1 14 MEER MUNOO'S WIDOW SUCCEEDS HIM. A. D. 1753-54.
2 was displayed in an act of cruelty, the motives of which
3 have left a taint of scandal on her reputation. Upon the
4 accusation of having designs upon the viceroyalty, Meer
5 Bhbkaree Khan, an influential officer of the late vice-
6 roy, was seized by her order, and carried into the interior
7 apartments, where he was so severely beaten with shoes
8 and sticks as to expire under the punishment. The
9 Begum's personal concern in such an act gave credit to
10 the imputation, very generally believed at the time, that
11 it was committed in revenge for some personal disap-
12 pointment of a kind never forgiven by a woman.
13 A female viceroy was not likely to display much acti-
14 vity in suppressing associations like those of the Sikhs,
15 which meddled not with her ease and pleasures at the
16 seat of government. Their number and audacity accord-
17 ingly increased rapidly, and bands of these bearded depre-
18 dators were continually to be seen, traversing the various
19 districts of the Punjab, sweeping off the flocks and herds,
20 and laying waste the cultivation, unless redeemed by a
21 pronjpt contribution. Disorder, anarchy, and confusion
22 gained head in the province, as in all other parts of Hin-
23 doostan.
24 It was not until after an interval of four years, that
25 is, in the season 1755-6, that Ahmed Shah Abdalee
26 appeared again in the field. In all his previous incursions
27 he had been met by the energy of local governors, and the
28 Dehlee court had made efforts, or at least had displayed
29 some interest and anxiety in checking his advance.
30 On the present occasion, such was the condition of wreck
31 and revolution to which the empire was reduced, that no
32 one ofl'ered any where to impede his march, and he