or the position he
occupied, turned the influence she had thus obtained over him to a bad
account, and this gallant soldier and popular minister ultimately became
distrusted and feared by his own friends, with whom the Ranee was no
favourite. This unprincipled woman ill repaid the devotion of her
minister, for, on his refusing to comply with her request that he should
put to death some of her personal enemies, she became at once his
implacable foe, and ruthlessly resolved upon the destruction of her
hitherto devoted ally. Thus Mahtabar Singh found himself alienated from
and distrusted by his own faction, while he was abandoned by his former
patroness, for whose favour he had sacrificed their adherence. The Ranee
did not hesitate to apply to this very party for assistance in the
furtherance of her nefarious design, and the prime minister was doomed to
fall a victim to his own indecision by the hands of his favourite nephew.

One night, about eleven o'clock, a messenger came from the palace to
inform him that his services were required by their Majesties--for the
Queen had always kept up a semblance of friendship with him. Without the
slightest suspicion he repaired to the palace, but scarcely had he
ascended the great staircase, and was entering the room in which their
Majesties were seated, when the report of a pistol rung through the room;
the fatal bullet pierced the heart of the gallant old man, who staggered
forward, and fell at the feet of the wretched woman who had been the
instigator of the cruel murder.

It is difficult to say what were the motives that prompted Jung Bahadoor
to the perpetration of this detestable act, of which he always speaks now
in terms of the deepest regret, but asserts that it was an act of
necessity, from which there was no escaping. The plea which he
invariably uses when referring to the catastrophe is, that either his
life or his uncle's must have been sacrificed, and he naturally preferred
that it should be the latter. However that may be, the immediate effect
was, the formation of a new ministry, in which Jung held office in the
capacity of commander-in-chief. The premier, Guggun Singh, was
associated with two colleagues. A year had hardly elapsed before Guggun
Singh was shot while sitting in his own room. This occurred in the year
1846; a sirdar was taken up on suspicion of having committed this murder,
and Abiman Singh, one of the premier's colleagues, was ordered by the
Q