1 SECRET HISTORY OF THE LAHORE DURBAR. 27
2 for bis past favors was, that he would act towards Kurruck
3 Sing- the part of a good, loyal, and faithful minister and
4 servant. Thus the old king died and Kurruck Sing was
5 placed on the guddee.*
6 The new sovereign was well aware how his late father
7 had been duped in every way by the minister ; and accordingly
8 one of his first orders was, that though the Rajah Dehan Sing
9 should be treated in every respect as a good councillor and
10 minister, the former custom and privilege of his own and
11 his son's free admission into the Kind's Zenankhana should no
12 longer be allowed ; adding that as there was no further occa-
13 sion for such admission, he politely entreated that Dehan
14 Sing would not require it again. In a private and confi-
15 dential interview with the Rajah, Kurruck Sing in the
16 mildest manner assured him that by this act he did not
17 intend to lessen his power, or that his interest as minister,
18 should suffer or be in the least prejudiced. Dehan Sing how-
19 ever replied, that without this permission he could not act
20 as he wished, nor as he formerly did. Thus first began the
21 breach between Kurruck Sing and his minister; — the latter
22 of whom harboured from this time a settled hatred to the
23 monarch, his advisers, and his old servants.
24 This order of the king's procured for him many admirers,
25 who regarded it as promising to ensure the best results to
26 his regal career. Among others, there was one more pro-
27 minent than the rest. This was Cheyt Sing-, who suggested,
28 that, as Rajah Dehan Sing publicly gave out that he would
29 not allow any one to sit on the Lahore guddee who did not
30 grant him all the powers and privileges which he possessed
31 in the time of the old king, if he would j not act
32 * At Runjeet's incremation Rajah Dehan not only hypocritically shed tears, but
33 twice or thrice affected to force himself forward to become as good a suttee as the
34 best and dearest of the old king's wives.