Page:The Slave Girl of Agra.djvu/164

 "Little need is there for this palace to be smeared with my ink, sire. Poetry lives and breathes in your Majesty's palace," wittily replied the Khan-Khanan, obscurely alluding to the Emperor's Queen, Salima Begum, who was a poetess. None heard this rejoinder save the Emperor, who was gratified.

"Here comes another warrior-poet," said Akbar as the Khan-Khanan stood aside and Mirza Aziz bowed before him. "Saint and Poet and Warrior! welcome to my Court! Thou hast been to the holy shrine of Mecca like a devout Musalman, and thou hast seen the New Light and embraced the Faith of God (Din-Ilahi), which we try to inculcate to all, Moslems and Hindus alike, for alike they worship the Unknown God. We have not forgotten thy wise administration of the distant Province of Behar, and our young men like to repeat thy graceful verse. Honour to him who deserves honour."

Mirza Aziz bowed and accepted the honours bestowed on him.

Others followed, one after another, and the Emperor had a kind word for all. Among them was the Moslem King of Kashmir, whose kingdom had been annexed by Akbar; but the dethroned monarch, like others of the same class, had been compensated by an ample Jaigir, and by honours and unfailing courtesy which bound him to the Emperor. Among them, too, were Mirza Shah Rukh, who had married the Emperor's daughter, and the two brother Mirzas of Khandahar, on whom Akbar had bestowed estates in India "worth more than all Khandahar."

But the applause of the multitude rent the air when a gallant Rajput Cavalier, dressed in the