Storia do Mogor 211.2.p3

211.2.p3

The soldiers, eunuchs, and servants of the queens and princesses are more regularly paid, and do not endure so much as the other soldiers. They never go on active service unless the king and the princes of the blood royal are going. But, since on those occasions the wives, daughters, and concubines accompany them, these troops also follow the campaign. These ladies travel generally in the rear of the army, riding on the greatest elephants, which are followed by others bearing the gold coin and precious stones that these princes carry also with them, to be made use of in case of disgrace or misfortune. They say that since Taimur-i-lang, in all the generations of the Moguls, no queen has been made a prisoner in war, except Humayun's queen, who was taken by Sher Shah, the Pathan ; and even that prince sent her back to the king as far as Persia, where he had gone, which I have already mentioned, if I mistake not, in my First Part (I. 70).
Most of the horses used by the Mogul come from the regions of Balkh, Bukhara, and Kabul. Thence come every year more than one hundred [34] thousand, and on them the king makes a great profit by the duty he imposes. At the crossing of the Indus alone a payment of twenty-five per cent. on their value is made. The best are chosen for the king's service, the usual number taken being twelve thousand. Among them are some selected for his own stable, and the others he uses as presents to the great lords of his court. There also come from those regions many camels loaded with fruit, such as melons, pears, seedless pomegranates, raisins, and other dried fruits.
The horses are called Turki; they are courageous in war, can stand much fatigue, and never forsake their masters unto death.
The policy of the present Mogul is so fine and so delicate as to surpass that of all his predecessors; and he has had peculiarly hard work to maintain himself on the throne up to this time against the wish and the will of several persons. First, there are his children, upon whom he always keeps a vigilant eye, so that they may commit no treason similar to that he did to his father. It is for this reason that formerly, besides the spies he kept to report all that was passing, he used at night to go in person incognito into the house of Shah 'Alam to spy out what was going on there.
The prince, on the other hand, detected the movements and ruses of his father, and set his own wits to work. He had cunning spies to inform him of all he (Aurangzeb) projected. One night it happened, when there was very bright moonlight, the prince was enjoying himself with some ladies who were his mistresses: they came and warned him that the king, his father, was coming to visit him. As soon as he heard this news he promptly rose, and having hidden the ladies in different places, he went into a room and set to work reading the Quran aloud, as is the custom. Aurangzeb came in, and finding Shah 'Alam thus occupied, said to him that what he was engaged in did not suit the season, which invited rather to delectation than the reading of the Quran.
Shah 'Alam replied that what he read appeared to him more lovely than the moon, and afforded him more delight than the light of the sun. The father was charmed at this answer, and as a mark of his satisfaction thereat he augmented the prince's allowance, and gave him more frequent tokens of the esteem in which he held such virtue.
Several times Shah 'Alam's favourites, seeing the manner in which his father acted, coming and going just as he pleased, asked him (Shah 'Alam) to allow them to kill him (Aurangzeb). To incite him to this, they brought up the example of the king, who had acted thus towards his own father and brother. They said that after the death of the old fellow he could [35] easily crown himself as king. But the prince would never give his consent, saying that if he did so, his children would one day treat him the same, and thus this pernicious custom would be established in the family from generation to generation. This is why he hoped that God would never allow him to imitate his father in that respect; and, what was more, he was still a young man.
When this prince reached the age of twenty-five, he knew quite well he was endued with little courage, and this forced him into attempting to acquire the magical arts, in order to guide himself thereby in case of necessity, just as his father had done when he was a prince. To accomplish this design he busied himself with the study of books of magic. But in a short time this occupation destroyed his mind, which his father discovered without knowing the real cause. He believed this arose from illness, so came to visit him. No sooner had he entered than his son seized him by the beard and demanded in a fury who he was, and why he entered his house. Seeing the prince in this condition, the king was greatly concerned, the more so that he (his son) had always been very submissive, and he had tenderly loved him. Plunged into affliction, he placed him in charge of his own physicians, conjuring them to use their best efforts on his behalf. The gentlemen met in consultation, and after discussing the symptoms, concluded that the evil arose from blood to the head. As a remedy, they bled and purged, whereby he recovered his senses. Having thus by sad experience learnt that such studies would be his destruction, he thought no more about them, and forsook them entirely.