Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/193

CHAP. VIII.] later Biddulph's division followed at the end of the Second Afghan War,—reported that the Baluch clans had already risen and rendered the road unsafe. So, Aurangzib withdrew his outposts from Pishin and Duki, and led the army back to Kabul, joining the Emperor on 7th August. The Van under Sadullah had arrived eight days earlier.

Bitter was Aurangzib's humiliation at the ill-success of the expedition. Shah Jahan wrote to him, "I greatly wonder how you could not capture the fort in spite of such vast preparations." Aurangzib protested that he had done his utmost, but the scantiness of siege materials and insufficiency of artillery had rendered the attempt hopeless, as Sadullah Khan himself had testified. But Shah Jahan angrily rejoined, “I am not going to give up Qandahar. I shall try every means to recover it." The Prince pleaded hard to be permitted to stay in Afghanistan or the Panjab and to take part, even as a subordinate, in the next attempt on Qandahar, in order to retrieve his character as a general. For this he was willing to forego the viceroyalty of the Deccan