A history of the reigning family of Lahore, with some account of the Jummoo rajahs, the Seik soldiers and their sirdars; with notes on Malcolm, Prinsep, Lawrence, Steinbach, McGregor, and the Calcutta Review

Smyth, George Carmichael · 1847 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

128 SECRET HISTORY OF THE LAHORE DURBAR.

2as a minister ought, there were others who could be

3found to occupy the place, who were even more loyal and

4trustworthy than he. The minister soon felt, that, for his own

5interest, some step must speedily be taken ; and his wily

6and crafty disposition was not long in devising- a deep scheme.

7It was given out that Kurruck Sing, with Cheyt Sing and

8his other admirers, had leagued with the British, and was

9ready to acknowledge their power, to place himself under their

10protection, to pay six annas in every rupee of revenue for the

11expenses incurred by this act, and that all the Seik troops should

12then be disbanded and the Sirdars done away with. These,

13and similar stories, he contrived to have so rumoured about,

14that nothing else was talked of; — and every body, even the

15common soldiers, reprobated and reviled Kurruck Sing and

16the advisers of a plan for thus bringing a foreign enemy into

17the country and giving up all power into their hands. Affairs

18stood thus, when, by Kajah Dehan Sing's order, Koonwur

19No Nehal Sing, was hastily recalled from Peshawur, where he

20was at the time of his father's accession to the throne.*

21Rajah Goolaub Sing accompanied the prince, and had so tutored

22him both in Peshawur and on his way to Lahore, that he

23entered the latter city the avowed enemy of his father. The

24minister, his brother, and their party, pleaded their cause and

25played their part so well with Koonwur No Nehal Sing and

26his mother, that they obtained their permission, along with that

27of other Sirdars to assassinate Cheyt Sing and to imprison the

28Maharajh or use other means to deprive him of power. They

29revived the story of intrigue with the British, and produced

30forged letters bearing the signatures of Kurruck Sing and

31* He arrived from Peshawur on this occasion in six days, and would certainly—

32(according to the private orders sent by Rajah Dehan Sing to his brother Rajah

33Goolaub Sing) have left that city many days earlier than he did, but for Goolaub Sing's

34being detained by the then Captain Wade who was encamped at the time at the

35mouth of the Khyber.