King Errant Part 39

"The Most-Clement knows I am that," protested the Kwajah, stoutly.

"That is why I urge immediate departure. The men lose heart. The Badakhshanis never engage for more than three months' fighting, and they have stood sixteen. They were promised leave--"

Babar broke in impatiently. "Then let them go! They are but mercenaries; not gentlemen of honour."

Kwajah-Kilan flushed up. "I have ever been gallant man, sire; but I see no use in stopping to die of ghastly ailments. There is a black death they call cholera which I like not."

So he went on again, and again.

And this was but the beginning of many similar objections, not only by the older Begs and men of experience. Had that been so, there would have been no harm in it. But what sense or propriety was there in all the world eternally repeating the same tale, in different words, to one who himself saw the facts with his own eyes, and had formed a cool and fixed resolution in regard to the business in which he was engaged? For Babar meant not only to conquer India, but to be its Emperor. He meant, with all the strength of his vivid vitality, to found a dynasty; he meant that his son and his son's sons should inherit what he had won for them. What propriety, therefore, was there in the whole army, down to the very dregs, giving their stupid and unformed opinion on a matter which they were not capable of judging?

It was bad enough that men whom he had raised from low rank to the dignity of n.o.bles in the expectation that if he had chosen to go through fire or water they would follow him backward and forward without hesitation, should dare to arraign his measures, and show determined opposition to his plans and opinions!

He did not stand their disloyalty for many days. A Council was called of all n.o.bles of whatever rank, and they came to it sheepishly yet stubbornly, full of admiration still for their chief, yet determined not to yield.

It was a grilling afternoon. The Audience-Hall literally throbbed with heat, and more than one man loosened the collar at his throat and gasped as they waited for the Emperor. They had expected him to enter in state; but there he was on the platform of the throne, a plain man like themselves. Despite the heat, he wore chain-mail and helmet, and his hand was on his sword. Plain soldier, indeed; but there was that in his face and mien which marked him out apart, though, as he stood, he shivered visibly and as he began to speak his teeth chattered. For Babar was in grips with his first taste of Indian fever, and the ague-fit was on him sharply. But even as he stood there shivering and shaking, it pa.s.sed, and with a wild rush the hot stage sent an uncanny light to his eyes, and made the words leap to his blue lips.

"Gentlemen and Soldiers! Empire cannot be achieved without the materials and means of war. Royalty and n.o.bility exist by subjection, and subjects by obedience. After long years, after great hardships, measuring many a toilsome journey, many a danger, after exposing ourselves to battle and bloodshed, our formidable enemy has been routed. We have achieved the end; we are masters of India. And now, without visible cause, after having worn out our very lives in this emprise, are we to abandon what we have gained? A mighty enemy has been overcome, a rich kingdom is at our feet. Are we, having won the game, to retreat to Kabul, like men who have lost and are discomfited?

No! I say! A thousand times no!--"

The fever, swift to flare up, had fair hold of him now and his words seemed to whip like scorpions--

"Let no man who calls himself Babar's friend ever dare to moot the very idea again. But if there be one amongst you who cannot summon up courage to stay--let him go. I want him not."

There was silence, but no one stirred. They had not the courage for _that_ at any rate.

So Babar went back to his bed, his blood pulsing in every vein, his head bursting, until the hot stage pa.s.sed into the sweating stage, and he sat up weakly, half-laughing, half-crying.

"Lo! I felt like a G.o.d," he said. "A G.o.d with a pain everywhere. Did I say enough?"

"Too much for me, Most-Clement," quoth Ali-Jan with a smile. "I stop till death."

And most of the hearers had come to the same decision. Only Kwajah-Kilan, obstinate as a mule, refused to remain. So, as he had a fairly numerous retinue, it was arranged that he should return to Kabul in charge of the presents Babar was sending home.

And this, with the necessary thought it entailed lest any should be disappointed, proved a welcome distraction for the Emperor, who in good sooth, what with recurring attacks of fever and general malaise due to the climate, needed something to keep up his spirits in the long, weary, hot days and nights, during which military operations were perforce at a standstill. And Babar was in his element choosing this and that, apportioning presents with all the fervour of a child at Christmas. No doubt his heart ached the while he wrote instructions for a regular gala to be held in the Four-corner Garden, and he must have felt life flat indeed when Kwajah-Kilan had set out northwards. A certain interest of anger, however, re-awoke, when a friend returning from escort-duty to the party as far as Delhi, told him, with ill concealed smiles, that ere leaving the Fort there Kwajah-Kilan had scribbled on one of its walls--

"If safe and sound I cross the Sind, d.a.m.ned if I ever wish for Hind."

