King Errant Part 49

"Baisanghar," he said faintly, when Dearest-One leant over to kiss him. And when Maham begged him with tears to drink his medicine, he did so with a smile, then thrust the cup into her bosom and whispered--

"Lie there, friend, and bring her comfort."

Towards evening he roused and sent for his n.o.bles, and for Humayon.

"To you I leave my son," he said; "fail not in loyalty to him. And to you, my son, I commit my kingdom, and my people, and my kinsfolk. Fail not in loyalty to them."

After that he lay silent, with wide-open, smiling eyes. That was his farewell to splendid life.

Night was pa.s.sing to dawn when the end came.

Black fell the day for children and kinsfolk and all. They bewailed and they lamented. Voices were uplifted in weeping. There was utter dejection. Each pa.s.sed that ill-fated day in a hidden corner.

On a hill-side above the town of Kabul there lies a garden planted long years ago by a man who loved his world.

Thither a new world comes to make holiday. The man himself has gone.

As the white marble slab that looks up into the cloudless sky says shortly:

"Heaven is the Eternal Home of the Emperor Babar."

But his spirit remains in the endless Spring of leaf and flower, in the happy vitality of the Children who still lay flowers to cover the words of hope.

THE END