230 
LIVES OF THE MOGHUL EMPERORS. 
tion the anxious father committed his son, quitted 
his dying master’s bedside with very equivocal inten- 
tions. He bore an extreme dislike to the prince, 
which all his admiration for the father could not subdue ; 
why, the Mohammedan historians do not relate. It 
was, however, so inveterate, that he resolved to use 
all his influence to frustrate Humaioon’s succession. 
Thus the court of the expiring conqueror became a 
scene of intrigue and cabal, and Baber’s last moments 
were probably embittered by the apprehension that he 
should leave behind him a distracted empire. Kha- 
lifeh had great influence with the Turki nobles, 
who were the most numerous and powerful among 
the adherents of the new sovereign. They united 
with the prime minister in opposing the accession 
of Humaioon, and promoted that of Mehdi Khwajeh, 
Baber’s son-in-law, whom Khalifeh proposed as suc- 
cessor to the empire of Hindostan. This young man, 
though brave and liberal, was exceedingly wild and 
extravagant ; but so soon as it was known that the first 
officer of the state favoured his pretensions to the throne, 
he received the homage of the principal omrahs, and 
already began to assume the deportment of royalty. 
The liberality of his disposition gained him many ad- 
herents ; and as these were daily increasing, he looked 
upon his succession as certain, when he was suddenly 
arrested and placed in his own house under a guard, 
by order of Khalifeh. 
“ The cause of this sudden change,” says Mr. 
Erskine,* " has escaped the researches of Abulfazil 
* See Supplement to the Memoirs, page 428. 
