Storia do Mogor 60.8.3

60.8.3

He employed another method at court, whereby he finally met with his own death. The reader should know that the greatest honour that can be done by a Mogul king to a favoured person is to give him with his own hands a folded betel-leaf. Akbar did this honour to various persons at different times; but many, having been thus honoured, died shortly afterwards. This king had a box to hold betel with three divisions: in the first were the leaves; in the second, the restorative pills which he ate; in the third, other pills, poisoned but quite similar to the restorative ones. When the king was pleased to confer a very great honour, he gave a betel-leaf and then one of his restoratives. But when he meant to kill anyone, after offering the betel, he handed him one of the imitated pills, whereby without fail the man's life was sacrificed. It happened one day that the king wished to kill one of the grandees, and took by oversight one of the poisoned pills and ate it, taking it for one of the restoratives, with the object of giving confidence to the other man. After a little time he recognised the mistake he had made; but there was no remedy, and thus, through his own death, was disclosed the way that he had killed others. This was the well-earned chastisement of his crimes, and he received the measure that he had meted out to so many others.