1 The First Sikh War. 169
2 to see the army of the Khalsa at war with their
3 colossal neighbour ; not because they shared the
4 confidence of the troops, who already beheld them-
5 selves returning from a victorious campaign laden
6 with the spoils of Delhi, Agra, Benares, and perhaps
7 Calcutta itself, but because they saw in such a war
8 their only chance of freeing themselves from the
9 galling yoke of military despotism. Such men as
10 Ghulab Singh, Lai Singh, and Tej Singh could have
11 had no doubt as to the ultimate issue of the contest
12 they were instigating ; but they knew, as did the
13 Rani, that the defeat of the army of the Khalsa
14 would mean the destruction of the panchayats,
15 and that the destruction of the panchayats would
16 give them back the powers they had lost. The
17 independence of their country might, indeed, be
18 curtailed ; but it was better to hold office under the
19 aegis of the British Government than to remain sub-
20 servient to a host of rude and untamable soldiers.
21 Hence, instead of denouncing the crossing of the
22 Sutlej as an act of unrighteous folly, they laid
23 themselves out to feed the excitement of the troops,
24 and to spur the Panches to action.
25 So great was the Rani's grief at the death of
26 Jowahir Singh, and so terrible were the curses she
27 called down on the heads of his murderers, that
28 for a time even the rough soldiers of the Khalsa
29 were touched with remorse, while the Panches strove
30 by every means in their power to assuage her wrath.
31 Every day, surrounded by her women, and with
32 her long hair all dishevelled, the half -frantic woman
33 was to be seen passing on foot through the city to