1 Anarchy. 155
2 of the troops, and tranquillity was soon restored ; but
3 an exaggerated account of the misunderstanding
4 reached Jammu, and Suchet Singh rashly decided to
5 use the occasion for a second attempt to displace his
6 nephew. With a small band of followers he set out
7 with all speed towards Lahore. On the 26th of
8 March, having approached to within a few miles of
9 the city, he halted and occupied a small mosque on
10 the banks of the Ravi, from whence he sent his
11 agents to inform the troops of his arrival, and to win
12 them to his support. But Hira Singh had been
13 lavish in his gifts and promises, and the Panches
14 were, for the time being, in a contented mood.
15 Moreover, they saw little to be gained by deposing
16 one Jammu chief and setting up another in his place ;
17 so they gave the emissaries of Suchet to under-
18 stand that the best thing their master could do was
19 to depart as speedily as possible to Jammu. But
20 Suchet scorned the thought of flying from his own
21 nephew. Despite the earnest appeals of his followers,
22 he refused to abandon his enterprise, and the next
23 day he found himself attacked by a force large
24 enough to repel an invasion. Suchet Singh had most
25 of his brothers' faults and few of their virtues ; but his
26 end was glorious. We may truthfully say of him
27 that nothing in his life so well became him as his
28 manner of leaving it. Sword in hand, he and his
29 trusty few "rushed upon the thickest mass of their
30 destroyers, and so furious was their onset that they
31 actually broke through or drove back four entire
32 battalions, killing upwards of thirty of the foremost
33 ranks. But this desperate valour availed not the