1 58 SECRET HISTORY OF THE LAHORE DURBAR.
2 half the houses in the city, and committed excesses almost
3 incredible and perfectly indescribable. Even had Shere Sing
4 interfered to prevent these atrocities, he had not the power
5 to enforce his command. The people thronged in crowds
6 to witness the operations of the siege, and might be seen
7 daily in numbers seated, in seeming unconsciousness of danger,
8 on the walls and roofs of houses and in other places within
9 the range of muskets from the fort. But as the garrison
10 knew by their appearance that they were not of the enemy, they
11 never received any molestation.
12 On the seventh and eighth days, when the Seiks were
13 engaged in burning their dead who were consumed in large
14 heaps, they were seen to throw upon the pile some who were
15 merely wounded and still alive. These poor wretches implored
16 their mercy but in vain, their cries and entreaties were
17 answered with jeering inquiries, if they were afraid to go
18 to heaven — " Biia cherjou, cherjou, — kee kofe ounda ? " —
19 " Mount, brother, mount, what are you afraid of ? " The object
20 of the soldiers in committing these barbarities was merely
21 to secure the little property they found on the persons of
22 their murdered comrades, — for this petty incitement they
23 were ready to commit atrocities so horrible !
24 When negotiations began on the seventh day of the seige,
25 Rajah Heera Sing and the Scindawallah chiefs came out of
26 the Soomun Boorj, where they had remained with a few follow-
27 ers, for the purpose, as they said, of affording* protection to
28 the princess Chund Kour. Rajah Goolaub now found little
29 difficulty in inducing this lady to agree in the views and designs
30 of himself and his brother. She implored him to become the
31 protector of her person and rights, formally nominating him
32 as her mooktear or agent, and committing all her interests
33 into his hands. He thus procured from Shere Sing and the
34 army terms for her and her supporters more favourable than they
35 could otherwise have obtained ; in this, however, as might