Page:The Seven Cities of Delhi.djvu/284

The Seven Cities of Delhi Jahangir, after succeeding his father, was given a letter of Mirza Aziz, ridiculing Akbar, and deprived him of all his honours and lands, and threw him into prison. In 1608 his rank was restored to him, and he lived until 1624, when he died at the good old age of eighty-five; he was buried in his "hall of sixty-four pillars."

In 1563 Akbar paid another visit to Delhi,and had a narrow escape from assassination there. As he was passing the college of Mahim Anagah,opposite the fort of Humayun, a servant of a rebel noble fitted an arrow to his bow, and pointed it to the sky, as if to shoot at a bird. The emperor's retinue gazed upward, completely off their guard, and the archer turned his arrow against the emperor and let fly, the arrow embedding itself in Akbar's shoulder. The guards at once cut the miscreant down, wounding each other in their haste; the arrow proved not to be poisoned, for the wound quickly healed. In 1576 Akbar passed through on his way to join an expedition against Cabul, but the sight of a tremendous comet caused him to abandon his intention. He died in 1605, and was buried in a magnificent tomb at Sikandra, near Agra.

NUR-UD-DIN JAHANGIR, the eldest son, succeeded to the throne; his other name was Salim, 222