1 ■mt.
2 IUSTOltY OV THE SJ Ell'S.
3 281
4 mutilation. His determined Character often
5 prompted him to take sued decisive measures as
6 the urgency of the case demanded, but imprison¬
7 ment, with confiscation of property, was the usual
8 means he employed when he wished to bring any
9 of his refractory subjects to a proper sense of their
10 duty, as well as obtain any other object he had in
11 view. We see that he had set his heart on pos¬
12 sessing the koh-i-noor, and there is every reason for
13 believing, that the Wttfu Begum had promised the
14 diamond as a reward for the release of her unfor¬
15 tunate husband w hen a prisoner in Cashmere; but
16 on reaching Lahore, both she and her husband
17 repented of their promise, and refused to fulfil it.
18 This conduct on the part of the ex-king of Cabu.1,
19 was of a character sufficient, to annoy Runjeet
20 Singh, and though Shah Soojah was completely
21 in his power, yet the only means he employed for
22 procuring; the diamond, consisted in the mild im¬
23 prisonment of the Shah. The ex-king was not
24 thrown into a dark, dismal dungeon under ground,
25 but merely watched in the chamber appropriated
26 to his use; and the surveillance could not have
27 been very strict, since his liberator was unsuspect-
28 ediy enabled to form a communication between
29 himself and the captive king, by knocking down a
30 portion of the wall that intervened between them.
31 The truth appears to be, that the Maharajah was
32 not over anxious to retain his prisoner after ob¬
33 taining the object of his wishes, though, had he
34 immediately released the ex-kiug, the intention of