1 SHER SINGH. 517
2 While these arrangements were being made at Budhu-kd-dwd by Rajd
3 Hird Singh to avenge his father’s death, the Sindhianwaélé sardars shut them-
4 selves up in the fortress, and by beat of drum proclaimed Dulip Singh, the
5 youngest son of Ranjit Singh, as Mahardjd, and Ajit Singh as his wazfr. They
6 made every effort to bribe the troops stationed in the city and around it,
7 and to win them over to their side. They sent for the chiefs and command-
8 ants of the troops and artillery, and even obtained from them promises of
9 support. But this was an unwise step. Had they personally appeared
10 before the troops and exerted their influence on them, they, as true
11 Sikhs, and as the Mahardjd’s own kinsmen, had a far better chance of win-
12 ning the good will of the soldiery, than the foreigners, the Dogrds. As it
13 was, they failed.
14 R4jé Hird Singh, with the Khdlsd troops, foremost among whom were
15 those of Generals Ventura and Avitabile, and about a hundred pieces of
16 horse artillery, approached Lahore about an hour after sunset. He reached
17 the Delhi Gate, followed by all the sardars and grandees, and made his entry
18 into the city under the fierce war-cry, “ Wah, Guru ji ki Fateh,” which
19 resounded through the city. In addition to this, the noisy sounds of
20 their wild music and drums, and the tumult of the mob at midnight,
21 dismayed and terrified the citizens, whose patience had already been
22 exhausted, and their spirits damped by the recent atrocities and civil
23 commotions. The fort was once more surrounded and blockaded. _ Its
24 feeble and tottering walls were again subjected to the same fierce ‘
25 bombardment as on the former occasions. The besieged consisted of
26 about_a thousand or twelve hundred armed men; but they were not as
27 well led as the Dogrds in the siege of three years previously, and were
28 themselves very inferior, as soldiers and marksmen, to the hill soldiers. The
29 thundering of cannon lasted the whole night on both sides, but the besieged
30 were greatly outnumbered by their assailants and could but ineffectually
31 return their fire. By dawn of the following morning several breaches had
32 been made in the walls of the fortress, but none were large enough to
33 permit the entrance of troops. At this time Rajd& Hird Singh sent for all
34 the officers of the artillery and_promised them handsome rewards if they
35 succeeded in effecting a practicable breach. He inflamed their passions
36 still more by taking an oath that he would neither eat nor drink until he
37 had seen at his feet the heads of those who had assassinated his father
38 severed from their bodies, The widow of the murdered wazir was, in the
39 meanwhile, preparing to mount the funeral pile of her late husband with her
40 slave girls. Rdajd Hird Singh craftily induced her stepmother to delay the
41 performance of this shocking ceremony until she had seen the murderers of
42 her late husband duly punished, and their heads severed from their bodies.
43 The widow and the slaves, the intending saétis, were kept waiting before
44 the troops to inspire them with revenge, and the spectacle of their melan-
45 choly and dismal figures increased their fury a hundredfold. The soldiers
46 had already been enriched by the presents lavished on them by Hird Singh,
47 and the plunder of the city. In addition to this they were now promised
48 the plunder of the fort as soon as they should bring the corpses of the
49 Sindhianwdlé sardars to Hird Singh. The result was that the gunners
50 exerted themselves indefatigably to effect the desired breach in the wall of
51 the fort, which they succeeded in accomplishing at about nine o’clock the
52 following morning, through the south-west angle near the tower. The first
53 soldier who mounted the battlements of the dismantled walls was a Spanish
54 Colonel, in the service of the Sikhs, named M. Hurban. Immediately a
55 body of forty or forty-five thousand infantry and dismounted cavalry clamour-
56 Dulfp Singh pro-
57 claimed Maharaja and
58 Ajit Singh his wazir,
59 September , 1843.
60 Hfd Singh enters
61 the city,
62 And lays sfege to the
63 ort.
64 ‘a
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