r sovereign to extraordinary exertions, to force
them to flight. The followers of the rebel chief, sensible that they
were engaged in a losing cause, displayed nothing like the firmness
and persistency of the soldiers of Akbar. They dropped off as they
could find the opportunity, and the rebel chief himself, abandoned by
his following, made his way, as best he could, past Ahmadabad and
Disa to Sirohi in Rajputana.

Broach meanwhile had fallen, and there remained only Surat. Against
this town, so well known to {112} English traders in the days of his
son and grandson, Akbar marched in person on his return from the
expedition just related. Against the breaching material employed in
those days Surat was strong. But the Emperor pressed the siege with
vigour, and after a patient progress of a month and seventeen days,
the garrison, reduced to extremities, surrendered. He remained at
Surat long enough to complete the settlement of the affairs of the
province of Gujarat, and then began his return-march to Agra. He
arrived there on the 4th of June, 1573, having been absent on the
expedition about nine months.

Whilst Akbar had been besieging Surat, the rebel chief whom he had
defeated at Sarsa, and who had fled to Sirohi, had been bestirring
himself to make mischief. Joined by another powerful malcontent noble
he advanced against Patan, met near that place the Emperor's forces,
and had almost beaten them in the field, when, his own troops
dispersing to plunder, the Mughal forces rallied, pierced the enemy's
centre, and turned defeat into victory. The news of this achievement
reached Akbar whilst he was still before Surat. The rebel leader,
still bent on doing all the mischief in his power, made his way
through Rajputana to the Punjab, encountering two or three defeats on
his way, but always escaping with his life, and plundering, as he
marched, Panipat, Sonpat, and Karnal. In the Punjab he was
encountered by the imperial troops, was defeated, and, after some
exciting adventures, was wounded by a party of {113} fishermen near
Multan, taken prisoner, and died from the effect of his wound. He was
a good riddance, for he was a masterful man. It may here be added
that during this year the Mughal troops attempted, but failed to take
the strong fortress of Kangra, in the Jalandhar Duab. The besiegers
had reduced the garrison to extremities when they were called off by
the invasion of the adventurer whose death near Multan I have
re