o were related to him, and by their respective escorts.
From Nagaur, by the hand of one of these, he despatched to the
Emperor, as a token of submission to his will, his banner, his
kettle-drums, and all other marks of nobility. Akbar, who had been
assured that Bairam would most certainly attempt to rouse the Punjab
against him, had marched with an army towards that province, and was
at Jhajhar, in the Rohtak district, when the insignia reached him. He
conferred them upon a former adherent of Bairam's, but who in more
recent times had lived under the displeasure of that nobleman, and
commissioned him to follow his late master and see that he embarked
for Mekka. Bairam was greatly irritated at this proceeding, and
turning short to Bikaner, placed his family under the care of his
adopted son and broke out into rebellion. But he had to learn the
wide difference of the situation of a rebel against the Mughal, and
the trusted chief officer of the Mughal. On reaching Dipalpur, the
news overtook him that his adopted son had proved false to his trust
and had turned against him. Resolved, however, to rouse the Jalandhar
Duab, he pushed on for that well-known locality, only to encounter on
its borders the army of the Governor of {90} the Punjab, Atjah Khan.
In the battle that followed Bairam was defeated, and fled to Tilwara
on the Sutlej, thirty miles to the west of Ludhiana. Akbar, who had
been on his track when his lieutenant encountered and defeated him,
followed his late Atalik, and reduced him to such straits that Bairam
threw himself on his mercy. Then Akbar, remembering the great
services he had rendered, pardoned him, and, furnishing him with a
large sum of money, despatched him on the road to Mekka. Bairam
reached Gujarat in safety, was well received there by the Governor,
and was engaged in making his preparations to quit India, when he was
assassinated[4] by a Lohani Afghan whose father had been killed at
the battle of Machciwara. Akbar, meanwhile, had returned to Delhi
(November 9, 1560). He rested there a few days and then pushed on to
Agra, there to execute the projects he had formed for the conquest,
the union, the consolidation of the provinces he was resolved to weld
into an empire. His reign, indeed, in the sense of ruling alone
without a minister who assumed the airs of a master, commenced really
from this date. The Atalik, who had monopolised the power of the
State, was gone, and the future of the country depe