1 214 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 on being asked what the stone was worth, had
3 replied that its value was "good fortune; for who-
4 ever possessed it had conquered their enemies," ended
5 thus: "The Governor- General very respectfully and
6 earnestly trusts that your Majesty, in your possession
7 of the Koh-i-noor, may ever continue to realize its
8 value as estimated by Shah Sooja." Dhulip Singh
9 subsequently took up his abode in England, where
10 he embraced Christianity, and lived the life of an
11 English country gentleman.
12 A few days after the annexation, the Rani
13 Jindan, disguised in the dress of a female attendant,
14 escaped from her confinement and took refuge with
15 the ruler of Nepal, in whose country, as her machina-
16 tions were no longer dangerous, she was allowed to
17 remain. She eventually found her way to England.
18 Sher Singh, Chattar Singh, and the other chiefs who
19 had been in arms against the British, were deprived
20 of their landed fiefs, their retainers, and their arms,
21 but were allowed sufficient pensions to enable them
22 to live in retirement in their own villages. To Mulraj
23 a sterner justice was meted out. He was tried
24 before a special court as an accessory, before and
25 after the fact, to the murders of Anderson and Vans
26 Agnew, and was found guilty and sentenced to death.
27 Through the clemency of the Governor-General, his
28 punishment was commuted to imprisonment for life —
29 a punishment which was of short duration, for Mulraj
30 died within a few months of his trial.
31 We have now carried the story of the Sikhs down
32 to the point where it merges with the history of