Shums-ood-Deen’s mother treated Lallcheen with great cordiality, and he, in return, behaved to her with much respect, sending her valuable presents, and using every method to secure her confidence; but this conduct on both sides was mere temporising, as no real cordiality subsisted between them.
It was now Lallcheen’s grand aim to see his daughter united to the young king, and it mortified him extremely to find that the only impediment was her own scruples. His soul was stung at the chance of losing that reward which he had waded through blood to obtain. Disappointed ambition exasperated him against what he called the rebellion of his child, and he determined to compel her to embrace the dignity which he had steeped his soul in guilt to secure for her. Knowing the Readiness of Shums-ood-Deen to make her his queen, he was the more enraged that any impediments should arise from her who was the party that would be especially benefited by such a union; and he sought her with a determination to enforce obedience to an authority which he had never hitherto exercised in vain.
“Agha”, said he, sternly, “can it be possible that you refuse to become the wife of a man whom you have confessed you love, and who is ready to make you the partner of his throne?”
“It is true, my father; I never could sit upon a throne the ascent to which is stained with the blood of its legitimate inheritor. The present king shares in the crime of his brother’s deposers so long as he partakes of the fruit of their guilt.”
“Girl, this is not the language of a child towards her parent; you know the first wish of my heart is that you should share his dignities with the son of my late master. If the man whom I propose you should wed were odious to you there might be some reason in your opposition, but as this is not the case, I expect you immediately to become the wife of Shums-ood-Deen.”
“That will not be while he sits upon a blood-stained throne. You are my father, and I know your power. My life is at your disposal, but not my will; you may take the one, but you shall never coerce the other!”
“No, Agha, I will not take your life, however you may rebel; but your liberty is likewise at my disposal, and depend upon it, that if you persist in a stubborn opposition to my wishes, you shall suffer penalties under captivity which you little dream of.”
“I have well weighed the consequences of resistance, and am prepared to pay the penalty. I feel that the man who would not hesitate to dethrone his king would have little scruple about imprisoning his daughter. But, to put you at once out of suspense as to my determination, I tell you, firmly and solemnly, that I never will comply with your wishes. Take me to the prison you have prepared for me!”
Lallcheen did not reply, but quitted her with a blanched cheek. He was deeply vexed at this unexpected bar to his ambition from his own child. The fruits of crime were already ripening, but he perceived that they had only a flavour of bitterness. He remembered the predictions of the devotee, and the sun of his glory grew dim—a shadow passed over it, but the disc again grew light, and he hoped that it would be no more obscured.
Difficulties now began to thicken around him. Feroze Chan and Ahmud Chan, uncles to the deposed king, had promised their brother-in-law, Mahmood Shah, father of Gheias-ood-Deen, when he was on his death-bed, that they would be faithful and loyal to his son; they accordingly served him with submission and fidelity. Being from the capital at the time their royal relative was deposed by Lallcheen, they escaped the unhappy fate of the nobles who were assassinated. Finding, however, that the king had been dispossessed and blinded, their wives instigated their husbands to avenge the indignity to which their nephew had been subjected. Feroze and Ahmud Chan readily listened to these natural appeals in favour of their injured relative, but the traitor, discovering their intentions through his emissaries, complained to Shums-ood-Deen, and, accusing those nobles of treason, demanded their instant execution. Hoping to excite the young sovereign’s fears, he represented to him that their object evidently was the restoration of Gheias-ood-Deen, which would involve the death of the reigning monarch, as, the moment the deposed king was restored, he would naturally wreak his vengeance upon all who had been instrumental in hurling him from his throne, among whom the man raised to that throne would be one of the first to suffer.