. India; . indifferent; sick or well the Mountain Ratcould do little harm at Delhi. But after a while theinvalid grew better. You will remember that Sivajiwas a pious Hindu, so that it was only natural thathe should send thank-offerings of fruit and flowersand other things to the Brahmins and nobles of hisacquaintance. The most curious part of these giftswas the baskets in which they were packed. Theywere long and slender, and bore a remarkableresemblance to coffins; but after some weeks theguards stationed outside the house became quiteaccustomed to the sight of these unwieldy-lookingpackages
. India; . indifferent; sick or well the Mountain Ratcould do little harm at Delhi. But after a while theinvalid grew better. You will remember that Sivajiwas a pious Hindu, so that it was only natural thathe should send thank-offerings of fruit and flowersand other things to the Brahmins and nobles of hisacquaintance. The most curious part of these giftswas the baskets in which they were packed. Theywere long and slender, and bore a remarkableresemblance to coffins; but after some weeks theguards stationed outside the house became quiteaccustomed to the sight of these unwieldy-lookingpackages. One evening a strange thing happened. Sivaji,who was supposed by all to be still weak and ill,jumped out of bed in surprisingly active fashion, andproceeded to tie up his son in one of the coffin-shapedbaskets. This being done, he put himself into anotherone and was borne by his servants out of the house,through the cordon of soldiers outside, along thecrowded thoroughfares, to a distant part of the Sivaji openly defies the Great Moghul SIVAJI IS CROWNED KING There horses were awaiting them, and the wilyMaratha—whose illness had been nothing more thana hoax—succeeded in escaping unobserved from thecapital. Once outside the gates they put spurs tothen* horses, and set out in hot haste for the was Aurangzebes wrath the following daywhen a trembling officer told him the story of theruse. But by that time pursuit was out of thequestion, and in December 1666, after nine monthsabsence at Delhi, Sivaji, in the guise of a pilgrim,once more set foot in his own dominions. It may be imagined with what joy the Marathaswelcomed home their loved chieftain, whom they hadalmost given up for lost. To celebrate the eventwas their first impulse, and this they did by recaptur-ing most of the territory they had been obliged togive up to the Moghuls. But there was one strong-hold in particular that Sivaji longed to , Singurh by name, was a well-nigh inaccess-ibl
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