A few days after the late attack upon the Ameer-ool-Omrah, he was hunting the wild boar in a forest not far from the city. Many nobles of the Queen’s court were likewise enjoying this animating sport. A vast concourse of people had assembled, as in Eastern countries they always do upon similar occasions. Carried by the ardour of the chase beyond his companions, Yakoot passed a cover, from which a huge boar darted, directing its course across the plain. The Abyssinian instantly dashed his heels into the flanks of his steed, and it bounded off after the game; but scarcely had it cleared the thicket, when an arrow, discharged by an unseen hand, struck its rider in the fleshy part of the upper arm, and remained crossed in the wound. Snapping the shaft, and drawing out the reed, he continued his career, and, in spite of his wound, succeeded in slaying the boar. It was too evident now that his life was aimed at by secret enemies; and, without expressing his suspicions, but affecting to look upon the murderous attempt of the morning as a mere accident, he resolved immediately to quit the city and retire to Bituhnda. The Sultana’s government was becoming more and more odious every day, and it was clear to him that she had employed assassins in two several instances to take away secretly the life which she dared not openly attack. On that night he quitted the capital, and joined Mullik Altoonia, with several of the disaffected nobles. The moment Ruzeea Begum heard of their flight, she placed herself at the head of a considerable army, and, meeting the rebels half-way between Delhi and Bituhnda, a battle ensued, in which the royal forces were defeated by the conduct of Yakoot, who commanded the disaffected, and the Queen was made prisoner. She was sent to the fort of Bituhnda to Mullik Altoonia, who, being seduced by her beauty and affected distress, shortly after married her. Upon this, the Abyssinian retired in disgust to Delhi, and engaged in the service of Prince Beiram, who had been elevated to the throne. CHAPTER IV. In consequence of the marriage of Ruzeea Begum with Mullik Altoonia, her brother Beiram, who had been elevated to the empire of Delhi, was securely seated upon the musnud. The disgust excited by the conduct of their queen had weaned from her the hearts of those among her subjects who had hitherto maintained her cause, and she had become an object of universal odium. Bold and enterprising, however, she determined not to submit patiently to the loss of a throne, and assembling an army under the command of her husband, prepared to vindicate her rights. Beiram, meanwhile, collected forces to oppose the threatened invasion, and placed them under the command of the quondam Abyssinian slave, whose injuries were likely to urge him to employ his best energies to foil the efforts of a resolute and accomplished foe.