resumed or assessed, and no bounds are set to the extortion employed, but the fear of throwing him into the arms of the farangi. All I have mentioned are surely ours; Lena Singh too is your friend and has committed himself, and in the son of Desa Singh you have the best, the wisest, and the most honest of the Sikhs; a man, who, among a race of dissolute debauchees, employs his time and his money in works of usefulness and deeds of charity. The hill chiefs then, are they not yours? Have you been so long among them that their Rajahs have not let you into their confidence? and where the rightful chiefs are clanking the chains of the brother Rajahs, or eating the bread of dependence, have not their faithful clansmen told you the tales of their master's woes, of their hopes and their fears?"

"Really Chand Khan, you are exceeding the bounds of my desires; I wanted not to know who are traitors to the Maharajah's salt, but the history, the rise of each of the principal Sardars." My lord is cautious and he is right, but Chand Khan feels strongly, and he cannot but speak bitterly," and stretching out his arms and his legs, "look at these bruises, can I forgive them, can I forget? No, never, while Sikh dog exists, or while one drop of blood runs in the veins of Chand Khan !"

In such like conversation, in soothing his irritated mind, and in gathering from him, as I best could the state of affairs and parties at Court, I passed the night, and desiring him and Aliverdi Khan to be silent as to my visit, I returned to my own abode and to my solitary couch.

NOTES.

(a) A Sanskrit word, from " Bri," "to choose or select": it is the term applied to the marriage festivity when the groom takes home the bride. In the Panjab beyond the Ravi, as well as in the hills, this procession is called “junét” or “junt.”

(b) “ Guru-ji” has been already explained : "Wah! Guru-ji ke fatteh!" "Wah! Purakji!" is the war-cry enjoined to the Sikhs by their founders, and is literally, "hurrah for the conquering priest! Hurrah for the hero!" Purak is" a man," (" vir,") and is used for "the man," the hero of his race.

(c) A branch of the low-cast Hindus who do not "forswear sack, and live clearly;" nevertheless, they are an able and hard-working race; most of them read and write Persian, so that they, with the Brâmans, have long been the accountants and secretaries of their ignorant Mahommedan conquerors.

(d) Eastern and Western notions of comfort are very different: an Oriental

begins his wrappings up at his head, decreasing them as he descends, till his feet and legs are left bare: if he possesses but one piece of the cloth for covering, tha one piece is given to the head. This practice makes the Natives bad watchmen, especially as it never enters their philosophy to keep themselves warm by exercise.

(e) Bellasis means that he ought to have allowed time for his Cavalry to cross the plain; he had told Lena Singh that the onset was to commence exactly as the planet rose, but he did not issue from the gateway till that time, thus allowing the enemy to receive the alarm from Lena Singh, before Bellasis himself was clear of the fort.

(f) Forgery and perjury form a regular and profitable trade in all large Asiatic cities. The reader must remember that, as already stated, the seal is very usually affixed to a document, instead of a written signature: when thus employed, wax is not used in the process; the seal is covered with the glutinous ink used in Eastern writing, the paper is moistened with the tongue, and the seal stamped upon it. The operation, when dexterously performed, leaves a neat impression, a black ground with the characters in white. Those who trade in the preparation of documents keep the most requisite seals of every age, ready for use, and others can be had at a short warning. Practice makes the same individuals very expert in the mysteries of erasing, interlining, and other such craft, used by more civilized nations.

(g) In the East, the twenty-four hours are divided into eight watches, of three hours each, commencing, among the Musalmans, at sun-set, with the Hindus at day light. Each "pahar" contains eight "gharris" or sub-divisions, of a trifle more than twenty minutes each. The difference in the time from which they begin to count, makes great confusion. "In night attacks, ambuscades, sal. lies, &c. to be concocted, some days previous to their execution, between a Mussulman and a British officer, if the latter has ordered the former to carry a particular operation into effect on Mungul kee rat, or Tuesday night, his expectations will evidently be anticipated one whole day, as the Musalman, according to his notions of time, will do the duty required, upon Monday night." So observes Dr. Gilchrist; and I have seen a lady expecting visitors the following morning, make arrangements with the "maitre d'hotel" in the evening, for to-morrow's breakfast, which consequently the man supposed to refer to the next morning but one-thereby occasioning a dilemma, "more easily imagined than described.

(h) "Sons of David" literally; derived from pútra, a son, and Dāud, David; the term by which the ruler of Bâhawalpur and his clan distinguish themselves tracing their pedigree to an ancestor in Scinde, whence they emigrated about a hundred years ago. The Daud-pútras are a tall, fine looking race, but all the "foregone conclusions" of physiognomy are sadly at fault, among the venerable, manly, intelligent, courteous, mild-looking-ruffians that we meet in the East. The most amiable-looking Hindu I ever met, was a t'hag!

(i) Chând Khán here goes beyond the mark: Kütüb-ū-din was brother to Nizam-u-din Khân, a Pathan soldier of fortune, who gained Kasûr by his sword towards the end of the last century. In the time of Akbar, while Kasûr was still under a Hindu Raja, seven hundred Páthan families had been permitted to settle there, and eventually became paramo unt in that district, subject, however, to the throne of Delhi. But, though the M ūsūlman power in Kasûr is of so old a date, the present ruler, as above stated, is of a recent fam ily. "Holding almost all the lands." Here again the little Mûltâni exaggerates: Kowr Sher Singh's ja ghir, on the left bank of the Sutluj, would never have been above a lakh and a half yearly.

