The monarch hid his face and wept, he heard his first-born say,
"The crown you placed upon my brow this hour has past away;
My brother is my enemy—a traitor is my friend,
And I must seek these ancient walls, to shelter and defend."
"Not so," the old king said, "my son; fly thou with spear and shield,
For never walls could stand for those who stood not in the field;"
He wept before his father's face—then fled across the plain;
The desolate and the fugitive—they never met again.
Time has past on, and Dara's doom is darkly drawing nigh,
The vanquished prince has only left to yield— despair, and die;
The faithless friend, the conquering foe, have been around his path,
And now a wild and desert home, is all Prince Dara hath.
The sands are bare, the wells are dry, and not a single tree
Extends its shade o'er him who had a royal canopy:
There is not even safety found amid those burning sands;
The exile has a home to seek in far and foreign lands.
He lingers yet upon his way—within his tents is death;
He cannot fly till he has caught Nadira's latest breath.
How can he bear to part with her—she who, since first his bride,
In wo and want his comforter, has never left his side.
He kissed the pale unconscious cheek—he flung him at her feet;
He gazed how fondly on those eyes he never more might meet;
"'Tis well," he cried, "my latest friend is from my bosom flown,
Go bear her to her father's tomb, while I go forth alone."
The traitor is upon his way, the royal prey is found,
And by ignoble hands and chains, the monarch's son is bound;
Garbed as a slave, they lead him forth the public ways along,
But on his noble brow is scorn, and on his lip a song.†
'Tis midnight; but the midnight crime is darker than the night,
And Aurungzebe with gloomy brow awaits the morning light;
The morning light is dyed for him with an accusing red,
They bring to the usurper's feet his brother Dara's head.‡
* Prince Dara was the favourite son of Shah Jehan, who associated him with himself on the throne. The talents and good fortune, however, of Aurungzebe, the younger brother, turned the scale in his own favour. The struggle between the two was long and severe; and the final catastrophe fatal to the unfortunate Dara.
† Having a talent for poetry, he composed many affecting verses on his own misfortunes, with the repetition of which he often drew tears from the eyes of the common soldiers who guarded his person. "My name," said he, "imports that I am in pomp like Darius; I am also like that monarch in my fate. The friends whom he trusted were more fatal than the swords of his enemies."
‡ Aurungzebe passed the night destined for his brother's death in great fear and perplexity, when Najis, the instrument of his crime, brought before him the last fatal relic. The head of Dara being disfigured with blood, he ordered it to be thrown into a charger of water; and when he had wiped it with his handkerchief, he recognized the features of his brother. He is said to have exclaimed, "Alas, unfortunate man!" and then to have shed some tears.
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