90 THE GREAT DIAMONDS OF THE WORLD.
adopted
for bringing the wearisome and ruinous suits against him to a close,
was highly characteristic. He tells us in his famous autobiography,
that being unable to obtain any redress from the law," I had recourse
to a long sword, which I had by me. The first that I attacked was that
person who commenced that unjust and irritating suit; and one evening I
so hacked him about the legs and arms, taking care, however, not to
kill him right out, that I deprived him of the use of both his legs."
Having got rid of another party to the suit, in a similar summary
manner, he exclaims, with grim humour, " For this and every other
blessing, I returned thanks to the Supreme Being ! "
At
the period referred to by Tavernier, Golconda was in a deplorable
condition. Shah Jehan, whose miserable end (hardly less wretched than
that of Shakespeare's King Lear), has generally excited so much
commiseration, that his infamous treachery and indescribable
inhumanity, are lost sight of, had, only three years before Tavernier's
visit, collected an immense force to invade the Deccan. Every country
that was overrun by his troops was delivered to fire and sword. " One
hundred and fifteen towns and castles were taken in the course of the
year, and the kings of Beejapoor and Golconda, to appease the
conqueror, renounced their rank as sovereign princes, and received
commissions from the emperor of the Moguls." This was but the beginning
of sorrow. It was between this eclipse and the subsequent utter
destruction of these renowned kingdoms, under Mir Jemla, and
Aurung-zeb's eldest son, Mohammed, that Tavernier saw the royal gem
under notice, in the hands of a private
