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126 Dogra minister was in the plot; but after the deed, while conferring with the conspirators as to the future form of government, he was killed in order to get rid of the ascendancy of the powerful Dogras. Then followed further bloodshed. His son Raja Heera Singh appealed to the army to avenge these murders, and inflamed the soldiers by asserting that unless they acted with him the British would seize the Punjab and disband them, when, he added, from the Rajput point of view, "The Sikhs who now took a pride in the profession of arms would be compelled to seek an ignoble living by following the plough." This, coupled with a promise to increase their pay by one-half, was enough for the soldiery, now masters of the government. They in great force attacked the conspirators, who had shut themselves up in the citadel, captured it, and extirpated them, Lahore being again sacked. The young Raja brought the head of his father's murderer to the widow, a noble