As given in Pavet de Courteille’s French Translation.
‘WHETHER you live for a hundred years or a single day, you must surely leave this palace which delights the heart.’
I resigned myself to death. A channel of water flowed through that garden. I performed my ablutions, and recited a prayer of two inclinations. Then, giving myself up to silent meditation, I was in the act of supplicating God for his mercies, when sleep closed my eyes. I saw Khwāja Yā’kūb, the son of Khwāja Yahya, and grandson of His Highness Khwāja Obeidullah, with a numerous following, mounted on dapple-grey horses, who appeared before me and said: ‘Be not anxious! The Khwāja has sent me to inform you that he will accord you his aid; that he will seat you on the throne of sovereignty; that whenever any trouble befalls you, he will immediately respond to your appeal, if you will seek his assistance, and that victory and triumph will now incline to your side. Lift up your head and awake!’ I then awoke with a happy heart just as Yūsuf, the Dārogha, and his companions, had agreed that it was necessary to make a pretext, and have recourse to a ruse, for the purpose of securing my person and binding me. On hearing them talk in this fashion I said to them: ‘What you have just said is all very well, but I am curious to see which of you will dare to approach me.’ I was in the act of saying these words, when I heard the clatter of the hoofs of a large number of horses outside the garden wall. Yūsuf, the Dārogha, exclaimed, ‘If we had seized and taken him to Tambol we should have done well. Now he has sent a large band to arrest you, and the noise which you hear is nothing else but the echo of the horses’ footfalls sent in your pursuit.’ At these words I became anxious, and was at a loss to know what to do. At the same time the horsemen, who at first were not able to find the garden gate, made a breach in the wall, which was already dilapidated, and entered. I saw that they were Kūtluk Muhammed Barlās and Bābā-i-Pargari, two of my most devoted servants, accompanied by ten to fifteen or twenty persons. On approaching my presence they flung themselves from their horses, and bending the knee at a respectful distance, they fell at my feet, and lavished on me every mark of respect. Astounded at their appearance, it seemed to me that God had restored me to life. I immediately exclaimed: ‘Seize Yūsuf, the Dārogha, and those wretched traitors that are in his company, and bring them to me bound hand and foot.’ I then added, addressing my rescuers: ‘Whence have ye come? Who informed you of what had happened?’ Kūtluk Muhammed Barlās answered: ‘When I got separated from you in my hurried retreat from Akhsi, I reached Andejān just as the Khans were entering it. There in a dream I saw Khwāja Obeidullah, who said to me: The Emperor Bābur is now in a village named Kirmān, make haste and bring him back with you; for the throne of sovereignty belongs to him by right. Overjoyed at this dream, I related it to the Elder and Younger Khans, and said to them that I had five or six young fellows with me, and that, if they added a few soldiers, I would go in the Kirmān direction to bring news. They replied that it had occurred to them too that I ought to go in that direction. They then appointed ten persons to accompany me, and charged me to follow the route which we had agreed upon, to make careful enquiries, and above all to take every means to obtain sure news. While we were engaged in this conversation Bābā-i-Pargari said that he also wished to join the party, and indeed, he did accompany me with two soldiers and his younger brother. Then we mounted our horses, and set out. It is three days to-day that we have been on the road and we thank God that we have met you. And now quickly to horse and take with you these prisoners, for it would not be wise to stay in this place, as Tambol knows that you have found an aslyum here. So let us start as soon as possible, and proceed to join the Khans.’ We thereupon mounted our horses without a moment’s delay, and took the road to Andejān. I had not eaten anything for two days. Towards noon, having had the good luck to find a sheep, we dismounted, and settled ourselves comfortably to roast it. Having satisfied my ravenous hunger, we started off again, and, hurrying forward, we entered Andejān after accomplishing a five days’ journey in two nights and a day. I embraced the two Khans, my uncles, and related to them all that had happened to me since we parted. I stayed four months with the Khans, during which time I gathered round me, to the number of two hundred, all my servants who had been scattered about in different places. It then occurred to me that it would be much better for me to leave Ferghāna, no matter in what direction, than to remain there like a vagabond.