346 AURANGZIB Haidar for distribution. The king granted the request, and although he was weak and his suffering was great, he nevertheless wrote with his own hand on the peti- tion that it was his earnest wish that this sacrifice should lead to a speedy dissolution of his mortal frame. On the morning of Friday, the twenty-eighth of AUBANGZIB'S BURIAL -PLACE. Zu-1-ka'da, 1118 A. H. (February 21, 1707 A. p.), his Majesty performed the consecrated prayers and re- turned at their conclusion to the sleeping apartments, where he remained absorbed in contemplation of the Deity. Faintness came on and the soul of the aged monarch hovered on the verge of eternity. Even in this dread hour the force of habit prevailed, and the fingers of the dying king continued mechanically to tell the beads of the rosary they held. A quarter of the day
