Muntakhab al-lubab 59: Escape of Sivaji.

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[Text, vol. ii. p. 217.] Sivaji left Mathura after changing his clothes and shaving off his beard and whiskers, carrying with him his youthful son and forty or fifty individuals, servants and dependents, who all smeared their faces with ashes, and assumed the appearance of Hindu mendicants. The valuable jewels and the gold mohurs and the huns they carried with them were concealed in walking sticks, which had been hollowed out for the purpose, and were covered at the top with knobs. Some was sewed up in old slippers, and the wearers, pretending to be Hindu mendicants of three different classes, Bairagis, Gosains, and Udasis, proceeded by way of Allahabad to Benares. One very valuable diamond with some rubies was encased in wax, and concealed in the dress of one of his followers, and other jewels were placed in the mouths of other attendants.
So they proceeded until they reached a place of which the faujdar, 'Ali Kuli Khan, had received private and public notice of Sivaji's escape. The faujdar, knowing of the escape of Sivaji, on hearing of the arrival of these three parties of Hindu devotees, ordered them all to be placed in confinement, and an inquiry to be made. All these men and some other travellers remained in confinement a night and a day. On the second night Sivaji, at the second watch of the night, proceeded alone to the faujdar in private, and acknowledged that he was Sivaji. But, said he, "I have two gems, a diamond and a ruby of great value, with more than a lac of rupees. If you secure me and send me back a prisoner, or if you cut off my head and forward that, the two priceless jewels will be lost to you. Here am I, and here is my head; but still, keep off thine hand from wretched me in this dangerous strait." 'Ali Kuli preferred the ready bribe to the hope of the reward which might afterwards accrue to him. He took the two valuable jewels, and on the following morning, after making inquiries, he released all the devotees and travellers from custody.
Sivaji, looking upon his escape as a new lease of life, hastened to pursue his journey in the direction of Benares. He himself in rapid travelling and walking beat even the regular runners; but after reaching Allahabad, his young son Sambha, who accompanied him, was foot-sore and worn out. Sivaji therefore at Benares gave a quantity of jewels and money, and placed his boy in the charge of a Brahman, named Kabkalas, who was the hereditary family priest of his family, and who happened at that time to be at Benares. Sivaji promised that if he reached home alive, he would write to the Brahman, who was then to conduct the boy to his father by the road and in the manner prescribed in the letter. He warned him against listening to the wishes of the boy, or attending to letters from his mother. Having thus provided for the care of his boy, he continued his flight, * * and he had hardly entered Benares before the government messengers brought the news of Sivaji's escape. * * Sivaji then continued his flight by way of Bihar, Patna and Chanda, which is a thickly-wooded country and difficult of passage. Every place he came to, he and his followers changed their disguises, and so passed on from place to place secretly till he reached Haidarabad, and came to 'Abdu-llah Kutbu-l Mulk. There he told such stories and used such arts and wiles to forward his purpose that he deceived 'Abdu-llah Shah.