1 28 FROM THE DEATH OF NOO NEHAL SINGH
2 of prime minister to the Queen Regent. Affairs
3 continued in this way for a period of three or
4 four months, when Shere Singh, arousing from his
5 lethargy, determined upon testing his right to
6 the crown by an appeal to arms. His first step
7 was an application for assistance to the superior
8 European oflScers in the Sikh service ; but it so
9 happened that these officers, with an exception
10 or two, were all absent from Lahore at the time,
11 on separate commands; and in reply to Shere
12 Singh's overtures all declined identifying them-
13 selves in any internal political commotion. Shere
14 Singh, thus left to his own resources, determined
15 upon making a dash at the capital, trusting to
16 chance and the hope of gaining over the army
17 for success. He accordingly once more left
18 Buttee-alah with a body of not more than 600
19 irregular cavalry; but, upon arriving within a
20 few miles of Lahore, he was joined by two entire
21 brigades, with their artillery, amounting to some
22 7000 men, with which force he immediately com-
23 menced bombarding the city. Upon the intelli-
24 gence of the approach of Shere Singh, and the
25 defection of these two brigades, the Queen Regent
26 retired into the citadel, and having collected about
27 three thousand troops under the command of the
28 Rajah Goolab Singh, Lena Singh, and many other
29 sirdars of her own party, determined upon de-
30 fending herself to the last extremity. The bom-