THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. HI 



loaded double-barrelled fowling piece, as a nazerana (present), 

 and at the moment Sheer Sing was stretching out his hand 

 to receive it, he was shot with that gun on the spot. 

 Ajeet Sing's troops, arrayed before the window, gave a 

 volley of musket shots through the window, to kill the 

 men surrounding Sheer Sing, and penetrated into the 

 room to cut off his head. I was by accident not farther 

 than ten steps from the place where the horrid crime was 

 committed, and five minutes before his atrocious murder 

 I had spoken to him in the garden under a tree, where he 

 ordered me to remain until his return. The subject of 

 our interview was a gunpowder-mill with machinery, which 

 Dhyan Sing had ordered me to make. Sheer Sing had 

 inspected that establishment four days previously ( on a 

 Sunday ), and was so satisfied, that with his own hands 

 he put on my arms two pair of gold bracelets, and ordered 

 500 rupees to be given to me, as an additional sum to the 

 900 which I already received as my monthly appointment. 

 This having been only an oral promise, I went daily to the 

 durbar, in order to receive an authority in writing, and was 

 with him on the fatal Thursday on which he was assassinat- 

 ed. Whilst this crime was being perpetrated by Ajeet 

 Sing, Lena Sing, his uncle, murdered, in a garden in the 

 neighbourhood, the royal prince, Pertaub Sing, a boy only 

 twelve years of age. This innocent victim of party fury 

 was cruelly cut into pieces with sabres, at the moment 

 when he was occupied with his Brahmins in prayers and 

 giving alms to the poor ; for it was a Sancrat day, the first 

 day of a Hindoo month, on which similar ceremonies 

 generally took place. The guardian of the infant child, 

 Baii Goormuck Sing, Misser Belee Ram ( the first treasurer ), 

 and other accomplices, did not wait long before they received 

 retribution. From Shahbelore, the murderers hurried towards 

 the fortress. On their way they met Dhyan Sing, who was 

 on his road to Shahbelore, and they informed him of what 

 had been done, and took him back to the fortress to exe- 

 cute their project of placing Runjeet Sing's youngest son, 

 Dulleep Sing, on the throne. When they arrived in the 



