ow the Shah-in-Shah, Shah Jahan, Emperor in India, loved his wife with
a great love. And of all the wives of the Mogul Emperors surely this
Lady Arjemand, Mumtaz-i-Mahal---the Chosen of the Palace--was the most
worthy of love. In the tresses of her silk-soft hair his heart was
bound, and for none other had he so much as a passing thought since
his soul had been submerged in her sweetness. Of her he said, using the
words of the poet Faisi,--

"How shall I understand the magic of Love the Juggler? For he made thy
beauty enter at that small gate the pupil of my eye, And now--and now my
heart cannot contain it!"

But who should marvel? For those who have seen this Arjemand crowned
with the crown the Padishah set upon her sweet low brows, with the lamps
of great jewels lighting the dimples of her cheeks as they swung beside
them, have most surely seen perfection. He who sat upon the Peacock
Throne, where the outspread tail of massed gems is centred by that great
ruby, "The Eye of the Peacock, the Tribute of the World," valued it not
so much as one Jock of the dark and perfumed tresses that rolled to her
feet. Less to him the twelve throne columns set close with pearls than
the little pearls she showed in her sweet laughter. For if this lady was
all beauty, so too she was all goodness; and from the Shah-in-Shah to
the poorest, all hearts of the world knelt in adoration, before the
Chosen of the Palace. She was, indeed, an extraordinary beauty, in that
she had the soul of a child, and she alone remained unconscious of her
power; and so she walked, crowned and clothed with humility.

Cold, haughty, and silent was the Shah-in-Shah before she blessed his
arms--flattered, envied, but loved by none. But the gift this Lady
brought with her was love; and this, shining like the sun upon ice,
melted his coldness, and he became indeed the kingly centre of a kingly
court May the Peace be upon her!

Now it was the dawn of a sorrowful day when the pains of the Lady
Arjemand came strong and terrible, and she travailed in agony. The
hakims (physicians) stroked their beards and reasoned one with another;
the wise women surrounded her, and remedies many and great were tried;
and still her anguish grew, and in the hall without sat the Shah-in-Shah
upon his divan, in anguish of spirit yet greater. The sweat ran on his
brows, the knotted veins were thick on his temples, and his eyes, sunk
in their caves, showed as those of a maddened man. He c