Page:History of India Vol 3.djvu/258

 210 THE EMPEKOK BABAE, chy, thieving, and marauding. The roads became im- passable. I had not had time, after the division of the treasure, to send fit persons to occupy and protect the different district-subdivisions and stations. The heats this year chanced to be unusually oppressive, and many men dropped at about the same time, as though struck by the simoom, and died on the spot." The troops began to murmur. They longed for the cool air of Kabul, and even made ready to return. They looked upon India as a buccaneer looked on a gallion: the prize-money secured, they wished to make sail. They had to deal with an obstinate man, however, and Babar summoned the chief officers together and made them a speech. He recalled their past toil and labours together, the weary marches and grievous hardships, and reminded them that all these had been endured for the sake of the great reward which was now theirs. " A mighty enemy has been overcome, and a rich and powerful kingdom is at our feet. And now, having attained our goal and won our game, are we to turn back from all we have accomplished, and fly to Kabul like men who have lost and are discomfited? Let no man who calls himself my friend ever again moot such a thing. But if there be any one of you who cannot bring himself to stay, then let him go." Thoroughly ashamed, the murmurers dared not say a word. There are few acts more splendidly heroic in Babar 's career than this bold resolve to stay where he was, in the middle of India, among hostile nations and a discon- tented soldiery, and the reward of his firmness soon