232 
LIVES OF THE MOGHUL EMPERORS. 
were that he should instantly retire to his own house. 
The young man had now sat down to dinner, which 
was still before him. The messengers communicat- 
ed the royal commands and forced him away. Mir 
Khalifeh then issued a proclamation, prohibiting all 
persons from resorting to Mehdi Khwajeh’s house, or 
waiting upon him ; while Mehdi Khwajeh himself re- 
ceived orders not to appear at court.” 
Happily for the dying monarch, he was not at his 
capital where these intrigues were now in full opera- 
tion ; and was, therefore, most probably ignorant of 
much that was going on. From the moment he took 
to his bed, he never quitted it ; and his disorder in- 
creased so rapidly, that all hope of restoring him to 
his people vanished from the minds of his physicians 
and of his ministers. On the twenty-sixth of December 
1530, this great prince expired at Charbagh, near 
Agra, in the fiftieth year of his age. In compliance 
with a wish expressed during his last sickness, his body 
was conveyed to Cabul, where it was interred with 
regal honours in a sepulchre erected upon a hill which 
still bears his name. Humaioon immediately ascend- 
ed the throne of Hindostan, through the influence of 
Khalifeh. Baber at his death had seven children liv- 
ing, of whom the prince who succeeded him was the 
eldest. The second son, Kamran Mirza, had the go- 
vernment of the Punjab in addition to that of Cabul 
and Kandahar. To Hindal Mirza, his third son, was 
assigned the country of Mewat ; and to Askeri, his 
fourth, the district of Sambuhl, the government of 
which had been originally held by Humaioon. All 
these princes took conspicuous parts in the distractions 
