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1666] In one tow<n they were arrested on suspicion by the faujdar Ali Quli, who had learnt of Shivaji's flight from a letter of his Court agent before he received the official intimation of it. A close examination of the prisoners was begun. But at midnight Shivaji met the faujdar in private, boldly disclosed his identity and offered him a diamond and a ruby worth a lakh of Rupees as "the price of his liberation. The faujdar preferred the bribe to his duty. (K. K. ii. 218.) After performing his bath at the junction of the Ganges and Jamuna at Allahabad, Shivaji proceeded to Benares. Here he hurriedly went through all the rites of a pilgrim in the dim morning twilight and slipped out of the town just as a courier arrived from Agra with the proclamation for his arrest and a hue and cry was started.*