68 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
CHAPTER VI. 
The life of Humayoon is one of those romances of 
history, which, in the words of Lord Byron, may be truly 
said to be “ stranger than fiction/’ He was a prince no 
less remarkable for his wit than for the urbanity of 
his manners. He was tall, well made, and altogether 
of a distinguished presence. Though far inferior to 
his father, the renowned Baber, both as a general 
and statesman, he was nevertheless well skilled in 
the science of government ; and notwithstanding the 
early part of his life, after he ascended the imperial 
throne, was a period of melancholy reverses, he re- 
covered his crown after a long interval of privation 
and suffering, and maintained with dignity the do- 
minions which the superior genius of his predecessor 
had established in one of the finest countries upon the 
surface of the globe. 
Perhaps there is not an act of greater conduct and 
more determined enterprise upon record than the 
taking, by Humayoon, of Champanere, a fortress 
considered impregnable, and certainly one of the 
strongest in Hindostan. Here Bahadur Shah, King 
of Guzerat, had deposited the principal portion of his 
vast treasures, which the Moghul prince was deter- 
mined to obtain at whatever cost. The fort was de- 
fended by Yekhtyar Khan, a noble of great experience 
