The sun had gone down in brightness; and when he awoke, the stars were looking upon him from their thrones of light, and the whole heavens smiling above him in their beauty. The intense, calm azure of the sky seemed an emblem of the repose that dwells there. A gentle breeze had broken the oppressive stagnation of the air, and fanned his hot, blistered features as with an angel’s wing. His energies revived. Though the thirst by which he was still parched affected him greatly, still it was in some degree mitigated by that balmy breath of heaven, which he felt now for the first time since he had entered upon the desert. He commenced his melancholy task of digging a grave to enclose the remains of an object who had been dearer to him than his own life. He took his crease--a short dagger with a wide double-edged blade,--and began to remove the sand. It was an arduous and sorrowful labour. After an earnest application of mind and body for two hours, he succeeded in sinking a hole four feet deep. Into this he tenderly lowered the body of his departed wife, filled up the pit, and throwing himself upon it, lay there until morning. There was a discharge of blood from his tongue once or twice during the night, which more than probably saved his life. Towards dawn he fell into a deep and death-like sleep. He was at length awaked by feeling himself severely shaken. Upon looking up, he perceived himself to be surrounded by strangers. They were travellers on their way to Lahore. They gave him food and water; the infant was fed with goat’s milk by means of a sponge. His strength being now somewhat recruited, he joined the travellers, and advanced with them by easy stages to their destination. Lahore was the field in which the Tartar’s talents soon displayed themselves. Aiass was no ordinary man. He attracted the notice of the Emperor Akbar, who had a singular faculty in discriminating merit, and from that moment rose to distinction. Akbar perceived his value, and made it available to promote the interests of his empire. The Tartar advanced by a regular but rapid progression until he became high treasurer of the state. He was a chief political organ of one of the wisest sovereigns which history celebrates, and held in great respect by the whole nation. The Emperor reposed implicit confidence in him: it was well deserved, and ended only with his life.