his countrymen from every quarter and seems to have taken possession of nearly the whole of Bihar without opposition. What excites most surprise is the secrecy and success with which intrigues and movements so extensive appear to have been conducted, a fact explained perhaps by the deep interest which every Pathan felt in the national success and the fidelity which tribesmen show to their chiefs and to each other. The day after receiving this news, Babur returned to Agra, where he told his council he would immediately assume command of the eastern army. Taking with him such troops as were at hand, he set out on February 2, 1529, and crossing the Doab, reached the right bank of the Ganges at Dakdaki on February 27, 1529. Here he was met by his son Humayun, General Askari, and several generals who came from the other side. He arranged with them that while his army marched down the right bank of the river theirs should march down the left and should always encamp over against his. The information which he received here was but little satisfactory. He found that the Pathans who were straining every nerve to recover their military and political ascendancy had gathered around Sultan Mahmud Lodi to the number of 100,000 men. The Sultan had detached Baban and Sheikh Bayezid with a large force to Sirwar while he himself with Fateh Khan Shirwani, the minister of Sultan Jalal ud-Din Lodi and of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi in succession by whom Mahmud had been joined and who had now deserted Babur as he had done his first master, kept along the Bihar bank of the Ganges and was marching on Chunar. Sher Shah Suri, whom Babur had distinguished by marks of his favor having given him several parganas and entrusted him with a command, had joined the insurgents, had crossed the Ganges, and occupied Benares from which the officers of Sultan Jalal ud-Din Sherki, a descendant of the older dynasty of the country who held the city under Babur's authority had fled on his approach. There were therefore at this time three competitors for the Eastern or Sherki kingdom Sultan Jalal ud-Din Sherki, the representative of the older kings who ruled the country before it was conquered by Sultan Sikander Lodi. He had lately submitted to Babur and sought his protection. His claims had become rather obsolete but seemed to have