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2 quin of his royal master, being occupied in keeping the flies
3 from its contents, thus showing his respect to the last. On
4 the arrival of the procession outside of the Delhi gate, a final
5 and profuse royal salute was given by the thundering of
6 cannon from the fort and ramparts of the city, upon which
7 the minister and sirdars returned, leaving the remains and
8 presents to be conducted by the guard. The mourning lasted
9 thirteen days, the colour of the costume being white.
10 After the obsequies of Runjeet Sing, his legitimate son,
11 Kurruck Sing, ascended the Guddee (throne), who, besides
12 being a blockhead, was a worse opium eater than his father.
13 Twice a-day he deprived himself of his senses, and passed
14 his whole time in a state of stupefaction. It was quite
15 natural that the government could not long remain in the
16 hands of such an individual. His guardian, or tutor and
17 factotum, Sirdar Chet Sing, being desirous to become an inde-
18 pendent minister, was a rival of Dhyan Sing, and was contriving
19 to remove him. He intended to assassinate him one morning
20 in the durbar. For this purpose he had collected in the fortress,
21 where he lived with Kurruck Sing, his two recently organised
22 batallions of body-guards, and had ordered the sentinels at the
23 three gates, devoted to Dhyan Sing, to be changed early in the
24 morning fixed upon for the murder of the minister; but this
25 plot was not concealed from Dhyan Sing, and he hastened to
26 prevent the treacherous act, in which he succeeeded by the
27 assistance of the royal prince, No-Nehal Sing and a few of the
28 sirdars ; and with the aid of his two brothers and some relations,
29 Kurruck Sing and Chet Sing were assailed in the fortress before
30 the break of day, when Chet Sing and all his relations and partisans
31 were destroyed. This was the beginning of the bloody scenes
32 in the Punjab, which could only end by the interference of the
33 English.
34 After the murder of Chet Sing, the royal prince, No-Nehal,
35 Kurruck Sing's only son, took possession of the government,
36 and ordered his father to retire to his private house in the
37 city, where lie soon became indisposed. A few months after-
38 K 2