Riyaz al-salatin 61.4

61.4

The Bashi cried out: "It is a pity that rebels have killed my master, and ruined the kingdom." Sultan Shahzada, fancying him to be one of his own loyal adherents, cried out: "Look here, hold your peace, for I am alive," and enquired where Malik Andil was. Tawachi said: "Thinking that he has killed the king, he has returned home with peace of mind." Sultan Shahzada told him, "go out, call together the nobles and set them to fetch Malik Andil's head, after killing him, and place watchmen in charge of the gates, warning them to be armed and on the alert." Tawachi the Abyssinian replied: "Very well, now I go to effect a radical cure." Coming out, he quickly told the whole affair to Malik Andil, who again went in, and inflicting cuts with the dagger, finished off the eunuch's life, and leaving his corpse in that cellar, locked it, and coming out sent a person to summon Khan Jahan, the Vizier. And after the arrival of the Vizier, he held a council for the election of a king. And since the son of Fath Shah was only two years old, the nobles were diffident as to how he could be placed on the throne, so that, in the morning, all the nobles being of one mind went to the house of the widow-queen of Fath Shah, related to her the story of the night, and said: "As the prince is a child, you should appoint one to manage the affairs of Government, until the prince comes of age." The queen, on learning their anxiety, knew what to say.