This scen seemed to have affected the Emperor, and it pro­duced a momentary reconciliation. After many conferences it was agreed, that the only way to put an end to suggestions and dissensions, was to part the two adversaries. Emir-djemlah was ordered to quit the court, and to repair to Azimabad, the govern­ment of which was given him for an honourable exile; and Hossëin-aaly-khan agreed to set out for his Viceroyalty of Decan, where nothing but his presence could curb the refractory of those countries, and quiet those that had submitted. This agreement, which satisfied both parties, was not much relished by Emir-djemlah, who thought himself sacrificed to the resentment of the two brothers; whereas, in reality, the whole intent of it on the part of the Emperor, was to increase his favourite’s means of power, and also to exasperate his mind. Hossëin-aaly-khan’s patent at the same time was drawing up; and orders were issued to the Governors of provinces and fortresses in all those parts, to all commanders, and to all crown-officers throughout the six and-a-half Soobadaries or provinces of Decan, in whatever sta­tion they might be, to submit to the new Viceroy, and to be henceforth obedient to his commands. Two letters of recall were likewise dispatched; one to Chin-kylydj-khan-nizam-el-mulk, Viceroy of Decan, with orders to quit his office, and to repair to the presence, and the other to Dä8d-khan-péni, Governor of G8djrat, requiring him to repair to Boorhanpoor, there to wait the new Viceroy’s arrival, whose commands he was to obey. But this was only the ostensible letter; a secret but a strong one was at the same time conveyed to him, enjoining him to lay in The Emper­or’s insincer­ity. wait with a strong army at Boorhanpoor, where he was to spare no means to destroy Hossëin-aaly-khan and his troops, as in that case, he would himself be appointed Viceroy in his stead, and become a proper object for further favours and distinctions. It was after dispatching these secret instructions, that the Emperor thought of celebrating his nuptials with Adjet-sing’s daughter, as we shall soon relate; but as Dä8d-khan-péni is going to cut so great a figure in our history, it will not be out of its place to insert here an idea of his person and character, by giving some account of the disturbances and troubles to which his impudence and partiality had given occasion between the Mussulmen and Hindoos of Ahmed-abad, his capital.

In the second year of that officer’s administration, which was likewise the first of the Emperor’s, it happened that in the night, in which the Gentoos have it in custom to burn their H8ly,* one of them was going to perform that rite in his own house-yard, a small part of which appertained to some Mussulmen’s houses, when these last objected to it. The Hindoo, having pleaded that every man was master in his own house, paid no regard to the objection, and burned his H8ly. The very next day, the Mussulmen, taking advantage of the Hindoo’s plea against himself, brought a cow within that very yard, and killed her with intention of eating in common, and distributing some victuals to the poor, as it was the day of the demise of the Crown of created things.* This action brought upon them all the Gentoos of that quarter, who hav­ing overpowered the Mussulmen, put them to flight, and obliged them for their lives to conceal themselves in their houses. The Gentoos transported by a religious fury, sought out the butcher who had slaughtered the cow, and on not finding him, they dragged his son, an innocent youth of fourteen, into that very yard, and slaughtered him in atonement for what they deemed a sacri­lege. The Mussulmen shocked at such a sight, set up a general hue and cry throughout the city, and drew after them, not only mul­titudes of the Mussulmen inhabitants, but likewise some thousands of Dä8d-khan-péni’s Afghan soldiers; and all these repaired to the Cazy or Supreme Judge’s lodgings. The Judge, who did not choose to meddle in an affair where he knew that the Governor had taken side with the Hindoos, shut his door in their faces. This could not but incense the Mussulmen who, carried away by their own preju­dices, or possibly directed underhand by the Cazy himself, demolished and burned his gate, and having taken the magistrate’s person amongst themselves, as if to authorise their actions, they proceeded to set fire to the shops in the market-place, and to as many Hindoo houses as they met in their way; and they would have gone on burning and destroying, had they not been opposed by one Cop8r-chund, an eminent jewel-merchant, much in Religious troubles in Ahmed-abad. favour with the Governor, but a most violent zealot against the Mussulmen. This man seeing his own quarter in danger, armed himself and friends, shut the gate of his quarter, and put himself upon his defence. He placed musqueteers on the gate, opened port-holes, and a fray ensued between the two parties, in which numbers of lives were lost. The tumult continued for some days; the shops were shut throughout that great city, and business was at a stand. When the tumult had subsided, the Mussulmen who thought themselves the aggrieved party, deputed three men of note to carry their complaints to court, and these were the very men that had been pitched upon before, to manage an accommo­dation between the Mussulmen on one side, and the Governor, and Gentoos, on the other; to wit, Sheh-abdol-vahed, Sheh-mahmed-aaly, an eminent preacher, and Abdol-aaziz. Da8d-khan himself, who found his person compromised in this affair, deputed Cop8r-chund, after having put in his hand a S8rut-hal, or narrative of the whole disturbance signed by the governor, by the Cazy, by