he has any alterations to make in his orders.
These are afterwards carried to the _Diwan_, or tribunal of state, that
they may be carried into execution.

When the emperor was seated on his throne, the seven ambassadors were
brought forwards, facing the emperor, and at the same time a great number
of criminals were presented. There were seven hundred of these, some of
whom were fastened by the neck, others having their heads and hands
inclosed by a board, six sometimes fastened thus to one board. Each
criminal was attended by a keeper, who held his prisoner by the hair: and
all thus waited the imperial sentence. Most of these were remanded to
prison, and only a few were condemned to die, which power resides solely in
the emperor. All the governors of this vast empire, however distant from
court, send all malefactors to Khanbalik, to appear in presence of the
emperor. Each persons crime is written on one end of the board which he
carries about his neck; and the crimes against religion are the most
severely punished of all. Great care is taken to examine into all the facts
on these occasions, insomuch that the emperor holds council twelve several
times before he condemns any one to death. Hence a person who has been
condemned in eleven successive councils, is sometimes acquitted in the
twelfth, which is always held in presence of the emperor, who never
condemns any but those he cannot save. When the criminals were dismissed,
the ambassadors were led by an officer within fifteen cubits of the throne;
and this officer, on his knees, read out of a paper the purport of their
embassy; adding that they had brought rarities as presents to his majesty,
and were come to knock their heads against the ground before him. Then the
_Kadhi Mulana Haji Yusof_, a commander of ten thousand, who was a favourite
of the emperor and one of his twelve councillors, approached to the
ambassadors, with some Moslems who spoke the Persian language, and ordered
them to fall on their knees and knock their ground with their foreheads;
but they only bowed their heads three times. Then they delivered the
letters of Shah Rokh and the other princes, wrapped up in yellow satin, to
Kadhi Mulana, who gave them into the hands of a khoja of the palace at the
foot of the throne, and he presented them to the emperor. He took them into
his own hands, opened them and looked at them, and delivered them back to
the khoja, who descended from the throne, and sat down on