He dared not do
this openly, because he dreaded the universal odium in which he knew
it would involve him; and he made several unsuccessful attempts to
get him removed by means that might not appear to have been contrived
or executed by his orders. At one time he designedly, in his own
presence, placed him in a situation where the pride of the chief made
him contend, single-handed, with a large tiger, which he killed; and,
at another, with a mad elephant, whose proboscis he cut off with his
sword; but the Emperor's motives in all these attempts to put him
foremost in situations of danger became so manifest that Sher Afgan
solicited, and obtained, permission to retire with his wife to
Bengal.
The governor of this province, Kutb,[8] having been made acquainted
with the Emperor's desire to have the chief made away with, hired
forty ruffians, who stole into his house one night. There happened to
be nobody else in the house; but one of the party, touched by remorse
on seeing so fine a man about to be murdered in his sleep, called out
to him to defend himself. He seized his sword, placed himself in one
corner of the room, and defended himself so well that nearly one-half
of the party are said to have been killed or wounded.
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