1 105
2 have arranged that Sheer Sing should be at hand, in order to
3 raise him immediately to the throne, by which he would have
4 prevented the consultations which daily took place in the fortress
5 for fourteen days, until at last it was decided that the Ranee
6 Chund Kour, mother of No-Nehal Sing, and heiress, should occupy
7 the throne, which she did not know how to maintain. There
8 is more reason to suppose that the partisans of Kurruck Sing and
9 Chet Sing were the authors of this plot against the prince, as he
10 had intended to ask them for an account of their perfidious
11 behaviour during his father’s long illness, they having cheated
12 and robbed him in the most shameful manner, and it was gene-
13 rally known that immediately after the funeral rites of his father,
14 he (the prince) intended to order seven of their houses to be
15 closed, and inquiries to be made.
16 During the conferences of the sirdars in the fortress, which
17 lasted for a fortnight, the Ranee Chund Kour attempted the life
18 of Sheer Sing; but Dhyan Sing was soon informed of it, and
19 warned his protege. Sheer Sing did not forget it, and when he
20 afterwards took the reins of government into his hands, it
21 happened that during his absence from Lahore, the slave-girls
22 of Chund Kour crushed the head of their mistress with a brick,
23 whilst she was enjoying her siesta. Dhyan Sing proceeded, in
24 the absence of the king, against the assassins, and caused their
25 noses, ears and hands to be cut off, which was effected publicly,
26 before the kotoali (police-office), and expelled them from the
27 city ; but as their tongues had remained unhurt, they alleged
28 that they only fulfilled the wish of Sheer Sing, who promised
29 them as a reward a jaghir (some land). On that account,
30 they were transported to the opposite side of the river Ravee,
31 and were never afterwards heard of.
32 Tho Sikh troops had been often reviewed before their monarch
33 or the royal prince, and on such occasions some were promoted or
34 rewarded. This was abolished under the government of Chund
35 Kour. She was only visible to some of her confidants. Her
36 ministers and counsellors directed the helm of the state vessel,
37 which moved on indifferently, as each one neglected the public