And that was the manner in which Nur Mahal on her wedding night came back to the Garden of Heart’s Delight.
“I can see nowt for it but to cleave Jahangir in two as he passes.”
And cloven the Prince assuredly would have been, for Sainton had drawn his long, straight sword, had not the mahout suddenly wheeled the elephant against the gate, upsetting the snorting Arab by the maneuver. Jahangir was thrown, almost at Mowbray’s feet. The elephant charged the massive doors head downwards, and they were torn from their hinges as if they were paper screens. The arch collapsed, there was a crash of falling masonry and rent wood-work, and the great brute himself, stunned by the shock, fell to his knees.
And that was the manner in which Nur Mahal, on her wedding night, came back to the Garden of Heart’s Delight.
CHAPTER IX
“Why didst thou not smite him to the ground and I would have given thee ten shekels of silver?”
2 Samuel xviii. 11.