Page:The Slave Girl of Agra.djvu/19

 horses and elephants in the deserted halls of Birnagar. Dayud Khan himself made peace with the conquerors by ceding Bengal to Akbar, and retreated to Orissa. It was then that the Zemindar of Birnagar returned his town, paid his homage to Rajah Todar Mull, and owned allegiance to the new masters of Bengal.

But Dayud Khan broke word, reconquered Bengal from the Moguls, and summoned the Zemindar of Birnagar to join him with his troops and retainers. The doughty old man declined. "Tell Dayud Khan," he replied to the messenger, "that he forfeited his kingdom when he failed to protect it, that he surrendered Bengal to the great Akbar by his royal word. It ill becomes a crowned king to go back upon his word; to do so is not the custom of my house. I remain true to the Emperor of Agra."

This defiant message roused the wrath of Dayud Khan, and he sent troops to sack the town and bring the old Zemindar in chains. But the brave old chief had taken precautions. The town was defended by brick walls and rude bastions, and by sharp-pointed stakes. Armed retainers patrolled it day and night and watched the foe from every point of vantage, and bands of Sontal sharpshooters concealed themselves with their bows and arrows in the thick-set hedges, and made a surprise impossible. The grey-headed Zemindar took out his sword from the rusty scabbard, and expressed his determination to defend the town, or to die in the home of his fathers.

How long these rude defences would have saved Birnagar against a regular army one cannot tell; but Dayud Khan had more formidable enemies to face.