Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/539

Rh have not finished my reading of the Kuran yet. He cannot come in; let him wait." The staff-bearers stopped the wazir, saying: "Prince Aurangzeb has not done reading the Kuran yet; when he has finished we will let you in." The wazir had to stand in the mud and water, and could not sit down for fear of dirtying his clothes. When Aurangzeb had had enough of the Kuran, he said: "Let the wazir come in." The wazir came in, and the prince took him by the hand, and greeted him, and, after a little conversation, he gave him his dismissal. The wazir went by forced marches, lading and unlading, to where King Shah-Jehan was. The king asked him which of the princes he thought would rule after him, and he replied: "Your youngest son, Aurangzeb." A year afterwards Aurangzeb wrote to his father, saying: "I am at the point of death, come to see me, for you are my father." Shah-Jehan prepared to go; saying: "My son is ill, I must go to see him." The wazir said: "Do not go, O king ; I will not allow you to go, Aurangzeb will seize you." But the king said: "Aurangzeb writes that he is very ill, and at the point of death. I will go to see him." The wazir still said: "and I tell you, do not go." The king said: "I certainly will go." Then the wazir said: "Since you are not to be stopped, but are determined to go, give me a letter to say that I warned you not to go, but you did not take my advice." The king then wrote a paper to this effect, and gave it to the wazir, and set out. Marching daily, he arrived at Aurangzeb's town. Aurangzeb had instructed his followers to say to the king, on his arrival, "Aurangzeb is very ill." On hearing this, the king came to Aurangzeb's palace. Aurangzeb directed his troops to surround the palace on all four sides. He came to meet his father, bringing with him some fetters of gold, and he said to his father: "Put these fetters on your feet respectfully, or I will have you killed." Shah-Jehan took the fetters and put them on his feet, and Aurangzeb kept him as a prisoner. He had the royal