ounted on a stupendous Pegu elephant and seated in a _mikdember_,
blazing with gold and azure, is followed by five or six other elephants
with _mikdembers_ nearly as resplendent as her own, and filled with
ladies attached to her household. Close to the Princess are the chief
eunuchs, richly adorned and finely mounted, each with a wand of office
in his hand; and surrounding her elephant a troop of female servants,
_Tartars_ and _Kachmerys_, fantastically attired and riding handsome
pad-horses. Besides these attendants are several eunuchs on horseback,
accompanied by a multitude of _pagys_, or lackeys, on foot, with
large canes, who advance a great way before the Princess, both to
the right and left, for the purpose of clearing the road and driving
before them every intruder. Immediately behind Rauchenara-Begum's
retinue appears a principal lady of the court, mounted and attended
in much the same manner as the Princess. This lady is followed by a
third, she by a fourth, and so on, until fifteen or sixteen females
of quality pass with a grandeur of appearance, equipage, and retinue
more or less proportionate to their rank, pay, and office. There is
something very impressive of state and royalty in the march of these
sixty or more elephants; in their solemn and, as it were, measured
steps, in the splendour of the _mikdembers_, and the brilliant and
innumerable followers in attendance; and, if I had not regarded this
display of magnificence with a sort of philosophical indifference, I
should have been apt to be carried away by such flights of imagination
as inspire most of the Indian poets when they represent the elephants
as conveying so many goddesses concealed from the vulgar gaze." [4]

Dramatic justice overtook the scheming Princess at last. In 1664
Aurangzib fell dangerously ill, and, while he was unconscious,
Rushanara, believing him to be dying, abstracted the signet ring
from his finger and issued letters, as under the royal seal, to the
various Viceroys and Governors, setting aside the succession of the
Emperor's eldest son by a Rajput Princess in favour of another son,
a boy of six, by a Muhammadan sultana. She hoped by this means to keep
the supreme power in her own hands during the long minority of the new
Emperor. Aurangzib unexpectedly recovered, and became suspicious of
his dangerous sister. The host of enemies she had created at court
were not slow in taking advantage of the situation, and Rushanara
soon aft