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76 the jealousy and anger of all the other chiefs, who declared that he had betrayed them, that the title was the price of his treachery, and that it was disgraceful for a Sikh to accept an honour conferred by a Muhammadan, a foreigner and an enemy. They would have avenged upon him their defeat had not Sirdár Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, at that time far more influential than Ala Singh himself, taken his part. Matters were, at length, smoothed over, but it was necessary for Ala Singh to prove by his actions that he was not a servant of the Duráni king.

No sooner had Ahmad Sháh returned to Kabul than the Sikhs regained courage. The confederacies, north and south of the Sutlej, for once laid aside their feuds and jealousies and united for another great effort against Sirhind. Ala Singh joined with ardour in the expedition. The Sikhs from the Mánjha assembled in numbers in the neighbourhood of Sirhind, after having captured the town and fort of Kasúr below Lahore; and the chiefs of the Málwá joined them, till the army, almost entirely cavalry, numbered 23,000 men. Zin Khán, the governor, trusting to that dread of regular troops which the Sikhs had ever shown, came beyond the town to give them battle, but he was killed and his force utterly routed. The Sikhs immediately took possession of the town, which they sacked and destroyed in revenge for the murder of the children of their prophet, and the province of Sirhind was divided among the conquerors, the town and the district sur-