Changed for the lover's lute and poet's rhyme!
The happy peasant grafts his golden lime,
With confidence he never knew before!
How different now was England! brothers fell
By brothers' swords, while parliament and king
Drenched with the blood of kindred plain and dell.
But not the Imperial city (annals tell)
Saw such gay scenes, or heard such fair girls sing,
As now at Shujaa's court gilt time's swift wing!
IV.
Hark 'tis the shout of war. The world's great king
Is sick to death! The flageolet is dumb;
And Delhie echoes with the awakening drum!
Four princes rush to arms, eager to spring
Into the tottering throne, and armies cling
To each pretender! Shujaa, overcome,
Flies before Dara, who, betrayed by some,
By some forsaken, must in his turn wring
His hands in bitterness! The father weeps
A captive to another son, who leaps
Upon the vacant Musnud §, proud to hear
The assembled nations of the Orient cheer
His flag, the flag of Aurungzebe, which sweeps
Towards Bengal with cannon, sword, and spear.
'Tis Prince Mahommed's banner, but it sinks
Before the charge of Shujaa! shot on shot
Sweep thro' the Imperial ranks, well aimed and hot,
The day is Sultan Shujaa's, and he drinks
The maddening draught of victory; he thinks!
But, lo! the brothers meet, each in his cot
Of gold, borne on his elephant. Ah! what
False traitor counsels Shujaa, that he shrinks
At this great crisis from his proper post!
Yes, he alights, and mounts his horse! His host
Believe their monarch to be slain, and fly!--
While Aurungzebe, with his cold cruel eye,
Marks what the weakness of a moment cost,
And wins the game** he scarce knows how or why!
Alluding to the great civil war raging at this period.
The court of Rajmahal rivalled that of Delhi, in splendour and luxury.
In 1657, the illness of Shah Jehan, (literally king of the world,) threw Hindoostan into convul sion, by the contentions of his four sons, Dara. Shujaa, Aurungzebe, and Morad, for the throne. Shujaa was defeated by Dara, to be beaten in his turn by Aurungzebe, who seized and cast his father, Shah Jehan, into confinement.
¶ Aliverdi Khan. (bribed by Aurungzebe.) persuaded Shujaa to quit his elephant, and mount his horse. The army, seeing Sujaa's canopied seat empty, concluded he was slain, and fled. The very game circumstance had lost Dara the victory. In the intensity of danger. Aurungzebe was about to dismount from his elephant, which Meer Joomla, who was on horse back, near him, prevented, by calling, Aurungzebe, you descend from the throne!"
** One-third of Aurungzebe's army were disaffected, and had Shujaa possessed common prudence. he must have won the battle. His contemporaries were so convinced of this, that it has become a common saying in Hindoostan, Shujaa having won the game, threw it up with his own hands. "
Hushed are the songs of mirth at Rajmahal,
And deeply echoing crashes fast succeed,
As Prince Mabommed and Meer Joomla speed
Shot after shot thro' the devoted wall,
Which hourly totters nearer to its fall:
The mountain passes* have been scoured with heed,
Nor can fresh troops advance to aid or bleed;
And o'er the Ganges Shujaa flies with all
His family and treasures. Stormt, and night,
And swollen waters with his progress fight,
But safely he attains the northern shore,
Tho' equinoctial torrents burst and roar;-
And, here, he rests, in Mahommud's despite
Until the influence of the season's o'er!
Fair power of love, if Prince Mahommud sighed
Amid the victories which his arms had won,
Could he forget the young and lovely one,
His uncle's daughter, and his own pledged bride,
Ere civil quarrels did their sires divide ;-
And, when a letter reached him penned alone,
As love may guess, by her he held his own;
Can any blame him, that the Ganges' tide
Beheld him, in the midnight, rowing over,
A perjured leader, but a faithful lover,
To join with Shujaa and the fair princess;
And that his army, (they could do no less!)
Shouted, resolved to join the happy rover,
Till Joomla & quenched rebellion by address.
VIII.
No thought of danger now! Let Joomla shake
With terror and despair, if Joomla will,
But Tonda's fortress shall re-echo still
With music and rejoicing! Wine shall slake
The singer's thirst, and fireworks light the brake
Rousing the birds; but, ah! if raptures fill
The heart of Shujaa, think what transports thrill
The Princess and Mahommud! But, awake,
Arouse, fond pair!-the rocket that ascends,
Is not the rocket of rejoicing friends:
Sheergati, Teliaguli, Sickliguli, the Lion's Pass, and the Narrow Pass.
The very night Shujaa escaped, the rainy season set in, and obliged the royal army to canton, for four months; while Shujaa remained at Toonda, on the northern bank of the river.
Prince Mahomed, before the war, had been betrothed to his cousin.
When Meer Joomla, who was absent from the army, heard of the prince's flight, he was struck with astonishment, and hesitated to venture near the army, believing they only waited to seize his person. At length, duty prevailed over fear, he hastened to the spot, found them in a wavering state of rebellion, and by his harangues, kept them to their allegiance.
The Imperial troops are entering now your camp;
Vainly your cannon fire; for, tramp on tramp,
Joomla drives on!-Ah! fly, ere yet your lamp
Of life and love this awful midnight ends!
IX.
Lo! Shujaa reads a letter which a spy
Of Aurangzebe's to Prince Mahommed bears;
It tells him that a sire accepts his tears,
And bids him execute his plot *, and fly!
