evil disposition, his cruelty and tyranny, with their fruit of discontent amonest his Commanders and soldiery.
b. Reception of Dilawar Khan in Kabul.
Wedding festivities were in progress' when Dilawar Khan reached Kabul. He presented himself, at the Char-bagh may be inferred, and had word taken to Babur that an Afghan was at his Gate with a petition. When admitted, he demeaned himself as a suppliant and proceeded to set forth the distress of Hindustan. Babur asked why he, whose family had so long eaten the salt of the Liidls, had so suddenly deserted them for himself. Dilawar answered that his family through 40 years had upheld the Ludl throne, but that Ibrahim maltreated Sikandar's amirs, had killed 25 of them without cause, some by hanging, some burned alive, and that there was no hope of safety in him. Therefore, he said, he had been sent by many amirs to Babur whom they were ready to obey and for whose coming they were on the anxious watch.
c. Babur asks a sign.
At the dawn of the day following the feast, Babur prayed in the garden for a sign of victory in Hindustan, asking that it should be a gift to himself of mango or betel, fruits of that land. It so happened that Daulat Khan had sent him, as a present, half-ripened mangoes preserved in honey ; when these were set before him, he accepted them as the sign, and from that time forth, says the chronicler, made preparation for a move on Hindustan.
d. 'Alam Khan.
Although 'Alam Khan seems to have had some amount of support for his attempt against his nephew, events show he had none valid for his purpose. That he had not Daulat Khan's, later occurrences make clear. Moreover he seems not to have been a man to win adherence or to be accepted as a trustworthy and sensible leader.2 Dates are uncertain in the absence of
1 The marriage is said to have been Kamran's (E. & D:'s trs.).
2 Erskine calculated that 'Alam Khan was now well over 70 years of age (H. of I. i, 421 n.).
