The King Refused To Listen To Them, Or To Accept Their Gifts,
And Turned Them Over To His Son, Saying That Peace Or War Rested
Entirely With Him.
The prince was so puffed up by this favour, though
informed that the proposed conditions of peace were highly
Honourable,
that he declared proudly he would listen to no terms, till he was in the
field at the head of the army, being resolved that Khan-Khannan should
not deprive him of the honour of finishing that war.
The ambitious views of this young prince are quite obvious, and form the
common talk of the country, yet the king suffers him to proceed,
although he by no means intends him as his successor. Sultan Cuserou,
the eldest son, is highly beloved and honoured of all men, and almost
adored, for his excellent parts and noble dispositions, with which the
king is well acquainted, and even loves him dearly. But he conceives
that the liberty of this son would diminish his own glory, and does not
see that the ambition of Churrum greatly more tarnishes his own fame
than would the virtuous character and noble actions of the other. Thus
the king fosters division and emulation among his sons, putting so much
power into the hands of the younger, which he believes he can undo at
his pleasure, that the wisest here foresee much fatal division in this
mighty empire when the present king shall pay the debt of nature,
expecting that it will then be rent in pieces by civil wars.
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