1 SIRDAR CHEIT SINGH. 519
2 opened to him without suspicion, and the
3 Kour and the Rajas, viz., Golab Singh and
4 Dhian Singh, with others of. their party, ap-
5 proached his Highness, and by the assistance
6 _of candles (for it was before daybreak) sought
7 out and seized Cheit Singh; one of them,
8 Atr Singh, Sindhanwalia, laid hold of the
9 Maharaja by,the hair and dragged him outside
10 the palace, lest he should have recourse to some
11 violence on observing the murder of his
12 favourite; when those who were inside bar-
13 barously fell on their victim and put him to
14 death in a very cruel manner. His body was
15 chopped in pieces; three or four other persons
16 shared the same fate.’ The remains of the
17 favourite were buried inside the palace, and the
18 Maharaja was said to be in a state of stupidity,
19 brought on by fear, from which he did not
20 recover for some days. We now saw the motive
21 of Nao Nihal Singh in wishing to leave us
22 when he heard of the death of his grandfather.
23 The object of his ambition was to usurp the
24 throne of his father, and in the Rajas of Jam-
25 moo and their partisans he found ready means