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 FYZ

468

Hurpaul Inuster, and in the fight Nihal Sing was killed. Sing, his nephew, applied for aid to the Durbar, and Seodeen Sing was When sent with a considerable force to aid him against Bureear Sing. they were ready for the attack, Dursan Sing sent a reinforcement of troops secretly to Bureear Sing, which so frightened Seodeen Sing that he retired

he could

from the

conflict.

" The Gurgbunsee family had, however, by this time added a great part of the Muneearpoor estate to their own, and many other estates belonging to their weaker neighbours ; and, by the plunder of villages and robbeiy on the highways, become very powerful. Dursan Sing was superseded iu the contract in 1837 by the widow of Hadee Allee Khan; and Hurpaul recovered possession of the Muneearpur estate, which he still held in the name of the lady Sogura. In 1843 she managed to get the estate transferred from the jurisdiction of the contractor for Sultanpoor to that of the Hazoor tehseel, and held it till 1845, when Maun Sing, who had succeeded to the contract for the district on the death of his father, Dursan Sing, in 1844, managed, through his uncle, Bukhtawar Sing, to get the estate restored to his jurisdiction. Knowing that his object was to absorb her estate, as he and his father had done so naany others, she went off to Lucknow to seek protection but Maun Sing seized upon all her nankar and seer lands, and put the estate under the management of his own officers. The lady Sogura, unable to get any one to plead her cause at court in opposition to the powerful influence of Bukhtawar Sing, returned to Muneearpoor. Maun Sing, after he had collected the greater part of the revenue for 1846, made over the estate to Hurpaul and Seoumber Sing, who put the lady into confinement, and plundered her of all she had left.

" Feeling now secure in the possession of the Muneearpoor estate, Hurpaul Sing and Seoumber Sing left a small guard to secure the lady, and went off with the rest of their forces to seize upon the estate of Birsingpoor, in the pargana of Dehra, belonging to the widow of Mahdoo Sing the She summoned to her aid Roo.stam Sa and other Rajkoomar tallookdar. landholders, friends of her late husband. A fight ensued, in which Seoumber Sing and his brother Hobdar Sing were killed. Hurpaul Sino- fled and returned to his fort of Kupragow. The lady Sogura escaped and presented herself again to the court of Lucknow under better auspices, and orders were sent to Maun Sing and all the military authorities to restore her to the possession of her estate, and seize and destroy Hurpaul Sing. In alarm, Hurpaul Sing then released the mother of the lady Sogura, and prepared to fly. " Maun Sing sent confidential persons to him to say that he had been ordered by the court of Lucknow to confer upon him a dress of honour or condolence ou the death of his two lamented brothers, and should do so in person the next day. Hurpaul Sing was considered one of the bravest men

in Oudh, but he was then sick on his bed and unable to move. He received the message without suspicion, being anxious for some small interval of repose, and willing to believe that common interests and presents had united him and Maun Sing in something like bonds of friendship.