Endless was the laughter, the tears, the embracings, the gratulations.
But that evening as Mahâm and Babar sat hand in hand, looking at the sleeping infant, its mother cried suddenly--
"'Tis Ma'asuma's child also, thou must remember, husband. 'Twas for her sake I married thee."
"Not for mine own, one little bit, Mahâm?" he queried a trifle sadly. "Well! if that be so, I must be lover instead of husband for a time."
CHAPTER VIII
"Like a wide-spreading tree whose roots en-thread
Earth's bosom, gaining Life from out a grave,
So stood he stalwart while each weary head
Sought for the shelter that his courage gave."
"Look you! what a young man sees in a mirror, an old one can see in a burnt brick," quoth old Kâsim crossly to Shirâm-Taghâi. "Did I not tell the Most-Clement that benevolence such as his, is doubtless fit for Paradise where man shall have shed his sins; but 'tis in this world, pure incentive to wickedness. To leave Prince Abdul-Risâk in Kâbul where, seeing he is the late King's only son, he hath some right to claim power, was foolish; not to believe when old servants as you and I, Shirâm, tell him intrigue is going on, is well nigh criminal. Yet God knows it all comes from kindness of heart! In truth, old friend, to be king one should be as Timur, the Earth Trembler, who never spared man, woman or child who stood in his way."
"Aye," assented Shirim-Beg whose beard by this time, after long years of faithful service, required a purple dye to pass muster. "And yet, to my mind, the King is most hard on the Moghul soldiery. What means life to a Moghul without rapine and plunder? Bread without salt, friend! Bread without salt! Yet the Most-Clement is so inclement that thou hadst trouble to save the lives of those three last week."
Kâsim gloomed. "Aye! and I know not now if I were not wrong, since those same are the head and front of this present offending of which--God save his innocence--the King takes no heed, having it forsooth, that my surmisings art not entitled to credit! Look you! he is so set on making his men wheel in step and to time, that he hath forgotten how quick honest rebellion can step when it chooses."
It was true. Babar, profoundly happy in the birth of his son, profoundly absorbed in the new title of Emperor which he had, in consequence, bestowed upon himself, was impervious to suspicion, and busy expending his exuberant vitality in marshalling and manœuvering his troops. He was out all day in camp; thus, at once, being more ignorant than usual of what was happening in the city, and having less time to listen to cautions; the latter being, in truth, the last words suitable to his feelings. He could not, for the life of him, see a single cloud ahead, and being absolutely full of good intentions towards his world, refused to believe that the world could have any ill intentions towards him.