1 48 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 declared their independence, while the Mahrattas
3 dictated terms to the Moghul at the very steps of his
4 throne.
5 In 1739 Nadir Shah with his destroying host
6 swept through the Punjab to the sack of Delhi.
7 This crowning catastrophe, while it sounded the
8 death knell of the Moghul empire, offered the Sikhs
9 the chance for which they had been watching.
10 Taking advantage of the confusion that prevailed,
11 they swooped down from the mountains to plunder
12 the unfortunate villagers of the property they were
13 struggling to remove from the path of the robber-
14 legions of Nadir ; and when these same robber-
15 legions, glutted with plunder, set out on their return
16 march, bands of Sikh horsemen hung on the flanks
17 and rear of the disorderly, columns, cutting off all who
18 strayed from the protection of the main body, and
19 securing for themselves a by no means insignificant
20 share of the spoils of Delhi.
21 Richer than they had been for many a long
22 day, the Sikhs now came down from their hiding-
23 places in the hills and took possession of and fortified
24 the town of Daliwal on the banks of the Ravi.
25 Thither all the wanderers flocked, and many whom
26 fear of death had forced to abandon the brother-
27 hood were readmitted and rebaptized. Numbers of
28 new proselytes joined the ranks of the Khalsa,
29 and, thus strengthened, the Sikhs extended their
30 irruptions all over the Punjab. Amritsar was re-
31 gained, and once more became a place of precarious
32 pilgrimage. " Some performed this pilgrimage in
33 secret and in disguise ; but in general, according to