Babar's cheek flushed dark red when he heard this _jeu d'esprit_.

"As his Emperor still remains in Hindustan," he said with hurt pomp, "there is evident impropriety, first in composing, and then in publishing such vituperative verse; and so I will tell him."

Which he did, by sending after him post haste an urgent messenger with his reply--

"Babar thanks G.o.d who gave him Sind and Ind, Heat of the plains, chill of the mountain cold.

Yea! let the scorch of India bring to his mind Bitter bite of frost in Ghazni of old."

The touch about Ghazni was, he thought, peculiarly happy, since he had appointed Kwajah-Kilan Governor of that province! And ere the excitement of this pa.s.sage of wits had died down to dulness, another touch had come to set the Wheel-of-Life spinning once more at full speed. One of Maham's charming, cheery letters brought most unexpected news. After some years, on the very verge in fact of her woman's life, she was again expecting to be a mother. "And I pray it may be a boy,"

she wrote, "for though Hindal, the son whom my lord gave so generously to my empty arms, is very, very dear to me, my heart leaps at the very thought of one who shall be my lord's and mine also."

Babar was overwhelmed with delight and anxiety. Even by special runner it took weeks for a letter to reach Kabul, so Maham, he knew, must be near her time ere his warnings, his happy hopes, his loving affection could reach her. But he wrote off in hot haste, begging her to rely on Dearest-One for all things, entreating her to behave in all ways as if he were at hand. "And thou knowest, dear heart," he said, "what I would be like were I in Kabul now. Verily, my moon, who hast so often chidden me for fretting wide-eyed the livelong night because Humayon or Gulbadan or one of the others had a stomach-ache, I should be past bearing. But when I think of what has happened and what might happen, I would mount Rakush and ride Kabul-wards, were it not for some small good sense, and these pitiful folk who would deem me traitor to myself.

"Lo, we will call him Faruk, wife, since distance separates us."

After this he set to work upon his abandoned plan of a pleasure garden. Beggars, he said to Ali-Jan, must not be choosers. If there was no better spot than the plain over the river, he must e'en make the best of it. And the first thing to do was to sink a well; the next to plant roses and narcissus in corresponding beds.

The third thing was to hold a drinking party upon the spot close to the river, and make the place as pretty as it could be made with coloured lights and illuminations, garlands of flowers and palms cut off wholesale and planted in the ground. It seemed a pity to destroy the trees; but that was Hindustan fashion. Everything for show at the moment; no thought for the future. Still it was well done, and the Indian jugglers performed some fine feats.

The rains had by this time set in and the air was singularly delightful, though rather moist and damp. It was, for instance, impossible to shoot with the Kabul bow which is pieced with glue; and everything, coats-of-mail, clothes, furniture, became mildewed. Even books--and Babar was avid concerning books--suffered, and the flat mud roofs leaked. Still, life was more enjoyable than it had been, and jolly Ali-Jan when in his cups, said gravely--

"The chief excellency of India is that it is large, and that it holds plenty of gold and silver."

They were a fairly merry party, these northerners in the Fort at Agra; merry, good-natured, _insouciant_, and they began to win golden opinions for themselves amongst the people, thanks to the Emperor's strict discipline. Here were no robbers, but gallant men ready to drink, or love, and pay for both like honest folk.

And their leader was a friendly soul, who sent a.s.surances of safety and protection to all who voluntarily entered into his service. Then he was a fine fellow to look at, with kindly eyes and a ready smile; active, vivacious. Absolutely unlike, therefore, the solid, solemn, stony-eyed, lazy voluptuary which for hundreds of years had been India's conception of a king. Here, honours and rewards were for ever being bestowed, and the small native Princes invariably received back their lands, after they had made their obeisance. So whatever the northern conqueror's object might be, it was clearly not gold.

That in itself was a relief.

Thus the long months sped on, bringing, to one man at least, continued effort. Fever had laid hold of Babar; without his dear women-kind he felt lost and he had had to send his son and his best friend out with small forces to settle the country. Still he held on dutifully, giving feasts to his people, despite the rain which more than once drenched them through to the skin. As well it might, seeing that it rained thirteen times on one feast day! But in early October a special messenger arrived from Kabul with the joyful news of little Faruk's birth. And the same post brought a budget of letters written before the event, by Maham and by the paternal aunts and cousins to the fifth degree, describing the marvellous festival which had been held according to order in the Four-corner Garden. Everything had been done exactly as His Majesty had directed. Every Begum had had her own tent and screen set up with all due luxury in the garden; it had been lit and beautifully illuminated at night and all the best singers and dancers of Kabul had been a.s.sembled to give music. Never had been such a merry making! Never such a circle of happy faces and sparkling jewels in the sunshine; for the day had been brilliantly fine.

