1 NAU NEAL SINGH. 4.99
2 including Delhi, the ancient metropolis of Hindostan. He was so convinced
3 of the truth of all this that he is said to have actually given royal sanads to
4 certain individuals assigning them jdgirs and landed estates in the vicinity
5 of Dethi and Benares, in anticipation of the fulfilment of these prophecies,
6 He ‘was quite forgetful of his father and his sufferings, and very seldom
7 paid him a visit in his private residence at the Léhori Gate, and that only
8 for the purpose of roundly abusing him for his supposed treacherous and
9 pusillanimous conduct.
10 A. strong guard was placed over the person of the deposed monarch, who
11 was believed to be feigning illness in order to leave Lahore for British terri-
12 tory and protection.
13 Nau Nehal Singh detested the British, and he is reported to have even, Me's oppose to
14 collected an army in the vicinity of Ldhore with the ostensible object of
15 waging war with them, but his mischievous designs were frustrated by
16 the occurrence of domestic broils and Court intrigues, which left him no
17 time to carry out his views. He sent an army against the Raj& of Mandi
18 and reduced the fort of Kamdlgarh.
19 Kharak Singh’s intellect became impaired, and, broken-hearted and afflict. , His iit treatment of
20 ed by the revolting and insulting conduct of his only son, he lingered ;
21 on a bed of sickness for some nine months, suffering from colic (spasmodic
22 affection of the limbs and bowels), during which time his’ son shewed
23 the greatest possible indifference in regard to his treatment, and, with the
24 design of hastening his end, committed him to the care of specially ap-
25 pointed quacks and mountebanks, who had their own parts to play in the
26 tragedy. é
27 The young prince visited his father, the deposed monarch, once, and
28 only once, on the day previous to Kharak Singh’s demise, and, on that one
29 occasion even, treated him with the greatest brutality and insolence. He _ Death of staharaja
30 ‘professed to believe that his father’s illness was only feigned, while in Pee m gi
31 reality the malady had been engendered and increased by the use of
32 nostrums administered by his pseudo-physicians to an already undermined
33 constitution. The next day, 5th November 1840, Kharak Singh breathed
34 his last at the early age of thirty-eight,
35 _ The dying monarch cherished the greatest affection for his unnatural
36 son. In the agoniés of death he called for his “dear and only son,” that
37 he might pardon him for the parricide, but those employed about his person
38 represented these cries to the prince as the wanderings of a maniac and the
39 curses of a dying father.
40 Thus was Nau Nehal Singh kept from being present at his father's
41 deathbed. The news of Kharak Singh’s death was conveyed to the prince
42 at his favourite hunting-ground in Shah Bildwal, in the environs of Lahore,
43 where he was at the time engaged in a shooting-party. He received the
44 intelligence with open demonstrations of joy, and did not even condescend to
45 leave his amusement for the full space of two hours after the tidings first
46 .xeached him, when orders were quietly passed for the performance of Kharak
47 Singh’s funeral obsequies,
48 Two of Kharak Singh’s rénis* and eleven of his slave-girls burnt them-
49 selves alive on his funeral pile. The ceremony took place in the open
50 space, opposite the sumddh of Mahardjé Ranjit Singh, in the presence of
51 Nau Nehal Singh and the Court, The young Maharaja appeared to look on
52 with the utmost sang froid, and before the body of his father was half
53 consumed, he retired from the scene, accompanied by his sardars, with whom
54 * One of these was a young and most beautiful lady of about twenty years of age.—Smyth,
55 32
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