Page:Shivaji and His Times.djvu/116

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96
SHIVAJl.
[CH. IV.


This night-attack was a complete success. The retreat from the camp was unmolested and no pursuit was made. During the surprise the Marathas lost only six men killed and forty wounded, while they slew a son and a captain of Shaista Khan's, 40 of his attendants and six of his wives and slave-girls, besides wounding two other sons, eight other women and Shaista Khan himself. (Gyffard to Surat.)

The daring and cunning of the Maratha hero were rewarded by an immense increase of his prestige, He was taken to be an incarnation of Satan; no place was believed to be proof against his entrance and no feat impossible for him. The whole country talked with astonishment and terror of the almost superhuman deed done by him; and there was bitter humiliation and sorrow in the Emperor's Court and family circle at this disaster to his maternal uncle and the "premier peer" (amir-ul- umara) of his empire.

This attack took place on 5th April, 1663. The morning following it, all the imperial officers came to Shaista Khan to condole with him in his loss. Among them was Maharajah Jaswant Singh, who had not raised a finger to defend his chief or to oppose the retreat of his assailant, though he had 10,000 horse under him and lay encamped across the road taken by Shivaji. Shaista Khan, with the polished sneer of a high-bred Mughal courtier, turned to Jaswant and merely remarked. "When the enemy fell upon