Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/343

CHAP. XII.] ministers in his confidence had access to the Emperor. Even the people of Delhi, therefore, had reason to suspect that Shah Jahan was no more. The rumour spread to the farthest provinces with the proverbial speed of ill news. The evil was aggravated by Dara's injudicious action. To smooth the path of his own accession, he set men to watch the ferries and stop all letters and messengers going to his brothers in Bengal, Guzerat, and the Deccan. He also kept their Court agents under watch lest they should send any report to their masters.

But this only wrought greater mischief. Ignorance and uncertainty are more

dangerous than the knowledge of truth. The princes and people in the distant provinces, with their regular news-letters from the Court suddenly stopped, naturally concluded that the worst had already come to pass. What letters they got indirectly only confirmed the belief. While their official news-writers and Court-agents at the capital were being guarded by Dara, other people of the city contrived to smuggle letters out to the princes, offering their devotion and reporting the gossip of the market-place about the condition