As calm in danger’s hour,
As if from peril far he stood
In some sequestered bower.
ANTAR.
“When shall the long days of this thraldom be over?” asked the emperor,
upon seeing Auzeem at their usual hour of meeting in the evening.
“Patience, my sovereign--patience, but for a little time further, and
you will find that the policy we have adopted was the only one that
could have guided you safely, through the perilous rocks amidst which
the vessel of the state has been so long, and so fearfully struggling.
The Orcha rajaputs are growing fiercer every day in their demands upon
the usurper. Those demands he dare not yet comply with.”
“The monies of the state,--of my people,--are all at the command of
that set of banditti. They have emptied the treasury, which, when it
was under my care, was always overflowing.”
“They are worthy of the master whom they serve. But for the moment,
power is in their hands. You know how we have failed in endeavouring to
bring together the omrahs, who ought to come to rescue the throne from
its present degradation. Their mutual jealousies,--their fears,--their
horror of co-operating with the people whom they despise as slaves, in
any well organised measure for the overthrow of the Persian,--will earn
for them infamy in the annals of Hindostan.”
“Do you consider, then, that all our hopes are at an end in that
quarter?”
“Entirely so. I have exhausted every means within my reach for
gathering their opinions, and dispositions. It was necessary that I
should proceed with the utmost precaution; for if a single false step
were taken, which tended to betray my real intentions, the cause was
lost.”
“Bochari has then no suspicions of your attachment to his interests?”
“I believe none--at least none which he can render tangible. A mind
like his, full of the recollections of guilt, cannot be free from doubt
as to the length to which he can depend upon any person, with whom he
is engaged in the conduct of affairs. But I am necessary to him. It
was my object to make myself so. He has nobody in his confidence who
can draw up a decree, upon the most ordinary matters referred to the
council, and if I were to absent myself from it for a day, I know not
what calamities might follow.”
“My dear Auzeem, you expose yourself to no common dangers in the
difficult part which you have to perform. Upon your head, at this
moment, rest the destinies of my people.”
“You know Auzeem, sire,--you know that his heart and his head are
yours. This is no common tyranny which we have to destroy. These
Orcha rajaputs are restrained by no law, divine or human. They are
ready instruments for the perpetration of any crime which their
remorseless employer may think necessary to his safety. That you, and
the chancellor, and Nourmahal have hitherto been secured from their
poniards, is to be attributed solely to his fear that the time is not
yet arrived, when he might venture upon such quarry with impunity. The
inferior prey of the forest is still sufficient to feed the vultures by
whom he is surrounded.”
“Have none of them yet departed for the provinces?”
“None! He dare not part with them. Upon whom could he depend, if they
were away?”
“Upon the people of Agra! Has he not been lately distributing largesses
privately amongst them, with a view to induce them to proclaim him
emperor?”
“There again he is hampered with difficulties. It became known to the
rajaputs that sums of money were sent, by his order, to several of the
cadis, to be divided amongst the poor of the different districts of
the capital,--the poor, being described by his decree, however, to be
only those capable of bearing arms, and who would bind themselves in
allegiance to him by the great oath.”
“Have the cadis then turned against me?”
“He has put creatures of his own into almost every office connected
with the police, and the administration of the laws. But the
rajaputs, as soon as they heard of this appropriation of the public
money, remonstrated against it, in terms which soon deterred him
from repeating that experiment. Let him but pursue his own course a
little longer, and you will find that he must become their slave. I
ascertained this morning, that the Orcha chieftains have had, within
these ten days, more than one meeting, at which Bochari was not
present.”
“Indeed! that is of importance. What are they about, think you?”
“They have conducted their councils with the utmost secrecy. But from
all I could learn, I conclude that they have resolved to fix a day,
beyond which they will not wait in Agra for the official warrants of
their appointments to the provinces, which they claim for the services
they have already performed.”
“Do they expect me to sign these warrants?”
“They expect that you will abdicate the throne.”
“They shall take my head first. May this right hand be palsied, if ever
it should hold the reed for any such purpose!”
“Sire, there are occasions when sovereigns, situated as you now
unfortunately happen to be, must appear for a season to go with the
stream. It was by taking this course, that we have hitherto steered
amongst the quicksands by which we have been beset. Your determination
is mine. Nevertheless, permit me to hold out to the Persian that the
idea is not altogether impracticable.”
“Upon that, as upon all other matters relating to my interests, I
confide, my dear Auzeem, in your well-tried fidelity and discretion.”
“I have hitherto dissuaded you from opening any communication with
Nourmahal.”
“In that, also, the matter of all others nearest to my heart, I
have yielded to your suggestions. Say, have I not some merit for my
self-denial in that respect, seeing that by her conduct in captivity
she has won the esteem of the whole empire, and, by her tenderness
for her beloved parents, has increased a hundred-fold, if that were
possible, her claims to my affection. Oh, Nourmahal! the light of my
heart--if Heaven would promise thee to be yet mine--there are no
arrows in the quiver of adversity which could reach my soul!”
“Adversity has, indeed, no power over a mind like hers.”
“Is she not a noble being? Was I wrong in giving her my heart, from the
moment I was able to appreciate her charms? Her beauty was matchless;
but it was the lustre shed over it by her brilliant mind that
fascinated me.”
“Her natural place is undoubtedly beside thee, upon the Indian throne.”
“Had she been in that place when I first occupied it myself, this
cruel tyranny would never have dared to lift its head. But it is a
consolation to me that I made no attempt to interfere with Afkun’s
lawful rights, as secured to him by his marriage. No! Allah is my
witness, that I held, as I still, and ever shall hold, it to be my
first duty to adhere rigidly in all things, to the ordinances which I
have received from my ancestors.”
