1 Decline of the Sikh Monarchy. 147
2 Cold looks greeted his appearance in the durbar or at
3 court, while one by one his adherents were deprived
4 of their offices. The influence of the Sindhanwalias
5 increased as his own declined, and Dhian Singh once
6 more felt it to be his duty to organize a revolution.
7 This time, however, he laid his plans with less skill, or
8 perhaps his past successes had made him over confident.
9 It would not have suited Dhian's future plans to
10 be known as the assassin of the Sikh ruler. He,
11 therefore, determined to get the deed done by others,
12 and the instruments he selected were the Sindhanwalia
13 brothers. He told Ajit Singh that the Maharaja's
14 object in recalling him and his brother to court was
15 to bring about their destruction, and he put forward
16 the conspiracy as the only means of averting their
17 doom. This story Ajit, who was equally anxious for
18 the Maharaja's death, professed to believe ; and it is
19 surprising that the readiness with which he fell in
20 with the minister's proposals did not arouse the
21 latter 's suspicions, or at any rate induce him to walk
22 more warily.
23 Sher Singh knew that there was a plot against his
24 life. A soothsayer had foretold the very day on
25 which the attempt would be made — the ides of
26 September. On the morning in question, he went
27 forth to inspect a body of troops, and, remembering
28 the soothsayer's warning, he refused to allow his son,
29 Partab Singh, to accompany him, bidding him go and
30 watch the casting of a new piece of ordnance at the
31 gun-factory. The inspection was barely concluded
32 when Ajit Singh rode on to the parade-ground. He
33 was carrying a new and handsome fowling-piece,