1 74 SECRET HISTORY OF THE LAHORE DURBAR.
2 they would immediately surround both him and his son Heera
3 Sing- and shoot them to death. They told the Maharajh thus
4 much; they said, that he might on their return from Rajah
5 Sansee be ready and willing' to meet them, and that no
6 suspicions should prevent his acting the part assigned him.
7 Having thus settled matters with Shere Sing, the Scinda-
8 wallas took their leave, proposing to start next morning for
9 Rajah Sansee as had been agreed on. They went, however,
10 straight to the house of the Minister, and in a private inter-
11 view with him, and after some oaths of secrecy and other
12 preliminaries, they exhibited to him his death warrant, signed
13 by the Maharajh himself. Seeing the effect this produced
14 on the mind of Dehan Sing, they proposed that they should
15 put Shere Sing to death. To this the Minister readily and fully
16 agreed, and made them great promises of reward and favour
17 in case of their success. Now, therefore, they made with
18 him arrangements precisely similar to those which they had
19 settled with the Maharajh, or rather the same arrangement
20 was adopted, the intended victim only being changed. They
21 however, went so much further as to instruct Dehan Sing-
22 by his influence with the army to cause the posting of such
23 troops about the palace on the day appointed for the tragedy
24 as should be no hindrance to the work in hand. The Scinda-
25 wallas then took their leave of the Minister, and next morning
26 as had been agreed on, marched for Rajah Sansee. Here
27 they remained a few days, and then returned, attended by some
28 five or six hundred cavalry, all chosen men, well armed and
29 equipped. While they were absent, Rajah Dehan, under pre-
30 tence of sickness, had secluded himself in his house in the
31 city, while Shere Sing was residing at Shahbelore, three
32 miles east of the city. The day on which the Scindawallas
33 returned was the first of the month, and their approach to
34 Shahbelore was announced early in the morning by the firing
35 of the troops, as they went through a variety of exercises with