1 His partial
2 recovery.
3 2 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS.
4 His Sirdars and followers were delighted at even
5 his partial recovery, and submitted willingly to the.
6 sway of the only man who had preserved disci-
7 pline and order amongst them. In Dhyan Singh,
8 the Maharajah possessed an able minister, while °
9 the well-known talents of Azeezoodeen insured the
10 firm stability of public and private ‘affairs. This
11 old man conducted the correspondence with the
12 British, knew their power, and entirely concurred *
13 in opinion with his master, that any cause of quarrel
14 with that powerful nation and firm ally would entail
15 eventual ruin on the Punjab.
16 For a time the Maharajah was perfectly helpless,
17 and borne along from place to place in a covered
18 litter; his body was enfeebled, and he was obliged
19 to express his wants by signs, his power of speech
20 being nearly lost. But had he, even then, led a
21 regular life, and subjected himself to regimen and
22 medical advice under his painful. sufferings, re-
23 covery might have taken place: his, however, was
24 not a disposition to be thwarted, and he would
25 not entirely give up his habits of revelry and in-
26 dulgence in the fiery spirit to which he had been
27 so long accustomed; though he restricted himself
28 to a moderate allowance, meted out to him in
29 a small golden cup. He submitted, likewise, to
30 the power of clectricity and galvanism, in the fond
31 hope that it might remove the paralytic affection
32 of his tongue. No sooner had Sir Henry Fane
33 reached Lahore, in March, 1837, on the occasion
34 of the marriage of his grandson, Nonehal Singh,