1 9G SECRET HISTORY OF THE LAHORE DURBAR.
2 The infant boy Dulleep remained in the fort with his mother,
3 who appears to have made a successful use of her wiles to
4 work herself into the good graces of Rajah Dehan Sing* and
5 the Dogra party, who — but of course for their own purposes —
6 promised that her child's interests should not be neglected,
7 but that he should be considered by them, equal at least to
8 Shere Sing, Cashmera Sing, Peshora Sing, &c. Thus the boy
9 Dulleep remained with his mother until 1841, when the differ-
10 ences between Maharajh Shere Sing' and Rajah Dehan Sing-
11 arrived at a crisis. At this period Dehan Sing with the con-
12 sent of the mother, in whose mind he had raised suspicions of the
13 intentions of Shere Sing towards herself and her child, pri-
14 vately conveyed the boy to Umritsir, and there kept him in
15 such privacy, that not even his mother knew the place of his
16 concealment, and few of those in the fort at Lahore were
17 aware even of the fact of his removal. There can be no doubt
18 that had Dehan Sing been successful in his deeply laid de-
19 signs, he would after the murder of Shere Sing*, so long-
20 determined on by him, have placed the young Dulleep on
21 the Guddee, as a convenient puppet in the hands of the Dogras.
22 The object of this manoeuvre was to secure all the power of
23 the state to the Jammoo family during a long minority, and with
24 of the state of affairs, but as Gulioo was a favourite of his, he did no more
25 than speak to him in a jocular manner on the subject, without taking any
26 steps for putting an end to the intercourse. It was remarked, however,
27 that from this period the Maharajh never visited the lady or allowed her
28 to appear in his presence ; and when in the winter of 1836 he was told that
29 she was in an interesting condition, he replied merely by a grim look,
30 without making any verbal remark on the occasion. He still seemed to
31 regard Gulioo Moskee with all his former favour, but when in February,
32 1837, the birth of Dulleep Sing was announced to him, his equanimity
33 gave way, and from that moment he withdrew the light of his countenance
34 from the otherwise happy father. It is to be remarked, however, that
35 Gulioo was then ill of a disease which carried him off within a few weeks
36 of the birth of the child.