1 110 THE COURT OF THE SIKH SOVEREIGNS.
2 left the tents as before, on elephants, in two close
3 columns, the movement being announced by a
4 salute from the guns of the horse artillery
5 attached to the escort. Scarcely any regimental
6 officer was permitted to accompany the proces-
7 sion, as the apprehension of a crush had induced
8 the Maharajah to limit his invitation to some
9 fifty or sixty gentlemen of the highest rank, or
10 immediately about the person of the Governor-
11 General and Commander-in-Chief.
12 " When the procession had gone a few hundred
13 yards, a deputation, consisting of Shore Singh,
14 the Maharajah's second son, and Dhyan Singh,
15 his prime minister, with several other rajahs
16 and sirdars, similarly mounted, and escorted by
17 some two or three hundred irregular cavalry,
18 and a company of regular infantry, met his
19 Lordship, and turned about to accompany him
20 to the camp of the Maharajah. The march,
21 over a space of about three miles, now became
22 extremely picturesque and interesting. The
23 pace of the elephants kept the horde of Sikhs
24 at a hard gallop, thereby affording them an^^
25 excellent opportunity of displaying to advantage
26 their equitation and martial bearing.
27 " The costume of the cavaliers was of course of a
28 very motley complexion, and their arms, appoint-
29 ments, horses, and equipments, were not, perhaps,
30 of an order to challenge close inspection, but the