1 X34 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 his orders ; still receiving reports ; and, assisted by
3 the faithful Fakeer Azeezoodin, almost as usual
4 attending to affairs of state. By a slight turn of his
5 hand to the south, he would inquire the news from
6 the British secretary ; by a similar turn to the west,
7 he would demand tidings from the invading army ;
8 and most anxious was he for intelligence from the
9 Afghan quarter ; doubting the success of the English
10 measure, seeing his own advantage in their failure, yet
11 unwilling or afraid to withdraw from his engage-
12 ments. True justice has never been done to the old
13 chief for his conduct at this time ; when against
14 what he believed his own interests, he sent his whole
15 army to Peshawar under his grandson, Nou Nehal, to
16 act in concert with Captain Wade, leaving his Sutlej
17 frontier, then occupied by a British division, quite
18 unprotected. He not only did this, but the whole
19 resources of his country in cattle, grain, etc., were
20 thrown open to the British Government." * For some
21 days before the end came his lower limbs were com-
22 pletely paralysed, but his courage even then did not
23 desert him. On July 29 he died "as like the old
24 Lion as he had lived." The last rites were per-
25 formed the following evening in the presence of a
26 dense crowd of spectators. Four of the royal wives,
27 who refused to survive their lord, were burnt with
28 him, and the Minister, Dhian Singh, was only re-
29 strained by force from throwing himself on the funeral
30 pyre. The Maharaja's ashes were conveyed to
31 Benares, and scattered in the waters of the holy
32 Ganges.
33 1 Calcutta Revieiv for August 1814, p. 475.