Page:History of India Vol 3.djvu/65

 THE FATE OF A VIZIR 41 all the world hastened to congratulate him and make him presents. Two days later he took his seat in his office. A fine cloth of brocade set with turquoises was spread for him, and on it he knelt and went through two bowings of prayer; then calling for ink, paper, and sand, he wrote in Arabic a sentence of thanksgiving. All that day till nightfall gifts were pouring in; gold and silver, rich cloths, slaves of high price, pedigree horses and camels and all were dutifully sent on to the amir, who marvelled why the khwaja would not keep them, and rewarded him with ten thousand gold pieces, half a million of silver, ten Turkish slaves, four horses from the royal stable, and ten camels. Meanwhile the minister whom he had superseded presented the reverse of the glittering shield. Not only disgraced, Hasanak was accused of heresy, and sent to the scaffold. Clad in nothing but his turban and trousers, his hands clasped together, " his body like shining silver, his face a picture," he calmly faced his doom. All men wept for him and none would cast the fatal stones. The executioner spared him the indignity of lapidation by a friendly noose. The fallen vizir's head was served up in a dish at a feast, to the horror of the guests; his body hung seven years on the gibbet; but his mother, weeping beneath it, cried aloud in bitter irony, " What good fortune was my son's! Such a king as Mahmud gave him this world, and such a one as Mas'ud the next! ' Such pictures of life at Ghazni are valuable for the history of India, since it was on the model of Mah-