caused Akbar sincere grief and led him to take the four year old son
of Bairâm Chân under his special protection.

[Footnote 5: Noer, I, 131.]

Mâhum Anâga, the Emperor's nurse, for whom he felt a warm attachment
and gratitude, a woman revengeful and ambitious but loyal and devoted
to Akbar, had contributed in bringing about the fall of the regent.
She had cared for the Emperor from his birth to his accession and amid
the confusion of his youth had guarded him from danger; but for this
service she expected her reward. She sought nothing less than in the
rôle of an intimate confidante of the youthful Emperor to be secretly
the actual ruler of India.

Mâhum Anâga had a son, Adham Chân by name, to whom at her suggestion
Akbar assigned the task of reconquering and governing the province of
Mâlwâ. Adham Chân was a passionate and violent man, as ambitious and
avaricious as his mother, and behaved himself in Mâlwâ as if he were
an independent prince. As soon as Akbar learned this he advanced by
forced marches to Mâlwâ and surprised his disconcerted foster-brother
before the latter could be warned by his mother. But Adham Chân had no
difficulty in obtaining Akbar's forgiveness for his infringements.

On the way back to Agra, where the Emperor at that time was holding
court, a noteworthy incident happened. Akbar had ridden alone in
advance of his escort and suddenly found himself face to face with a
powerful tigress who with her five cubs came out from the shrubbery
across his path. His approaching attendants found the nineteen year
old Emperor standing quietly by the side of the slaughtered beast
which he had struck to the ground with a single blow of his sword. To