1 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 29
2 bardment continued for several days, but without
3 any decided advantage on the side of the assailants,
4 who naturally lost considerably more than the
5 beseiged, when the sudden arrival of the Rajah
6 Dhyan Singh (from Jummoo) in Shere Singh's
7 camp, occasioned a cessation of hostilities, and
8 soon changed the state of affairs altogether. After
9 some negotiation between the Queen Regent and
10 Shere Singh (highly advantageous, it is supposed,
11 to the Rajah, who thereby became also fully
12 restored to his former oflSce of prime minister),
13 the Queen consented to deliver up the citadel,
14 and acknowledge Shere Singh's right to the
15 throne. She was shortly after murdered by her
16 own slave girls, at the instigation of Shere Singh
17 and Dhyan Singh, making good the political
18 axiom, that the loss of life soon follows the loss
19 of power.
20 It should here be observed, that the story of
21 the pregnancy of Noo Nehal Singh's widow had
22 already been discovered to be a gross fabrication,
23 the young lady not being more than eight years
24 of age, and the marriage never even to have been
25 consummated. The Queen having withdrawn
26 from Lahore, Shere Singh's accession to the
27 throne was announced throughout the kingdom ;
28 but scarcely was he seated upon the throne,
29 when the army, conscious that through their
30 instrumentality he had gained his object, and