1 12 
LIVES OF THE MOGHUL EMPERORS. 
plunder that was abandoned to the soldiers might 
stimulate their avarice ; but their cruelty was enforced 
by the peremptory command of producing an adequate 
number of heads, which, according to his custom, 
were curiously piled in columns and pyramids. The 
Moguls celebrated the feast of victory, while the sur- 
viving Moslems passed the night in tears and in 
chains.” — “ Here,” says another historian, “ was the 
greatest slaughter ever mentioned ; for, to avoid the 
fury of the sword, they flung themselves upon one 
another into the ditches. On the other hand, the 
Jagatays, with a single pike, often ran three or four 
of the enemy through at a time in the throng of the 
gate : so that the dead bodies were piled upon one 
another to the very plinth of the walls ; and at length 
a passage was made over the ditch upon those bodies, 
level with the drawbridge.” * 
The treasure obtained in Aleppo was prodigious ; 
it had been amassed and laid up there by several 
successive sovereigns. A portion was distributed 
among the soldiers, and the rest left under the charge 
of eight nobles, who were appointed to govern the 
vanquished capital. 
Quitting Aleppo, the emperor, having compelled the 
surrender of Emessa, and Balbec, the ancient Helio- 
polis, marched to Damascus. On his way, a plausi- 
ble villain, accompanied by two assassins in religious 
habits, employed by the Sultan of Egypt, joined 
Timur’s retinue, and were permitted to approach his 
* See Universal History, Modern part, vol. v. edit. 1759. 
The account there given is almost wholly taken from the History 
of Timur, by Shureef-ood-Deen Ally. 