the Commander-in-Chief, and by all the Crown-officers, which certified that the Gentoos were not in the wrong, and that the Mussulmen were the aggressors. But as soon as the three deputies were arrived at the capital, they were all three cast in prison by Ratan-chund’s management, a man zealous in his sect, who found means to stifle their complaints. And God only knows how long these innocent persons had remained in prison, had not Qhoadjä-mahmed-djaafer, the dervish or religious, chanced to hear of them, and concerned himself in their unhappy case. This personage was no less a man than a brother to Qhandö8ran, one of the principal lords of the court; a pious man, who devoted to the love of God, had renounced the world and lived retired. It was in his retreat that he heard of Ratan-chund’s cruel partiality; and from thence that he requested his brother to get those unfortunate persons released. So great a favour made such an impression upon one of them, namely, on Sheh-mahmed-aaly, the Väez or preacher, that from that moment he attached himself to his benefector; and as it was customary for a number of public singers and comedians to assemble in his retreat, and in the effusions of their ardent zeal, to sing verses in honour of the Crown of created things, and of his twelve descendants, to the unspeak­able delight of the illustrious holy man; the preacher who now was become a frequenter of that retreat, made it a practice, after Religious troubles in the Capital. he had done preaching, to say a few sentences in honour of the Messenger, and then to launch out in the praises of the twelve Imams or Pontiffs, his pious descendants: a novelty which was likely to excite commotions in the capital, but which, however, excited none, as we shall shortly mention; our business at present being to say a few words about the Emperor’s nuptials with his intended bride, the daughter of the Hindoo Prince, Radja-adjet-sing.* Her father, in dismissing her, had put in her hands a number of important papers which she was to deliver to the Emperor, namely, the letters and order he had received for opposing and destroying Hossëin-aaly-khan by any means in his power. Whether during that nobleman’s journey to court, or during the Ranie’s or Gentoo Princess’s residence in his palace, it is certain that Hossëin-aaly-khan found means to get at these papers, and also to quiet the inquietude which the Ranie felt on finding that they had been in his hands. These papers, of course, were pro­duced by the two brothers to the Emperor, who made an apology for them, when his mother managed an agreement between her son and them. This explanation having put an end to the dis­sensions and disputes, and peace having been further confirmed by Emir-djemlah’s being exiled from court, the Emperor thought of celebrating his nuptials with the Ranie, as it had been agreed that, after that ceremony should be over, Hossëin-aaly-khan would set out for his Viceroyalty of Decan.

The Emperor, therefore, laid his commands on his house­hold officers for making the necessary preparations for that solemnity, and they in a short time performed their business. But this not satisfying Hossëin-aaly-khan who thought his honour concerned, as the Princess had been brought to court by his means, had been all this while lodged in his palace, and might be deemed his adoptive daughter, he made it a point to give that solemnity all the magnificence and all that splendour for which Hindostan is famous; and he made such preparations both for Magnificent preparatives made by one of the two brothers, on the solemnity of the Emper­or’s nuptials with a Hindoo Princess. the bride and the bride-groom as exceeded all that had even been heard in the capital, as well as all that had been done for the greatest Radjahs and Kings of Decan, or for even the mag­nificent Emperors of Hindostan. The furniture, jewels, and illu­minations surpassed by much any thing that had been done by the Emperor himself. As soon as night came on, an infinity of fires and imitative stars threw out at once such a blaze as seemed to dispute of pre-eminence with the starry host of the firmament, and to reproach it with its inferior twinkling. Whilst the arti­ficial parterres, by the variety of their colours, and the different shades of their hues, gave the beholder an idea of the celebrated gardens of Irem.* Pleasures and shews of all sorts, as well as splendid entertainments, followed each other with so uninter­rupted a profusion, that the lowest man in the city could partake of them, as well as the highest; and surprise, delight, and hilar­ity would run after every one of the spectators, like so many beings put in motion by some animal instinct. Such were the throngs and the crowds of attendance, and such the concourse of spectators, that the streets and markets of such an immense city seemed to have become narrower, and each of them more uneasy than the heart of a lover in despair; and, on the other hand, pleasure and joy were enlivening every face with such a bloom of florid freshness that the flowers of the gardens were stung with the pangs of envy, and roses felt themselves seated on the thorns of jealousy. At last, after several days of so ani­mated a scenery, the Emperor attended by his whole Court, repaired to a noble hall of Hossëin-aaly-khan’s palace, where an illustrious assembly was waiting for him; and the reading of the marriage ritual having closed the ceremony, the Emperor took his bride in his own cortege, and in the middle of a music, whose delightful sounds filled the air with gladness, he hastened to his Imperial habitation. It was on a Thursday, the 22nd of Zilhidj, in the year of 1127 of the Hedjra.