.

"When Prince Hasan, as the lad had been named, had attained the age of
seventeen, it befell that the Emperor Humayun, son of Baber, made a
progress through the Kashmir Valley, receiving homage from his
feudatories, among whom was Mirza Shah. And the magnificent retinue of
the mighty Mogul so impressed our young prince, that he must needs beg
the privilege of joining the imperial bodyguard. This request was
readily granted, for Humayun was trying to gather around him the best
young blood in Hindustan, Rajput as well as Moslem, so that each race
alike might be keen in the defence and proud of the glory of the great
Mogul Empire.

"Thus it came about that Prince Hasan, superbly mounted and dressed in a
suit of fine chain armour beneath his upper silken garments, rode forth
from the valley where he had been reared, accompanied by the tearful
blessings of his father and mother.

"A year passed, and then Mirza Shah himself, summoned by special
messenger, departed on a visit to the Court at Agra. When two months
later he returned, never did I know such a change to have been wrought
in so brief a time on any man. He was grey and haggard; his eyes were
sunken. And to me he came almost first of all in the palace, to consult
the stars.

"And for my better guidance he told me some things. Prince Hasan had
fallen into ways of dissipation and habits of drunkenness--most accursed
of vices--in the city of Agra. It was in the hope of reclaiming him
that an old friend had called Mirza Shah to the capital. But at the
meeting of father and son, instead of repentance on the part of the
misguided youth, there had been defiance and revilement, and at last, as
the father confessed to me, with the tremor of shame in his voice, an
insulting blow in the face. This was too much to endure. Mirza Shah had
disowned his son. He declared he was henceforth childless, for, perhaps
as I have told you, there had been no other babe born all these years to
the sultana.

"Even now did I conceal my guilty knowledge, though well I knew that the
inexorable scroll of destiny was beginning to unfold itself. In fact, I
was afraid to speak, for Mirza Shah had challenged me straightway to
show a flaw in the happy horoscope I had drawn. And flaw in the
emblazoned scroll there was none that I could lay finger on; only in my
secret heart was the one sinister line traced--surely traced, as I
remorsefully reflected.

"For months thereafter Mirza Shah kept away