Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/165

CHAP. VII.] mines. Here the fiercest fighting took place at close quarters, the outwork being repeatedly lost and recovered. The presence of their king spurred the Persians on to heroic exertions.

Early in February, the garrison began to lose heart. their They had held own for a month and a half against superior odds, and no relief was in sight. Nor were traitors wanting to fan their discontent and alarm. Two Tartar chiefs, Shadi Uzbak and Qipchaq Khan, with their retainers, had entered the Mughal pay at the end of the war in Balkh, and were now in Qandahar. These foreign mercenaries thought only of saving their families and property, without caring for their master's honour. They intrigued with the timid and the slothful among the garrison and created a spirit of despair by dwelling on the impossibility of reinforcements arriving before spring, and painting the horrors of an assault by the Persians. Their arts succeeded. A portion of the garrison mutinied, deserted their trenches and opened negotiations with the enemy. Daulat Khan was not the leader for such a crisis: he lost control over his men; instead of making an example of the ring leaders, asserting his own authority by a stern suppression of the mutiny, and animating the