e and his sister, Bakhshi Banu
Begam, were despatched with their attendants to Kabul. After some
adventures, which made the {55} escort apprehend an attempt at
rescue, the party reached Kabul in safety, and there Kamran confided
his nephew to the care of his great-aunt, Khanzada Begam, the whilom
favourite sister of the Emperor Babar. This illustrious lady
maintained in their duties the nurses and attendants who had watched
over the early days of the young prince, and during the short time of
her superintendence she bestowed upon him the tenderest care.
Unhappily that superintendence lasted only a few months. The capture
of Kandahar by Humayun in the month of September following (1545)
threw Kamran into a state of great perplexity. A suspicious and
jealous man, and regarding the possession of Akbar as a talisman he
could use against Humayun, he removed the boy from the care of his
grand-aunt, and confided him to a trusted adherent, Kuch Kilan by
name. But events marched very quickly in those days. Humayun, having
established a firm base at Kandahar, set out with an army for Kabul,
appeared before that city the first week in November, and compelled
it to surrender to him on the 15th. Kamran had escaped to Ghazni: but
the happy father had the gratification of finding the son from whom
he had been so long separated. The boy's mother, Hamida Begam, did
not arrive till the spring of the following year, but, meanwhile,
Kuch Kilan was removed, and the prince's former governor, known as
Atka Khan,[1] was restored to his post.

[Footnote 1: His real name was Shams-ud-din Muhammad of Ghazni. He
had saved the life of Humayun in 1540, at the battle of Kanauj,
fought against Sher Shah.]

{56} For the moment splendour and prosperity surrounded the boy. But
when winter came, Humayun, who meanwhile had recovered Badakshan,
resolved to pass the coldest months of the year at Kila Zafar, in
that province. But on his way thither he was seized with an illness
so dangerous that his life was despaired of. He recovered indeed
after two months' strict confinement to his bed, but, in the
interval, many of his nobles, believing his end was assured, had
repaired to the courts of his brothers, and Kamran, aided by troops
supplied by his father-in-law, had regained Kabul, and, with Kabul,
possession of the person of Akbar. One of the first acts of the
conqueror was to remove Atka Khan from the person of the prince, and
to replace him by one of hi