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AN IMPERIAL DESPOT IN DRESS AND UNDRESS 161

which he gave orders should be transmitted by special
messenger.
The jewels thus withdrawn from the ordinary stock of
presents Roe knew would supply powerful leverage for the
execution of his designs. But he probably little suspected
at the outset how valuable they would prove. At the
period, Asaf Khan and Noor Mahal had fallen out with
Khurrum, chiefly owing to the latter’s refusal to wed the
Empress’s daughter by her first husband. This was a
match upon which the ambitious Noor Mahal had set her
heart, mainly because she hoped by its means to continue
in a new reign, if one were entered upon, the extraordinary
influence she had wielded in Jehangir’s time. Prince
Khurrum’s uncompromising attitude on the subject, dic­
tated by his love for Mumtaz Mahal, a devotion which
inspired the construction of the glorious Taj, had convinced
the exalted intriguers that it would be folly to base their
hopes on the Prince. They realized that they must make
other plans, and they had already fixed on Prince Shariyar,
a younger son of Jehangir, as a suitable subject for the
promotion of their designs, when Prince Khurrum’s return
from the war with an enormously increased prestige added
a fresh incentive to their scheme of aggrandisement at the
latter’s expense.
Roe was too well posted in the affairs of the Court not to
be aware of the direction in which the palace intrigues
were being promoted. Possessing such knowledge he
sagaciously concluded that the situation might be turned
to account by his association with Asaf Khan and Noor
Mahal.
Without loss of time he sought an interview with the
former, and under a pledge of secrecy revealed to him the
L