34 
LIVES OF THE MOGHUL EMPERORS. 
forces whom he had quartered there, and proceeded 
with them to join his main body. Being without 
horses, and urged by the fear of pursuit, he found it 
difficult to get his troops beyond the reach of danger. 
Seeing a large herd of horses grazing in an extensive 
plain, he sent to inquire to whom they belonged ; 
and ascertaining that they were the property of a 
tribe of Turkomans who inhabited the borders of the 
desert, he issued a royal edict as a sort of cover 
for the despotic proceeding which he meditated, and 
seized the whole herd. Having mounted his fol- 
lowers, he galloped forward and halted in a glen 
near the Oxus. Here he remained several days 
to recruit his harassed and wearied troops ; then, 
crossing the river, he pitched his camp in a fruitful 
country beautifully varied with hills and valleys, 
where he was joined by his wife, together with the 
officers and troops whom he had left in cantonment at 
the village of Karindan. 
His little army being thus increased, they were 
soon straitened for provisions, the product of the chase 
not proving sufficient to supply so many claimants. 
Deeming it imprudent to levy contributions upon the 
people of the neighbourhood, Timur determined to 
signalise his spirit of enterprise by marching at once 
to Kandahar, imagining that, if he succeeded in making 
himself master of this productive province, the whole of 
Cabulistan, of Sinde, and Moultan would soon fall 
under his dominion. 
When the prince had inspected his forces, and 
equipped them in the best manner his circumstances 
would allow, he prepared to march. He could muster 
