1 S6 SECRET HISTORY OF THE LAHORE DURBAH.
2 for a while — the palkee bearers were sent to their homes* —
3 and the minister with but two of his followers and chief hill-
4 men remained with the prince.
5 The numerous Sirdars and others, who were assembled
6 outside the gates were ordered quietly to retire, being informed
7 at the same time that the prince was in a likely way to do
8 well — that he was but wounded, and for the time insensi-
9 ble— and that notwithstanding the severity of the contusion,
10 he had already given evident signs of life, and that there
11 were strong hopes of a speedy recovery. In about two hours
12 afterwards the minister, committing his charge to his two hill-
13 men, left the fort, and proceeding first to the mother of the
14 prince, had with her a private conference. He now informed
15 her of her son's death — but under strict injunctions to keep
16 the matter secret — telling her that all her hopes of reigning
17 or even of retaining her present station depended entirely on
18 this point. He protested further, that when he first placed the
19 prince in the palkee, though not then entirely insensible, he was
20 mortally wounded ; and that about half an hour after he was
21 removed into the fort — during which time, he said, he had
22 done all he could to preserve the prince's life — he had breathed
23 his last, there having, as he asserted, been a contusion of the
24 brain. He did not leave the mother, until he had persuaded
25 her to believe all he wished, and then departing to his own
26 * Captain Gardner says, " They were servants in my own camp of Artillery, and
27 were five in number. Two were afterwards privately put to death — two escaped
28 to Hindostan, the fate of the fifth is unknown. One of the palkee bearers afterwards
29 affirmed, that when the prince was put into the palkee, and when he was assisting
30 to place him there, he saw that above the right ear there was a wound which
31 bled so slightly as only to cause a blotch of blood of about the size of a rupee,
32 on the pillow or cloth on which his head rested while he was in the palkee. He
33 added, that the blood neither flowed nor trickled in any quantity, before his being
34 taken out. Now, it is a curious fact, that when the room was opened, in which his
35 corpse was first exposed by the Rajah, blood in great quantity, both in fluid and coa-
36 gulated pools, was found around the head on the cloth on which the body lay."