The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.180

v3.c20.180

The character of Masʻūd had gradually succumbed to the temptations of his position, and he had become slothful, impatient of the tedium of business, and inordinately addicted to drink, sensuality, and the chase. Rebellions, which he lacked the strength or the energy to suppress, rendered him apprehensive and suspicious of all around him, and his severity and lack of discrimination in punishment alienated from him the Forty, who now turned their eyes towards his uncle, Nāsir-ud-dīn Mahmūd, a youth of seventeen or eighteen, who was nominally governor of Bahrāich. When their invitation reached him his mother, an ambitious and resourceful woman, spread a report that her son was sick and must go to Delhi for treatment. She placed him in a litter and sent him from Bahrāich with a large retinue of servants. When night fell the prince was covered with a woman's veil and set on a horse, and the cavalcade pressed on to Delhi with such caution and expedition that none but the conspirators was aware of his arrival in the city.