238 THE MEMOIRS OF THE EMPEROR BABAR panied him. At the very moment that he left me, all the sultans and khans of the Uzbegs had advanced and blockaded Balkh, so that I was obliged to set out for that city as soon as he departed for Hindustan. When Ala-ad-din reached Lahore, he declared to such of my nobles as were in Hindustan that the emperor had ordered them to march to his assistance, and that ar- rangements had been made for Ghazi Khan to join him and for all to march together upon Delhi and Agra. The nobles answered that, as things were situated, they could not accompany Ghazi Khan with any degree of confidence; but that, if he sent his younger brother Haji Khan to court with his son, or placed them in Lahore as hostages, their instructions would then leave them at liberty to march along with him; that other- wise, they could not; that it was only recently that Ala-ad-din Khan had fought with Ghazi Khan and had been defeated by him, so that mutual confidence be- tween them was impossible; and that altogether it was absolutely inadvisable for Ala-ad-din Khan to allow Ghazi Khan to accompany him in the expedition. Whatever expostulations they employed to dissuade Ala-ad-din Khan from prosecuting his plan were in vain. He sent his son Sher Khan to confer with Daulat Khan and Ghazi Khan, and the parties themselves met soon afterwards. Dilawar Khan, who had been in confine- ment very recently, and who had escaped from custody and come to Lahore only two or three months before, was likewise associated with them; and Mahmud Khan Khan-Jahan, to whom the custody of Lahore had been
