BABER. 
229 
his couch, using certain gesticulations customary among 
the Mohammedans when they visit the deathbed of 
an expiring relative. He hung tenderly over his dy- 
ing son, and then quitted the apartment, offering up 
an earnest prayer to God that the malady should be 
transferred to him, if the prince might be permitted 
to recover at no less a sacrifice. After he had been 
absent some short time, he was heard to exclaim, “ I 
have borne it away ! I have borne it away !” 
The Mussulmaun historians assert that from this 
moment the emperor began to sink rapidly, and the 
prince to recover. In proportion as the one lost his 
strength, the other regained, until it became evi- 
dent to all present that Baber had reached the 
term of his mortality. Aware of his end, he sum- 
moned the principal nobles of his court, and commu- 
nicated to them his last injunctions. He likewise 
called Humaioon to his presence, and having implored 
him to be affectionate to his family, recommended him 
to the protection of his nobles, from whom he extorted 
a promise that they would serve the son with as much 
fidelity and affection as they had always exhibited to- 
wards the father. The scene was touching ; all were 
moved to tears — they readily assented to what was 
proposed ; but the requests of princes whose power is 
about to be extinguished by death, are too commonly 
heard to be disregarded, being rather the signal for fac- 
tion than the seal of a bond of union. Baber’s mind 
was quieted by the kind assurances of those around him. 
With a quivering lip and tearful eye the prince pro- 
mised all that was required of him ; but the prime 
minister Khwajeh Khalifeh, to whose especial protec- 
x 
