Page:History of India Vol 4.djvu/114

84 third son, Parviz, who could drink level with himself. The result was civil war. Shah Jahan, no longer impeded by an elder brother's claim, took the field against his father, but was defeated, and after an attempt at independent sovereignty in Bihar and Bengal in 1624, and a final resort to the protection of his old enemy, Malik Amber, in the Deccan, the rebel prince made his submission, surrendered his few remaining forts, and sent two of his sons, Dara and Aurangzib, as hostages to Agra.

Shah Jahan was now apparently helpless, and the imperious queen next sought to gain the command of the army. The general, Mahabat Khan, however, was not to be won over, and seeing that his own command, even his life, was at stake, he took the bold course of seizing the person of the emperor while he was separated from his guard when on the point of crossing the river Behat (the Hydaspes of the classical writers) on his way to subdue a rising at Kabul in 1626. The empress, far from daunted by this unexpected stratagem, lost not a whit of her splendid courage. She secretly escaped to the imperial guard and marshalled her husband's troops against the division of his captor, riding at the head of the army on her tall elephant, armed with bow and arrows. Mahabat's Rajputs had burned the bridge, but the empress was among the first to cross the ford and engage the enemy on the other side. The struggle is thus described by Elphinstone: "A scene of universal tumult and confusion ensued: the ford was choked with horses and elephants; some fell and were trampled