Storia do Mogor 98.8

98.8

For a little I'tibar Khan sat silent, like one to whom something has happened that he does not like, then said under his breath, 'Are the wretches still alive?' He ordered them to be brought into the audience-hall. On their appearing, he inquired angrily who they were, what their names were, where they came from, what was their village. To all this they replied in such a manner that by this time I'tibar Khan could have no doubt that they were his parents. Recognising that most certainly they were such, he said publicly to them : ' How have ye the great temerity to come into my presence after you have consumed the price of my body, and having been the cause, by emasculating me, of depriving me of the greatest pleasures attainable in this world ? Of what use are riches to me, having no sons to whom I could leave them ? Since you were so cruel as to sell your own blood, let not my auditors think it strange if I betray anger against you.' He therefore ordered each to receive fifty stripes. Through the courage that inspired me, I took up my parable and told him the story of Joseph and his rise to the greatest place in Egypt, and how God made use of the cruelty of his brothers to raise that patriarch to the highest dignity. Then I made the application to his case, so that, quieting down, he forgave them, and ordered one hundred rupees to be given them, enjoining them never to appear again, for if they did, he would without fail take their lives.