1 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS. 35
2 which might give cause of umbrage to the firm
3 allies of the state, and tyrned a deaf car to the rash
4 advice of those who urged hostilities against the
5 British. It was impossible for Heera Singh to be
6 ignorant of the sentiments daily expressed by Run- Ranjeet _
7 jeet Singh regarding a rupture with the powerful peas
8 nation which had subdued the Mussulman power ae che pewee
9 in Hindostan, and continued to govern that im-
10 mense country by wise and just laws. He must
11 have heard from the lips of the Maharajah himself,
12 the frequent temptations held out to him to invade
13 the British territories. He could not have been
14 ignorant of the offer made to the Maharajah by
15 Doorjun Saul in 1826, when the fort of Bhurtpore
16 was besieged by the British; for we have ourselves
17 been present when Runject mentioned that the
18 usurper had offered him a lakh of rupees a-day if Dectinesan
19 he would assist him against the British. But he rnin ae
20 would not listen to terms which would have in- Sriae Dei
21 volved him in a ruinous war with his powerful ally, jem?"
22 and he sagaciously remarked, “I might perhaps
23 drive the British” or the Ungreez Bahadour, as he
24 styled them, “as far as Allyghur, but I should be
25 driven back across the Sutlej and out of my king-
26 dom.” At the time when the Maharajah made this
27 observation, there were no troops at Umballa, and
28 there is little doubt that he could easily have ef-
29 fected his purpose; and still less that he would
30 have been again driven across the Sutlej, and
31 expelled his kingdom.
32 The repeated demands of the Sikh soldiery for
33 p?