Storia do Mogor 353.1.5

353.1.5

King Abu,l Hasan of Gulkandah one day, when out hunting, passed through a village where he saw a young and good-looking shepherd woman. Falling in love with her, he demanded her from her parents, assigning to them several villages for their maintenance. He carried the lovely shepherd girl away with him to his palace. Although she was of lowly birth, and of a somewhat black complexion, she was otherwise perfect both in body and mind. Therefore the king showed her great affection, but without any intention of annoying others. The queen Tãj Mahal betrayed jealousy at this act of her husband's, and looked on this poor young woman with an eye of severity. She showed the disdain and hate she bore to her rival. Finally, unable any longer to repress her rage, she chose a day when the king had gone [75] to the chase, and ordered the shepherdess to be tied to a tree in the garden, and her clothes, after being steeped in oil, were to be set alight. These orders were executed. She, too, wished to be a spectator of this barbarity, and visited the fatal spot at the time when the miserable girl was enduring all the agonies of that torture, and, although almost ready to give up the ghost, her body was still writhing and struggling. Her movements were so horrifying to the sight that Cruelty itself could not have beheld them without some sentiment of compassion or, at any rate, of horror.