Just at that time, the people in Pāp[421] sent me word they had made fast the fort but, owing to something misleading in The Khān's advance, the enemy stormed and took it. Though The Khān had other good qualities and was in other ways businesslike, he was much without merit as a soldier and commander. Just when matters were at the point that if he made one more march, it was most probable the country would be had without fighting, at such a time! he gave ear to what the enemy said with alloy of deceit, spoke of peace and, as his messengers, sent them Khwāja Abū'l-makāram and his own [Sidenote: Fol. 55.] Lord of the Gate, Beg _Tilba_ (Fool), _Taṃbal's_ elder brother. To save themselves those others (_i.e._ Ḥasan and Taṃbal) mixed something true with what they fabled and agreed to give gifts and bribes either to The Khān or to his intermediaries. With this, The Khān retired. As the families of most of my begs and household and braves were in Andijān, 7 or 800 of the great and lesser begs and bare braves, left us in despair of our taking the place. Of the begs were `Alī-darwesh Beg, `Alī-mazīd _Qūchīn_, Muḥammad Bāqir Beg, Shaikh `Abdu'l-lāh, Lord of the Gate and Mīrīm _Lāgharī_. Of men choosing exile and hardship with me, there may have been, of good and bad, between 200 and 300. Of begs there were Qāsim _Qūchīn_ Beg, Wais _Lāgharī_ Beg, Ibrāhīm _Sārū Mīnglīgh_ Beg, Shīrīm T̤aghāī, Sayyidī Qarā Beg; and of my household, Mīr Shāh _Qūchīn_, Sayyid Qāsim _Jalāīr_, Lord of the Gate, Qāsim-`ajab, `Alī-dost T̤aghāī's (son) Muḥammad-dost, Muḥammad-`alī _Mubashir_,[422] Khudāī-bīrdī _Tūghchī Mughūl_, Yārīk T̤aghāī, Bābā `Alī's (son) Bābā Qulī, Pīr Wais, Shaikh Wais, [Sidenote: Fol. 55b.] Yār-`alī _Balāl_,[423] Qāsim _Mīr Akhwūr_ (Chief Equerry) and Ḥaidar _Rikābdār_ (stirrup-holder). It came very hard on me; I could not help crying a good deal. Back I went to Khujand and thither they sent me my mother and my grandmother and the families of some of the men with me. That Ramẓān (April-May) we spent in Khujand, then mounted for Samarkand. We had already sent to ask The Khān's help; he assigned, to act with us against Samarkand, his son, Sl. Muḥammad (Sulṯānīm) Khānika and (his son's guardian) Aḥmad Beg with 4 or 5000 men and rode himself as far as Aūrā-tīpā. There I saw him and from there went on by way of Yār-yīlāq, past the Būrka-yīlāq Fort, the head-quarters of the sub-governor (_dārogha_) of the district. Sl. Muḥammad Sulṯān and Aḥmad Beg, riding light and by another road, got to Yār-yīlāq first but on their hearing that Shaibānī Khān was raiding Shīrāz and thereabouts, turned back. There was no help for it! Back I too had to go. Again I went to Khujand!