The Book of Akbar 372.4

372.4

He came forward hopefully and embraced him, and showed excessive shame. Mun‘im Khan encouraged him by promises and covenants and took him towards the sublime threshold. Babai Zambur and Shah Quli Mahram laid their hands on Bairam Khan’s skirt and wept and lamented, saying that there was perfidy, and that he should not go. Though Mun‘im Khan and the other envoys soothed them, they were not satisfied. Apparently they were under apprehensions about themselves. Consequently when Mun‘im Khan said to them, “You remain here this night and wait for news, and after that, when your minds are composed, you will come and do homage,” they let Bairam Khan go, and themselves remained behind. Bairam Khan went on to the threshold of fortune. The royal army was waiting in the confines of the hills in expectation of events, and the opportunists (wāq‘i‘a talabān) were making various remarks when the goodly company (‘aizza) made their appearance. The royal army raised a shout and there was general rejoicing. The day was unpropitious to the sedition-mongers and their faces were blackened. He (Bairām) turned his face towards the sublime court, and in Ābān, Divine month corresponding to Muharram 968, he flung a handkerchief round his neck and made the prostration of shame and contrition. He laid his dust-strewn head at the sphere-traversing feet of H.M. the Shāhinshāh, partly with pain, partly with shame for his crimes, and partly with joy at his pardon, and wept aloud. H.M.