It was now near mid-day, when we spied Ahmed Kūshchi (the falconer), with four horsemen, coming from Ghava towards Akhsi. I once thought of sending for the falconer, and getting possession of their horses by fair words and promises; for our horses were quite worn out, having been in constant exercise and on the stretch for a day and night, without having got a grain of anything to eat. But my heart immediately began to waver again, and I could not make up my mind to put confidence in them. I and my companions arranged, however, that as these people were likely to stay all night at Karnān, we should secretly enter the town, carry off their horses, and so make our escape to some place of safety.

It was about noon, when, as far off as the sight could reach, we perceived something that glittered on a horse. For some time we could not distinguish what it was. It was, in truth, Muhammed Bākir Beg. He had been in Akhsi along with me; and in the dispersion that followed our leaving the place, when every one was scattered here and there, Muhammed Bākir Beg had come in this direction, and was now wandering about and concealing himself. Bandeh Ali and Baba Seirāmi said, ‘For two days past our horses have had neither grain nor fodder. Let us go down into the valley, and suffer them to graze.’ We accordingly mounted, and, having descended into the valley, set them a-grazing. It was about the time of afternoon prayers, when we descried a horseman passing along over the very height on which we had been hiding. I recognized him to be Kādir Berdi, the head-man of Ghava. I said to them, ‘Let us call Kādir Berdi.’ We called him, and he came and joined us. Having greeted him, asked him some questions, spoken obligingly and with kindness to him, made him promises, and disposed him favourably towards me by every means in my power, I sent him to bring a rope, a grass-hook, an axe, apparatus for crossing a river, provender for the horses and food for ourselves, and, if possible, a horse likewise; and we made an appointment to meet him on this same spot at bedtime prayers.

Evening prayers were over, when a horseman was seen passing from Karnān towards Ghava. We called out, ‘Who goes there?’ He answered us. This was, in truth, the same Muhammed Bākir Beg, whom we had observed at noon. He had, in the course of the day,* moved from the place in which he had lain concealed, to another lurking-place; and now so thoroughly changed his voice, that, although he had lived for years with me, I did not discover him. Had I known him, and kept him with me, it had been well for me. I was rendered very uneasy by this man’s passing us, and durst not adhere to the assignation we had made with Kādir Berdi of Ghava by waiting till the specified time. Bandeh Ali said, ‘There are many retired gardens among the suburbs of Karnān, where nobody will suspect us of lurking. Let us go thither, and send a person to conduct Kādir Berdi to us.’ With this intention we mounted Hides him-
self in Kar-
nān. and proceeded to the suburbs of Karnān. It was winter, and excessively cold. They brought me an old mantle of year-old lambskin, with the wool on the inside, and of coarse woven cloth without, which I put on. They also procured and brought me a dish of pottage of boiled millet-flour, which I ate, and found wonderfully comfortable. I asked Bandeh Ali, ‘Have you sent anybody to Kādir Berdi?’ He answered, ‘Yes, I have.’ These unlucky perfidious clowns had in reality met Kādir Berdi, and had dispatched him to Tambol at Akhsi.

Having gone into a house that had stone walls, and kindled a fire, I closed my eyes for a moment in sleep. These crafty fellows, pretending an extreme anxiety to serve me, ‘We must not stir from this neighbourhood,’ said they, ‘till we have news of Kādir Berdi. The house where we are, however, is in the very middle of the suburbs. There is a place in the outskirts of the suburbs where we might be quite unsuspected, could we but reach it.’ We mounted our horses, therefore, about midnight, and proceeded to a garden on the outskirts of the suburbs. Baba Seirāmi watched on the terrace-roof of the house, keeping a sharp look-out in every direction. It was near noon when he came down from the terrace and said to me, ‘Here comes Yūsef, the Dārogha.’ I was seized with prodigious alarm and said, ‘Learn if he comes in consequence of knowing that I am here.’ Baba went out, and, after some conversation, returned and said, ‘Yūsef, the Dārogha, says, that, at the gate of Akhsi, he met a man on foot, who told him that the King was in Karnān, at such a place; that, without com­municating this intelligence to any one, he had put the man into close custody, along with Wali, the treasurer, who had fallen into his hands in the action; after which he hastened to you full speed; and that the Begs are not* informed of the circumstance.’ I asked him, ‘What do you think of the matter?’ He answered, ‘They are all your servants; there is nothing left for it but to join them. They will undoubtedly make you king.’ ‘But after such wars and quarrels,’ I replied, ‘with what confidence can I place myself in their power?’ I was still speaking, when Yūsef suddenly presented himself, and throwing himself on both his knees before me, exclaimed, ‘Why should I conceal anything from you? Sultan Ahmed Beg knows nothing of the matter; but Sheikh Bayezīd Beg has got information where you are, and has sent me hither.’

Bābur in
imminent
danger.

On hearing these words I was thrown into a dreadful state of agitation. There is nothing in the world which affects a man with more painful feelings than the near prospect of death. ‘Tell me the truth,’ I exclaimed, ‘if indeed things are about to go with me contrary to my wishes, that I may at least perform my last ablutions.’ Yūsef swore again and again, but I did not heed his oaths. I felt my strength gone. I rose and went to a corner of the garden. I meditated with myself, and said, ‘Should a man live a hundred, nay a thousand years, yet at last he*——.’ [The copyist adds, ‘The remaining transactions of this year, viz. 908, may God grant that they come to hand.’ In this wish I most heartily join.—Leyden.]