"Then," wrote Maham, who was out and away the best scribe, "we made Kwajah-Kilan read out the instructions given him so that we might hear and rejoice in our lord's thought for us. So he read in a sonorous tone not so sweet as my lord's, but pa.s.sable--'To each Begum is to be delivered as follows: one special dancing-girl of the dancing girls of Sultan-Ibrahim, with one gold plate full of jewels, ruby, and pearl, cornelian and diamonds, emerald and turquoise, topaz and cat's eyes, besides two small mother-of-pearl trays full of golden coins. Two brazen trays shall be piled with silver coins and three with rich stuffs of sorts, so that there be nine in each. Another dancing-girl, a plate of jewels, and one each of gold and silver coins, must be presented to each of my elder relations. And have a care that each and all get the _very_ dancing-girl and the _very_ plates of jewels that I have chosen myself for them. So let jewels, and gold coins, and silver coins, be presented to all the ladies and kinsmen and foster-brethren, while one silver coin is to be given (as an incentive to emulation) to every man, woman and child in Kabul, to make them remember me, and pray for me.'

"And even so, my lord, 'twas done, though it needed not money to make Kabul remember its beloved King During those three happy days, every soul was uplifted with pride, and recited the first chapter of the Blessed-Book for the benediction and prosperity of his Majesty, as they joyfully made the prostration of thanks for his victories. But how can this dust-like one convey her thanks for the special gifts so graciously given in private to me and others. Let the others speak for themselves. I sit with a heart full of grat.i.tude before that heaped-up tray, knowing not where to set my first stone of thanks. For, lo! the superstructure will be so heavy that it must have good foundation. Lo!

there be two things amid the many quaint conceits of Hindustan, the many rare and beautiful gifts, on which I will rest my load of loving grat.i.tude. First--(or is it second? I know not) the dearest little dresses fashioned after the manner of Indian princelings for your son, so soon to be born. Believe me, my lord, I wept happy tears over them.

And yet methinks the book in my lord's own hand--it hath not lost its cunning--giving me the verses he hath composed during the last year is sweeter, more dear. The father comes, see you, before the child.

Hindal is beside himself with delight at the wooden toys; so neat, so quaint, so clever! Truly they must be good workmen in Hindustan. So slight they are, yet do they please the little ones more than gold.

And Gulbadan--truly she is a rosebud now--hugs her doll and hath taught it already to make the respectful salutation to Majesty she herself hath lately learnt. So we are all smiles. Nay! it was more than smiles when poor, dear, fat Astonishing Beauty Princess sat, the tears streaming down her face, nodding her head over the recitations, while the ta.s.sel of the head-ornament my lord sent her, dangled over her nose like a yak's tail on a camel!

"And the trick on old Asas came off beautifully, even as my lord arranged it. For when the faithful thing asked Kwajah-Kilan, 'What has my lord sent me?' he replied with truth, 'One gold coin.' So the old man was amazed, and disappointed, and fretted about it and we said nothing. So then at last, as my lord had commanded, the old man was blindfolded and he was led into our apartments to receive his gift. A hole had been bored (as ordered) in the gold coin--(it weighed nigh six pounds) and a string put to it. So it was hung round his neck. My lord should have seen him! He was quite helpless with surprise at its weight, and delighted, and very, very happy. He took it in both hands, and wondered over it and said, 'No one shall get it--no one! No one!'

Then we all laughed too and gave him more money, so he was fine and pleased.

"Thus all went well, save for the absence of my lord--"

Babar read so far, stopping at times for a laugh, for a pause of sheer delight. Now he let slip the letter and sat awhile staring out at the ugliness, the fremdness of India.

What would he not have given to be there? To see them all! To see the blaze of July blossom, to hear the water trickling through the stone runnels, to watch the white flocks of clouds on the vast meadows of sapphire overhead ...

The thought was too much for him. His eyes filled with tears; then he brushed them aside with the order:

"Slave! A cup of wine!"

That night over the water, where strange new buildings were fast rising and where new-planted flowers and shrubs were thriving so fast in the kindly rains that already the townspeople, marvelling at the growing beauty, called the place Kabul, the revels were fast and furious, and Babar, before he got miserably drunk, gained loud applause for a song he had just translated from the Hindi. It ran as follows:

"Oh! Watchman of night, awake!

For the dawning is nigh; The black bees hum as their way they take Through the lightening sky.

Oh! far away in the jasmine bowers, The robbers will rifle the honey-flowers.