Mahapatapa's wretched queen,
'Tis I alone to blame have been.
Bid Dhammapala, Sire, go free,
And off with feet of luckless me.

But the king gave a sign to the executioner, and he cut off both his feet. Queen Canda put his feet also in her lap, and stained with blood, lamented and said, "My lord Mahapatapa, his feet and hands are cut off. A mother is bound to support her children. I will work for wages and support my son. Give him to me." The executioner said, "Sire, is the king's pleasure fulfilled? Is my service finished?" "Not yet," said the king. "What then is your pleasure, Sire?" "Off with his head," said the king. Then Canda repeated the third stanza:--

Mahapatapa's wretched queen,
'Tis I alone to blame have been.
Bid Dhammapala, Sire, go free,
And off with head of luckless me.

And with these words she offered her own head. Again the executioner asked, "What is your pleasure, Sire?" "Off with his head," said the king. So he cut off his head and asked, "Is the king's pleasure fulfilled?" "Not yet," said the king. "What further am I to do, Sire?" "Catching him with the edge of the sword," said the king, "encircle him with sword cuts as it were with a garland." Then he threw the body of the boy up into the air, and catching it with the edge of his sword, encircled him with sword cuts, as it were with a garland, and scattered the bits on the dais. Canda placed the flesh of the Bodhisatta in her lap, and as she sat on the dais lamenting, she repeated these stanzas:--

[181] No friendly councillors advise the king,
"Slay not the heir that from thy loins did spring":
No loving kinsmen urge the tender plea,
"Slay not the boy that owes his life to thee."

Moreover after speaking these two stanzas queen Canda, pressing both her hands upon her heart, repeated the third stanza:--

Thou, Dhammapala, wert by right of birth
The lord of earth:
Thy arms, once bathed in oil of sandal wood,
Lie steeped in blood.
My fitful breath alas! is choked with sighs
And broken cries.

While she was thus lamenting, her heart broke, as a bamboo snaps, when the grove is on fire, and she fell dead on the spot. The king too being unable to remain on his throne fell down on the dais. An abyss was cleft asunder in the ground, and straightway he fell into it. Then the solid earth, though many myriads more than two hundred thousand leagues in thickness, being unable to bear with his wickedness, clave asunder and opened a chasm. A flame arose out of the Avici hell, and seizing upon him, wrapped him about, as with a royal woollen garment, [182] and plunged him into Avici. His ministers performed the funeral rites of Canda and the Bodhisatta.