pillow, crying, 'This is how they keep watch!' Then they beat the Mughal drums so that nobody could hear his own voice. Sháyista's son was killed in the scuffle, and the general himself was dragged away by some of his faithful slave girls, and with difficulty escaped by a window.
This happened in 1663, after the Mughal army had been occupied for three years in subduing the robbers. The prospect was not encouraging, and to make matters worse the Mughal general laid the blame of the midnight surprise upon the treachery of his Rájput colleague Jaswant Singh. The Rája had played the traitor before: he had tried to desert to Shujá' on the eve of the most decisive battle in Bengal; he had pledged himself to Dárá, and then thrown the unfortunate Prince over for Aurangzib; and he was suspected of being peculiarly susceptible to monetary arguments. Nothing, however, was proved against him in the Poona affair, and Aurangzíb found his military science and his gallant following of Rájputs too valuable to be lightly discarded. Accordingly, Sháyista was recalled and transferred to Bengal[1], and Prince Mu'azzam, the Emperor's second son, was appointed to the command in the Deccan, with the Rája Jaswant Singh as his colleague. Sivají celebrated the occasion by sacking Súrat for (Fryer says) forty days (Jan.-Feb. 1664): Sir George Oxindon indeed repulsed him from the English factory with much credit, but he carried off a splendid booty from the
- ↑ See p. 117. He died in Bengal in 1694, aged 93.
