1 A. D. 1817. RUNJEET'S HEALTH FAILS. 113
2 and Dewan Singh, two brothers of the late Jodh
3 Singh Ramgarheea, valued at five lakhs of rupees yearly
4 revenne. The persons of both chiefs were seized, as they
5 came to the Durbar to pay their respects, without suspi-
6 cion of any design against them being entertained by the
7 Labor ruler. Umritsur was illuminated for the return of
8 its sovereign on the 13th of December^
9 The constitution of RuNJEET Singh, though it must
10 have been excellent to have carried him so long through
11 a course of life consisting of alternate toils and de-
12 baucheries, each extreme in degree, began now to yield
13 to these incessant trials. His digestion failed, and
14 with loss of strength, thinness of body, and the incapacity
15 for much exertion, were superinduced. Towards the
16 commencement of 1817 his health was seriously im-
17 paired, and he submitted to a course of regimen prescrib-
18 ed by his native physicians, which 'continued for forty
19 days, but produced in the end little permanent benefit.
20 No military enterprize or other active operation is re-
21 corded as having been undertaken in this year. The
22 Sikh ruler's principal source of anxiety in the coarse of
23 it, arose from an attachment to Ram Lal, the brother
24 of his chamberlain, Khooshhal Singh, upon whom
25 such unlimited bounties had been lavished, and who
26 had become the great court favorite, and the bottle com-
27 panion of bis master. Ram Lal could not be induced
28 by the most seductive offers to give up his Brahmiuical
29 thread, and adopt the Sikh ritual and customs as his bro-
30 ther had done. In order to avoid farther importunity
31 on the subject he fled to his home east of the Sutlej,
32 where he was beyond the reach of the Labor ruler, who,
33 provoked that he should have escaped, wreaked a real
34 p