1 154 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 their arms, and the discomfited uncle, incapable of
3 further mischief, and uttering vows of vengeance,
4 retired with his brother to Jammu.
5 At the beginning of 1844, two brothers, Kashmira
6 Singh and Peshora Singh, reputed sons of Ranjit
7 Singh, were induced by Suchet to raise the standard
8 of revolt at Sialkot, proclaiming themselves the
9 rivals of Dhulip Singh. Several of the more dis-
10 contented Sikh regiments joined them, and for nearly
11 two months they succeeded in holding out against
12 Ghulab Singh, who, with his own troops and a large
13 detachment from Lahore, was sent to invest their
14 stronghold. At the end of March they agreed to
15 capitulate, on condition that they should be allowed to
16 depart with all their troops and personal possessions.
17 Ghulab Singh would have preferred to see them in
18 captivity at Jammu, where their presence would have
19 been of considerable value to him. But an urgent
20 message from Lahore obliged him to accept their
21 terms ; and the pretenders were permitted to evacuate
22 Sialkot, and to march unmolested into the Manjha
23 district, where they found refuge with a religious
24 devotee named Baba Bir Singh, a man of large
25 influence in his own neighbourhood and highly
26 esteemed throughout the Sikh community.
27 These operations against the reputed sons of the
28 great Maharaja had been regarded by the Khalsa
29 with strong displeasure, and it was only by promising
30 the Panches that no violence should be offered to the
31 persons of the princes that Hira Singh had been able
32 to prevent a serious insurrection. The instructions
33 sent to Ghulab Singh at Sialkot appeased the anger