Phillaur, marched on Sultanpur in the Kangra
district, and thence, in pursuit of Sikandar Shah, to Hariana. The
morning of his arrival there, information reached him of a serious
accident which had happened to Humayun. He at once suspended the
forward movement, and marched on Kalanaur, there to await further
intelligence. As he approached that place, a despatch was placed in
his hands, drafted by order of Humayun, giving hopes of speedy
recovery. But, a little later, another courier arrived, bearing the
news of the Emperor's death. Akbar was at once proclaimed.

The situation was a trying one for a boy who had lived but thirteen
years and four months. He occupied, indeed, the Punjab. His servants
held Sirhind, Delhi, and possibly Agra. But he was aware that Hemu,
flushed with two victories, for he had obtained a second over another
pretender, was marching towards the last-named city with an army of
fifty thousand men and five hundred elephants, with the avowed
intention of restoring the rule of Muhammad {64} Shah Adel. To add to
his difficulties he heard a few days later that the viceroy placed by
his father at Kabul had revolted.

Humayun had met his death by a fall from the top of the staircase
leading to the terraced roof of his library in the palace of Delhi.
He lingered four days, the greater part of the time in a state of
insensibility, and expired the evening of the 24th of January, in the
forty-eighth year of his age. Tardi Beg Khan, the most eminent of all
the nobles at the capital, and actually Governor of the city, assumed
on the spot the general direction of affairs. His first care was to
conceal the incident from the public until he could arrange to make
the succession secure for the young Akbar, to whom he sent expresses
conveying details. By an ingenious stratagem he managed to conceal
the death of the Emperor for seventeen days. Then, on the 10th of
February, he repaired with the nobles to the great Mosque, and caused
the prayer for the Emperor to be recited in the name of Akbar. His
next act was to despatch the insignia of the empire with the Crown
jewels, accompanied by the officers of the household, the Imperial
Guards, and a possible rival to the throne in the person of a son of
Humayun's brother, Kamran, to the head-quarters of the new Emperor in
the Punjab. He then proceeded to take measures to secure the capital
against the threatened attack of Hemu.

{65}

CHAPTER VIII
AKBAR'S FIGHT FO