We use the word ‘foe’ for the Mughal because he had shown grave discourtesy towards us. He neglected to maintain commerce between his court and ours, was negligent in answering our letters and had even detained our envoys in Delhi. And what could better describe men like Nizam-ul-Mulk and Saadath Khan who, while eating their master’s salt, were plotting for his downfall than the vile serpent which crawls on the ground but is ever ready to bite the man who stands above it?

On important matters we deemed it wise not to dilute our judgment by watering it with the advice of lesser men. We dipped the pen of diplomacy in the ink-well of our own interests and had the reply written on the parchment of stratagem. We neither accepted nor rejected the invitation; we only enumerated the difficulties we would encounter on the way to Delhi. The deep defiles of the Sulaiman and Hindu Kush mountains through which we would have to traverse, the warlike tribes of the Afghans and Pathans that we would have to contend with, the ill-will that the subedars of Kabul and Lahore had against us. We ended our epistle with a reference to the powerful army that the Mughal Emperor was said to have under his command. The reply to our letter would tell us whether those who had invited us were conspiring to wield us as a sword in their hands or whether their fount of loyalty had been so poisoned by their sovereign’s ill-use that they would become pliable weapons in ours.

We did not have to wait very long for their reply. They not only pledged assistance to us but also sent us copies of letters they had addressed to other omarah advising them to look upon us as their redeemer. They informed us that their monarch, ‘His Imperial Majesty Nasiruddin Mohammed Shah employs his time in wine and women . . . . The great heritage of the Mughals is being squandered and may soon pass into the hands of the infidel Marathas.’

Reports of Mohammed Shah’s profligacy had come to our ears from other quarters. It had been reported to us that he was seldom without a mistress in one arm and a glass of wine in the hand of the other. He was known as ‘Rangeela’, the colourful monarch. Although he was said to be well-versed in Persian he had not heeded the admonition of Shaikh Saadi: ‘Account as an enemy the passion which is between thy two loins.’

He whose wishes you fulfil will obey your orders

But passion when obeyed will forever command.