ated within the walls of the city. Here
he maintained himself for five months, but had then to succumb to
famine. He was allowed to quit the city with his following, and made
his way, first to Uratiupe, ultimately to Dehkat, a village assigned
to him by the reigning Khan of the former place. For three years that
followed he lived the life of an adventurer: now an exile in the
desert; now marching and gaining a throne; always joyous; always
buoyed up by hope of ultimate success; always acting with energy and
vigour. He attempted to win {16} back, and had been forced to
abandon, Ferghana; then he resolved, with a motley band of two to
three hundred men, to march on Khorasan. It seemed madness, but the
madness had a method. How he marched, and what was the result of his
march, will be told in the next chapter.

{17}

CHAPTER III
BABAR CONQUERS KABUL

At this period the kingdom of Kabul comprehended solely the provinces
of Kabul and Ghazni, the territory which we should call eastern
Afghanistan. Herat was the capital of an independent empire, at this
time the greatest in Central Asia; and Kandahar, Bajaur, Swat, and
Peshawar, were ruled by chiefs who had no connection with Kabul. The
tribes of the plains and outlying valleys alone acknowledged the
authority of the King of that country. The clans of the mountains
were as independent and refractory as their descendants were up to a
recent period. Kabul at this time was in a state bordering upon
anarchy. The late King, Abdul-rizak, a grandson of the Abusaid
referred to in the preceding chapter, had been surprised in, and
driven from, the city, by Muhammad Mokim, a son of the ruler of
Kandahar, and that prince, taking no thought of the morrow, was
reigning as though all the world were at peace, and he at least were
free from danger.

Babar, I have said, tired of his wandering life, had resolved to
march on Khorasan. He crossed the Oxus, therefore, and joined by
Baki, the son of Sultan {18} Khusrou, ruler of the country, marched
on Ajer, remained there a few days; then, hearing that the Mughals in
Khusrou's service had revolted, he marched towards Talikan, so as to
be able to take advantage of the situation. Between the two places he
was joined by the Mughals in question, and learnt that Sultan
Khusrou, with the remainder of his troops, was on his way to Kabul.
The two armies were so close to one another, that an interview took
place between the leaders, which resul