but to thee, the gods
Allow an unknown grace: thou shalt go up,
Living and in thy form, to the immortal homes."

But the King answered: "O thou wisest One,
Who know'st what was, and is, and is to be,
Still one more grace! This hound hath ate with me,
Followed me, loved me; must I leave him now?"