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 XVI.

THE PROPHECY.

January 6.

TWO hundred and twenty-seven years ago a Guru, an apostle of the Sikhs, was in captivity in a small building in the Chandni Chauk, at Delhi. He was Teg Bahadur, the ninth in succession of the great Gurus who welded the Sikhs into a band of Asiatic Ironsides, inspired by pure religious zeal, made valiant by the most rigorous military discipline. Teg Bahadur had fallen into the clutches of the great Emperor Aurangzeb, who was eager to compass his doom. At last a false charge was trumped up against him. He was accused of having, when outside his prison, stared curiously in the direction of the Great Mogul's zena- na. Questioned as to his alleged crime he answered proudly : '* I was not looking towards the zenana. I was looking south for the White Race coming from beyond the sea to tear down thy purdahs and destroy thine empire." The words sealed his doom. He was taken back to his dungeon and beheaded by the order of the incensed potentate. But his words lived in the memory of the persecuted Sikhs. His prophecy was spread far and wide by Govind Singh, the tenth and the greatest Guru, who finally consolidated the Sikhs into a religious and political