The Book of Akbar 180: CHAPTER XXVI.

180

of the skirt of resolution, or to retire into a hermitage, preferring the cell of ease to the beholding of his contemporaries, and wishing to be far removed from this world full of care (āsīb) and worldlings full of craft (farīb). All his right-thinking comrades who in weal and woe had waited on his stirrup and kept close to the reins of his society, besought him to abandon this idea and represented that the thing to be done now was to cast the shadow of fortune's Humā on the country of Māldeo and there to recruit his spirits, for Māldeo had repeatedly sent representations of devotion and made protestations of loyalty; that he had an army and an arsenal; that evidently he regarded this as a favourable opportunity and that when he was at the stirrup of good fortune, he would become a spring of good service, and that by degrees, the secret hopes and wishes of his Majesty's well-wishers would be fulfilled. His Majesty from a regard to the ideas of these faithful ones ordered a march towards that country. He sent a gracious rescript, together with salutary counsels, by Ibrāhīm Beg Īshak Āqā to Yādgār Nāsir Mīrzā, for perchance he might become conscious of his base acts and come to tread the path of repentance, and might depart from villany and display the grace of propriety. The following verse was endorsed on the letter:
Verse. O thou moon-cheeked one, others' eye and lamp, I burn! How long wilt thou plaster others' scars?
As the slumbrous-witted Mīrzā did not possess an awakening spirit, the expostulation made no impression on him. With the same old vain hopes he took the road of disloyalty and stayed behind in Sukkur. His Majesty Jahānbānī proceeded to Uc on 21st Muharram 949, and from thence went towards Māldeo on 18th Rabī‘u-l-awwal, and on the 14th idem halted at the foot of Dilāwar. On the 20th he encamped at Hasalpur, and on 17th Rabī'u-l-ākhir he encamped twelve kos from Bīkānīr. On the way the far-seeing members of his retinue became apprehensive of the deceit and perfidy of Māldeo and represented this to his Majesty. They continually suggested that cautious action which is the illuminated border of fortune's rescript. At length Mīr Samandar, who was at the head of men of sense, was sent on rapidly to Māldeo. He returned when he had penetrated the secrets of his heart, and represented that though Māldeo was making protestations of sincerity, it was evident that he did not possess the true light. When the standards of fortune approached his territory, Sānkāī (or Sāngāī) of Nāgor, who was one of Māldeo’s confidants, came to the camp under pretext of trade and sought to purchase a valuable diamond. As his demeanour did not savour of rectitude, his Majesty Jahānbānī bade them impress on this (would-be) buyer that such jewels were not to be obtained by purchase. They either fell by the shimmer of the flashing sword into the hands of him for whom Providence destined them, or were obtained by the favour of great monarchs. In fine, his Majesty was rendered even more cautious by the arrival of this cheat, and applauded the acuteness of Samandar. Again acting on vigilance and prudence which are the net with which princes work, especially in times of trouble and difficulty, he sent Rāi Mal Sōnī with instructions to go quickly to where Māldeo was and to report what he discovered. If unable to write, he was to communicate by means of a pre-arranged signal. That is, the signal of Māldeo’s faithfulness was to be the messenger's clasping all his five fingers, and that of opposite and hypocrisy was to be the clasping of his little finger. The camp moved on two or three stages from Phalūdī which is thirty kos