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130 assembled on parade; there was a strange quiet along the line. The Maharaja was received with royal honours, his mother making lavish promises as she passed on. On reaching the centre a Sikh soldier came forward and gave the order to halt. The military councils, deliberating on the right of the line, had decided that the minister was guilty of the murder of the two princes and was to be executed. Suddenly the bugles sounded and the drums beat; four battalions advanced, removed the escort to a distance, and surrounded the elephants of the cortége. Ten of the Council appeared; the minister was ordered to descend. He tried parleying: a soldier ascended to his howdah and removed the young Maharaja, who was placed in his mother's arms. She was escorted to a tent prepared for her, holding up her son and crying for mercy in his name for her brother. The doomed minister was then executed in full view of the army. A soldier mounted his elephant, calling out, "How dare you disobey the