Page:History of Aurangzib (based on original sources) Vol 1.djvu/361

CHAP. XIII.] thenceforth affected the royal style in his letters. On 19th January, 1658, his victorious troops from Surat joined him at Ahmadabad; he was now quite ready to start for Agra, and waited impatiently for Aurangzib's signal.

Before Murad could leave his province and embark on the perilous contest for the throne, there was one matter of supreme importance to be settled. Where was he to leave his wives and

children in safety? No man could foresee the distant end of the struggle. He might wade through his brothers' blood to the throne, and then all would be well. Or he might fail; and then would come a day of unspeakable misery for him and his family: the luckless claimant would be done to death in a gloomy prison; his head would be severed by the rude hands of slaves, critically examined by his victorious rival, and finally exposed to the public gaze; his widows would be dragged to the loathsome bed of their husband's murderer; his tender children would be consigned to dungeon and either drugged with opium into imbecility or strangled to death when they came of age.

Murad, therefore, looked about for some stronghold where his family and those of his chief