red
to be of the house of Timur lang (the Lame), because Babur, the real
founder of the dynasty, was descended from him in the seventh
stage.[43] Timur merely made a predatory inroad into India, to kill a
few million of unbelievers,[44] plunder the country of all the
movable valuables he and his soldiers could collect, and take back
into slavery all the best artificers of all kinds that they could lay
their hands upon. He left no one to represent him in India, he
claimed no sovereignty, and founded no dynasty there. There is no
doubt much in the prestige of a name; and though six generations had
passed away, the people of Northern India still trembled at that of
the lame monster. Babur wished to impress upon the minds of the
people the notion that he had at his back the same army of demons
that Timur had commanded; and be boasted his descent from him for the
same motive that Alexander boasted his from the horned and cloven-
footed god of the Egyptian desert, as something to sanctify all
enterprises, justify the use of all means, and carry before him the
belief in his invincibility.

Babur was an admirable chief--a fit founder of a great dynasty--a
very proper object for the imagination of future generations to dwell
upon, though not quite so good as his grandson, the great Akbar.
Timur was a ferocious monster, who knew how to organize and command
the set of demons who composed his army, and how best to direct them
for the destruction of the civilized portion of mankind and their
works; but who knew nothing else.[45] In his invasion of India he
caused the people of the towns and villages through which he passed
to be all massacred without regard to religion, age, or sex. If the
soldiers in the town resisted, the people were all murdered because
they did so; if they did not, the people were considered to have
forfeited their lives to the conquerors for being conquered; and told
to purchase them by the surrender of all their property, the value of
which was estimated by commissaries appointed for the purpose. The
price was always more than they could pay; and after torturing a
certain number to death in the attempt to screw the sum out of them,
the troops were let in to murder the rest; so that no city, town, or
village escaped; and the very grain collected for the army, over and
above what they could consume at any stage, was burned, lest it might
relieve some hungry infidel of the country who had escaped from the
gener