ueen to put him to death; as, however, the Rajah would not sanction the
execution, Abiman Singh refused to obey the command--a proceeding on his
part which seems to have raised a suspicion in the mind of Jung that he
had been concerned in the assassination. This suspicion he communicated
to Futteh Jung, the other colleague of the late prime minister,
suggesting that Abiman Singh and the sirdar already in custody should be
forthwith executed, and Futteh Jung installed as prime minister. Futteh
Jung, however, refused to accede to so strong a measure; and Jung, who
was not of a nature to be thwarted in his plans, determined upon
temporarily depriving him of his liberty, in order to enable him to put
the design into execution himself.

He had no sooner decided upon his line of conduct than he displayed the
utmost resolution in carrying it out. On the same night, and while at
the palace, the suspicions which Jung already entertained were confirmed
by his observing that Abiman Singh ordered his men to load. It was no
time for hesitation. The two colleagues, with many of their adherents,
were assembled in the large hall, where the Queen, in a highly-excited
state, was insisting upon an immediate disclosure of the murderer of
Guggun Singh, who was supposed to have been her paramour. At this moment
Jung gave the signal for the seizure of Futteh Jung. The attempt was no
sooner made than his son, Karak Bikram Sah, imagining that his father's
life was at stake, rushed forward to save him, and seizing a kukri, had
already dealt Bum Bahadoor a severe blow, when he was cut down by Dere
Shum Shere Bahadoor, then a youth of sixteen or seventeen.

Futteh Jung, vowing vengeance on the murderers of his son, sprang forward
to avenge his death, and in another moment Bum Bahadoor, already
seriously wounded, would have fallen at his feet, when the report of a
rifle rang through the hall, and the timely bullet sped by the hand of
Jung Bahadoor laid the gallant father by the side of his no less gallant
son.

Thus Jung's _coup d'etat_ had taken rather a different turn from what he
had intended; the die, however, was cast, and everything depended upon
his coolness and decision in the trying circumstances in which he was
placed. Though he may have felt that his life was in most imminent
peril, it is difficult to conceive how any man could attain to such a
pitch of cool desperation as to enact the scene which closed this
frightful tragedy.