Page:Aurangzíb and the Decay of the Mughal Empire.djvu/146

140 victory, and the Emperor's cause appeared lost. Directing operations from Ajmír, he had placed his main body under his fourth son Akbar, at the same time calling up his elder sons Mu'azzain and A'zam with their contingents from their commands in the Deccan and Bengal. The three princes were busy ravaging the Rájput country, and Aurangzíb was left at Ajmír with hardly a thousand men, when tidings came that Prince Akbar had been seduced by the diplomacy of the Rájput leaders, had gone over with the main army to the enemy, and proclaimed himself Emperor of India; nay, more, he was now marching upon his father at the head of 70,000 men. Aurangzíb must have thought of the fate of Sháh-Jahán, and feared that it was now his turn to make room for an ambitious son: but his presence of mind did not desert him even at this crisis. Summoning Prince Mu'azzam to come to his aid with such troops as he could gather, the Emperor essayed a counter-move in the game of diplomacy. He wrote a letter congratulating the rebel Prince upon his success in deceiving the Rájputs and luring them on to their destruction, and contrived that this compromising epistle should be intercepted by one of the rebellious Rájas. The effect of his plot exceeded all expectations. The Mughal deserters flocked back to the imperial standard, led