Suspicion deadens Sultan Shujaa's eye,
And urged by anger, jealousy, and fears,
He bids the prince depart, though his ameers
Point out the wiles of Aurungzebe to try
To separate the princess.-Go he must
But not to revel in Aurungzebe's palace,
'Twas his to bear in Gwalior's fort the malice
Of seven long year's captivity more just
Than merited; and, when he drained death's chalice,
They laid, by Cuthub's + sainted tomb, his dust.
Whither shall Shujaa fly? to Dacca first,
To Tippera next, and last to Chittagong +,
To wait there till the monsoon blows less strong,
And waft him to Arabia, where the thirst
Of Aurungzebe can reach him not, and nursed
Beneath the sacred Caaba, live § long.
Alas! he dreams! The Moguls are among
The hills, and Joomla soon will on him burst;
Hopeless, with forty friends, he flies undone,
Across the Naf, and enters Arracan,
Till, like his ancestor, Homayoon ¶,
His fate may change, and as that lucky man
Regained, in Persian climes, the Imperial throne,
He too may enter Delhi with his van.
Sad was the fate of Shujaa! overawed,
Or bribed by Joomla's gold, the Raja** who
Had sworn to keep his faith to Shujaa true,
A stratagem worthy the vile head that devised it, and so infatuated was Shujaa, that he told Mahommed, he could not believe him innocent, though he swore it in the temple of Mecca!
Mahommed was buried in 1678, close to the tomb of the celebrated Saint, Cuttub Addeen, near
Chittagong, at this period, was dependant on Arracan, and much frequented by Portuguese, Arabian, and Malabar ships. It was called, by the former, Porto Grando.
Shujaa intended to spend the remainder of his life in acts of devotion, in the sacred shrines of Mecca or Medina.
A river, with which the Burmese war has made us well acquainted.
Homayoon was defeated and dethroned by Shere Shah, the Afgan. He remained eight years an exile in Persia, but regained the throne, on the death of Shere. As Dryden says➡
Some rais'd aloit, come tumbling down amain,
And fall so hard, they bound, and rise again.
** The Raja of Arracan
Desired that prince's daughter in reward
Of his forbearance. Shujaa sent him word,
That Timur's high-born daughters always knew
Their birth too well to mate with one, who drew
His blood from infidels*! The Raja's sword
Had soon smote Shujaa; but the laws of Boodh
Prohibit shedding, save in battle, blood:
And, hence he sent his swordsmen to desire
Shujaa, with all his people, to retire
Beyond the Naf, India's dividing flood,
Or else to stand the issue of his ire.
The spot where Shujaa lived, was on a bank;
A stream in front, stupendous cliffs behind,
Forming two passes, thro' which men might wind.
Shujaa, with twenty friends, stood in one flank;
His son, with twenty others, formed in rank
To guard the second passage, and to mind
The motions of the foe, who sought to bind,
Not slay, the Moguls, till their arrows drank
The heart's blood of the falling Mughs, who, now
Released, they thought from their religious vow,
Climbed the high mountains, and rolled down beneath
Vast rocks and stones, which dealt on all sides death,
Till a rock struck the Sultan Shujaa low,
Deprived awhile of motion and of breath.
They seized, and bound, and carried to a boat
This ill-doomed prince. Two most beloved friends
Insisted on attending him. Their ends
As well as lives were Shujaa's; for the float
Was buoyed with plugs, which being drawn, his coat
Of mail and chains soon sank him. He descends,
King-like in death‡! but many an arrow rends
His two companions, men of lesser note!
The wife of Shujaa and three daughters spring
Into the stream to perish, but their foes
Soon snatched them forth, and dragged them to repose
Within the Raja's Harem, where the young
"Beloved princess §," with indignation, flung
Her dagger in her breast, to end her woes.
The rest all died by self-inflicted death,
Except two sons, one wounded in the fight,
And one an infant; but, alas! how slight
• The Arracanees are Boodhists.
Death by drowning, was, by the laws of Arracan, the exclusive privilege of the royal family. "Piares Banoo," who was celebrated for her wit and beauty.
Their chance of life! Ah! soon they slept beneath
The foaming Naf;-the seaweed is their wreath,
As there they rest in everlasting night,
No one returned to speak of the sad sight;
And years passed by before e'en rumour's breath
Told Hindoostan the Sultan Shujaa's lot;
But all who heard it wept for one so dear*;
And when it reached the Imperial captive's ear,
The earth's sad emperor exclaimed, "could not
The infidel have left one son to clear
His grandsires fame from insult, and from blot?"
These are flowers that suit not the cloud on my brow,-
Would ye deck a corse with the red rose-glow?
Would ye scatter the luscious lilac's bloom
O'er the spotless white of the marble tomb?
Keep these wreaths for the happy and gay-
Take them away!
There are cares that will feed on the heart, till they burst
Thro' the features that cover the spot where they're nurst;→
There are feelings of madness, of wretchedness, grief,—
That give forth their signs;-like the curl of the leaf
That speaks to the eye of the maggot below;
The sound of the psaltery is dissonant now;
The day tells of sorrow,-the night dreams of woe;
On the faint perfume of these exquisite flowers
A sad recollection-cloudlike-lowers:
Death broods o'er the earth, and the breath of decay
No prince was ever more beloved than Shujaa. Misfortune, and even death, could not deprive him of his friends; and, though his fate was not known in Hindoostan for some years after his death, it filled every eye with tears; and when the intelligence was communicated to Shah Jehan, now many years a captive, he cried, "could not the cursed infidel have left one son of Shujaa alive, to avenge the wrongs of his grandfather?" These events occurred in A. D. 1661.
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