“We must not appear to take any step at present, without the knowledge
of Bochari. He is fully impressed with the idea, that if an ample
income were secured to you, you would have no difficulty in retiring
with Nourmahal to Persia, and giving up all your rights, as well as
those of your descendants, to the throne.”
“He is, then, under a complete illusion.”
“It is, however, an illusion necessary at this moment to your safety.
Suppose you see Nourmahal.”
“Nothing would be more delightful to me. But is that a matter so easy
to be accomplished?”
“We shall see.”
“He would not permit her to quit her prison, even for a day.”
“Nor is it necessary. He is already prepared for your visiting her
secretly.”
“Then let us go at once.”
“Zeinedeen informed me, that the family occupy three chambers, and that
the apartment we first enter is sufficiently gloomy to conceal you
there for a few minutes, while I break the matter to her, as well as
to the chancellor. At present they must labour under impressions, not
advantageous either to your majesty, or me. For instance, the order for
their imprisonment is signed by your hand, as well as by mine.”
“True, I had forgotten that. The chancellor would, no doubt, more than
conjecture that we acted on that occasion, under a coercion which we
had no power to resist.”
“These are things I must clear up to him. But here comes Zeinedeen. I
charged him this morning, to make the best of his way through the most
frequented parts of the city, and to ascertain what is going on there
with reference to the intentions of Bochari.”
Zeinedeen, having made his obeisance to the emperor, stated that agents
were very actively employed in almost every quarter of the metropolis,
in diffusing intelligence that the emperor had abdicated, in
consequence of ill health, and that he was about to proceed to Persia,
under the advice of his physicians, in order that he might benefit from
a change of climate.
“It is well,” said Auzeem. “And the rajaputs--have you heard any thing
of their proceedings, since you were with me this morning?”
“I have seen the merchant.”
“The merchant?” asked Jehangire. “Who is this merchant?”
“One of the unhappiest of men, sire,” answered Zeinedeen. “It is but
a few weeks ago since he sought me at my residence, and prostrating
himself on the ground before me, entreated that I would pray with him
to Allah, for pardon of many enormities which he has perpetrated upon
the instigation of Bochari.”
“He was formerly much engaged,” added Auzeem, “in chemical experiments,
with a view to discover the talismanic compound, which would enable
him to convert all things into gold. He spent all his fortune in that
vain pursuit; but, in the course of his inquiries, he lighted upon many
curious secrets of nature, which were before unknown.”
“He was, unhappily,” resumed Zeinedeen, looking on the ground, “one of
the principal agents of Bochari, in procuring the assassination of the
greatest ornament of this empire.”
“Ah! you mean Abul Fazeel,” observed the emperor, in a voice trembling
with emotion. “I, too, ought to pray with him for pardon--if, indeed,
some words, which in the madness of a moment I once uttered, tended
in any way to encourage that Persian in his hatred to the very name
of that most distinguished man. I never can sufficiently repent me of
those hasty expressions. Often, in the height of prosperity, have
they come back upon the fibres of my heart, forbidding me to entertain
any sense of happiness, while his blood remained unavenged. And
when care was on my brow, and trouble in my soul, these words were
still whispered in my ears, still calling for vengeance. Oh! Fazeel,
if you could now witness the situation to which Hindostan and its
nominal master are reduced, by the hand of the minion whom I was then
fostering--whose counsels I so foolishly preferred to thine--with whom
I took part against thee, whenever opportunity offered, thy noble soul
would pity Jehangire!”
“This man,” resumed Zeinedeen, “being possessed of great ingenuity
in almost every kind of art, in mechanism, in the modes of preparing
different kinds of poison, and of increasing, or altogether
neutralising the power of those matches which are commonly used by
gunners, was sent for one evening by Bochari, who, shewing a large
bag of gold, promised that that treasure should be his reward, if he
would undertake the performance of a task which required the greatest
possible expedition. The unfortunate merchant having inquired what it
was, Bochari said, that Fazeel had set out for the Deccan, attended,
it was true, only by a small escort. It was probable that they would
be attacked on their way by the Orcha rajaputs; but he feared that the
latter might be worsted in the encounter, unless the match-locks of
their antagonists were rendered ineffective. The merchant at once saw
all that was required of him, and undertook to effect it, receiving at
the time half the promised reward. The result I need not state. He it
was who destroyed all the matches of the escort, under the pretence of
affording them the benefit of a new and infallible invention.”
“It is, however,” observed Auzeem, “something in his favour, that he
appears now really overwhelmed by a sense of his crimes, and anxious to
repair them, as far as reparation is possible.”
“At first I doubted,” continued Zeinedeen, “the purpose for which he
came to me. It very naturally occurred to me that he was still in the
employment of Bochari.”
“And so he undoubtedly is,” said Auzeem. “I have indisputable evidence
of that fact; for he has been engaged during these last three days in
a secret chamber of the tower, occupied by Bochari, in concocting a
large quantity of poison, of the most subtle nature, for some purpose
or another.”
“You are correctly informed,” resumed Zeinedeen, “the merchant has
disclosed that circumstance to me, and it was not until he unveiled
his mind in every respect, that I had courage to allow him to visit me
again. His desire now is, that he may be instrumental in saving the
empire from the tyranny by which it is oppressed. He hopes that he may
thus, in some measure, expiate his former guilt. I am to see him again
at midnight, when he proposes to make further revelations.”
The hermit then withdrew.