Tarikh-i Iradat Khan 9: Death and Character of Khán-khánán.

9

The Khán-khánán [having invested the fort to which the Sikhs had retreated], sure of having the Gurú in his power, gave orders for his troops to cease their attack till the morning should enable him to finish it with success. He had, however, unluckily neglected to block up a narrow path leading from the fort to the hills, either because he had not perceived it, or was satisfied that it could not lead but to where the Imperial troops were posted. * * During the night the Gurú changed his dress, and left the fort undiscovered. The Khán-khánán about dawn renewed the attack, and gained the place after a short struggle, sword in hand, exulting in the certainty of carrying the Gurú dead or alive to the Emperor, whose displeasure at his disobedience of orders would by this service be changed to approbation; but who can relate his weight of grief and disappointment on finding that his promised prize had escaped, without leaving a trace behind him? * * He for an instant lost almost the use of his faculties, which were absorbed in dread of the Emperor's anger, and not without reason. As he was, agreeably to custom after an important victory, beating the march of triumph on his way to the royal tents, orders arrived commanding him to stop the drums, and not dare to enter the presence. He retired, drowned in despair, to his own tents. * * * Shah 'Alam, regarding his former services, received him again into favour after a few days; but this noble and faithful minister never recovered from the effects of the royal ingratitude. This grief, added to the pain of seeing three of the Princes and the Amiru-l umara using all their arts to complete his ruin, stuck like a poisoned arrow in his breast. He lost all satisfaction in worldly enjoyments, the emptiness of which he now so fully experienced, and from the day of his disgrace declined in health, so that not long after he was reduced to keep his bed, where he lingered a few days, and then resigned his soul to the angel of death (1124 A.H., 1712 A.D.), who never in the uncounted ages of his office seized on a soul more pure and less defiled with the frailties of human nature.