126 ALA -AD -DIN KHALJI wife the queen of his victim, a Hindu princess to whom such an alliance was an unspeakable profanation; the wives and daughters of the royal family and of the great nobles were delivered over to the scum of Khusru's pariahs; " the flames of bloodshed and brutality red- dened the sky." The holy Koran was dese- crated; idols were set up in the mosques. The reign of an unclean pariah was as revolting to the Hindus them- selves as to the Mos- lems. Had a Rajput attempted to rally the still powerful forces of his countrymen and to make a bid for the throne, the chaos of the times might have given him a chance of suc- cess. The stubborn de- fence of Rantambhor and Chitor showed that the Hindu chiefs were far from subdued. But no In- dian of any race or creed, save the outcast sweepers of his own degraded and despised class, would follow a Parvani. The hope of the Moslems lay in one man, the only man of whom the Hindu upstart went in abject fear. SCENE IN GWALIOR.
