and serve you, go where you will." I said, "Swear then to me by the Holy Book that you are sincere in your offer." And they swore that tremendous oath. I now began to have some confidence in them, and said, "An open road was once pointed out to me near this same valley: do you proceed by it." Though they had sworn, yet I could not thoroughly trust them, so I made them go on in front, and I followed them.'
So they journeyed on, the fugitive king and his two doubtful guides. They were misleading him, of course, and meant to deliver him up to Tambal. They got him some bread, however, for starving was no part of their plan, and, 'each with a loaf under his arm,' the three sat munching on a hillock, keeping watch on all sides and on each other. They saw people passing below, whom they knew, but Bábar dared not trust himself to them, though he trusted his two strange companions even less. It was now afternoon of the second day, and they went down to graze their famished horses in the marshy valley. Here they encountered the headman of the neighbouring village of Karmán, and Bábar knew him, and spoke him fair, and tried to secure his fidelity and help. At night they again descended from their rock, and the men gave Bábar an old cloak of lambskin, with the wool inside and coarse cloth without, for it was winter and bitterly cold. They brought him also a mess of boiled millet flour, which he found 'wonderfully comforting.' They were waiting (they said), to see the headman again; but those mis-
