“Vaisampayana continued, ’Hearing these pitiable words of the Kuru king, O monarch, the assembled denizens of Kurujangala all began to weep.  Covering their faces with their hands and upper garments, all those men burning with grief, wept for a while as fathers and mothers would weep (at the prospect of a dear son about to leave them for ever).  Bearing in their hearts, from which every other thought had been dispelled, the sorrow born of Dhritarashtra’s desire to leave the world, they looked like men deprived of all consciousness.  Checking that agitation of heart due to the announcement of Dhritarashtra’s desire of going to the forest, they gradually were able to address one another, expressing their wishes.  Settling their words in brief, O king, they charged a certain Brahmana with the task of replying unto the old monarch.  That learned Brahmana, of good behaviour, chosen by unanimous consent, conversant with all topics, master of all the Richs, and named Samba, endeavoured to speak.  Taking the permission of the whole assembly and with its full approbation, that learned Brahmana of great intelligence, conscious of his own abilities, said these words unto the king,—­’O monarch, the answer of this assembly has been committed to my care.  I shall voice it, O hero.  Do thou receive it, O king.  What thou gayest, O king of kings, is all true, O puissant one.  There is nothing in it that is even slightly untrue.  Thou art our well-wisher, as, indeed, we are thine.  Verily, in this race of kings, there never wag a king who coming to rule his subjects became unpopular with them.  Ye have ruled us like fathers or brothers.  King Duryodhana never did us any wrong.  Do that, O king, which that righteous-souled ascetic, the son of Satyavati, has said.  He is, verily, our foremost of instructors.  Left by thee, O monarch, we shall have to pass our days in grief and sorrow, filled with remembrance of thy hundreds of virtues.  We were well protected and ruled by king Duryodhana even as we had been ruled by king Santanu, or by Chitrangada, or by thy father, O monarch, who was protected by the prowess of Bhishma, or by Pandu, that ruler of Earth, who was overlooked by thee in all his acts.  Thy son, O monarch, never did us the slightest wrong.  We lived, relying on that king as trustfully as on our own father.  It is known to thee how we lived (under that ruler).  After the same manner, we have enjoyed great happiness, O monarch, for thousands of years, under the rule of Kunti’s son of great intelligence and wisdom[27].  This righteous-souled king who performs sacrifices with gifts in profusion, follows the conduct of the royal sages of old, belonging to thy race, of meritorious deeds, having Kuru and Samvara and others and Bharata of great intelligence among them.  There is nothing, O monarch, that is even slightly censurable in the matter of this Yudhishthira’s rule.  Protected and ruled by thee, we have all lived in great happiness.  The slightest demerit is incapable of being alleged against thee and thy son.  Regarding what thou hast said about Duryodhana in the matter of this carnage of kinsmen, I beg thee, O delighter of the Kurus (to listen to me).’