134 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL, 
may be permitted the liberty, will tell sufficient of 
his history very briefly. He came to the throne by 
the death of his father in 1628. “ Shah Jehan was 
an amiable and wise prince, universally beloved by 
his subjects, and a very pattern of excellence in private 
life. He had four sons, who, with one exception, the 
crafty Aurungzebe, followed in their father’s steps, 
and imitated his virtues. Aurungzebe, however, 
proved himself a man of a very different disposition — 
subtle, wily, and selfish ; — and upon him the father 
found it necessary to keep a strict curb and an ever 
watchful eye. But even this vigilance was insuf- 
ficient to frustrate his deep-laid schemes of treason. 
After several abortive attempts to seize the reins of 
empire from his father’s hands, he threw off the 
character of a prince, and under the pretext of ex- 
piating his crimes, he habited himself as a fahkir, 
and in that guise travelled all the way into the 
Deccan ; there by the incessant exertion of bribery, 
promises, and persuasions, he levied a large army, and 
marched against the imperial city of his father, seizing 
an opportunity while the officers of state were en- 
gaged in another quarter. By an extraordinary concur- 
rence of good fortune and skill, and by an inexplicable 
agency, wherein artifice and duplicity were his chief 
aids, he at last gained footing within the capital, and 
secured the persons of his father and one of his elder 
brothers : the other two being absent from Agra, 
upon an expedition, remained at large, and being at 
the time furnished with troops, made head against the 
