HUMAYOON RECOVERS HIS CROWN. 
91 
the Persian king ; but hearing of the Afghan sove- 
reign's decease, he determined to make an attempt 
to recover his crown, being furnished by Shah Tamasp 
with an army of ten thousand horse. With these he 
marched against his brother, Askurry Mirza, who 
still retained possession of the young Prince Akbar, 
and invested the fort of Candahar. After a pro- 
tracted siege, during which several old officers of dis- 
tinction had joined the imperial standard, Askurry 
Mirza surrendered the town upon honourable terms, 
having received an unqualified pardon for his former 
defection. 
Humayoon now marched to Cabul, of which he 
likewise gained possession. Here he found Prince 
Akbar, then four years old, and his mother, Banu Be- 
gum, the queen. Taking the former in his arms, he 
exclaimed, “Joseph by his envious brethren was cast 
into a well ; but he was eventually exalted by Pro- 
vidence, as thou shalt be, to the summit of glory.”* 
The Emperor, after various successes and reverses, 
by the defeat of Secundur Shah Soor, the third in 
descent from Shere Shah, finally recovered his crown, 
which now fell for ever from the hands of the Afghans. 
Having disposed of several governments among his 
officers and faithful allies, he entered Delhi in tri- 
umph, and became for the second time sovereign of 
Hindostan in the month of July 1555. His death 
happened in the following year. Being accustomed 
to walk on the terraced roof of the imperial library 
at Delhi, he had one day taken his usual exercise, and 
feeling rather fatigued he sat down to enjoy the fresh 
* See Ferishta’s Life of Humayoon Padshah, p. 160. 
