d to subsist upon, ventured back on the solemn pledge of personal
security given by Pudum Sing, a respectable capitalist, whom the
collector had induced, by solemn oaths on the holy Koran, to become a
mediator; and, as a token of reconciliation and future friendship,
the Rajah and collector changed turbans. They remained together for
five months on the best possible terms, and the Rajah's tenants
returned to their homes and fields. All having been thus lulled into
security, Rughbur Sing suddenly sent another agent, Maharaj Sing, to
supersede Kurum Hoseyn, and seize the Rajah and his confidential
manager, Benee Ram Sookul. They, however, went off to Balalpoor,
forty miles distant from Bondee, and kept aloof from the new
collector, till he prevailed upon all the officers, commanding corps
and detachments under him, to enter into solemn written pledges of
personal security. The Rajah had been long suffering from ague and
fever, and had become very feeble in mind and body. He remained at
Balalpoor; but, under the assurance of these pledges from military
officers of rank and influence, Benee Ram and other confidential
officers of the Rajah came to his camp, and entered upon the
adjustment of their accounts.

When he found them sufficiently off their guard, Maharaj Sing, while
sitting one evening with Benee Ram, who was a stout, powerful man,
asked him to show him the handsome dagger which he always wore in his
waistband. He did so, and as soon as he got it in his hand, the
collector gave the concerted signal to Roshun Allee, one of the
officers present, and his armed attendants, to seize him. As he rose
to leave the tent he was cut down from behind by Mattadeen,
khasburdar; and the rest fell upon him and cut him to pieces in
presence of the greater part of the officers who had given the solemn
pledges for his personal security. Not one of them interposed to save
him. Doulut Rae, another confidential servant of the Rajah, however,
effected his escape, and ran to the Rajah, who prepared to defend
himself at Balalpoor, where Maharaj Sing tried, in vain, to persuade
his troops' to attack him. For two months the towns and villages were
deserted, but the crops were on the ground, and guarded by the Passee
bowmen, who are usually hired for the purpose.

Beharee Lal, the principal agent of Rughbur Sing in these districts,
now wrote a letter of condolence to the Rajah, on the death of his
faithful servant, Benee Ram--told him that