ows and musket
balls from a distance. His horse fell under him and expired; and,
having received six balls and several arrows in his body, Sher
himself at last fell exhausted to the ground; and the crowd, seeing
the sword drop from his grasp, rushed in and cut him to pieces.[l0]

His widow was sent, 'nothing loth', to court, with her only child, a
daughter. She was graciously received by the Emperor's mother, and
had apartments assigned her in the palace; but the Emperor himself is
said not to have seen her for four years, during which time the fame
of her beauty, talents, and accomplishments filled the palace and
city. After the expiration of this time the feelings, whatever they
were, which prevented his seeing her, subsided; and when he at last
surprised her with a visit, he found her to exceed all that his
imagination had painted since their last separation. In a few days
their marriage was celebrated with great magnificence;[11] and from
that hour the Emperor resigned the reins of government almost
entirely into her hands; and, till his death, under the name first of
Nur Mahall, 'Light of the Palace', and afterwards of Nur Jahan,
'Light of the World ', she ruled the destinies of this great empire.
Her father was now raised from the station of high treasurer to that
of prime minister. Her two brothers obtained the titles of Asaf Jah
and Itikad Khan; and the relations of the family poured in from
Tartary in search of employment, as soon as they heard of their
success.[12] Nur Jahan had by Sher Afgan, as I have stated, one
daughter; but she had never any child by the Emperor Jahangir.[13]

Asaf Jah became prime minister on the death of his father; and, in
spite of his sister, he managed to secure the crown to Shah Jahan,
the third son of Jahangir, who had married his daughter, the lady
over whose remains the Taj was afterwards built. Jahangir's eldest
son, Khusru, had his eyes put out by his father's orders for repeated
rebellions, to which he had been instigated by a desire to revenge
his mother's murder, and by the ambition of her brother, the Hindoo
prince, Man Singh,[14] who wished to see his own nephew on the
throne, and by his wife's father, the prime minister of Akbar, Khan
Azam.[15] Nur Jahan had invited the mother of Khusru, the sister of
Raja Man Singh, to look with her down a well in the courtyard of her
apartments by moonlight, and as she did so she threw her in. As soon
as she saw that she had ceased to