1 14 EARLY HISTORY OF RUNJEET SING.
2 and speaking quietly to his mother, promised her pardon on
3 condition that she would confess her crime and produce her
4 accomplice. She however, replied only by abuse and invect-
5 tive, upbraiding her son with having cast an undeserved slur
6 upon her character, which she asserted was as pure as he or
7 any one could expect. This contention betwixt them continued
8 for some time, when at length stung to madness by her reproaches,
9 Runjeet drew his sword and made a blow at her as she was
10 sitting up on her bed half naked and with dishevelled hair.
11 On this with joined hands she implored mercy, but it was now
12 too late, she was cut down and slain by the sword of her son.
13 Having dispatched his mother, Runjeet hastened with his follow-
14 ers in pursuit of Laik Misser, and promised a reward of five
15 hundred rupees to any one who should take him alive, and
16 thus give him the pleasure of putting the criminal to death
17 with his own hand. The man escaped, however, for the time,
18 and Runjeet returning from the pursuit performed the funeral
19 obsequies of his mother with all proper ceremony and all out-
20 ward tokens of respect and regret. Yet he never showed any-
21 thing like remorse for what he had done, only remarking when-
22 ever the death of his mother was mentioned, that it was the
23 just punishment of her crimes, and that it was better that
24 she should have died early than live a long life of guilt and
25 shame.
26 It is said by some that Laik Misser having fled for protec-
27 tion to Suda Kour, the mother-in-law of Runjeet, was by her
28 delivered up to the vengeance of the young chief who put
29 him to a cruel death. The most authentic accounts however
30 say that he first escaped to Umritsir, and that he subsequently
31 as a Brahmin threw himself on the protection of Suda Kour,
32 who in spite of both the entreaties and threats of her son-in-
33 law refused to give him up. Finding, however, that Runjeet
34 was determined, no matter by what means, to get his intended
35 victim into his hands, she sent him, it is said, under a strong