ment to the charge of Bahraetch, Hakeem Mehndee set out with
the best body of troops he could collect, and sent on orders for Amur
Sing to come out and meet him. He declined to do so until he got the
pledge of Hadee Allee Khan, the Hakeem's brother, for his personal
security. This mortified the Hakeem, and tended to confirm him in the
resolution to make away with Amur Sing, and appropriate his wealth.
Both Hakeem Mehndee and his brother are said to have sworn on their
Koran that no violence whatever should be offered to or restraint put
upon him; and, relying on these oaths and pledges, Amur Sing met them
on their approach to Bahraetch.

After discussing affairs and adjusting accounts for some months at
Bahraetch, the Hakeem, by his courteous manners and praises of his
excellent management, put Amur Sing off his guard. When sitting with
him one evening in his tents, around which he had placed a select
body of guards, he left him on the pretext of a sudden call, and Amur
Sing was seized, bound, and confined. Meer Hyder and Baboo Beg, Mogul
troopers, were placed in command of the guards over him, with orders
to get him assassinated as soon as possible. Sentries were, at the
same time, placed over his family and wealth. At midnight he was soon
after strangled by these two men and their attendants. Baboo Beg was
a very stout, powerful man; and he attempted to strangle him with his
own hands, while his companions held him down; but Amur Sing managed
to scream out for help, and, in attempting to close his mouth with
his left hand, one of his fingers got between Amur Sing's teeth, and
he bit off the first joint, and kept it in his mouth. His companions
finished the work; and Baboo Beg went off to get his fingers dressed
without telling any one what had happened. In the morning Hakeem
Mehndee gave out, that Amur Sing had poisoned himself, made the body
over to his family, and sent off a report of his death to the
minister, expressing his regret at Amur Sing's having put an end to
his existence by poisoning, to avoid giving an account of his
stewardship. The property which Hakeem Mehndee seized and
appropriated, is said to have amounted, in all, to between fifteen
and twenty lacs of rupees!

Amur Sing's family, in performing the funeral ceremonies, had to open
his mouth, to put in the usual small bit of gold, Ganges water, and
leaf of the toolsee-tree; and, to their horror, they there found the
first joint of a man's finger. T