Shivaji and His Times c8.s11.2

c8.s11.2

Age and experience had cooled the impetuous ardour of his youth,—he had once led a forlorn hope, at the storming of Mau,—and he now employed stratagem in preference to force, and bribe in preference to war. His foresight and political cunning, his smoothness of tongue and cool calculating policy, were in striking contrast with the impulsive generosity, reckless daring, blunt straightforwardness, and impolitic chivalry which we are apt to associate with the Rajput character.