18 RUTLJ, 



his secretary to approach ; and Abul Fazil, kneeling upon the silver 

 steps of the throne, received the sultan's commands. After a con- 

 ference of some length, inaudible to the attendants around, Abul 

 Fazil came forward and announced the will of the sultan, that the 

 durbar should be presently broken up. The deputies were severally 

 dismissed with rich presents ; all, except the Brahmans, who were 

 commanded to remain in the quarter assigned to them during the 

 royal pleasure, and a strong guard was placed over them. 



Mean time Akbar withdrew to the private apartments of his 

 palace, where he remained for three days inaccessible to all, except 

 his secretary Abul Fazil, and the Christian monk. On the fourth 

 day he sent for the high priest of Benares, and successively for the 

 rest of the Brahmans, his companions ; but it was in vain he tried 

 threats and temptations, and all his arts of argument and persua- 

 sion. They remained calmly and passively immovable. The sultan 

 at length pardoned and dismissed them with many expressions of 

 courtesy and admiration. The Brahman Sarma was distinguished 

 among the rest by gifts of peculiar value and magnificence, and to 

 him Akbar made a voluntary promise, that, during his reign, the 

 cruel tax, called the Kerea, which had hitherto been levied upon the 

 poor Indians whenever they met to celebrate any of their religious 

 festivals, should be abolished. 



T In- Continued m <>//> //IT/. 



It I T I. I . 



Slaves ! and in uur father-land 

 Shall we, in ignoble pain, 



( 'rouch beneath a tyrant's hand ! 

 Wear a soul-debasing chain ? 



Nature's meanest things are free ! 

 The wild eagle, in our sight, 

 O'er the blue hills bends his flight 



In triumphant liberty. 



* An account of the meetings of the Swiss in the glen of Uutli, to 

 devise measures for throwing off the yoke of the House of Haps- 

 burgh, is given in " Planta's Account of the Helvetic Confederacy," 

 vol. I., chap. 6. 



