Page:History of India Vol 3.djvu/157

 A REIGN OF TERROR 125 morals, the reckless youth's temper began to show the ferocity of his vindictive father. When Haripala Deva, the son of the late Kama Deva, rebelled at Devagiri, Mubarak had him flayed alive. When the king's cousin Asad-ad-din, indignant at the way things were going, formed a conspiracy and was betrayed, not only were the plotters beheaded in front of the royal tent, but twenty-nine young brothers of the leader, children wholly innocent of the plot, were slaughtered like sheep, and the women of the family were turned out homeless into the streets. His own brothers did not escape his fury. Three of them, including the ex-child- king, were in the fort of Gwalior, blinded and helpless. All three were murdered. The governor of Gujarat was executed for no fault; the new Hindu raja of Devagiri, Yaklakhi, revolted, and had his nose and ears cut off; by the intrigues of the Hindu pariah the old and tried nobles of the late Sultan were disgraced, banished, blinded, imprisoned, and scourged. Finally, one night in March, 1321, the favourite murdered his master, and the headless trunk of Mubarak Shah was seen by the light of torches falling from one of the palace windows. He amply deserved his fate. Then began a hideous reign of terror. Khusru mounted the throne as Sultan Nasir-ad-din, " the Helper of the Faith," and there followed an orgy of blood and violence such as had never before been heard of in India. The harem of the Sultan was brutally ravished; every one worth killing was slain in the palace; three days after the murder of his sovereign Khusru took to