Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c20.s4.56

v1.c20.s4.56

But there were moments when the wants of those dearer than his own life almost excited him to frenzy. The wife of his bosom was insecure, even in the rock or the cave; and his infants, heirs to every luxury, were weeping around him for food: for with such pertinacity did the Mogul myrmidons pursue them, that “five meals have been prepared and abandoned for want of opportunity to eat them.” On one occasion his queen and his son’s wife were preparing a few cakes from the flour of the meadow grass,⁴ of which one was given to each; half for the present, the rest for a future meal. Partap was stretched beside them pondering on his misfortunes, when a piercing cry from his daughter roused him from reflection: a wild cat had darted on the reserved portion of food, and the agony of hunger made her shrieks insupportable. Until that moment his fortitude had been unsubdued. He had beheld his sons and his kindred fall around him on the field without emotion—“For this the Rajput was born”; but the lamentation of his children for food “unmanned him.” He cursed the name of royalty, if only to be enjoyed on such conditions, and he demanded of Akbar a mitigation of his hardships [343].