The Rashīdī History 160.6

160.6

All the Amirs were for raising the siege that same night, and for marching out to meet and engage Mirza Aba Bakr, before he should be joined by the armies of Kashghar and Yangi-Hisar. But the Khan said: "I intend to remain at the foot of this cliff until Mirza Aba Bakr comes, and to aim my arrows at the citadel and at Mirza Aba Bakr, until I am killed on this spot. Those who do not [wish to] follow my example, let them do what they like." When the Khan had said this, all knelt down before him, saying: "May your exalted majesty's road be [strewed] with our lives as a thousand sacrifices! Who is there among us who holds his own wretched existence more dear than the precious life of the Khan, or thinks of his own personal safety first, in this undertaking?" Then all again set to work, with contented hearts, at the mines. At daybreak of the sixth day of the siege, the Khan rode round all the trenches and infused his own enthusiasm into the hearts of his Amirs and soldiers: praising those who had exerted themselves, and ordering to be whipped any who had been remiss. In this manner did he pass round the citadel. As he approached the trench of my uncle, some one called out from the top of the citadel. They listened. He was saying: "Let one of the followers of Sayyid Muhammad Mirza come forward;