Page:Siyar-ul-Mutakherin.djvu/30

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14
SIYAR-UL-MUTAKHERIN.

using his bow incessantly. But vain were all those efforts. The day was already far spent, and fortune had declared against him. His best officers were slain; such as Terbiet-khan, Aman-ullah-khan, and Matleb-khan, with the two brothers Manuwer-khan and Khan Aalem, together with the Hindu princes Raja Ramsing and Raja Dalpet, with many of their troops. His two hopeful sons also were now no more. The prince himself, wounded by several musket-balls, had fallen senseless in his howdah, when a wretch of the name of Rustem-dil-khan, having clambered up on that hero's elephant, had the baseness to cut off his head. He then took the royal child, Ali-tebar, by the hand, and carried him to Sultan Muazem, his master. This spectacle made a deep impression on the emperor. The sight of his brother's bloody head was more than his feelings could bear; he wept bitterly, and pressed the royal orphan, his nephew, the prince Ali-tebar, to his bosom, and did every thing to pacify him. In the sequel, he conceived so great an affection for him that he never made any difference between him and his own children. The latter took umbrage at these tokens of his tenderness, and once resented and complained of it; but they were silenced with this answer from the emperor's mouth: "If your inquietude be about his being inimical to my for-