1 144 SECRET HISTORY OF THE LAHORE DURBAR.
2 he should leave the fort at the head of his troops with all the
3 honours of war ; — that, escorted hy his own forces, he should
4 proceed to Lahore, where his interest should he attended to and
5 all his claims considered. Thus then Peshora Sing left the fort
6 of Attoek, and was received with seeming- cordiality and respect
7 by FuttehKhan and Chuttur Sing-, who repeated the most solemn
8 professions of their good-will and fidelity. This put the prince
9 off his guard so far that he unwarily allowed these chiefs and
10 their troops to encamp around him and his smaller force. Thus
11 then Peshora Sing with his troops accompanied by Futteh
12 Khan and Chuttur Sing with their forces, marched from
13 Attoek towards Lahore. They had not proceeded more than
14 twenty miles on the way, however, and had come to a place called
15 Punja Sahib or Hassan Abdul, when Chuttur Sing proposed
16 a day's halt for the purpose of hunting the wild boar. This
17 proposal was agreed to, and the chiefs and the prince spent
18 the day in the sport. Early the next morning, however,
19 Chuttur Sing and Futteh Khan, with a numerous band of
20 armed men, entered the tent of the prince, while he was
21 yet asleep, bound him hand and foot, his troops, not above five
22 hundred men, being simultaneously overpowered and dis-
23 persed by the numerous force of the treacherous chiefs,
24 amounting to eight or nine thousand men. That same day
25 Peshora Sing, heavily ironed, was taken back to Attoek, mounted
26 on an elephant, and escorted by the two chiefs with about a
27 thousand horse. On arriving near the fort, he was dismounted
28 from the elephant and placed in a palanquin, the better to con-
29 ceal the fact of his return under such circumstances. While
30 this arrangement was being effected, the prince addressed
31 Chuttur Sing, vehemently upbraiding him with his treachery,
32 yet assuring him of his forgiveness if he would only order
33 that he should be unbound, and that his sword and shield should
34 be given to him, that he might die — for he knew he was doomed
35 — as became a soldier, armed, and fighting to the last. To