Page:History of India Vol 4.djvu/31

Rh take me alive to the emperor he will reward you.' The driver paid no heed to his words, but drove the animal over him and crushed him under foot." Many prisoners were cast to the elephants to be trampled to death, a common mode of execution in India, in which Akbar showed no scruple. After refusing, in his chivalrous way, to attack an unprepared enemy till the trumpets had announced his approach, he had no qualms about making a pyramid of two thousand rebels' heads after the fashion of his ancestor Timur. He could be terribly stern and was subject to paroxysms of rage, in one of which he threw a servant from the battlements for falling asleep in the palace, but his natural inclination was ever towards mercy, and his forgiveness often cost him dear.

As an example of personal courage his attack on his rebellious cousins, the Mirzas, at Surat in 1572 may be instanced. Pressing on at his usual speed, he found himself on the bank of the Mahindri River in face of the enemy, with only forty men at his back. Sixty more soon joined him, and with this handful he forthwith swam the river, stormed the town, and, rushing through, discovered the enemy in a plain on the other side. The emperor's force was outmatched by ten to one, and the fighting was desperate. "The royal forces were in a narrow place, hedged in with thorns, where three horsemen could not pass abreast. The emperor with much courage was at the front, with Raja Bhagvan Das beside him. Three of the enemy's horsemen now charged them. One attacked the raja, who hurled