Firishta's History (Gulshan-i Ibrāhīmī) 15.6

15.6

Sooltan Ibraheem's proposal being rejected, he renewed the siege, which continued some weeks, with great slaughter on both sides. The town, at length, was taken by assault, and the Mahomedans found in it much wealth, and 100,000 persons, whom they carried in bonds to Ghizny. Some time after, the King accidentally saw one of those unhappy men carrying a heavy stone with great difficulty and labour, to a palace which he was then building. This exciting his pity, he commanded the prisoner to throw it down and leave it there, at the same giving him his liberty. This stone happened to be on the public road, and proved troublesome to passengers, but as the King's rigid enforcement of his commands was universally known, no one attempted to touch it. A courtier one day having stumbled with his horse over this stone, took occasion to mention it to the King, insinuating, that he thought it would be advisable to have it removed. To which the King replied, "I commanded it to be thrown down and left there; and there it must remain as a monument of the calamities of war, and to commemorate my sense of its evils. It is better for a king to be pertinacious in the support even of an inadvertent command, than that he should depart from his royal word." The stone accordingly remained where it was; and was shown as a curiosity in the reign of Sooltan Beiram several years afterwards.