Chapter XIV

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.