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 AN DJDIAX SHIELD. CHAPTER III THE GREAT MOGHUL AND EUROPEAN TRAVELLERS 1605-1627 A. D. TOWARD the close of the sixteenth century the curious began to listen to rumours, vague indeed, but impossible to be ignored, of a new and singular power that had arisen in the East. Stories were told of an emperor who had conquered the whole of Hin- dustan, and was ruling his vast dominions with ex- traordinary wisdom. Strange tales were bruited of his toleration. It was said that Christians were sure of a welcome at his court; that he had even taken a Christian to wife. Toleration was sufficiently out of tune with Tudor England, but in the barbarous East it possessed the charm of the wholly unexpected. The name and character of the Great Moghul became the 51