Whoever is rising in power may break the agreement of peace.
Spies previously set about to work under the enemy and attend on the hostaged prince – carpenters, artisans, other spies – dancers, actors, singers, instrument-players, buffoons, court-bards, swimmers, magicians – prostitutes and women spies under the garb of wives – with the unrestricted right to enter, stay at and leave the palace at any time, may take the prince away at night through and underground tunnel dug for the purpose – or placing him in a garb carrying or concealed under pipes, utensils vessels, clothes, beds, seats or other articles, by workers such as – cooks, confectioners, bathing servants, servants who carry conveyances, who make the bed, who make toilets, who dress, who procure water, who procure items in the dark – or he may be disguised as such a servant.
Or he may pretend to be in communion with the god Varuna in a reservoir through a tunnel at night while spies under the guise of grocers may poison the sentinels – or fire may be set to stores of commercial articles. In view of avoiding the fear of pursuit, he may place a human body in the house he occupied, set fire to it and escape by breaking open some house-joints or a window, or through a tunnel – or disguise himself as a transporter of commodities like glass beads or pots – or as an ascetic after entering the residence of one – or as a forest recluse – or as someone suffering from a peculiar disease – or as a corpse – or as a widowed wife, following a corpse being carried away – or in the midst of carts and cart-drivers – and spies disguised as forest-people should misguide pursuers by pointing in an incorrect direction.
If he is closely followed, he may lead the pursuers to an ambush, or in the absence of an ambush leave gold or morsels of poisoned food by the sides of the road and take a different road. If he is captured, he should try to win over the pursuers by conciliation and other means, or poison them, or fight them with a concealed sword and the help of sentinels and previously-concealed spies. Or the king may accuse the enemy of the prince’s murder and attack them.
—Kautilya, in the Arthaśāstra, 7.17:33-61
