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ll8 THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. 



and who, a short time previously, had returned from France, 

 in order to solicit a new engagement ; and now and then 

 the Spaniard, Hurbon, and St. Amand, a painter, called on 

 me, these being the only Europeans at Lahore. On one 

 occasion, some soldiers whom I attended, told me con- 

 fidentially that the troops had resolved, if Jewahir should 

 not come from the fortress into their camp on that after- 

 noon, to assail the fortress and kill him there. Their in- 

 tention, they added, was also hostile towards my dwelling, 

 which they intended to plunder and burn, as they thought 

 I was concealing English spies who were conspiring with 

 Jewahir Sing to surrender the country to the English ; they 

 advised me therefore, to carry anything of value to a secure 

 place. It was indeed, not before the last moment, when 

 Jewahir heard, by the beating of the drums, that the 

 troops were in full march to assail the fortress, that he 

 resolved to leave his residence ; which turned out happily 

 for the city and myself, for had he not done so, Lahore 

 would have been plundered and sacked. In leaving the 

 fortress he was riding on an elephant, holding little 

 Dulleep Sing before him on his lap. In his Howda 

 ( chair), the^e was a number of bags filled with gold and 

 silver. He thought probably to ransom his life with it, but 

 he was mistaken. The Ranee and Mungela, with many 

 slave-girls, followed him on several elephants. When the 

 train arrived at the camp, the soldiers first took Dulleep 

 Sing from his lap, and sent him with his mother in a royal 

 tent, erected on purpose for the, court. Scarcely was that 

 done, when they fired at Jewahir Sing, without any further 

 ceremony, and the same fate awaited two of his attendants, 

 named Baba-Ruttun-Sing and Chetta Payah. This cat- 

 astrophe made such a deep impression on the Ranee and 

 Mungela, that for many weeks they were quite inconsolable ; 

 they appeared before the public for several days with their 

 hair loose, as if mad. Every morning they went from the 

 fortress on foot, crossing the pret ( place for exercising 

 soldiers ) in the garden where Jewahir Sing had been burnt 

 with both his companions and five living women ; there 



