The Memoirs of Bābur 933.4.2

933.4.2

(_Feb. 24th_) On Sunday the 22nd (of Jumāda 1.) Shaikh Jamāl was sent to collect all available quiver-wearers from between the two waters (Ganges and Jumna) and from Dihlī, so that with this force he might over-run and plunder the Mīwāt villages, leaving nothing undone which could awaken the enemy's anxiety for that side. Mullā Tark-i-`alī, then on his way from Kābul, was ordered to join Shaikh Jamāl and to neglect nothing of ruin and plunder in Mīwāt; orders to the same purport were given also to Maghfūr the Dīwān. They went; they over-ran and raided a few villages in lonely corners (_būjqāq_); they took some prisoners; but their passage through did not arouse much anxiety! (_r. Bābur renounces wine._) On Monday the 23rd of the first Jumāda (Feb. 25th), when [Sidenote: Fol. 312.] I went out riding, I reflected, as I rode, that the wish to cease from sin had been always in my mind, and that my forbidden acts had set lasting stain upon my heart. Said I, "Oh! my soul!" (_Persian_) "How long wilt thou draw savour from sin? Repentance is not without savour, taste it!"[2013] (_Turkī_) Through years how many has sin defiled thee? How much of peace has transgression given thee? How much hast thou been thy passions' slave? How much of thy life flung away? With the Ghāzī's resolve since now thou hast marched, Thou hast looked thine own death in the face! Who resolves to hold stubbornly fast to the death, Thou knowest what change he attains,