Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/107

CHAP. IV.] Prince's recommendations were overridden and he was so often interfered with and trusted with so little power that his prestige was lowered in the public eye and he could not govern the Deccan consistently with self-respect or with any chance of doing good service. As he wrote indignantly to his sister Jahanara in 1654, when similar distrust and hostility were shown to him by the Court during his second viceroyalty: "If His Majesty wishes that of all his servants I alone should pass my life in dishonour and at last perish in an unbecoming manner, I have no help but to obey But as it is hard to live and die thus and I do not enjoy [his] grace, I cannot, for the sake of perishable earthly things, live in pain and grief, nor deliver myself up into the hands of others,—it is better that by order of His Majesty I should be released from the shame of such a life, so that harm may not be done to the good of the State and [other] hearts may be composed about this matter. Ten years before this I had realised this fact and known my life to be aimed at [by my rivals], and therefore I had resigned my post, so that I might retire to a corner, cause no uneasiness to any body's heart, and be saved from such harassment."