CHAPTER III.
The conflict between the followers of Chan Lody and the imperial troops had been short but desperate. Many of the latter, taken by surprise, were slain, whilst scarcely one of the assailants lost his life. Jahanira, upon a small roan Arab, rode immediately behind her father, through the thickest of the enemy. She dyed her virgin sword in blood. Just as she had reached the gate, Morad intercepted her passage.
“You have no further chance of escape,” he cried, attempting to seized the reins of her steed; but she, striking her heels into the animal’s side, caused it to rear, and thus prevented Morad’s intention.
By this time the whole of her party had escaped, and she alone remained within the walls. A soldier now grasping the reins of her horse, she instantly severed his arm at the wrist with a single stroke of her keen Damascus sabre. The man, exasperated, urged a comrade to cut her down. The latter sprang forward, but she met him as he advanced, and buried her weapon in his throat. Morad commanded that the troops should retire, and urged his charger towards Jahanira.
“Lady, you are our prisoner.”
“Never!” cried Jahanira, drawing a dagger. “I will not survive captivity. Open yonder gates, and allow me to follow my father, or I will leave you only my body for the gratification of your revenge. You shall never take me alive!”
“Nay, this intemperance ill befits a daughter of the illustrious house of Lody. None but cowards die to escape the shocks of destiny.”
“And none but cowards submit to the caprices of tyrants. You once preserved my life; but if you intend to inthral the life you saved, all obligation is cancelled between us, and I now dare you to mortal combat; for, woman as I am, you shall find me no contemptible competitor.”
She spurred her Arab towards Morad and made a stroke at his head; but he suddenly reined back his horse and avoided the blow, which fell upon the animal’s neck. It plunged violently, and the prince had great difficulty in evading the fierce onset of his beautiful antagonist, who at length wounded him in the arm; and seeing several horsemen approach to the aid of their general, she urged her little roan charger towards the gate. Morad, charmed with her heroism, ordered it to be opened; when, bounding through the portal with the swiftness of an arrow, she soon joined her father and brothers about four leagues from the city.
The Emperor having been roused by the sudden shouts of the fugitive and his followers, as they made their unexpected eruption from the castle, started from his bed, and seizing a sword, sent messengers to ascertain the cause; apprehending an insurrection of the citizens in favour of Chan Lody, who was extremely popular among them. On ascertaining that the Omrah had escaped, he despatched a large body of troops, headed by Perist, the usher, who was accompanied by several other nobles of distinction, and ordered to bring back the fugitives to the city either dead or alive.
Perist, eager to punish Azmut for the attack made upon him by that young warrior in the Emperor’s presence, readily undertook the command, and promised that before the waning of another moon the heads of his master’s enemies should either be blackening on the walls of Agra, or their bodies bound in chains within the state prisons. This empty boast satisfied Shah Jehan, who well knew the usher’s hostility to the family of Lody, which he would have been willing to exterminate, even at the sacrifice of his own life.
Perist was a Calmuc Tartar, of amazing power of body, and no less intrepidity of spirit, who had raised himself to distinction in the imperial army by his gigantic strength and desperate valour. He had risen from a low station in the army to one of high distinction in the state, and this had emboldened him to seek an alliance that should perpetuate his name. The lovely Jahanirahad long been the theme of public panegyric, and the reputation of her beauty, together with her illustrious descent, made him desire to become united with this distinguished maiden.
Without having seen the object of his ambitious aspiring, but relying upon the reports of her high qualities, he sent his proposals, which were rejected with scorn. This roused the malignity of the Tartar. To be contemned by a woman was an injury never to be forgotten; and he meditated a distant but signal revenge. He expected that his treatment of the fiery young Azmut would rouse the indignation of his family, and most probably excite them to acts of violence. It had happened precisely as he had foreseen, and he now gladly seized the opportunity of following up to its issue the plan of retribution which he had so warily laid. He was not a man to let his resolution lie in abeyance until chance concurred to elicit the desired result; but he had that energy of malice which tries every hazard, however desperate, to realize the consummation of its most atrocious purposes.
Lody had well weighed the chances of pursuit; and knowing the fierce hostility with which the usher regarded him, had calculated the probability of being followed by his ancient foe. He urged forward his little band for fifteen leagues without halting, and was then stopped by a river. It was broad and rapid, and so swollen by recent rains, that to cross it seemed utterly impracticable. It flowed onward in a wide turbid stream, broken every now and then into small whirling eddies by the rapidity of its progress, and thus became so agitated, that there appeared no chance of stemming its tumultuous current. There was not a boat to be seen; all had been carried down the stream by the impetuosity of the torrent: and a wooden bridge was swept away by the extraordinary pressure of its augmented waters, which in several places overflowed their banks and inundated the country, except upon the higher grounds, to a distance of several miles.
