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2 hate each other in the most acrimonious manner. Sirdar Ajeet
3 Sing and his uncle Lena Sing (descended from the family of the
4 Scindawalla, and related to Runjeet Sing) belonged to the party
5 of the ranee, who had fought against Sheer Sing and Dhyan
6 Sing; but they knew how to insinuate themselves into the con-
7 fidence of both to such a degree that, without the knowledge of
8 either, they destroyed both the maharajah and his wuzeer.
9 They conspired with Sheer Sing to murder Dhyan Sing, but at
10 the same time they also intrigued with Dhyan Sing to murder
11 Sheer Sing. Both king and minister were well acquainted with
12 their preparations for war, and knew also that the Scindawallas
13 had provided themselves with gunpowder, bullets and soldiers.
14 Sheer Sing was even repeatedly cautioned by his friends to be on
15 his guard, to which advice however he paid no attention, and
16 in an immovable manner allowed them to concoct their schemes.
17 Each one believed that the stroke was appointed for his adversary,
18 and, finally, it fell upon both. True is the proverb : “ He
19 who digs a pit for another, falls in himself for Ajeet Sing as
20 well as Lena Sing had laboured for their own ruin.
21 Sheer Sing used to review his troops every day. On such an
22 occasion, being in the royal garden (Shahbelore) for the purpose
23 of mustering the Scindawalla’s troops, and sitting before the
24 window of a small room, to look at the soldiers, Ajeet Sing
25 approached him and exhibited a loaded double-barrelled fowling-
26 piece, as a nazerana (present), and at the moment Sheer Sing
27 was stretching out his hand to receive it, he was shot with that
28 gun on the spot. Ajeet Sing’s troops, arrayed before the window,
29 gave a volley of musket shots through the window, to kill the
30 men surrounding Sheer Sing, and penetrated into the room to
31 cut off his head. I was by accident not farther than ten steps
32 from the place where the horrid crime was committed, and five
33 minutes before his atrocious murder I had spoken to him in the
34 garden under a tree, where he ordered me to remain until his
35 return. The subject of our interview was a gunpowder-mill
36 with machinery, which Dhyan Sing had ordered me to make.
37 Sheer Sing had inspected that establishment four days pre-