Page:History of India Vol 3.djvu/75

 DEATH OF MAS'UD 47 Mas'ud kept the New Year's spring festival at home, and amply repaid himself for his abstinence on the march. The state of affairs on his return showed that the campaign with its insignificant result had been a mis- take. The ministers had been right in urging him to go west instead of east. Khorasan was rapidly falling into the hands of the Seljuks; Western Persia was throwing off the yoke of Ghazni ; the empire was break- ing up. Mas'ud attempted too late to stem the tide. His generals were defeated, and his own last despair- ing effort near Merv in 1040, as has been related, ended in utter rout. In a panic he prepared to fly to India before the terror of a Seljuk invasion. The treasures were packed up, the court and the harem were equipped for the journey, and the whole army left Ghazni. As he crossed the Indus, the dishonoured prince was seized by mutineers, who set on the throne his brother, whom he had blinded on his own accession, and, after a brief captivity in the fort of Kiri, Mas'ud was done to death in 1040. " Let wise men reflect upon this,'* concludes Baihaki, " and be well assured that man by mere labour and effort, notwithstanding all the wealth and arms and warlike stores he may possess, can in no wise succeed without the help of God Most High. . . . ' Man cannot strive against fate.' This prince spared no effort, and gathered vast armies. Though he was one who thought for himself and spent sleepless nights in devising plans, his affairs came to nought by the decree of the Al- mighty. God knoweth best."