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170 reach home and write for him. One of the brothers, Krishnaji, even undertook to guide the fugitives as far as Benares.

Shivaji had crammed the hollow core of a sannyasi's staff with gems and gold coins. Some more money was concealed in his shoes, and a diamond of great value and several rubies coated with wax were sewn in the dresses of his servants or carried in their mouths. (K. K. ii. 200 and 217.)

At Mathura, which was reached within six hours of leaving Agra, he shaved off his beard and moustaches, smeared himself with ashes, and put on the disguise of sannyasis. "Travelling in the darkness of the night with swift Deccani couriers, who were practised in the art of moving in various disguises and assumed characters, he rapidly left the capital behind him. Forty or fifty of his servants accompanied him divided into three parties and dressed as monks of the three Hindu orders, Bairagis, Gosains, and Udasis.

The fugitives pursued their way, constantly changing their disguise, sometimes passing for religious mendicants, sometimes as petty traders, and escaped detection because no one dreamt of their going to the eastern provinces of India while their destination was the west. They, however, had some hairbreadth escapes. K. K. (ii. 201 & 218) incorrectly says that he was entrusted to Kavi Kulesh at Allahabad.