1 PUNISHMENT OF THE MURDERERS. 87
2 himself fell, covered with wounds. His dying petition was
3 only that they would not kill his wounded master, and to this
4 request also they promised compliance. But some had spirit
5 among- them shot Lena Sing from behind, exclaiming as he
6 did so, u Are we going to lose ten thousand rupees ! " but this
7 man was immediately killed by his own comrades. They how-
8 ever, cut off the head of the fallen chief and sent it to Heera
9 Sing, who doubtless gave them the stipulated reward. Four
10 hours later the victorious troops returned to their lines, and
11 the public acclamations pronounced Dulleep Sing, Maharajh,
12 and Heera Sing, Wuzeer.
13 The next day all the officers of the army were assembled, and
14 Heera Sing gave them a written agreement of one month's
15 pay for the whole of the troops as a gratuity for their ser-
16 vices, and he likewise assured them of an augmentation of
17 pay as promised. On the fourth day a general council of the
18 army was called, at which all the Seik officers with two men
19 from each company as Punches* or deputies attended.
20 • The designation Punches is here used in compliment to general usage, but
21 at Lahore it is Painches. It may be well here to describe the origin of the custom
22 of appointing deputies by the soldiers, a practice 'which has on more than one
23 occasion, including that of the late war with the British, led to the most momentous
24 results. On Shere Sing's accession the soldiers clamorously demanded the ful-
25 filment of those promises which he had made, and which Rajah Dehan Sing had
26 made in his name. Now, therefore, the pay of each foot soldier was raised from
27 eight rupees a month to nine, and a gratuity of one month's pay, after some de-
28 mur accepted by the troops, who had in fact been promised four months' gratuity.
29 In lieu, however, of three months' gratuity, which was withheld, they demanded
30 leave to attack and plunder the camp of Goolaub Sing, who was then after his
31 withdrawal from the fort lying at Shahdera. They even threatened, that if permission
32 to do this was refused, they would do it without. But luckily for Goolaub Sing
33 and his little army, they had on the day he left the fort been reinforced by the
34 arrival of a strong body of men from Jummoo, and being now in all about five
35 thousand, they were able to make such a show of resistance and even of aggres-
36 sion, that the Seiks, some sixty thousand in number, watched to attack them
37 Thus cheated on the one hand and baffled on the other, the Khalsa was, as may
38 be supposed, in no pleasant mood. To appease them, however, Shere Sing and
39 Dehan Sing went among them, and told them, that if they would send to.the Durbar,
40 in the Soomun Boorj, two men from every company, troop, and gun, they, the Maha-