visitor; yet, with all this, in reality a very leech, sucking their life's blood, the shameless trader of their sons and daughters; the would-be great merchant of the East, the very jack-of-alltrades, the usurer, the turn-penny, the briber, and the bribed. With all this he must be accounted the very best of soldiers, and, for an Asiatic and an uneducated man, he is an able, active, bold, and energetic, yet wise and prudent commander. He is anything but strong-headed and hot-blooded; prudently making slow, resolute, and judicious movements, thinking more of his resources, reserves, &c., than is the wont of Orientals. Looking more to the future and its wants and requisites than to the present or the past, slowly he proceeds, feeling his way as he advances, quick in taking advantages, relying much on his subtle political talent, and looking on arms as his last resource. In the field of battle he is self-composed, prudent, and watchful to the last degree; but at the breach, storm, or charge, he freely, though reluctantly, expends his men, while himself just the man to be at their head if required. Generally, however, he is the cool and able commander in the rear."

CHAPTER XII.

INTRIGUE AND ANARCHY.

DEATH OF RANJIT SINGH AMBITIOUS PROJECT OF THE DOGRA BROTHERS MAHARAJA KHARRAK SINGH-MURDER OF SARDAR CHET SINGH- DEPOSITION AND DEATH OF KHARRAK SINGH THE VENGEANCE OF HEAVEN-DEATH OF NAO NIHAL SINGH.

MAHARAJA RANJIT SINGH died on the 27th June 1839, and, in the words of Sir Lepel Griffin, the six years which followed were a period of storm and anarchy, in which assassination was the rule and the weak were ruthlessly trampled under foot. The kingdom founded in violence, treachery, and blood did not long survive its founder. Created by the military and administrative genius of one man, it crumbled into powder when the spirit which gave it life was withdrawn. The death of Ranjit Singh was, in fact, followed by a rapid succession of crimes and tragedies such as have rarely been paralleled in history, save in the

darkest period of the downfall of Rome, or in the early days of the French Revolution. Colonel Gardner thus tells the tale :

In the old age of the Maharaja there was a person whom he especially took into favour, and whom he loved like a son from his birth. This was Hira Singh, the son of Raja Dhyan Singh. Ranjit Singh could hardly bear the boy to be out of his sight, and he from infancy was sedulously taught to call the monarch taba (papa). As Hira Singh approached manhood the army also yielded its affection to the Maharaja's favourite, and so it came about that this senile love of the old Maharaja, aided by the inclination of the powerful army, suggested a dream of greatness to his uncles the Dogra brothers, and led to the successive deeds of violence by which it seemed to them that their ambitious design might be gratified. This dream was that Hira Singh, the heir of their family, or at least the most promising of its rising generation, might eventually succeed to the throne of Ranjit Singh. Those to be swept away were the male members of the Maharaja's family, and all those ministers, advisers, and chiefs who would not join the Dogra party.

A DREADFUL PROGRAMME.

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A glance at the table (Appendix) will show that in the course of a very few years this programme was carried out in all its essential features; and I will now relate how it was that all these murders were brought about directly or indirectly by the Dogra brothers, Dhyan Singh and Gulab Singh, for the eventual aggrandisement of their family in the person of Hira Singh. The two brothers played the awful game with deliberate and unswerving pertinacity, and the narrative will explain how their schemes were carried out, and how Dhyan Singh and Hira Singh were themselves overwhelmed in the torrent of blood which they had caused to flow. When Ranjit Singh's death opened to them the field of action, the veil of futurity hid these events from their eyes: their only thought was that the way to the throne had to be cleared of all obstacles, and at the same time an outward show of fealty to the Khalsa, and of loyalty to the sovereign line of succession, had to be maintained. The slightest suspicion might have been fatal, yet prompt action seemed to be the least dangerous course, and the first blow fell quickly.

Ranjit Singh when on his deathbed summoned to him his only legitimate son, Shahzada Kharrak Singh, and proclaimed him his heir, with Raja Dhyan Singh as Minister. Now Kharrak Singh was a blockhead, and a slave to opium: at the time of his accession to the throne of Lahore he passed his whole time in a state of stupefaction. His chief adviser was a sardar named Chet Singh, and this man had the courage to set himself forward as a rival to the all-powerful Dhyan Singh, and was also so rash as to make known his intention of having the Minister assassinated. Matters came to a climax in October 1839, but little more than three months after Ranjit Singh's death; and being, as I was, the commandant of Raja Dhyan Singh's artillery, and high in his confidence, I was closely connected with the events which I am about to describe.

It must be remembered that Dhyan Singh and his brothers had been created Rajas by Ranjit Singh, and that in the latter years of his reign they had become nearly independent, gratitude and the additional power that Dhyan Singh's office of wazir conferred upon them being the links that bound them to the service of their