BABEK. 
189 
had instigated them to the commission of it. They 
were all executed, and the sultana put into confine- 
ment. “ Thanks be to God/’ says the emperor in a 
letter which he wrote to Cabul four days after, there 
are now no remains of illness. I did not fully compre- 
hend before that life was so sweet a thing. The poet 
says, 
4 Whoever comes to the gates of death knows the value of life.’ 
Whenever these awful occurrences pass before my 
memory, I feel myself involuntarily turn faint. The 
mercy of God has bestowed a new life on me, and 
how can my tongue express my gratitude ? M * 
* Memoirs, p. 348. 
