BABER. 
191 
trance into Hindostan. Their disquietude was in- 
creased by a silly fanatic,, who, pretending to the gift 
of divination, declared the planet Mars rose every 
evening in the west with a menacing aspect, and 
all who marched in that direction would suffer defeat. 
Baber, perceiving the effect produced by these evil 
predictions to be growing serious, summoned a council 
of his officers. Most of these were for quitting the country, 
and awaiting a more auspicious period for accomplish- 
ing what they had so successfully begun ; but the em- 
peror, by a spirited protest against an action so unworthy 
of conquerors, revived their drooping courage, and they 
unanimously resolved to fight under his standard and 
maintain their conquests with their lives. He, how- 
ever, was induced by the peril in which the consterna- 
tion of his troops had placed him to make a public vow 
that he would renounce his propensity to drinking should 
he prove victorious against the enemy. Orders were ac- 
cordingly given that wine should no longer be sold in the 
camp. He commanded the gold and silver goblets to be 
publicly broken up, and the precious fragments dis- 
tributed among the poor. As the confederates had be- 
come masters of several important places, Baber de- 
termined to march against them, and by a decisive 
battle settle the question of supremacy. Summoning 
his officers and amyrs, he thus addressed them : 
“ Noblemen and soldiers ! every man that comes into 
the world is subject to dissolution. When we are 
passed away and gone, God only survives unchangeable. 
Whoever comes to the feast of life must, before it is 
over, drink from the cup of death. He who arrives at 
the inn of mortality must one day inevitably take his 
