Later Mughals v1.c10.s13.1

v1.c10.s13.1

At length on the 27th Ramzan 1131 H.* (12th August, 1719) the garrison surrendered. Ghairat Khan was sent in with a force to take possession, while Rajah Muhkam Singh and Samandar Khan brought out Nekusiyar and his other nephew, Baba Mughal.† At the gate of the fort the two Princes were placed on elephants and escorted to the camp. A great crowd had assembled to see them, through which they passed with hanging heads, looking neither to the right nor to the left. As they dismounted, Husain Ali Khan advanced to greet them and conducted them to the tent already allotted to Mirza Asghari. There they were made to sit on one carpet of honour (masnad), while the Bakhshi stood before them humbly, with folded hands. But Nekusiyar, whose life had been passed in the harem, rose at once, and in the dialect used by women began to beg and pray for his life, accompanying his words by prostrations utterly opposed to usage. Anxious to maintain the usual decorum, the Nawab took his hand, and remonstrating, said, "Let your mind be at rest, and count this place as your own. Until this time you were in the hands of infidels." Nekusiyar uttered bitter complaints against those who had made use of him for their own purposes; and asked that some eunuch might be sent at once to allay the terror of his mother and the other women, by informing them of the kind reception he and his nephew had received. They were then furnished with carpets, pillows and other necessaries.*