The Book of Akbar 357.4

357.4

When prudent intelligencers reported the true state of the case to the royal hearing, a number gave it as their opinion that whatever form Bairām Khān’s coming might take, there was danger and deceit involved in it. H.M. should go to Lahore before he arrived, and should not grant him an interview. They were not prepared for open war, and what would be the use of an interview at this stage? If Bairām Khān should come to Lahore, H.M. should go to Kabul. Another number were prepared for war, and did not think the departure of H.M. the Shāhinshāh would be proper. After much discussion, that tiger of the forest of dominion and fortune, and that lord of the material and spiritual universe put down the foot of determination and decided on war. He sent Tarsūn Muhammad Khān and Mīr Habīb-Ullah to forbid Bairām Khān to come, and not to permit him to approach under the guise of friendship, for H.M. would not see him under such circumstances. When Bairām Khān found this road, on which he had advanced, closed, he fell into a long meditation. For to go in fighting order was to act contrary to his repeated avowals. Though Wali Beg and Shaikh Gadai, who were the ringleaders of disloyalty, exerted themselves in this direction, and held to the view that he should march quickly, and carry out his object before there should be a general rush, yet from the regard which he had for righteousness he could not decide upon levying war.