Storia do Mogor 141.8

141.8

Finally, Sultan Mahmud wanted to test the fidelity of his slave, or, we may say, he wished to protect him from the envy of the courtiers by raising him still higher, and giving him his freedom. But here the reader will see what fidelity can do with a heart of which it has once taken possession. The king gave to Malik Khas much money and many soldiers, so that he might search for some lovely site, there to found a large and handsome city in his own name. He added a secret order that after the said city had been built he (Malik Khas) should send a defiance to his master. Malik Khas obeyed, and came to a bare and spacious plain near to a fine river called the Ravi. There he constructed the handsome and beneficent city of Lahor, called by its residents ' Allah-nur' — that is, ' Day-dawn of God.' When the city was completed, he sent a defiance to Sultan Mahmud, calling on him to enter the field and fight. It would be impossible to detail the exclamations and speeches of the courtiers to the king. They told him that now he beheld the loyalty of his slave ; well had they recognised the pride of Malik Khas. But the king had attached more value to the hypocrisy of a slave than to the loyalty of so many faithful followers, who, as members of high-placed families, were endowed with sensitive souls, and full of all good qualities. Now the only remedy was to take the field and destroy this rebel, who repaid by revolt the love of a great king.