1 TdE COURT OF THE SIKH SOVEBEIGMS. 107
2 'furm of his lordship and Sir Henry Fane, made
3 his way into the tent. But such was the density
4 of the mob of militaires and uncouth Punjaubees,
5 composing Runjeet's guard of honour, and so
6 utterly dark was the whole apartment, from the
7 crowd that blocked up the entrance, that it was
8 with the greatest difficulty his 'highness reached
9 one of the couches to the right of the tent,
10 where the Miss Edens, with Mrs. Churchill,
11 Mrs. (afterwards Lady) Sale, Mrs. (afterwards
12 Lady) W. H. McNaghten, and several other ladies
13 sat to receive him. Indeed, if he had not had the
14 luck to be helped through by the good stout arm
15 of stalwart Fane, who is accustomed to force
16 passages, it is doubtful if the Maharajah could
17 have reached the couch at all. Here Major
18 Wade came up, and did dragoman for Lord
19 Auckland and the ladies for a few minutes.
20 After this, the Governor-General, aided as before
21 by Sir Henry, took the Maharajah into an inner
22 tent, where chairs of state were arranged, and the
23 oi TToXkoi excluded. About thirty gentlemen, and
24 the ladies alone, with Runjeet's prime minister,
25 his son, and some of the principal sirdars, were
26 permitted to assist at this part of the business ;
27 and the more eflfectually to preserve this exclu-
28 siveness, the companies of the European regiment
29 were called in, and with a few troopers of the
30 body-guard formed a lane for the passage of the