The Book of Akbar 243.4

243.4

In short, wicked men compassed this event in order to lighten their sufferings and the pressure which was upon them, but the far-seeing and discriminating reckoned the move as causing the speedy downfall of those workers of iniquity. In the meantime, M. Ulugh Beg came from Zamin Dawar and Qasim Husain Shaibani from Qilat, and Khwaja Ghazi, who had remained in the Shah’s camp, and Shah Quli Sultan, who was related to Bairam Khan, came from Qandahar, and a number came in from Badakhshan. H.M. assigned them a battery by the Yarak Gate. Those right-minded men girt up their loins for service and the valiant heroes displayed more and more alacrity and energy and pressed the Mirza more and more closely. When all his schemes failed, he turned like a fox to fawning and to feline hypocrisy and came forward with protestations of shame and repentance and with blandishments. He represented through Qaraca Khan that he regretted the past and was desirous of entering into service and of making amends for the past, so that he might win over his Majesty’s appreciative heart by acceptable services. Might now his life and estate be under the o’ershadowing protection of his Majesty’s clemency as the offering of his shame and penitence. His Majesty by virtue of his noble nature accepted his statements and ordered the siege-operations to be slackened. As M.