78 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
CHAPTER VII. 
The sufferings and privations of the Emperor during 
his flight from his own kingdom have seldom been 
paralleled in the histories of monarchs. He was 
abandoned by his friends, treated with indifference by 
his former dependants and allies, with insult by many 
of those petty princes whose protection he solicited 
in his reverses, and with duplicity by all, save a few 
attached followers. On his way to Amurkote his 
sufferings, and those of his people, were of the most 
distressing kind. For two days they marched in the 
desert without finding water, suffering the most fright- 
ful privations, insomuch that several of the attendants 
died. At length, reaching a well, Humayoon, pro- 
strating himself on the ground, returned thanks to God 
for his gracious mercy ; then ordering all the leathern 
vessels to be filled, he sent the water-carriers back to 
meet the people, who were coming up, to the last 
degree distressed from their long and trying thirst. 
Among the followers of the fugitive monarch was a 
merchant, who had fallen down on the road, and was 
unable to proceed. His son was standing over him 
in an agony of despair. To the father, Humayoon 
was indebted a considerable sum of money. Having 
