allies and partisans of that foe.  When calamities overtake the king, he should without losing time, counsel wisely, display his prowess properly, fight with ability, and even retreat with wisdom.  In speech only should the king exhibit his humility, but at heart he should be sharp as a razor.  He should cast off lust and wrath, and speak sweetly and mildly.  When the occasion comes for intercourse with an enemy, a king possessed of foresight should make peace, without reposing blind trust on him.  When the business is over, he should quickly turn away from the new ally.  One should conciliate a foe with sweet assurances as if he were a friend.  One, however, should always stand in fear of that foe as living in a room within which there is a snake.  He whose understanding is to be dominated by thee (with the aid of thine intellect) should be comforted by assurances given in the past.  He who is of wicked understanding should be assured by promises of future good.  The person, however, that is possessed of wisdom, should be assured by present services.  The person who is desirous of achieving prosperity should join hands, swear, use sweet words, worship by bending down his head, and shed tears.[420] One should bear one’s foe on one’s shoulders as long as time is unfavourable.  When however, the opportunity has come, one should break him into fragments like an earthen jar on a stone.  It is better, O monarch that a king should blaze up for a moment like charcoal of ebony-wood than that he should smoulder and smoke like chaff for many years.  A man who has many purposes to serve should not scruple to deal with even an ungrateful person.  If successful, one can enjoy happiness.  If unsuccessful, one loses esteem.  Therefore in accomplishing the acts of such persons, one should, without doing them completely, always keep something unfinished.  A king should do what is for his good, imitating a cuckoo, a boar, the mountains of Meru, an empty chamber, an actor, and a devoted friend.[421] The king should frequently, with heedful application, repair to the houses of his foes, and even if calamities befall them, ask them about their good.  They that are idle never win affluence; nor they that are destitute of manliness and exertion; nor they that are stained by vanity; nor they that fear unpopularity; nor they that are always procrastinating.  The king should act in such a way that his foe may not succeed in detecting his laches.  He should, however, himself mark the laches of his foes.  He should imitate the tortoise which conceals its limbs.  Indeed, he should always conceal his own holes.  He should think of all matters connected with finance like a crane.[422] He should put forth his prowess like a lion.  He should lie in wait like a wolf and fall upon and pierce his foes like a shaft.  Drink, dice, women, hunting, and music,—­these he should enjoy judiciously.  Addiction to these is productive of evil.  He should make bows with bamboos, etc.; he should