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 232 THE EMPEKOR HUMAYUN Moghul authority and was joined again to Gujarat. One year had seen the rapid conquest of the two great prov- inces; the next saw them as quickly lost. The only justification for the abandonment of so rich a prize would be the paramount necessity of suppressing the growing revolt in the eastern provinces. Yet the pleasure-loving emperor wasted a whole year at Agra in merrymaking and opiated idleness before he moved to the scene of rebellion. He even thought of first return- ing to recover Malwa and Gujarat before grappling with the very danger that had caused their abandonment. Nothing could more clearly show Humayun's incurable vacillation and military incompetence. When at last he set out in July, 1537, with every man he could muster, he carried all before him. The Eumi Khan, who, being an adventurer, had deserted to the winning side on the flight of the King of Gujarat, now plied his guns for Humayun, and his science compelled the surrender of Sher Khan's fortress of Chunar in the absence of its lord, who was then busily engaged in reducing the whole of Bengal to his sway. This indomitable Afghan, whose bold career deserves a volume to itself, had long fixed his eyes on the decay- ing power of the Bengal kings and dreamed of a restora- tion of the Afghan ascendency. Descended from the royal house of Sur, kings of Ghor, he had risen from the rank of a mere administrator of a small district near Rohtas to be prime minister of one of the Lohani Afghans who had styled themselves kings of Bihar in the time of Babar. On that emperor's advance, Sher