Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/260

230 late to save him. Muhammad Amin waited on the Prince, 24 miles from Haidarabad (probably on 21st Jan.), but the Prince refused to stop hostilities and pressed on to the capital on the plea that Abdullah had not yet restored the property of the captives. Qutb Shah's last hope was gone; the Mughal cavalry had arrived so fast that he had been taken completely by surprise. Confronted with utter ruin, he sent off to the stronghold of Golkonda his children and such valuable property as could be easily removed, and in the night of 22nd January himself fled from Haidarabad to that fort,—leaving the defence of the capital to three officers and some 17,000 soldiers.

This flight saved his life because Aurangzib's secret instructions to M. Sultan breathed deadly hostility: