Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 2.17.2

2.17.2

To Gion-kan Dara determined to proceed, hoping to obtain by his means forces to enable him to drive Mir-Baba from the walls of Tata-bakar. The plan he now proposed to himself was briefly this : — after raising the siege with the troops supplied by the Patan, he intended to proceed, with the treasure deposited in that city, to Kandahar, whence he might easily reach the kingdom of Kaboul. When in Kaboul he felt quite sanguine in the expectation that Mohabet-kan would zealously and unhesitatingly embrace his cause. It was to Dara this officer was indebted for the government of that country, and being possessed of great power and influence, and very popular in Kaboul, the Prince was not unreasonable in the hope that he would find in Mohabet-kan a sincere and efficacious ally. But Dara's family, agitated by dismal forebodings, employed every entreaty to prevent him from venturing in Gion-kan's presence. His wife, daughter, and his young son, Sepe-Chekouh, fell at his feet, endeavouring, with tears in their eyes, to turn him aside from his design. The Patan, they observed, was notoriously a robber and a rebel, and to place confidence in such a character was at once to rush headlong into destruction. There was no sufficient reason, they added, why he should be so pertinaciously bent upon raising the siege of Tata-bakar ; the road to Kaboul might be safely pursued without that operation, for Mir-Baba would scarcely abandon the siege for the sake of interrupting his march.