1 18 EARLY HISTORY OF RUNJEET SINO.
2 fore resolved that he should advance at eight o'clock the same
3 morning- towards the Shalmee and Loharee Gates, which Meer
4 Mokun-oo-deen and Meea Ashuk promised to have open for
5 his admission. Acting on this plan Runjeet made a rapid
6 march from the Shalimar Gardens to the place appointed ; and
7 before Sirdar Chete Sing was aware of his presence or design,
8 he had entered by the Loharee gate with about a thousand
9 of his best men, while another body of about three or four thou-
10 sand under the command of Dhul Sing', Baug Sing, and others,
11 had entered by the Shalmee and Laharee Gates and taken pos-
12 session of them and the ramparts on either side.
13 When at length Chete Sing became aware of the proceedings
14 of Runjeet, it was only by being purposely misinformed as to his
15 whereabout. He was told that the besiegers were outside
16 the Yakkee and Delhi Gates, which were shut against them ;
17 and that the men in charge of these gateways were ready
18 to fight for the chiefs of the city. On hearing this Chete Sing-
19 took four or five hundred men and leaving the fort by the eastern
20 gateway he went towards the Delhi Gate, intending to aid
21 and encourage the guards in their resistance. However before
22 he had proceeded far, he was met by a confidential retainer, who
23 coming to him in haste begged of him instantly to return to
24 the fort if he would save his life, for that by treachery the enemy,
25 five thousand strong, had been admitted into the city, and that
26 also by treachery he, Chete Sing, had been misled into the
27 belief that he would find them outside the Delhi gate, the
28 object of this manoeuvre being to enable Runjeet Sing quietly
29 to occupy the fort, while the chief was seeking him elsewhere.
30 On receiving this intelligence, Chete Sing returned to the fort,
31 barely in time to shut the Hazaree Baug- gate against Runjeet's
32 cavalry, led by himself in person. A moment later and
33 Runjeet's horsemen would have entered the fort along with
34 its defenders. As it was they gallopped up just in time to
35 shoot two or three of the gate-keepers as they were closing