Page:Sir Henry Lawrence, the Pacificator.djvu/60

Rh intriguing against him for his own ends, and was aided by his clever son, Hira Singh; their policy, backed by the Raní Jindan, being to incite the array to action, and induce them to attack the British.

But, friendly to the British alliance, the Sindhanwála brothers tricked Dhyan Singh, entrapped him into assassinating Sher Singh, and afterwards killed Dhyan Singh himself; on which Hira Singh, his son, appealed to the army, attacked and killed the Sindhanwála men, and got Dhulíp Singh proclaimed Mahárájá and himself his Minister. But his ministry was short-lived; Raní Jindan, having used him to get herself and her boy Dhulíp Singh into power, threw him over and denounced him to the army, which led to his murder. Thus, after Ranjít Singh's death, his throne had been successively held by Kharak Singh, Náo Nihál Singh (for a day), Sher Singh, and now the boy Dhulíp Singh. But the army was absolutely supreme; such intriguing as went on was with a view to guiding its power to its own destruction by attacking the English. The Khálsa was openly the only authority that Ghuláb Singh acknowledged, while at the same time he shrewdly refused the post of Minister. The army thus getting out of hand, and influenced or incited by the Raní Jindan and the court intriguers, for their own ends as above shown, gradually drifted into the war, dead against the views of the Sardárs and the really natural leaders of the people.

It was most fortunate for the Government of India