CHAPTER EIGHTH.

CONTENTS.

"The tongue is a little member und boasteth great things.”—Scundal is a dainty dish." Peace has her victories, as well as war.'

"For the transgression of a land, many are the rulers thereof."

Solomon.

Hackneyed quotation.

Cowper.

Sardanapalus.

"Confound Chand Khân," muttered I, as tossing on my bed, I thought over my position, "confound the meddling blockhead, he must be sacrificed-but no- -that will never do; he's true, I feel he is, and it is myself that am to blame for leaving him to be tempted in that hot-bed of vice. But I should like to know how my late visitor gets on; how the gallant Sachet Singh bears his defeat? and whether he will venture to proclaim it, in all its truth, and to its full extent, at court? I suspect not, and that the brotherhood will for their own credit sake, for the present pocket the affront. I may, therefore, sleep soundly for a time, but must reckon that a heavy score is against my name when opportunity offers. 'Tis well to look to the bright side, so begone dull care and come to my eyelids gentle sleep." Thus half talking, half dreaming, between sleep and wakefulness, I saw the tinge of morn before my eyelids were effectually closed; shortly after my usual hour, however, I rose and pursued my accustomed avocations.

In reply to the darbár's orders, I stated that Chând Khân was in custody, that my own opinion was, that he was innocent of the

crime alleged against him, though culpable in other respects; and I begged that, as my servant, I should, as was the custom, be permitted to punish him myself. (a)

me;

For my own part, though I affected ease and bore confidence on my brow before others, I felt there was much to trouble I satisfied myself that I was in the right, that I had in no point exceeded my duty, or departed from the spirit or letter of my orders. Lena Singh's alliance was a favourable point, his character standing so high, and his weight in the darbár being considerable; to whatever extent I was implicated, he was to a greater, for I defended but my own, he came out of his way to attack the royal troops.

I kept up my friendly communications with the good Sardar, visited him, and received him in return at Kângrâ ; his appearance and bluff air had more of the soldier than the courtier or the Philosopher; he was about thirty-five years of age, of stout athletic build, dark complexion, middle stature, and with large whiskers, as well as the usual Sikh beard; with him I made many interesting conversations.

Chând Khân's tongue was a never ceasing engine; he would tell me the tales and legends of the early wars of Ranjît Singh, how he had beguiled this Chief, outwitted the other; how he had got possession of Lahaur; how he first failed and then succeeded against Multân, how narrowly his army escaped destruction in his first attempt on Kāshmîr, and by how little prowess he finally acquired it; by what arts he removed the Pathâns from Kassur; and how he was even, at that time, devising the acquirement of Pashâwar-what little bowels of mercy he had ever displayed towards his own kindred, witness his conduct towards his own mother, and to Sada Kowr, his mother-in-law, one of the chief instrument of his rise. "She was a wonderful woman, my Lord, valiant in battle, wise in darbâr; she was a wonder among the ignorant and besotted Sikhs; you know that when a mere girl, her young husband fell in fight against him, the father of whom she raised by the alliance with her daughter, and who requited her by plunder, long imprisonment, contumely and death; for to her proud spirit a prison and a grave are much alike ;-witness then the treatment of Sâhab Singh of Gujarât, his paternal aunt's husband; see indeed how he and his father before him, threw off, as old garments, the ministers and the tools of their several acts as they pro

gressed, and with what base ingratitude they forsook, betrayed, or destroyed the companions of their early fortune."

66

Giving all license, Chând Khân, to your Pathân enmity and Musalmân zeal, I cannot but think you undervalue the Sikhs rally, and the Maharajah especially.”

66

gene

Wait, Sâhib, till you have seen the effects of their rule as I have, till you have traced the line of their desolations as I have done, till on your own body you have borne the weight of their tyranny as I have done, and then you will be better able to correct, or to estimate my opinions."

“You and your race have suffered, Chând Khân: and I too, my friend, have I not tasted the cup of bitterness at their hand? But we must be just, and separate the evil and the designing from the noble and the true."

"And so I will, my Lord, when I find the latter, but 'tis hardly among their chiefs I am likely to do so; Lena Singh is the best of them, and he chiefly shines because he's one star in a very black night."

"You are severe, Chând Khân, but do you give the Maharajah no credit for the order and submission into which he has brought his country, for the security of life, for the protection of trade, for, in fact, substituting one master and one hukumat in the place of a hundred chiefs and a thousand tyrannies ?”

"If he had done all you say, or half, I should indeed call him a blessing to this land; if desolation is order and submission, you are right my lord, for vast tracts have been abandoned and left uncultivated, owing to the severity of his rule, and to the people being literally sold to the farmer of the revenues: the boasted security of life means little more than that the Maharajah does not himself sentence capitally; but he would do better if he did, than by maiming all thieves, whether young or old, whether new to vice or hardened in its scenes, putting them all on a footing, raising every man's hand against them, and leaving them no resource but robbery. But what protection is there for life in the Panjab, except in a slight degree for the great? Does my Lord mean that if I, or any other poor man, was to-morrow to be cut down in a street of Lâhaur, there would be enquiry made? Not at all, unless indeed the Kotwal could turn it to account by laying my death at the door of some one who