1 ,282 TIJSTOKY OF THE SIKHS.
2 the imprisonment would at once have been dis¬
3 closed, The unfortunate Sooltan Khan, of JBhem-
4 ■ber, was also one of those men who had very”rouph
5 annoyed the Maharajah by his independent or.re¬
6 bellious conduct, and though his general had in¬
7 duced the unfortunate man to accompany him to
8 Lahore under false pretences and promises, the
9 Maharajah inflicted no further punishment upon
10 him than imprisonment of a tolerably long duration.
11 Not willing that he should die under his hand,s,
12 Sooltan Kharf was handed over to Goolab Singh of
13 Jummoo, a man on whose vigilance the Maharajah
14 could place implicit reliance.
15 Runjeet has been accused of ill-treating Sooltan
16 Khan in this matter, but holding the post the latter
17 did, his rebellious conduct was likely to have been
18 fatal to the Maharajah’s retention of the province
19 of Cashmere, the acquisition of which had cost him
20 so much labour, and so heavy a sacrifice of troops.
21 No other effectual means of preventing further re¬
22 bellion on the part of Sooltan Khan occurred to
23 Runjeet, than making him a prisoner for life.
24 Runjeet Singh, though he had become the pos¬
25 sessor of the Punjab in a rather unscrupulous man¬
26 ner, was averse to any disturbance by which even
27 private individuals might be deprived of their pro¬
28 perly; and to thieves of all descriptions he had a
29 particular aversion. In the palace at Lahore, there
30 was an open verandah, where he was sometirn.es
31 accustomed to amuse himself with the bow and
32 arrow, directing the latter against one of these