THE MOST WRETCHED. ^ 29 



he was with trouble led away, and the second mourner 

 called forward ; his looks betokened that his calamity 

 had been great, and he began thus : — 



'^Oh glorious Akbar, Lord of a hundred kingdoms ! 

 it is thy will that I should relate the grief of my 

 bosom. I had a son ; the only child of my beloved 

 Shadi, who perished at the moment of his birth ; she 

 was beautiful as a Peri, and in the anguish of my 

 soul, I vowed never to love another. The child she 

 had left behind her, became my sole fountain of 

 happiness ; I spent my whole time in his education, 

 and my delight was to watch his daily improvement 

 in body and in mind. He was beautiful as a star of 

 heaven, and he soon surpassed all his teachers in 

 knowledge and in wisdom. He grew up like a young 

 cypress tree, in a garden of delights, breathing glad- 

 ness into every heart; but mine above all others 

 rejoiced that Allah had blest me with such a son. 

 My possessions were great, but they seemed little 

 for his sake, for they were to me but as a dew-drop, 

 compared to the son of my heart. I had heaped up 

 treasures of gold and of silver, and increased my 

 fields and lands for my heir. I built for him a palace 

 such as the princes of the East might rejoice in, and 

 joy seemed to grow familiar with his paths. Then 

 I sought for him, a consort worthy of his virtues, 

 and the daughter of a prince, the lovely Ganema was 

 his betrothed ; they would have been like the Rose 

 and the Almond-flower in their beauty. Heaven, I 

 thought, had blessed me beyond all the earth — but 

 on the morning of their marriage, the angel of Death 

 entered my habitation, he smote my beloved son to 

 the earth, his beauty and strength faded as a shadow. 

 The joy of my life, Oh King ! departed from me — 

 it lay buried in the tomb of my son ; my house is 

 the place of mourning, and my grey hairs shall 

 descend to the grave in the darkness of despair ! 

 Who hath any grief like to mine ? " 



As he concluded, his eyes were fixed on the 

 ground, and he seemed lost ill a trance of anguish. 



