86 
SCENES IN INDIA, 
soil, Selim, afterwards so well known as the Emperor 
Jehangire, having seen her, became enamoured of her, 
and this hasty prepossession the ambitious fair one 
exerted all her powers to strengthen. In the frenzy 
of his passion, Prince Selim applied to Akbar for his 
consent to marry her, but the latter sternly refused 
it. Shortly after the lovely daughter of Chaja Aiass 
became the wife of Shere Afkun, a Turkoman noble 
of high distinction, to whom she had been long be- 
trothed. 
Selim was from that moment the bitter foe of his 
successful rival; he secretly disseminated calumnies 
to the injury of Shere Afkun, who in disgust retired 
from court into the province of Bengal, where he ob- 
tained from the governor the vicegerency of Burdwan, 
a considerable district in that province. When Prince 
Selim became emperor, his passion for the daughter 
of Aiass revived in full force ; the restraint being 
removed under which the smothered flame had been 
so long and so painfully suppressed, it burst forth 
with increased fierceness. He was now absolute, and 
determined to possess the object of his disappointed 
love; he therefore made advances towards a recon- 
ciliation with Shere Afkun, but the brave Turko- 
man for a time resisted all his importunities; per- 
ceiving their object, and resolving to part neither 
with his wife nor with his honour, as he could not 
resign the one without relinquishing the other. His 
strength was prodigious and his bravery equal to his 
strength ; his integrity was unimpeached, his reputa- 
tion high, and he was alike feared and respected by 
all classes. Upon every occasion where danger was 
