1 SIEGE OE LAHOltE. 55
2 fire on tlie place should cease, while he endeavoured to negotiate
3 with Rajah Goolaub Sing. That chief, however, on overtures
4 being* made, refused to treat, alleging-, that he could not think of
5 negotiating until his brother made his appearance and consent-
6 ed to become a mediator in the affair. This determined answer,
7 together with the great loss which the besiegers had sustained
8 without any success to counterbalance it, induced Shere Sing-
9 to send a deputation to Dehan Sing, who was coolly amusing
10 himself hunting the wild boar, some three or four miles from
11 Shahdera. The messengers were instructed to tender a sort
12 of apology for what had occurred, to make excuses on behalf
13 of Shere Sing for the part which he had played in the tragedy,
14 and to endeavour to persuade Dehan, that the untoward events
15 which had occurred originated only in the rashness and obstinate
16 disobedience of the Seik troops, who were described as in a
17 state of mutiny and resolutely bent or avenging their slaughter-
18 ed comrades. Dehan Sing and his younger brother Suchet
19 Sing, however, were not to be thus pacified. They publicly
20 taxed Shere Sing with falsehood and duplicity, and declared
21 that he might now take the fort, if he could, for himself, —
22 that he might go on freely expending the Khalsa troops and
23 his own money for another month if he liked, with little hope of
24 eventual success ; but that they could no longer consent to be
25 security for him to the army, or assure him against the con-
26 sequences when he should no longer be able to satisfy the
27 demands of the soldiers for money, as they found that during
28 the past few days between four and five lakhs of rupees had
29 been expended in vain attempts to satisfy the mob of armed
30 men. By these representations Shere Sing was brought to
31 consider the matter more seriously than he had hitherto done.
32 During this evening and in the night he repeatedly ordered a
33 total cessation of hostilities ; but the Seiks would not now listen
34 to him, declaring that they could never desist until the fort was
35 razed to the ground, and all the garrison slain in revenge for