"kings, queens, and knaves," were
disposed of in a style less resembling any thing recorded in
matter-of-fact history than the last scene in the immortal drama of Tom
Thumb--a resemblance increased by the revival, in several instances, of
personages whose deaths had been reported in the last batch of murders.
It appears that the Maharajah, Shere Singh, had at length become jealous
of the unbounded influence exercised by his all-powerful minister, Rajah
Dhian Singh, who had not only assumed the control of the revenue, but
had more than once reproached the sovereign, when all the chiefs were
present in full _durbar_, with his habitual drunkenness and debauchery.
A quarrel ensued, and Dhian Singh retired from court to the hereditary
possessions of his family among the mountains, where he could set Shere
Singh at defiance; but an apparent reconciliation was effected, and in
July he returned to Lahore, and made his submission. His efforts were,
however, now secretly bent to the organization of a conspiracy against
the life of the Maharajah, in which the Fakir Azeer-ed-deen, a personage
who had enjoyed great influence under Runjeet, and many of the principal
sirdars, were implicated; and on Sept. 15th Shere Singh was shot dead on
the parade-ground by Ajeet Singh, a young military chief who had been
fixed upon for the assassin. The murder of the king was followed by that
of the Koonwur, or heir-apparent, Pertab Singh, with all the women and
children in their zenanas, even to an infant born the night before;
while Dhuleep Singh, a boy ten years old, and a putative son of Runjeet,
was brought out of the palace and placed on the throne. But Dhian Singh
was not destined to reap the fruits of his sanguinary treason. In his
first interview with Ajeet after the massacre, he was stabbed by the
hand of his accomplice; who was cut off in his turn the following day,
with many of the sirdars of his party, by Heera Singh, the son of Dhian,
who was commander-in-chief of the army, and had immediately entered the
city with his troops to avenge the death of his father.[16] Heera Singh
now assumed the office of vizier, leaving the title of king to the
puppet Dhuleep, in whose name he has since administered the government,
with the assistance of his father's elder brother Goolab Singh, a
powerful hill chief, who came to Lahore in November with 20,000 of his
own troops, to keep the mutinous soldiers of the regular regiments in
order. Meanwhile dis