There had been no chance of portioning out the spoils while we were near Qandahār; it was done at Qarā-bāgh where we delayed two or three days. To count the coins being difficult, they were apportioned by weighing them in scales. Begs of all ranks, retainers and household (_tābīn_) loaded up ass-load after ass-load of sacks full of white _tankas_, and took them away for their own subsistence and the pay of their soldiers. We went back to Kābul with masses of goods and treasure, great honour and reputation. (_o. Bābur's marriage with Ma`ṣūma-sulṯān._) After this return to Kābul I concluded alliance (_`aqd qīldīm_) with Sl. Aḥmad Mīrzā's daughter Ma`ṣūma-sulṯān Begīm whom I had asked in marriage at Khurāsān, and had had brought from there. (_p. Shaibāq Khān before Qandahār._) A few days later a servant of Nāṣir Mīrzā brought the news that Shaibāq Khān had come and laid siege to Qandahār. That Muqīm had fled to Zamīn-dāwar has been said already; from there he went on and saw Shaibāq Khān. From Shāh Beg also one person after another had gone to Shaibāq Khān. At the instigation and petition of these two, the Khān came [Sidenote: Fol. 213.] swiftly down on Qandahār by the mountain road,[1305] thinking to find me there. This was the very thing that experienced person Qāsim Beg had in his mind when he worried us into marching off from near Qandahār. (Persian) What a mirror shews to the young man, A baked brick shews to the old one! Shaibāq Khān arriving, besieged Nāṣir Mīrzā in Qandahār. (_q. Alarm in Kābul._) When this news came, the begs were summoned for counsel. The matters for discussion were these:—Strangers and ancient foes, such as are Shaibāq Khān and the Aūzbegs, are in possession of all the countries once held by Tīmūr Beg's descendants; even where Turks and Chaghatāīs[1306] survive in corners and border-lands, they have all joined the Aūzbeg, willingly or with aversion; one remains, I myself, in Kābul, the foe mightily strong, I very weak, with no means of making terms, no strength to oppose; that, in the presence of such power and potency, we had to think of some place for ourselves and, at this crisis and in the crack of time there was, to put a wider space between us and the strong foeman; that choice lay between Badakhshān and Hindūstān and that decision must now be made. Qāsim Beg and Sherīm T̤aghāī were agreed for Badakhshān; (_Author's note on Badakhshān._) Those holding their heads up in Badakhshān at this crisis were, of Badakhshīs, Mubārak Shāh and Zubair, Jahāngīr _Turkmān_ and Muḥammad the armourer. They had driven Nāṣir Mīrzā out but had not joined the Aūzbeg. [Sidenote: Fol. 213b.] I and several household-begs preferred going towards Hindūstān and were for making a start to Lamghān.[1307] (_r. Movements of some Mīrzās._)