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16 The downfall of the Sikh monarchy was chiefly due to the fact that the authority of Ranjít Singh was personal and drew no part of its strength from the inherent respect of the people for an ancient house. Sprung from the people and the outcome of the democratic principles of Sikhism, the one chance of the survival of his dynasty was that his successors should have inherited his character and ability. But this was not the case. His only son Kharak Singh was a hopeless imbecile; his grandson, Nao Nihál Singh, a youth of promise, died a violent death, and a period of anarchy set in which the men who succeeded had no power to subdue or control. There were several who claimed the throne as sons of the great Mahárájá, but the secrets of Ranjít Singh's zenána were the common property of the Lahore bazaars, and there was not one whose legitimacy the Sikhs accepted as proved. Then came the war with the English, in which the Sikhs, badly led, displayed the utmost gallantry in vain; ending in the occupation of the Punjab by a foreign army, dismemberment, and finally annexation. As Ranjít Singh had often prophesied, the red line marking the limit of British possessions moved on from the Sutlej to the Beas, thence to the Indus and the Afghán mountains, and all that remained to remind the world of the monarchy were an exiled prince at the Court of St. James and the ill-omened Koh-i-Núr in the regalia of the British Queen.

No man can be more strong than destiny. Al-