already sent him
poison, which he had put into his bosom instead of his mouth, and proved
by trials. For this reason, she was confident Khan-Khannan would not
dare to put on any thing sent from his majesty. The king offered to
wear the dress himself in her presence for an hour, which she might
certify in a letter to her relative. To this she answered, that
Khan-Khannan would trust neither of them with his life; but, if allowed
to continue quietly in his command, would do his majesty good service.
Upon this, the king altered his plans, and resolved to invest Sultan
Churrum in the supreme command of the Deccan wars, and to follow after
him with another army, to ensure his reception.

Khan-Khannan, having due notice of the storm preparing against him,
practised with the Deccan sovereigns, who were at his devotion, to offer
favourable terms of peace for a season, as he saw no other way of
averting the cloud that hung over both him and them, unless by
temporizing till the king and the prince were established farther off.
For this purpose, there came two ambassadors at this time to court, from
the princes of the Deccan, bringing horses richly caparisoned as
presents. The king refused to listen to them, or to accept their gifts,
and turned them over to his son, saying that peace or war rested
entirely with him. The prince was so puffed up by this favour, though
informed that the proposed conditions of peace were highly honourable,
that he declared proudly he would listen to no terms, till he was in the
field at the head of the army, being resolved that Khan-Khannan should
not deprive him of the honour of finishing that war.

The ambitious views of this young prince are quite obvious, and form the
common talk of the country, yet the king suffers him to proceed,
although he by no means intends him as his successor. Sultan Cuserou,
the eldest son, is highly beloved and honoured of all men, and almost
adored, for his excellent parts and noble dispositions, with which the
king is well acquainted, and even loves him dearly. But he conceives
that the liberty of this son would diminish his own glory, and does not
see that the ambition of Churrum greatly more tarnishes his own fame
than would the virtuous character and noble actions of the other. Thus
the king fosters division and emulation among his sons, putting so much
power into the hands of the younger, which he believes he can undo at
his pleasure, that the wisest here foresee m