Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/618

604 could not brook this treatment. She gave herself up for some time, to grief, abundantly, and perhaps really, for the loss of her husband; for her ambitious hopes thus unexpectedly blasted, she could not but reflect with regret on a brave man, whose sufferings and whose death she was passively the occasion of. But at length she was reconciled to her condition, and an expedient offered itself to her active mind, to raise her own reputation, and to support herself and slaves with more decency, than the scanty pittance allowed her would admit. She called forth her invention and taste, in working some admirable pieces of tapestry and embroidery, in painting silks with exquisite delicacy, and in inventing female ornaments of every kind. These articles were carried by her slaves, to the different squares of the royal seraglio, and to the harams of the great officers of the empire. The inventions of Mher-ul-Nissa excelled so much in their kind, that they were brought with the greatest avidity. Nothing was fashionable among the ladies of Delhi and Agra, but the work of her hands. She accumulated, by these means, a considerable sum of money, with which she repaired and beautified her apartments, and clothed her slaves in the richest tissues and embroideries, while she herself wore a very plain, and simple dress.

In this situation she remained four years, without once having seen the emperor. Her fame reached his ears from every apartment in the seraglio. Curiosity, at length, overcame his resolution. He resolved to surprise her; and, communicating his resolution to none, he suddenly entered her apartments, where he found every thing so elegant and magnificent, that he was struck with amazement. But the greatest ornament of the whole was Mher-ul-Nissa herself: she lay, half re- clined