Travels in India (Tavernier) 53.4

53.4

The two armies having encountered one another many times, victory was sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, and Sultan Muhammad, assisted by the advice of his lieutenant, seeing that this war was protracted, resolved to change the method and to combine ruse with force in order to accomplish the destruction of Sultan Shujā. He treated with the majority of the officers of his uncle’s army secretly, and made them magnificent promises, urging them so strongly to follow the side of Aurangzeb — whom he called the pillar and protector of the Muhammadan law — that he secured the principals, to whom he afterwards made considerable presents, to assure himself better of their support. This was a mortal stroke for Sultan Shujā, which he was unable to parry; for those who followed him being mercenaries, and that kind of people who declare for those who give most, they concluded that they had nothing more to hope from this Prince, whose finances were expended, and would find it more profitable to declare for Aurangzeb, whom fortune favoured in every way, and was master of all the treasures.