When the Raja return to Meerut, he received a visit from one of the Emperor’s sons or nephews, who wanted to see the place.  His tents were pitched upon the plain not far from the theatre; he arrived in the evening, and there happened to be a play that night.  Several times during the night he got a message from the prince to say that the ground near his tents was haunted by all manner of devils.  The Raja sent to assure him that this could not possibly be the case.  At last a man came about midnight to say that the prince could stand it no longer, and had given orders to prepare for his immediate return to Delhi; for the devils were increasing so rapidly that they must all be inevitably devoured before daybreak if they remained.  The Raja now went to the prince’s camp, here he found him and his followers in a state of utter consternation, looking towards the theatre.  The last carriages were leaving the theatre, and going across the plain; and these silly people had taken them all for devils.[42]

The present pensioned imperial family f Delhi are commonly considered to be of the house of Timur lang (the Lame), because Babur, the real founder of the dynasty, was descended from him in the seventh stage.[43] Timur merely made a predatory inroad into India, to kill a few million of unbelievers,[44] plunder the country of all the movable valuables he and his soldiers could collect, and take back into slavery all the best artificers of all kinds that they could lay their hands upon.  He left no one to represent him in India, he claimed no sovereignty, and founded no dynasty there.  There is no doubt much in the prestige of a name; and though six generations had passed away, the people of Northern India still trembled at that of the lame monster.  Babur wished to impress upon the minds of the people the notion that he had at his back the same army of demons that Timur had commanded; and be boasted his descent from him for the same motive that Alexander boasted his from the horned and cloven-footed god of the Egyptian desert, as something to sanctify all enterprises, justify the use of all means, and carry before him the belief in his invincibility.

Babur was an admirable chief—­a fit founder of a great dynasty—­a very proper object for the imagination of future generations to dwell upon, though not quite so good as his grandson, the great Akbar.  Timur was a ferocious monster, who knew how to organize and command the set of demons who composed his army, and how best to direct them for the destruction of the civilized portion of mankind and their works; but who knew nothing else.[45] In his invasion of India he caused the people of the towns and villages through which he passed to be all massacred without regard to religion, age, or sex.  If the soldiers in the town resisted, the people were all murdered because they did so; if they did not, the people were considered to have forfeited their lives to the conquerors for being conquered; and told