Chap. I.] REIGN OF ALUMGEER II. 403
and set the whole Mogul power at defiance. In this emergency he could devise ad i:
no better remedy than to call in the aid of the Mahrattas, who indeed drove out the Rohillas, but compensated themselves by establishing a right to levy the chout over all the territory that they conquered. After a course of intrigue and crime, Sufder Jung was supplanted in the royal favour by Ghazi-u-din, one of Nizam -ul-Moolk's grandsons, an unprincipled youth familiar with perfdy and murder. Like Sufder he employed the Mahrattas to extricate himself from difficulties, and ultimately succeeded by these means, in July, 1754, in seizing the person of his sovereign, Ahmed Shah, and raising to the throne a young prince of the blood, who assumed the title of Alumgeer.
Alumo^eer — or, as he is often called, Alumgeer II., to distinguish him from R>^^'mi"f
- = ' . Alumgeerll.
Aurungzebe, who used the same title in all regular documents — usually closes the list of Mogul sovereigns who actually held the reins of govenmient. For this reason, more than any other, he is entitled to a brief notice. When he was raised to the throne, Sufder Jung was still nominally vizier. On his death, which happened soon after, he was succeeded by his son Shuja-u-Dowlah in the government of Oude, but the viziership was immediately appro})riated by Ghazi-u-din, under whose mismanagement nothing but additional confusion and disaster could be anticipated. By treacherously seizing the infant successor of the governor of the Punjab, whom Ahmed Shah Dooranee had appointed, he })rovoked the vengeance of this formidable foe, who, having crossed the Indus, did not halt till he had made himself master of Delhi, and inflicted on this ill- fated city a renewal of the calamities which it had suffered from Nadii- Shah. So low had the authority of the sovereign now fxllen, that Alumgeer is said to have besought Ahmed not to leave him to the mercy of his vizier. Accordingly, on departing, he endeavoured to provide a kind of counterpoise by giving the command of the army to an able Rohilla chief of the name of Najib-u-Dowlah. Ghazi-u-din only waited till Ahmed was out of India, and then endeavoured to set Najib aside, in order to make way for one of his own creatures. Meeting with a resistance which he was unable to overcome, he again called in the aid of the Mahrattas, who advanced from Malwah under Ragolia, the second son of Bajee Rao, entered Delhi, and after spending a month in the siege of the fortified l>alace, compelled Alumgeer to reinstate Ghazi-u-din in all his former authority.
As usual, the Mahi-attas took good care to be fully compensated for their Tiit- >riiirat- service. Feeling that no effectual resistance could be offered, they set no limits I'.mjab. to their ambition, and openly talked of extending their conquests over the whole of Hindoostan. The Punjab first attracted their attention, and Ragoba, learning that it was feebly governed by Timour, a son of Ahmed Shah Dooranee, marched at once to Lahore, gained possession of it in May, 1758, and continuing his tiiumphant career, so intimidated the Dooranees, that they retired beyond the Indus without risking a battle. The Mahrattas next engaged in a similar attempt to subjugate Oude, but were met with spirit by Shuja-u-Dowlah. who,
