calculated to develop and strengthen his
natural qualities. But, though he saw and disliked the tendency to
cruelty and arbitrary conduct often displayed by his chief minister,
he had that regard for Bairam which a generous heart instinctively
feels for the man who has been his tutor from his childhood.
Experience, too, had given him so thorough an insight into the
character of Bairam that he could not but be sensible that any breach
with him must be a complete breach; that he must rid himself of him
in a manner which would render it impossible for him to aspire to the
exercise of any power whatever. Bairam, he knew, would have the whole
authority, or it would be unsafe to entrust him with any.

Various circumstances occurred in the beginning of 1560 which
determined Akbar to take into his own hands the reins of government.
He went therefore from Agra to Delhi resolved to announce this
determination to his minister. Bairam himself had more than {88} once
given an example of the mode in which he rid himself of a rival or a
noble whom he hated. His methods were the dagger or the sword. But
such a remedy was abhorrent to the pure mind of the young Emperor.
Nor--so far as can be gathered from the records of the period--had
anyone dared to whisper to him a proposal of that character. The
course which his mother and his nurse had alike suggested was to
propose to the minister in a manner which would make the proposition
have all the effect of a command, an honourable exile to Mekka.
Bairam had often publicly declared that he was longing for the
opportunity when he could safely resign his political burden into the
hands of others and make the pilgrimage which would ensure salvation.
Akbar then, anxious to prevent any armed resistance, on arriving at
Delhi, issued a proclamation in which he declared that he had assumed
the administration of affairs, and forbade obedience to any orders
but to those issued by himself. He sent a message to this effect to
his minister, and suggested in it the desirability of his making a
pilgrimage to Mekka.[3] Bairam had heard of Akbar's determination
before the message reached him, and had quitted Agra on his way {89}
to the western coast. He was evidently very angry, and bent on
mischief, for, on reaching Biana, he set free some turbulent nobles
who had been there confined. He received there Akbar's message, and
continued thence his journey to Nagaur in Rajputana, accompanied only
by nobles wh