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82 begotten treacherous clowns' had meanwhile sent a messenger to Tambal to betray Bábar's retreat.

'Entering a stone house and kindling a fire, I closed my eyes for a moment in sleep. These crafty fellows pretended a vast anxiety to serve me: "We must not stir from this neighbourhood," said they, "till we have news of Kádir Berdi [the headman]. The room where we are, however, is in the midst of houses. There is a place on the outskirts where we could be quite unsuspected, could we but reach it." So we mounted our horses about midnight and went to a garden on the outskirts of the suburbs. Bábá Sairámi watched on the terrace roof of the house, keeping a sharp look-out in every direction.

'It was near noon [on the third day of the flight] when he came down from the terrace and said to me, "Here comes Yúsuf the constable." I was seized with prodigious alarm, and said, "Find out if he comes in consequence of knowing that I am here." Bábá went out, and after some talk returned and said, "Yúsuf the constable says that at the gate of Akhsi he met a foot-soldier who told him that the king was in Karmán at such a place; that, without telling the news to any one, he had put the man into close custody, . . . and hastened to you at full speed; and that the Begs know nothing of the matter." I asked him, "What think you of this?" He replied, "They are all your servants; there is nothing left for it but to join them. They will undoubtedly make you king again." "But after such wars and quarrels," said I, "how can I trust myself in their power?" I was still speaking, when Yúsuf suddenly presented himself, and falling on his knees before me exclaimed, Why should I conceal anything from you? Sultán Ahmad Beg knows nothing of the matter; but Shaikh Báyazíd Beg has got information where you are, and has sent me hither."