Vāsudeva in wonder passed through the gates; the keepers all slept a sleep as of death. The waters parted to make a way for him who carried the Lord to pass.
Unseen, unheard, he entered the courtyard and palace and passed the sounding halls and corridors, until the room of the sleeping queen he spied, and taking the Lord from under his cloak, on the breast of the sleeping queen he laid it, and took in his place the wide-eyed daughter, that cooed and smiled in his bearded face.
And sleep still held the queen and the city and the gaolers embraced, till he stood at the side of Devaki once more, who wept at the sight of the smiling babe, who soon at the hand of her brother must perish.
At break of day, the prince entered the dungeon to seek the life of the eighth child of his sister.
As he lifted the child on high to dash its head on the flagged floor, lo! the child slipped from his hand and rose, the while speaking: "Karma, that counteth all reckonings up, cannot be cheated by thee, O prince! Tis written that thou must be slain by the eighth son of thy sister, and so it shall be.
"That child I am not, O prince! But I came on earth for this hour, to show thee thy folly. Dost thou think, O fool, that by human force, by the slaying of innocence, by the destroying of hope and joy in the heart of the mother, thou canst change the Will of Him who is the Maker of all laws?
"Thinkest thou, O man, thou canst cross swords with Him that knoweth the effect of each thought that man thinketh, even before the thinking is done?
"He whom thou seekest thou shalt not find!"
She ceased, and a light never seen on earth or in heaven enveloped the child as she vanished from view.
And the prince rushed forth in his frenzy and madness and sought not again to bring harm to his sister, but unfettered the chains were of husband and wife, and in freedom forth they went.