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96, and to pursue his policy of reducing to subjection all sardars and Mahomedan chiefs within his kingdom having any pretensions to independence and power. Soon all the Sikh confederacies were swept away except the Ahluwalia, now represented by the Raja of Kapurthalla, who had gained the interest of the British Government by services rendered at the time Lord Lake drove the Mahrattas into the Punjab.

When the English envoy was at Amritsar in 1809 negotiating the treaty, his small military escort was attacked by a large body of the fanatical Akali Sikhs, who were completely routed by the few disciplined redcoats. Ranjit Singh witnessed this, apologised for the outrage, complimented the envoy on the bravery of his soldiers, and expressed his admiration of their steadiness. He realised the effect of their discipline as absolutely decisive against the courage and numbers of his own fiercest soldiers devoid of organisation. It was an object-lesson to him which decided him