ury he had avenged, was
unable to suppress his astonishment and curiosity; and the courteous
monarch condescended to explain the motives of this singular behavior.
"I had reason to suspect that none, except one of my sons, could dare
to perpetrate such an outrage; and I extinguished the lights, that my
justice might be blind and inexorable. My prayer was a thanksgiving on
the discovery of the offender; and so painful was my anxiety, that I
had passed three days without food since the first moment of your
complaint." II. The sultan of Gazna had declared war against the dynasty
of the Bowides, the sovereigns of the western Persia: he was disarmed
by an epistle of the sultana mother, and delayed his invasion till the
manhood of her son. "During the life of my husband," said the artful
regent, "I was ever apprehensive of your ambition: he was a prince and a
soldier worthy of your arms. He is now no more his sceptre has passed
to a woman and a child, and you _dare not_ attack their infancy and
weakness. How inglorious would be your conquest, how shameful your
defeat! and yet the event of war is in the hand of the Almighty."
Avarice was the only defect that tarnished the illustrious character
of Mahmud; and never has that passion been more richly satiated. The
Orientals exceed the measure of credibility in the account of millions
of gold and silver, such as the avidity of man has never accumulated; in
the magnitude of pearls, diamonds, and rubies, such as have never been
produced by the workmanship of nature. Yet the soil of Hindostan
is impregnated with precious minerals: her trade, in every age, has
attracted the gold and silver of the world; and her virgin spoils were
rifled by the first of the Mahometan conquerors. His behavior, in the
last days of his life, evinces the vanity of these possessions, so
laboriously won, so dangerously held, and so inevitably lost. He
surveyed the vast and various chambers of the treasury of Gazna, burst
into tears, and again closed the doors, without bestowing any portion of
the wealth which he could no longer hope to preserve. The following day
he reviewed the state of his military force; one hundred thousand foot,
fifty-five thousand horse, and thirteen hundred elephants of battle.
He again wept the instability of human greatness; and his grief
was imbittered by the hostile progress of the Turkmans, whom he had
introduced into the heart of his Persian kingdom.

In the modern depopulation