326 CRADLE TALES OF HINDUISM
If you attack me to-morrow from behind one such, you will achieve my death."
Then the five heroes remembered that knight named Sikhandin, who had been born a woman, and had obtained knighthood by special favour of the gods. It must be Sikhandin whom Bhishma meant. So it was arranged that on the tenth day Arjuna should fight from behind this knight, piercing Bhishma on every side with arrows. A wave of love and fierce remorse swept over the young knight as the plans were completed, and he spoke with broken accents of those days of child- hood in which he had played about the feet of Bhishma, and told how once he had climbed or. his knee and called him ^' Father." ** Nay, little one, but thy father's father/' had been the tender answer. How could one so caressed aim the arrow of death at the heart of this beloved warrior ? And it was Bhishma himself who had at this moment to remind the soldier of his knightly duty, and nerve him to the stern per- formance of the morrow's task.
The day rose bright, and the battle began. Bhishma plunged into the struggle, and wherever he went, the chariot of Arjuna, with its milk-white steeds, pursued him. Sikhandin stood foremost, beside Krishna, the Charioteer, and Arjuna, from behind the maiden -knight, shot arrow after arrow at the head of his house.
