Page:History of India Vol 5.djvu/259

TIMUK'S CLEMENCY TO DELHI 213 Mallu Khan, and lie came out to wait upon me and do homage, accompanied by a party of the officials and clerks of the government of Sultan Mahmud and Mallu Khan. Thereupon all the Sayyids, scholars, shaikhs, and other leading Mussulmans arose, and making the princes their mediators, they begged that quarter might be given to the people of Delhi, and that their lives might be spared. Out of respect to the Sayyids and scholars, whom I had always held in great esteem and honour, I granted quarter to the inhabitants of the city, after which I then ordered my ensign and royal standard to be raised, and the drums to be beaten and music played on the tops of the gates of Delhi. Re- joicings for the victory followed, and some of the clever men and poets that accompanied me worked the date of the victory into a verse, which they presented to me. Of all these memorial verses, however, I have introduced only this one into my memoirs: On Wednesday, the eighth of Kabi< the second (Dec. 17, 1398), The Emperor Sahib-Kiran took the city of Delhi." I rewarded and honourably distinguished the literary men and poets who presented these verses to me. I sent a party of men into the city to bring out the elephants which Sultan Mahmud had abandoned when he fled. They found 120 enormous elephants and several rhinoceroses, which they brought out to my court. As the elephants passed by me, I was greatly amused to see the tricks which their drivers had taught them. Every animal, at the sign of his driver, bowed