Page:Akbar and the Rise of the Mughal Empire.djvu/92

Rh strength of his reign, that if a thing were to be done at all, it should be done thoroughly. He accordingly marched straight on Lahore, and, finding Lahore safe, from that capital into Jálandhar, where his enemy was maintaining his ground. On the approach of Akbar, Sikandar retreated towards the Siwáliks, and threw himself into Mánkót. There Akbar besieged him.

The siege lasted six months. Then, pressed by famine and weakened by desertions, Sikandar sent some of his nobles to ask for terms. Akbar acceded to his request that his enemy might be allowed to retire to Bengal, leaving his son as a hostage that he would not again war against the Emperor. The fort then surrendered, and Akbar returned to Lahore; spent four months and fourteen days there to arrange the province, and then marched on Delhi. As he halted at Jálandhar, there took place the marriage of Bairám Khán with a cousin of the late emperor, Humáyún. This marriage had been arranged by Humáyún, and to the young prince his father's wishes on such subjects were a law. Akbar re-entered Delhi on the 15th of March, 1558. Bairám Khán was still, in actual management of affairs, the Atálik, the tutor, of the sovereign, and he continued to be so during the two years that followed, 1558 and 1559. It was not easy for a young boy to shake off all at once the influence of a great general under whom he had been placed to learn his trade, and possibly Akbar, though he did not approve many of the acts