14 AKBAB THE GREAT

his spear at him and wounded him as he was entangled in the thorns, so that he fled; the other two attacked his Majesty, who received them so stoutly that they were forced to make off." Two officers now joined Akbar, who, refusing their escort, sent them after his assailants; and the little force, roused by their em- peror's danger, utterly routed the enemy. The courage of Akbar had put every man on his mettle, and the victors returned to Baroda the heroes of the hour. In the campaign of 1572-3 Akbar not only retook Ahmada- bad and entered Cambay and Baroda, but captured the strong fort of Surat, which had been built with extraor- dinary care and skill to keep out the Portuguese, and contained mortars bearing the name of Sulaiman the Great of Turkey. When Akbar took the fort of Juna- garh in Kathiawar in 1591, he found there a gun of the same Sultan, whose fleet had vainly attacked the coast castles and had been forced to abandon the guns. The presence of the Raja Bhagvan Das at Akbar 's side in the skirmish just described is significant. If he had not been altogether successful in managing his Mohammedan followers, a turbulent body of adventur- ers, the emperor more than redeemed his overindul- gence to rebellious Moslems by his wise conciliation of Hindus. It may be that the very truculence and in- subordination which he found so hard to check among his Turkish officers threw him perforce into the arms of the Rajputs; for we can hardly believe that a mere lad, brought up in an atmosphere of despotic rule, could as yet have imagined the ideal of a government resting