This was a melancholy impediment. Here was a check which bid fair to frustrate their escape, but there was no choice; and with a foreboding heart Chan Lody and his faithful adherents encamped for the night upon the banks of the river. He threwhimself upon a rug to snatch a short repose after the bodily fatigue and mental excitement of the last twenty-four hours. His reflections were sad and harassing. The scene of the past night recurred to his mind with sickening vividness, and painful recollections swept over it with the might and suddenness of the whirlwind. The perilous situation in which he stood, perplexed and agitated him. He had but a few followers to oppose to the large body of troops which he was certain would be sent against him. The swollen state of the river forbad the possibility of flight, and the small number of his adherents banished every chance of successful resistance. For himself he entertained no apprehensions; but when he thought of his children, an involuntary pang, which he could not repress, shook his frame.
In proportion, however, as his reflections magnified the dangers by which he was surrounded, his spirit rose, and finally settled into a determination of resistance which nothing could disturb. Prepared to meet the worst emergencies of the morrow, he at length sank into a profound slumber, which was increased by that reaction of repose after excitement, which invariably follows the tension of mind produced by extreme mental disturbance.
He awoke with the dawn: and upon quitting his tent was informed that the imperial troops were in full march towards him. He immediately summoned his sons and daughter; and representing the utter impossibility of escape, asked them if they would wish to throw themselves upon the enemy’s clemency?—that for himself he was resolved to die in arms. Hussein, the eldest son, swore he would follow his father’s fortune, and perish rather than fall into the hands of a conqueror. Azmut made the same solemn vow.
“And you, my child,” said Chan Lody, addressing his daughter, “what reason is there that you should not live to form an alliance, which might perpetuate the race of Lody, with a man, perhaps, that would vindicate thy father’s wrong?”
“Because,” replied the noble girl, throwing herself upon her parent’s bosom, “I am from a stock that has ever preferred deathto captivity. There is no sex in soul; and I feel mine to be as capable of those deeds which will excite unborn ages to noble emulation as they who exclusively claim the privilege of performing them. I am resolved to perish with the enemy’s blood upon my sword, and will dye this dagger with my own rather than accept the clemency of tyrants.”
The father embraced her: and having summoned his small but resolute band, declared to them his determination of dying in arms rather than yield to the approaching foe. This resolution was hailed with a cheer, and the troops prepared for action. There was a pass between two hills in their rear which opened into a narrow plain. Of this pass Chan Lody took possession, and he had scarcely disposed his order of battle, when the van of the imperialists appeared advancing along a rising valley. His position was a very strong one, being accessible only in front; the river, which so effectually cut off his retreat, as effectually covering his rear.
The imperial army amounted to upwards of eight thousand men; Chan Lody’s did not exceed as many hundreds. The enemy advanced leisurely onward, and halted within about two furlongs from the pass where the fugitives were so advantageously posted. A message was immediately despatched to Chan Lody, summoning him to surrender. He returned a reply of haughty defiance, and the Emperor’s troops advanced to the charge. They were so warmly received that, after a short but vigorous struggle, they were obliged to fall back. Though considerably dispirited by this repulse, relying upon their numbers, they again advanced to the charge with like success.
These attacks were several times repeated with a similar result, until evening terminated the conflict, when the imperialists retired within their camp on the slope of a neighbouring hill. They had suffered severely; upwards of twelve hundred men having been slain, and nearly double that number wounded. Chan Lody’s band had likewise suffered severely. Not more than a hundred and fifty remained unhurt. Three hundred were killed, andmany more desperately wounded; so that he had nothing more consolatory to look forward to than their utter extermination, as soon as the sanguinary conflict should be renewed.
It was a gloomy prospect. A council was held among the survivors, who unanimously declared their resolution to fight to the last extremity; but Hussein and Azmut both proposed that their father should attempt the river, and they would secure his retreat.
“My father,” said Hussein, “you may still live to avenge your wrongs. Besides, you have been severely wounded in the action of to-day, and your death will therefore be rather a suicide than a sacrifice, if you expose yourself merely to court destruction. You cannot, in your present state, endure the exertion of another conflict. Try the river; your steed is stout, and may bear you to the shore in safety; we will cover your retreat.”
“The danger is equal,” replied Lody; “but it is more honourable to die on the field than in the river.”
Still they urged his retreat. “But can I fly and leave my children? No! I will perish on this field. I will never leave my brave sons to meet an honourable death and live to become a mere man of sorrows.”
It was at length agreed, after considerable difficulty, that Chan Lody and one of his sons and daughter should try the river, and the other remain behind to keep the enemy in check until the fugitives had gained the opposite shore.
When this was determined, they separated for the night. With early dawn the brothers were at their posts. As the light was gradually stretching over the distant plain in a broad grey stream, a dispute arose between them which should attack the enemy. Whilst, however, the generous altercation was going on, Perist, who had struck Azmut in the Emperor’s presence, appeared at the head of the imperialists.
“It is decided,” said Azmut; “there is my enemy,—especially and personally mine. Hussein, you would not interfere with your brother’s privilege to redress his own wrongs. Fly with my father, and leave me to my revenge.”
Saying this, he spurred his horse forward; and his father, joined by Hussein, plunged into the river.